Field Trip

[Greets]

Greets groused to herself. ::Being inside all the time is not natural. Even those who lack fur must see this.:: She pulls the cloak she was given over the loose dress she wore, also given to her. She eschewed shoes, regardless of the cold and mud. She was already as a cub again, nearly deaf and blind, both ears and nose. Especially nose. She would not allow every connection she had to Mother to be severed. She silently padded down the stairs and across the common room to slip out the door.

As she exits the Inn, she takes a deep breath and fills her lungs with the cold winter air. Greets squints her eyes against the sudden bright. The sudden influx of light is a sharp contrast to the sheltered dim of the building. She shivers as her bare feet contact the frosty, damp ground. She has no set destination in mind, so she wanders. She pauses often to look around and “window” shop. The novelty quickly wears off and she begins searching the edges of town.

[Suede]

Kals is an exercise in opposites, like as not, to what Greets was used to. If her own appearance and demeanor were anything to go by. He was dressed from head to toe in seemingly thing fabric that caught and snapped in the wind, the patterns of greys, whites, and blacks making him look like his own little storm cloud crawling low to the ground. He kept himself entirely covered as well, even his head wrapped in a hood with a veil hanging over his face. He and his sister were a common enough sight in Myrken that most folk didn't find it odd, but this one might. The trader was also tall, standing six and a half feet, and built broad and barrel-chested.

That size made his clothing seem out of place, the material too fine for someone shaped as he, and his gait was anything but elegant, instead the rolling strides of someone who spent a fair bit of time on the water.

He was strolling up the path in the opposite direction of Greets, mind half lost on other things until she came close. For most folk he wouldn't have given them a second glance if they were a stranger, but her appearance and body language strike something vaguely familiar to him and his long strides slow.

The trader decides to take a gamble and raises a gloved hand. "Are you trying to get out of town?"

[Greets]

Greets blinks and pauses as she looks up at the tall man speaking to her. She sniffs in his direction, her inhuman amber eyes not leaving his face as she studies him. She mimics his gesture and adds a wave as she has seen others do when they meet. She reaches out to him mentally, her “touch” soft as the fur of a kitten. She scrunches her brow in concentration. After a moment she states a heavily accented “Yes”, quickly following with “An shar’at at'chem Jh'erno?” Her long, rusty orange hair dances and flips in the wind. Little care is given to the disarrayed state it is in already – she likely has been outside for a while judging from the mess.

[Suede]

He returned the wave and stared rather blankly when she offered him the words. Oh, he was well rounded and traveled, but little of it came from the area of Jerno, and he couldn't even muster up the foggiest meaning of the words. Maybe, Hello nice weather we're having! Maybe that she wanted all his money by the look of her.

That gentle little touch of the mind might have been kitten soft, but it pressed against a rippling wall like water that shoved it aside though Kals made no conscious effort to do so. Kals and his sister were known for being able to toss around their thoughts just so, and he recognized the act as it came at him. It confused him, really, and he frowned behind the veil at her. This woman reminded him a bit of Kacela, the other wild woman he knew, right down to the mental contact.

"You aren't a werewolf, are you?" It was an honest question, really. If she WAS, that might be fantastic. To him, not to this town. Maybe he shouldn't have shoved her thoughts away so quickly.

[Greets]

She tilts her head to one side as her mental touch was rebuked. She steps a bit closer and sniffs the air again trying hard to pin down the man’s scent. She reaches out again, once more trying to discern meaning to his words. A set of words Gloria had taught her resurfaces and she perks up, feeling less lost. “I do not understand.” Each word is slowly and clearly pronunciated even through her thick accent.

[Suede]

His scent was better than it could be as the wind caught it and blew it towards the woman, depending on who you asked of course. He was recently bathed, so no wretched sweat or body odors. Instead he had a mix of something reptilian and human together with an overlay of the dagger's smell and that of the surrounding forests. He'd most likely been to each recently.

She could reach out, but she'd find that same fluid touch of a wall, though it didn't immediately toss her aside, it hadn't let her in either. Kals was in a cautious mood today, since he didn't know anything about this person or the intentions she might have. With people such as Zilliah running about, you couldn't be too safe. He'd still make an effort at being friendly by sending a pleasant, sociable push of emotion back towards her.

Her accent didn't sound much like he'd had heard before, but he understood her sentence as much as she didn't him. There was a helpless shrug offered and he'd point back the way he'd gone, taking a few steps to see if she'd follow.

[Greets]

She smiles at him, a motion uncomplicated by human motives or deceit as he reciprocates – after a fashion. By build and scent he appears male and lacking anything more to go on she runs with it. Greets takes people at face value until she is given a reason to react otherwise. Curious, she follows Kals. She contemplates the scents she got from him. She recognized two of them but one was out of place. One scent did not belong. “Abbok shar'at fola’as.”

[Suede]

Well he rather thought his scents all belonged where they were, but she hadn't asked him. When she spoke he had nothing to say in response. Not much, he just referred back to the one set of words he'd gotten from her so far. "I do not understand." She'd stop reaching mentally, so he made his own small effort, mostly trying to show her an image of the woods. He'd been more familiar with them of late, trying to learn the knack for hunting fall and winter game. At least until he'd been wounded.

When he saw her following he'd start heading back the way he'd come, it was as if the man had any pressing business in town today, he'd simply been done with other errands.

[Greets]

She recognized the woods he was showing her as being local to this area, even if she was not intimately familiar with where he was sharing. She nodded at him and stated “Yes” in her thick accent. She reached out to him mentally as they walked, her touch as furry/fuzzy as her birth shape was. Her communications were not specifically words, there were some floating around in what she sent but the images, sounds, smells and feelings are what were conveyed strongest. She expressed her curiosity of him, the mental tough feeling very much like one might imagine a cub on its first outing from the den.

