Closed Beauty and The Beast [Caela Dorin]

[Thannis Daraktheon]

Timestamp: 26th of Fall 514 AV

Tonight was the night. Thannis had been preparing himself all day. Not in any physical sense for whatever physical ability he might need that night he already had. No, he had to prepare his mind. Tonight he would do something he's never done before. With full clarity and unaffected by the Urge he was going to murder another human being. Why? Thannis' life had become a living hell since he had Returned. He was plagued by visions of darkness, emptiness and the vivd pumping of human hearts. Who had done this to him? Uldr: the God of the Undead. Why? Thannis could only guess. All he knew was that he was a monster and he couldn't avoid that. He hadn't found any way to actually kill himself either. He was stuck this way so it was time to just give in. It was time to be the monster. Such was unlife.

He spent most of the night in a tavern. A smaller, less popular tavern. Few people came and go throughout the night. Thannis watched them all. He'd sat himself down with a good view of the entire room. At any one time everyone in the bar would be in his line of sight. He was also enshrouded in shadow as well. It was the perfect place to sit for such a task. It was also great for brooding and dark contemplation which Thannis was sure to make sure he got a lot of. Eventually, however, he spotted a target. An old alcoholic who looked positively homeless. He only had enough money for one drink and sat nursing it for hours. Thannis was sure there was no one out there to miss him and equally that he wouldn't have a hard time of it.

Now that he had selected his target all he had to do was wait. The old codger took so long with his one little drink that Thannis eventually began to daydream. He started to think of Caela; the young woman he had met a few times when he had first come to Sunberth. She had been nice enough. He hadn't tried to find her since he returned to Sunberth nor had he went to the Pigs Foot Tavern where she had once worked. He couldn't face her. He'd failed. He'd left seeking some kind of peace out in the wilderness away from the pesky beating of human hearts. It hadn't helped. The beating had simply gotten louder and louder. Caravans and bandits had found him, or had he found them, and it had all ended the same way it always did. Thannis half dazed lying in a pool of someone else's blood lapping like a puppy dog. He couldn't face her...

Thannis almost knocked over the table as he leapt to his feet. The old codger was gone. Thannis quickly regained his composure remembering that he had to make his leaving not seem quite so suspicious as running out the door after a man who was soon to be found dead. Thannis made his way over to the door quickly but with all the bearing of someone who was simply leaving. At least he hoped he did. When he was outside he looked both ways for the old codger but he was nowhere in sight. He ran down the street looking in all of the alleyways as he passed them. He caught the swishing of coat tails around a corner and raced after them as quickly and as quietly as possible. He whipped around the corner and almost collided with the old codger in another side street. The codger was momentarily alarmed and so was Thannis. His whole body tensed up and he did the only thing he could think of. He leapt onto the man taking him down to the ground. Sitting on his chest he repeatedly bashed the old codger in the face with the iron force of his fists. At some point he had slipped on his knuckledusters and the man's face crumpled in dead long, long before Thannis finally stopped beating him. Thannis wasn't himself anymore. The Beast had taken him over heart and soul. The young Voider from Zeltiva was dead. Tharr be only monsters here...

Credit to Skerry

[Caela Dorin]

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Night time wandering in Sunberth was never a good idea. While the blonde was just as likely to draw attention to herself during the day, it was far worse to attract any looks during the bells after dark. A darker, more brutal crowd appeared in the city when the more innocent citizens had crawled their way into their beds. There were still some of that day crowd around though, people staggering home from taverns, brothels and gambling houses but they would go straight home and wouldn't interfere in anything that might get them into trouble. So the idea was for Caela to avoid trouble because there would be no one to help get her out of it for a change.

Her right side still hurt from the injury she'd caused to the muscle a few days before but she'd gone to the Pig's Foot Tavern all the same. She hadn't risked going back to work just yet although Kechaiya had told her that she could after three days. The young woman had erred on the side of caution thus far but had arranged with her employer to return to work the following day. She'd had no reason to remain in the tavern after night fall but the girl hadn't been able to bring herself to leave. She hadn't been able to work but that didn't mean that she couldn't squeeze a few drinks out of a patron or two. The wine when acquired had been nursed carefully, administered when necessary to dull the pain but not too frequently as to get drunk. She could admit to herself that she was a little tipsy when she finally chose to leave but she still had her wits about her.

