Completed [Wildlands] Reptilian Musings (Svansan)

[Soshakuakamamushi]

Priskil's Pond, 16th of Bell, 25th of Spring 507 A.V

It was early spring in the Wildlands, the beautiful stretch of wilderness encompassing most of the Sylira region. Nature's inhabitants waking up from the winter hibernation, deers grazing, bears fishing, and wolves hunting. This was where a due of interesting people could be seen taking a rest beside the Priskil's Pond, they were from Zeltiva and on the way to Syliras. For some reason, the younger-looking of the duo, was looking rather annoyed at the much older man beside her.

"Eeeeh... why are we stopping, Master?" Aka the Viper, in her human form grumbled. She didn't get on why her Nuit mentor, Galbern, decided to stop here. In a lake...thing of all the sudden. Being a Viper who had lived for a century in the hot Eyktol Desert, Aka wasn't fond of large stretches of water, it made her squirm, made her think those water could pull her in and drown her.

"Because, my apprentice... this pond has an interesting story..." The Nuit mage in a middle-aged man's body spoke to the grumbling early-middle teen girl beside her. His blac dead nuit eyes emotionlessly looked upon the annoyed scarlet slits of the Viper.

"Eh? What story..." Aka was visibly not interested. She wanted to move on, she wasn't fond of staying in one place and gazing upon a pond like an idiot. Rather hyperactive, common for an agile Viper.

"Well... Around the year of three hundre-"

"No! No! That's gonna be long! I knew it! Not interested, nada! I'm going for a walk, kay thanks bye!" Aka cut Galbern's imminent storytelling session off. She swore, his boring monotone loooong monologue was the most effective sleeping drug in all of Mizahar. Galbern just shrugged and continued watching the pond while the Viper dashed away from the location.

=================

Aka decided to just spend her time doing what she liked the most, freerunning. It was her most favorite activity to do other than throwing her res here and there. She flexed her legs and ran forward, whizzing pass trees, vaulting over roots, and skidding on the ground to avoid low-hanging branches. Her inherent agility being fully utilized.

"Hahahaha!" She laughed heavily between her breaths as she kept running and vaulted over a medium-sized stone, releasing her pent-up energy. Galbern was not exactly fond of physical activities so she couldn't get chances like this much, it was always researching, boring theories of magic, and more researching. At least right now, she could find excitement in exploring the nature in her high-speed venture.

[Licearsvansan]

. . ......... My journey is my destination. . . . .

AHEMThis thread is rated M for mature. It contains blood, harsh language, violence, and VERY strong sexual themes

Svan had spent seven years traveling Mizahar by now, and had learned to respect mother nature. Caiyha was a powerful Goddess, and with good reason. Nature was a force to be reckoned with, and it could take life just as easily as it could give it. However, those who learned to be respectful could find an endless bounty to nourish them. As a follower of Caiyha Svan had learned to pay heed to this rule, and most days he was blessed enough to make it through the wilds unharmed.

But today? Today Svan found himself stuck in a tree.

Petch nature.

Again.

Just....petch it.

It was hardly a novel experience for the Dhani. He had enough skill to climb trees, but the petching things always broke half way up. Sometimes it made him fall immediately, other times it simply destroyed his only way back down. Today was the latter case. He wished he could say that this was a first time thing for him, but frankly it had become something of a morning ritual for him. Who needed coffee when a twenty foot drop was only a tree climb away. Svan could certainly attest to its potency.

Right now Svan was roughly fifteen feet off the ground, and in human form. Below him was a pile of apples that he had picked on his way up, and in front of that there was the large branch that had broken off on his way down. He considered shifting to his snake form so that he could lower himself down, but the thirty seconds where he shifted forms and muscles rearranged made keeping his balance...difficult. The snake groaned. Siku had given his race so many things, but simple transformation was not one of them.

Instead of risking a transformation Svan settled on the plan to jump onto the apples, hoping that some of the riper ones would cushion his fall. It wasn't the best plan, but he didn't exactly have a pillow handy. Svan closed his eyes and prepared himself for the fall. As his eyelids shut he thought he heard the thick nearby bushes rustle, but pushed the idea of some nasty creature below him out of his head. Nature was never quiet and it was just his cowardly brain trying to convince him not to jump. He certainly didn't want to jump, but what choice did he have? He couldn't live up here. What would he eat? All the apples in the tree were on the forest floor. The snake frowned. He supposed he hadn't thought that one through entirely. No matter He thought to himself, I'll be down before you can say-Jump Dhani JUMP! In a quickly passing moment of courage - or perhaps foolishness - Svan lept off of the branch and hurtled to the ground below.

