Completed The Cold Jungle (Kaie)

[Inoadar]

Inoadar laughed, "Well, I would be impressed if your outcome was much better. The times I have had to truly fight my way through, tooth and claw, I had a partner helping me. Other times I have been able to outrun them on my horse, or climb a tree and inflict enough crossbow damage on them to demoralize them....or poison them."

He laughed even more with Kaie's remark about the Kelvic tigress. He could not help but wonder..."Do you know one? A Kelvic tigress I mean? It's funny you should ask me that, because it just so happens that a Kelvic tigress was one of those 'partners' I just mentioned. And, yes, I've had Kelvics attack me in my own shop. Though not a tigress. It was only a panther. It was during that fight that I discovered that their blood is what I needed for this poison."

This line of discussion reminded him of Kaie's situation, and he gave her a once-over, with a nod. "Well, I'd say you can stop worrying about the stew. Even if you were a Kelvic, it wouldn't have really hurt you. It would make you switch forms uncontrollably for a chime or two, then fall unconscious for a short while. Then you'd wake up unable to be aggressive. It's strictly a defensive poison. Really, "poison" isn't a very good term for it. It's really more of a potion than a poison."

He heard how she hesitated on the word "business", just like he might have done. When he heard her mention that her patron's servants didn't want her to leave, he frowned. If she had come from Syliras on some shady..."business"...It could be that she was being kept away from the city by this patron. This could mean a number of things. She may have some scandalous or outright incriminating evidence of something he'd done. Or the servants themselves may have done something that they don't want revealed. Or there may be someone after one or more of these people. There was an element of possible blackmail or extortion in all these scenarios.

He didn't want her to know why he'd frowned, so he improvised. "You have some sort of homestead out here? And there are no representatives of Ravok present?" He acted as though he'd caught himself speaking out of turn. "I'm sorry, it's not that I think there's any obligation to inform them, but how do you protect yourself from the dangers of the wilds? There are worse things than wolves in the woods."

He wanted to see this "arranged place". "If you're not supposed to be leaving, should you be getting back?" He feigned sudden concern that some posse may be approaching in stealth to apprehend her and dispatch him. He looked around for the bolt he'd set down and asked, "Are they going to be looking for you? Shyke! I should put out the fire before they find us. Maybe you should get out of sight."

He needed to broach the subject of going to this place, without appearing that it was the goal of some scheme, to see how she reacted. A tact occurred to him that would accomplish this. "Oh wait, are you just lost? Is that it? I could take you back. I know quite a bit of the lake shore around this side." He found the crossbow bolt and reached to pick it up, trying to seem nonchalant. He didn't really want to shoot her, but if she was some escapee, she might make some hostile move now.

[Kaie]

It was all interesting, this discussion about the wolves. It wasn't like she had never seen the animals before. They were very common in the Cobalt Mountains toward Syliras. However there was an element to the ones crowding Ravok that were so much more...Vicious. The wolves Kaie had known were cunning and perhaps a little shy when detected. More often then not they weren't too terrible of a problem, except the instances the pack turned ravenous. Why was it that the wild canines Tyrell encountered were so damn bloodthirsty? Perhaps she had lucked out, having to worry about Kelvics more than wildlife recently. When it came down to it, though, Kaie would trade all that feeling of security for a night back home.

"I don't know if it can be considering knowing her, but I've had my share of encounters. Sometimes it was hard to tell which form was the primitive beast," Kaie explained, eyes narrowing some at the memory of padded paws smashing into her back. By the look on her face, it was easy to see it wasn't a comfortable one. At the mention of the panther, though, Kaie quit her short lived brooding to look up at the man. What was it he had meant by it being "only a panther"? To her clan, panthers were almost as sacred as Myrian Tigers. They were a symbol of all traits a proper clansmember should embody. They were fierce, cunning, and stealthy. A born and very lethal predator. Was he downplaying its effectiveness or comparing his situation to hers in which she faced a much larger feline?

"That would've been adorable. And no. Well, actually, I guess you could say that and I'm not alone. As I understand it, it's a protected site. I suppose when you're staring out the window for a few hours, you start to see the patterns," Kaie did her best to reassure him, doing her best to remain vague. This Tyrell was still a stranger to her and painting a beautiful picture of her place of stay wouldn't do her much good. Vanari and Ria had told her about the terrible fraction dubbed the Ebonstryfe. If her new acquaintance happened to be a part of that merry gang, she figured he'd be the last person she'd want stopping by her door. "Maybe," She answered equally vaguely to his questions about people possibly searching for her. Odds were not, but she noticed his shifting gaze. It was like he was looking for something. Her instincts was ringing their warnings in her ears.

