Beasts of Prey [Miharu Mindi]

[Siiri]

Siiri chuckled at the Kelvic’s apologetic tone. “Don’t worry. Garou likes to…” She paused, struggling to find the right words in the common tongue for a Myrian expression. “…to give me the rib most times and I usually let him. He brings plenty of skill in our fang with his experience. A strange one, he is. Spends more time outside the city than in it.”

She allowed Miharu to carry the conversation, just supplying a nod or a grunt of agreement at the right moments to keep the flow of words going, as she observed her. The girl seemed much more comfortable now that there were less people around her. Her tongue was looser, and her stance and demeanor more receptive to outside interaction. Siiri wasn’t sure if Kelvic body language was similar to Myrians or even humans, but she sensed the girl to be more open to her, and this despite the unseen archers up in the trees.

The Kelvic may think the guards were for Siiri, but in truth they were sent by Garou more to watch her than their fang leader. For all the non-hostile reception she received from them, Miharu was still deyhan – an outsider – and would remain under surveillance until she was fully embraced by the Myrians. It was nothing personal; Myri’s people were suspicious of anyone entering their lands. It was Miharu’s race alone that prevented her from being the target of Myrian weapons. Had she been anything else, and without a good and acceptable reason to be in the jungle, she would have joined the slavers – dead or soon-to-be sacrificed in Taloba’s temple. Siiri was giving her a chance to prove she wasn’t someone’s bondmate sent to spy on the Myrians or plumb the land for its hidden treasures. So far, Siiri like what she saw of the Kelvic.

And when Miharu took off her shirt, she liked it even more. “You should be careful walking around like that, it’s not only the men who enjoy seeing the body of a pretty girl,” Siiri teased. She noticed the Kelvic’s necklace and the curious pendant dangling beneath her breasts. “Why do you wear a ring on your neck instead of on your finger?”

She nodded at Miharu’s comment about being on top of the food chain. It was understandable; she was a predator in her own right but most of the creatures in Falyndar, and even some of the plants, have developed ways to predated on one another. That some of them were afflicted with dirism after the Valterrian did not help matters – many of the local fauna dwarfed the wolf Kelvic. Siiri would probably feel the same way as Miharu if she found herself in a foreign land where her surroundings were completely different from what she was used to, where creatures she encountered were unfamiliar from those she knew how to deal with.

“Do not worry about the tigers. They are a gift from Navre and are possessed of greater intelligence than the normal beast. They would not attack one who is not an enemy without leave of their riders.

“Usually,” she added, shrugging.

[Miharu Mindi]

The comment about her body brought a vacant blink, and then she blushed again - and finally a giggle bubbled out of her as she shrugged. "We're for a bath anyway, it's not as if you won't see my body soon. As will the guards," she said with a glance up to the trees. She couldn't find them, but she could feel them there, an instinctual brush against the back of her neck that told her she was being watched.

At the question, though, she dropped her chin and grabbed the ring in her free hand, rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger before finally slipping it over her middle finger - and it was obvious that it was much too large for her, a man's ring, wide and solid silver. When she pulled it off again, it left a tiny smear of tarnish along the top of her finger. "It was my father's ring," she said softly, letting it drop back to rest against her stomach before she looked up again. There was something vulnerable in her face now, an expression she kept behind the mask most of the time but that broke through at the kinder mention of her family. "I think it was the only thing of value he really had. Lliani let me keep it after he died, and her people didn't think to ask for it back when they turned me out, so I keep it with me. I had a jeweler in Avanthal make the necklace for me, so it won't choke me if I need to shift," she said with a chuckle.

Amber eyes rose, curiosity sparking in them now as her brows drew together. "And you? Do you have a family?" She wasn't sure how things were done in Falyndar, whether they had normal families with mothers and fathers and siblings, though normal families were something she had no real experience with. It was a thing she'd only seen from afar, like a child with her face pressed against a store's front window, yearning for treasures she would never have.

[Siiri]

Siiri watched as the girl’s mask dropped as she told her of the ring. Miharu seemed to speak from the heart whenever she mentioned her father. She probably wasn’t even aware that her façade cracked every time she spoke of the man. And it was strange. Every time she did, her tenderness gave off a sense of vulnerability that made Siiri want to reach out and comfort the Kelvic, an unfamiliar impulse for the Myrian.

