[Flashback] What Lurks in the Mist (Auldwin)

[Growl]

Another few seconds passed before Ari had transformed into a large black snake, of about forty feet in length. It seemed to stretch a foot wide, or more, and was covered almost entirely in black scales. A series of black and brown ones, with the occasional gold lined its back, in a diamond pattern. The snake's tongue flitted out, as is hissed, and turned to face the jaguar, which had just been hit with Auldwin's rock. The feline growled in frustration, as it shook its head and darted towards Auldwin. When it leapt through his form, it shook its head in frustration, before turning to the snake. It was now bounding towards Ari, whose body was coiled beneath her. Mussst kill... Ari thought, as she started to slither across the ground. Pushing the muscles in her stomach against the terrain as her body slid back and forth, closer and closer to the feline. The creature's claws where outstretched as it pounded past the snake's head and towards her tail. The dhani could feel it sink its teeth into her tail as it sank its claws onto either side of its mouth, to help brace itself. Angrily, Ari hissed, and turned to the cat with frightening speed, the snake's front descended, first nipping at the beast's side, sinking her large fangs into the flesh, before pulling away, and coiling herself around the body. The neck. Tightening her hold, squeezing the life out of it as the cat scratched against her form, desperate to get away. The struggle went on for several chimes before the cat's body finally went limp, and the constrictor unwound her form, slithered away. She seemed to lick the misty air with her tongue, before shifting back into a human. Her clothes having fallen beneath her during the shift, she was now left naked. Shivering in the rain. Her legs were bleeding, as was a nasty mark upon her back. "Ssssory..." she hissed. "I will get sssomething on... and then we can keep going back to my home." She paused, as she limped across the clearing, trailing blood to her things, which she with shaking hands, managed to get back on after a few moments. "It'sss a ssshame to leave the jaguar here. Perhapsss I sssshould finisssshh it before we go. But I will be sssstuck in one of my formsss for a time ssshould that be the casse... there issss no way to tell which will keep ussss ssssafessst," she hissed. Unsure of what to do. Perhaps wrapping her wounds, at least in a superficial manner, would help. Considering how much blood she was using.

[Auldwin]

If Auldwin hadn't been so busy going about his task of keeping the jaguar occupied, he probably would have been stunned himself from the transformation. He had seen a lot of things as a Ghost, and met a lot of different races that didn't normally come to Syliras during his life there. Never had he seen a woman transform into an enormous snake though. Even as his attention lingered toward Ari as her bones and limbs shifted and faded into her new enormous body, he still played the part of an excellent target. Luckily any attempt to strike him from the feline had no detriment toward him, his Soulmist simply swirled about like a cloud of dust as the powerful cats body jumped through it.

He didn't need to work much harder after that either, as the snake, larger than any he had ever seen, engaged in a battle with the jaguar. It was quite the struggle too. Auldwin looked for a while to aid the...Ari-snake in some way, but before he could even strike the creature's head with a rock, or at least whatever might have been exposed through the vast coils of the snake, the combat was over. The cat lay upon the ground, it's body hanging limply into the hands of the wet jungle floor. Just like that, the snake turned back into a woman. All this had occurred, and the Ghost was still trying to comprehend everything he just witnessed. It wasn't right for a Ghost to be so shocked, that was his job to do unto others!

"Right, I..." he hesitated, normally he would have looked away, it wasn't right to gawk at a naked woman after all. However, that was a taboo as a man, but as a Ghost did it really matter? Would it have been more like undressing in front of a pet? Like a dog, or cat? "...have never seen anything like that before. I've got quite a few more questions now but we need to get you to some place dry, you're shaking." the Ghost decided. Tending to her wounds was important as well, but in order to do that they at the very least had to have some place where the rain wasn't falling atop of them so heavily.

"...we need to get those injuries taken care of too. That thing got you good. Hang in there. There must be some place...an outcropping or...something." he wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for. What was there in the jungle to keep you safe? A cave or something similar? Unsure of exactly what to do, he blinked around the immediate area, attempting to cover as much ground as possible. Her home was too far away, and she needed some immediate attention. He didn't even address the jaguar, it looked down for the count. For now.

