Completed Come Over to the Dark (Mamuro)

[Tinnok]

She ignored the comment about the story of her parents. More than likely it was of the brief and horrendously violent variety, but...that didn't seem like the sort of topic to broach, not at this point in time. Tinnok stared strangely at the Dhani at his continued compliments. Surely it was all a trick...to make her feel more comfortable? Well...if it was he should know it would be easier insulting her to feel at home than...remarking so.

She rolled her shoulders thoughtfully as he continued to pry. She stepped out of the river, making sure to approach him closely, her full height quite close to his, eyes boring into his own before turning and beginning the trek along the river downstream. Her back was to him, one hand sliding up to the longbow strung over her back and caressing the wood for a moment before beckoning without looking back to follow her. It was either a very stupid move, or a confident one, though Tinnok herself wasn't sure which.

When she heard his feet following she slowed her pace and let him come up alongside her.

"It would be a long tale to tell, explaining why I am no longer of my birth clan, but...it was my choice to leave, even if that decision in itself wasn't completely innocent."

I saved one of your brethren. She wanted to scream. Will you still eat me as fast if you ate someone who helped your race by murdering my half blood relatives? Tinnok shook her head, thoughts a jumble as she walked. She blinked then, a question surfacing.

"You are right though, in part. I do hide because of what I am. I always imagined Dhani would find me as ugly as Myrians do. I cannot shift into the powerful forms you possess...at least not yet." She smirked, then glanced over at the strange looking Dhani. "Is your appearance common for the human form of Dhani? I have not seen a male of your particular...grace before." She wasn't sure what compliments to bestow upon her would be predator. He did have the slinking easy grace of all Dhani, but there was something different about it as well, as if he was the sort of snake used to watching others and knowing everything about them. Surely other Dhani wouldn't ask so many questions of their prey as he?

Realizing she was staring quite intently at Mamuro, Tinnok shifted her gaze back towards the ground, where she needed it in order to complete a hunt. Perhaps some of the Dhani's hunger could be curbed by helping him find food.

She paused for a moment, glancing around the edge of the river. "I think the local wildlife was scared off by our Alligator friend..." She said, mostly to herself. "We may have to travel a little ways in order to find fresh tracks." She rose and continued along, keeping her gaze on the water, unsure if her hand should be on one of her weapons at all times.

[Kalesserimamoru]

Tinnok was a tough one, but there was no surprise to be had in that fact. A woman born of Dhani and Myrian blood wouldn't be anything else. She didn't feel the need to babble on like that annoying viper he had brought back to the nest, and only said what needed to be said. She had her secrets, and other things she didn't want to talk about, but the fact was she was still talking, which meant she wanted to be heard at least a small bit, and in that he saw a window.


Mamoru stared back at the woman as she approached him and looked into his eyes before she turned away and head off. It seemed that he had asked one too many questions, or simply asked the wrong ones. Or perhaps it was his easy going matter that she didn't like. He couldn't be sure, but the end result had been in his favor. She was more relaxed now than before and even feeling a bit bold. What else could explain her face to face stare with not one weapon drawn, when she was almost scurrying away just moments ago?


The trickster marveled at the truth of it all. How even when others thought they were keeping him at arms length, and away from their more sensitive parts, they were still giving him what he wanted unknowingly. Perhaps it would be easier for others had they any idea what the Dhani was after. This was harder to learn for him as well, Mamoru was even more indecisive than his older sister. Standing there with her in front of him, he still hadn't decided if he wanted to play with her, test her skills in battle, or just eat her and go about his day. With her walking in front, the trickster followed behind, his eyes moving over the back of her head, down to her swaying shoulders, and even lower to her hips which twisted slightly.


It was more an observation than admiring her curves, there was a very fine difference in the way that women and men walked, and the trickster knew of this. Even more so, there was a way that individual people walked. Another piece that made up the personality of a being. It was something to note, and maybe one day he might find himself with the use of morphing into the fiery half breed. Mamoru moved beside the woman and listened as she decided to tell him more about herself. He had imagined she might, stories were meant to be told after all, and with a willing listener, why would she refuse?