He was prepared for the rough feeling of apples punching bruises into his flesh, but when he hit the ground it was....soft? It smelled good too, or was that just the apples? Svan opened his eyes and looked down to see what he had landed on. It was a girl. Svan's eyes went wide, and in a voice that wasn't nearly as apologetic as it should have been he asked the girl,

"What are you doing down there?"

[Soshakuakamamushi]

An expression filled with satisfaction and happiness graced Aka's young-looking face, despite being over a century old, the Viper still acted with the grace of an early-middle teenage human. She was almost out of stamina for her current jogging session so she planned to make a turnaround at that particular tree over there and head back to Galbern. She didn't notice the odd humanoid shape at the tree's branch above.

"Alright, now to go ba- GAHAH!!!" Her lithe form came crashing down the ground, her face hitting a small pile of apples. That sure would cause some nasty - and oddly sweet - painful feeling on her mug. W-what... what happened?! She demanded to know, she knew her movements were not that clumsy for her to just suddenly fall to the ground, she would shame the whole Viper sub-race if that was the case. It didn't take long for her to figure out that something... something heavy was crushing her form from above. "G-get... get off!" She tried to shift the weight off her, but it would not budge...

"What are you doing down there?"

Alright, he would not budge because the voice that surely came from the thing that was crushing her was distinctly male. "Gah!! Get offf!" She gave a final struggle before the offending finally revved up his brain to at least understand her Common. "Kih..." Aka stood up and patted her clothes, her loose black dress, only tied with the red sash at her waist, was disheveled, revealing some of her pale skin... Aka didn't wear any underwear because she viewed it would be restrictive to her transformation process.

Aka didn't have the opportunity to fix her clothing, not when she realized this smug-looking man with the mop-like hair didn't even apologize for crushing her just now. She gritted her teeth and stomped to the brown-haired man, squishing a poor apple in the process. Aka held out her left hand and poked the man's chest, hissing and angry "What do you think you are doing? Ssss! Crussshing me while I wasss just running? What did I ever do to you?! And you didn't even apologize! How rude! I demand compensssation! Get down on your kneesss and apologize!" She stood tall and - tried to be - intimidating, but the man was a good one foot taller than her... not that the Viper realized that of course.

If the man wouldn't comply, Aka would "persuade" him... a lavaball or two should be enough.

[Licearsvansan]

Svan casually complied with the woman's demands, and was soon standing next to the little girl. His eyes scanned her body and he frowned in confusion. She aside from being far too finely dressed and young to be running around in the wild, she looked exactly like an ordinary little girl. Which disturbed Svan because there was something about the girl that he found...compelling. Since when did I become a pedophile? It was a question he had never thought he would have to ask himself. Thankfully for both Svan and his sanity, he caught sight of the woman's eyes. In the place of round pupils were two thin slits. While he lacked the trait, he had seen it in others of his kind. Some considered it a mark of "better blood", but Svan had always looked down on it. Sure it looked intimidating when and angry Dhani's pupils thinned, but was it worth the cost of broadcasting to everyone exactly when they had ticked you off? It made it impossible to pretend like an insult hadn't offend you, and more importantly it made it harder to pass off as human. A lisp was easily explainable, but that was hardly the case with snake eyes?

"What do you think you are doing? Ssss!"

As if her eyes weren't enough proof, she began hissing. Not just talking with a lisp. NO! She was actually hissing. She might as well have just worn a sign that said "snake people are real", it would at least have taken less effort. Svan ignored the urge to shake his head, and instead turned it towards the apples behind her as she yelled at him. When she finished, Svan's hazel eyes flicked back to her and a grin grew on his face. "I believe I was falling for you," he said with obvious innuendo as he replied to her first question. "As for what you did to me," he glanced back briefly to the pile of apples. Some of them had been crushed to bits. Returning his gaze to the woman, he reached out and wiped a bit of apple juice from her cheek. "I wouldn't have dared to ask for compensation from such a ssssweet looking girl, but since you 'demand' it..." He pulled his hand back and sucked the juice off his finger. He wore a wry smile as he chose the words he liked and discarded the rest. "I suppose an apology will do." Svan strolled by Aka, and scooped up an apple. With causal grace he took a bite of the apple and swallow. Oh I am going to regret that later... Keeping his smug grin, Svan nodded at the girl.