[Growl]

Ari laughed. "Outcropping?" Ari asked. "That sseemsss unlikely, but we could try to hide beneath a bed of leavesss if you'd like, although, that issssn't likely to be of much help." The woman paused, before turning towards her right and heading between a series of trees. She scanned the wood, until she found one covered in vines, which she hastily tore away from the trunk. She then bent down to the coiled leafy green mass at her feet, and tugged all the leaves off. She then split the vine into several pieces, and tied each around her wounds to stop the bleeding. After this, she returned to the jaguar. "Well, I'm hungry," Ari commented. "Don't mind if I have sssssomething to eat." With that, she bent beside the wild cat, and plucked a nearby rock off the ground. She forced the rock repeatedly into the creature's flesh, until the skin broke. Chunks of fur tore away. She then put the rock down, and leaned forward, bracing the animal with each of her hands, she licked the exposed flesh. Warm blood trickled onto her tongue, warming every inch of her form. Mmmm that tastes good, she thought, before she bit into the beast, and took several, hurried bites. She chewed quickly, gnawing at the creature's side until she had satisfied her hunger. When she was done, Ari looked up at the ghost. Blood dripped from her lips and covered the tips of her teeth. The rain forced it to trail down her chin, and fall into the puddles of water that surrounded her. "Perhapssss we sssshould ressst for the night, I can't get much farther today anyway. Ssso, we will sssimply have to get back to Zinrah tomorrow, assss opposssed to today." The dhani curled up next to the dead beast, and rested her head upon his fur, which was now matted with rainwater. "Sssleep well ghossst," she whispered, before closing her eye and drifting off into a dreamless sleep. OOCHockay, one more post from you, and then the next day of this thread will commence... hopefully it won't be quite as slow.

[Auldwin]

Auldwin shrugged at that laugh, almost feeling chastised by it. Perhaps his lack of experience with this type of environment was showing. Ari certainly didn't seem for a moment like she had lost control of the situation. The Ghost had to admit, the woman was welled trained. It was almost as if she had been in this position before. Her calm mind and abundant knowledge of the landscape and how to take advantage of it was something Auldwin found himself envying. Though he was so far from being Human, there were times when he still wished he could have an impact on the life of another. All that effort to do so seemed a bit fruitless however, as the woman didn't even seem to need his help. Auldwin even found himself questioning just who, or what she really was.

Of course watching her get down beside the downed feline before carving into it didn't help. Auldwin felt fortunate that he had no stomach to upset anymore, as watching a woman eat the raw meat of a jaguar was...less than appetizing for himself. In fact, not only at the lack of a stomach, but Auldwin found himself glad he had no appetite to spoil either. The lack of hesitation in the woman when she ripped chunks from that thing was disturbing. The Ghost may have been a supernatural entity, but he was one that had let a relatively sheltered life when he was alive. Seeing the many things he had become involved in since he found himself thrust into this new state of being was almost shocking to his otherwise colorless senses.

He tried his best not to let it seem like his was distraught. Ari didn't really seem like a bad person, save for the uncivilized eating habits she possessed. Auldwin thought it bad enough when he would pick a pork loin up with his hands to bite into it close to the bone when he had with his wife. She hated that, and often criticized his eating habits. In order to keep her passive about his transgressions he always caved and resorted back to his supplied silverware. This woman was so wild though, almost appearing more animal than Human. Perhaps that was the truth. Instead of a woman that could turn into a snake, was she in fact a snake that could turn into a woman?

When she looked up at him with those bloody lips Auldwin found himself misplacing his gaze in the opposite direction in order to reply, "That's fine, if you think you'll be alright, I wouldn't mind spending a bit to regenerate my Soulmist." He struggled to keep his voice from showing the displeasure of what he had just witnessed. Auldwin tried to rationalize it repeatedly. It wasn't so bad, was it? He was a Ghost, a woman eating a cat wasn't so difficult to comprehend. All that rationalization didn't keep him from watching to take up a napkin and wipe the woman's mouth, regardless of what he could tell herself about the behavior she exhibited.

As Ari curled up against the creature she had most recently slain, whose blood she had tasted just a few moments prior, Auldwin released any cohesion he had with his Soulmist, allowing it to relax completely and simply remained still, his vision reaching past the simple trees and foliage until it blurred before him. It was the closest thing to sleep he could manage, almost like a state of tranquil meditation. The pattering of the rain was almost soothing as it's constant audible resonance echoed all around him. With no body to become agitated at the cold droplets, all Auldwin had to accept was the soft sound of the weather around him, and lose himself to it slowly.

