Closed Combing the Greensward

[Alses]

Timestamp: 42nd Day of Spring, 513 A.V.

Late afternoon, amongst the Misty Peaks surrounding Lhavit, fabled in song and story, and the orange disk of the sun turned the ever-present mountain mists into luminous clouds, reflecting and scattering the light amongst the dramatic valleys and dark forests of the region.

Wild and untamed, that was much of the Unforgiving which made up most of Kalea, but the Misty Peaks were a small region surrounding Lhavit that had been tamed somewhat, broken to harness by roads and Shinya patrols and that greatest of all civilising tools, the ploughshare.

Only tamed somewhat, however, for whilst the Misty Peaks were very pleasant on a summer's morning, perfect for a stroll by the Amaranthine River which chuckled and gambolled its way down from the high mountains out in the true wilderness to the endless, dark, mysterious expanse of the Ahger Ocean at the foot of Lhavit's peaks, monsters still roamed its untamed forests and dark valleys, lurked in caves and dripping gorges for the unwary traveller.

In truth, once one left the Amaranthine Gates and the safe road down to Port Tranquil, the rule of law and the protection of the Shinya more-or-less ended. Oh, there were a few roads, a few places, where Shinya patrols were so frequent as to scare most brigands and monsters away – but that was still, nonetheless, the key word: 'most.'

Alses' booted feet crunched on hard-packed earth and stones as she made her way along one of the many trails which crisscrossed that part of the Peaks closest to the city. With little in the way of any sort of offensive skill – having to trust to just her greater-than-mortal strength and a gardener's scythe that doubled as a walking-stick of sorts – she was taking as few chances as possible.

In her pockets was the raison d'etre for this little trip out of the safe, airy confines of the celestial city – a rather straggly, ratty plant that was even now staining the inside of her pocket. Apparently, the bunch of rather pathetic greenery was a rather useful plant called 'sky pilot' – which she'd never seen before, at least, not in its non-processed form – and, joy of joys, it was required for the Respite's stores.

And in their infinite wisdom, the masters of the Towers Respite had decided it should be Alses who got the task of venturing forth to collect the damned stuff.

Needless to say, the shining Synaborn was not a happy creature as she plodded along the narrow pathway that ultimately led to the Kinell Hotsprings, still a league and a half distant. Leaning against one of the many, many protrusions of twisted, striated rock that marked the violent geology of the region, Alses squinted against the bars of sunlight striking down between mountain peaks to gild the valley floors and struggled to read the notes she'd scrawled before setting off.

'Rocky habitat, she mused to herself, looking around; there were stark spires, crags and other prominences of bare rock everywhere about the place, so surely here was as good a place as any to find the stuff?

Then again, most of what she'd seen of the Misty Peaks looked like this. Still, no harm in looking, if she was careful and quick.

In the name of being careful, therefore, she settled herself more comfortably against the rock and began to breathe more slowly, more regularly, calming her heart from her exertions, eyes shut against the bright glare of gently-moving sunbeams strobing lazily across the dramatic landscape. Rough rock scraped against her skin through the fabric of her dress, and the ache struck up from her feet with a vengeance, complaining about the rough going.

'I must have been totally mad to do this in the dark last time,' Alses thought ruefully, remembering a wintry dip in the Kinell Hotsprings, and all that led on from that.

With a shake of her head and a mental effort, she pushed these concerns away, settled and warmed against the rock, feeling cool mountain air rush into the secret darkness inside her, stealing warmth and moisture before being exhaled again, a steady and predictable whispering flow that grew deeper and more regular as she relaxed.

A bird called nearby, its shrill cry pulling at her ears, dragging her focus away – and that sort of thing couldn't be permitted. Back to the heartbeat, steady and sane, the primal rhythm of life, feeling tight-knotted muscles unwind from clenching her bones, her flesh warmed by the sun and cooled by the shade, the pleasant bosky scents of the Peaks drifting around as she inhaled, exhaled, inhaled in a steady cadence.

That was better; calmed and centred like that the magic came easily enough to her summons, spilling out into her brain and painting the world in a billion shifting colours, scents, touches and sounds, letting her hunt for the sharp pinpricks of predatory creatures on the hunt, their stained auras standing out easily against the serene background of plants and rocks.

