• Closed • All That Wander Aren't Lost

[Qit'ria]

.
.

Vhalar 33rd, 717
"Common Speech"
"Xanthean Speech"

Qit looked all about her through the darkened forest that is the Sweetwine Woods. It was dusk, one of the most dangerous times to be out and about, and she was far from her camp. She'd been on the trail of some footprints she did not recognize, only for them to end at a river and not pick back up again. She'd been so focused on the trails, she failed to pay attention to where she'd wander. And now with the suns gone, and cloud cover rolling in, she was lost.

She knew she'd have to find shelter as soon as possible if she wanted to sleep. Otherwise she'd have to find a safe haven, likely in a tree, to wait out the darkness. Javelin in hand, the Sev'ryn woman crept through the woods, growing more and more worried the darker the sky turned. Eyes cast up ahead, she saw a possible place to rest. A large tree had a small opening in its roots that made a sort of tiny cave. That could work, small enough to go unnoticed, would protect her from the clouds should they turn to rain.

Feet lightly rising and falling, she made sure to not step on any loose leaf debris to not alert anything to her position. Upon reaching the tree, she tried to look into the alcove to see how deep it was, and ensure it was empty. A snort answered in reply, short, curt, annoyed. Qit guided her javelin into the dark opening when the snorting grew more rapid and agitated. Qit pulled back her javelin, a bit too quickly, and the creature within grunted loudly, and huffed out into the night with her.

The moment she saw it, she turned on heel, cursing her stupidity, and began to run. She'd trespassed upon a boar of some sort. Stealth no longer mattered to the woman, she needed speed, wild boars were one of the most dangerous creatures when pissed off. She could hear its hooves thundering back behind her, only a few trills back. Arms were pumping and her chest was burning. Up ahead she saw a heavy piling of roots from a tree and decided to try and idea. She slowed just enough to let the boar get in closer, a trill or so away.

Arriving at the root pile, she jumped up on it with the grace of a shot goose, slamming hard into the woody appendages. But she scrambled, pulling up over it and falling down the other side into a thick, slimy pile of wet leaves, just as she'd heard a thud into the other side. She smiled, it sounded as if her plan had worked. She could hear the boar sniffing about, stamping its feet in a very frustrated manner before it turned and left. So sitting there in mud, insects, and slimy, rotting leaves, Qit relaxed.

She stood up, heading further into the darkness of the wood, hoping to find shelter soon.

Created by Yolande

.
.

[Pegasus]

Sweetwine Woods

There was nothing sweet about these woods when it was dark and wet and one was lost. More than that, there were all sorts of critters,both friendly and decidedly not so, with the boar who followed Qit decidedly in the latter category. However, she outwitted it and kept moving. This was good, because it meant she wasn't going to be next on the menu for Mr Boar, but equally Qit'ria could be in no doubt at all. She was lost.

And not just a little bit lost. Totally, completely, utterly.

The young woman didn't know where she was.

Lost. Oh yes.

So, she trudged her way through the woods and, because the Immortals were like that, lightening forked and lit up the sky and thunder boomed. They happened more or less simultaneously, indicating the storm directly overhead; the thunder was so loud that it made the ground shake. Then, Qit'ria got soaked in torrential downpours of rain. All in all, it was not a good day to be her.

However, she made her way and Qit'ria found herself approaching the sounds of some kind of altercation ahead of her. Over the thunder, or between booms of it at least, she was aware that the sounds werent quite... right. In a clearing in front of her Qit'ria saw that there was a fox. It was backed into a corner and, over it, there was a tree which had fallen, in the last few moment, it seemed to be. Effectively, the fallen tree had blocked the fox into a very small space and it was trapped. There were three large wolves trying to get it. Currently, the fox was able to hold them at bay by hiding in the space it was, but they were making their way through and would get to the fox soon enough. The fox was trapped and pinned, so it would be killed within moments.

Which was more or less normal, natural and within the scheme of things. Until the fox turned deep eyes to Qit and, clear as the trial said, "Help, please!? A little help!"

It's voice was thick, difficult to understand but then as a fox he had a lot of teeth. However, whilst it was tricky, it was far from impossible and it was certainly clear enough that Qit was able to hear and understand the talking fox entirely well.

Unimpressed, the wolves continued.

[Qit'ria]

.
.