[Growl]

67 Summer, 509 AV Ari awoke as soon as the sun began to peak its way through the line of trees, buffeting her with its golden rays. Her eyelids scrunched, as her fingers curled angrily. The muscles within them tensing as she fought to block it out, and stay asleep, for just a bit longer. But it was no use. Syna was back with a vengeance, after having been blotted out for the course of a full day, and then some. Reluctantly, the Dhani opened her eyes, and stretched out her arms. Every inch of her body ached. She supposed some of it had to do with sleeping out in the cold, in the rain, on hard, and sometimes, simply soggy ground. The rest of it, she supposed would have to do with the fact that she was injured. At the thought, Ari glanced down at her makeshift bandages. She could see clods of blood sticking out of the ends, which caused her to sigh, and gently, uncoil them from around her form. What she saw beneath them frightened her. Her flesh was coated with dried and drying blood. Everything seemed red and swollen, and generally disgusting. "Thissss cannot be good," she whispered, as she looked around for the ghost. "Morning Auldwin," she called. "You wouldn't happen to know a good way to care for a wound, now would you?" she asked, as she scooped some water from a nearby puddle onto it, allowing it to wash away the crustiest portions of the blood, and to cool some of the heat which coursed through her legs.

[Auldwin]

Auldwin had a lot of time to himself, considering he didn't sleep. He had all the time in the world, but nothing to do with it. There wasn't much use in foraging for anything, because he had no particular wants. The Ghost wished he could further help Ari, but really the snake woman seemed to know much more about the surrounding jungle than Auldwin could ever claim. Essentially he was but a guest in her domain. The best he could do was just wait for her to wake up. If she would wake up. He made sure to monitor her sleeping throughout the night, mostly making sure that she was still breathing periodically. A woman of her stature was most likely not going to be done in by such wounds, but infection was a real son of a gun sometimes.

Auldwin watched as the first bits of the dark sky began to turn to light. The night retreated in favor of the day, and it appeared that the morning was going to start out much better than the previous wet, windy, stormy evening. A good bit of dryness would do the woman good, plus it would allow their pace to pick up so that they could get to her home. He thought about what he would do when he got there. Soak up the culture? Learn everything he could? He'd only met one member so far, but she seemed reasonable enough, and not in any way afraid of Ghosts. That certainly was a beneficial personality trait.

The Ghost was caught in a spell of meditation, simply floating silently when the large jungle woman began to stir. He turned toward her and watched as she tried to shield away the sun. Watching her raise up on her own power was a relief to him, as all he could hope for was her not going unconscious again like the way the two had met. "Good to have you awake. The sun is out, so it seems the weather will be better than yesterday. This place in which you live seems dangerous enough without the weather against you as well." he commented as she looked over the state of her current injury.

He wished he had some good answers for her inquiry, but the man had no formal training in wound care. He had his share of injuries of course though out his life, and his father had given him a few pointers when he cut or scraped himself as a child. The best he could do was repeat the things he learned on his many Syliras laboring jobs, filled with strains, sprains, cuts, scrapes, and bruises, "Well, the best I can remember is clean it, dry it, and eat lots of meat. If you eat plenty, you'll heal quick. That's what I found. The water is a good start though. Makes me wish I knew more about plants and herbs and the like, just never had a need for such information back in Syliras. Medicine and everything else was always at your finger tips. That environment is long gone, but now a days I don't worry much about tending to my injuries. Probably the quicker we get you home, the better though. You said we'd get there today right? Just make sure to drink plenty of water, that's something else I always heard. Really though, I'm sorry for not being more help out in the wild. This is an environment I've never dealt with before, it's all new to me."

[Growl]

Ari nodded, a little dismayed by the ghost's answer, but not entirely surprised by it. She sighed, as she continued to clean out her wounds with the fallen rainwater, to the best of her ability. "That would sseeem logical enough," she commented, as she got the last of the dried blood off her legs. Red water ran down their length as though it were a stream, as she finally wiped the blood from her arms. "We will re-wrap them then, to keep the blood from ssspilling, and sssimply, have the medicine woman take care of thissss when we return." Ari looked up from her position, and around at the nearby trees. She didn't find any vines upon them, to replace her soiled ones. "Would you mind looking for fressssh bandagessss? I need to get to the woundsss on my back before we try anything," she instructed. "You don't want to look, do you?" she asked, as she placed one of her hands on each side of the bottom of her top, and began to lift it up, exposing a thin line of skin. She smiled devilishly as she did so, her eyes sparkling in the morning light. OOCI figured this was as good a time as any to acquire some new skills/use some ghostly ones... like I said before, I need to develop your pc's relationship with the NPC a bit more, before all the really good stuff starts happening. My apologies then, if this seems a bit slow. P.S. I realize she ignored your question about time frame, I suppose she'll discuss it when she's done/busy dressing the wound.