"Ah yes, innocence, the virtue we all aspire to cling too." he added with a soft cackle. The trickster himself was not innocent, and although he hadn't killed them himself, he was responsible for the deaths of a few Dhani guards seasons ago.


"I'll tell you what, I'll do you the favor of not calling you a Myrian, if you don't compare me to one." She was right in a way however, many Dhani would find her ugly but the trickster was different. He had always been a strange creature, even amongst his own kind. For a time, and perhaps even now, he was a bit of a black sheep himself. The fact that he looked to Ionu for guidance as well as Siku was another example of his strange behavior. "You want to shift, hmm? Aiming to look more like your Dhani kin, or are you looking for power?" There was a smirk across her lips, and the trickster liked the implications of it.


Her last question was unexpected, but his appearance had been questioned before. Mamoru tilted his head slightly and folded his arms across his chest as he spoke. "I have been told that I favor my mother more than my father, if that is what you mean? Have you met many Dhani?" He stared back at the woman just as intently, and didn't blink once. She turned away, but he continued to stare at her. He could already feel his mouth watering and he could imagine how tasty she would be. But he wondered, if eating her would mean that he ate a Dhani? Tasted the blood of his own kind? It was worth a pause to think over.


"I'm in no hurry to get back. If it takes longer so be it. Unless you have somewhere to be? A home near by?"

[Tinnok]

Tinnok gave a quite unladylike snort at his gem of wisdom about innocence. "I feel like both Dhani and Myrians alike lose such a thing quite early on...a reward of living in the Jungle Wilds."

He continued to speak, but she was quiet for a time, merely listening to him. She had already told him so much. More than she should have? It was strange, horrendously strange. But she had done the same thing with Svan...with that petching Witch Dhani of the swamps as well. When did she start socializing with Dhani? Well...if one was to be factual it would be right before the Myrians drove her out of her home.

She liked that better...'the Myrians,' it was easier to refer to them as a company apart from her, and when Mamuro mentioned not referring to her as one, her lips twitched again.

As to his other questions, they simply had to wait, at least a short while. The half breed had drifted from the conversation to the idea of hunting. She led them off of the stream bed, where it would be easy for any grazers to see and flee before them, into the crowded thickets that entangled the river banks, clambering for a bit of sun. She pushed through the mass without cutting any of the branches, thorns and razor tipped leaves cutting her bare shoulders as she passed. Her eyes trained downward, looking for sight of tracks, disturbed brush, or waste from potential quarry. Her feet slid softly over the roots that slipped their way, bare calloused feet passing over the solid objects rather than any leaves or fallen twigs that would cause undue noise, body sliding ahead of the Dhani, her plight momentarily forgotten in the name of the hunt.

She saw rut marks from other pigs, perhaps even the troop she had let the gator know of, but they were days old form what she could tell, and the summer rains were constantly washing away new tracks. Deer she found, they were old as well, but she continued stalking forward. The jungle was a fountain of life and there was no reason she shouldn't be able to find some quarry among it.

After nearly a bell she responded to the Dhani, having enjoyed the relative silence between them. "The answer to your second question ties into my answer for the first, so I shall proceed in that order." Her eyes continued watching the ground warily as she spoke, occasionally glancing up into the trees for prey that did not tred on ground level.

"I have met two Dhani not including yourself that I did not attempt to kill during our meetings. One was marked by Caiyha, and is largely my reason for being here today, the other taught me morphing. I am not yet skilled in it...but yes I think i would like someday to morph into a Dhani form. There is a beauty to your kind, my kind as well in a sense, that is not lost on me, even if it is to my full blooded brethren."

She stopped suddenly, yellow eyes gazing upward and she reached a hand towards Mamuro's shoulder, gesturing with her free hand upward into the canopy, her voice just a whisper when she spoke again.

