Early 509 AV
Rain fell in fat, sultry drops. It was a hot and humid day, and rather than offer a brief respite from the sun's cruelty, the rain seemed only to make conditions even more miserable. The low-hanging, swollen gray clouds did not seem all that ready to completely release their cargo, instead allowing only a faint drizzle. It managed to soak everything, though, after an entire morning of such a lazy onslaught. Days like this were not uncommon in Taloba, or anywhere else in Falyndar, as the inhabitants knew and were quite accustomed to. In fact, weather such as this was considered fair for the time of year.
Vhana could remember last season's severe thunderstorms. It flooded entire regions and left them unapproachable for weeks. Stagnant pools, those which either did not soak into the earth or evaporate into the air for continued use, provided ample breeding grounds for a plethora of disease-bearing insects. Most Myrians, after generation-upon-generation of having lived in Falyndar proved resistant to such maladies, though there was word of a group of fool-hardy adventuring types that had succumb to the wasting sickness.
Kelvics were a different story, however...They seemed immune to many of the illnesses that plagued humankind, but suffered from things that were otherwise unknown to most knowledgeable in herbs and medicine. Vhana herself did not know if all Kelvics shared the same weaknesses, or if it depended on their more specific...breeding. She supposed that none of that was neither here nor there, though, as she prowled through Taloba's crowded and winding streets.
Until recently, the young woman had lived her life without much care or worry. Much like a child. Society, in truth, was much too complicated for her. A simple existence, the only one she had known thus far, seemed more logical than all...this. Her nose crinkled at the thought, as amber-colored eyes took in the scene around her.
People milling about, hawkers crying out their wares, an old woman selling meat most folk would be repulsed by. There were some things that she could recognize and understand: a difference between classes, for example. What baffled her were the laws by which governed them. In some cases, those who led the weak were not necessarily strong themselves. Perhaps it was money that Vhana did not truly comprehend.
Or maybe she did, all too well, and that was why the young female shunned such a manner of living.
Her boots, the soles soft but sturdy, splashed into a puddle, causing the brown liquid to splatter out and catch the hem of a passing woman. It was a detail nobody noticed. In all the hustle and bustle, every one was getting wet, getting shoved, and getting on with what they'd set out to do. She was just one of many.
As a figure in the crowd, Vhana herself was not an odd sight. Though quite a bit shorter than many Myrian women, and her blonde hair caused her to stand out like some sort of stain on the societal cloth; her clothing, as well as the weapon strapped to her back were not anything the locals would be unaccustomed to seeing. She moved with all the feral grace of a predator- as was her very right, and the gleam within those gold-hued eyes spoke of something not human.
As a people, the Myrians were no more or less repugnant to Vhana than any other, though she perhaps knew more about them than another culture by virtue of having been born in Falyndar. Her willingness to look past their hunger for the flesh of their kind might startle others, but she was a hunter first and foremost, no matter the shape she assumed. Gruesome it might be to others, but Vhana had no qualms with consuming the sweet meat of a Konti, or drinking the delicious red vitae of a human. Other Kelvic might even find themselves prey, all things depending.
Disturbing was not a notion that teased her mind. Vhana, being a survivor, would do almost anything in order to keep herself above the green grass. She was not an evil creature (that being another school of thought that the tanned beauty rarely entertained), just a supremely indifferent one. Curiosity, though...Well, everybody knew that saying, didn't they?
It was curiosity that brought her to Taloba. Questions about herself and the world around her, ones that could not be answered by those she was raised by. That she could find them here, within the Myrian capital, Vhana could not be certain. But in seeking, in asking, the young female knew she would find knowledge.
Even if that knowledge was not what she hoped to learn.