Closed [Lakeshore] Escaping The Noise (Part II)

[Kaie]

Her heart was still thumping a battlefield rhythm even after her eyes had found no further enemies in sight. It would be several minutes before the adrenaline rush and the panic that came with self preservative actions to die down to normalcy. For the time being, she simply took in the scene. Burning eyes slid from one end of the battlefield to the other. Wolves here and there, scattered but always within the vicinity of one their two-legged enemies. Their furry bodies were ravaged with gashes, burns, and hacks with weapons both improvised and forged. Each of their eyes stared in a glossy haze out toward oblivion somewhere in the forest. Once ravenous and bloodthirsty adversaries were reduced to simple carcasses of blood-matted fur. Kaie did not envy their fates.

When the Myrian's eyes finally pried away from Dira's embrace and the spots of dying fire about the woodland, they rested on those who had fought with her. Ria seemed to be coaxing her companion from her state of berserk. Meanwhile, Kaie only nodded her head in agreement and relaxed her white-knuckle grip on her weapons. With no further use for it, the Myrian convinced herself it was okay to relinquish her hold on the club, whose end was no longer truly ablaze. The flat sides of her bloodied gladius were swiped against her outer thigh. A hasty clean of the blade that left her comfortable enough to sheath it.

"Looks like it," Kaie answered the Vantha calmly with a steady tone. All she noted on herself was the dig in her shoulder, soreness, and a little dirt. When the adrenaline wore off she'd discover the attack on her shin made by the last wolf. It's jaws must've snagged her while it struggled on the ground at some point. At least her allies didn't seem to be bleeding anything serious. Oddly enough for the Myrian in question, her concerns were not of physical injuries.

The woman approached Vanari slowly with an expression not nearly as intense as the mask she wore during the fight. She stared down at the overkill and then slowly to the Vantha without judgement. Kaie eyed her thoughtfully, lips parted as if trying to find the right words to say. When it came down to it, the question to be asked was obvious.

"You alright?" The Myrian asked in a softer tone, consciously working to make it seem kind this time around.

She could try to pull off the tough image all she wanted. At the end of the day she always felt some kind of weight in what she did. After all, only several nights ago did she have that same recurring nightmare of the thin girl in the Bronze Woods. Though arguably no where on the same caliber, killing animals had its consequences, too. There's a piece that rots away into indifference when you start to end the lives of other creatures. If hunting down anything edible in the jungle hadn't been core to her clan's survival since she was born, she'd probably still be bothered by it to that day. Certainly it was an acquired tolerance.

"It gets...Easier."

[Vanari]

Vanari looked around, feeling confused, trying to wipe her hands free of blood, but everywhere she touched it only seemed to spread the evidence more. She began to panic, staring at the crimson smears as her mind drew blank after blank. And then Kaie spoke. It was strange, hearing words of comfort from the Myrian, but it somehow reached through the thick of her numbed, post-battle haze. Vanari found herself calming. It gets easier. She wanted to believe that. Needed to believe that. It was alright, she told herself, she was alright. Everyone was alright. Everything was alright. "Thanks," she murmured, tearing her eyes away from the she wolf. "I've never killed something so...big. And it looked at me right before it died. Looked right at me, like she knew I had won. And then she just...gave up." Vanari shuddered. "Strange..." No, don't think about it. No good to recall those images. She sniffed, looking around at the scene of carnage. A wry smile surprised her as it formed on her lips, and she spoke words she hadn't though she'd be capable of a mere tick before. "So...think we can make some kind of profit off these carcasses?"

[Kaie]

She watched the woman find her bearings for a moment, nodding her head slowly in understanding. For a moment, the Myrian almost feel like she needed to get away from her. Every time the Vantha seemed to make an attempt to rid herself of the blood, only seeming to spread it further, Kaie couldn't help but bite her lip. It was a symbolic gesture in her eyes. The simple scene captured her anxiety for just a tick too long. That was all it took to send her back to her unconscious terrors, standing on the field where blood never seemed to clean from her hands no matter how hard she scrubbed. It was only when the Vantha had spoken, that the Myrian found her bearings and liberated herself from her own mind.