"I'm sure you do but I'm sure I can point myself in the right direction."

For all his seemingly mediocre movements, Kaie's eyes locked on the crossbow bolt he had suddenly found. Now he was playing a dangerous game with her in which no side was guaranteed safety. Instinctively, her right hand flashed to her hilt, her eyes staring at him with deep distrust. Things had been sketchy at the camp from the start it nothing seemed to have been improving.

"I would advise you not to do that..." She warned, hand clutching her weapon ready to be drawn while her free hand lifted harmlessly. She waggled her fingers as if reinforcing the notion she would bring him no harm, unless he threatened her. Which by bringing ammunition back to his weapon it appeared he was doing just that.

[Inoadar]

'Adorable' was hardly the term Inoadar would use for his fight with the panther. He'd been trying to sarcastically convey that it was by comparison to what he'd seen the tiger do that he'd said "only". But maybe she was referring to the effects of the Wildleash. He wouldn't exactly call that 'adorable' either.

But her next comments struck him with intrigue. 'She's NOT alone...and what does she mean by "as I understand it, it's a protected site."...Hasn't she been there?...And "protected" by what?...' his thoughts solidified, 'If there is 'protection', AND she's not alone, there may be both a search crew AND a skeleton crew back at the...'site".

It was suddenly no surprise that she was declining his offer of escort back to her 'protected site'. This was beginning to resemble the description of some outpost, some military position by a force hostile to Ravok. A relay station for reconnaissance troops. He really needed to see this place.

Her anxiety as he picked up the bolt stood in favor of his reasoning. She had no reason, based on their conversation, to think he meant her any harm. He had been reacting to the suggestion that there were people that wouldn't let her leave, yet here she was, gone from "the site". There had to be people looking for her.

He started to wonder if she was some daughter of a soldier, disobeying camp orders out of some foolish "free spirit" attitude. Gone off the grounds to show her independence. Well, he was not about to let himself be caught harboring her when they came looking.

She was saying something to him, but he hadn't been listening. He would take her back to the camp, claiming to have found her and reasoned that she was lost. It was not that far removed from the truth anyway. And it would give him a chance to do his own reconnaissance. He finished replacing the bolt and let his hold on the crossbow become one-handed as he reached with his left hand to grab her arm.

[Kaie]

He was distant from her, completely gone from the conversation in his own head. Whatever he was thinking, he seemed deeply distracted by it. But what? Why had her small place of stay become such great interest to him? Part of her wanted to grab him by the ear, yank him through the forest, and point at the barn to say, "Here! Look! It's a barn! Just a couple of servants running around. Nothing to see here."

And then he was with that bolt again. He paid her warning no mind and proceeded to load his weapon. It was almost a direct violation of peace in her book, and suddenly his movements became far more threatening. He grabbed her wrist.

Kaie looked down at his hand on her for the slow moment it seemed to reach out. And then her eyes flashed up in pure disbelief. He had loaded his weapon and made physical, aggressive contact without her permission. Much less, he didn't even provide a reason for doing so. And like the true savage she was, she reacted accordingly.

Just as she had with Ximal in the Pit, Kaie stepped in toward his side and bend her elbow forcefully, destroying his hold by design. At the same time, her other hand tore her gladius from its prison, a growl forming in her throat. It was when she had finished her escape, she would have had herself halfway to his back with her sword extended at his throat. The cool metal would tease at his skin, indenting it naturally by its mere presence.

"The petch do you think you're doing?" She all but snarled, her voice almost turning a bit menacing with her sudden fury. Kaie was indignant, offended, and the last thing she'd tolerate was someone putting their hands on her. Whatever the guy had been trying to do, he better be prepared to give her a good explanation. If not...She was prepared to fight with tooth and nail.

[Inoadar]

'Well, now if this doesn't just confirm everything.' Inoadar thought, feeling grimly pleased with himself. That twist and quick draw was worthy of an Ebonstryfer. In his mind, there was now no doubt she was an agent of a hostile military, whose encampment was nearby.

He felt pretty sure he could get free of the hold she currently had. But now that she knew he was a poisoner she would be on the watch for the spikes in his collar, cuffs and hem of his Nettle Cloak. It burned his pride to think that the accepted course of action would be to escape back to town and report the existence of a hostile camp to the Northeast. He would prefer to fight it out with her. But hand to hand was really not his strength, and it looked to be hers. Maybe if he lost her soon enough, he could double back and do some surveillance with his sighting lens.