[Auldwin]

Auldwin had a pretty good idea of what he was going to look for, after watching what Ari had utilized to cover the injury upon her skin previously. So a vine could be shaped and prepared as a dressing? Auldwin wasn't about to question the usefulness of such a plant, and although the Ghost would never be able to reap the benefits of the knowledge he didn't mind aiding a member of the living with it. If anything perhaps it would have been good information to have should he ever need to patch up a Possessed body after an injury.

The shadowy man was just about to turn and start looking high into the trees when the woman started speaking in strange tones. It reminded him of a tone his wife would sometimes take. When she wanted something. "Hmph, you think someone like me has any inhibitions when it comes to...to that. I've seen plenty of skin while wandering this world. People are no more modest around me than they would be around an animal, if they even know I'm present. Any embarrassment I would have had died years ago." he replied most confidently, although he wasn't exactly certain how strongly he felt about his answer. Still, just what was this woman trying to pull? She was just so very odd! "And I still wonder, as an outsider now looking inside your domain...are you a snake that can appear as a person...or a person that can appear as a snake?"

Regardless of her answer, Auldwin would do his best attempting to find a vine as similar to the ones as she was using as he could. A mixture of his freedom of movement, the distance at which he could stretch his Soulmist, and the decent manipulation he had of it when Projecting was on his side. He allowed his form to remain un-Materialized as he worked his way around the immediate area, using Soulmist Projection to move various leaves and plants aside to gain a better visual on the vines that could be used to tend to Ari.

[Growl]

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ari replied, as she pulled everything off slowly. Erring on the side of caution so as not to make everything worse. When she had been stripped down to the skin, she lay back in the nearest pool of water, and trembled, as the water lapped up against her bare flesh. As its cool touch seeped into her skin and licked her wounds. She felt as though she could sense how quickly the blood was being drawn away from her. How quickly the water took it on as its own. It didn't seem to be doing its work fast enough. After several chimes had passed, Ari lifted her body out of the water, and turned to look at it. It was stained red, and if she really looked, she was certain she could see the dried crust of her own life force resting against the edges of the over-sized puddle. The woman sighed, as she covered her chest with her arms and waited a moment. "Any luck?" she finally called out to Auldwin, before waiting another moment. "Sssince it'd be bessst to wrap thisss before too long, when it hasss a chance to bleed again." The woman paused once more. "When that'sss done we can be on our way. It ssshouldn't be long, unlessssss it ssstorms again. No more than a day or two, in that direction," Ari pointed with her chin. "With the wound ssslowing usss down. If it ssslows us down..."

[Auldwin]

Mystery, Auldwin wasn't sure how much he liked that sort of thing anymore. The mystery of death had been revealed to him, and he didn't like what he found out. Perhaps his death was stalled or improper, unwilling as he was to move along, but it would have been nice if someone had told him that this potential fate could have awaited him. If he had known that...perhaps he would have never gone to that damnable Sea of Grass. He could have had an otherwise uneventful life in the heart of Syliras, living amongst the many, protected without a care by the Knights and their walls.

"I'm not so sure I'd like to know, but it's still in me to be curious about it." he called from his position, his Soulmist scaling the different trees, mentally trying to picture what it was that Ari had used. He found a whole host of leaves and plants. There was more wildlife here than he ever imagined. More greenery, more lushness. Everything was larger than he remembered it in the fields of Syliras, or the Bronze Woods. Everything was larger...and apparently more dangerous.

It took some time. Auldwin had to manipulate his Soulmist more carefully than he was used to. Over time he had obtained a certain familiarity over that Mist, and it typically performed up to his expectations. Only recently had he attempted to proceed further past his known boundaries, into the realms of that which he could not even comprehend. If his Soulmist Projection was like a muscle, then he would work it until it was a finely honed tool. "I think...I think this is it." he said finally, feeling confident in his recollection of the very same type Ari had used. Lashing his Soulmist about the vine he cranked downward with as much effort as he could manage. He felt the vine began to tear slightly from it's place up in the tree. Systematically he continued, wrenching as much weight downward with his powers as he could manage, pulling the vine side to side to weaken it's connection until finally it dropped down onto the moist ground with a soft thud. Wielding his power over Push like a proper Soulmist dictator, Auldwin presented the vine to Ari, manipulating it as best he could should she ask for any additional aid.