Closed [Docks] A Hungry Wolf, is a Bad Wolf [Miro]

[Redd]

Her master handed her the meat that had been wrapped in paper by the storekeeper and she blinked, looking at it within her hands. Why did they wrap it in paper? She silently questioned before her master began to speak, he had even used her name. Trust, respect and love? She could actually earn these? A small flicker of hope flourished before she squashed it Chances were, she wouldn’t be around long enough before he either chased her off or left her behind. The young wolf kept her gaze down turned as her hazel hues traced over the plain paper that was wrapped around the meat. She took special took note of the creases in the paper and she pressed her lips together. Those three were hard to gain, that much she did know, for she had killed a wolf brother for her last master and he still made her wear a collar. She hadn’t had love before, her own mother hadn’t loved her, the pack of wolves cared for her, but they did not love her. Vayl… She did not understand him, he was… Difficult to understand and Elias? He had left, but he had cared about her for some time… but she must have disappointed him somehow and left her to starve.

If she could gain her new master’s trust and respect, that was all that mattered, but she had given up on someone being able to love her a long time ago. Especially after she had lost the pack that she had considered family. She was a lone wolf and she just couldn’t see anyone ever finding out that they loved her. It was mostly impossible, just like finding a home, for there was no such thing for her. Her stomach growled even louder and she bit her bottom lip before she gave a small nod in response to her master. However, she did have questions, such as training. What training would she have to do? Did she have to work at her reading and writing again? She hadn’t gone out of her way of learning it ever since her master had disappeared on her, but she did attempt to read things whenever it caught her eye or appeared interesting. However, her hunger had been her main worry, so attempting to read had fallen to the back of her mind, until now.

”Mi… Master Miro… If I may ask, what training would you need me to complete? Would you want me to learn reading and writing? My… previous master was sort of teaching me until he… left me.” Her left hand let go of the meat, but it was still firmly grasped in her right and she pressed her fingers to her neck, wincing slightly at the bruised skin. Her safety had never really been a priority of hers, if she had to take a few risks in order to survive then she would, even if it meant that she became injured. The only time that she had to do that, was when she had been starving as a young pup or even on the day that the wolf pack had rejected her. It was also the day that she had led the pack away from a poison crafter that lived within Ravok and she had barely managed to escape. In fact, she probably would have died from her wounds sustained from that day if she hadn’t of crossed paths with Vayl, the difficult to understand one. She drew in a deep breath, feeling the oxygen expand her lungs before she slowly let it go, lifting her gaze so then her hazel gaze could peer up into her mater’s face, ”If I may say so Master… My… safety, has never been a priority before. I do not want to become a burden now.”

[Miro]

Miro had asked himself the same question his slave inquired of. What exactly would be her training? He had said it only as a pretense for Hypnotism. Though, of course, in that Hypnotism duties would be instilled. The goals that the slave was meant for. As a wolf Kelvic, this should be simple. A guardian, hunter, tracker, maybe even a spy. But it was not quite so easy. Only Redd knew what she had an aptitude for.

The wizard firmed his tone a bit, a subtle sign of his defensiveness on the topic. "Well, your training, it is hard to explain. You are a wolf. You are not meant to read and write, but you are certainly free to learn, if it suits you. However, you are a valuable asset to me, so your safety is your highest priority. You must take care of yourself, as well as your duties."

It was no way he could explain what actually the training was, not without puzzling and alarming the Kelvic. To explain expectations was much more simple. "I can not be sure what you are best suited to do for me. Maybe it is hunting, as you enjoy it. Maybe it is protecting things. Maybe it is to simply be my companion." As if the Chained One would ever pay to keep a slave alive merely for companionship.

"What I do know is that you will need to understand the rules. Understand how to keep me happy and perform as you are expected. There are things you must do, and there are things you must not do. Things you must understand. The training is simple, as long as you listen. I can not explain it any better than that. You will see, and you needn't worry. Not anymore. I will always take care of you"

Miro focused his Djed to his hand and gently petted the slave's crimson locks. He impressed his hypnotic influence over her and inspired strong emotions of trust and comfort. "Now, you have your food, so let us go home." The proud undead limped his way back to the streets and hailed a Ravosala. Directions to the Foundation were given, and soon the master and slave would arrive at their home.