The young woman had not been offered an escort home, Merv somewhat miffed that one of his best entertainers had got herself injured through carelessness so the girl was left to her own protection. She could have gone straight home but instead she chose to play around with an idea that had been occupying her for the last few days. If she could disguise herself then could she wander around the city without anyone taking any notice of her?

Caela had visited the Castle Commons a bit earlier in the season and had attempted such subterfuge as was necessary to go unnoticed in the morning crowds. It had failed miserably but the blonde had come to think that it wasn't enough to disguise her gait and try to appear of humble origins. She was too well fed to pass as one of the scrawny poor of Sunberth but there were other things that would give her away. She was too clean. She'd made an awful habit of more regular bathing recently. First it had been to wash off exertions from the one day of exercise that she'd managed at the Hot Springs and every day since then had seen her at the place, soaking the muscles in her right side so that she could stretch them as the doctor had showed her. She was just too clean for the average Sunberthian. If she could remedy that then she'd be better off in her sneaking around.

As soon as she was outside of the tavern she found a quiet alley to slip into, gazing around her carefully to make sure that she was alone before she crouched and examined some of the ground at her feet. It was wet but not wet enough for the earth to have liquefied. Fingers were rubbed against the wet surface tentatively, the blonde sniffing carefully at her fingers to see if any unsavoury odours clung to the stuff. She wanted to make sure that it was only dirt after all. Somewhat satisfied the blonde rubbed the substance between her palms allowing the skin to be coated in a light brown. Once her palms were done she rubbed the backs of her hands and her nail beds to ensure that nowhere was too clean. Her hands were followed by an application of mud up her wrists in case her cloak should shift at any stage. Next came her face and neck, more mud collected as she went. As a finishing touch to her body the dancer gathered more mud and ran it through her blonde locks, dulling the blonde sheen to a dirty yellow.

Her cloak was wrapped carefully around her in an effort to hide her well nourished figure although some signs were sure to show in her face. A moment's thought was given to that before more mud was applied to her jaw line below her ears and a little bit into her cheeks. If those areas were darker then perhaps the lack of lighting would make her face appear thinner. Content with her attempts at disguise although she couldn't see it, she added the finishing touches to it by adding dirt to her cloak and to her scarf, wrapping the latter piece of fabric over her head and tying it loosely at her throat.

Rather than heading straight home the blonde set off on a rambling circuit, passing through areas that were more out of her way in her attempt to test her disguise. As she had when she visited the Castle Commons she made an effort to disguise her walk, short slow steps without any swing to her hips. It took a lot of concentration to do it and so she kept her eyes downwards, brow slightly creased with the effort of maintaining her measured gait. There were no wolf whistles or calls and jeers aimed her way as she passed men in the streets but she assumed that the low lighting contributed to her disguise; she was uninteresting. She even risked walking by a lesser tavern, some small one that didn't do as good business as the Drunken Fish or the Pig's Foot before taking a jaunt down some side alleys with the intention of looping back around and making her way home.

It was as she entered one side street that she got the fright of her life and had to dart back around a corner to remain hidden. She peered around the corner, curious to see what was going on. Two men had collided in the street that she'd just stepped into and while the meeting could have been about anything she chose to hang back and observe what took place. Perhaps she'd learn some new bit of information. It wasn't wise to walk by such a pair though on the off chance that she became a witness to something that she shouldn't and had to be silenced.

One of the men had something about him that marked him as familiar to Caela although she couldn't tell what. Light glanced off pale skin and pale blonde hair, an unusual and striking appearance although she couldn't place it. There wasn't much of a chance to get a good look at the individual as within a few ticks he had pounced on the other man, dropping to the ground on top of him as the dancer looked on wild eyed. This was no simple disagreement that had led to a fight or even a simple mugging as the blonde individual began pummeling the man beneath him. Fists slammed into his victim's face with a ferocity that soon had the slap of meat turning to the crunch of bone. Blood splattered from the man's face staining his attacker's face with flecks of blood and coating his knuckles in the red substance. A dark stain began to spread from under his head and the young woman was certain that the man must now be dead. He had to be.