"Well, What are you waiting for? Get on your knees and apologize."

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Hrrrrmmpph!" Aka grumbled, folding her hands across her chest, and tapped her right foot on the ground; impatiently waiting for Svan's apology. It didn't came and she was getting more and more annoyed. This mop-haired man had the audacity to literally fall - whether accidentally or not - on top of her and still dared to ask her on "what she was doing?". She might just have saved his bones from breaking for Siku's sake, at least be thankful for that.

"W-whaaat?!" Instead of an apology, she got a snide remark in return. Aka growled and flexed her fingers, her res ready to be emitted should her anger reached boiling point. "....." Her frown faltered a bit when she saw the man licking apple juices from his fingers, for some reason, she found that act to be... attractive and he was also not that bad looking. It was early spring... that meant mating season was in-progress, Aka naturally experienced aches and urges to find a mate, but of course... since Galbern was a Nuit. He had zero interest in such things, not that Aka would want to mate with him anyway... he was an undead for Siku's ssake.

A blush almost crept up to her face, but she shook her head and offsets it with more anger. "D-don't call me sssweet! Hey!" She actually liked it especially coming from a man she deemed attractive, but the situation right now didn't warrant it.

"I suppose an apology will do."

"Ah... good, now get down on your kneesss..." Wonderful, the man seemed to have some sense in him after all. She also noticed the sibilant speech that this man had, was he also a Dhani? It may be a possibility but she didn't want to assume. She crossed her arms again and acted haughty, waiting for him to finally bow down to her might.

"Well, What are you waiting for? Get on your knees and apologize."

".....what?" She was shocked, utterly shocked. Her mouth went agape and her eyes widened as wide as it could be. He didn't just told her to apologize to him, didn't he?! He even got the guts to tell her to bow down to him! He was the one completely at fault yet he demanded her apology. That's it, that was the last straw. "You... you... basssstaaaaaaard!" She shouted and extended her hands forward, her palms making a clawing motion. She then emitted her res in the shape of a reddish slimy substance, the res flowed out from her eye-shaped scar mark and collected in front of her in the form of a ball.

"Grrrrrr!" She then ignited the outer part and middle part of the res ball, keeping the core in res form, creating a fireball. "You'll pay for thisss!" She then launched the fireball to Svan, once it was near enough. She would will the fireball to fully ignite and explode.

[Licearsvansan]

The first thought that came to Svan's mind when the girl raised her hand at him was, Is that hand staring at me? The second, was something along the lines of, Oh petch me, ANOTHER fireball? The res had barely even began to leak out of her hands and he already knew what was coming next. Considering how much mages liked to boast about how "intelligent" and "unique" they were, they were pretty darn predictable. It seemed to Svan that whenever a reimancer got angry, a fireball was sure to follow. They never got mad and just splashed you. Noooo, they had to try and set you on fire.

Face flushed, eyes murderous, arm held out like a cannon, and res in the form of a ball...if thats not a fireball then I'm not a Dhani. This complicated things. By this point, there were only two types of individuals on Mizahar that Svan really feared, and those two types were Dhani, and mages. As luck would have it, he had met both in the same day. To make matters worse, a fireball in the middle of the forest could easily start a fire, and being a follower of Caiyha it was his job to make sure that didn't happen. Unfortunately, that of course meant that dodging her attack was out of the question.

He considered rushing her in hopes that he could strike her down before she could finish the spell, but he wasn't confident that he could restrain someone as quick as a viper before she had a chance to launch the spell. Which left Svan with one solution. Standing his ground..........against a fire ball.

Petch my liiiife!

After a brief moment of self pity, Svan turned his attention towards finding away not to be turned into a smoldering pile of ash. His thoughts fell to his cloak, the apples on the floor, the tree behind him, and the pool of res coming from the girl's hand. The man smiled, he had a plan. Not wasting a moment more, Svan turned his back to the girl and grabbed the edges of his cloak with his hands. He quickly knelt down and with one swift motion he scooped up over a dozen apples into his cloak. Suddenly, the girl growled angrily and things started getting hotter. Svan turned back to the girl as he rose to his feet.

"You'll pay for thisss!" The woman hissed.