"There are bigger things to kill," Kaie reminded her gravely, fingers absently tapping at her gladius hilt. She let a pause simmer between them for a moment as she was lost in her internal monologue again. All she could think about was the unknown future. The Myrian already had gotten blood on her own hands with intent more so than self defense. One could argue she initiated the battle herself. Would Vanari kill a person in the future the way she had just seasons ago? Would the dead haunt her as they did Kaie? She certainly hoped not. Though the events in her nightmares were not real, the Myrian woman would never wish them on anyone. Especially not either of the two standing with her then.

"Maybe. Pelt would fetch a price. Not sure if Ravokians have a taste for wolf meat, but someone would probably buy it. You two can give it a shot. Might as well get some good out of this, right?" She said as her eyes scanned over the bodies. The wolf whose flesh she burned probably wouldn't be considered a fine pelt, but maybe the meat would still be salvaged for Mizas. Ria had seemed to have killed one of the canines rather cleanly."That one there. I bet it'll sell the best."

[Kit Rowan]

Kit's eyes unfocused, sat for ticks as the world started to blur around her. She closed her eyes and breathed in the chilly autumn air. The part of her that wondered over effectiveness and waste and tactics fell apart like a rotten stool. The wetness and smell of blood was all over her. Birds chirped and the forest buzzed around them. Kit felt a surge of relief so intense she got dizzy.

She breathed a snort of a laugh, her head shaking from side to side. The beating of her heart, the steady rhythm of her lungs, the song of life in her body was strong still. Dira had teased Kit toward her with a finger, and again Kit had managed to dart in close and dance away before death could snare her in its claws. "Still alive," she muttered, still moving her head unbelieving from side to side.

Kit swallowed hysteria before it managed to drag her into a useless heap. The parts of her that had been tested when a man dragged her into an alley, when panic had seized her after her shoulder had been branded and slavers tried to teach her to be property. She shuddered, her mind slipping into emergency gear. They weren't safe. They weren't safe.

She pushed her hands against the ground, shoved herself upward. Staggering back one step before she could steady her footing, Kit turned an eye toward the carnage. Blood and fire and wolves . . . Everywhere. "It might be valuable," Kit said. "But . . . I think I'd rather leave them for . . ." She turned toward the forests, dark and deep. " . . . For whatever has a scent for blood out there. Better to let them snack on dead wolves than living girls."

[Vanari]

At Kaie's suggestion, Vanari's eyes lingered on the wolf's dark coat greedily. It certainly wouldn't hurt to turn a bit of profit after all this shyke for a good meal or two. But then Ria noted the potential presence of other predators drawn to the scent of blood, and Ari found she could not disagree. Besides, with the initial spurt of avarice gone, she felt too bone weary and unsettled by the carnage before them to even consider the grueling, laborious process of skinning even just one wolf. "Aye, I say forget it then," Vanari sighed, "I'm too petching tired to even think about having to lift my arms again." She wobbled over to where she'd left her other Tamo and retrieved it, then sank to her knees to wipe it against some foliage. There wasn't much blood, thankfully. Though as for the state of herself and her companions, however, she wasn't too confident in saying the same. One way or the other, they were going to have to leave this clearing, and the Vantha only hoped they could do so without coming into contact with more trouble. With a grunt of effort, she set herself aright again and sheathed her daggers. Lady Winter still had a bit of ways to go before she arrived in full force, but even the slight breezes of Fall heralded her inevitable approach. Vanari wrapped her torn cloak around a bit tighter, grateful the fire was still blazing merrily, then looked to her friends questioningly. "What should we do now?"

[Kaie]

The Myrian turned to the seemingly shaken up Ria, eyes passing over the slaughtered animals and the ominous forest veiling them. She had a good point. There was more in the woods than a single pack of wolves to hound and hunt them. If the stories of the unusually bloodthirsty Ravokian wolves had proven true, surely the other tales of northern beasts had potential. Kaie had no interest in sticking around to see what monstrosity would be drawn to them next.

"If Ria's right, this is probably a new breeding ground for trouble. Should move elsewhere," She agreed with a nod, looking down to press her foot into the once flaming branch she dropped earlier. The charred end broke easily, embers shooting weakly out its sides as she crushed their place of birth. Darkening eyes narrowed down at her absent task as if in deep thought. And then something appeared to strike her, head shooting up and glaring into the trees. Yet it wasn't a sound or smell that brought her attention there. Useless club suddenly forgotten, Kaie strode forward without a word. Her pace was quick and stern, and she disappeared into the thick shadows without forethought. Silence followed for some time until...

