[Flashback, Kade] The Teeth of Winter

[Gossamer]

Timestamp: 37th day of Winter, 508 AV
Location: The Fruit and Fish Market Near Savina Canal

The market was unusually crowded, but it was a good place to pick up a quick inexpensive bite to eat. Ravok was normally scarce of fruit this time of year, although the fish were plentiful. They were laid out in long ice filled trays that kept them fresh all day long. Ice was plentiful, with most of the fringes of Ravok lake frozen up. There were seasonal workers and slaves that made up a whole crew that simply did nothing but harvest ice for the fish market. Most of the markets were owned by one or two of Ravok's most notorious families and this one was no exception.

It was carefully controlled by The Lazarin family who ran most of the Ebonstryfe as well.
But today, everyone's mind was not on the fish or the lack of fruit. It was on a quiet young man who was deliberately pasting up a poster on the market's bulletin wall. It was a reward, offered for the return of a Kelvic female who had been gone less than twenty four hours. He was impassive about his work, demonstrating he was simply an employee by the no-nonsense unemotional way he pasted and stood back. Then in a loud voice, he cried the information as well.

"Hear Yea Hear Yea! Reward offered for the return of a Kelvic Wolf. Details posted." With that he turned, and disappeared into the crowd. People crowded up to read the poster and see the image carefully painted in the corner. The kelvic was lovely, painted whimsically, and it was clear she was much beloved for the reward to be so high.

People talked though. Men laughed. They made suggestions, and everyone agreed she wasn't coming back. "Might be she ran away. Those filthy animals aren't good for nothing but hard labor and chasing messengers." One called to another. The other laughed. "No, with looks like that they should check the brothels. She's probably serving a new master, and not by guarding his front door, if you know what I mean... but down on her knees!" They laughed. Then someone shook their head and added to the speculation. "They are pit fighting the big kelvics now. Making a lot of money too. I bet they are going to put her in the pit and see what she can eat. To bad too, a face like that is wasted in a pit." He called, then glanced around.

All this Kade would hear, witness, but it was for him to decide to act on it or not.

Missing Female Kelvic - Golden Wolf - Reward Offered! Details On the 36th day of Winter, 508, my guardian disappeared while investigating intruders into our family compound. No sign has been seen of her since. Riza is a female, 5'6", 114lbs, a single year old. Her human form is a dark blond to brown hair with blue eyes. She is a golden wolf in her wilder form. Riza is not prone to wander, so foul play is suspected. A small artist rendering has been included to help in identification. Reward 500 Gold Mizas are offered as to her safe return. If anyone has any information please see Samual Carival, Carival Imports - Savania Canal 938.

[Kadarus]

"Kadey boy, you really need to watch who you're glaring at," Finn warned, clutching the ridge of his ear in her clammy hands. Under the brim of his worn, fading black hat, Kadarus Lagh'ratham's aureous eyes scorched on the back of a passing thug who held himself with a touch more authority than most other haggard looking criminals should have. Posture too straight...too arrogant...scarred lips smirking...black gloved hand settled openly and unashemedly on the hilt of his sword. A sneer was thrown from him to the pycon, and the man dressed in what was little more than rags, but he continued on his way.

The hunter's arms had been folded loosesly around his chest, and under the frayed hem of his coat, his hand had been resting on the hilt of his knife. It seemed far too often that that was where his hand stolen away to, but he could not help his paranoia in a city like Ravok. From the overly chipper citizens and tourists, there was nothing but good word on the city; of its modem of travel, of its romanticism, of the shimmering amber glow of the waterways in the nightly lanterns. But it was all too easy to pick up that pungent scent of desperation and fear wafting from their bodies...betraying their lies.

And then, of course, there was Finn.

Finneus Basil Agincourt Devgravias had seen a great many sights, her little clay feet had carried her from Falyndar, to Taldera, to Eyktol - something she boasted about often, and he was rather suspect too. But when she wanted to be, she was a fount of knowledge. Presently, she leaned over his shoulder, leaning against his cheek, watching the cocksure swagger of the man as he strolled away. "Kadarus, that's one of the Ebonstryfe," she said in a tone so silent she knew only his sharp ears would catch it. "I don't care how sure of yourself you are with that enormous, overcompensating butter knife of your's; Ravok is the Ebonstryfe's city. They're like Alvinas here...they do no wrong, and their judgement is always cruel, brutal and immediate. Stop trying to pick fights!"