The fireball was lit and a moment later it was headed straight for Svan. And yet, the brown haired man didn't even flinch. In fact, he smiled. He knew little about reimancy aside from what had been used against him in the past, but he knew a thing or two about magic in general. One, that the bigger the spells costed more djed. And two, than using magic tended to require focus. Svan watched the fireball up until the very moment where it left her hand. Just as he had guessed it would be, the fireball was small. Not minuscule, but not the kind of thing one would expect to be able to engulf an entire person in flames. It didn't take long for him to figure out why it was such a size. She planned to detonate it. It made sense that it was more efficient to launch a small explosive fireball, than to create a massive wave of flames. However, that also meant that if he could break her focus, he wouldn't have to deal with nearly as volatile a fireball. And what broke a person's focus better than a dozen plus flaming apples shooting out directly at you from out the back of your own fireball.

Just as she had launched her attack, he had launched his own. He was hoping that his apples would begin pelting her just before the fireball was close enough to him to detonate. Unfortunately, the gust from his cloak when he had trampolined the fruity barrage had apparently fed the flames. The hungry fire quickly closed in on Svan, but instead of running away, Svan shot towards it with cloak raised high like a shield. As distracting as flash roasted apples were, the man wanted to make sure that the girls timing would be thrown off as well. Svan felt a sudden surge of heat as the blaze slammed into his cloak. A sudden flash of worry shot through his mind. What if the fireball had never been been designed to explode? What if she had chosen to superheat the fireball instead? Would it punch straight through his cloak? Could a Reimancer even do such a thing?

It dawned on him that he had taken so much for granted. He knew little of what a reimancer could and couldn't do, and had simply made the assumtion that she needed to be the one to detonate the fireball. What would happen if the fireball was rigged to explode on its own? Svan wasn't sure, but it was too late to change plans now. Or was it?

Working off of pure instinct more so than guile, Svan stomped his left foot hard onto the ground and spun on it. He shoved his arms back across his body just as the fireball was making contact with the thin cloth shield that was his cloak. The cloak whipped around in a circle, and the oxygen hungry fire followed it like a blazing beast. Svan felt the raging heat of the flames as they rushed over his finger tips and winced under the shelter of his cloak. Even from beneath its protection he could feel the warmth beating down on him. For a single tick it as if he was being cooked alive in an oven. As Svan finished his spin, he released the cloak from his toasted fingers and let it sail over his back. He had intended for it to look dramatic, but the way the cloak sagged at the end detracted from its effect. As for the the fireball, it had been torn to pieces in half a dozen ways. Some flames clung tenatatiosly to his cloak, the result of his poor form and lack of fire retardant cloth, but most had been scattered. Some flames had been suffocated by trailing too close the the cloak. Others had chased greedily after current of the gale and had been sent spiraling into the surroundings where they either disipated harmlessly into the air, or collided with the tree, singeing it. The dying flames formed a ring of fire around the snake and in its center stood a cocky looking man with a sneer on his face. He punched out his hand and pointed his middle finger directly at the girl. "How the petch do you like them apples!?

Not sparing a second more, Svan turned around and began sprinting away at full speed. He had been lucky that the fire hadn't caught hold of anything serious, but he wasn't counting on that luck to hold out for much longer. Unless he wanted to risk burning down the entire forest, he had to get to a source of water FAST. The snake was headed straight for Priskil's pond. He didn't stop to look and see whether or not the girl was chasing him or not. Doing so would only slow him down. For most races, running from a viper was like trying to flee a cheetah. Luckily for Svan, he wasn't "most races". He had no intention of being able to shake her, but so long as he kept weaving through the trees, dodging her was certainly a possibility. And perhaps it was simply because he had knocked the wind out of her when he had fallen, but Svan thought that the girl's breath had been heavier than normal. He didn't stop to think about it. A tired viper was still a viper, and it would take everything he had to keep ahead of her. Still, perhaps the greatest advantage Svan had was his cloak.

Because few things spurred a man to water faster than having the thing wrapped around his neck slowly going up in flames.

[Soshakuakamamushi]

"Sssehehehe!" She dhani-giggled in satisfaction as the fireball launched beautifully to the offending mop-haired man. He would sure regret his actions and beg for his life like the pathetic lowlife he was. Surprisingly, he didn't dodge or cower like a coward, he seemed to be standing his ground; brave, but stupid. Oh goood, just stand there and buuuuurn! She was about to snap her fingers, fully igniting and exploding it, turning the lowlife into itty bitty crisps. When...