"Common Speech"
"Xanthean Speech"

Qit looked about her, toward the heavens, everywhere. The sun was long since gone, and it seemed the stars and moon were hidden behind tree and cloud cover. She barely knew this wood, only having come here briefly before, when her and Kali had encountered one another while hunting. And until the sun rose, she had no idea which way was which. She did know home was north and west away from the sun. So for now, she just had to survive the night.

Shelter. She needed to find a better place to hunker down, to wait it out. Thankfully the run in with the boar had shaken all tiredness from her bones. She jumped a bit at the first boom of thunder, the entire world shaking from it. And as if on a personal vendetta against her, the clouds opened up, and downpour started. She huffed and wrapped her cloak tight about her shoulders. It did little to keep her from being wet and cold, but it did provide some comfort to the very annoyed woman.

Trudging through the mud, the dark, moving from tree to tree for some semblance of cover and protection, Qit'ria kept moving. It was hard to hear anything more than the torrential downpour and the thundering booms, until she hard snarls and yips. Crouching down, readying her javelin, she thought she was about to be attacked. Then she heard it again after a boom, and realized that it was not an attack on her, but rather what sounded like a stand off between animals.

Moving from her tree to around a bush, she could see the source of the scrapping, violent sounds. Three very large wolves had a fox trapped. She started to back away, it was the way of nature, predators hunt prey all the time. She was about to turn away when the fox caught her eyes and spoke. It spoke! Pleading for help. In the Common tongue! Qit new what this creature must be then. Finally, she'd found her familiar! And it needed her help.

Nodding at the fox, she slipped out from her hiding spot, while the wolves were still busy with the creature, she used it as time to prepare her throw. She aimed for the wolf on the far left of the fox, so she wouldn't risk missing by too much and impaling her familiar instead. The wind wasn't very strong, but she knew the rain would complicate things, so she made sure to grip it tighter, to not risk a slipped throw. A hop skip forward and she chucked her spear heavily, following through with her whole body, slipping in the mud. She fell on her ass, but she didn't wait to see the result of the throw. She was outnumbered, but had a range advantage. But surprise was gone.

Scrambling quickly, she drew her remaining javelin, and threw it at the wolf off to the right of her fox familiar. She didn't expect this one to hit anything, but there was always luck, as well as just having it serve to distract these predators. Drawing her sword quickly, she prepared herself for attack. This was her familiar. It was family, it was literal a part of her. And she knew she had to defend it with everything she had. She grabbed the edge of her cloak with her free hand and opened it up, and she snarled loudly at the wolves, challenging them.

She hoped it was enough to distract them from her familiar. She hoped she had enough fight in her to slay these wolves. But there was no running this time. She was fighting for her very soul.

Or so she thought.

Created by Yolande

.
.

[Pegasus]

Sweetwine Woods

Shelter was Qit'ria's first priority, which made sense. However, her priorities changed when she happened across a talking fox and she jumped immediately to the conclusion that this must be her familiar. It made sense in a way, and so the young huntress acted. She threw her javelins, aiming carefully and being tactical ~ it was the other half of her soul that she was fighting for, after all. Or so she believed. The first throw was good, she hit the wolf on the left of the fox and that was accompanied by a clear (and rousing) cheer.

"I say! Jolly good throw, old bean!"

Shame, of course, that she'd fallen on her behind after it, but the yelp of pain from the wolf was sufficient to let her know (that and the very distinctive voice of the fox) that she had been successful. The second throw was far less planned and went off to the side, thudding into the ground but then Qit'ria drew her sword and she growled at the wolves.

Which wasn't quite what they were expecting, in truth. The cloak made QIt'ria look bigger and, just by luck, she had wounded the Alpha of the wolf pack who were after the fox. There were growls, snapping and biting towards her but the wolves started to retreat. Not quickly or easily, but they were protecting the pack leader and they slunk back into the trees.

"Oh, I say. Would you mind, ever so much?" The fox said. It's voice was at once both tricky to understand because of it's thick speech but somehow the fact that it had excellent diction was without doubt. "I'm stuck in here, you see. Could you?" Lifting his head and twitching his whiskers as he sniffed the air, the fox added. "I'm not entirely convinced they've gone you know. I think they might be back soon, with reinforcements and what have you."