Kadarus chuffed, feeling his blood bubble at the audacity of the admonishment. The scars that traced abstract tales of brashness, luck, and bullheadedness burned like a coat of hot iron sometimes on cold or stormy nights; the few people that he'd cut down since breaking free of the merciless, butchering Zith colony had done little to cool his bloodlust. If anything, they'd merely stoked the fires. "Shut up, Finn. I need none of your advice." He heard the pycon gasp; one of her annoying quirks. A sound of humanity, of life. It was almost some form of mockery coming from the thing, but her reply was lost to him as he shifted his head to the left, where a young man, who made nary a single sound as he trudged across the cobblestones, was busying himself with a poster. The hunter's eyes flickered over his face; his lips nearly hung open slack, and his eyes were glazed over by the monotony of the job. He had no love or interest in this toil; it was simply mizas for him. With the paper pasted firmly to the post on the fruit stand, he turned from it, tipped his head back, cried out a long practiced announcement, then shuffled away, head slumped.

Two buffoons, idling as though the world and time stood still for them while they gossiped, snorted and guffawed as they tossed their lurid theories back and forth over the poster. Again, there was the knee jerk reaction, the touch of rough wood to his hand, but he flinched away, and merely stepped up to the poster, pushing between the middle of the two. They squawked and cursed at him, one of them calling his mother a lowly whore bitch, but Kadarus suppressed the urge with amazing strength to break the man's arms. The vendor of the fruit stand, a portly man in a vest and a discolored, rough looking shirt, huffed over to tear the post down, but Kadarus' hands were faster.

"Interesting..." he muttered, as Finn peered at the paper along with him, looking rather excited about the bounty. His dully glowing gold eyes almost seemed to pulse as he stared intently at the artist's renderings, taking in more than simply her hair color, her eye color, but the shape of her brow, her cheekbones, the soft, straight line of her nose, the shape of her lips, the curve of her neck...carefully, he folded the poster in two, and slid it into his pocket. "Hmm. Did you get the description? All of it?"

"Sure did, mutt." Finn made her improbably quick, unseen descent down the hunter's body, and stood before his boot in mere moments.

"I want you to run around, find some of the brothels, look around for a girl like that. I'm going to find these pit fights, and look there. Meet me back here in a an hour...if you return, and I have not for fifteen minutes after your arrival, seek out the pit fights, too."

"Aye aye, capitano!" Finn giggled at the mock salute she threw up to the hunter, and they parted their ways, the pycon scampering around and under feet, Kadarus adjusting his hat and walking off through the crowd, scowling.

[Gossamer]

Kade was thinking like a human when he sent Finn off to check the brothels. The little Pycon would have no trouble heading to that section of the city, though she might have to hitch a ride on a gondola or two, since the waterways of Ravok divided the sections, forming streets in some cases. Once there, she'd be able to search the dozen brothels in that section. She'd find nothing much interesting... a few multiple species, a few shifters, and some there not by choice, but there would be no sign of the missing golden wolf.

The pit fighting was located around a central location that just involved a singular pit. The battles weren't open yet for the day, and no animals or people were housed on site. A multitude of scents lead various directions, but it definitely appeared that people brought in creatures to fight, rather than the the pit itself being part of a larger complex. Being human had a distinct disadvantage. He could start asking around, for there were people aplenty. There was even a worker down in the pit with a rake leveling sand and removing debris in preparation for the afternoon and evening fights. He could question that individual, or any of the other groundsworkers walking around. He could also pick one of the scent trails and try to follow it back to where perhaps kelvics were kept and bred. But Kade's nose was far better than that. All he truly needed was a scent of the woman, a hint of what she smelled like, and he could most likely follow her from her actual home to wherever she was held. He had an address to start his search at. Or he could just comb the city, quartering it off and trying to locate another wolf.

