The Cheetah and the Sailor (Urrezko & Daske)

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

Daske retrieved his pipe from the drawer under the navigation table, filled it with tobacco and was soon puffing away on it furiously while he stalked up and down the narrow strip that separated the two benches. Eventually he burned through all the tobacco in the pipe, refilled it and continued pacing the small space. Finally, having ignored Urrezko for the better part of ten minutes, he sat down opposite her. “So here's the deal,” he said looking at her intently. “I said you could stay here for the night and then go home. Well that's not going to work is it. I'm not much for guests, but you can stay here until you get yourself sorted out. Not my style to throw a lady out on the street with no place to go. Besides, you're the prettiest thing I've seen in a while. In both your forms. You'd definitely improve the market value of the Lady if I was lookin' to sell her. Which I'm not, by the way.” He abruptly stood up and went over to the stove where he started heating some water. “I have a little tea left. You want some?” Without waiting for an answer, he produced two mugs and dumped some black tea leaves in each of them. Then he returned to his side of the main cabin and sat down again. “Food will be the problem.” He continued as though he had not interrupted himself. “I have some more bear steaks and fish, but I'm going to use those to barter for some repairs on the Black Lady.” He paused as though in thought. “I could hold out enough to feed myself for a few days, but I'm not so sure about the both of us. Especially with your appetite.” He produced something resembling a grin at his own joke. The ugly scar on his cheek tended to turn his smiles into more of a grimace, although he appeared to be unaware of this. He absent-mindedly scratched the scar with two fingers of his left hand as he talked. “So we're gonna have to find somethin' to eat.” He stifled a yawn. “Damn, I'm tired.” He took in a deep breath and let it out again. “So here's the deal. Tomorrow we're goin' huntin'. Seems like a cheetah oughta be good at that. I figure we head south a ways along the road and then east into the forest. Don't know if the whole area's already hunted out or not, but we'll give it a try.” He abruptly got up again and disappeared into the head. It didn't take especially good hearing to hear the sound of him peeing. “How does that sound to you?” He asked as he came back out. He seemed oblivious to the ambiguity as to what “sound” he had in mind.

[Urrezko]

Urrezko waited as patiently as she while he paced the small space. It took him about three steps before he had to turn around again. He looked like he was thinking really hard about something, but Urrezko couldn't ponder on what it was as she tried desperately to calm her pounding headache. "Well . . ." Urrezko attempted to start a conversation about five minutes in, but quickly shot it down, letting the word linger to be forgotten. After anohter five minutes of her shifting positions uncomfortably, while she tried to get in one where her stomach and her head would stop hurting at the same time. Then he sat down in front of her and begain talking. Urrezko had never been much of a drama-queen, so she just sat and thought about what he was saying. Urrezko didn't try to interrupt because she could already tell that he was on a roll. So while he talked she took the tea and pretended to drink it while she listened. Urrezko smiled knowingly at his joke about her appetite, but her smile quickly disappeared when she saw his return. She had meant to but Urrezko scooted back slightly. It's just a scar Urrezko reminded herself as he continued talking, apparently oblivious. As soon as he disappeared into the restroom, Urrezko quickly stood up and dumped the liquid down the sink. She had never taken much of any liking to any kind of human food except for strawberry's, Urrezko never understood why though. "Well it sounds excellent. And Thanks a lot for letting me stay here" She said trying to leave his compliment out. Urrezko wasn't very used to compliments, so his casual remark had set her into a happy mood. "I can pay you rent if you would like? I could also pay for some huma- I mean normal food for you if you would like something more than just meat." Urrezko's mother had given her more money that Urrezko thought she could even use. She also wanted to help out Daske who was way nicer to her than anyone has ever been, but then again Urrezko was isolated, unintentionally by her mother, from childhood until now so she wouldn't know if it was normal courtesy or not. "And, yes I can hunt, I'm okay I guess." She shrugged. Her nausea forgotten as soon as she started talking.

