[Pavi Lake] Eternity's Enemy (Naledi)

[Skylar]

30th day of Spring, 510.

The Valterrian changed a lot of things, Skylar mused, as he gazed across the surreal surface of the Pavi Lake. He was glad, in that brief moment, to have survived the cataclysm so he could witness such sights as this. He would not have believed after the initial disaster that the sentient races of the world could rebuild, even if it was into tiny squabbling factions and the same old prejudices. The same old tragedy and comedy.

Still, even if the people had not changed, the world had. He'd seen every nook and cranny of the old world in the thousands of years he'd roamed it. It'd take another thousand before he could be satisfied with the new one. Another thousand faces before he could finally glimpse himself, and at last...

Ah, he was reminiscing. Skylar caught himself and reacquainted himself with the sight before him. No time like the present for drinking the beauty of the world. Skylar had no real grasp on his own past, and every time he found himself thinking about it the memories faded away. It was just too boring to think about things that had already happened when there were so many things happening right now.

Skylar whipped around, away from the lake, as if suddenly expecting fate to prove him right and send some entertainment for him at last.

Usually when he did this, he was disappointed by the universe's apathy. Today was different.

[Naledi]

((Nahhh, it's not that bad. I can understand where you're coming from. Sooo tired xD))

30th Day of Spring, 510 AV

It was difficult, being away from home.

For a long, long time, she had been travelling, and it showed in the worst of ways.

The cat’s fur was ragged, matted and dull, and it seemed to hang off her skeleton like an oversized coat. The beaded necklace hung forlornly around her neck, somehow still retaining its original shine and glamour, although contrasting greatly with the sorry state the rest of her was in. She was limping a little; it seemed her right back paw had trouble bearing her weight. There was little prey to be found in the wilderness, and hunger and thirst wracked her body like diseases.

She’d just followed that strange animal sense that seemed to know where she was going. It led her to the wilderness, and it was a while before she stopped listening to it and instead decided to find food.

From afar, she spotted the strange formations rising from the surface of Pavi Lake, alien and elegant. Soon she was able to see light reflecting in sheets off of the beautiful, clear water, and the driving thirst she felt steered her toward it.

Now the cat was at the lake, sniffing gingerly at the crystalline water. Tentatively, she tasted some, and drew back from the shore quickly, amber eyes wide. So very, very salty.

Again, she tried to drink. The water was soothing on her throat, and she felt better despite the saltiness of the clear liquid.

A movement caught her eye and she tensed, the lithe muscles knotting in her back and legs, ready to flee. Not many things moved out here. Then again, she’d been jumping at the waving of the grass the last few days. Everything spooked her now.

It was a man, from what she could see. His back was to her, and his body language was expectant. The rusty-coated cat crept closer, picking her way over stones and through the grass completely silently. Maybe he had food… soon she was about three feet away, and her hopes of perhaps begging for food were high. She moved around in front of him, and two things happened.
She looked up at his face and the wind changed.

The cat recoiled, managing not to make a noise of surprise. The wind had been blowing away from her, but now it had changed and was carrying the scent of the man toward her.

Death. She smelled a smell of decay, unnoticeable, perhaps, to a human, but to her sensitive nose it was a stench beyond compare.

His face was pleasant enough, and it was as she’d thought; he seemed to be daring the world to do something, anything. Something seemed wrong, though; the skin was waxy and pale and there were bags under his eyes that confirmed her suspicions.

He was almost definitely dead. But he had moved…

Curiosity overcame her fear. The animal part of her was desperately trying to get her to run, but the more intelligent, almost human side of her was extremely curious as to why there was a walking dead person waaay out here in the middle of nowhere.

She mewled loudly, trying to get his attention.

Have you ever heard that saying about curiosity, and what it did to the cat?

((Whee for long intro-thingies. xD I normally don't do long posts like this... that's not to say I don't put effort into my posts... yeahhhhhh, I'm gonna stop typing now.))

[Skylar]

Curiosity may have indeed some fate prepared for the cat, but as for Skylar, he bore the creature no ill will.

He gave a long sigh as his expectations were once again dashed. He had none of the Konti talent for future gazing, and indeed he had once tried learning it. The consensus was that he should stick with hypnotism, and now he more or less did.

