PM to join A Case of Mistaken Identity - Pt Two

[Redd]

Redd listened to the man speak common, but his speech was rather broken. The stranger introduced himself as Erikal and then began to speak about the birds and other animals before he left. Slowly, the young kelvic angled her head to view the surroundings that were beginning to darken as the day went on. The snow fall continued to lightly fall uninterrupted. It must be nice to be a snow cloud, she thought as she looked over her shoulder at the retreating back of the man that had once tried to kill her. At least their plans don’t get interrupted like mine do, she continued on as a sigh simply fell upon her lips. What had she gotten herself into? The young wolf took a moment to ponder upon the questions that began to circulate within and she remained quiet, at least that was until he returned and made a fire. Then he asked if she wanted to eat some of the meat that he had begun to cook.

In the wilds, one got used to eating the dead. When she was a simple pup, corpses were sometimes all that she had to eat; what little left there was after the other animals had gotten to it. Berries had even became sustenance for her when she was desperate enough. So, she simply nodded her head, for eating the meat from a dead wolf didn’t faze her. If she and the human didn’t, then some other scavenger was. Then came another question, what was she? It was a question that made her blink for a moment and she angled her head to the right. Hadn’t he ever seen others like herself? “I’m a kelvic, a wolf one. There are many like me, although some can change into other animals. Like…” She drew her gaze away from the man and moved to seat herself down by the fire, where her hazel gaze fell upon the man’s beast. “Like some kelvics can change into horses.”

The naked woman clapped her hands together then and turned to face the man once more, “Now it’s my turn to ask questions.” She nodded her head at the end of this, almost as if it were fact. When in reality, she wasn’t very sure. Normally, she was just simply used to answering questions, not asking them. “How do you know that your horse likes me? I’m a wolf, all horses hate me.” The young wolf continued on, almost as if there was no end in sight. “Who is Caiyha? Why did you think that I was Caiyha? Why do a lot of you own horses? How do you communicate with your horse when he doesn’t speak your language? Why do you not know about kelvics? How do you owe me?” Indeed, she was extremely curious about the man before her, especially about what he said and did.

Curiousity was a powerful thing with the wolf. In fact, she had driven her first master mad with the amount of questions that she had asked him. Many he answered, except for when it came to his magic with water. To this day, she still did not understand it, she didn’t even understand much of what she saw in Sahova either. For she had just been a slave to them and nothing more, so they barely acknowledges her, unless they wanted her to move or get out of the way. The young kelvic angled her head to the right for a moment as her hazel hue continued to simply watch his every move. “Can you teach me your strange language?” It was something that she had been thinking about ever since she had gotten to Endrykas. She hated not being able to communicate properly, for if she was going to be around for a while, shouldn’t she at least learn their ways?

[Erikal]

The flames licked at the wolf-meat, crisping the outer layer and causing the fat to sizzle before dripping off into the coals. Erikal sampled a piece, impaling it on his knife and gnawing at it. A groan of satisfaction emitted from the man, a smile curling his mouth. The Drykas put his piece down and sharpened the end of a stick to jab into another piece of cooked meat. That he extended to Redd. He watched her until she took a bite to gauge her own opinion of the taste.

Of course, many people, including Drykas people, were not so fond of dog meat as it was gamey in flavor. But Erikal did not mind it so much. And it was a foolish thing to eat nothing simply because one had not acquired a taste for the food. Food was food. His Uncle used to have a saying to the pavilion: "If you have the option to eat or starve, always eat, for that choice may be your last." Those were words Erikal had taken to heart and practiced. The mere thought of hunters being wasteful of Caiyha's blessings made him angry, in fact.

Either way, he grinned at One-eye and patted her playfully on the back. Erikal leaned back against his pack that now served as a cushion, returning to eating the abundant meat. He spared a glance over his shoulder for Korvas. The strider stood sentinel several feet away, large brown eyes reflecting the flickering fire. Erikal smiled to himself, chewing the meat. It always made him feel better to know Korvas was well. The bond they shared went beyond words. If he ever lost the proud beast, Erikal sometimes wondered if his mind would survive. If his mind would simply be filled with dark thoughts and he would do something suicidal simply to join the horse's spirit so that they could ride together again, even if it not be among the living.

Erikal shook free of those dark thoughts. He should be happy. He had survived one of the strangest days he had ever known. Had made a new friend and the hunt had ultimately been a success. It also brightened his mood to hear the sudden outburst of curiosity come from One-eye - Redd. She explained to him that she belonged to a race known as Kelvics. Her people were not a complete mystery to him. He had heard tales of them.