There were many options available. The pits, unless she was brought to fight that night, were probably a dead end. And it was doubtful that anyone would fight a big predator kelvic when she could be bred to get more males and more females. Sadly, Kadarus knew that truth well... if she was even alive anymore. She could have been targeted for removal so that her owner would be vulnerable for attack then. Again though, it was unlikely she'd be killed outright, at least until she produced more offspring.

So Kade had a choice and a decision to make... if he was going to continue to search at all.

[Kadarus]

"Disgusting," Kadarus sniffed, regarding the pit from his vantage point with a critical, haughty eye. He stood stock still near its edge, despite the indescribable urge to pace, to hunch his shoulders, as though stalking...his lip curled back slightly from his teeth. The stink of blood was heavy in plenty in the air, and it choked his nose, as though his nostrils were clotted with thick, scabby blobs of the stuff. The taste forced itself on his tongue, as though he'd licked a blade of warm iron, and his mouth slowly began to water. There had been many throats torn from their fleshy sheaths down there, many bellies torn open to spill out its blood-slickened and gory bounty. The gravel looked distinctly darker than it should have...stains from many good fights, he knew. A man was down there, distributing the crushed stones with the steady pull of a rake, humming quietly to himself.

Kadarus took a step back, away from the pit, and turned his head to spit, feeling his stomach tighten with a cramp. He wouldn't want to change places with the rake man, not for all the miza in the world; he could already feel his feral senses getting riled up, raising the hairs on his arms and neck. As a Kelvic, he was forever caught between the worlds of man and the wilds, but all too often did he find himself thinking with his instincts. Surrounded as he would be by such a maddening...delicious scent, he would lose himself, and become nothing more than the animal. A berserk, mindless killing machine.

But moreso, it reminded him too much of a fate he had only just recently escaped. It was too easy to remember the Zith claws carrying him away, the iron always around his wrists. They'd sought to own him, like the pit masters here owned these Kelvics, but Kadarus had always been too stubborn and hot blooded to cave to a claim of ownership. It had not always been a Kelvic opponent for him, either...he'd fought humans, Akalak, Benshira who had wandered too far...even disgraced, captured Zith. And he'd killed them all. Broken necks, torn throats, disembowelment - he'd even manage to win a match by attrition when his opponent had simply given in to bloodloss. He'd been a feirce combatant in the pits, but he'd been little else than a monster with a single driving goal. Perhaps here in Ravok, if you lost, you were put back in your pen for your next match, or killed in the heat of the moment, but with the Zith, there were things worse than death. Live meals were common; they enjoyed the new flavor the terror gave their food. Kadarus knew what that taste was; adrenaline, from the fights, from the fear, and he knew it because he had eaten of it many a time when she had brought him back a snack.

Scowling, he pulled the wrinkled poster from his pocket, and stared at it for a moment or two, becoming annoyed as the wind played with it. Silently, he weighed his options, slashing off any that seemed like they'd take too long, or too much effort. A skilled human hunter could follow dirt tracks and broken leaves all day, but in the end, he was still not a match for a Kelvic hunter, who merely needed to take a deep breath of the air. He could turn away from the pit fights and find Carival Imports and sniff around, to try and find her trail, but there was one problem with that plan; he did not know her scent. He wondered, briefly, how quick this Samual Carival would be to trust a strange man with a peice of the woman's clothing. Reason was quick to argue back; if Mister Carival was desperate enough to offer such a sum for her return, surely, he'd be eager to reward a skilled hunter. Kadarus growled, low and long, at no one but himself, fighting between the urge to go find Carival Imports, or to burst brashly into the holding pens for the pit fights and search for the girl himself. It'd be the road less travelled, certainly, he thought, idly chewing at his lip, and a little longer, yes, but I should approach this with a little care, I suppose.

Casting one more glare down at the man raking the blood-stinking gravel, Kadarus turned away from the pits, slowly folding the poster in his hands. The thought of meeting Finn near the fruit stand had entirely slipped his mind, his thoughts now on the missing girl and Savania Canal number nine thirty eight...