"S-sss?! Gah! Ouch! Ow! S-ssshyke!!" She shouted in pain as a wave of flaming apples came from her fireball's back, that man must had thrown some apples to her, those apples passed through the fireball, igniting them. She shouted in pain and shielded her head and body, immediately diving to her side to avoid more fire-apples. "Grrrrrrrrrr!" She growled in anger and pain, some of her skin singed by the heat. She looked down to find her dress unwittingly clutched a flaming apple, the heat catching on to the fabric and burning it. "W-waaaaaaaaaah!!!" Aka definitely didn't thought she would be on the receiving end of her own power.

She didn't have enough time - or focus - in the moment to direct the flame by using her reimancy, it was catching on fast. By instinct, she took off her sash and dress and threw it to her side, unpurposefully showing her bare form. "Ha... ha..." She inhaled and exhaled in relief, when she turned her attention back to the man, he was already showing his middle finger in a very offending gesture.

"How the petch do you like them apples!?" Then he sprinted away like no tomorrow. Cloak catching on fire.

"G...GRRRRRRRR!! BASSSTAAAAAAAAARD!!" Anger and rage blinded her, Aka forgot all modesty and got up to her feet, she immediately flexed her legs and chased him. "Come back here! Come back here!" What a strange sight, a man wearing a fiery cloak chased by a girl with absolutely no clothing on her.

Ha... ha... d-dammit! I was tired and... She winced and held her waist, she felt a bruise was forming there due to the fall she suffered. Also, she was rather winded from her jogging session earlier, significantly reducing her speed and ability to chase the man. That man was fast, much faster than common men, Aka noticed that. Maybe it was because he was afraid of her or he was just naturally fast, Aka didn't have time to ponder. She would not let him get away. "Aaaaaaaaaargh!!" Shouting a high-pitched battle cry, Aka tried to ignore the pain and forced her body to sprint faster, still slower than her top speed but at least it was something.

Weaving through trees and vegetations, the two Dhanis in a snake on snake chase, heading back to the Priskil's Pond. Galbern the Nuit Mage was in a meditation, enjoying the pristine air and quiet when he heard the fast-approaching footsteps. The Nuit opened his eyes and flexed his fingers to prepare his res, it may or may not be a threat, but you could never be too careful. "Who's there?" The middle-aged looking man turned around to find a... brown-haired man sprinting with a fiery cloak Interesting... chased by a... naked girl... wait, he recognized that girl. It was his loud apprentice, Aka. "......." Galbern just sighed, closed his eyes, and went back to his meditation. It was time Aka sorted out her problems on her own.

Aka chased the man, her stamina almost ran out, but she didn't care... her body would care soon enough whether she liked it or not though. She noticed they were heading back to the pond and saw her master briefly noticing them and went back to whatever he was doing. Woah... nothing interests you, eh, Master? She rolled her eyes and continued her chases when she found the man jumped into water to douse the flames on his cloak.

"Ha! You can't get away now!" Boasting arrogant shout, Aka also jumped in, splashes of water flew everywhere. She immediately began swimming to the man... but she forgot something... something very important. Something that a Viper living for about a hundred years in the desert of Eyktol should know. she couldn't swim!

"Hu-.. Waaaaaaaaaaaah!! G-gaaah! Aaaaaaaah!" She panicked and splashed around, flailing her arms and legs. "C-can't ssswim! H-heeelp!" She was bad with water, also evident by her reimancy ability. Her naked form splashed and flailed, trying to grapple something, anything. She managed to take hold of the man's shoulders and instinctively wrapped her body around him. "C-c-can't ssswim..." She didn't realize she was hugging the very man she was trying to kill just ticks ago.

Galbern? He just shook his head and observed.

OOCI'm assuming Svan would jump into the water. I can edit it if it isn't so.

[Licearsvansan]

oocIf you have a problem with ANY of this then please tell me and I will edit it post haste.

FasterFasterFasterFasterFasterIneedtogoFASTER!

Rattler or not, Svan was having a heck of a time trying to keep ahead of the bloodthirsty snake woman. The battle cry she let out had sent a chill through his spine and while he would never admit it, he was actually terrified of what would happen if she caught him. After having pelted her with apples, he was already imagining some sort of ironic punishment like being forced to scarf down apples until his stomach gave out. Not that he would EVER allow himself to be bullied into such a fate. He would much rather go down quickly in a fight, then die slowly as a coward. Still, Svan found the idea of dying any way at all rather unsettling.

