[Flashback] Survival is Paramount [Amondaris]

[Amireh]

"I'm glad you enjoy the view." With a laugh Amireh leaned back and sighed. She closed the book with a loud clap and set it aside for the time being, utterly disinterested in puzzling through the insane meanderings of a man dead for more than five hundred years. One of these days she might bother to find a real teacher. For now she listened to her new companion. Vani. He spoke Vani. While most of the words escaped her Amireh was able to latch onto the general idea of what he said. She simply did not care. To her his speech came out as several "Blahs" followed by a few "Whatsits", in all she was only paying enough attention to catch key phrases. Drykas, Benshira, Voiding, from what she could tell he had picked out her mixed blooded nature and understood her, at least so much as she understood him. Fortunately she was adapt at the language of the body. Of her body, anyway. "I do not understand half of what you spoke." Amireh stumbled through her Vani. She could hold conversations, but her proficiency with the language was so far from perfect. Her soprano carried with it a light accent, something far more guttural then what the musical language was accustom to. "My speaking terrible. Vani worse like bad eggs. Common? If not, you deal with goat talking." Amireh knew she sounded like an idiot. What was it the old woman always said? Practice or you'll sound like a buffoon? Too late for that. Petching Taldera. She hated this place. Common was a great language, easy, used for trade, but these morons preferred their own regional tongue. She had half a mind to void Amondaris just for being related to them. At the risk of sounding like a total dunce she continued. "Am half Benshiran. Desert. Better by leagues, no cold. Like. Ah." She paused long enough to sigh. Switching back to Common was easy. "I hate this petching language." Taking a deep breath, Amireh dove back in, focusing as she could to get the damn words right. "Not sorceress, doof, am apprentice. One mistake? Poof! No more life."

[Amondaris]

A faint blush suffused the young hunter's cheeks with a bright, vivid red, causing the poor fellow to feel as if his very face was afire. This, was not something he was at all used to. He did not think women could be so...At ease with flaunting themselves sheerly to discomfit someone else. It was, all in all, quite the distressing encounter for Amondaris. Still, if this was torture, then he supposed he could stomach it for a while longer, at least. At least, as she said, I enjoy the view. Such risque thoughts were driven from him rather forcefully as the woman opened her mouth to vomit forth quite the butchery of his native language. Blinking in mild surprise, Amondaris slowly canted his head to one side as she spoke, one brow furrowed whilst the other lifted to give a most peculiar and highly perplexed expreesion. What in the...Who lives in Avanthal, has Vantha blood in them, and speaks the native language that badly? She was so badly versed in the language it was comical. The corner of the young man's lips quirked up in the faintest betrayal of his amusement, before he began to speak once again, this time much more slowly, and in a manner one would address a child. "Your speaking is terrible, yes. And this," here, he switched to common, " 'Petching language'," and back to Vani again, with only a slight pause, before continuing, "Is what everyone speaks here. You are half Vantha. How do you not speak Vani well?" He tossed his hand at her in a dismissive gesture. "Cold is a gift. You do not speak our language, and you do not cherish the cradle in which our race lies, safe in the embrace of everwinter. Why do you not simply travel to the desert you seem so fond of, and be warm?" He shook his head from side to side slowly, lifting his arms to fold them lightly across his plated chest, the leather once more rasping drily across the metal. The flustered youth with the burning cheeks has subsided, replaced with the cold-eyed, nigh expressionless warrior of before. "You're out here studying Voiding because of a desire to not kill anyone, yes?" he rumbled, his tone quiet, yet with more than a hint of steel to it. "Who teaches you? Apprentices have masters. I doubt you can learn magic from a book. Can you even do any Voiding?"

[Amireh]

Ugh. What a jerk. From what she could gather of what pieces of the language she did understand Amireh was not amused. And it was evident. The look she gave the man could kill. Would kill. Was going to kill. Her eyes narrowed, but only half-so, the appearance still one of some kind of superior specimen observing a lesser creature. Her lips curled and brow furrowed. There was little more then violence on her mind. Who was he to lecture her? With a flick, Amireh rested her hands within her lap. For a moment, just a brief moment, she considered voiding his face off. "Do you ever shut up?" She switched back to common. If he did not want to play nice then there was no reason for her to try. "I didn't ask you to come here, you inept, self-righteous sorry excuse for a child. You come into my camp and lecture me about the dangers of being alone in the wilderness, oh ho, woe is my! Thank you, thank you dear man for protecting me from the terrible bad men that do not exist." Enraged, Amireh went back on what she knew was safe. In an instant she detached the astral form of her right hand, the invisible, ghostly visage ripping from her soul and leaving her more complete form in favor of revenge. The pain was intense. From her wrist she felt as if someone had ripped open the flesh, dug in, and twisted, but overcome as she was by anger she powered through the sensation. Reaching out with the intangible extension she slapped the man across the face. Not enough to cause damage, just enough to show that she was a great deal more capable then she might have otherwise appeared. "And that is none of your damned business. Now cut the shit, and either be civil or get out. I did not ask for your help and I do not need your help." She finished with a biting growl, the anger in her tone used to cover up the pain that urged her to scream. Reattaching was less painful, if not any simpler. With a hidden strain Amireh summoned the astral hand back to her arm, her eyes fluttered for a moment as the process took the brunt of her attention. She envisioned the piece of herself resting comfortably where it belonged, the back connecting to the wrist in what was its natural fashion. A seal formed where the break was and she felt life spring back into her physical hand. She stretched her fingers for good measure, each digit tapping her leg to ensure their continued use. "How do you like it when I go off on a tangent?" Suitably calmer, Amireh's eyes faded to a light, crystalline blue.