"Well, well, I have to hand it to you, that was pretty slick work. Is this meant to convince me you're just a simple homesteader in the wild? You know a move like that and have advanced weapon training? You had some business you won't clarify, coming in from Syliras, our enemy, and you'd rather avoid the city. Is that supposed to be surprising? And your employer sets you up in a camp outside, that you're not supposed to leave. Yet here you are, and no one is looking for you. Forgive me, but it just doesn't add up."

He watched the treeline as best he could in the advancing darkness, but saw no reinforcements moving about. "I'll tell you what the petch I think I'm doing. I think I'm coming to the conclusion that you and your fellow homesteaders are really a Syliras recon squad, prepping the way for more of Syliras' hypocritical imposition of their tyranny over a city they cite as evil. I think you're looking for weaknesses to report back to your superiors. Well those weaknesses DON'T - ..."

He deliberately moved in mid sentence to catch her off guard. Instead of trying to dodge away, he used her same tactic, stepping into the blade at his throat, upsetting its angle. Bu he knew this was not what would protect his throat. His Nettle cloak had a metal band in the collar fixed with spring loaded spikes. It was more for protection against a choke hold, but the spikes would work as a sword-catcher while the sudden upswing of the blade, coupled with the metal bad, would make the stroke needed to do more than superficial damage a difficult angle to achieve.

As he moved, he tensed and twisted his head to trigger the spikes, one of the points pushed the blade away enough that her reactive swing was off target enough to leave no more than a slash. He also twitched his cuffs to access the spikes there, one of which, on each arm, was coated with poison. Having heard and felt the shortsword's non-lethal stroke, he dove forward, backhanding his spiked cuff. He felt it catch something, and there was a tearing sound, but he didn't think he caught flesh. He spun to bring the crossbow up, but he'd apparently taken a few more steps than he thought and the bow caught on one of the legs of the iron tripod supporting the stew pot.

It jerked the crossbow from his hand, but also sent the whole tumbling array of metal hurtling in Kaie's general direction, stew and all.

[Kaie]

Kaie's eyes narrowed at the backside of his head, mind processing his words. The more he voiced his own thoughts, however, the more misconstrued the situation appeared to be. He doubted her story just as much as she was apprehensive about his character. Thus far, her theories had seemed to be proven correct. His accusations held some merit, too. Advanced weapons training? Well, she didn't really feel that advanced. At least some of the situation was beginning to make sense to her. Some of it...

Kaie simply watched him rattle off his observations at first. When he began to voice an apparent conclusion, her eyes glared at him. Suddenly she began to boil again, her lip curling in absolute disgust. Tyrell thought she was an agent for the Syliras knighthood? Had the idea not been so obscene, Kaie might've laughed at such an accusation. Her lips immediately parted, brow furrowed angrily, all to shoot him down. But he was clever. In the moment she took offense, he had distracted her to make an escape of his own.

Before she knew it, he was gone. In his wake, spiked cuffs flew in toward her, causing the savage's eyes to widen. Her reaction was instinctive. Upon his advance, Kaie retreated in an ungraceful back peddle. Yet she wasn't quite quick enough. Her cloak was promptly caught by a spike and tore on the spot. Clothes were meaningless, though. What she was more concerned about in that moment was where she was reversing to, which she hadn't a clue. All her eyes could focus on was Tyrell and his hands scrambling for his weapon.

Shyke!

Her heel caught on something, causing the woman to fall backward onto the ground. Her landing was rough and her momentum steady. Panic stricken, she backward rolled back onto her feet. It was sheer luck alone she had unknowingly evaded the spilling stew, too. The liquid saturated the ground in its wake, moving in like the Suvan had on Falyndar's shore. The cauldron rolled, clanging onto the undergrowth of nearby trees.

She should've rushed him right then. Tried to hurl a kick into him as soon as he reached for his weapon, but that simply wouldn't do. Kaie had too much space between herself and Tyrell for such a feat. Besides, it was almost stupid for her to risk her skin being caught by the spikes rather than trivial clothing. If she had hope of either walking away relatively unscathed, she needed to talk her way out of this one. For once, the truth would do.

Kaie growled and slipped herself behind a wide tree, her back pressing against its bark. Her head just barely edged toward the outline of the tree. It was just enough so she could see the man without exposing too much of herself. If he was going to fire, she'd have time to jerk herself back into cover. Hopefully.

