[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Nya and Abashai stumble across an ambush, but it's not them who get surprised.

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While Sylira is by far the most civilized region of Mizahar, countless surprises and encounters await the traveler in its rural wilderness. Called the Wildlands, Syliran's wilderness is comprised of gradual rolling hills in the south that become deep wilderness in the north. Ruins abound throughout the wildlands, and only the well-marked roads are safe.

[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Postby Abashai on August 5th, 2010, 5:08 pm

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Timestamp: 45th Summer, 510 AV
Location: The Wildlands, Syliria
Status: Closed, Nya


Nya and Shai had been leading Sus and the pack horse through heavy woods, some distance from a main road, when they came across the bodies. The man walked with the dire cat, the forest in this area thick and less easily traversed on horse back. It was terrain better suited for riding Nya, but having worked through some mounted combat tactics with her earlier in the day, Shai chose to travel on foot for a while.

The recent summer rain had left the air hanging over the forest dense and moist, sharpening every aroma that lifted from plant, rock and animal. While Nya was sharing her senses with Abashai, helping him learn to identify specific smells with her feline-enhanced faculties, the Kelvic had caught a whiff of human and blood. She had let Abashai share the sharp metallic blood scent through their life bond, and agreed it was best to identify the source. They had powerful enemies now, a fact that was never far from Abashai's mind. Warily the Benshiran had drawn his khopesh as Nya tracked the source of the smell, the two opening the consciousness between them.

The unusual circumstances that bound the human and the Kelvic's lives together had been overwhelming at first, nearly driving them crazy, and apart. The raw exchange of physical sensations, thoughts and emotions had been unending and caused frequent arguments and hard feelings as private thoughts could not be contained. They would periodically have to separate far enough to outdistance the bond so they could find the peace to commune with their respective gods. But the two of them had begun to work through the powerful connection and had started to learn how to control the flow of information, how to manage what was revealed, and how to share.

Nya and Shai did find many benefits to the bond as well. Experiencing sensations as on another opened up incredible perspective, and they learned much about each other. Abashai could savor how delicious raw meat tasted to Nya, and she could experience the thrill Abashai felt as he moved through his dance-like weapon katas. Communication between them had become more dynamic as well. Telepathic-like conversations allowed Nya to converse with Shai even in her natural forest cat form, eliminating the need to rely on visual cues and faint impressions from the Kelvic bond. It improved their ability to hunt and fight together. As a result, Nya seemed to remain in her animal shape more often, especially when traveling, where her dire cat body could better sense danger and react more quickly.

Eventually Nya located the dead men, two humans. Clean shaven and clad only in undergarments, the men had stab wounds almost certainly caused by weapons. More curious was the fact that both had their throats roughly ripped open. The bodies laid fairly straight, though the corpses' heads were skewed unnaturally to the side. Dark stains of blood on the ground seemed to lead in the direction of the road. Abashai guessed they had not been dead long, but looked to Nya. "How long do you think they've been dead?" He glanced around the heavy forest surrounding them, gripping his khopesh tighter. "They could still be near."
Last edited by Abashai on September 16th, 2011, 4:34 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Postby Nya Winters on August 5th, 2010, 6:33 pm

ImageNya padded restlessly through the forest, her large sleek body flowing like a large black shadow somewhat ahead and to the side of the Benshira and two horses. She had her senses directed outwards taking in the smells of the woods. Tendrils of scent crossed her senses, neatly filtered out and distinguished by her forest cat brain far easier than her bondmate could process. Tightly linked, the trails of deer scent, squirrel, even the smaller denizens of mouse and chipmunk crossed her senses and were filtered out while they inundated the human with information that often threatened to overwhelm his senses. When Nya was scouting like she was, the deadliest thing to her was something right under her nose because she was so entirely focused on their surroundings and what lay beyond their sight or what had crossed paths with them hours ago.

It was getting easier for him to recognize and process what Nya smelled and what she heard, but it still wasn't 'easy'.

His own eyes were better than hers unless she was simply tracking movement, and Shai sometimes caught Nya using them in her cat form to double check something she smelled or suspected she smelled. Scent formed layers for her, overlapping and overshadowing color. She could far more easily smell where an elk had lain down for the night than she could notice the pushed over grass and shed tuffs of hair littering such a grass bed. So she'd smell, pause, use Shai's eyesight to curiously look, and move on. It was a weird double usage, and the Benshira often caught himself doing the same thing... seeing something unusual, then checking the scent of it through Nya's eyes to see if it gained any more information.