The girl’s return question surprised Siiri and she stammered a reply. “I have… I never knew my father, I think my siblings and I had diff… I was raised mostly by…” She couldn’t continue, realizing she was about to speak of her aunt. Even after so many years had passed already the wound was still there no matter how much she tried to hide it. She lapsed into silence. Miharu had caught her unprepared, asking of such things. Siiri never expected anyone to bring up the topic of family with her, so used was she with everyone knowing her family background and history. And no one ever broached the subject with her, except for her own family. But she supposed should have expected it; Miharu was a stranger after all and knew next to nothing of her.

“Yes, I have family,” Siiri said at last. She avoided saying anything further by parting the fronds of a leafy shrub, revealing their destination. “We have arrived.”

Beyond flowed the stream Garou directed them to. It was clear and relatively fast flowing, giving off a somewhat musical sound as it coursed over large, moss-covered rocks. It reached perhaps mid-thigh at its deepest point and five Myrians could stand abreast at its widest. Small fishes circled in a shallow pool that collected at one point in the stream. This was a watering hole, a place where beasts and travelers alike would stop to quench their thirst. No predator would lurk in the shrubbery on either side of it. Creatures like crocodiles and hippos, and serpents like pythons and anacondas, preferred the murky waters nearer the Basin to stalk for prey.

A loud roar erupted from the trees above them. “Tiger roarer,” Siiri said. She described the contraption to her companion, explaining that the instrument was used to signal the main camp of where they were as well as ward off intruders from the stream. They should be able to bath undisturbed. “Only the brave or the foolish would dare venture near.”

The Myrian stripped off her leathers, leaving them and her boots in a neat pile just off the stream where the water would not get to them. Her weapons followed next, Slayer being handled with the most care, but left the twin bone daggers strapped to her hips. Down to her undergarments, she undid the clasp of her chest bindings, which was situated at the front. It was a tight wrap, designed to hold a warrioress’ bosom steady and close to her body so it would not get in the way of her maneuvers while in combat. Siiri had ample ones and she visibly sighed in relief as she took it off.

“Uncomfortable thing,” she explained to Miharu, adjusting one of the crocodile teeth piercings that adorned her teats as if to emphasize her point. “Leaves you sore all over, but it serves its function. Come, let us finish our washing quick. I do not want to have Kreesha’s party wait for us.”

Siiri waded in the middle of the small pool, soaking the bindings to wash off the blood it absorbed from the previous day.

[Miharu Mindi]

Miharu watched the other woman stammer and close herself off at questions of her family, but this time instead of blushing or ducking her head, she just continued to watch her with wide, golden eyes. She'd never really been taught that it was impolite to stare, only averted her eyes when she was uncomfortable - it simply didn't occur to her that it would make other people uncomfortable.

So she stared, a tiny dent forming just between her brows, as Siiri avoided the subject of her family and then plowed ahead through the bushes.

She flinched, though, at the Tiger-Roarer, dropping into a defensive crouch between Siiri and the noise - so fast it could be nothing but instinct, her back to Siiri as she growled a challenge to whatever beast was considering making them its dinner. When Siiri explained that it was a signal between the Myrians, she just straightened up, and amused twitch of a smile on her face, half-apology.

"I think it will take me a while more to get used to your peoples' ways," she chuckled, following her to the bed of the stream.

When Siiri began to strip, she happily untied the make-shift skirt from around her waist and dropped it to the ground along with her borrowed shirt. She watched the other woman undress with surprise clear in her eyes, unused to such clothing, and rather unprepared to see how much better endowed Siiri was than her. Or the piercings: that was new. Once more she stared unabashedly, even reached out a hand as if she'd touch her breast and explore the piercing, but the other woman moved too quickly and she snatched her hand back, as if afraid she might be reprimanded.

She followed quickly behind her, though, not wanting to seem as if she was delaying the group, and simply splashed into the water with a bubbling laugh. Much like a puppy given reign to play, she hopped about in the water a moment before ducking under and soaking her hair. When she came back up, she began meticulously combing her fingers through it in an attempt to get all the blood and dirt and grime of travel out.

She settled on one of the rocks beneath the water, leaving her submerged from the waist down as she worked to clean her hair. "I didn't mean to offend," she said carefully, amber eyes following the other woman's every move. And then, as if she hadn't even said the first part, she plowed ahead. "How did you get that?" she asked, eyes dropping down to the piercing. "Were you bitten?" She couldn't imagine how else some animal's tooth had gotten lodged through her nipple, but it seemed a bit of an impossibility. Why not just pull it out? Of course now she was just staring at Siiri's breasts with a look of intense curiosity on her delicate features.