"There. Do you see them?" Even as he searched Tinnok was drawing the longbow from across her back to the front, one arm pulling the string backwards and notching an arrow into the well worn groove in the wood, eyes gazing upwards to a collection of large birds gathered together in the upper part of the trees ahead of them. Curassow. They chirped companionably to one another high in the tree tops, perhaps taking an afternoon's rest. Tinnok's arm muscles quivered as she pulled back the full length of her bow string, taking the time to aim her arrowhead in the midst of the small flock, eyes darting over to the snake to see if he had any weapons.

[Kalesserimamoru]

Mamoru had to admit, this one wasn't lady-like in the least. Morgana, Agolyss, even the ridiculously animated viper Dhani had some form of lady-like qualities. But this one had the raw, graceless nature that only a Myrian could admire.


"I understand that you are from both worlds, but..if you continue to refer to Dhani and Myrians as being similar in any way..it will cost you a limb."


Mamoru narrowed his eyes towards the woman, his voice becoming deeper and more sinister. He could understand why she might have ideas as the one she had just spoken of, being that she was of both bloods. But he didn't care, Dhanis were near God like, and Myrians were bugs that just refused to lay down and die. He would have nothing of the two being referred to as similar...ever.


It seemed the last comments had spoiled their earlier chatty mood, and the two walked on for a while, silent in thought. It had been said before that Mamoru spent too much time playing with his food and that it cost him in the long run. Why hadn't he eaten her yet, and instead questioning her? She had offered to find him food, but would she not make a better snack? He wondered about it, would the meal she was willing to find for him be more filling than she would?


The trickster started to look around himself. He wasn't a hunter per-say, they had Dhani who took care of that job for the nest. But that didn't mean that he didn't hunt from time to time when his hungry grew more intense. He followed along and mimicked her steps, moving closely behind her and stepping closely to where her feet were last to keep his own noises down. There were tracks about, many he didn't recognize, but they were animal for sure. At this time, he was sure that she wouldn't attack him and so he finally released his djed allowing the hardened bone plate to soften and dissolve back into his flesh. It took less concentration to hold the more simple forms for a time, but he still had his limits and need to rest his djed.


It had been almost a bell since either had spoken, and Mamoru wondered if the woman had gotten herself into a pickle. Were there no animals close by to eat? Nothing else she could try to use to sate his appetite? As much fun as he was having digging into her past, if she wasn't going to talk any more than the subject became boring.cAnd if the fun was over, there was nothing left but the meal. Suddenly, she broke the silence and answered his questions. He smiled wickedly at her comments and added to the conversation with his own. "Two Dhani you say? And you didn't try to kill them, or they you?" he paused with a short cackle. "Must have been something in the waters."


Mamoru listened intently as she spoke of morphing. It was one of his chosen magics, as he looked to continued the growth in shifting far pass that of a normal dhani. "A morpher? Well, I can't say I was expecting that. Seems you got pretty close with these Dhani, teaching you to shift and about Caiyha of all Goddesses." He started to say more, but then she touched his shoulder and gestured towards the tree tops. The dhani looked up to see plump birds resting high in the branches. "Ahh...." the trickster licked his lips.


He didn't have any ranged weapons on himself at the moment, and would likely scare them off if he tried to climb up, but there was no harm in trying. He went to work, willing his djed to rise again and focused the magic into his hands, and feet as he loosened them from his sandals. Slowly the bones and flesh started to thicken, growing wider in all four limbs. Dark fur covered his hands and feet and a softer patch of flesh underneath. Hands and feet became as one, and what was once human hands and feet turned into cougar paws. He slid himself closer to the tree and slowly started to climb upward.

[Tinnok]

She muttered something quietly under her breath about racists. Myrians, Dhani, they were all the same. They hated the petch out of each other and neither could see why. Really in the end it was probably the Myrian's fault. It was their pride that made them want to eradicate the Dhani, the tipping stone on the set of dominos that had started the whole feud. Though if one was to be fair, if the Myrians hadn't tried to kill the Dhani, they surely would have started their own crusade against the race they saw as lesser.