This was just the sort of thing that was bad to see in Sunberth. Seeing murder meant that it was likely to be treated like the poor victim you'd seen. The blonde knew that she had to get out of there and fast before that monster caught sight of her peering around the corner at him and decided that his bloodlust was not yet sated. She spun - too fast - and crashed into the wall beside her in a wave of dizziness, a moan escaping her before she could remember to contain it. The world around her spun dangerously and a hand was rested against the wall in an effort to steady her before she tottered a few shaky steps away from the scene of the murder that she'd just witnessed.

OOCTad bit of overkill (ha ha I'm so funny) but I hope that it'll allow Thannis to discover Caela.
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[Thannis Daraktheon]

He never quite chose when his wits came back to him. Oftentimes he reckoned it was after he had full sated the Urge but sometimes it appeared more as if he returned to himself when the Beast grew tired. It wasn't a phyiscal tiring but more of a sort like it grew bored. He had only rarely found himself able to fight his way back to reality. Fighting it was definitely the longer and harder way to get the job done. Of course the Beast was no make up of Uldr's. The Urge was the compulsion to drink blood.The Beast was the means. The Beast was his means.

The Beast wasn't a totally enraged thing. It might have followed it's compulsions and had a problem with knowing when to say when but it was aware. It did have self interest. So when there was a faint moan by a nearby corner it froze. Like it's namesake it sat totally rigid, totally silent all senses perked for follow ups in the sound. Unlike anything else he had seen of the Beast it was prascticing caution. Like the wolf who heard a twig snap in the forest it's head rose quietly and it's eyes scanned the darkness. His nose sniffed the air as if hoping to catch some foreign scent. Unlike the wolf however Thannis had little in the ways of pwerful smelling. Like many a human the Beast would have to rely on sight and sound primarily.

Then it heard the footstep. It was so soft only someone really paying attention could have heard it. The beast leapt forward up and off it's most recent kill. It ran on ligt feet but the crunshing of dirt underfoot was unmistakeable. It's quarry would know that death came for it. Luckily for it the distance between where it had heard the noise and it was rapidly closing. With little to no fear it leapt around the corner for what it hoped to be it's first view of it's quarry.

But where was Thannis? His body saw and smelled and ran but he was nowhere to be found. Did he even know what was going on? The answer was yes. He was not possessed. No magical force had taken his mind. While a brief answer is simple the long answer would probably take someone much more knowledgeable in the ways of the mind to explain than I. The simple truth is Thannis was now monster and man. The monster inside and the man existed together in chaos and hatred. Disequilbirum haunted him and until both sides of him reconciled he would find no true control over either. It was for this reason Thannis had come tonight. To kill as a man to know what it was to be man and monster. Perhaps he was truly about to find out...

OOCEverything below this point was edited in later.

The Beast turned the corner. It's eyes alighted instantly onto it's prey. It's prey whom was turned away and seemed ready to make a swift departure. The beast leapt forward arms outstretched to catch it's prey by the back of the head. It's fingers felt material and closed in but it didn't have a solid enough grip. All this caused to happen was for the hood to fall down and slide out of it's grasp. It revealed dirty blonde hair and an equally dirt strewn neck. More easy prey.

And that would have been that had it not been a perfect, cloudless night. A half moon's silvery light illuminated ears too clean for that hair. A visible line where the muck stopped and this time it was Thannis who lunged grabbing the slim frame by the shoulders and spinning it around. As he looked fully upon her face the Beast up and went back to sleep and Thannis returned to lucidity.

“Caela!” Thannis gasped recognising the undisguised part of her face. “Caela? What are you..?” He started to ask but his memory got the better of him. Everything he'd done was coming back to him and he realised how much Caela had seen. He still had his hand on her shoulder. What had, at first, been a firm grip hardened involuntarily. His face grew dark. “What... What did you see?” He asked in a panicked voice. He knew the answer but he didn't want to believe it to be true.

OOCIf I went a bit overboard and godmodded too much with the grabbing and the turning just PM me and I'll take it out.

Credit to Skerry

[Caela Dorin]

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Hurried footsteps coming from around the corner somehow made getting away slower. Her legs began to cave under the pressure of each step and she had to use the wall for support as she struggled to place one foot in front of the other. She didn't get very far and she doubted that she could have managed to escape even if she could have run away faster. The man was upon her too quickly for her to do anything. The idea of turning to fight him didn't have a chance to take hold in her mind before he was grabbing for her, fingers scrabbling at her head.