But he was right. It wasn't always easy to be close to her. Nor was it easy for her to be close to him. For one, she was often hungry. Still growing and still considered a juvenile, the Forest Cat had a huge appetite that wasn't easily overcome. Her growth spurts were marked by gorging on meat and then sleeping the day away in the sun. She was on high alert at night, which sometimes interrupted his sleep since he got his best rest during Leth's reign. And on her part, Shai's mind was always busy. He never stopped thinking, never took a break and simply enjoyed the moment for what it was. Thoughts crossed his mind about all sorts of things constantly - religion, love, life, death, duty.... it was exhausting to Nya to think like a human or to listen to one constantly being human. An animal was so much less complicated.

And the closer she was to Shai, the more sensitive she became to his needs. There was no privacy between them. Where there'd been some before, there was absolutely a lack of it now. She knew when he was grumpy and why. He knew when she had a full bladder or an empty stomach. Even their lovemaking was complex because it was too easy to loose themselves in each other and forget who was who. Sometimes they needed space. Just a breath. Just a moment... but sometimes that was a whole day or longer. When Shai started to loose his sense of humanity Nya would retreat, giving him space to remember being a man. She'd travel parallel to him downwind, and find a tree to curl up in and sleep for a while, catching up later.

Sometimes he left her, seeking out settlements and cities to go into town and be among the other people. But he wasn't the same. Not like he'd been before. Just like she wasn't the same. Without Nya, and her sense of smell that he'd come to use as if it was his own, Shai felt half blind among people in the same way he'd feel overwhelmed if Nya stood beside him. And it was the same for her. Without him, and his constant thoughts, she found herself bored and wondering what his human mind would think of next. His thoughts often entertained her, surprised her, and she'd grown used to them as if they were her own. With only her own company, Nya's mind was quiet. She never suddenly thought of a design to make her horse's pack more compact and easier to load up. She never spotted a little creek with a pasture and lovely view of a mountain range and thought a little cabin would look nice there.

Things were what they were.

And now that they were so tightly bonded, Shai was reminded daily about how inhuman she was. He knew of how deeply the longing for a bond with him had ran and how dependent upon it she was. Nya would never willingly leave him or displease him. She was a slave for all intensive purposes, even though that slavery was sweet bondage in her mind. As a human with such a tight link to her mind, he could see the beginnings of the construct that was built inherently into kelvics. Had he a little familiarity or more magical design knowledge, Abashai could have easily unraveled what Marcus Kelvic did as a mage to create his bondmate and all of her kind. It was right there, easily processed by his human mind, completely something Nya was blinded to however.

Foreign, otherworldly, he could tell somewhere back in her bloodline something had been summoned and captured, bound into the form of flesh via an animal's blood. The animal form was true - taken directly from the patterns he could almost understand that linked to her blood. The human form was the lie - a camouflage that allowed her to pass through society virtually undetected. The deception was so perfect she could reproduce humans with her tainted blood easily, but she could never truly be one.

That she walked beside him so closely needing him was astonishing. She needed his thoughts, his ideas, his touch and his guidance. She could survive without him, but built deeply into her psyche was a need to have him there so without him she couldn't thrive. Marcus Kelvic had built the perfect servants. Powerful, incredibly loyal, and flawed enough to know they needed bondmates to thrive.

And so it was her sense drank in the blood, smelled the death, and brought the quartet to the site of the bodies. Nya surveyed the area, frowning at the waste of meat. Predators hadn't done this. They would have eaten and moved on. Something else had. Either men, who knew the most about waste, or a monster that killed mindlessly.nudged one of the corpses to see if the meat was still edible (she didn't like rigor in kills), and glanced at Shai. "A few hours, no more. Tell me, Shai, are they still here?" It was an invite for him to look with her senses, though looking was a loose term.

Scent spilled out around her, trailing from where the men came in to where whatever else killed them. It appeared on Nya's senses like trails of wispy fog different colored and textured indicating who'd been there. The boldest trails where the dead men, the blood, and the cause of the death.. .but underlying those scents were the forest denizens - birds, rabbits, the green itself - until the scent Nya detected formed a weave of pattern all around Shai. It was as if he was looking at djed or viewing like a wizard with Auristics would. The only difference was the scent was distinct, individual, and she cold tell immediately how many, where thy went, and if they were anywhere upwind close.

