On the Road to Nowhere. (Aiken)

[Dastan Tyrael]

Daston was, in fact, confused. There was little indication that wolf men existed anywhere in the world, but nothing was sacred anymore. Anything and everything was possible, and the possible was moving at him at high velocity. A quick step to his left with his right leg put him at an awkward angle, less susceptible to an outright tackle. He crouched slightly as the manwolf came at him, giving himself more balance, and began to bring the bottom of Anwar's hilt downward, as the back of the being's neck was exposed. The Benshira tensed at his opponent grappled with him, tumbling to hide side while kicking up and using the flat of his well balanced blade in an attempt to lock the Kelvic's arm in place. He rolled through and kicked his foot up so that he might land in a submission hold with his knee on one side of the Kelvic's neck. "Now, that's the spirit. What's all this, then?" Daston narrowed his eyes as they moved, hoping his motion would hold true.

[Aiken]

Aiken tried to move, but noticed his situation was a bit less than forgiving for him. He tried to look, but his neck could only twist so far. "What's all what? Never had a little fun in the woods? By the way, what are you doing alone in the wildlands? I hope you know there are things more dangerous than me out here."

[Dastan Tyrael]

"Can't say I have. I'm from the desert." He tilted his head slightly, quite confused that the Kelvic was speaking. Though he assumed any sort of insult would probably not do very much good for his health if this man got back to his friends. Daston flicked his wrist, ripping the blade out of the ground and tossing it to his free hand before sheathing it. He pulled his knee out of the way and made to let the other man up, grunting slightly as he moved back. "I'm letting you up now," The Benshira prayed silently that he wouldn't regret it as he did so. "No funny business. If you want to have fun, we can. Just show me what I need to know to get around these parts. I'm not from around here, so I could use a guide."

[Aiken]

"Fine, I suppose I can. But I'm serious, you shouldn't have come alone like that." Aiken stood up and sniffed the air. He was a full five inches taller than Daston, and broader in the shoulders.

"Sorry anyway. My dinner got away, and you seemed like you would be fun at the time. Most humans either start running away," He brushed himself off and rolled his shoulders. "Or they attack to try to get the upper hand. Insulting a wolf isn't really the smartest idea either."

[Dastan Tyrael]

"You don't look much the wolf type, if you don't mind my saying so. There's probably more civility to you than to your cousins, and if that's the case, they probably can't understand me in the first place." Dastan gave a quiet chuckle before adding something else. "Mind you, if someone sees you like this, they won't think much of insulting you. They probably wouldn't be talking to a wolf, either." Dastan indicates that there is less of the sanity on his part by circling his ear with his index finger a few times. "And then you have the type who knows to play to his advantages. Like me, right?" Daston's humor was actually not all that great; he'd spent most of his life detatched from other people, even when he had been living with them. As it stood, this bestial man was the closest thing to normal conversation he had engaged in over the course of a very long time. As it stood, it was probably the best thing he could manage to get on this one's good side. Maybe he could teach Dastan something, and maybe he could keep Dastan alive for a while longer. Only the Gods knew what the Benshira's quest was. "So do you have a name or should I keep calling you "Wolfguy" in my head?"

[Aiken]

"You're lucky then, for me being a kelvic. A wolf probably wouldn't have wasted his time on you alone. But then again, they don't usually run alone; a pack would have torn you to shreds. Your cries for them to stop would fall on deaf ears." Aiken started off on a makeshift trail toward Syliras, which was only a few bell's walk away.

"The advantage is usually easy to get, if you're patient enough. Then again, most targets aren't so rough with their words, if they have any." He looked Dastan over, trying to understand what he was doing here. This clearly wasn't his element, but what he was doing out of the desert made him wonder.

"I usually rely on scent for identification than names. But I was called Aiken for some time, and I don't remember having another name."