[Siiri]

Siiri kept an eye on the Kelvic as she worked the dirt and blood off her underwear, taking off and washing her lower garment once she was done with the chest bindings. Miharu seemed to be enjoying herself in the water, splashing about like a child at play. The sight brought a faint smile on the Myrian's lips. The look on the girl's face when she watched Siiri strip off her armor was amusing as well; the shapeshifter must not be used to the more restrictive form of clothing humanoids wear.

Once done washing her undergarments, Siiri took her cotton blouse from the pile of her things and soaked it in the pool. The waters immediately turned a murky red from all the blood the shirt absorbed, before becoming clear again as the dirtied water was carried off downstream. She used the wet blouse to wipe clean her armor, regretting having to subject the tooled leather to water. There was no help for it though; Iami the armorer would have a fit if she saw the state of her leathers. Thankfully, Siiri had oil in her pack to treat them with. She scrubbed clean the blouse right after.

She joined Miharu in washing her hair and body when she finished with this task, dipping herself at the deepest part of the pool. The Myrian didn't bother undoing her cornrows, figuring it would be too much of a chore to have it braided again. Instead she just did her best to clean out the blood and any dirt that may have been trapped in them. All the while she felt Miharu's eyes on her, watching her every move. Siiri did not feel abashed at the attention. She had spent her whole life keeping her body in excellent shape and she was not about to feel embarrassed when someone admired it – no matter who or what that someone was. Besides, modesty was never a Myrian woman's strong suit.

Siiri laughed at Miharu's innocent question. Was she bitten indeed! She was reminded yet again that the girl was more beast than man. Or woman, in this case. Siiri stood up and drew near the Kelvic, giving the girl a closer look at her piercings.

“I wasn't bitten, no,” she explained. Taking hold of both ends of one of the piercings, Siiri gave a slight twist on each and both ends came off, revealing that the piercings were actually two separate crocodile teeth meticulously carved to be able to fit together and form a bar. The middle where the locking mechanism was located was thinner and polished smooth to avoid damaging the tissue of the sensitive part of the Myrian's breasts. Each end of the bar had a circle carved onto it, and within the circle was an intricate carving of a crocodile's head with is snout open. It was very detailed despite the small size, indicating that the effort to finish them must have taken weeks at least. It was obvious that a very skilled craftsman had produced such a fine item.

“These are gifts, from a mentor. These all came from the same creature.” Siiri indicated the piercings in her ears, one on each lobe to match the ones that pierced the harder cartilage near the top of her ears, as well as the string of crocodile teeth she used as a headband. “They are all... how do you say in Common... “imbued” with the giant water lizard's ferocity. And the elders say these particular piercings help the flow of milk when I have children. I do not know how true though; I have not borne any.” Siiri returned the piercing in place, wincing a little as the teeth bit flesh when she locked them in place. “I hate doing that,” she chuckled.

“Here, let me show you something.” Siiri turned to her side and displayed two scars running parallel below her left breast and traveled and curved downward to end at the side of her hip. The scars were faded, as if the wounds that caused them had been inflicted a long time ago. “These scars came from the beast where I took these teeth. I was on its back, trying to slash its throat. Its back plates scratched me deep as we struggled. It didn't bite me. It was biting... someone else. I killed it.” Siiri's tone started lively but turned dead as she finished her tale. She paused for a moment, as if reliving the past. Turning her gaze back at Miharu, she shrugged. “It didn't bite me,” she said again.

OOCCay: The crocodile teeth piercings and headband will be obtained in a flashback thread so I won't include it in the CS yet.

[Miharu Mindi]

Miharu slid off her perch as Siiri explained how her jewelry worked, and where it came from, and her expression somewhere between fascination and disbelief. All the jewelry she was familiar with was silver and gold, delicately wrought metal. These were different, held a deeper meaning, and were something of a battle-trophy as well. She understood the impetus for these much more than she had Lliani's tinkling silver bangles.