By the time Svan reached the pool of water, it felt as if his legs had been reduced to pudding and the flames of his cloak were licking the back of his hair. Emerging from the tree line, he shot like a flaming bullet straight towards the water. Without stopping, he leaped up as far as he could into the pond and dove his entire body beneath its surface. For a moment he allowed himself to relax. The fire had gone out, and the pool of water would keep him safe from any other gouts of flame the witch might try to throw at him.

Calmed, the man allowed allowed his head to come back up and was immediately greeted with, "Ha! You can't get away now!"

Svan panicked and quickly dove back underwater, expecting another fireball to whizz by his head. Surprisingly, no fireball came, and instead the male was met with the sound of something splashing into the water in front of him. Shyke! Is she throwing rocks at me?! He forced his eyes open slightly and saw her blurred figure thrashing about in the water. From his fuzzy view it almost seemed like she was casting some intricate incantation. Oh shyke! Shes going to use the water to attack me! He quickly began trying to swim around the girl and back to dry land before she could get her res out and start drowning him. Unfortunately, all the running had made him rather short on breath, and he soon found himself breaching like a whale to get another gulp of precious air.

And that was just about the point where two slender claws wrapped around his neck. The first thought that went through his head was that this woman was trying to either drown him or tear him to pieces. She was flailing around so wildly that Svan though that she had actually lost her mind.

"C-c-can't ssswim..." The woman was practically crying into his ear.

What?! is what Svan would have said if the weight of this woman hadn't forced his head underwater. This girl had nearly killed him a chime earlier and now she expected him to help her? Petch that! Svan forced his head back out of the water and coughed up enough to fill a goldfish bowl. "Gah-kack keh..." Svan's hands uselessly splashed at the water in a failing attempt to stay afloat. He would have no trouble any other time but the flailing movements of the girl on his back, and the fact that he had long since lost feeling in his legs made it fairly difficult to swim. Having cleared his lungs of the pond water, Svan attempted to shout, "Bi-Gurgle A twist of the girl's weight had sent his head back underwater. He rose back up and tried again, "Bi-Gurgle, "Bi-Gurgle, Oh come on, just let me say it once! The snake swerved his torso and shot his head out a final time. "Bitch!" He immediately sunk back down. That's better.

Pleased with his small victory, Svan grabbed tightly around the girls arm's and began swimming straight down, pulling her underwater with him. He could feel her thrashing around as she tried to keep herself from sinking. While he lacked the current energy needed to drag her down entirely, his goal was to make her believe that holding onto him meant drowning. The instant he felt her grip around him loosen, he tore her arms off him and quickly began swimming towards the shore. The man emerged from the water without any breath, and numerous scratch marks around his throat. He felt as if he had swallowed enough water to fill a house. After a brief pause to catch his breath and spit up another goldfish bowl, he turned back to see how the girl was fairing.

Not well.

She was flailing hopelessly, and panicking too much to be given any rational instruction. The snake frowned as he stared at the girl. Siku would have his head if he caused the death of another Dhani. He raised his hands to his mouth and shouted out to the girl, "Don't worry, I will get something better for you to hold onto." With that he turned back towards the green forest around him. There were numerous branches lying on the ground, and several were large enough to support the girl's weight.

A moment later a cannonball sized rock exploded into the water directly on top of Aka. Petch Siku, Caiyha will understand.

There was a tick were Svan stared triumphantly at the swarm of bubbles that had replaced Aka in the water. Then there was a second one where Svan realized that the girl wasn't coming back up. Finally, there was a third tick where Svan argued with himself over the next course of action he should take. Sadly, "laugh evilly" lost out to "save downing cousin". The next thing Svan knew he was back in the water and dragging out what felt like the corpse of the viper girl. He placed her on the ground and put his hand firmly over her chest to test for a heart beat. Sure enough, the girl wasn't dead. Unfortunately, Svan didn't know how to resuscitate a drowning person. Going off of what he had seen before, Svan cupped his mouth over the girl's lips and kissed her. He didn't blow into her mouth, no, he just kissed her and stared at her as if it would do anything. Eventually, the man realized that she was still drowning, and that more active measures would have to be taken.