"What do you see?" She asked again, careful to keep her view neutral. Nya wanted Shai to use her without relying on her viewpoint so she could watch how his mind worked and how he thought of the situation and compare how it was different than hers.

Overlying all of that, as well, was her hunger. The blood was making her consider helping herself to a free meal. Only her bondmate's presence was restraining her.

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[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Postby Abashai on August 6th, 2010, 2:10 pm

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Abashai's gaze drifted from the fresh corpses to Nya as her voice resounded in his head. He had grown used to the 'sound' of it, which was nothing like her human timbre. The private man had found such an inescapable intrusion into his mind initially disturbing. But Shai had grown to welcome Nya's inner voice, drawing strength and comfort from her intimate presence within his consciousness. With the chance that danger may be close, Abashai chose to reply to her through the ethereal cord between them. "They could be long gone by now, looks like they got all they could. But..."

Abashai sensed Nya opening up to him, laying out the array of senses she possessed for him to access. The Benshiran was analytical in his thinking. He liked to collect the facts and sift through them, before drawing conclusions or making decisions. Linking into Nya's faculties had opened up a whole new world of information that almost made him tingle. He began with the two bodies. It took a moment for him to push past the forest cat's primary instinct at the moment, hunger. Her natural, primal needs were always the loudest. Hunger was always present with the young Kelvic it seemed, and now it spiked at the scent of fresh blood, so powerful Abashai could taste the coppery tinge on his tongue. Nya's appetite became his, and his stomach gurgled, though he himself had no desire for food.

Abashai and always restrained Nya from dining on human flesh, his cultural sensibilities could not overcome the repulsion. But the longer the two spent alone in the wild, his resolved waned. During one particularly long stint, Abashai had become so close to Nya that he actually gave in and let her devour a freshly killed human hunter. Though the Kelvic was the one to eat the man, her bondmate could taste the raw gamey meat, savor the warm blood that ran along her tongue. It had nearly pushed him out of his humanity, craving to join her in her feast. Nya herself had to rebuke him, realizing the power of her primal animal instincts had overwhelmed his personality. It was after that encounter that the couple agreed that measures had to be taken to help them balance their individuality, or loose themselves in each other. It was then that efforts were made to travel near human communities when possible, to allow Abashai to reconnect with his own kind.

As Nya drew in a deep breath of warm humid air clinging to the bodies, Shai shoved aside the strong human odor to recognized the faint, familiar scent of horse. "Riders." He noted. Examining the curious wounds at the victims throats, He caught the whiff of what smelled like dog. Not dog, or wolf, and not feline, something Nya had not recognized. He turned a quizzicle look to his mate. "I don't like the smell of that." He retorted in her head.

Turning his attention to the landscape around them, Abashai scanned the woodland visually, looking for unnatural movement or coloration. Layering on top of that Nya's keen olfactory senses, then allowing his own hearing to be applified by hers, the Benshiran began to get the multifaceted image of their surroundings, even the slight breeze tickling her whiskers indicating the direction of carried odors. "They were dragged from the direction of the road." Shai pointed towards the road a hundred or so yards away. He spotted two piles of clothes nearby, waiting for Nya to inhale again to get fresh information. The garments were dirty and of poor quality, and included leather belts and boots. There was no scent of horse upon them. "These do not belong to the victims," he stood up looking again in the direction of the road, "but the two men who owned these clothes went back to the road, and the victims horses are with them." Taking several steps in the direction of the road, Abashai cocked his head instinctively, as if the senses he perceived were his own. "There is one more male somewhere as well, they are further down the road. And that animal smell, its still here too. They are all over near the road, but not together. I am guessing they have set an ambush."

Sliding his khopesh back into his battle harness, Shai shifted his shoulders to balance his load. He now wore the chainmail shirt continuously as they traveled, and kept a small arsenal, including his bow and several blades, either on his mount or on his person. The desert man was not so foolish to think that mere metal weapons would defend them from the kind of power their enemies possessed, but it was what he knew, and aside from a few reimancy tricks, it was all he had.