Erikal tossed a fatty part of his meat into the brush and replaced it with another. Upon leaning back, he peered over at Redd. As he ate, his brow furrowed in thought. It was a difficult thing to express himself in the common-speak. He felt like a hunter without a spear. Still, he attempted to offer her some answers. "I hear of..you kind. Not around much," he said with nod and smile, tossing another fatty knot of meat, but at her this time accompanied with a teasing grin.

In reaction to her next question he simply stared at her blankly a moment. Then he snapped his fingers in sudden understanding. "Ah owe. You not, " he paused and ran a greasy finger across his throat to emphasize what he meant through actions instead of words. Erikal smiled, nodding encouragingly when she got the drift. "Maybe if....I you, Erikal no more," he admitted with a sad expression painted across his features that was overdone a bit for theatrics, hoping to snare a laugh out of the mysterious scarred woman. The Drykas patted her shoulder and took her hand and kissed it with a fierce squeeze of his hand. "I thank you...for that. You have strong heart," he said soberly without his usual humorous antics.

With that, Erikal resumed his seat, and continued eating. Promptly chuckling at her endless stream of questions. He raised his palm to her to slow down with eyes widened. The words did not come to him as easily as her, so he had to sit and ponder it for a bit. "Okay easy one, first. Caiyha is goddess of all," he said and extended his arms out wide to encompass everyhing around them. "The place and all things ...in it. Horse, grass, rock. All Caiyha."

Erikal found her statement about horses hating her extremely funny for he laughed and slapped his leg with a thoughtful look behind him at Korvas. For his part, the strider gave a snort as if on cue. This made Erikal chuckle all the harder. When he could once again speak without cracking up, he said, "It was joke. Korvas no like you. He say you smell bad." He presented her a lopsided grin not meant to be taken seriously. "It is Drykas way," he answered simply. As to her inquiry about how a horse could understand him: "They not stupid animal. Smart. We know without words." Not knowing if that made sense in her language. But he was lacking eloquent words to better define it. He wanted to say it was a mixture of the horses being trained at a very early age to understand various commands and another part of it having to do with the bond they shared.

He noticed after finishing another hunk of meat that One-eye was very inquisitive. Her single hazel eye following him as he went about his work; adding some green foliage he had found to the fire in order to smoke the meat that remained to make it last. The wolf hides rested a few feet away, on the ground. Erikal would take them back to the Spit Fire to tan them. Perhaps he would earn some coin if they turned out well. Or offer them to the pavilion as a gift.

Redd's last question was one he was happy to answer. "Yes. I will try," he promised with a smile.

[Redd]

Redd watched the fire lick at the meat while they sat in silence for a time and then he offered her some of it. She blinked for a moment and then took the piece, chewing into it without a thought. After having starved for so long before arriving to Endrykas, she really saw meat as just meat and it didn’t faze her at all. So when the male who called himself Erikal grinned and patted her on the back, she couldn’t help but simply blink. What did one do when met with such a response when all they did was take the meat into her own hands? With a simple shake of her head, she took a bite and chewed while her single hue watched the man with curiousity. She didn’t know much, if at all about the people that lived upon the Sea of Grass. The young kelvic did notice that they spoke a different language, which was strange. Why speak a different language when you could speak common and make sense to everyone else?

The young wolf pondered upon such thoughts as her single gaze focused upon the fire as she ate. That was when she heard a sudden rustle of leaves and her gaze snapped to where the sound had come from, but upon not seeing anything, she returned to watch Erikal while she finished off her piece, including the fat. Waste not, want not. He then began speaking and she angled her head at his words. She would have thoug… A piece of fatty meat was tossed at her and she snapped it up like no tomorrow, finishing it off without a thought spared. She didn’t care that it was leftovers, it was still edible. Redd sucked her fingers into her mouth as she licked the fat substance off of them. She inspected her fingers some more before he spoke about if he had killed her, then he too would be no more. He was thanking her for not killing him?

Again, her shoulder was patted and she couldn’t help but blink as he took her hand and kissed it. He thanked her and she looked up at him, unsure as to what she should be doing at this precise moment. This whole conversation was way too strange, not to mention that he had touched her in a gentle way. No one really touched her unless they meant harm and so she was unsure of the protocols for such events. She was put back at ease when he moved back to seat himself in his usual spot. He laughed and she was sure that she missed something, but couldn’t quite work it all out. However, she perked up when he finally began mentioning things that interested her. Caiyha was everything? The young kelvic lifted her head and listened to the wind that rustled through the grass that surrounded them. Caiyha was nature?