Stepping carefully, slowly – with the world overlaid by bright and complex glories, it was all too easy to trip over a rock or something, and in the Misty Peaks that meant, more often than not, a long fall and a messy death. Alses made her way a little further into the Peaks, fetching up in short order on the edge of a rocky clearing which looked as good a place as any to do some plant-hunting.

Supremely undignified, Alses got down on her hands and knees to get a better look at the physical characteristics of the alpine plants hunkered down in the many crevices and overhangs of the rocky bald, occasionally sighing as an initially-promising splotch of greenery failed the closer, more detailed inspection.

[Snarl]

Today had been a momentous day for snarl, he had for once forsaken the relatively safe deeper parts of the misty peaks, where ones his only daily concerns were to keep the wolfie human that hung around his camping place from gnawing on his sorry bones , finding something he could gnaw on and making sure nothing more nasty then the wolfie humans found the camping place and gnaw on him. Or if the latter didn't work, make sure the wolfie humans were slower then him so they got gnawed on and not him. Instead he had gotten the absolutely brilliant idea to try and lay in wait to the big stone covered trails the humans and other civilized people always followed when in the wilderness to get at their destination. In the hopes that one of the civilized folk would wander across the spot he was hiding at so he could try and figure out more about them. Unfortunately for him those trials were closer to the big many pointed mountain made out of shiny rocks the civilized folk nested in and while they didn't like him lurking around those parts, sneaking up on and observing civilized people before. They really became violent towards him after those other moronic zith tried to attack the mountain for some reason. So instead of having to look out for creatures that wanted to gnaw on him. he now had to look out for civilized people that wanted to kill him for something he had nothing to do with! 'Good idea snarl! Go closer to people that want to kill you. You must have lost your mind!' He mentally yelled to himself as he was hiding in the thick under brush of the woods. His wings wrapped tightly around his body, to keep them from snagging on a branch if he needed to escape if the people with sharp blades saw him. To consumed by the desire to learn and know more to listen to his common sense. His plan however did work out better then he had expected even, as one of the strangest creatures he had ever seen walked past his hiding place, horned and she looked as if she didn't quite belong down here. The ever curious snarl didn't need any more incentive to try and follow this strange creature even though it was armed with some kind of cross between a long stick and some kind of curved blade on top. He followed a few paces behind, keeping to the dark under brush, he knew people like them didn't often look up, so that used to be a good observation method, but his wings made noise and after what the other thoughtless zith did he was pretty sure that wing beats would at least warrant them looking up. While his dark coat blended easily with the shadows and the clothes he was wearing were also pretty dark and for the most part covered by his wings,snarl wasn't as practiced in sneaking as the hunters of the clan. Every so often a flash of blood red fur would have been visible in the dark, or a flash of an eye peering out from underneath some foliage at her. Visible towards the people who were keeping an attentive eye out for trouble. Snarl was getting a bit frustrated at his inability to close the distance without possibly getting caught by the one he was following. That would most likely earn him a poke with that pointy stick she was carrying. Especially when now she had just been leaning against a rock. 'What is she doing? Resting? So soft needs to rest after such a short distance?' he wondered as he kept still in his hiding place, pretty sure that the curious creature couldn't see him in the undergrowth. So all he needed to do was to keep himself from making sound and everything would be fine. He didn't quite count for how long he was hunkered down in the damp undergrowth, just watching as the creature was sunbathing or something like it. But he barely could repress the sigh of relief when she suddenly began to move again and began inspecting some plants. 'Looking for food? No, people can get food in city, they grow it there from what caravan people told me long ago. She forager?' He managed to get a look at a piece of the plant that was hanging out of one of her pockets. Making a face as he remembered his own encounter with that stuff.'Doubt it, nobody would eat that plant when not forced to. It stinks. But then why?' Snarl slowly crept closer towards the creature. Now that its attention was fixed on something else it would be a great opportunity to get a closer look at it.

[Alses]

OOCI know there's not a great deal to work with here, and I'm sorry, but I thought it would be nice if Alses got surprised by Snarl; it might teach her not to rely so heavily on her magic, for one . If you'd rather we went down the auristics route, though, just send me a PM and I can easily retcon the post, it's not a problem .