Drawing closer to the great sleek cat, Shai leaned against her powerful shoulder. Rational wisdom would dictate that they find another course, swinging wide of whatever malefactors lay waiting for some unsuspecting travelers. And Abashai was a rational man, but he was also a main of faith, who served a deity who demanded his followers withstand against impurity and corrupt things. Yahal's marked one looked into Nya's feline green eyes. She knew the thoughts that he pondered. He had convinced her to do things before, things that did not turn out well, like hunting the Talderian bull elk. His bondmate had paid for that with broken ribs. But the hunt was an idea born from the man's pride, not from the more noble concept of cleansing the world of malevolent parasites. "There are more of them then there are of us Ny, and I don't know what the beast is with them." They both turned at a new distant sound, the creak of a wagon's wheel coming down the road from the opposite direction. Crystaline blue-green eyes fixed again on the cat's slitted pupils. Shai did not have to ask the question, even telepathically, Nya would know what he was asking of her.
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[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Postby Nya Winters on October 18th, 2010, 6:17 pm

ImageNya surveyed the scene with Abashai at her side. She stood quietly, letting him borrow her senses, even as the blood all over the clearing slowly began to excite her. It was a sensation she couldn't help. Hunger was made acute by the corpses and the overlay of sensations they created within her. But her heart rate also rose, her breathing increased, and her body reacted with sharp arousal. She was, in a way, sad she'd missed the battle. It would have been a good one no doubt. She loved fighting, more than she cared to admit to Abashai, though she knew he understood. Forest cats were built for violence. They thrived on it. And staring at this violent scene reminded every molecule in her body that she was built for such a thing. Nya walked two steps forward with her front legs leaving her back legs stationary, stretched out her paws and took a moment to flash her claws (more to admire them than scratch) and kneed the ground to leave a telltail scent marking. Then she leaned backwards, stretched again, and whipped her tail a moment.

She then dipped her head to the nearest corpse, ran her tongue through the blood, and glanced sideways at her bondmate to judge his reaction and to test his willingness to let her have a quick snack. Abashai stood straight and neatly balanced, concentrating on what his mind was processing. She took a moment to measure him, mainly because she was on the boarder of going into a full fledged fighting mode, and couldn't help but take a look and see how her bondmate was rating today. His body was tall, broad, and incredibly fit. Moss green eyes drew down the length of his shoulders to the curve of his back to where his Kopesh hanger was strapped neatly to the outside of his overcoat. The weapon, of course, was in his hands. She liked the way his overcoat swung around him and caressed his muscled legs that were encased in thick leather boots. Nya also liked the way it sometimes covered her at night when she slept as a human, tucked against Shai's back. He had an ease about himself that hinted at strength and certainty, especially how he moved - kneeling to cast judgement on the clothing, rising to guess about an ambush. Nya liked that. She also liked his long black hair, the way it grew longer each season and he rarely remembered to trim it. From so close she could smell him acutely and it made the woman inside smile. For a moment, the more human part of her merged her kelvic side and she imagined licking blood off Abashai instead of the meat she was half tempted to eat at her feet. She wondered, briefly, if there was a way she could get him to roll in it.

Now that would be a perfect meal decidedly followed by desert.

His words interrupted her train of thought however. And she turned to pay more attention. Riders. Yes of course there had been. The animal? She didn't know what it was and thus dismissed it. Shai was more worried though. Nya sank her teeth into the meat at her feet. She didn't tear any off, but made a motion like she would if Shai didn't seem bothered by it. The blood was sweet in her mouth and awakening the beast even more quickly, pushing the human aside. She huffed and laid down abruptly. Her tongue found more blood as she watched her bondmate curiously, judging his response.

The forest cat purred.

It sounded like there would be a fight after all. "Do we go spring it, the trap that is? Or are they truly enemies, Shai? We don't know these people. Maybe the bad guys are the dead guys, no?" She asked, forming her questions with not so much words as feelings as she passed them down the link. She smiled then, slow, long, and slightly dangerous in response to his comment about there being more of them than there were of the two of them. "I have never been one to worry about numbers. Do you want to go fight?" She had other ideas, but like all things young - eating, fighting, licking fresh blood off her husbands skin - all were things she could easily be talked into or out of depending on the distractions.



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[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Postby Abashai on October 23rd, 2010, 1:53 pm

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Abashai had postulated a theory already from the few clues he and Nya had gathered. Two riders had been ambushed and killed, their clothes and horses seized. The bodies were hidden from the road, where the attackers set again, surely to make prey of some hapless more travelers, like the one's on the wagon he heard in the distance. The undefinable animal they smelled, the one he suspected tore out the victim's throats, remained a mystery.