As memories fogged the warrior's tone, Miharu's hands lifted once more, only this time she didn't hesitate to trace her thumbs down the old scars as her palm flattened against Siiri's ribs. If she'd been in her wolf's form, she would have licked it to familiarize herself with it, but instincts were different with sensitive hands to explore it instead. Soft hands, too, that rarely held a weapon or tool. Twists of her curls, stretched out and darkened by the weight of the water, slithered over her shoulders as she bent to look more closely, face only a few inches away from Siiri's skin. The silver ring that hung from her neck fell forward and was tugged away by the current, but the chain kept it firmly tethered in place.

"It healed cleanly," she murmured, then straightened up to meet the warrior's gaze, hands falling to her sides. "You must be very fierce indeed to pounce on such a creature," she said, and her tone made it a great compliment instead of anything sarcastic. Those strange golden eyes were bright and serious, captivating from this close up. "They must have meant very much to you, this person who was lost to the crocodile," she said, her voice low enough that the guards wouldn't hear them above the rush of the water, meant for Siiri's ears alone. "It is good to see that you are made stronger from the loss instead of weaker. It honors the one who has died, is a pride to their memory. Not all who love are capable of that." As Lliani hadn't been capable of it, letting grief take her heart and Miharu's as well.

Her head tilted a little to one side, as if considering the whole of Siiri of the Snapping Jaws Clan. "We have much in common, I think. I'm glad it was you who found those slavers, and not some other fang. I likely would have blundered into giving some insult by now," she said, flashing another unexpected smile.

[Siiri]

Siiri did not shy away from the girl's touch nor did she stop her from feeling her scars. They were old and faded, reminders left from a time when she felt the ground beneath her feet was taken away, snatched by the hands of fate. The day that Shara died. She could still feel the burning pain as the wounds were inflicted on her body as the crocodile struggled to free itself from her as well as thrash the body of the woman that meant the world to Siiri. The reptile's scales were hard and sharp; they cut her deeply. And the pain...

Strangely, the pain seemed to be driven away by Miharu's touch. The younger woman's fingers were warm, quite a contrast to the coolness of the stream's waters, and smooth, so unlike her own which were heavily calloused from so many years of handling weapons. As the Kelvic traced the lines of her scars, it felt... relieving. Soothing.

“It was my aunt. Shara,” the Myrian revealed, any trace of whatever haunted her before was gone from her tone. “She could have been my mother, but...” her voice trailed off and she shrugged, chuckling self-deprecatingly all the while. “She shaped me into the woman I am today.”

Siiri gazed down at Miharu, her emerald orbs meeting the girl's amber ones. Her eyes were softer now and there seemed to be less natural suspicion in them than there were before. “I am glad as well, Miharu. I think you and I will get along just fine.” Her lips curved into a half smile, her gaze lingering on the girl a few moments more before she stooped to splash water on herself. “Come, let us hurry with our bath.”

Siiri turned around so her back faced the Kelvic as she splashed herself some more. Numerous scars lined her back as well, cuts and scrapes from her many fights, but they enhanced her aura as a warrioress rather than mar her features. “Help me wash my back?” she asked.

Unknown to Miharu, the Myrian just offered her a compliment of trust by turning her back on a deyhan – an outsider.

[Miharu Mindi]

Miharu was, surprisingly, able to understand the trust that Siiri offered her in that simple move, though perhaps not the context it held in Myrian society. But it was much like one wolf turning it's back to another - not the same connotations as showing her belly, no submission in it, but it was still an understanding reached.

Her own smile came a little easier, though it remained subdued, and she didn't hesitate to step up behind Siiri and offer the help she'd requested. Those same soft hands cupped together to pour water over the warrior's back, then gently scrubbed at it to remove all traces of grit and blood from the previous days.

"I didn't know my mother," she said quietly, her eyes becoming heavy-lidded with the pleasure of simply serving. It wasn't something she often let herself do - every other time, she'd suffered greatly for it - but it would be rude to refuse. And so she worked at Siiri's back and shoulders, and the bits of blood and dust that she'd missed in the cornrows at the back of her head. "Lliani, she was my father's master, she arranged to have him sire me on another Kelvic in Avanthal. I think she wanted to be sure she had some part of him left. He was older, you know, and we don't live as long as humans." Once her skin was clean, long fingers pressed a little more firmly, found the sore spots and knots in Siiri's shoulders and began working them out. "So I never met her. Lliani was kind enough, though," she murmured, though there was something in her voice that contradicted it. Oh, she'd loved Lliani, and would never speak ill of her - but she hadn't been able to make Lliani love her and that had been her failing.