Meanwhile, some umpteen miles across the city, an overjoyed little pycon laid in bliss in the valley of two round, scrumptious, firm caramel colored breasts that jiggled in an incredibly interesting way everytime the prostitute they belonged to laughed. Grinning, Finn pushed against them, feeling the wonderful things give in their softness under her hands. "Man, these things are great. I wish I had them," she announced in mock sadness. The redhead and the blonde beside the brunette she was currently reclining on laughed at that. Had Finn ever had the capacity to smell like Kade, she would have been wishing she had no nose, between the thick clouds of Dreamsmoke and the girl's heavy perfume in the air.

"So, you've got shifters here, eh? Too bad none of them look like what I need. I wander what kind of weird clique a shifter would apppeal to?" She looked in curiosity to the prostitutes that had been entertaining her for the past half hour for the answer, but they merely looked at one another in bubble headed puzzlement. "Probably some freak that likes to bang animals. Hey, you ladies ever wonder what form a kelvic does the dirty in? I'd ask the mutt, but he'd never answer that. Jeez, you fleshies are kinda horrifying, you know?" The prostitutes all giggled amidst each other, and Finn sighed, wandering if she should leave her jiggly safe haven to keep looking.

[Gossamer]

Sometimes people were all the same. It didn't matter if they were in Ravok, Zeltiva, or even Syliras. They craved blood, violence, and liked to see weaker individuals struggle. In the underworld of making a coin, it didn't matter who lived and died to the ones profiting. And that included kelvics. Kadarus was just seeing first again had what he'd learned with the Zith, and what other kelvics locked in chains and behind bars had known for sometimes the whole of their lives.

The flier gave him a place to start, a new destination, and it didn't take him long to get there. A handful of copper mizas to a gondolier and he was dropped off less than a block from the address on the flier off Savania Canal. He was not certain how his reception with Samual Carival would go, but he could be certain of finding the address. Kade's nose was sensitive, incredibly so. Wolves could follow a single individual leaving a trail of scent, scat, and urine for thousands of miles even if they passed by weeks or months earlier. But that wasn't the case with the golden wolf. She had passed by days ago... and so as he walked down the block of tall elegant houses set on carefully drifting blocks between canals, he could easily catch her scent. It was strong, feminine, young... there was a power in it that spoke of the promise of adulthood with the playfulness of youth. She was two, maybe three years old, Kade could determine, from drinking in the scent. And as he got closer to the house, the more of it filled his senses. Other human scents mingled with the golden wolf kelvics... until the trail was muddied next to the actual house. Posters and fliers littered the trees growing in large pots along the walkways. They hung from fences, porchs, and even were scattered across the ground.

Samual's house had a line in front of it too.. of people of all sorts waiting for an interview. It looked like if Kadarus wanted to wait, he could, but it might be several hours before he actually got to talk to someone about an item of clothing. However, he really didn't need one... he had her scent, and it was a clean youthful scent he'd recognize anywhere. the man only had one kelvic.. it was clear from the odors around the house. As Kadarus approached the back of the line, he heard another man speaking with a woman who seemed to be lingering. Their conversation was clear, though it would be hushed to a normal humans ears.

"I know he reported it... have the Black Sun done anything about it? I mean, we both know where she is, but I think Samual is just trying to get them to return her without any fuss because hes shining the spotlight directly on them. There's rumors that hes going to up the reward too." The woman shrugged. "I'm not sure, Ned... but I know hes playing a dangerous game. This could all backfire. I can't believe... he allowed one of those creatures into his house. You know, they say he loves her? That he sleeps with her.. and not just like you'd let a dog sleep on your bed. She's an animal... its disgusting." The woman turned up her lip. She was perhaps in her late twenties, elegantly dressed, and obviously biased against the wilder race. Humans were so narrow minded sometimes. The man, now identified as Ned, shrugged. "You know they are advertising for predators now. It seems they want males and females for breeders. Paying top dollar too.. 1000 mizas for wolves, bears, big cats, and things like glassbeaks." The man said, gesturing down the street. "Who knows what else goes on across Laurel Canal. Fighting is the least of it. I heard they promote prostitution for the 'curious'...." He said, going along with what the woman was hinting at.