[Redd]

Redd most certainly picked up the hardened tone that her Master was suddenly using and she glanced down once more, her gaze falling to view the package in her right hand, her left hand soon joining her right. The moment that it had, she saw the half black sun, tattooed upon the back of her hand. Drawing in a deep breath, she bit down upon her response and simply nodded her head. The young wolf most certainly did not feel like a valuable asset, in fact, she had always felt that she was flawed. No matter what she did for people, she always seem to disappoint them. Even her kelvic nature seemed to disappoint people, especially when she had been chased off. She had been chased off more times than she could remember, for being a wolf kelvic. The woman continued to listen to him in silence as he spoke and she nodded her head once again. All she had to do was listen and find out as to what she could or could not do, find out what she had to do for him. Suddenly, she felt a hand upon her head and she lifted her chin just slightly to feel that hand upon her head a little longer.

Home… There is no such thing for me... She silently thought as her gaze followed her Master’s slow movements out of the shop and she soon followed. How long will it last for me this time? Three seasons? A year? Four years? She just simply did not really know for it was all uncertainty for her. However, as she followed close behind Miro, her stomach grumbled, constantly reminding her that she was hungry. Not only that, but it was tempting to just simply rip the paper off of the meat and eat it right there in the street. All she knew, was that she had to trust that Miro knew what he was doing, that this was for the best. She was comforted by the fact that he had said that she did not need to worry, at least, not anymore. Miro would take care of her. This thought continued with her even onto the ravosala. The young wolf hadn’t been sure whether he wanted her close or not, so she sat on the opposite bench, facing her master instead. Although her thoughts were not far from the food that she was holding and how fast that she would descend upon it once she was free to eat it.

Finally, they arrived at what appeared to be her Master’s home and she blinked as her gaze noted the high walls when she slowly stepped out of the ravosala behind her master. Redd continued forwards, making sure to stay behind Miro so then not to step into territory that she should not. The moment that they entered the courtyard, she had to stop in her movements, her hazel gaze taking in the gravel path and the small space. Although it was small in comparison to the space that she was used to in the wilds, she had come to realize that it was a little bigger than what she was used to living in Ravok. A room was what she had been used to, a simple small room with a bed and a desk. Her gaze fell upon the benches in the middle of the courtyard and she angled her head slightly to the right. Did the humans actually stop to just simply sit in a space such as this? Did Master Miro have that many people stop around to his home? The young wolf hoped that he had a desk of some kind, one that she could crawl under to sleep. For she had found out that a desk kind of mimicked the feel of being inside of a cave, it made her feel safe to a degree. ”Master Miro… This is where you live?”

[Miro]

Miro paid his due to the Ravosalaman before entering his pitiful courtyard. It was hardly what he had in mind, being all gravel and no plants, but such a thing was to be expected in Ravok. It was something that could use improvement, but it was hardly a priority. Right now his only concern was that of his newly acquired slave. She needed to be trained, and then he could get back to the other issues that pressed him.

Redd's comment upon seeing the building amused the wizard. He gave a hearty chuckle and began to tread the path. His voice rang out with the most subtle hints of cheeriness as he corrected his slave. "No, Redd, this is where we live." He waved her forth to walk alongside him. "Come, let me introduce you to Arienette. She will be a great friend to you. Your family from now on."

As soon as the door to the shop opened, Arienette perked up in her seat. She oft let her poise slip up when none were present, though she knew such things were cause for chastisement. Despite having her sullen trance broken, she was quite happy to see her master. "Oh, Miro, welcome back!" The girl held a surprised look on her face as she saw Redd. "And who is this?"

The busy wizard waved his hand dismissively at his assistant, but made sure to make a small speech as he limped across the room. "This is Redd, I rescued her and ensuring her safety by making her my slave. She will be living here with us from now on." Finally he reached the door at the other end of the room and held it open for his companion. "Please, Redd, make yourself comfortable."

Inside was the office. It was where he performed his Hypnotherapy and most all meetings he had with clients. It was a small room compared to the others, yet still seemed spacious. Miro could feel the room heavily drenched in Djed, an atmosphere created from his power. It excited him to exert his dominance. The pale walls and darkness of the room were meant to have the opposite effect.

All in all the room was quite inviting however. The main display of the room, two simple pieces of fine furniture. An arm chair, which the undead took almost immediately, and a very comfortable couch. The Hypnotist, now on his throne of domination, began to expend his Djed to enhance his aura of influence. He gestured towards the couch, a suggestion that she should sit upon it, that it would be very comfortable.

"Your training begins now. Redd, you are now home, but everyone must contribute to the household. We earn our keep here. You are a hard working sort, I can tell. Very loyal, respectful, receptive to orders. I have no doubt that I can rely on you. But for what, I still do not know. However there are things you still do not know about me. I can change your life in ways you could not imagine."