Nya's strong primal inclinations interrupted him, and he turned his head towards the crouching cat. The taste of the man's blood was already on her tongue, causing a strong iron taste on his own. Then he saw clearly the mental image that flashed in her head of himself, nude and smeared with the shed blood on the forest floor. A unexpected grin tugged at Abashai's mouth as he saw his bondmate's fantasy, her warm tongue cleansing him of the tangy crimson coating. His head swiveled to look at his feline bondmate, a shimmer of a "you wish" smile crossing his lips.

But the distracting thought was pushed aside, and he watched as Nya set her fanged maw against one of the bodies. The Benshiran could feel her desire for the meat, strong now as she tasted the blood and felt her teeth against the tight flesh...her hand was already in the cookie jar.

Even as she began to mouth the victim, Nya posed her questions mentally. Did he want to spring the trap, to pick a fight? Battle. In truth, it was what the Benshiran was trained for from his teenage years. He was not a violent or bloodthirsty man. He was marked more as a man of faith, compassion and even diplomacy. But the fight was never far from his mind, or his heart. In the desert, he had earned a reputation as a sort of "white knight". He had vanquished golden wolves and sand lions for the Benshiran Tents who's flocks were being attacked. Even Chaktawe who were tempted to steal from his people had fallen to his Eypharian blade. It was a fierce battle against two Tsanas that had earned him Yahal's attention and his mark. Though conflict was not his bread and butter, battle was a thrilling prospect. Shai found he experienced almost euphoria in the heat of melée. He had relished fighting and killing the Ebonstryfe soldiers who had captured Nya in the Colbalts, though it had nearly lead to his death. The desert warrior was also keenly aware that his bondmate, his wife, was a perfectly created killing machine, her heart formed with the propensity to kill.

"It is not wise to leave a potential threat behind us." He rationalized. "And if we are careful, perhaps we can become the trap." He met Nya's moss-green eyes. His logical words did not hide from her the thrill of combat that had ignited in his guts. "I am going ahead towards the road to scout further. Have your snack dear, but do not take long, the wagon coming may spring their trap before we can find them. We need to go to the road." Nya had permeated enough of Abashia's soul to overcome his discomfort with eating human flesh. The man would not watch, separating himself by a short distance and focusing on other matters so he could disassociate the taste in his mouth with the lifeless man-turned-food. Shai paused, eyes fixed on Nya, giving her the opportunity to offer her thoughts before he moved forward. He would not go far from her, the danger too immediate. Individually, each of them were very competent combatants. Together, they were exponentially more dangerous and deadly.
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[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Postby Nya Winters on November 29th, 2010, 7:58 pm

ImageIt had been a good while since she'd had a hunt that had been legitimate. There was sweet meat in her mouth, but it wouldn't be as sweet as meat she killed herself. Nya bit off a huge hunk of the man's shoulder she gnawed on, and swallowed it whole. Sensing her bondmate's mood, Nya would not let him scout ahead on his own, potentially saving the wagons from an ambush.

No, that would not be fun at all. Sneaking up never was. Terrifying them abruptly was far better.

She let instinct take over. After swallowing the mouthful of meat, she rose, huffed, and broke into a trot following her bondmate. That trot turned into a series of bounds that brought her up against Shai where her green eyes glowed with mischief. Two more bounds took her past him silently. He knew her intent in an instant, almost before she'd decided.

Nya was going to bound straight into their camp and snarl at the top of her lungs, catching them off guard and terrifying them all at once. Oh, she'd try to pounce one or more of them if she could while she was doing so, but to her the entire amount of fun would be terrifying them and then hunting whichever one ran. She didn't expect them to be calm, ready to attack, or armed with bows ready to fire. No... she expected them to be laying in wait for the wagons, calmly expecting to ambush, not expecting to be ambushed themselves.

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[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Postby Abashai on December 6th, 2010, 3:30 pm

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Abashai sensed more than heard Nya approach, her large dark form appearing practically on top of him. He caught her sidelong glance, the Kelvic's heart itself telling him what the cat was up to. It was a dangerous game she played, but Nya was a creature that existed to hunt and prowl and dominate her surroundings. Abashai believed she had enough human in her to twist those instincts into dark delights, in which she now planned to indulge herself. Though her safety was always Shai's concern, as much as the kelvic strove to protect her bondmate, each of them had confidence in the capabilities and skills of the other, nor could they deny who they were. Nya was a natural born predator designed for violence, Abashai, trained to kill from childhood. Just as the Talderian Forest Cat found joy in striking fear into her prey and rending apart an opponent, Abashai had discovered a certain bloodlust of his own. The battle with the Ebonstryfe the previous year had stoked a distinct enjoyment in engaging an adversary. Cutting down an enemy, especially one opposed to his cause was viewed by the desert man as 'righteous violence'.