It was perhaps just as well for Snarl that Alses wasn't particularly good at being careful, at watching and observing her surroundings and, crucially, interpreting what she saw or heard. She was the classical archetype of a sorceress with her head in the clouds, all the more so now that she was (un)happily engrossed in hunting for that elusive, dark-green clump of sky pilot, moving across the rock-ribbed clearing on the slopes in a methodical quartering pattern.

It was for this reason that flashes of bloodred fur went unnoticed, the liquid darkness of eyes watching from the undergrowth passed completely under her sight – which was habitually angled skywards, in any case – and the various vegetative rustles: the snap of breaking twigs, the crunch of mast on the forest floor and the chittering alarm-calls of the woodland fauna all got put down to the myriad of small, non-threatening creatures which inhabited the Peaks' alpine forests – pika, squirrels, marmots, bobcats and the like.

Unobservant did not mean 'relaxed', however – she was highly-strung, always conscious of her own position, how easy or difficult it would be to leap up from her undignified sprawl and hightail it back to Lhavit or, failing that, to bring her scythe to bear. She hadn't much idea on how to use it offensively, that was true – but it was nonetheless a very sharp blade on the end of a long staff of heavy wood, and therefore useful for both cutting and bludgeoning. She'd had very satisfactory results from tree-roots and other substantial obstacles, back when she hadn't realised the scythe was mostly meant for cutting grasses, so it would surely be capable of doing some damage to an assailant.

Always providing she got the opportunity to swing the blasted thing before a bear or something bowled her over, that was; Alses might have been stronger than most mortals, but a bear could still pulp her easily, if it was of a mind. That was where her magic came in, of course, the ever-changing canvas unreeling secrets inside her brain and keeping her aware, to a degree, of her surrounds – even directly behind her, where Snarl was creeping up.

He went unnoticed - or rather, unheeded - for the moment, however, since his brain didn't carry the absolute sharpness of a predator on the hunt, every thought directed to the prey, the quarry, narrowing down to the final leap and the crunch of bone, the shrill squeal of fear and pain that marked the transition from 'living creature' to 'lunch'.

A waft of stinking air, redolent with the once-smelt and never-forgotten reek of crushed sky pilot, distracted her, caused her to cough and gag, filling the air with muttered imprecations against Syna and Caiyha as – contrary to all common sense, she began to follow her protesting nose, using the long shaft of her scythe as a lever and balance both, propelling herself up the stepped ledges which bordered the forests nearby.

“Where in the name of Syna's flaming knickers is this blasted stuff?” Alses asked the Misty Peaks in general, perhaps louder than she'd intended, scouring the vicinity for the small plant, now absorbed by the challenge of finding it – wherever it was.

'Rocky habitat, check,' she thought, pacing slowly over the broken ground, rocks and pebbles scattering away from her boots and the butt of her scythe. The chuckling sound of one of the innumerable small streams which poured down the mountainsides caressed her ears, and she smiled as the rocks grew damper, fringed with mosses and with ferns uncurling shyly in their crevices. More hospitable for most things – just not sky pilot.

'Ah, this is a bit too wet, I think...need to go higher and drier...' that was the joy of the Peaks; everything was so changeable, and in a few short steps there was chalk and limestone in abundance and what little soil as existed on the slopes was dry as a bone. 'This looks about right,' she thought, resting for a moment and feeling the sting of hard-worked muscles in her legs.

Was that a flash of greenery, just a little higher? Perhaps. Her mind was filled with thoughts of finding a swathe of the stuff, cutting it and cramming it into her backpack and then hightailing it back to the glittering safety of the celestial city, so she set to with a will, scrambling up the rocky slopes to get a better look, lying prone as she jammed her hand into a cleft in the rock and pulled, gently and firmly, dragging a clump of foliage – yes, that was sky pilot, at last, hunkered down in the shade of the rocks, sheltered from the howling winds and drinking the condensation which rolled down from the regular mists – out into the light with a triumphant laugh.

She needed more, though – one plant wasn't enough, and so she laid it gently beside her, breathing shallowly and through her mouth to counteract most of the smell – and so she remained there, methodically pulling more plants from the rocky cranny where they'd grown, blameless and undisturbed.