That thought inspired a soft sigh to brush against Siiri's skin as she loosened a final knot beneath the woman's shoulderblade, and she smoothed her hands over the length of her back once more before she let her hands settle back into the water with a smile. "I wonder what would happen when I shifted if I braided my hair as yours," she giggled. "Do you think my fur would be braided as well?" A fanciful thought, and proof of how relaxed she must be to have opened up enough to voice such things.

[Siiri]

Siiri closed her eyes and savored the sensation of the Kelvic's smooth hands kneading the flesh on her back. It was just so hard to get to some spots there without someone else's help! She listened with interest as the girl spoke of her past, of this Lliani who apparently was bonded to her father. She turned her head at the girl's explanation on how she was sired.

“They could do that?” Siiri asked. A slight frown creased her brow as she looked questioningly at Miharu with one eye. Her opinions came out with surety, without need for tact or worry for censure. “Humans are strange. I do not think I could bed anyone I don't feel anything for. And the more you speak of this Lliani, the more it seems to me that what she really wanted was your father. She should have taking him for herself and not have you sired from some stranger Kelvic. Then she would truly have a part of him, and herself, in you.” She shook her head, a gesture halfway between disgust and resignation in trying to understand the ways of deyhan.

As Miharu worked on her shoulders and back, Siiri relaxed and closed her eyes once more. She chatted more easily now, a sign that she was getting more comfortable in the warrior's presence. And she had a way with her touch, probing Siiri's flesh for stiff spots with her fingers and skillfully loosening them up. A faint moan of pleasure escaped from the Myrian's lips before she caught herself. She felt she was becoming too comfortable, a dangerous habit. They may have guards up in the trees, but the jungle was still a deadly place even with the additional eyes on their backs.

Chagrined, her embarrassment a private thing, Siiri faced Miharu once more and caught the girl's hands in the water, giving them a slight squeeze before releasing them again. “Thank you, I enjoyed that. You and I should do this again once we are in the city. I like jasmine in my bath, personally. And I will help you braid your hair like mine,” she added with a laugh.

The Myrian moved to don her undergarments, not bothering to squeeze the water out of them. They would dry soon enough but at least the damp cloth would keep her cool on the trek back to camp. The same treatment went with her blouse before she put on her leathers. Her weapons followed, Slayer resting in its familiar place on her back.

“Fill up your skin if you have one,” Siiri suggested to the girl, indicating her waterskin. “I feel Kreesha might push the pace on the journey back.”

[Miharu Mindi]

"It's not quite so simple," she chuckled, squeezing Siiri's hands back - and blushed a little simply because no one had ever done so before. She followed her to the shore, and tied her skirt back on before digging through her pack for the rest of the cloth left over from cutting apart her toga. "If we mate with a human, it produces a human. Oh, a Kelvic might follow in their children, or their children's children, but had she mated with my father it would only have borne her a true child. But two Kelvics with always produce a Kelvic child - though one cannot predict what type of beast." Miharu was not educated the way most humans were, couldn't understand the finer points of philosophy or religion or any of the less tangible things, but she at least knew how her own people worked. How she had come to be. It may have seemed offensive to some, but she accepted it as much as she would have accepted that two horses might be bred together to retain the stallion's lineage.

She withdrew her knife and began hacking at the leftover cloth, inspired by Siiri's breastband, and when she was done she had another length of linen that she wrapped around her breasts, tucking the ends of the makeshift sash so she could rip it off easily if she needed to change. "I think, in the end, she would have been happier if she'd borne him a child," she said with a shrug, adjusting it a little before shoving the dagger and the ragged bits of cloth back into her pack. "I did what I could for her when my father died, but I was not... enough, I suppose." A sad little frown pulled at her lips, and remained as she untied her waterskin and refilled it. "It doesn't matter now," she sighed, and some of the ease that she'd gained in her bath with Siiri bled away, leaving her shoulders tense once more.

When she'd gotten her pack resettled, she handed Siiri back the borrowed blouse. True, her makeshift clothing covered little more than what was absolutely necessary, but it was less apt to make her nervous and easily discarded if she needed to change to a wolf. "Thank you," she said, glancing up at Siiri before dropping her eyes again, reminding herself that this was the alpha of her pack, and a stranger besides, and she probably shouldn't have talked as much as she had.