The Chained One grinned. He had a few ideas, things he could do. But really what he wanted was to understand the Kelvic. He wanted to better grasp where her talents were. Miro stared hard at Redd, with all of his focus and Djed centered on her. The undead began to take rhythmic breaths and bring absolute clarity to his mind.

Yes, in this place his magic was strong. To a master Hypnotist, controlling the mind was quite simple. To have influence was only a matter of Djed, but to bright forth understanding and enlightenment, that was something else entirely. It required understanding. And that was something not easily found with such a magic. Instead the wizard turned elsewhere for such insight. To the discipline of Auristics.

Miro began to utilize his powerful hypnotic aura to fill the room with emotion. Powerful feelings of calmness, safety and content would flood outward and fill the room. The Aurist shifted his focus entirely upon the slave's aura and cleared his mind of all but the influences it would have on him. Every aura was different, but the impact it seemed to have on him was usually quite similar.

First came the sensory triggers, the lights, sounds and feels of the aura. The wizard had learned to not be overwhelmed by this, but to try to understand what it all meant. The physical appearance of the aura was, not so surprisingly, quite red in appearance. It seemed to emanate an almost howling noise as it fluttered about, but as he listened harder, he could swear to hear a pitiful whimper. The scent of filth and pain of hunger flashed through his mind and body, but only for a moment.

To take it all in at once was taxing on the mind, to say the least. The Djed heavy environment threatened to blind his sight if he were to let his attention drift. He could feel the charged atmosphere all around him, but did not let it hinder his plight. He continued to struggle to gain a steady focus on the aura enough that he might further his interaction and observation both. It was no easy task, but he was getting the hang of it.

"I first want to hear if any of these appeal to you, and then I will want to hear what you think you could do for me. Kind of like a game, one that helps me understand you. It is simple, I will just give you a few options, and you just tell me which you like best. You should explain why you chose each option, even if you just felt like it. Okay? Ready to begin?"

Miro folded his legs and pressed his hand to his chin as he rested his elbow on the arm of his chair. "Assume that we are in our home, but there is danger. It is your job to protect me. Where would you rather confront the threat? Would you rather be in between the threat and your master, ensure they have to kill you to get to me? Rather be at my side, fight in unity against our foes? Or would you prefer to let them encounter me, and then to use guile and surprise to flank them?"

It was a simple enough question, and he hoped it did well to demonstrate the point of this game. All the while his use of Auristics to grant him access to her emotional state and to watch the changes in her aura. Though just as important were the actual answers to the questions poised. It was a curious technique to obtain information on a target, but expected to learn quite a bit from it. He readied his next scenario.

"Okay, now imagine I have lost something, I need it, but it is easily acquired. I ask your assistance in replacing it. Which are you more likely to do? Find the lost item, even though it could be time consuming and pointless. Ask for a bit of money, knowing it is cheap, and there is a store not far from here. Assign another slave to do it, knowing it is a simple job beneath you and they are more than capable of it."

Again he listened to the response and observed the aura. He was starting to like this method of questioning. It allowed only very limited responses, not all options ideal, and caused the target to settle on the best option for them. And when there was a hidden measurement behind each question, it allowed him to better place this slave. For each additional question he observed carefully and gained a bit more insight.

To understand how she could provide money. "We are low on money, and I need some immediately. How do you obtain it? Do an odd job at the Spot, though you would require some assistance. Steal it from people, though you could be put at risk. Or would you try to find a job, work for the city providing a skill you do possess."

Insight into her weaknesses. "You just bit me. What is the most likely reason you did so? I had scolded you excessively, you felt I was wrong, you were angry. I gave you a crazy order, tried to force you, you were overwhelmed with fear. I tried to take your food from you, you were starving, you are selfish."

And last of all, he learned of her corruption. "You seek a power to better serve your master. In which way do you choose to obtain it? From the gods, for you will dedicate your being to them to obtain a greater power. Through magic granted from a wizard, though you can not control the power and it will be your eventual demise. By learning things, knowledge to be more useful, secrets to hold over people, information to offer to your master."

[Redd]

Redd hadn’t been expected to be corrected, in fact she hadn’t expected to have even amused her new master by asking one simple question. She listened to him as he walked forth towards a door and she pondered about this woman named Arienette. She would be a friend? Family even? Was it possible for Redd to even have family anymore? As they entered the store, they were met by a woman who seemed more than happy to greet their master and she angled her head slightly to the right before she stopped just in the doorway. Her gaze followed her master as he limped across the room, giving a small speech to this woman that must be the one called Arienette. Her hazel gaze looked back at the woman and offered a small smile before she quickly followed after their master, her steps quick in this task so then by the time that Miro asked her to be comfortable within the room, she had arrived at his side. However, she hesitated, only for a brief moment as she gripped the meat in her hands tightly and stepped into the room, stepping to one side so then her master could still enter the room after her.