[Snarl]

The longer Snarl had been observing the woman from his hiding place in the under brush the more questions that began plaguing his mind and the less answers he actually managed to glean from the creature? 'She is collecting the stinky stinky stinky plant, why? Plant is not good for eating. But she still gathering it.' Snarl marvelled at the lengths the civilized person went through to gather the stinky plants. 'Civilized people know things though, they don't gather stuff or do things just for fun, always a reason for it. Especially if the stuff they do isn't fun.' He cocked his head to the side as the creature let out a curse. He didn't have a clue what a syna was or even what knickers were. But one didn't need to understand the language of a curse to get the intention of it. The tone got that through most of the time. Snarl followed the creature as stealthily as it could. Just shaking his head in disbelief when he actually saw it awkwardly trying to climb the rocky mountain. Most likely to get her hands on some more of that plant. Now Snarl knew that plant had to be important for a reason only the civilized folks knew. The creature, strange as it was, didn't have any wings. And last time he checked the rocks around here weren't only very hard, but also pretty pointy at parts. If she fell it probably would be painful. Risking pain and injury for something useless would be completely stupid and he knew civilized folks were anything but stupid. Its why they chose to become civilized wasn't it. The question of why she was gathering it squirmed around in his mind, he just couldn't get the why figured out by himself and observation only brought him so far. The only way he would be getting answers is by asking her. But every time he tries to do that people are trying to cut him, beat him or otherwise try to hurt him. 'How can snarl show strange creature that snarl just wants to talk, that snarl isn't dangerous?' He perked up as soon as the answer came to him. It was just so obvious. He slowly and carefully stepped out of his hiding place, staying a good way away from the woman and her sharp weapon thingy. Not that hard since she was all up there and he all down here. He was nervously wringing his hands, his wings tense. Ready to take of and get the hell out of there if things went badly. “You looking for the stinky stinky stinky plant yes? Plants grow up high and falling hurts hurts. Snarl can fly, easier for snarl to get to plants.” He said with a wide smile, he knew civilized people smiled when they wanted to be harmless, he didn't get that though. Since when was showing of your teeth not aggressive? but if civilized people did it then so would he.

[Alses]

Alses was flat on her front and squinting furiously as her fingers worked at a stubborn sky pilot plant when suddenly, a voice from below shattered the stillness of the Peaks:

“You looking for the stinky stinky stinky plant yes? Plants grow up high and falling hurts hurts. Snarl can fly, easier for snarl to get to plants.”

“What the-” Alses began, turning to try and see who was addressing her – and in such an odd fashion, as well, but got no more than half her sentence out before the scree under her shifted and slid, sending pebbles bouncing down the terraced ledges she'd clambered up. A brief cry Dopplered up to the clear blue sky even as the Ethaefal slid amid the tumbling gravel, but then one grasping arm caught tight around a protrusion of rock and jerked her to a halt before her slide had even really started.

The only sound nearby, for several moments, was that of Alses' harsh, shocked breath wheezing in and out of her lungs and that of gravel impacting and bouncing off the rocky ledges, ricocheting off the narrow path and out into the hungry emptiness of the valleys, dropping dramatically away into mist-hazed distances.

“Well,” she murmured, mostly to herself and slightly dazed “That was moderately unpleasant.” Taking stock of her surroundings, she found that (thankfully) she'd not slid far at all, and indeed there was a large shelf of stable-looking rock nearby that should be easy to get to, even for her.

A short, undignified scramble later, coupled with a few extra showers of scree which bounced into oblivion many feet below, Alses was in a rather more stable position from which to take stock of her surrounds. The shock of her slip – and the radiating pain from long, though shallow, scratches where rocks had met skin and won - had banished the deeper beauties of the world, and since that was her primary method of keeping herself safe from the organic dangers of the Peaks, she scrabbled to regain her equilibrium and bring it back.

Hastily, Alses grabbed at the fading strands of synchrony all around her, plunging a phantom hand deep inside herself, hauling up bright coruscating spires of djed from the deep reserves around her soul and ravelling that primal energy through her mental fingers, spinning it with a twist and a flick into bright spears and hurling them into the djed-limned darkness of her senses.