That didn't sound like a good thing as far as the fox was concerned. "Would you help a fellow out? Literally." Being stuck in where he was, the fox would need to be pulled or to have the rocks and branches moved for him. The wolves continued to circle around the perimeter in order to keep an eye. Qit'ria knew enough to know that they were very probably waiting to attack!

[Qit'ria]

.
.

"Common Speech"
"Xanthean Speech"

Qit'ria smirked hungrily as the wolves turned tail and fled, and she let loose another loud forest cat snarl at them, just to make sure they took the hint. It seemed the one she'd injured really had an effect on the others, making her wonder if he was the leader. She made sure to remember that, to always try and identify the leader of a group, and slay that one first if she could.

As soon as they were gone, obscured by the trees, Qit'ria rushed forward to her familiar. Her other half seemed to enjoy talking, but she'd always heard that familiars were often complimentary, quite different from their Sev'ryn, so as to make them whole. So it made sense for it to be a chatterbox since she was anything but. That was a trait that could be forgiven for her soulmate. Not anyone else though. But even with it talking so much, Qit'ria was having trouble understanding it, thick accent, plus it seemed to be struggling with talking in general.

Seeing that it was still pinned, Qit'ria strapped up her sword once more, always keeping a watchful eye on the trees closest to her. She wouldn't put it past the wolves to come back, especially if they got the javelin out of the one. Her throw hadn't been strong enough to pierce through it and pin it to the ground or a tree, so the spear could probably be pulled or even just shaken out. And wolves were vindictive, a bit too smart for their own good. Bending down, she picked up the remaining javelin, and kept it in hand.

The fox familiar kept prattling on, as Qit'ria studied his situation. Pulling him out by hand would likely just injure him. If he could get out like that, he'd have gotten himself out the moment the wolves turned tail. There was a gap next to him in the logs, and she had a spear after all. Spinning it around, she stuck the butt of the javelin into the gap, and then pushed against it, to try and pry open the pile of logs a bit. She grunted, then planted her feet, one further back, one upward as a brace, and really pushed while leaning into it. The logs groaned and creaked but a gap formed, big enough for the fox to escape.

Once he was free, Qit quickly pulled her javelin free, the logs crumbling down as she stepped away from them. Looking through the trees, she could see wolves watching her, circling around forming a perimeter. She listened for the yips, assuming that when it was time to attack, they'd go quiet. A fox really wouldn't be any good in a fight, but they were sneaky and quick. Without taking her eyes off the trees, she spoke quickly, stumbling over her Common, "When wolf come, I distract. You run, hide. I try and keep you safe, mäẹlẹwänọ uaya," she said, using the Xanthean words for soul mate.

There was no safe place to put her back it seemed, so Qit'ria tried to put herself in the center of the clearing, and kept slowly rotating and watching, listening for the yips. She didn't need to kill them all, just enough to scare them off, to make it seem that they'd lose too many for it to be worth it. She kept her javelin ready, and had a singular plan of action. She wouldn't throw her javelin at the first wolf she saw coming her way, she'd try to use it for the second. In her mind, she thought it might cause the first to flinch and the others to hesitate, so that she'd have enough time to draw her sword, and charge at the first, screaming like a wild cat. Just as had happened when she was a child, there had been nights when the screams of forest cats resounded through the area and woke her up in a panic. She assumed the same for wolves when they were pups. Everyone in a forest had that fear, so she tried to play on it.

Created by Yolande

.
.

[Pegasus]

Sweetwine Woods

Qit'ria made a calculation, looked at the place where the fox was trapped and then she used the tools at her disposal to open up the gap. As she did that, the fox scurried out of the gap with speed and care in about equal measure. It listened to her instructions and looked up at her with a somewhat querulous expression on it's face. "Well, I can help. Let me help! He said, but she wasn't listening, wasn't paying attention and was, instead, moving to make sure that they were protected. He sighed and then had a little think about what to do. While QIt'ria was looking out, trying to glare down the wolves, she might hear some movement from the fox, but other than that, nothing.

"Now, let me help," he said and Qit'ria might notice that his voice sounded different; more clear and more well pronounced (not that this sort of thing was important to her, but still, it should be noted). It came from a different place, too, and as she turned around, there was a man. He was human, it seemed, with deep red hair. He was also completely and utterly naked. Like, not a stitch on him.

Turned out, his was a natural hair colour.