A shriek came from the dancer and she found new strength. Jolting forward a step the man only succeeded in pulling down the coverings on her head, coverings that didn't remain in his grasp thanks to her evasive movement. It didn't bring her very far and she was soon within his clutches. There was no escaping him this time, no way that she could struggle free of those strong hands as they gripped her and turned her and forced her to look at him. The dancer didn't want to die! She didn't want her body to be found bloody in some alleyway where the rats could eat her and nobody would even care that she was gone. There was no one who cared about her and so she was going to be killed at the hands of another, unloved and uncared for.

Her name was the last thing that she'd expected to hear and she could only stare at the man uncomprehendingly. He knew her name. That was her name. How did he know her name? His face was clearly visible now and again it seemed familiar to her, more familiar than it had been from a distance. Together with the voice she knew him. The name came to her lips but speaking seemed to have reached a whole new level of difficulty. Again she tried, forcing the name from her mouth as reluctant as it was to come.

"Thannis?" It came out as a little croak, hardly audible as her lips barely moved. Knowing that it was him made things worse, the blonde not wanting to understand. The young woman shook her head, waves of dizziness her only reward as she tried to look at him straight again. It wasn't working too well, the man's image moving grotesquely in front of her. The hard grip of his hands upon her shoulders brought some of her slipping awareness back, enough to make her turn her head to look at his hands. Stained knuckles, scent of iron in her nostrils. Too much. It made her feel sick and somehow dizzier but his question reached her.

"I saw," the blonde mumbled. Her legs were becoming too heavy and wobbly beneath her, the sound of her own breathing muffled, vision becoming tunnelled. Her senses worsened, the heaviness of her body too much for her to support anymore. It went limp taking her consciousness with it as she fell into a faint.
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[Thannis Daraktheon]

She seemed utterly stunned. For some moments she could not even speak. Thannis wasn't breathing. You could say his whole body had tensed completely still in the wait for that one admission he never wanted to hear from Caela's mouth. She spoke his name. She did recognise him. He hadn't been expecting her not to recognise him. He wasn't in any guise. This was he, as he was, with blood flecks on his face.

She seemed panicked, confused, disoriented. She looked at the hands that kept her in place. Thannis' grip slackened and finally she spoke those two earth shattering words and, as if the realisation in itself were too much for her, she fainted. Thannis bent down quickly and caught her. The way he caught her reminded him almost like a flourish at the end of a dance. He didn't move from where he caught her. He stayed kneeled looking down at her unconscious face. Peaceful. She had been so shocked but a moment before but now peace had taken her. He was envious. The undead got no rest. Every waking moment of the day was just another moment to obsess over the next feed. Life continued on and on in an endless loop. No matter how long you stopped it just continued to go. There was no rest for the wicked.

Thannis could keep her up with one arm so he used the other to wipe his face. At first in frustration and then, when he noticed the blood, to wipe the blood off of his face. He couldn't remember when he had pocketed his knuckledusters but they were no longer in his hands and couldn't have been in his hands for a while otherwise he wouldn't have been able to pull down Caela's hood or grab her shoulder effectively.

He looked down at the lady in his arms again and despite everything he wanted to just drop her and run. Running hadn't worked the first time. Here he was, back again, and killing people even more than he used to. He'd ran away to prevent hurting others. He'd ran away to prevent hurting Caela. Even as he looked at her now something deep inside was telling him to sing his teeth into her neck. He wasn't even hungry. He'd eaten a lot recently. The whole point of this night had been to knowingly kill. To kill with conscious thought but the panic of losing the man had sent his nerves into overdrive and he'd lost control and almost hurt Caela in the process. Now, at the very least, she was going to wake up and hate him. The worst? Well it could go either way. He could kill Caela right now. He could let Caela walk away from here, round up a mob and hunt him out of the city or perhaps into the slag heap fire. It could ened with both of them dead or worse. There was so much that could, and Thannis couldn't help but think would, happen if he allowed this girl to wake up.

In any case Thannis no longer wanted to hold her. He lay her down against a wall propping her into a kind of sitting position. He stood and visibly sighed. It would be so eay to just run off into the night and hope to never cross her path again. He doubted that could ever be. Caela and Thannis seemed almost destined to meet again and again and again. Somehow he just couldn't shake her. Somehow he didn't want to. Thannis found himself lightly shaking the unconscious girl. “Caela... Caela... Caela!” He repeated a little forcefully each time shaking her more intensely with each level of new found forcefulness.