She merely shook her head at the thought, then watched Mamuro. Still a novice at morphing, the ease with which he and Svan could shift their limbs amazed her. Her muscles relaxed slightly against the bow string as she watched the puma paws appear, the Dhani climbing the tree trunk. Well hopefully he was at the very least quiet. She watched the Currasow carefully, assessing the fidgeting birds, glimpsing them between the branches from below, and waited.

And waited.

Once the Dhani seemed close enough to the birds, or at least close enough before Tinnok was willing to risk them flying off because they looked down and saw the creature stalking up the trunk towards them.

She had had plenty of time to aim at this point and her muscles were quivering with the strain of maintaining the bow string.

twang

The arrow flew from its groove, her hand sliding back as swiftly as she could to grab a second arrow in case she had a chance. A shrieking cry flew out to the open air above as one of the birds plummeted to the forest floor below. Regardless of where she had hit it, it apparently could no longer fly.

The other birds shrieked and took to the skies. She wasn't sure what was happening but a certian commotion seemed to be occurring where Mamuro was. Yellow eyes squinted, training her arrow upward then releasing the bow string. The shot wasn't worth it, a waste of an arrow.

Tinnok marched off through the undergrowth in search of her bird, occasionally glancing upward to see how the Dhani was doing.

[Kalesserimamoru]

Mamoru heard her grumble something, but didn't catch it. It was more a whisper, not an outright defiant yell as Aka would have done. A move that always ended with her in pain and crying like a small child. He didn't bother to pry this time, there was no telling what lies and backwards things she had learned from the Myrians. They seemed to be her preferred race so he would guess she would take their words over his..for the moment.


It was time to hunt and the dhani was now slowly scaling up the side of the tree. He used his claws to dig into the bark and push himself upward. It was a slow climb up, but he didn't need to go faster. Any sudden movements would scare off his meal, which would have once again put Tinnok at the front of the line. Mamoru continued to climb up, his body pressed tightly against the tree, arms wide and legs bent at the knees.


"Just a bit closer..."


He could see them a lot more clearly now than from the ground, they were jittery, perhaps sensing his approach, but for the time they all stayed in place. The dhani pushed himself upward, taking a quick look down to where Tinnok stood with her bow drawn. "She better watch where she's aiming.." the trickster hissed and continued up.


Once he thought himself closer he started to move faster, a sudden arrow slipped through the air and nailed one of the birds and causing the rest to freak. Mamoru scrambled across the tree weight and snapped his arm out raking claws into one of bird's back. It's cried out, flapping it's wings as it started to take off. The dhani leaped out and clawed hard at the creature, claws slicing through it's fur and sending it tumbling to the ground. A smirk grew upon his face then, not so bad for a hunt. Turning back to the tree, he stabbed his claws back into it and slowly lowered himself down to the floor of the jungle.

[Tinnok]

Just as she spotted the bird with her arrow sprouting from its chest she had to lunge out of the way to avoid a second Curassow plummeting ground ward. A vicious gash had opened it up, and Tinnok was glad to see both of their kills had been dead before they hit the ground.

She plucked her arrow out of her kill, wiping the gore off of the tip and shaft before depositing it back into her quiver, then glanced up to where Mamuro was making his way down through the trees.

"Nicely done." She called up.

She wound vines around the birds' legs and hauled them up over her shoulder, waiting for Mamuro to finish his climb, when he reached the ground she cocked her head at him. "Will you be cooking yours or eating it whole?" The question was a legitimate one. Or so Tinnok thought given her present company. She didn't much care either way, though she would relish the opportunity to sit for a while and eat...it had been days since she had taken such a break.

She opened her mouth to explain the situation about the Dhani to him, then closed it. Why the petch was she being so open with this snake anyway? At any moment he was bound to turn on her, get bored...hungrier, impatient, and he was just going to be laughing all the way back to Zinrah thinking of how talkative his meal had been while it had lasted. Tinnok wasn't precisely sure what she was going to do when that happened. She liked to think she had grown fairly skilled in the past seasons, but when those skills were compared against a Dhani by herself...well...they didn't seem great any longer.

She brushed a fallen lock of hair out of her face and began walking through the undergrowth. It was strange to feel like a cornered deer while also knowing that she was the most free she had been in a life time. No clan to report to, simply her and the jungle wilds.