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

“Good. That settles that.” He was relieved. “You can stay till one of us gets tired of the other. We'll share expenses.” He stopped and frowned for a moment. “I don't wanna be treatin' you like a guest, okay? You want food or clothes or somethin', you just help yerself. “Now that we got all that straightened out, I am dog tired. I gotta get some sleep. I use the forward berth.” He pointed to the v-shaped room just past the head. “You can have the aft berth.” He pointed toward the opening behind the nav station. “There's blankets back there somewhere. Just throw the other stuff into the storage area on the other side.” He pointed to the opening behind the galley. “You probably already notice there aren't any doors down here. So … not much privacy. Apparently that's not gonna be a problem for you. We'll have to see how much of a problem it is for me. I'm not used to a good lookin' woman parading around my boat naked, if you know what I mean.” Then he seemed to realize that that might sound threatening to her and added quickly, “But you don't have to worry about me comin' at you in the middle of the night or anything like that. My mama taught me to respect a woman.” He felt himself blush and couldn't remember the last time that had happened. With that he made his way into the forward berth, stripped down to his underwear and crawled under the blankets on his bed. “Goodnight Urrezko,” he said. “I'm glad I met you.” As he lay there waiting for sleep to overtake him, he wondered what it was about her that made him want her to stay. He was usually shy to the point of tongue-tied around women. Urrezko somehow made him feel at ease instead. It was a feeling he was not used to and he thought maybe he could learn to like it. Daske's Boat : You can see the Black Lady here.

[Urrezko]

"Good night Daske, thankyou for everything." She said. Picking up her bag off the floor. She made her way into the room Daske had offered her. The bed was bare but their were some sheats stacked in the corner of the room. Swiftly Urrezko made the bed, and glanced through the doorway. She could see all of Daske on his bed. He lay still, so she guess he might be all ready asleep or on his way. She stripped down, then transformed into her cheetah form. Urrezko had never really felt comfortable in her human form trapped in between blankets and her nausea went away as a cheetah. Hopping onto the small bed she laid down, tucking her forepaws under her she gently dozed off to sleep very aware or Daskes steady breathing merely twenty or thirty feet away.

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

Timestamp: 44th of Spring 512 The Bronze Woods, Northeast of Syliras It was mid-day when they came to the clearing. It was a good-sized meadow on a gentle slope with a stream running through it not far from where Daske and Urrezko had broken free of the trees and underbrush. Giant deciduous trees towered above and around them like sentinels guarding the meadow. Daske was hot and tired and thirsty after a morning of bushwacking their way through the dense forest. He started toward the stream but was stopped by a low growl from behind him. He froze, knowing that the cheetah had heard or seen or smelled something. He crouched and looked over his shoulder to see which way she was looking, but she had vanished. It was the third time this morning that she had done that. One moment she would be there, the next she would be gone. It was almost magical how she could disappear without a sound. He waited. After a while, a movement caught his eye. From the trees on the opposite side of the meadow stepped two antelope-like creatures. Each had a pair of long, thin horns that curved back over their heads. Daske guessed their weight at two hundred pounds. The graceful creatures carefully made their way across the clearing to the stream where they drank, sometimes looking up abruptly as though they heard or smelled something. They were too far away for Daske's bow and he doubted he could get much closer without spooking them. But Urrezko was out there somewhere. And he suspected she was a master huntress. So he waited.

[Urrezko]

Urrezko followed behind Daske, her ears pricked forward for the gentle sound of delicate hooves tapping on the soft dirt ground. Suddenly she heard it. The wind was in her favor as well, bringing the scent of the herbivore towards her, and not her predatory scent towards the antelope. Quickly and quietly Urrezko crouched down low, letting out a brief snarl to let Daske know that she would be on the hunt. Then slowly, Urrezko crept away from Daske, she needed to get closer to the antelope in order to actually be able to chase and catch it. She had wondered why an antelope had been in the forest, but it didn't matter. Urrezko carefully stepped over twigs that could crunch and give away her position. Soon Urrezko was withing 50 meters of the unsuspecting prey. She knew this was her moment. Halting at the end of the brush, she sized up the game between her and the lone animal. Urrezko already knew that this antelope would be able to jump long distances over the forest floor, which wouls be an obstacle for her because she wouldn't be used to the cluttered ground. But Urrezko decided to take it anyways. With a burst of speed, Urrezko was already pretty much on top of her victim before the antelope even saw her coming. But the antelope was almost as fast as her. Without hesitation her prey spooked an jumped easily five meters away before turning on its heels and running. But Urrezko was right behind it. Apparently this antelope had been seperated from its herd because it was crippled. Urrezko immediately caught sight her victims left hing-leg. It was shorter than the rest. Pushing closer, Urrezko reached out with her claws and snagged the antelope by its right hind-leg, causing both of them to tumble forward a couple meters before coming to a stop, with Urrezko pinning her victim to the ground. She knew the antelope would have a harder time kicking her away with his left hoof than his right. Briefly letting go of the antelope as it was trying to struggle back into standing position, Urrezko climbed over it to clamp her jaws onto his neck. As she sat down into a more comfortable position Urrezko immediately found his main artery and pierced it. Urrezko somehow knew this as a quick and effective way of kiling her prey quickly with little marks on the eatable part of its body. After the antelope lay still in her mouth, Urrezko stood up and dragged her prize back to Daske. With her nose stuffed into the antelopes neck, his scent overwhelmed her, almost tempting Urrezko to sit down and eat it righ there, but she knew that Daske probably had more . . . civilized ways of cutting up the prety and eating it. As she reached Daske, she dropped the antelope onto the ground, licking the blood off her whiskers.