Anyhow. He was naked and he smiled at her. He was tall, broad and well muscled, long deep red / auburn hair and an intense gaze looked at her. If he thought it was strange that he'd been a fox and now was a biped, he didn't seem to comment on it. Instead he opened him mouth to say something and then said, "Oh, dear. Lookout!"

That? He said that as all of the wolves seemed to rush in at once. Snarling and growling, they ran in and if Qit'ria threw her javelin, they seemed to have either learned or be lucky as the wolf more or less dodged it. Ducking and diving as they ran, the wolves ran towards her and the man-fox-naked-person.

"ARrrr!" he yelled and within a few trill, it seemed that Qit'ria was seeing a naked auburn haired previously-fox-shaped fellow wrestling one of the wolves. However, she had the rest of them to deal with. There were four of them in total. Each of them running in to attack. She had time to draw her sword, though, and so she did. But there was her, four wolves and naked guy. One wolf was taken by naked guy, there were her and three of them.

Screaming like a wild cat didn't seem to be something that they cared about as they snarled and bit at her!

[Qit'ria]

Qit'ria heard her familiar offer to help repeatedly, though the final one sounded different. Closer, deeper, bigger. Keeping a side eye on the wolves she turned to look at her new companion when she saw a kukälọ, a man root, hanging from a hairy man. Her eyes grew quite wide, completely focused on the nude ginger, as this was entirely unexpected and she looked up at his face, seeing him smiling. Her heart fell. She knew this to be the fox. But that meant her wasn't her familiar. But he was strong, muscular, and certainly easy on the eyes.

Hopefully the naked man would be useful in a fight, certainly more so than a fox.

She heard his warning, and snarled, cursing him silently for breaking her concentration. She quickly threw her javelin, a sloppy, hasty throw though, and it missed. The man leapt at one of the wolves like a bear and was wrestling it like a madman. But she supposed that he had no weapons so it was the only course of action. She had her own problem to deal with. Or rather three of them.

She drew her sword, sliding backwards, careful to not lose her footing. She swung her sword in a low, sweeping arc, aimed at snout level at the wolves closing in, mostly hoping to gain distance between herself and them. She continued the sliding backpedal, moving a bit to the side as well, to put the wolves between her and the naked man. Hopefully he was strong enough to beat his and come help her. She stopped as she felt her foot stop against the rise of a tree.

She hissed loudly at the approaching wolves and stabbed out at each of them, to drive them back. Then she realized something. She wasn't trapped against the tree, she'd lured them there, or so she told herself. She gave a wide, sweeping, wild chop, hoping to hit at least one of them. She didn't know how to handle being so outnumbered. They'd run her down if she ran. If she gave any opening, there'd be a set of jaws locked around a limb, quickly followed by two others.

She needed a longer reach. She had a single javelin left on her back. But with as flemsy and light as it was, it wouldn't do in a melee situation. If she survived this, she promised herself to get a proper spear. And so, she chopped and swung wildly, hoping her sword might bite wolf flesh, doing whatever she could to keep them at bay.

[Pegasus]

Sweetwine Woods

Qit'ria was in a bit of a situation, but she was determined and without hesitation as she did her best to fight them off. Three to one was not good odds and so Qit'ria had to really concentrate, in order to keep herself alive. She threw her javelin, which missed and she backed herself up against a tree before then doing her best to keep them off her. Qit'ria was in a difficult spot and she probably knew that the best she could do would be to buy herself some time. That she did, but she'd better hope that the not-her-familiar chap did something snazzy and fast.

As it turned out, though, he didn't need to.

There was a sudden roaring sound and the three wolves' ears all pricked up as the rumbling growl filled the glade. It was impossible to miss - standing there, ripping his way towards her was a very large bear. He had already killed the wolf the naked ginger man had been fighting, but there was no sign of said naked man. The bear was, however, the same colour as the man's hair, which might strike Qit as a little odd.

Especially when, from his tooth-filled bear-mouth, the words "I say, hope this helps!" came out. It had taken a short while and, by the time the large bear rumbled up and the wolves basically ran for it, Qit'ria had been fighting long enough to have a few cuts and scrapes and to be aware that she was running out of time. However, the wolves that ran away did so suffering from some of the cuts where her weapon had dug into their flesh.