[Dastan Tyrael]

"I've dealt with my share of wild animals. The swords talk to them much better than my mouth does." Without much thought about the ill fate mentioned previously by Aiken, Dastan smiled and changed the subject. He moved quickly to catch up to the Kelvic, looking around like a child moving into a whole new place. "There's this subtlety you don't get with training in the wild or in those high class training facilities. Its something you learn from street rats and brigands. You have to learn how to get in someone's head. Now, that was a gamble, seeing as you were just a wolf... but intuition was telling me that there was some intelligence behind your movements. That comes with experience, I guess." Taking "Shihab" in his right hand, he flicked the Gladius in a controlled arc so that it spun around his thumb, over the back of his hand, then into his palm once again. He didn't look at the weapon, or at the man beside him, just stared out ahead of them. "Animals aren't necessarily the most dangerous enemies. Sometimes the biggest threat is yourself."

[Aiken]

"I'm glad I came around here first though. I picked up on a different scent a few miles back. Smelled kind of like bear, but I can't be sure." Aiken listened quietly, still making careful tracks through the woods. He didn't smell anything yet, but that didn't mean that nothing was around.

"But there's something you don't really learn there either. You might learn deception and how to use those metal things of yours, but to do it against something 3 to 4 times your size, and for fun at that, isn't on your agenda."

Aiken sniffed again before taking angling more towards the right. He still had to rely on scent markers to get back to the front gates. "Basically, your targets have no variety, so you only understand one opponent. Different creatures act different in fights."

A rabbit zipped out of a burrow, and Aiken held himself from shifting and running it down. "Like me. I usually wait for an opportunity. A bear would have just charged right in and ignored the swords, and a cat would have used the trees."

[Dastan Tyrael]

Dastan nodded sagely, though he wasn't completely ignorant to what the Kelvic was saying. In fact, he had probably had more trouble from beasts in the past week than a healthy man ought have in a lifetime. With a soft smile, he just listened with no intent to respond outright. When Aiken finished, Dastan spoke up with light-hearted humor in his voice. "Ever heard the maxim, 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall?' Sometimes size doesn't matter in a fight, Aiken. Especially when the opponent is less intelligent. Thusly my problem when faced with you, no?" The blade spun flatly now, flaying just above Dastan's naked skin, in dangerous proximity in fact. He flung his arm outward and upward skillfully as the tip of the blade swung in an arc away from him, forcing the blade to go airborne. As it slid away from him, he spun on his back foot and caught the weapon by it's hilt, using the cetrifuge to increase the weapon's velocity, and thus it's killing ability. Being weighted in a highly skilled fashion, "Shihab" flew true toward the racing rabbit. "The problem with a feral opponent is that they don't know fear. At the same time, it's also their weakness. Survival of the fittest dictates that the strong survive and the weak die. Fear is what keeps us alive, Aiken. Our strength comes from our ability to use that fear to our advantage in times of need. Its the disconnect that makes sentient species superior to the wild." There was a sick crack as Shihab's blade skewered the rabbit and Dastan smiled at Aiken, walking to retrieve his weapon. "Hungry?" Dastan ripped "Shihab" from the creature's broken corpse, cleaning it in the grass before sheathing it. If there was some sort of larger creature, Dastan hoped that it would use this time to attack, thus giving the duo a chance to organize a strategy on the fly...

[Aiken]

"Fear is a driving force behind everything, I suppose. But too much can make someone freeze up or act irrationally." He watched the blade as it stuck through the rabbit, and he almost fell over with the death-squeal it made. In truth, he hadn't been prepared for the high pitched scream that rabbits tended to produce as they slowly lost connection with the living world.

"I might be, yes. I did kind of lose my kill for the week." As fate would have it, there was no real danger close by just yet. There was a den of wolves ahead, but they wouldn't leave their nest until morning without disturbance. The only growl was Aiken's stomach as it gave away his true desire to eat, effectively erasing the nonchalance he was trying to hold up.