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

“Damn 'Ko,” said Daske. “I never saw anything move that fast in all my life.” He rolled the antelope on to its side, took out his hunting knife, and slit its belly open. Intestines, bowels and other organs came pouring out. Daske backed away quickly. “Damn, that smells awful!” He reached in and pulled out as much of the animal's innards as he could, using the knife to scrap away whatever didn't want to come out easily. He threw a rope over a sturdy tree branch about ten feet up, tied one end to the antelope's hind feet, and hoisted it up so that it was hanging about a foot off the ground. He tied off the other end of the rope. He hacked away at the hind legs until he was able to literally rip them out of their sockets. He tossed them both to Urrezko. “First meat goes to you, my dear.” He cut a circle through the animal's hide around its neck and then did the same around the lower part of its front legs. Using the knife, he slowly and carefully pulled the hide off the carcass from the neck to the rump, where he cut it loose. It came out in several pieces, but one of them was reasonably good sized. “We'll get a good price for the hide,” he said. “Unless we decide to use it for something ourselves.” He spent the next few hours cutting out as much of the meat as he could. He bundled it up in the largest piece of hide and tied it up with the rope. Finally, he cut off the antelope's horns. “These things are amazing. I figure we'll sell one and keep the other as a memento. Whadda ya think?” He stood back to survey the carnage. “Now all we gotta do is get all this back to the boat without anyone trying to rob us. You should probably change back into human form before some hunter decide you'd make a nice dinner.” He pulled her clothes out of his backpack, tossed them to the ground, and politely busied himself with some further cleanup.

[Urrezko]

Urrezko let out a quick purr before crouching down next to one of the hind legs. She was glad Daske had a least given her a large part. It took her less than an hour to finish off the two legs, and lick the bones clean. The skin was shredded into a small heap on the side. She was a cheetah, but she had picked up a few human habits, and not eating the fur of her prey had become one of them. After she was done Urrezko busied herself with gnawing on the bones, patiently waiting for Daske to finish. Once he was done, she changed back into her human form. Dressing quickly, she walked over to Daske and took both the horns, putting them into her own bag. "Well, that was fun. I don't know about you, but it felt nice to run again." She gave out a breathy laugh. "Even though you didn't hunt much, I should probably lay off next time." she leaned over next to him, getting ready to pick up some carefully packed meat. "You know if you can hunt." She smiled at her weak joke, trying to actually talk to Daske normally.

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

“What do you mean if … oh.” Chagrined, Daske realized she had baited him and he had bitten. He produced a smile that managed to actually look like a smile. “I'll carry the meat. It's pretty heavy." He hefted the bundle on to his shoulder and they began the long trek back to the city. As they walked, they talked. He found her lilting voice mesmerizing as she rattled on about her past. As they approached the city, he had a thought. “Ko, I'm gonna by-pass the main part of town and get this meat to the boat. But I want to get a few things in town: some salt, sugar, pipe tobacco. Can you do that? Plenty of salt 'cuz I want to salt the meat so it doesn't go bad too soon. Oh, and buy anything you want for yourself. You should get a pretty good price for one of those horns. Hopefully enough to cover the cost of the supplies.” It was dark by the time Daske got back to the Black Lady. He dragged a chest top side and put the meat in it. Then he took one of the cuts of meat and went below to cook himself a nice antelope steak. “I am totally wiped,” he said. Leaving the meat sitting on the cooking bench, he stripped off his clothes and climbed into his bed. Soon he was sound asleep.

[Urrezko]