"I'm not petching agent of the Syliras knighthood for Goddess sake. Tyrell, I would beg you to bury an arrow in my skull the day I do any of their dirty work. Those bastards have given me a tour of the lovely hold they call The Tank. Do I look like some pacifistic idiot they'd be running to recruit? " She rationalized from behind her cover, a special kind of disdain creeping into her words whenever she made mention of the knighthood. Her last point was a clear reference to her choice of wardrobe. Women who wore nothing but a leather vest and loincloth weren't usually their top picks. That's even without adding she's a pure blooded Myrian marked by the Jungle Queen herself.

"Besides, if I was looking for weaknesses to take your city down, why the petch would I avoid the inside? It's not like I can see any structures or guards this far from the lake itself."

Kaie paused for a minute, letting all she had said sink in. She did not run. She did not move. All the Myrian woman did was wait. And then she made her final point. Perhaps she included information that mattered to his theory.

"I rode from Syliras with a caravan. I ditched them before we came close to the city. I don't give a shyke about what your city does or the gods you worship. I'm just here for business. Nothing for the Ebonstryfe. Nothing for their enemies. Just business," She finalized, her voice becoming a little calmer like she was talking down herself. If this poisoner was half as clever as she thought he was, Tyrell would hopefully see a bit of clarity. Otherwise they could be in a standoff like this for some time.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar could only assume that the mass of the campfire had dazzled her eyes as it passed by her face. He guessed that she had green images of hot flying embers ingrained on her retinas. That would account for her comment about putting an arrow in her skull. 'Does she still think I'm holding the crossbow?' he asked himself. He knew that the effect on her vision would wear off quickly, so he started moving towards the thick trees bordering the campsite.

He tried to keep her distracted with talk as he made his way around bushes and stumps. "Cry me a river, sweetheart. I've been dragged to The Vitrax as a traitor, and yet I live to tell the tale. For all I know, they took you to this "Tank" just so you could make that comment without lying, in case I have...that...ability that...lets you see when people are lying."

He grimaced at his clumsy wording, but continued. "Lord Rhysol had more than sufficient reason to have me executed. Yet he instead put importance, not on what I HAD done, but on what I yet COULD do. He recognized capability and did not begrudge the dispatch of soldiers that clearly lacked the talent to prevent an untrained vagrant like myself from slaying them. Power and Promise! This is what he values. And I agree with him."

Her rebuttals were transparent to him. Of course she would not stay here in the woods when it was time to do her surveillance and reconnaissance. Even with his sighting lens, Inoadar could not have gotten more than a dim cityscape on the clearest of days. He had had sufficient experience bribing the guards for a quick pass through the inspection gate before he came to Rhysol's path. He had no doubt that she, like most women, found it a small matter to charm and sleaze their way past a bored guardsman.

He was about to make a sneering, sarcastic remark that if they didn't want her for her "obvious pacifist ideals", they could always install her as a spy in the 'House of Immortal Pleasures', when she started giving a rough account of her alleged trip to the woods hereabouts. He found it annoyingly believable, likely even.

"Alright. I'll tell you what. Take me to your homestead. Let me see that I've jumped to such a completely ridiculous conclusion, and I'll go back and leave you alone. Of course, one can't help but wonder why, if you are such an innocent little refuge here, are you then trying to keep me from going back to report your existence. The Ebonstryfe are not going to be interested in such a dwelling as that, some litte hut-in-the-woods."

[Kaie]

Vitrax? Abilities that allow people to detect liars?

From her hiding place, Kaie's mind was reeling with the new information. She was silent for a moment after his claims, trying to process it all. These were not found in stories travelling bargoers told her. His explanations for her words almost seemed like too much of a reach even for her. Would Syliras be clever enough to put so much thought and effort into the wanderings of one on their payroll? Putting them through the hold and subjecting them to hard labor seemed like a waste. Could it be true such things were necessary if one wanted to have a chance at reconnaissance undetected? Kaie never knew elements for such a task besides stealth and camouflage.

His story was interesting to a woman who would never have the chance to step foot in the lake city. Hopefully she never would. Nonetheless, the mysterious working of this God of Chaos were intriguing. How was it a ruler, a god, could put aside the slaughter of his own soldiers to release a criminal from his offenses? Was it not treachery? How could a creature of chaos hurl around such a phrase as power and promise? Being so far from that world, Kaie knew not how to understand the god or his city. She was in the dark, and frankly, she liked it that way.

"So you force me to eat some poisoned soup, grab me, swipe at me with your spikes, and you expect me to take me to the place I stay? Are you out of your petching mind?"