Drawing his sword, the male plopped himself directly onto the girl's stomach. He could have sworn he saw her stir but just to be sure...Svan rested the sword breaker against her throat, and raised his free hand high into the air. "I just want you to know, I'm going to enjoy this much more than I should." What followed next were three of the the most brutal slaps ever seen. The sound must have carried for miles, and the girl's cheeks were had turned scarlet in seconds. After that little show, Svan stared back down at the hopefully reawaken woman, and gave her the sweetest expression he was capable of. Then, he spoke to her in a voice so relaxed that one might think he was asking her what she wanted for breakfast,

"Good morning sleepy snake. My name is Svan, and if you don't apologize, I will cut your throat out."

[Soshakuakamamushi]

Panicked, tired, and disoriented; Aka made a very bad decision by jumping in to the water. Why couldn't she just throw rocks at him from the pond's shore? Especially since she had her earth reimancy, she could launch sharp pebbles at him, make him drown. No, she just had to jump down, putting herself in dire straits.

"Kyuuuuh!" Aka whimpered and kept holding on to the mop-haired man. She closed herself down due to the panic, not realizing the man was also struggling because of her. Water was getting to her mouth, she felt sick, she hoped that this man could help her...

"Bitch!"

Now that brought her attention. Aka opened her eyes, slits narrowing in anger, and began pounding his head. It was a very bad move considering she needed him to stay afloat, but common sense was not available to her right now. "Aaaaah! *Gurgle* B-basssstaaaard! Bast-*Gurgle*...tard! Tar- KYAAAH?!" Her pounding spree was cut short when the man grabbed her arms tight and pulled her straight down, sinking both of them to the merciless still body of water.

"Bu... burbpb!!!" Bubbles went flying from her mouth, panicking, Aka instinctively loosened her hold on him to try flailing back to the surface. "!?" Her mind was in a blur, the man did want to drown her as he immediately began swimming to the surface. A look full of betrayal plastered itself on her face. No. She didn't have time to ponder, she have to get out of here, she began flailing, she somewhat succeded, yes! She could reach the surface!

"Don't worry, I will get something better for you to hold onto."

The man's voice echoed in her eardrums, she instantly felt relief washed over her, so that was the man wanted. He just wanted to get her panicking self off his body so he could swim to the shore and tossed something to help her. She managed to almost mouth the word "Thank y-?!!" *THUD!*. Everything was a blur... her consciousness leaving her body... she didn't know what happened, was his throw a tad bit too accurate? He should threw the branch near her, not at her. It didn't matter now... she would die... drowning, what in an utterly embarrassing and ironic way. A Viper birthed in Eyktol Desert, died in a pond.

Galbern began to show worry when the man threw the rock, he wanted to stood up and threaten the man into saving his apprentice, Aka was a precious test subject after all and she had lived for over a century, it would be a shame for her to just die like that. "...." In the end, he didn't have to do it after all, The man had a change of heart and jumped back into the water. Dragging the bruised form of Aka. Her naked form and disheveled long black hair made her look really pitiable, she was obviously unconscious.

"....." The Nuit tilted his head, the man was trying to resuscitate Aka at first, seeing that he didn't succeed. The man opted for the most strange technique he had ever seen... he drew his sword, got onto Aka's stomach, rested his sword onto the girl's throat. Then... he slapped her thrice, hard. The sound reverberated through the air, Aka's cheeks went as red as her eyes soon after.

The Nuit just shook his head, Aka would feel that by the time she woke up... and looks like he was right, the girl stirred... stirred... then...

"GAHAK!! AHACK! *COUGH!!* *COUGH* *WHEEEZE!!*" Aka's eyes shot open and water immediately flowed out of her lungs, her face flushed, not just because of the slap. She coughed and wheezed, expelling the foul liquid from her respiratory system. She tried to turn her body to the side, but found unable to do so, not when she felt the familiar weight on her body. It felt... like the previous offending man was on top of her again. A warm trickle ran from her forehead, to her temple, and finally to the ground. She was bleeding... her head was bleeding, but she wasn't able to care.

"*Cough* He... ah... G-get off!" She was right, the man was indeed on top of her... again. Her blurring vision slowly focused itself and what came next made her eyes widened in shock and fear. The man was pointing a blade to her throat! In normal situation, she would blow her res from her mouth and blast him with a flamethrower, but this was not a normal situation. She was exhausted, wounded, almost drowned, and... what was these stinging pains on both of her cheeks? All in all, she was in no condition to fight. She looked to her side to find Galbern, just sitting there, observing, and... writing notes on his Siku-damned journal. Couldn't he read the situation and help his apprentice?! No, maybe the Nuit saw this as an interesting situation worthy of notes. After all, not everyday you could see a man sitting on top of the stomach of a wet, naked girl, threatening her with his sword. Wait... naked?!