She almost scoffed when he mentioned that horses were not dumb. Redd knew that. In fact she believed that all animals were smarter than the humans themselves. Humans just did things that were unnecessary, animals on the other hand did things that were necessary for survival. The young wolf laid back upon the ground, tucking her hands underneath her head in thought. “Can you tell me more about Caiyha? I have lived in the wilds for most of my life, I never really thought that it was a living person. At least not a living human.” It was then that she looked over at the bush and she rolled over onto her side before she stood, making her way over to the bush to investigate. For some reason, she could smell some meat or something over by this bush. She drew in a deep breath and her hazel hue then spotted the small chunk of fat that sat at the base of a bush. Huh, strange that it should have been thrown away, she thought to herself.

Redd picked up the small piece and made her way back to the fire, still completely naked as the day that she was born. She really didn’t notice such things, for why should she? If she could walk around without clothes on in wolf form, why not while she was in human form? The young kelvic bit down upon the fat and moved to sit down once more, while her gaze returned to the man. After a moment she swallowed it and continued. “Also, why are you out here without other people when you could have stumbled and been eaten? Your lack of awareness is really not ok. Didn’t you hear the other wolf sounds before attacking me? An alpha doesn’t allow their pups to go out hunting on their own, the pups hunt with the adults when they are old enough. That is so then they don’t accidentally die because they made a misjudgement.”

She paused to take in a breath while she tried to think of what else that it was that she was about to say. Once she remembered, she nodded, “Plus, it is always better to hunt with a pack…” She paused and then smiled apologetically, “I mean, with other humans. So then you have a less likely chance of dying on your own.” An angle of her head followed this statement, what if he was a lone man? “You do live with other humans right?”

[Erikal]

Erikal found himself slightly confused to some of Redd's statements and not simply due to his unfamiliarity with the language. She saw the world very much through a wolf's eyes, despite her dual forms. It was a perspective he found very interesting though, as such a mindset was not contrary to the way of Caiyha.

Erikal could not contain his laughter when One-eye took his playful antics in a most peculiar yet instinctive way - she actually consumed the tossed away fat! That woman wasted nothing. He found that a very honorable trait for anyone to possess.

He wondered if she had been keenly aware of his lingering stares. Though he managed to keep his eyes free of ill advised wandering when her attention was upon him. The fact that he was in such close company with a naked woman was something new to the Drykas. The method that served him best in the current situation was to simply still think of Redd as a wolf. And it wasn't such a hard thing to do since she was still very much a wolf to him in mentality. But far more curious than any wolf had the right to be.

Erikal leaned back as well, inspecting a leg bone for any meat that had managed to survive his ravenous onslaught. Redd's inquiry was met with his quiet ruminations. Licking his fingers and tossing the bone away, he said somewhat abashedly: "I have not listened long enough to those wise and learned in her ways. My father was first to teach me of Caiyha. She is Goddess my family respects and prays to very much."

Erikal looked away from the sky to peer over at her, a frown touching his features. "Caiyha is no more human than the grass is human. The trees. The animals. She is Goddess. Form is unimportant," he said. Or at least that was his evaluation of Caiyha. It seemed a disservice to him, to lump Caiyha with humanity.

Redd's next line of questions brought a furrow to the man's brow. Puzzlement shifted to irritation. "I do not understand what you say, One-eye. I am no cub. Needing the milk of his mother. I am very aware when I hunt!" he retorted louder than he may of wished. Erikal shoved off the ground and huddled by the fire, blue-gray depths burned with the reflected flickering light.

Eventually he found his voice again, though subdued. "You do not understand Drykas. Yes, the land is dangerous and many return to the web every season. It has always been that way. If I had died to you or the pale wolf..." He shrugged. "It would be a worthy death. Caiyha provides and Caiyha takes. That is fate. That is life," he said, speaking the last words with added significance. He sighed and rolled his shoulders, peering across the swaying plain to the horizon.

Erikal managed a half-smile, tilting his head to gaze at Redd. Her last questions reminded him how different they were and how she had much to learn of his way of life, and he hers. "Yes. We hunt in packs too," he admitted with a chuckle. "It is always better to have many, than few," he assented. "No...haha. I live in Endrykas, city of my people. I belong to a pavilion. We call ourselves Sunspear.

"Do you have tribe or family?" he asked, hoping the question would not awaken dark thoughts that would provide memories to the scars he saw all over her body. That brought ire to him more than any insult ever could. That anyone could harm another in such ways that the story could be written into the very flesh.

Not of honorable deeds such as the windmarks all about his upper-back denoted, but cruel marks. Still, he could be mistaken. The life of a wolf on the Sea of Grass was not a pampered existence. He hoped a majority of Redd's inflictions were simply the price one paid to survive in the wilds. Such battle-scars were honorable and natural.