Border Skirmishes (Damijan)

[Miharu Mindi]

She rolled her eyes, as if he were the one being the obstinate child, and just shrugged as she settled herself to deal with the restitching. If he wasn't going to eat it, though, she wasn't going to let it go to waste. She took a large bite of it, cheeks puffing out as she chewed, and didn't even seem to think about it, her mind already on the best way to get those stitches out. Of course, she also didn't seem to realize she was still naked, but if he'd known Kelvics before then he probably wouldn't be surprised by that either.

The heart was balanced easily on her knee, and she rinsed her hands and then the wound in his side. A little scalpel was dug out of its case in her kit, and she whispered "Don't move," before she began to carefully saw through the horsehair. She was even more glad now that she hadn't used silk, because that put up a bit more resistance. She was better at cutting than sewing - but she was a hunter first and foremost, so that wasn't surprising - and was done within moment. Then she focused nimble fingers on drawing out the old stitches before she started in on the new ones, pausing every now and then to take another bite out of the heart until it was completely consumed. Even licked the last of the blood from her thumb, and chuckled a little to herself as she tasted Damijan's blood as well.

"So is this what you do? Hunt other humans?" Her voice was curious, no real judgment in it, but she'd never come across a man who did so. Perhaps he didn't hunt them for meat, but they were his prey just as surely as any deer.

[Damijan]

He directed his attention elsewhere as she simultaneously gnawed on a man's heart and worked through the thread knitting his skin together. There was definitely something wrong about that entire picture, but Damijan was a man well-used to wrongness in all its forms. It didn't spike some sort of moral impulse in him, it simply wasn't to his taste, so he stared up at the tent's ceiling. Only the occasional tick of the muscle lining his jaw gave away when and where he could actually feel her little fingers poking against the bruise, ragged flesh of his side.

No, he didn't care that she was naked, nor was he in a huge hurry to cover her propriety or whatever. Let her worry about that. He'd seen easily a hundred naked kelvics running around, often packed into tight spaces, most of them bloodied and bruised, miserable, collared and chained and kept to heel. None of that had bothered him any more than the act of slicing the farmer's throat. One lived how one lived.

"Yes, it's what I do," he murmured, after a minute, and his eyes flickered over to her for just the briefest second, before shifting away again. "Though I wouldn't call it hunting, precisely. That implies a certain sportsmanship that I'm not comfortable with."

No, he just terrorized people. Ruined their homes, slaughtered their wives and children. For money.

"I take it you don't spend much time in cities."

[Miharu Mindi]

"Me?" she laughed. "No, not if I can help it. Too many people, too many smells. It's like constantly having five people crowding around you, screaming in your ears and clogging up your nostrils, even if you're the only one on the street."

She caught him flinching a little, and sighed as she paused halfway through stitching to apply another thin layer of the numbing salve. She sat back on her heels to give it a moment to work, massaging her hand. "I've been to Avanthal a few times with my father, but..."

Her eyes flew open at that, and her mouth dropped. "Oh, shyke," she muttered. "My father's going to kill me." As if it'd just occurred to her that this little adventure might not be something a daddy wanted for his only little girl.

She gulped, and went back to stitching, a little faster but no less gently.

[Damijan]

Damijan grunted his agreement with her assessment of cities. He may not have had a canine's nose, but her description was accurate even by human standards. Well, by his standards, which were the only ones he cared for.

He was untroubled by her sudden concern over what her father might or might not do; that was her problem, not his. If she'd been meant to hurry on to Daddy, she shouldn't have stopped to patch him up in the first place. Damijan, anyway, knew a thing or two about fathers -- he sincerely doubted her father would actually kill her, as his would have actually killed him, if the need arose. He didn't begrudge his father that truth; again, one lived how one lived.

"Fuck Avanthal," he muttered, and would've shrugged, had he not been aware of her stitchwork. "Whatever, just hurry up and get outta here."

He made her sound like a nuisance, not a help. But he hadn't stopped her from doing what she was doing, so maybe that was just his way of being nice.

[Miharu Mindi]

She glanced up at the tone of his voice, and annoyance skimmed through her eyes and twisted her mouth into a frown. "No wonder everyone's trying to stab you," she muttered, quickening her stitches again, and though they were just as functional this time she gave up on trying to keep them perfectly straight - if he wasn't going to appreciate it, then what was the point?

It was finally done - again - and she bit off the last of it and stuck her needle back in the leather kit. "There," she growled, shoving her kit back together and stuffing it into her pack. She picked up the bandages that Tall had collected before he'd been picked to pieces by a bunch of farmers and tossed them onto Damijan's chest. "Wash it in a few days, then let it dry out. I'm sure you know the drill," she snorted, gathering up the last of her thing to make herself scarce.

[Damijan]

He chuckled, catching the bandages with a hand to his chest. She had no idea why people kept trying to stab him, and wasn't she lucky in her ignorance. It occurred to him that if he could get a length of bandage around her throat, she wouldn't be able to shift without choking herself, and then he'd quite have her at his mercy. Not that he had a whole lot of mercy to go around.

He weighed how exhausted his body might have been against the advantages of having a kelvic by the throat. Was sure that if he held her for too long, her father would certainly appear, which was probably more trouble than he really needed just then.

In the end, all he said was, "Bye, Sparky," as he gathered up the bandages, and let it be. There would be other kelvics, and he wasn't entirely sure a wolf suited him just right, anyway.

[Miharu Mindi]

She scurried out of the tent, glancing behind her just once as she solidified his scent and face in her memory. And then she was gone, as silently as her tiny feet could carry her.

Of course, when Damijan finally dragged himself out of the tent, he'd find most of choice meat on the farmers' bodies chewed off. She had a growing girl's appetite, after all.

END!

[Gossamer]

. Character: Miharu Experience: 1 XP Tracking, 1XP Interrogation, 2 XP Medicine, 1 XP Intimidation, 1 XP Leadership, 2 XP Unarmed Combat(or brawling - take your pick) Lore: Stitching Wounds, Chastising Stupid Actions, Dealing with Grouchy People, Canibalism Character: Damijan Experience: 2 XP Leadership, 1 XP Unarmed Combat, 1 XP Cutlass, 1 XP Negotiation, 1 XP Strategy Lore: Surprise Attacks, Taking Hostages, Thinking on Ones Feet, Kelvic Transformation, Kelvic Curiosity, Proper Care of Stitches, Being Difficult To Deal With For Others Additional Note: Fun thread, loved the drama and the NPCs you guys created. .