"W-w-w-....?!!" Aka finally realized her situation, she remembered tossing her flaming dress back at the apple tree, so logically, she would be naked. Her face went flushing from embarrassment this time, she just chased this man all the way to the pond, jumping in, holding on to his body, and... now being sat upon while being naked. Oh by Siku, if she had a hole to crawl into, she would do that right now. "No...no..." She started to whimper, she couldn't believe she just showed this man everything. She was not a Kelvic no, if she was, she wouldn't even bother to wear clothes at all.

"Good morning sleepy snake. My name is Svan, and if you don't apologize, I will cut your throat out."

His sweet words brought her mind back to Mizahar, she shot an angry look at him, tinged with fear and embarrassment. She wanted to shoot him with a vitriolic remark, but... that sword, ready to cut her throat apart, he even literally told her that he would do it. With all the things that happened, he might as well do so. "Ki... I... kuuuh... hsss..." She hissed and grumbled, wanting to get the man off but it, of course, resulted in futility. She wriggled her body to no avail. "I... I do- Hi?!" The man accentuated his threat by pressing the sword ever so slightly to her throat. After chimes of whimpering and cursing, she finally exhaled and muttered under her breath.

"I... I'm sss...s.sss..." She closed her eyes and shouted to offset her embarrassment and swallow her pride "sorry! I'm... I'm sssorry!" Well now that was done, Aka wondered if she had any dignity left... she was naked, being held down at sword's point, and forced to apologize. If Galbern was not a stoic Nuit, he would probably laughed his ass off.

[Licearsvansan]

Where she not such a threat Svan would have laughed when she awoke. After nearly coughing out a lung, Aka began to examine her situation. Svan's weight was the first thing she noticed, and foolishly she demanded that the man get off her. Svan promptly responded by laying his entire weight into her AND some. The next thing she did was scan her surroundings for someone to help her. Surprisingly to Svan, she seemed more enraged by the random Nuit's lack of assistance than shocked. Svan hadn't considered it before but perhaps the two knew each other....or perhaps she just expected random people to go out of their way to help her. Before Svan could ask, she noticed the third thing.

She was naked.

If there was even a time that a man could die from laughter, now would be it. How had she just now come to realized that she was naked?! Had she just forgotten that she was nearly set on fire, or was she really so tunnel sighted that she didn't even realize that she had stripped. Of course, Svan really had no right to just her. He did similar thing all the time. Why, he had once even woken up from one of his rage induced trances to find that he had impaled himself on an enemy's sword. Still, he had never been a fan of recognizing his own failings, and so he had little trouble finding fault with this woman's actions.

Svan nearly popped trying to deliver his threat to her without letting her know how horribly he wanted to laugh, but through sheer force of will, he managed. Then came the stuttered hisses and hyphened curses. When she failed to apologize right away, Svan decided to have a little more fun. he parroted each and every one of her stutters, and slowly began to lean his body forward while driving the driving the weight of the sword into her neck. By the time she finally got around to apologizing, Svan's head was hovering directly above her own and resting in his palm, his elbow directly next to her head. His short brown locks were hanging down his face and nearly touching the girl.

"I... I'm sss...s.sss..." the girl started.

"I'm sss?!" He replied, grinning like a cheshire cat.

He watched her shut her eyes as she shouted, "sorry! I'm... I'm sssorry!"

"HaHAA!" Svan giggled triumphantly. "You know, you apologize just about as well as I do." Svan beamed down at the girl. For a tick it might almost seem as if he was analyzing her, but upon closer inspection it proved to be nothing a humored expression and a cocky attitude. The seemingly cold appearance of his stare was nothing more than a shadow of his past. Back from his time in the nest when he actually had been able to read people like that. However, that life was nothing more than that, a shadow, and those who look bothered to look closely could see the glint of warmth in his gaze. He didn't mean for it to be there, but something about this woman was bringing out Svan's more playful side. Well that....and his lustful side as well.

Meeting somewhere in between lustful and playful natures, Svan dipped his head down onto the girl's forehead and licked the blood from her face. It shamed Svan to admit that she was delicious. "Tsk tsk, looks like you bumped you're head on something." Svan mused for a second. "I wonder, do you even remember who you are? If so then tell me what your name is." Svan gave her a 'really?' expression before she even answered.

"And I mean you full name snake."