He had been so certain that the world, destiny, the Gods or whatever had finally chosen to bless him with an event of some magnitude or interest. He had been so certain that he stood for a moment, his back to the lake, his coat blowing in the wind, before giving up and sighing.

It was a long, long sigh, the escape of three score centuries of melancholy. The despair of a true immortal. He was older than some Gods and some entire races of creatures, and to live he had cast off all his ambition and lived a life constantly escaping the spotlight.

And what he got was a half-dead cat. He bent over and began petting the cat. "No, that's not right, is it? There's no such thing as an immortal. Did you know, cat, that everything dies? You've probably got another week and I may live another million years for all I know, but everything dies. Take heart in the fact that you cannot choose the time nor place."

"No, no, don't mew at me. I've been a cat before you know, I know what you're trying to do." He scratched her head, rocking back and forth gently on the balls of his feet. "Anyway, I haven't got any food for you even if I wanted to give you any, so there's no real reason to beg at me. I wouldn't give any to you anyway. I don't believe in charity."

He picked her up and stood, petting her as he looked over the lake. He was in a rare mood, and he could already feel the tendrils of the past that put him in such a nostalgia retreating back into the oblivion of his apathy.

He gave his a whimsical, sadistic smile as he looked down at the creature in his arms. "Well, kitty, I usually enjoy playing games with creatures but cats aren't that interesting. I like testing preconceived notions of morality and watching self-interest win out in the end, but you're nothing but self-interest, aren't you? Look where it got you, too!" He began laughing, slipping back into the realm of dangerous joy.

[Naledi]

As the strange, dead man before her sighed, the cat sat down and did what cats do best: observed. If cats were able to express their thoughts using their features, her expression would be one of puzzlement and slight intrigue. As she was not able to do this, the thoughts showed in her wide eyes instead as she watched the strange man above her.

He bent to pet her and she thought perhaps she should flinch away, but the curiosity held her there as effectively as iron cuffs. No human had ever made physical contact with her before, not even her parents’ companions, who felt it was wrong. Then again, he wasn’t human any more, but to her all he was, was a dead man.

Jolts travelled through her as his hand touched her head. Part of her was repulsed. A dead man, petting her? Ewwww. But there was a strange sensation in her chest, like maybe something was being filled.

The man seemed to be speaking to her as well, which was another first. Nobody besides her parents and their companions had ever addressed her directly. There were the few boys in the villages she had visited that would yell and throw rocks at the cat for sport, but that hardly counted anyway and the cat did not think of them.

She hadn’t really been listening, and had instead been pondering the warm feeling that seemed to be slowly filling her chest and softly purring with her eyes closed, performing the unconscious motion of moving her head into his hand and weaving around his legs. Some of his words floated into focus in her mind and the cat’s eyes opened, looking up and mewing softly. Yes, she was trying to say, everything dies, but you forget we’re reborn again-

Perhaps her thought had more to it, but then the man picked her up, and the cat’s mind went blank as the warmth glowing in her chest seemed to become a small fire. Although he was dead, the cat wasn’t afraid. He was kind to her, and somehow managed to find just the right spot behind her ear to scratch. Only contentedness was to be found surrounding her like a blanket.

Once again he spoke, something about self-interest. Dimly, she protested, mewling meaninglessly but loudly and many times. Cats, uniteresting? Lots of things were uninteresting in her opinion, but cats certainly weren’t.

(Okay, I’m really not sure how the bonding process works. I suppose it’s different for every Kelvic depending on what their personality is. Naledi has pretty much never had any contact with anyone so far other than people she’d grown up with anyway, so I figure she’d bond to the first new person to show her kindness. I don’t know quite how it’s described, but I think I got it close enough. Like a kind of completeness. )

[Skylar]

Despite the thoughts were coursing through the whimsical heart of the cat in his arms, Skylar paid her no mind. He disliked Kelvics as a rule, but one of the consequences of his age was that he almost never saw them coming. He'd spent the majority of his existence without having to worry about them, after all. They were a new race, and Skylar was not a new being.

So when he saw a cat, he thought only that it must be a cat.