[Suede]

"Yes? I... no I meant I don't understand you." But did she even understand that he was saying he didn't understanding, or would there be another misunderstanding? Bah, he rubbed his palm against the side of his head and settled on not thinking on it too much. He'd give himself a headache if he did.

He was familiar enough with the way she was trying to communicate him. It was certainly different than anything he might be used to, but he'd spoken to people in their minds through pictures more than words before. As far as the curiousity, he made certain she knew he liked to keep it a secret, but did show her an image of the ocean and a ship sailing in deep water. Hopefully she'd be able to figure it out as he strolled back towards the woods.

"I wish you spoke the local tongue, things would be easier."

[Greets]

These people think too much. They always have too many words bouncing around in their minds. They have forgotten how to be simple. Greets made a decision – she will show this man how to be simple again. She walks with him without saying any more words, letting him say them instead. She did, though, keep an “eye on his thoughts so she could at least get basic meaning.

At his wish that they could share more words she agrees. It would be nice to be able to communicate more intricately. She walks with him, watching and listening constantly both to him and their surroundings. Her steps skip a bit when he shows her the giant boat on the water. She remembers the last ship. Almost unbidden a slew of imagery/ memories spew forth in her mind – the feel of the iron collar biting into her neck, the bars of the cage beneath her paws and the bruises they left when the seas turned rough, the closed up stench of the hold, the rancid, rotting meat HE tried to give her, the gawking sailors who amused themselves “teasing” her as she lied weak, tired, hungry and in pain in the too small cage. She does not know how long, exactly, she was on the ship but it was long enough that her rusty orange and black stripped coat was dull and rough and her bones showed through. She remembered that HE had been angry that she would not eat. He’d been angrier still that she had trouble eating once he could get a hold of meat that was not far into death. It had taken her months to recover enough to be suitable for him to show off again.

She growls to herself to audibly halt the procession of unwanted and unpleasant thoughts. She drops her cloak and strips out of the loose brown dress she wears. Her slim, pale body immediately shows its displeasure at the cold. The once near death causing wound on her shoulder clearly visible, though now mostly healed. It does not look like it would bleed again unless greatly disturbed. A shimmer of rusty red fur flows across her body, quickly developing into the beginnings of a coat bearing slim transverse black stripes. Bones grind, sounding painful and muscles and tendons stretch and reorganize themselves as her shape warps, grows more massive and drops down to all fours. The melody of the process is not for the faint of heart in and of itself even if the sight of what was happening was not included. When the sounds cease, standing in place of the tiny, slim girl is a massive rust red coated cat with thin black transverse stripes with a white underbelly, throat and chin. A furless patch marks the wound so visible without fur.

Greets shakes herself, yawning wide and stretching, digging her heavy claws into the cold ground. She looks up at the trader. The eyes this creature wears eerily similar to what the young woman wears and the coat color a dead match for her long hair. She flicks her tail and continues walking as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

[Suede]

Too many words, the idea would have seemed silly to him. Words were the best way he had to talk with most people, even when doing so through the mind. She didn't speak, so he filled the silence with nonsense talk to simply keep any awkward silence for coming on. Explaining the layout of the city, where the forest's edge was most easily reached, and other things she like as not had no idea what he was explaining, except for vague impressions of his thoughts on the subject as they flitted to the front of his mind with his words.

He thought things had been going so well until she started growling, stripping, and looking rather irritable. Then she chose to change, into a rather large and aggressive looking cat. Kals had more experience than most with people that liked to change their shape, and so he was wisely taking steps back away for distance. The trader thought he should assume something he'd said or done had irritated her and prepare for the worst. Just to be safe, of course. His hands are up before him in what was likely a useless defensive posture, until she started walking on again.

He stood there, thinking a moment before deciding to follow after her at a healthy distance. His mind was running a mile a minute, and he was thinking very hard, Greets might feel a hint of his thoughts shooting off ahead of them.

[Greets]

Greets pauses in her stride once she realizes the Trader is lagging behind. She looks back over her shoulder at him. :: Mothers Teeth! If you were going to come to harm it would have already occurred. :: To try and settle his fears, she chuffs at him before flopping over on her side to roll onto her back. She paws at the air to show to him her claws are sheathed. After a moment she rolls back to her feet and sits, wrapping her tail around her huge paws like a giant house cat. :: Did you prefer the girl? ::

[Dulcie]

They were close to what Kacela had come to consider her territory. She had plenty of good reasons to consider it hers, but today she was out hunting, her bow poised as she had a rabbit standing in the direct path of where her arrow would fly, at least until she started to feel the presence of her mate's thoughts nearby. She'd stand up a moment then, her presence sending her intended rabbit off scampering into the woods. She'd lower her bow and arrow, sliding the arrow back into the quiver before she'd start off in the general direction of where Greets and Kals were walking. Curious as to what was going on.

[Suede]

Well, that voice was considerably more clear in his head than what he'd heard before. It was a bit strange, disconcerting almost, but he rolled with the punch. "Once bitten, twice shy. I've had a nip or two taken out of me in my time. I prefer to be cautious at first." The one who had bitten him was even now on her way, at his behest. A mix of eagerness and mild worry in that sending. He'd managed to find another shifter, and Kacela was always looking for them.

But it was also another shifter, into a very large predator, and despite the rolling onto it's back, the speaking, and calm demeanor he'd learned to have healthy respect for their ilk. He lowered his arms, however, and gave her a helpless shrug. "Do you blame me?" A pause here, and he took a step closer, considering the feline form. "And the girl? You say that like you're two separate beings."