However, the situation she found herself in was that the wolves heard the bear and then turned and ran. She could, of course, run after them but the bear seemed rather disinclined to it. "Are you alright?" The bear asked - again his teeth got in the way, making his voice more muffled, less clear, but still undoubtedly him. "I don't think they will be back, you know." He was huge like this and he looked around and motioned with one large bear-paw. "Excuse me. I'll go change back. One moment."

Apparently, all just in a normal trial for him.

The wolf he had been fighting was very dead.

[Qit'ria]

.
.

"Common Speech"
"Xanthean Speech"

A roar shook the air about them, and Qit saw the wolves hesitate, ears turning toward the distraction. She took that moment to thrust out at one of them. But a javelin is a javelin, not a spear, and so the stab that would've struck the wolf between the eyes missed the mark. The javelin wobbled flimsily, and the tip shanked the wolf along the side of its face, a deep gouge, but hardly life threatening. One of the other two snapped at her, and she jerked her leg away from its bite, not fully unscathed, the teeth scraping crimson grooves a mere half instant before snapping shut. She shirked to the side, falling atop the third wolf with an audible off. The wolf yelped and scrambled to get out from beneath her, claws scraping over arm and back before it dashed free.

She kicked at the wolf that had bitten at her, but found empty air, as the three canines fled, with the bear approaching. The one whose face she'd scored stopped at the tree line, looking back at her, and she could see the promise of vengeance in its eyes. It would remember her. It then turned and fled with its mates. Laying there on her back, mildly in pain, but nothing too terrible, her head lulled to the side as the ground slightly shook at the approach of the red-brown bear.

Her initial instinct was to turn the javelin on the bear, but the coloring made her pause. And the words from its mouth cemented the thought. This was the naked man. And the fox. She didn't know how, but this man could turn into various animals. And she smiled at the bear, before laughing. It was a good thing he could too, or she'd be dog shit right now. She wondered if he could change into any other animals. A fox didn't seem as useful to her as a bear. Well... Unless you wanted to be small, quick, and sneaky... A fox would do just fine at that.

Her look at the bear turned to quizzical, this power of his was amazing. He asked if she was alright, and she, "Yes, all is right. You is good? No hurt from fall tree?"[/i] He then said he would be changing back, and this was something Qit wanted to see. She pushed herself up off the ground, and followed after him. She'd not seen him change from fox to man, or man to bear. As she followed, she saw the dead wolf, and spat at it, hissing for a moment. Damn wolves. Ever since that hunter with the bird dragon chased her with a wolf, she despised the creatures even more than she already had.

But still, she followed the man, determined to see this change. Followed up with a flurry of questions, "How turn animal? Born human? Born animal? Can turn all animal? How get stuck under tree?"[/i]

Created by Yolande

.
.

[Pegasus]

Sweetwine Woods

It seemed like the very usual sort of 'excuse me a moment' manners were not in Qit'ria's skillset and the large bear man glanced at her as she walked with him. Presumably, Qit'ria hadn't seen a bear look quizzically at her before now, but he did. However, he said nothing more and he made his way to a different clearing where he stood next to a particular tree. There, she got to witness him shifting back into human form and, it must be said, it didn't look comfortable. Quite the opposite, it looked very painful.

It seemed that the tree was a place with a hollowed out area and, in there, he kept his clothes. As he got dressed, apparently unconcerned by his nakedness, but he was still relatively speedy. He was vulnerable until he did, after all. But still he lifted his head and he looked at Qit'ria with a smile. "No, I'm a .. user of magic. It is magic" he said. He shook his head, with a smile. "I'm not hurt no. But oh, you are. Let me help you?" If Qit'ria would let him, amongst the clothing that he'd stashed away, there was a bag and he had some healing supplies in there. But he wouldn't touch her without her consent.

"I was born human," he said, with a smile. "I learned magic is all. I.. it is called Becoming. I'm able to turn into some animals, not all. Only ones I've chosen" If she let him tend to her wounds, then he would show her what he was doing before he did, not in any way patronizing but just a very calm way of being.

"I'm sorry if I unnerved you. It's strange to see, I'm sure." As for how he got stuck, he looked at her and his facial expression told her a lot. He was rather embarrassed. "Well, I was exploring, trying to find out if I could fit into that hollow. It's interesting to explore places. But I got stuck." He sighed slightly and looked at her with a wry grin. "What about you? What are you doing here?"