And this one petching Dhani could ruin that in an instant.

Suddenly she wasn't hungry anymore, and she whirled on Mamuro.

"Alright, enough games. I know you want to eat me, whether or not that cannibalism or not, I'm sure could be debated. I'm sure I can keep your interest for a time, after all...its not often you meet someone of my heritage, but soon enough it won't matter. What will I have to do to live on past our fateful encounter?" There. It was out. That statement gave a considerable amount of power to the Dhani, but it was simply an acknowledgement of the power he already had, simply hanging in the air. She had played with enough Dhani she liked to think that she knew their thoughts...at least in part.

Her yellow eyes flared angrily as she stared at the real hunter. She hated being so weak. Someday she would be as strong as the strongest Dhani, that she would vow. But it was not today, not here, not against him.

[Kalesserimamoru]

A compliment? He found it interesting given she didn't seem too fond of his own. Mamoru crawled down far enough and pushed off the tree to landed on his feet. Standing up, he released the hold his djed had on his limbs and allowed the spiky fur to receded back into his flesh, his fingers and toes peeled away from each other and returned to their normal state. "Did you expect anything less? You did well yourself, with that little bow of yours." The trickster eyed the woman as he slipped his feet back into his scandals.


Mamoru stared between the plump bird on her shoulder and the woman holding it, and he still couldn't decide which would be best. The bird was plump, and if he left the feathers on it would be even more filling. But on the other hand, the woman might taste better. Choices, though he could always be greedy and eat them both. What a meal that would be, he'd have to stay in the jungle awhile just for digestion alone. "I suppose I could wait and cook it, but then I might need an appetizer." he added with a wicked grin. "What do you think Tinnok? Shall I just unhinge my jaws and swallow it whole?" he teased her now, wondering just how much she had learned about Dhani and how they fed differently between their shifts.


He was having fun with her, more so than he ever did with any animal he had eaten. Eating Myrians wasn't something he did often enough, and when he did, he certainly hadn't talk with them before hand. In truth, talking Myrians gave him a headache, their screeching yells and cries only made him want to pound them in their scrawny throats. Then there was Tinnok, his newest play thing, and although she was half Myrian her voice wasn't all that bad.


"Oh..So I've been found out." the trickster smiled after she confronted him. It seemed no one enjoyed his games as he did. Women especially were short tempered when it came to them. But he realized that he couldn't string her along any further..or could he? "Fair enough." Mamoru spoke with a devilish tone. "I'd love to eat you now. You look so tasty standing there with that bow and those eyes looking all broody." Narrowing his eyes, the dhani licked his lips and continued. "But you are right, you have been keeping me entertained. However..."


Mamoru moved closer to her and stood right in front of her as she had done to him before. She seemed to like doing so, whether it was an intimidation tactic or she simply liked his strange look, he didn't know. He moved a bit closer, and if she didn't recoil, he would be standing almost eyes to eye with her and close enough so that if he were to flick his tongue from his mouth it would easily lap against her cheek or lips. "If you're looking to die I could surely help you out with that. I did wonder what you were planning, with no clan to return to where would you go? I suppose that is enough to make anyone suicidal. So then...just close your eyes and I'll make it quick. It's the least that I can do."

[Tinnok]

She refused to flinch at the snake. If these were to be her final moments, she would die as any Myrian would, without fear in their heart of their ancient enemy. Except she wasn't entirely Myrian, and all that petching nonsense didn't much matter anymore.

But when he finished speaking, her lips twitched, and the fire dimmed being replaced by...was that amusement? A short chuckle escaped her throat and Mamuro would find that the half breed had the tenacity to reach up with one scaled finger and run it along his pale cheek, from the tip of the bone there to the edge of his lip before retracting it slowly.

"I like to think, Mamuro, that I am a realist, not suicidal."

She looked at her armament meaningfully then back up at him, making sure their proximity remained the same. "I can guarantee that you'd find me a harder monkey to skin than the average Myrian, I am half Dhani after all, but if you were able to transform...or perhaps even with whatever morphing skills you possess, and whatever other hidden gifts you hold...I am sure that you would win in the end. I am prideful, but no fool, certainly."