OOC : Moderators: I bought some stuff, I'm new to this so I just tried to give as much information as I could. And sorry if it is kinda long . . . As soon as Daske was out of sight, Urrezko took a detour. She realized that after the night before last, she should be wary of the streets. Even more-so becuase she is carriying some expensive horns in her bag. But she was a street-girl. She had always been and she probably alwyas will be. Becuase the city was still pretty much in ruins, Urrezko strode down familiar alley's and climbed over rubble, and through ruined beuildings. She was in the indoor Bizarre twenty minutes before when she should have been if she had taken the roads. She stopped by various shops, buying the things on Daske's list. Sixteen ounces of salt and a puond of sugar for one gold miza and 16 copper mizas. She also bought Daske two pounds of tobacco for 10 silver mizas, completely unsure how how much he used. Last she saw him use his pipe he went through two in one sitting . . . or pacing she should say. As Urrezko passed a special items shop she saw collars. Assuming they were for domesticated dogs or hunting hounds she continued but was horrified when she saw the tag. Kelvic Collar (Iron) -- 10 gm "Would you like to buy one for your companion?" A man came up to her. At a lose of words, Urrezko shook her head and half-walked-half-ran out of the shop as quickly as possible. Iron! Why would they keep us in Iron! Urrezko thought, leisurely strolling past shops to find a place to sell one of the horns. On her hunt Urrezko passed a shop that had a glass jar filled with tiny thumb-sized buttons. Honey Candy -- 5 cm (each) Urrezko had never tried candy before. She never needed to. A child stopped as well, begging his mother to buy him a piece. The mother replied with a weak no. "It will rot your teeth out," She said, pulling out her coin purse. "but okay." The mother gave in reaching in the jar and pulling out two peices that were delicately wrapped in paper. So Urrezko did as well. She pulled out two for herself then thought about Daske and pulled out another two. "That will be 20 copper Miza's" The clerk said, clearly tired to be in the still busy market place after sundown. Quickly Urrezko popped a candy-drop in her mouth and grinned as the honey melted on her toungue almost immediately. Popping the other in, she sucked on the two as she walked. Eventually After Urrezko dawdled and looked at all the vain things that she never looked at in her life in the bizarre, Urrezko neared the fur's shop. She figured they would buy a horn. Walking into the shop she strode right up to the owner who was on the short side. "May I help you?" He looked up at her. "Yeah, umm, I have an exceptionally large antelope horn. And I know antelopes aren't usually from around here, so I am asking a pretty reasonable price. I would like 50 gold miza's for it." Urrezko leaned down on the counter so she was eye-level with the man while supporting her weight on her elbows, clearly ready for the long bargaining to come. * * * Forty minutes of polite fighting later, Urrezko walked away with her prize. As she exited the market-place she started to smell a beautiful scent. Walking into a brightly decorated shop she saw where the source was coming from. There was bottles everywhere of exotic oils and perfumes. Urrezko picked up the first one, sniffing it. Barely smelling it, Urrezko squeezed the pump on the end, sending the fragrence sraight up her nose. Coughing and spluttering, Urrezko set the perfume down as if it would detonate. She didn't find them very attractive right now. "Do you need help picking out a scent?" A woman came up to her, very apparently trying to hide her giggles. Urrezko laughed uncomfortable. "Uhh, what is the point of these things?" She asked pinching her nose from the stinging. "Well, many reasons. Perfumes can be used to cover up body odor, make one smell nice, and attract the attention and/or company of a certain man of interest." The woman explained. Urrezko didn't know why, but she was suddenly curios from the last reason. "And how would they . . . attract men?" Urrezko said, looping her thumb around her backpack strap. * * * Another fifteen minutes later, Urrezko walked out with a perfume and written instructions on how to were it. The item had been very expensive, almost 100 gold miza's for only four ounces. But then again Urrezko had chosen a rare scent called Cherry Blossom, which suppossedly has a love potion infused in it, but Urrezko figured it was just marketing. As Urrezko walked, towards the docks, she read the insructions. She didnt necessarily want to use it in front of Daske because she felt embarrassed that he would think she was vain. so as soon as the Black Lady was in site, Urrezko tucked her perfume and intructions into her bag. When she stepped onto the deck, she was careful about waking Daske. She was sure he was already asleep , becuase his day must have been tiring after thier hunt. Once she was in the main room of the Boat, she pulled out her items. She placed the salt and sugar in a cabinet that looked as if it would have been a spice cabinet once, but was failed to be stocked. She just tucked the Tobacco in the corner of the counter htough, placing Dask's honey-drops on top of it. Urrezko saw that some meat was left out, but figured Daske had done it on purpose so she left it alone. Quietly Urrezko tiptoed into her room, putting her bag on the foot of her bed and undressing. Even though she was dead tired, Urrezko transformed anyways. As she laid down, tucking her tail under her chin, Urrezko eyed Daske. She could see right through to his room, due to no doors. Quietly and not thinking, Urrezko jumped down form her bed, slowly walking towards his bed. She didn't know why, but for some reason she felt the need to sleep with or near him. Very lightly, Urrezko hopped onto his bed, freezing to make sure his breathe was still even. When it was, she slowly crawled closer, curling up, so her fur brushed against his back. Within moments, Urrezko was peacefully asleep. OOC : Again, sorry about it being long.