Credit to Skerry

[Caela Dorin]

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Consciousness returned by slow degrees as if the dancer had just awoken from a long sleep, fatigue still clinging to her. Her body was shaking and there was some sound that was entering her ears without registering. Gradually she became aware that the sound she was hearing was someone calling her name and that her body wasn't shaking but was being shook by someone. The rest of her awareness came back by slow degrees. She was sitting on something rough and cool, her back pressed against a surface that was sending a damp chill into her. The young woman groaned, shifting slightly to try to escape the unpleasant sensation, eyes fluttering open. Hands tried to bat away whoever was shaking her, the movement blind and poorly coordinated and failing to make contact with anything except air.

Caela leaned away from the annoying shaking, her body somehow sliding sideways and downwards. She caught herself with her hands, one pressing against the ground, the other pressing against the wall. Pain twinged through her right side, her muscle injury aggravated and the sensation brought full use of her senses back to her. Where was she? Who had been shaking her? Eyes fell on the man beside her as she tried to survey her dim surroundings, the man's pale looks bringing the recognition that they'd brought before. It was Thannis. Once that clicked in her mind, everything else did too.

She was in some alleyway that wasn't near her room at all. She'd seen Thannis kill someone. He'd come around the corner and grabbed her. The return of those memories was enough to send her into a panic. Her brain didn't try to fill in the blanks, didn't connect that he'd caused her no harm before or after she'd fainted. It didn't seem to register in her mind that he had propped her against the wall because there was no pain to suggest that she'd fallen there and that he'd gone to the effort of trying to revive her. No, all she remembered was the ferocity with which he'd reduced his victim to a bloody pulp.

The blonde tried to scramble away from him, right side protesting fiercely as she dragged herself away from him with her hands. Just enough distance between them for her to get her legs under her and her hands would press and claw at the wall beside her to try to rise. Her legs were still weak and wobbly when she tried to use them. There was no way to gain any purchase and so her attempts were futile, the girl sliding right back down again and clutching at her side as pain lanced through it from her ill planned escape attempt.

"Y-you stay well away from me or I'll..." Her threat went unvoiced because there was nothing that the young woman could do. She couldn't even stand up by herself so there was no way that she could pose any sort of threat towards him. Even if she'd been able to come up with something that might keep him at bay it wouldn't have sounded too threatening with her voice shaking like that. There was no way to get away from him, such a thing would require his help given the state that she was in and that would be somewhat counterproductive so why bothering even trying? If he wanted to kill her then her faith was sealed.

"Are you going to kill me? If you are then make it quick. Please! ...I don't want to die like that," she whispered, voice cracking as she shrank from him in spite of her words. Her body had begun to tremble. Tears formed and cascaded down her cheeks before the terrified sobs began. "Please, Thannis, please! Not like that." Her head was shaken back and forth, the words repeated over and over again like a mantra. The young woman didn't even realise what she was saying, she just sobbed it out and waited helplessly for the end to come.
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[Thannis Daraktheon]

The life slowly returned to her. Her handss faintly protested the shaking so he stopped. She wiggled away from him falling slightlty but she caught herself. Thannis didn't move. He merely watched. He continued to watch as she tried to scramble away from him. He stayed crouched before the wall in the exact same spot as he watched as she tried to rise and fell down again arms clutching her side in pain. He was confused. Had he hurt her like that? He didn't feel like any part of his memory was missing. It all seemed to follow a logical continuity if, on occasion, it seemed to lack some detail.

She threatened him shakily but he could tell she knew she posed none. She seemed hurt. She couldn't even stand. How did she propose to do anything to him? Even if he had been one to fall when struck she had no way that he could see to make such a lethal or incapacitating strike. He didn't like to see her like this though. Her words stung. To simply think that she thought he might hurt her truly stung. What stung all the more was that a part of him, dormant for the time being, wanted to.

