The Caretaker (Koh & Hadrian)

[Hadrian]

44th Spring, 510 A.V.

Anticipating a period of time where his energies would be solely focused elsewhere, Hadrian filled his satchel full of food in the market and even led an ill-tempered goat on a makeshift rope lead to the house he had helped Koh acquire. Looking around the neighborhood, nothing looked unduly different from the day before when he had left Koh to get comfortable in his new abode. This was a good sign: no neighbor children swallowed, livestock stolen, hell raised.

With a faint smirk of a smile, he knocked on the door, cursing the goat as it butted its head into his leg.

"Stop it, you little shyke," he hissed. "Koh will eat you for that."

The little brute seemed unfazed by the threat, but Hadrian knew it would be bleat-bleat-crunch soon enough. For a moment, the satisfaction of future revenge was mixed with compassion for the soon-to-be prey animal, but he sighed and shrugged it off. Circle of life.

[Koh]

Koh peered out from what seemed a safehaven for him, a familiar scent drifting around him as he laid there. He could hear someone's agitation from outside and the voice was familiar, belonging to his friend Hadrian. "Come in." he said watching from the safety of where he laid.

To one coming in, all they would see is the room and bed which underneath it would show the face of the snakeman peering out from underneath it in an unusual fashion.

[Hadrian]

Hearing Koh's call from within, Hadrian glared at the goat and tied him up outside. Then he let himself in on Koh's invitation. Blinking in the gloom, he keyed his auristic Sight to find Koh, almost like certain snakes found prey and predators on the heat spectrum. He smiled in the direction of the bed.

"I tied a snack up outside for later, and brought human food so we could eat together if you felt like it..."

He walked over and sat down by the bed.

"But really I just came to see how you were. I'm going to be really busy for the next ten days and might not be able to visit so I figured I should make sure you were all right for the time being."

Somehow the dynamic between them had become one in which Hadrian was the caretaker, making sure the Dhani had shelter and food. It was probably for the best that way, preventing Koh from upsetting the local populace with his scales and his hunger. Zeltiva was relatively cosmopolitan, but they had limits.

[Koh]

Koh reached out from under the bed and pulled himself out from under it. As he got up from the floor he stretched out yawning a little before taking a seat in front of Hadrian. "Gone huh?" he asked as he shook his hair a bit, trying to get it back to normal after having laid on floor for the past few hours, "Why is that I wonder?" he asks before giving a bit of a grin, "Then again I shouldn't ask. Thanks for checking up on me. I certainly wouldn't mind eating with you either."

[Hadrian]

"Well," he said, pulling food out of his satchel one thing at a time. "I have a magecrafting project. It's going to take ten days by my calculations, and I'll be so exhausted from set up, maintenance, and magic use, that I'll basically be in a torpor when I'm not at the laboratory... sort of like you after a meal."

He grinned and set things out in front of him: apples, cheese, cooked chicken wrapped in butcher paper. He ate a piece of cheese.

"I'm making an amulet to help this guy track down his sister," he began hesitantly, as if unsure Koh would give a damn about his work. He tried to gauge the Dhani's interest.

[Koh]

Koh grabbed the cooked chicken and bit into it listening to Hadrian. Torpor... Tired? He thought to himself, quickly linking the example Hadrian gave to the word used. He was about to finish the bit of chicken before he mentioned something about someone's sister which caused him to flinch a little. "Someone's sister huh?..." he said pausing to himself, laying the remainder of the chicken on his leg. "Do you know what happened to her...?"

[Hadrian]

"Apparently they used to live on an island east of here and some raiders or something captured her, so he doesn't know where she is, but wants to go find her. So I'm making him something to help him find her, but winning her back is going to be up to him. I'm not much of a battle mage."

He started cutting up an apple into slices to share, then popped a piece in his mouth.

[Koh]

Koh scratched his head looking towards the foot resting on his leg. After a second he grabbed it and finished it, "I see. Quiet troubling." he says before noticing Hadrian eating an apple. He grabs one of them and bites into it, twitching at the flavor of it. Koh then sets the apple he bit into beside him, "So. What do you think his chances really are? Do you think he can even make it back? A single man against an unknown number of bandits."

[Hadrian]

"If he goes it alone, I don't think his chances are good, but I will strengthen his weapons and help outfit him. He makes good money with his fishing boat, and I could use the money to help me get started after graduation... I will reiterate my warnings to find some mercenaries or something to help him with his mission... quest... thing."

He shrugged, hoping Hrair would take heed of his counsel and not only find his sister, but rescue her safely. Hadrian didn't want to be responsible for a suicide mission.

"Do you have family?"

[Koh]

Koh sat back and thought about this for a moment. The world family being those whom you cherished as those who raised you or took care of you. Because he himself was actually raised in a container in a merchants shop learning only by observing others around him, there was a list he could give as family.

"Well. I suppose there are possibly a few. The girl who lived in this house. A shop owner who sold me to the girl over a hundred years ago. Besides that no. I never met my blood parents, nor would I know where to start looking, and I've no real interest in learning of them."

Koh leaned back, resting against the post of the bed, "I hope he makes it. I hate the idea of people losing those they care about."