"Gods petching dammit!" The Myrian obscenities were followed by a couple sharp hacking noises and the breaking of wood. A few more curses were voiced again as she returned to the two. In her hands she held the up the squirrel pole. Two of the loops hung down to yield a pair of the rodents. The first was nothing but a hanged head and torso, its entrails hanging down in bloody shreds. The second missing its tail and one of its legs.

"Guess we know what attracted them," Kaie fumed with a strained voice, looking like she was very much trying not to kick one of the dead canines in the head for their trespasses against her. A native of Falyndar, she understood how the animal world worked. The abandoned snared animals hardly even scavenged before they moved onto the next seemed like a waste.

[Kit Rowan]

Kit frowned as Kaie took off somewhere in search of something. They needed to leave then! Kit found herself glancing downward at lupine corpses and felt a shutter run down all the way down her spine. She took slow, measured breathes and tried to put herself at ease. She turned from them and started collecting her knives, the pulling the ones that had struck through from the corpses and wiping them off on the vegetation and simply slipping the ones that had missed back into their holsters. By the time Kaie had come back she was putting the last one away.

"You're kidding . . ." She clenched her teeth together and hissed out a frustrated something. "We brought them here? Petch . . ." She kicked the ground. Perhaps if she had just tagged along and cast a glamour . . . But she could only cover one sense at a time. If she wanted to cover a scent, she'd have to drop the visual illusion that made Ria Thorn, and that was out of the question. And even then, she was unsure if she could mask the scent of something that wasn't actually there yet.

"Well, unless we want to eat after a pair of rabid wolves, I'd say we've got everything we need to get from here." She turned her head, scanned the trees and strained her ears for more sound. Kit didn't find anything. "Ari? We should head back to the docks. Maybe we can catch it before they send the mext ferry back." If it came down to it, Kit could cover up the bloodstains with a new illusion.

[Vanari]

Vanari nodded at Ria's words. As unwilling as she felt to have to part with Kaie after having so recently found her again, it was the only logical thing to do. They were in no shape to take on more feral beasts and it was likely the Myrian would not take to the idea of coming with them. It was clear she had arrangements set up for herself, and she would look more than a little suspicious to the Stryfe should she mysteriously emerge from the woods, looking as wild as the wolves they had just slain. "Aye, that we should," the Vantha sighed. She looked up at Kaie, a mote of concern swimming in her eyes. "Will you be alright with that wound on your arm?" Ari wondered what it was that Kaie did out here to begin with. She was alive and well when they ran into her, so she must have shelter, or perhaps even other companions, somewhere in these dark woods. Alas, now was not the time for more stories, especially with so much more carnage now to attract bigger, meaner foes. She would simply have to bear the horrendous ferry once more in the coming days and find out another time. "I don't imagine there is someway we can contact you," she wondered aloud. "Or if you would be willing to enter the city. But I will find a way to meet again, that I promise." Vanari had no way of knowing how ominous her words were in that moment, and how they might very well regret meeting at all in the near future. But, for now, it seemed as reasonable of a promise as any. She would just have to figure out a way to not get mauled the next time around. With a quick but heartfelt set of goodbyes, they went their separate ways, each bearing their own marks of another day amongst the living earned. "So much for a relaxing holiday," Ari grinned at Ria once they reached the docks. Well, some things in life just can't be planned.

[Abstract]

Grade Awarded!

~|-|~

Kaie

Award :

Skills

~ Observation – 2
~ Intimidation - 1
~ Body Building – 1
~ Weapon: Flaming Stick – 1
~ Weapon: Gladius - 1

Lores

~ Using Fire to Intimidate Animals
~ Snares can Draw Predators
~ Winning Against Wolves!

Other

N/A

~|-|~

Vanari

Award :

Skills

~ Tactics - 1
~ Observation – 2
~ Weapon: Tamo - 2
~ Weapon: Flaming Stick - 1

Lores

~ Repeating Successful Tactics
~ Winning Against Wolves!

Other

- 1 Cloak

~|-|~

Kit

Award :

Skills

~ Acrobatics – 1
~ Weapon: Dagger – 1
~ Observation - 1

Lores

~ Dagger: Hold it Out and Wait for Something to Run Into it
~ After Adrenaline Highs Come Adrenaline Lows
~ Winning Against Wolves!

Other

N/A

~|-|~

Notes

An amusing thread. Though I’m curious… what about the fire?

I didn’t give any injuries, as this took place in Fall, and it’s Spring now… so they’d be gone for good now