She stopped struggling. She looked defiant despite her trembling body and she spoke words Thannis had only ever heard one enemy say to another. The call for death. The surrender to the inevitable. She truly thought that she was about to receive the same treatment as that old man had not fifteen ticks ago. Her defiance didn't really last long though. Tears began to roll down her face. She didn't want to die. Of course she didn't want to die. He hadn't wanted to die either. Uldr hadn't given him the choice of begging though. Uldr had none Thannis had no choice. He had known his answer before he had given it.

But it was not time to ask Caela Uldr's question. It was not time for her to die. He couldn't do it. He couldn't do it even if she would be his downfall. Even if she told everyone and he was killed in a terrible fashion he could not bring himself to harm the woman before him.

“Caela, stop. Just stop. No more death tonight so just stop. Save your tears.” Thannis replied with a tone of voice almost suggestive of annoyance. It was annoyance. He couldn't bare to see her this pathetic any more. “I'm not going to hurt you. I never was. If I had, do you think you would have woken up? How badly are you hurt? Did...” He paused unable, for a moment, to even consider the possibility. “Did I hurt you?”

Credit to Skerry

[Caela Dorin]

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The irritation in his voice startled her. She hadn't expected him to be annoyed by her tears. That wasn't the reaction that he should he had. Was it so strange for her to think that he'd kill her after she'd just seen? He was more than capable of killing her she knew. He'd just beaten a man to death after all so he didn't exactly shirk away from committing murder. She was a witness to his crime so wasn't it feasible that she'd think that he'd want her silenced?

He wasn't going to kill her. That much had sunk in although she wasn't sure if she believed him. It was hard to argue against his words though, even in her own head. If he had wanted to hurt her then he wouldn't have waited for her to wake up. The dancer would have been done away with already. He'd had the opportunity, she'd been an easy victim much to her chagrin. She'd only fainted once before in her life and that had been when she was a child. It wasn't something that a grown woman should do. She'd almost fainted while wearing her corset before but she'd had good reason for that near fainting spell. She'd had good reason this time considering the shock but it hadn't helped in terms of defending herself. Caela was a useless damsel who only seemed good for getting herself into distress. If she'd been in true danger from Thannis then it would have been the end of her. She couldn't get by unless she had someone to rescue her.

The tears were brought to a halt, the blonde drying her face with a section of cloak. Her eyes fixed on him, taking his apparent concern as confirmation of what he'd said. Still she had to hear it aloud again, even if it came from her own lips. "You really aren't going to kill me, are you?" She sighed, allowing her body to relax. Her face was covered with her hands for a few ticks as she resisted the urge to cry with relief this time before she returned her eyes to Thannis. She shook her head in answer of his question. "No, you didn't hurt me. I hurt myself a few days ago. Just a muscle injury."

The young woman regarded him uncertainly for a chime, trying to decide what she should do. It wasn't like they could have much of conversation. What was she supposed to say? Hi, Thannis, long time no see, fancy seeing you here killing someone? Yeah that'd go down well. It had been seasons since she'd seen the man and their acquaintance had been brief. In that time she'd thought that he was a good man, a bit uneasy around her perhaps but she'd thought that she was a good enough judge of character to know that much about him. Clearly she'd been wrong. There had been no obvious provocation for the killing that she could see and so in her eyes it appeared to be cold blooded murder. The dancer would still like to believe that he was a good man in spite of what he'd done but she couldn't see any good reason for him doing it.

A shaky hand was held out to him. "Mind helping me up?" she asked timidly. "I don't want to make this any worse than I already have. Please?" Her gaze was still uncertain as she watched him, eyes searching for something, anything that would confirm or disprove the opinions that she'd formed when they'd last met. Even though this was Sunberth and not everyone was a good person, she still wanted to find the good man in him. She was so sure that it was there.
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[Thannis Daraktheon]

His words seemed to have the required effect. The tears stopped streaming and she attempted to erase her face of them. The next time she spoke she sounded like she believed him but she hung on to the end of her question. He assumed she wanted an answer so he gave her one. “No, Caela, I'm not going to kill you.” He replied firmly staring at her eyes whether or not she looked back into his. Thannis was still crouched perfectly still his keen eyes set on her as if he could pry the thoughts from her head simply by looking hard enough.