By all accounts it was a merited question. Springing up gleefully, taking his arm, and skipping through the woods toward the very place she slept was absolutely idiotic from all angles. For all she knew he could've been planning to survey the place and then return with friends to raid it. It would be terrible for business, too. The last she wanted was to be holed up in that petching attic all because some sketchy poison maker wanted to see the place. Standing there from behind the tree though, her options were very limited. And she still had to check those damn snares...

"Fine. I'll make you a deal. The reason I strayed this far was to check a snare I set up a day or so ago. I stumbled upon your target looking for it. Help me find it and I'll take you back. No tricks. No trap. Do we have a deal?" She offered uncertainly, peeking out barely from the tree. As if to reinforce her claim, Kaie slid her gladius back into its hold. The sound was undeniable, the metal protesting against its confines. However she did not leave her coverage yet. First she would wait until she heard Tyrell's agreement or denial of her negotiation. It wasn't like five or ten minutes would give the building enough time to unroot itself and take off.

"My "little hut in the woods" will still be there. I can promise you that."

[Inoadar]

"Oooh...'Poisoned soup'..." Inoadar sneered, "Let's put things in perspective, girl. I have people that want me dead, and this situation would have served them well. So excuse the shyke out of me if I take the precaution of having you eat something that won't petching hurt you, unless you are one of them, OR feel like I wronged you so terribly when you turned out not to be. You are completely unharmed, AND I told you ahead of time what I was doing, so knock off the 'victim' routine."

He tried to trace the exact direction of her voice. "And I wouldn't have felt compelled to activate my defenses if you hadn't put a petching sword to my throat, Ya think? My city has ongoing hostility with the one you claim to have just come from, and you've got a place out here, where NO ONE survives long by themselves? And I'm supposed to just take your word for it that there's nothing militant in the works? I'll take MY OWN word for it, thank you very much. And as for my sanity, I'd be out of my petching mind NOT to be suspicious."

He thought she was hiding behind a particular tree, one easily wide enough for the job, and he tried slipping to the side to gain a peripheral view, when she suddenly offered a deal. Something about straying this direction while looking for some snare. 'Is she a hunter, or only a trapper. I haven't seen a bow.' he thought. She then offered to take him back if he helped her find her snare.

"No tricks, no traps, eh? None but the one you've lost track of...None but the one I'm going to end up stepping into?...What kind of snare? And for what kind of creature? I mean, you're not going to catch a bear with a string loop, but I don't feel like dropping into a spiked pit trap."

He heard the short sword slide back into its sheath, the exaggerated 'thunk' clearly the result of her intention that it be heard. He didn't know what other weapons she may have, but he figured he'd have been made aware of them, one way or another, by now. He still had his boot blades and his knuckleduster, as well as the bullwhip coiled on Handy's saddle. He pulled the bolt from the channel of his crossbow and slipped it back into the quiver with its brothers. He dry fired the thing a second time and called back. "Okay, I'll bite. But only if you swear right now that you're not going to get all pissy with me if I still take a few precautions, instead of walking blindly into what may be a trap."

[Kaie]

Petching victim...?!

Kaie's blood was boiling then, her hands clenching invisibly from behind the tree. There were few things he could've accused her of playing that would've been far less offensive than the one chosen. She had half a mind to step out from behind the thick trunk and rush him right there. Yet a whisper in the back of her head reminded her he had a pretty sturdy petching point. Was she harmed? No. Hadn't he told her exactly why she needed to drink the soup, what it would do if she was a Kelvic, and given her solid reason before she chose to drink the damn thing? Yes, yes, and yes. All this time she had been overplaying practiced and forcibly acquired civilities to assimilate, which were not appropriate here with Tyrell. He did not play by culture norms she was exposed to in Syliras. He played smart and rational. It was about time she ditched the domesticated savage mask she'd once been forced to wear.

His suspicions were merited. If they were going to finally quit circling each other, she'd have to be a little more straight forward. Trust was not a given, rather it was acquired over time. Whether it would be earned was irrelevant. What she did need to do was prove she was a woman of her word just as he was a man of his. As soon as she heard the bolt taken from the channel, she looked around at him to be sure. Seeing no further outright hostility, she dared step out from her cover unarmed.


"I get it. Do what you have to do, I won't protest," She began, her voice rather even and steady. No longer was she riddled with a stiffness that ensured she maintained a harmless physicality. Instead she wore no mask than her own face, soft features tainted with the intensity of a belligerent race. Her movements were more militant in style, any hesitation finished with. "The traps aren't large. Just some simple twitch up snares for rabbit. Would you rather I walked ahead of you?" Kaie explained, arching a questioning brow at him with her offer. This time there was no mocking his precautions. There was a deal to uphold.