Even as he moved closer to the road, the anticipation for combat grew. The Benshiran's adreneline began to flow, and the fingers of gnosis began to stretch through his body, ennervating his muscles and welling up in his heart. As the great cat bounded off ahead, the Benshiran knew the engagement would not be one of stealth, but of surprised and brute force. The prospect thrilled him. Abashai held onto the bow in his hand, arrow ready, his intent once they surprised the enemy was to pick off one opponent as Nya caused confusion, before employing a blade to join the melee.

He moved quickly after Nya, trying to keep his steps quiet while not letting the forest cat get too far ahead of him. It was not working, and he picked up his pace to a jog through the trees as they approached the road. Human forms hunkered down revealed that bandits were indeed waiting, sitting just back of a short wooded slope that met the edge of the road. Abashai only saw the backs of the men as Nya took a great leap and landed in the midst of them, letting out a loud graveling snarl. As expected, chaos erupted, the four men leaping to their feet with startled cries, stumbling over one another. Abashai instantly skidded to a halt, raising the composite short bow and taking aim at a squat, rotunt man gripping a short sword. The brigand had his back to the Benshiran, an easy target, never seeing the arrow that struck his back until the metal head burst out through his chest. As the bandit toppled to his knees and then prone, Shai dropped the bow and slid the old iron khopesh from his harness with a metalic hiss. Shai could see four men, unarmored and armed with hand weapons, two with swords, one a battle ax and the downed man with the short sword.

Abashai rushed to the nearest foe, a wiry, bald man whose wide eye-surprised turned to a menacing grimace, a long rapier raised at the ready. The Benshiran felt the ennervation coursing though his nerves, umbuing his muscles with extraordinary strength, his mind with granite resolution. In a breath Abashai reached out to Nya, sensing her emotion, intent and condition. His Kelvic wife would feel her husband's grim excitement and heightened willpower. Then, a deadly grin spread across the Benshiran's tattooed face before unleashing like a coiled spring, bringing the sickle shaped blade around in a wide sweep aimed at the robber's neck.
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[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Postby Nya Winters on March 31st, 2011, 6:15 pm

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[indent]The man down seemed to pose no threat so Nya ignored him. Surveying what was left, she saw Shai charge in after her and start in on an opponent before he even had a chance to fully realize was was going on. Nya could have watched Shai fight for a long time, but the truth was they were outnumbered and some of the men had dangerous weapons. Shai's arrow sang, bringing the man in front of him to the ground then he dropped the bow and pulled his Kopesh to attack the one with a smaller weapon. Nya had no time to see this, however, because her eyes were automatically scanning the group picking out her closest target.

Battle axes were not something she liked, but she'd rather take the man on than leave him to Shai since his weapon had a superior strength behind it even though Shai's had him well in hand due to reach. She tired to duck under the axeman's swing, but her superior size was her disadvantage here. He caught her high on the shoulder even as she bowled him over. The axe bit into her flesh, not deeply, but enough to peel her fur back from her flesh across the top of her shoulders. Nya hissed in pain as she brought the man down, snapping his spine as she pounced. She bit down on his face, teeth meeting the ridges of a helm, and yanked, tearing it off. Then she howled in pain as she snapped her jaws again, taking off the entire front section of his face, neatly killing him.

She spit it out as the man with the rapier closing in on her swung again, slashing the razor sharp blade against her rump like a man lashing a horse. She hissed, enraged now, and spit at him even as she leaped. He got away - faster and smaller than she was. His blade bit into her again and she whirled back, pulling the biting thing out of her flesh. Nya needed armor in this form, she decided almost immediately. Shai had leather to protect himself, but Nya's fur was vulnerable. She bled freely from her shoulder and the punctures from the rapier, but thus far she hadn't let him get close enough to do more than sink his blade into dense muscle tissue.