Her gaze hardened then, though, her smile still there but eyes cold...suddenly much more snake-like than they may have been before. "But I do not want to die...for I have a purpose. My clan, my place among the Myrians was just an illusion, one that needed to be broken, so perhaps I should thank that Dhani who forced me to kill that Myrian patrol, because I have always hovered on the line between Caiyha and Myri...and that day they both made me choose my true allegiance."

Now her hand slipped up towards his face, caressing other cheek, thumb running over his face as her body twisted to show Mamuro her right shoulder, tilting his head gently down if he would allow her. There upon her arm was the Gnosis mark that had allowed her to communicate with the alligator. The pale branches of a strangler fig twined around her muscled appendage, and leafy sprigs seemed to shake in a gentle breeze, among the branches lay birds of all kinds, a boa constrictor hanging from one branch, a shadowed cat standing between two giant roots.

Then she released her grasp and took a step back, hands outstretched. "But tell me, Mamuro, has Caiyha led me here, to you in order to be eaten as a snack? Or perhaps do our Goddesses have something more in store for us?" She couldn't help it, her lips still seemed magnetized into a smirk. She felt a thrill within her chest, and it was linked to the fear of her own mortality but also...how fun this was. Was this how Dhani felt all the time, toying with their prey, like this? Certainly she had never felt like this in any situation with a Myrian, dull creatures that eviscerated first and asked questions second...It was invigorating to say the least, and her body tingled with the energy from the sensation.

[Kalesserimamoru]

The woman wouldn't be intimidated by him, that much was obvious. She had Dhani and Myrian blood rushing through her veins and it showed. Mamoru could imagine the Myrian side of thought, however, he didn't believe that they were fearless. In fact, he believed it was that very fear that allowed them to charge in head first and with as much strength behind their blows. The fear of death was more inspiration than anyone needed to push passed their limits.


Just as well, he wasn't sure that Tinnok had fear at all. Her yellow eyes were wide, and lips twitching as she started to chuckle. She was enjoying herself, and he would guess that had to be her Dhani blood speaking to her. His pale yellow eyes followed her fingers as it traced his cheek bone before she pulled it away. This was a curious move and he hadn't expected it from her. The trickster didn't react, only watched to see what she did next.


She was so close to him, so close that he could sense and feel her body heat, and unless he was mistaken, it seemed to be rising. The dhani listened to her words, took in their meaning and tilted his head. She was smart, either playing to his ego, or attempting to fall on his mercy. Whether for one or the other, it seemed to be working. Now it was Mamoru taking liberties, reaching out and taking the woman by the hips as he drew her against him. He leaned forward, his cheeks gently brushing against hers as he inhaled her scent. "But it is such nice skin...perhaps it would be better if I left it on." Thin lips curved upward as the dhani parted them, slipping his tongue out and slowly guiding it up the side of her neck and across her cheek.


It was a different element with this woman, and Mamoru found himself intrigued with her story. It was the first time he had heard of anyone turning on the Myrians and living to tell the tale. He knew that she must possess some skill, or was saved by the divines to have made it so far. "Killing a Myrian patrol? That's more like it. Tell me, how many were in this patrol?" He was interested to hear this especially. It could be useful to know in the future, if he should see her again. "Myri.." he sighed. "She has found herself an annoying group of followers. But she'll have none of you. Not you who possess Dhani blood."


It was an odd day indeed, even for someone like Mamoru. They had gone from staring each other down before a possible fight. To a short conversation, to a hunt, and now something seemingly more friendly. His eyes followed her as she once again touched his face and turned his head to view her gnosis mark. A follower of Caiyha it would appear, and while the trickster didn't follow her as closely, it was far better than Myri. She moved away from him and the Dhani mimicked her amused expression. "There is no telling what the Goddesses have planned, or what they want of us. But are you sure?" he added with a wicked grin and reached out a hand towards her. "Once you come to our side...there is no going back."