[Amondaris]

Flat, slate grey flooded his irises, stealing away whatever vibrancy and life that had existed within the lusterless orbs beforehand. All expression dropped from his features as swiftly and suddenly as if he had discarded a physical mask, the resulting lack of visible emotion providing a stark contrast to the livid woman before him. She was an idiot. A spoiled idiot. There really was no other excuse for being so horribly dense and altogether unpleasant. Simply because she had been lucky enough to not draw the attention of the hundreds of predators that roamed the Talderan tundra the handful of times she had waded into the wilderness, she thought she knew more of it than someone who had spent most of his adolescent life in it? Her sheer arrogance was staggering! He weathered her little rant with all the stoicism and patience of a rock being battered at by the wind, and her words had just as much effect on him as air would upon stone. What physical attraction had existed towards her dissipated as quickly as frost faded before fire, and what was left in it's place was little apart from disgust. He knew there was a reason he stayed in the wilderness for such lengthy periods of time. People were arrogant, hateful, vile creatures, that only cared for themselves. This would not be a mistake he would make again. He had been about to open his mouth to announce his departure, when- Crack! He reeled backwards, shock seizing the entirety of his body in it's vice-like grip. His mind, however, was a maelstrom of whirling, howling activity. Someone, or something, had just struck him. He had not seen what, but it did not take a large leap in logic to narrow the suspects down to the girl who had just claimed to be an apprentice mage. He had no idea if what had just occurred was a spell related to Voiding, or if it was something else entirely, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that she had slapped him in the face, without any true reason. In the depths of his soul, a rattle of chains echoed within some deep chasm, rebounding off the unyielding walls of his will. With that stark, chilling rattle, came a faint, seductive, honey-sweet whisper. Kill her. Kill her now, and carve up her corpse. Caress the blood-slick bones and feast upon the soft flesh, gorge upon those succulent curves that we both so love. Kill, and kill, and kill again. The urge to rend this vile woman in two, to pick her up and snap her spine over his knee was terrifyingly strong. The sweet pop and crack as the bones shattered, the wet tearing as he tore her throat out and savoured the sweet nectar that would pump forth... His hands snapped to the grips of his weapons, the blades hissing half way from their scabbards, only to grind to a sudden halt, the man sitting as if frozen still. Not even the slightest muscle twitched as he sat, fingers curled so tight about the worn grips of his swords that the leather groaned in protest. Yet, there was one visual means of seeing the struggle that no doubt warred within this huge, deadly warrior; His eyes. The orbs played host to a veritable storm of colours, the two most prevalent being a deep, chilling red so intense it looked as if the man's eyes were bleeding within, and a white so blindingly pure it made the pale clothing the hunter wore seem dark in contrast. While the colours clashed and spilled into each other, locked in deadly combat in his irises, the man's soul, too, was at war. A deep, seething ocean of rage threatened to boil over and drown his heart in unthinking, lustful rage, only held back by the unyielding, merciless grasp of pure, undiluted will that strove to keep the beast in check. Some moments passed, and with a sudden gasping intake of breath, the young man sagged in upon himself, seeming to deflate with the effort of controlling his raging temper. Slowly, and with great effort, he slid his weapons back into their sheaths, seeming to struggle against the blades as if they were reluctant to be contained anew. Inhaling deeply, he took a steady, calming breath, and turned his back on Amireh, to face the exit of the small tent. When he spoke, it was in a voice greatly wearied, the man's shoulders slumped as if from exhaustion. "You are quite right. I apologise for disturbing your studies. You can obviously take care of yourself. I wish you luck in your endeavours. You will not see me again. Farewell." With that, he drew back the flap of the tent, and stepped out, moving away from the tent as fast as his feet could carry him. He wove as if drunk, meandering back and forth like a ship belaboured by a storm, his heavy steps dragging him out into the vast, blinding white of expanse of the tundra. In a surprisingly short span of time, the man was only visible as a steadily dwindling white blur in the distance. He had not given so much as a backward glance, or checked to see what Amireh's reaction had been to his internal war. She could well have followed him out from the tent and called him back, yet he was deaf to her, to the world. All he could do was walk. And so he did. OOCAaaand we're done! Abrupt, I know, but I could only see this thread kind of walking in circles or fading away if we kept at it, plus this was a convenient way to get Amond to live proper sharp. Am sorry D; Do feel free to post Amireh's reaction, though!

[Cheshire]

. Character: Amireh Experience: Wilderness Survival +1, Meditation +1, Voiding +1, Rhetoric +3, Seduction +1, Observation +1, Projection +1 Lore: Mantre of Voiding, Overcoming Language Barriers, Missing the Heat Character: Amondaris Experience: Rhetoric +1, Meditation +1, Observation +2, Interrogation +1 Lore: Coming to the Rescue, Noticing Vantha Blood, Verbally Defending Avanthal's Honor Additional Note: Great thread guys! It was nice to finally meet Amireh! PM me with any concerns.