Tail lashing, Nya bounded, roared, and jumped, trying to catch the man that scrambled as smooth as a field mouse bound and determined not to get eaten. She was just as determined to eat him so she gave chase then retreated as their battle waged back and forth. Suddenly, she caught his eyes, her green ones glowing, and sent an arrow of djed straight into his skull. The hypnotic suggestion was simple. "Run... she's going to rip your face off.. fool get out of here and run!" The man, by no means weak of spirit, nevertheless knew a good suggestion when he heard one. Dropping his blade, the turned and bolted which gave Nya a perfect opportunity to mow him down from behind and snap his neck.

Then she looked around for more...
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[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Postby Abashai on April 7th, 2011, 7:35 pm

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Abashai's opponent proved to be both nimble and agile, deftly twisting to avoid the lethal hacking strike the benshiran had aimed at the bandit's neck. The narrow blade of the defender's sword was raised to deflect away the momentum of Shai's weapon, leaving the desert man open for the length of a breath. His opponent took the advantage and struck Abashai in the face with his fist, sending a flash of stars across the benshiran's vision and snapping his head back with a sharp pain jarring through his jaw. In a blink he recovered, just in time to lean away from his opponent's blade as it slashed towards his face. The razor tip trailed across his cheek, opening a thin gash that reddened immediately with welling blood. Then he felt a sharp pain, not centered on any specific location. Shai knew it was Nya's pain that he sensed. She was wounded, but not seriously. His pain, her pain and his surging ennervation drove the warrior's single intent upon slaying his foe. He charged the smaller man, twisting his torso to avoid the thrusting blade. Still, the blade's thin point penetrated Abashai's coat at his side and broke through the links in the underlying mail shirt, grazing along his ribs and opening another gash in his side. Undeterred by the wound, the broad benshiran's body slammed against the man, his foe's weapon hung up in the chainmail. Abashai's momentum continued, driving the man backwards until he slammed against the truck of a wide tree, dashing the breath out of the outlaw's lungs.

With the strength of two men coursing through his body, Abashai gripped the man's throat with his left hand and lifted him to his toes. Releasing his own weapon, the choking thief clutched Shai's tightening grip with both hands, pulling at it vainly as he kicked and struggled against the iron grip. Deadly intent glared clear in his crystal blue-green eyes as he squeezed the life from the stranger, a quick flick of his wrist snapping the neck and finishing the wretch. Tossing aside the limp body, wincing at the sharp pain in his side, Abashai raised his blade to find another opponent. He witnessed the grisly demise of Nya's victim as fang and claw rent his flesh, silencing muffled screams. The faceless carcass of her first victim was strewn on the forest floor nearby.

A quick glance revealed no living opponent remained. Nya, you are hurt. Shai voiced in her head. He saw the wounds in her hide, the flesh lain open. He was about to examine her when they heard the whinnying of horses from the road just beyond the line of trees. Peering through, the bondmates could see two mounted men in the road, glancing up into the woods but not moving to enter them. They appeared to be clad in the livery of Syliran Knights, and their swords were drawn. From further up the road, the sound of the approaching wagon negotiating the rutted road could be heard. The knights appeared uncertain, their horses prancing nervously. Nya, too, caught the scent of the unfamiliar animal she had smelled when they found the two dead men.
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[The Wildlands] Wolves in Knight's Clothing [Nya]

Postby Nya Winters on May 23rd, 2011, 3:57 pm

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She was still enraged as Abashai took down the last living man in the ambush. Nya huffed from exertion and freely bled from the torn skin above her shoulder and the puncture in her ass. As a human she most likely wouldn't be able to sit down for a while, not comfortably. As a forest cat, it felt like a bad bees sting directly in her buttock.

She viciously swipped at one of the corpses, leaped over and tore the face off the man Abashai had just dropped, then circled around Abashai for a good look at him. Once satisfied, she crouched down and twisted her head to lick at her torn shoulder. It was a skin wound that Shai would have to stitch in order to have it heal properly, but she'd be fine. "Man tried to skin me at the shoulder. You'll have to sew it closed but otherwise I'm fine." She said, as she sprawled out panting. The men had tasted sour, as if they dined off booze and whores for most of their lives, not real food, so she left the corpses lie. There would be time later - a whole lot later - for damage assessment and for Shai to fix her up.

"I want armor." She said suddenly. "You have some. I need some too." Nya demanded as she twisted her head around and lapped at her shoulder once more.

Her head swiveled around suddenly when she heard the horses, the wagons, and spotted the knights through Shai's eyes. "More men. What do you want to do? I've had enough fighting for today." She said softly though she'd fight with him if he thought these men as well needed to be attacked.
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