He also didn't give a thought to her stopping his plan. Had he even begin to guess that she was not what she seemed to be, he would probably have played the next few events somewhat differently from how he did. After all, he had a reason to come here today, and it wasn't just to ascertain whether or not the lake was still there.

For now, a woman was making her way across the shoreline. Skylar looked up to her and hid a smile. She was a pretty enough woman, with sharp features and dark hair. She was dressed modestly and practically, and she regarded Skylar's unusual appearance here with some suspicion. By now, Skylar's skin was beginning to turn grey in patches, his eyes were baggy and dark and his tongue was pure black, he looked at the woman as she approached, dropping the cat to the ground.

"Hullo, what are you doing here?" He asked, personably enough. She regarded him with a cool gaze. "I'm making salt." She said warily, showing some hostility to him.

Skylar sighed, everybody made things hard for him didn't they? "You look worried, don't worry, you can trust me." He said, his voice laced with a hypnotic suggestion. Her mouth quirked into an odd smile.

Ah, power.

[Naledi]

Her ears perked up and she turned her head warily toward the woman approaching them. The cat had nothing in particular against strangers, although of course there was always the chance that strangers might throw rocks at her.

As she was put down she bent her body toward the dead man, staying close to his legs, weaving in and out of them and rubbing her head against his shins. The scent glands along the side of her head were basically marking him as hers to any other animals. The warm feeling was still buzzing in her chest.

The man was speaking to the newcomer. Talk did not particularly interest the cat, but she noticed a wariness in the woman’s body language when she answered. The cat sauntered forward, meaning to greet the woman and tell her it’s okay, he’s just a dead man who manages to find exactly the right spot behind your ear to scratch (yes, to her feline mind, this makes somebody completely legitimate). She turned to look back at the man and caught the entrancing gaze and the voice layered with suggestion like honey.

“You look worried, don’t worry, you can trust me.”

And she did. The bonding process might normally have taken much, much longer, but the accidental hypnotism caused something to fall into place deep in the cat’s mind, and she realised she finally found someone she could trust… even if the reassurance wasn’t meant for her.

Without really thinking about what she was doing, she changed, becoming human. The beads clinked together around her neck as she straightened and smiled.

Behind her, the woman, whose eye contact with the man was broken by the new obstruction, looked terrified and ran off. The girl paid no attention to her, and her complete attention was focused on the dead man as she continued to smile at him.

“I do trust you.”

(Yes, I know hypnosis normally requires eye contact to work, and she didn’t really have eye contact… but for the sake of it, just ignore that. Details, details. ^.^’ Let’s say it works differently with cats whose brains work in different ways.)

[Skylar]

(Since eye contact isn't all that necessary in the first place... sure.)

Skylar was rarely happier than when he was hunting, and this girl was quite the catch. She was a salter, hmm? Someone who risked life and limb in order to grab some of the precious spice from Pavi Lake's eternal supply and resell it. Skylar had concerns over whether or not that was strictly legal.

Oh wait, no, he didn't care one iota how legal it was.

Skylar's body was failing him. He couldn't deny that. His expeditions to find himself a new one had all met in disturbing failure. He could not fail here or he could be in serious danger. He'd have to do something regrettable to get another body. Again!

Something loathsome like grave robbing or corpse buying just to continue his existence was an affront to his nature. He thought idly there were some who considered stalking, mental manipulation and murder to be worse, but what did they know? Morality was subjective, and Skylar deserved everything he could achieve.

And then, that lifeline was gone. Spooked by the sudden appearance of this creature. Skylar's smile turned into a sneer. A kelvic. The cat was a bloody kelvic. No wonder it'd been acting so strange. And now, his meal ticket to immortality was gone. His anger was incredible.

He stalked up to the woman and did something he almost never did. He hated physical contact, it was such an unelegant way of succeeding. The woman, however, had managed to do something difficult. Annoy him.

His corpse-cold hand wrapped around her neck as he lifted her off the ground. "Trust me, do you? Trust me not to snap your neck where you stand? I needed that corpse to continue my existence. To keep living. And you scared it off like a skittish rabbit. Just because you're about to starve to death are you bitter enough to take me with you? Why shouldn't I just take your life and body instead of hers then? Tell me, you superfecund irritation!"

