[Flashback] Teeth, Both Ivory and Metal (Cypress)

[Nustril]

Soaring on clouds or bounding through the open plains, Nustril's dreams were brief and pleasant. Snoring loudly on the ground next to the goat, he killed much of the time which Cypress spent traveling back to camp. As she was arriving he heard the cloppity clop of hooves on rock. Though his ears received the information his dreaming mind interpreted it strangely.

A goat was chasing him. Wild djed had warped it into some monstrosity. Gigantism was frightening when it afflicted a wolf or boar, but a dire goat was a true horror to behold. The goat, surely the size of a house, plowed through the forest with fire billowing from its bleating mouth. The tiger's fur was singed as he tried to scramble in any direction that did not have dead in it.

The hooves came closer and Nustril could smell the goat. It smelled like open bowels and soggy fur. Its hooves were beating down upon him. The heat of its breath smothered him. The tiger was sure that once it caught him he would never hunt again. Cypress would find a small pile of ash, and perhaps a few goat droppings which were both larger and blacker than usual.

When Nustril opened his eyes he found himself face to face with his nightmare. Tongue hanging out, one eye punctured and missing, the goat of doom was waiting for him in the waking world. Eight hundred pounds of muscle rolled away from the goat so swiftly that he seemed to turn in his skin. A loud growlroaryowl echoed through the mountains as Nustril fell backward into a tangle of bushes!

Once he was fully awake, and trying to free himself from the grasping hands of a particularly thorny bush, he attempted to play it off. Like any cat which had fallen off the back of a chair, or walked directly into a wall, he simply leaned down to lick his paw boredly. A yawn accentuated his disinterest in the situation.

[Cypress]

The sight that greeted her return to camp was both dumbfounding and hilarious. She stopped Dolanne just short their destination to witness the tiger up to his whiskers in his own personal war with an uncompromising bush. Luckily, she was there to witness the whole thing, so his shrugging off of the whole affair did not ring true and thus made her laughter even more satisfying.

"What was it this time?" She smiled, having grown accustomed to his vivid imagination over the years. "It wasn't the room full of string again, was it?" She flipped her leg over Dolanne's back and slide to the ground, landing lightly. It was then she caught sight of the goat and she beamed. "The hunt went well for you? I am so glad." She looked a closer and one eyebrow quirked. "Had it only one eye from the start?" She walked toward him as she continued to look at the goat.

On her approach, she reached into her pack and pulled out the tightly wound reeds. With a little effort on her part, she tossed the parcel so it landed at the tiger's feet. Her fingertip snagged the cord that held the goose and she lifted it off her shoulder, holding it up for him to see.

[Nustril]

Her laughter was met with a nose and tail tip both stuck high into the air. There was clearly nothing she could say that would lessen his feline superiority. With a lofty toss of his head he approached her with a haughty swagger. He would neither confirm nor deny her words. It was nice not being able to speak on occasion, it gave you the ability to play things off rather than be forced to converse about them.

When he saw the fish and the goose he shook his body and offered her many sloppy kisses. She had done well, and he wanted her to know that. Sure, he had killed a larger animal, but it was impressive for her to catch two. Especially given the state of her bow work. Not that he would say that bit when he gave her verbal congratulations later. It was only at the end of these thoughts that he realized something strange was going on.

One of his eyebrows raised, and his ears quirked funnily. Is that a fish on an arrow?

[Cypress]

She watched as his mind processed her bounty and afterward crossed her arms and have a nod of her chin. For a brief moment it was her turn to adopt that familiar air of superiority to which he usually had claim.

"Yes.. I caught a fish with a bow and arrow." A pleased smirk curled her lips, then it morphed into her brightest smile. "The key now, is to learn to do it on command...as well as on purpose." She laughed in a happy burst, continuing with a smile in her voice. "You should have seen it, I missed the goose entirely and nearly jumped out if my skin when I tried to retrieve my arrow. It went clean through the fish as if it had been attached to the bottom of the goose." She untied the cord from the goose and crouched. Using her thumb, she fanned the feathers back from the skin and began plucking them free, keeping them in a neat pile as she stripped the goose clean.

[Nustril]

A shimmer of light flashed as Nustril transformed into a very large, and very naked man. He shared in Cypress' laughter and walked forward to give her a hug. "Its alright. As you can see, I had more than a little trouble bringing the goat back here. Never kill a goat when you have to carry it down a mountain. Remember that."

Smiling to her, he leaned down and kissed her soundly on the cheek. Once he had milked the hug for all of the affection he could then he let her loose to work on her goose. Grabbing her dagger he walked over to the goat and crouched naked next to it. Time to skin a goat. "Is there more than one way to skin a goat? Or is that something else?"

[Cypress]

She raised a finger and considered a correction in his statement, but changed her mind, smirking to herself. "Yes.. a goat, and I have no clue as to the skinning." With a soft chuckle she went back to cleaning the goose. It was quite a surprise, the amount of feathers and down that she stripped from the goose, surely there should be some use for these, after all, they came in so handy for the goose.

"I'm going to save these. I will figure out some use for them." She reached into her pack and pulled out a night shirt. After knotting both arms and the bottom, she began stuffing the plucked feathers into the shirt for safe keeping. When they were all stuffed inside she patted the fluffy pouch gently, pulled the drawstring at the neck tight and tossed it at Nustril, hitting him with a bamf!

"If nothing else, it is a fine thing to throw at you." A happy grin tipped the corners of her mouth.

[Nustril]

The pouch connected with his well sculpted bottom with a bamf! and one of the pin feathers poked him through the fabric of her shirt. Letting out a little grunt of surprise he reached around to rub the tender skin and gave her a look through narrowed eyes. "Oh, i'll get you back. Wait till I find something that's good to throw at you. How about goat skin?"

He accentuated his statement by flopping around some of the skin which he had already separated from the goat. The kelvic was not good enough at skinning to sell the products at market, but his hands were deft enough to separate the fur from the flesh and produce edible meat. Once again he decided to demonstrate his rather extensive knowledge of sayings. "Mutton is a dish best served cold."

[Cypress]

With the same expression held by the fish wrapped in reeds, she turned to him, rose, retrieved the fluffed shirt, and brought it down on the top of his head, then without a word she returned to her goose. She worked now to remove any feather shafts that were stuck in the skin, it was painstaking work and she gave it all her concentration, pinching her fingernails together to pull each one out.

"Did you get your goat on the first try?" The last straggler removed, she turned to Nustril awaiting his telling of his hunting tale. "Tell me about it."

[Nustril]

She popped him right in the head and he flailed about uselessly. He did not want to actually strike her, he just wanted to give the appearance of resisting so that he could maintain his image. It just would not do for him to actually lay down and let her smack him around like that. Much better that he just appear unable to stop her from doing as she pleased.

"Oh, Cypress I was magnificent. You should have seen me. I found the perfect hiding place beside the stream, remember? Well, the first goat I saw walked right up into the water and started to drink. I not only pounced with perfect precision, but I killed the thing before it could even kick me. In fact I spent most of the day here sleeping. I was wondering when you'd be back."

[Cypress]

Cypress had no doubt of Nustril's ferocity, she had been witness to it and had great respect for his power, but his words smacked of embellishment, to put it kindly. She did not look up but instead began removing the fish from its reed wrapping. When she spoke, it was with quiet assurance.

"Knowing me, is there anything you need to add to your story?" She looked up at him with clear blue eyes. The look seemed capable of reading a book even if he'd swallowed it. That was all she said, wearing a serene smile of someone who knew him.