As a consequence of her hasty synchrony, the auras didn't scribble themselves into prominence in an ordered progression, no, they burst into her vision like fireworks, battering her mind with a welter of colours and sounds and scents and spectral touches as the shallow world most saw as the 'real' one dropped away into insignificance next to the magnificence of an aurist's landscape.

“Ow...” Alses murmured feebly, when most of the unfurling display seemed to have settled. “Sloppy, Alse,” she admonished herself and the world in general, wincing as a headache made itself known over her left eye, a consequence of her rapid immersion in auristic power.

Still, she had her synchrony back, and as she gazed down towards the trail some way below, Snarl's aura flared and flashed, obvious now to her augmented senses, now that she was looking for it and most especially since it wasn't mantled and confused by the dripping vegetation all around the path.

It was an odd aura, to be sure, Alses decided, after unerringly homing in on it and scrutinizing it as best she could from afar. Small, almost seeming crushed in on itself, and in constant nervous motion, too, as though the person it mantled and obscured was perpetually on the brink of flight. Quite nauseating to watch for any real length of time and definitely unusual, yes, but certainly sentient and not something on the prowl for its dinner.

“Well, that was fun, whoever you are,” she called, sarcasm crackling in every word. “Novel killing technique, surprise. Who are you, and what was that about flying?” Alses was recovering quickly from the shock of her brief fall, Syna's orange light setting her fire-opal hide alight and buoying her spirits and confidence both. “Are you one of the Shinya?” she asked, as an outside chance. “What are you doing out of Lhavit, anyway?” she added, squinting to see through the auras which covered her vision and the dappling shadows which broke up outlines and made it even harder for her to make anything out.

[Snarl]

Snarl winched in sympathy as the strange creature looked downwards towards him and the ground gave out, letting the creature slide down the gravely ground with a surprised yelp. Luckily the creature managed to catch a rock to prevent a longer slide. That was pretty good too, he couldn't really ask questions to a flat carcass. They really didn't have much to say anymore. 'That has to hurt hurt.' Snarl thought as he noticed the obvious small streaks of red blood dotting the creatures body The few tense moments that the creature was getting its bearing back felt way longer then they had any right to be. This was it, either the creature tried to attack him with that sharp blade on a stick or the creature would accept his offer and he could start wrangling information about what the creature was doing here and other stuff snarl wanted to know out of the creature. Snarl gave her a blank look when the first sentence out of the creatures mouth was that. He didn't know the word for sarcasm, but he did know what it was. And couldn't help shooting of his mouth in return. 'strange civilized folk that creature is.' “Snarl doesn't think falling and getting hurt hurt is fun. But who is snarl to talk.” he said. you could almost hear him rolling his eyes.His wings just slightly relaxing. It didn't seem the creature would be attacking him right away at least. “Snarl said snarl could fly towards stinky stinky stinky plants so strange creature doesn't have to risk getting hurt. Easier to fly then to climb.” He cocked his head to the side in confusion when the creature asked him if snarl was shinya. “Strange question. Snarl is snarl, told you so. Not shinya. Why outside of lhavit?” Snarl didn't know the word, but seeing as the creature came from the big shiny rocks on the mountains it wasn't to much of a stretch to figure that one out. ”Snarl lives outside of the big shiny nests nests on top of the big mountains. Though snarl would like to live inside of them.” The last part was punctuated by a quick look towards one of the mountains of lhavit. “Why are you looking for the stinky stinky stinky plant? And do you need some help with getting it? Strange creature is horrible at climbing.”

[Alses]

“Falling isn't fun,” Alses called back with a sigh, absently touching the long scratches with a free hand – brilliant true-blue light flashed along them, and in its wake her skin restitched itself in an instant.

“We wouldn't say no to some help; you're quite right we're dreadful at climbing. Mountaineering isn't my strong suit, and the Respite in its infinite wisdom needs this stuff-” she brandished the sorry greenery “-to turn into altitude-sickness philtres.”