It was a strange room, basically empty except for a couch and an armchair, but it was also dark in a way and she liked it when rooms were dark, it gave her comfort. She watched the door close behind them and Miro take a seat in the arm chair, indicating that she should sit on the couch. The young wolf gripped the meat closer to her form and crossed the floor to the couch, slowly seating herself down onto it. The moment that she had, her master began to speak and her gaze snapped to his masked face. He could change her life? How could he? She was sitting in a room, her stomach grumbling while holding meat and she had to start training right away? If resisting food was her training, then she had a feeling that she was going to be starved. She would have panicked at that thought if she didn’t feel increasingly calm about it. He was now her master after all, so she just had to trust that he would do what was best for her. Then he spoke about playing a game and she blinked for a moment before she nodded her head. A game seemed alright.

He spoke of a scenario and she angled her head a little, listening to his words before she pondered her answer. Was there a right or wrong answer? She asked herself before she began to answer his question, hesitant at first for she didn’t want to say anything wrong. At least, not yet. ”I would…” She paused for a moment before nodding her head and continuing, ”I would stand in between my master and the threat. I would protect my master until my last dying breath.” The only situation that had been similar to this scenario was when she had protected her last master from a couple of wolves, wolves she had once called family and she had even killed one to protect him. To ensure his safety. The young wolf didn’t exactly know how the other two wolves had fared from having been distracted by a caravan of people, she just knew that she had killed a brother only to be starved. She turned her gaze to view the meat that she had settled into her lap, a hand rested over the top of it as she waited for the next question.

She angled her head to the side when he asked another question and she pressed her lips together, thinking about the question, but instead of just giving an answer, she also voiced her thoughts about it. ”I would find the lost item even though it is time consuming. Mostly because I know that even if I lost my scarf, I would look for it because it has value to me.” She wasn’t sure whether she should add anything else so she fell silent so then she could listen to his next question, which was mostly about something that she knew nothing about. Money, she had had a brief lesson of it and knew that it was valuable to the humans, she also knew that people exchanged it for items, but how would she make it? She lightly bit down upon her bottom lip before she chose one of the options, seeing as it might be the place that she would go to. ”I... I don't know much about money, I know that it is valuable to the humans, but I guess I would get an odd job from The Spot.” The next question almost came straight after she had answered and it was a question that she had to really think about. Considering that she had never really bitten anyone, she wasn’t exactly sure as to why she would bite him. Her gaze flickered back to view the meat. Why would she bite her master?

Thoughts swirled within her head and then she just decided to voice them, to give him a possible answer. ”I… Don’t know why I would bite you, Master, but the only possible reason that I can see that if I did bite you, is that it would be out of self-defense, I wouldn’t bite you unless your attack was unjustified.” She nodded her head as if she was trying to push her point home, to make sure that he knew that that would be the only reason. It was true, she wouldn’t bite him unless he didn’t reason his actions. His next question was a little odd and she didn’t fully understand a couple of the options. For she only knew about Rhysol, the god that Ravok revered, but now she had a question of her own, one that she didn’t voice. There was more than one god? As for the magic option, she simply shook her head at it. Redd just couldn’t see herself using something so unfamiliar and so unknown to her, for the unknown was dangerous. However, she could see herself doing the last option. ”I would seek to better serve you by learning things, such as knowledge that you could use, listen to secrets that you could hold over them and gain information for your general use, Master.”

Word Count1069

[Nemesis]

Miro

Skills	*	*
Skill 1	*	+??
Skill 2	*	+??
Skill 3	*	+??

Lores

* Lore 1

* Lore 2

* Lore 3

*
*
Consequences, Injuries, Expenses, and More!

• ??
• ???

Redd

Skills	*	*
Investigation	*	+2
Larceny	*	+1
Observation	*	+4
Socialisation	*	+1
Stealth	*	+1
Unarmed Combat	*	+1
*	*	*

Lores

*Arienette: Miro’s Slave

*Miro: Masked Man

*Miro: New Master

*

*

*

*

*
*
Consequences, Injuries, Expenses, and More!

• None

__________

• Nice to see the beginning of this relationship… shame it had to end; it had real promise…