[Naledi]

(Ah, well. Maybe I should read up on hypnosis, anyway. I do have a speech coming up that I need a topic for. xD)

The girl made a choking sound. Her face held no trace of fear, more of confusion. From what she’d normally been taught, this wasn’t how things were supposed to go.

Although, she thought, the man was frightening. Her toes scraped the ground. Her hands came up to grasp at his.

“A body?” she managed to gasp out, choking on her words like every syllable was a stone. “Y-yes. I do trust you. I’m not sure why or how, exactly,” she coughed, feebly clawing at the hand around her throat – he was stronger than he looked and the breath was leaving her fast. “But if you do need a body, take mine. I’d be,” another cough, “glad to give it to you. I didn’t mean to… scare her… away… I’m sorry…” Her cat eyes were tearing up, and the first flicker of fear danced across her brow. It was difficult to breathe even shallowly. “I’m sorry,” she whispered again, hoarsely. “I-” –hardly able to even cough now- “I- I can’t breathe-”

[Skylar]

Oh, right. Breathing. Skylar hadn't done it in a while and he had simply legitimately forgot that it was something mortals needed to do. His anger had been somewhat subsided in the last few moments. In fact, none of his emotions lasted more than a few seconds. A by-product of lasting a few hundred years. The only desires he held for any reasonable amount of time were the desires to control and to twist wills.

That was why Kelvics bored him. He didn't dislike them just because they could sniff out his Nuit nature, although that was as bothersome as anything. He disliked them because their affection was hollow. Their love was fake. They didn't care who they attached themselves to, as long as they attached themselves to something, anything. They were like worshippers of a dead God who attached themselves to the first deity to flaunt a miracle in their general direction. There was nothing personal in their adoration.

What's more, Skylar couldn't shake the feeling that if he accepted one, if he tied himself to the mortal world and its passing of time, even for the ten or twenty years it would take for the creature to die off, he'd be forced to live in that world. He'd gain ambitions, fears, hatred, emotions and desires that he'd killed or hidden a thousand years ago.

He let her go, watching her fall to the ground. He couldn't resist leaning it to kiss her cheek with his cold lips. "Go home, girl. You do not want me as a master. This is my only warning and my only act of kindness to you. Follow me and you will die. And you will be relieved when you do so, for you will grow to hate yourself and me to such a twisted degree that your own body will revolt against you."

[Naledi]

The touch of the cold lips on her cheek made her breath stop again, momentarily. Soon it came back and she was gasping for air, her hand at her throat. Red stripes were forming, and she knew she’d be bruised.

‘I don’t have a home, not anymore,’ she said, speaking to the ground, her vision still blurry. ‘And I can’t leave you. You need a new body, you said so yourself. I…’ Steadying her breath, she moved into a more comfortable position, her legs drawn up beside her, back arched. The beads around her neck clinked as she moved. She brushed some hair from her face. In human form she was in no better state than as a cat – her flesh was littered with scrapes and cuts and her hair was matted and filthy. Grime covered her like a second skin. She was dreadfully thin, and her hip bones and ribs were protruding unhealthily. Her natural pride in her appearance was almost gone – she looked so bedraggled and sickly, her own parents probably wouldn’t recognize her.

‘I don’t have anywhere else to go,’ she said after a few shaky breaths. She looked up at him from the ground. ‘Even if I do die, I’ll be reborn,’ she continued, her voice becoming more confident. ‘I believe I’ll be reborn again and again, over and over, to always find somebody who needs help or a follower. So why should I be afraid of death? Or, if I find myself wanting to die, what would stop me from taking my life? I have nothing else in store for me, other than you.’ There was a devotion in her voice that surprised her. The words were flooding from her, firm and passionate, and now her voice took on a motherly quality. ‘I’m going with you, whether you like it or not. You need a new body, I can smell the stench coming off that one from here. And that perfume you use to cover it up probably won’t disguise it from humans for long.’ There was a note of something like defiance in her voice, as though daring him to try to send her away again.

And so, she was bonded to him.

((Ack, I think I’m going to have to do a lot of character work. She’s such a shallow character at the moment. Oh well, I’ve been meaning to redo her CS anyhow. >.> How do you come up with characters with so much depth?))