She squinted down, her eyes confused by the harsh blocks of light and shadow cast by the slowly-sinking sun and the peaks. Just as Alses was about to call for her mysterious companion to show himself a little more clearly – all her eyes had been able to pick out was a darker, vaguely humanoid figure wrapped in some sort of heavy cloak - a shaft of sunlight fell foursquare across the path, letting her see him much more clearly, limning his fur in shifting light and exposing what she'd taken as a travelling cloak to be wings; the words died a-borning in her throat as she jerked back slightly, a total reflex action, even as her hands scrabbled for a weapon, any weapon.

They closed around the scythe's polished handle and whipped it up and round to rest in front of her, a crescent of sharp metal between her and the monster below on the path, held low and ready to part flesh from bone as easily as it had chopped apart tree-roots and scythed down swathes of grasses. Alses had no formal training in combat stances; the low centre of gravity was simply common sense, the result of overbalancing in the garden several times until she'd stumbled on a position that didn't dump her on her behind after a swing.

'ZITH!' the majority of her brain was screaming, filling it with all the manifold images of the shrieking winged monsters charging down the serene skyglass streets of Lhavit, their stink and screeches filling the air, the clash of metal and claws on armour or skyglass, the occasional heart-rending scream as claws or Shinya blades found their mark.

But...Zith were ravening monsters that killed and tore and destroyed and carried off Okomo...they didn't stop to chat with all and sundry as they attacked.

So how could someone have the skin of a Zith and the attitude of...well, someone entirely different? Unless this was a completely new tactic they were trying – but then again, Zith weren't intelligent enough for that, surely? They weren't sentient, were they? Sapient, maybe, but sentient? Surely not.

Alses, a longtime resident of Lhavit, put two and two together and made five, relaxing ever so slightly after several tensed chimes and letting the bright gleam of scythe metal dip. “Are you a Morpher?” she called, slightly shakily. “Living with the monsters of the Peaks?” Alses thought the morpher mage – as she assumed Snarl to be - was out here with the savages to keep tabs on the Misty Peaks, or for some other Twilight Tower purpose – perhaps aiding the Shinya with aerial reconnaissance of the Peaks. “Taking the form of one of those Zith isn't exactly funny, you know. Skilful, we'll give you, but in colossally bad taste; if you'd been closer I'd have gutted you! Come up here,” she commanded, with the casual arrogance of an Ethaefal used to Lhavit's favour “And we'll see if you're as good at climbing as you profess in that shape.”

That would also bring him within easy striking range, if necessary. It'd also be easier to talk to the mischievous Morpher close-to, without her having to shout and without him resorting to simple, repetitive sentences to make himself understood.

[Snarl]

“Snarl sees that obviously.” snarl replied in a deadpan at the creature's comment that it was dreadful at climbing. He was slightly relaxing now the creature was simply talking to him even though snarl couldn't understand half of the strange words it was using. “Altitude sickness philtres? Respite? Snarl not knowing what those are. Is those things worth risking breaking yourself for?” He managed to ask before a ray off the sun shone down on snarl. Then all hell broke lose. Snarl's eyes went wide with horror as the creature jerked back and its hands grasped the long stick with the sharp metal blade on top, brandishing it towards him. Before snarl could even think he had already unfurled his wings and with a few wing beats had launched himself upwards towards one of the taller trees in the vicinity. He awkwardly landed on one of the ticker, higher branches, using his claws to keep him firmly anchored to the branch. “No hurting snarl! Snarl hasn't done anything bad!” He yelled at the creature in a high pitched panicky voice. His wings twitching as cowardly nature was urging him to take flight and get out of there. But his curiosity still had snarl in an iron grip and he simply refused to let go of this interesting creature. Just as sudden as the creature had started to swing around with the sharp blade on a stick it stopped, seemingly calmed down and started talking again. Once again more then half the words the creature was saying went straight over snarl's head but he got the general gist of it. Come down so we can talk. “Ha! Snarl not knowing much about what creature is talking about, but snarl not stupid! Snarl stays up here far far away from sharp stick!” he shot back in an agitated tone. Regaining his wits now that he was far away from the weapon. Not to mention that the creature couldn't possibly manage to climb up the tree fast enough to get to him. Not without him taking flight once more anyway. “Now what did you mean with this.. morphing..” Snarl took his time with the unfamiliar word.”or taking other shapes. Snarl was born snarl, never was anything else then Snarl.”