“Good.” He replied gruffly. It was a relief to find out that it hadn't been he who had hurt her but[/i[ It did stir up a fair few more wuestions than it answered in itself however. Why had she been prowling the streets of Sunberth in the dead of night with a serious injury like that? You didn't even need to have half of any of the traits he had to have been able to call Caela your prey tonight. Now that he was thinking about things a few other details were called to atrtention from his memory. Why had her neck and lower face been dirty? Her hair was quite dirty too. This wasn't the Caela he had known. She'd been clean and beautiful. Too clean. Too beautiful. She'd stuck out like a sore thumb in Sunberth. A sore thumb she might have been but, to his knowledge, she'd done a lot less sneaking around the city at night while recovering from injuries. “What [i]are you doing out here ronight? The streets are barely safe in the day time.” He wanted to remind her that a foul sort skulked about the streets at night but he didn't really want to call attention the fact that he fell into that category. "You could have gotten yourself killed." He added with genuine worry.

He was surprised at what she asked next.. He hadn't expected her to be able to put her trust in him again this quickly. After all helping her up would have been the perfect time to strike if he had a mind too and he was sure, from the weary way she looked at him, that she knew this too. He rose moving for the first time since he had stopped shaking her. He took the hand she offere him and hoisted her up easily. “Can you stand on your own?” He asked reluctant to let go of her unless he was sure she wouldn't just collapse again.

Credit to Skerry

[Caela Dorin]

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To hear that confirmation from him was enough to put her at ease. It could have been a lie but to hear it aloud somehow made it seem more true to her. It wasn't just something that had sprung into her head but Thannis seemed to think it too. It made her want to laugh, nervous energy bubbling within her now that she was going to live. She hadn't wanted to die but she'd seen it as inevitable. Now the threat was gone, no longer hanging over her head and it left her feeling light headed.

Don't go fainting again now, she warned herself half-heartedly. There would be no more collapsing like a pitiable damsel in a story for her. The urge to laugh continued to squirm within her, finally breaking forth during the man's line of questions. It was a high sound, almost approaching hysterical although there was no need for such wildness now. It was brief, a mere spurt sound that ended as abruptly as it had begun. Caela wasn't even sure what had driven her over the edge. Obviously her emotions weren't exactly stable but that wasn't the whole reason. Oh that was it! It was because he'd chastised her like a parent did with a child. It was funny for him to adopt such a fatherly tone after what had so nearly happened.

One tick he's gonna kill you, the next he's worried that you might have gotten yourself killed. The manic laughter came again in another short burst. Who was she kidding, she was a little hysterical.

"I normally get on just fine during the day. It's not dangerous, not really. I know what is dangerous and what isn't you know. I have lived here my whole life. I know what monsters are on my doorstep," she commented, a nervous giggle escaping. The dancer hadn't really known what monsters were on her doorstep, she hadn't known about Thannis, had she? Not that he was actually a monster, just a person with some monstrous qualities apparently.


His question concerning why she'd been out went unanswered. She didn't completely know why, it had been for no real reason at all, stupid reasons. It had been the drink, too much drink although she wasn't drunk. She wasn't even tipsy but she'd had enough to make her brave and foolishly so. Oh so foolish. Even now she was delivering herself straight into the hands of someone who could so easily murder her and leave her body in this dark alley. How easy it would be for him to beat her face in and leave her unrecognisable. Faceless. No one. It made her shudder, her body growing cold.

The hand grasped in his began to tremble, the jitter becoming more violent as he continued to hold her even after he'd pulled her up with such ease. It had been like the blonde was a feather picked up in the wind, hardly a challenge to move. He was strong, she already knew that but had forgotten. The way he had lifted things down at the Docks without the weight of it fazing him, the force behind each strike that had slammed into the man's face, which had been so bone crackingly audible. He could probably kill her with one stroke if he chose but he hadn't, he wouldn't.

"I can stand just fine, Thannis. I was having trouble before, I'd only just fainted you know. I won't be doing that again in a hurry. I don't make a habit of it or anything," the young woman explained, trying to extricate her hand from his grasp. It was nowhere near enough force to wrench her hand free, only enough of a movement to let him know that she wanted to be released. "You don't need to hold onto me. I can manage," she added, in case he needed a verbal signal to get the message. "Why are you so worried anyway? What am I to you?" Her tone was one of curiosity rather than derision. She merely wanted to know, to understand because she had no idea why he should care. It wasn't like she was important to him or anything. They were acquaintances and had not known each other that well in the first place.
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