[Alses]

Alses' knuckles whitened around the scythe handles as Snarl quickly and efficiently – although not intentionally – closed down that particular avenue of elision, leaving Alses with a selection of unpalatable conclusions to draw from his behaviour and appearance, laid against the auristic impressions she'd got from his mind at a distance.

Ungainly, but unsettlingly fast, that was the impression Alses got of him as he shot into the air as though he'd suddenly taken an arrow to the arse, wings mashing awkwardly at the air as he fought for height and then near crash-landed into the heights of one of the pine trees lining the pathway, hunched on a branch and looking for all the world like an incongruous gargoyle, if your tastes ran to red.

In fairness, the rational part of her mind argued, he – for 'Snarl' was surely a masculine name - seemed just as afraid of her as she was of him – mutual terror seemed to be the order of the day between shining Ethaefal and monstrous Zith.

'Where are the Shinya when you need them?' Alses thought, in quiet despair. 'No Zith should be able to get this close to Lhavit, even if this one seems to want to talk more than tear me open for lunch.'

'But what if it's a ploy?' another part of her brain pointed out. 'Making us lower our guard so it can tear out our throat and feast at its leisure?'

'Ah, but we'd sense if it tried to do that,' a third portion interjected, adding its weight to the debating maelstrom whirling in Alses' brain.

'But it – he – is fast; we'd not have enough time to properly react before he'd be on us!' This precipitated another round of internal argument, and her hands, which had been slowly, slowly loosening their hold on the scythe she barely knew how to use redoubled their grip.

Head full of shouting – or rather, even more full than usual – Alses focused blearily on the red gargoyle clinging precariously to the high branches. He must have been lighter than she'd have thought possible for something – someone, part of her brain wanted to say – his size, otherwise the branches would have given way by now, surely?

“Morphing's the art of taking on another shape – like a bird or a cat...or a Zith. Some of the wizards in Lhavit can do it; we thought you were one of them, keeping an eye on the monsters out here in the Peaks. And you're not one of them, are you?”

Alses frowned, struggling with the implications. Everything she'd heard, everything she'd seen, in the horrific attacks on the celestial city, screamed that Zith were mindless killing machines, but this one was terrified of her, or so it seemed.

'Perhaps they only have courage in packs, Alse,' she thought. 'Like wolves. Or is it cows? We forget. Tangent, Alse,' she rebuked herself. 'But I heard the Shinya cornered one of these creatures and it took apart three guards before they killed it, so why is this one so...so...so innocuous?'

“Why were you watching me?” she asked, still suspicious, even though Snarl had retreated far beyond the range of her scythe.

[Snarl]

Snarl kept a careful eye on the creature as he waited for an answer. Especially on the bladed stick she was still holding in her hands. But when the creature told snarl what morphing was snarl couldn't help but smile in pure delight. 'Snarl could take on shape of, civilized people. Walk into the shiny nests on top of big mountains. Talk with people without them grabbing sharp metal pointy things and trying to kill snarl!' the smile dropped a bit. 'Wait, creature said wizards live in big shiny nests. So to learn it snarl needs to go to shiny nests. But to get into shiny nests snarl needs morphing.' snarl's smile disappeared as snarl figured out the flaw in his plan. His mood didn't get any better with the creature calling him a monster as well. “No, snarl isn't either of them.” He said as he stood up from his hunched posture, holding on to other branches to keep his balance. Now that his wings weren't folded like a cloak around him and he wasn't hunched up with his wings mostly covering him. It could easily be seen that snarl was wearing a banged shirt and pants. “Neither wizard from big mountains nor monster hiding in the peaks!” Snarl hissed out towards the creature on the ground. “And snarl was watching creature to learn . Snarl doesn't eat civilized people, so what else would snarl be watching you for?”Snarl flicked his wings in an irritated way, annoyed that the creature hadn't figured that one out. It was obvious! “For a civilized person you don't seem to be smart . Now snarl is asking questions. Creature is collecting stinky stinky stinky plant for other person called respite yes. Why pick that plant? Smell alone makes snarl almost empty his stomach. Don't want to know what happens when eating it.” Snarl couldn't help but shiver at the very idea of that. “Respite wants to make other people sick?”