Meanwhile...

The ladies keeping Finn company laughed. "My dear, everything you may want is for sale in this city... and even if some of those things need to be kept chained and muzzled, you can still for a few coppers by some private time to enjoy them. And I do mean enjoy...." The woman laughed. "Why, I once worked with a woman who was a kelvic... a lovely rabbit. She was busier than all of us combined, but I never saw her entertaining customers with fur." The prostitute laughed. And at Finn's suggestion of boobs, they all laughed again. "Actually Laurel Canal has some kelvic places... scary thing that. That's where they breed the gladiators and pit fighters. But they keep the women working even when they are breeding to pay for their food and housing. They particularly enjoy the equines there, the smaller ones of course. If your curious, you could probably go look in on them. I bet you could even get a job if you could make those little hands a bit bigger... why some men really love being stimulated...." She went on in depth about just exactly how to please some of the more depraved men, and most of the description didn't involve anything to do with their reproductive organs.

[Kadarus]

Fresh from the gondola, the soles of his boots damp with lakewater lingering in the bottom of the slender boat, the hunter stopped almost immediately. The gondoliere gave his customer a puzzled look before shoving away from the block, watching the silent man as he drifted slowly away. The ratty brim of his hat hid his eyes but not his nose as he slowly turned his head from the left to the right, his nostrils flaring. It was the scent of one of his own; not precisely of the shape shifting curiosities with the clouded past, but a wolf. Granted, by scent, it seemed to be a smaller, more distant cousin, but the other, more subtle layers beneath the inital savage whiff told him that he had already fallen upon his trail.

Kadarus lowered his head, striving to catch a stronger, more concentrated spot, and began to walk. He went along at a slow pace, his gait steady, lacking the more familiar feel of stalking that he usually carried himself with. He cleaved through passing couples and scattered crowds, refusing to step aside, stubborn and stoic as he tracked his paycheck. While he was paying it little attention at the moment, the home of Samual Carival and his missing pet was drawing closer, and already he could hear the men and women gathered in front of the house talking, but their voices had as much importance to him as the bussing of flies.

Suddenly, he stopped.

He turned towards the building at his left, sniffing, golden eyes settling on the ground. Crouching, he brushed aside some rocks, then picked up one of the stones, strangely smooth, as large as a peach pit, and raised it to his face, scenting it. It was cloaked in the scent of the golden wolf; perhaps she had picked it up days ago, rolled it around in her palm for some time, then cast it aside on whim or command. The details didn't matter to Kadarus. He had something with her signature on it, and that was more than good enough for him - and highly fortunate, it seemed, as he edged back to reality and looked at the impatient, chattering line in front of his original destination.

He had no more business with Samual Carival, but still Kadarus approached the house, carefully studying the assembled, moving in slowly at a wide curve. The scent of his quarry became obscured, buried with the smells and stinks of the dozens that had came and went, all undoubtedly looking into the posters and the reward.

He pressed his lips into a firm, emotionless line as the two at the end of the line began chatting, seeming to pick up on a point they had left off of mere seconds before he'd arrived. The hairs on the back of his neck bristled, and instinctually, he could feel his hackles raising - Black Sun, shady business - it was nothing new to Kadarus, but it was danger still and it meant his hide out on the line to dry if things went badly. Racist bile spewed from the woman, but he was quite to squash the urge to lash out and break her jaw. It was a thing of the world, like breathing or the setting of the sun, and while beating the both of them bloody would feel great, it would solve nothing.

Still, his visit had not been in vain. Palming a few gold mizas, the hunter stepped closer to the two, cleared his throat, and held out his hand to shake Ned's, imparting some of the coin to him, and then turning toward the woman, doing the same with her. "My name's Kadarus, I just got into the city. Would you be so inclined to tell me what the business is with all the rackket here? The most I gathered is some rich man lost his pet, but it feels like there's just a little more going on."

Far from Savania Canal 938, the expression molded upon Finn the pycon's face was one of horror and disgust. "Good gods, I don't know you fleshies had that, or you rubbed it on that other thing and stuck it down the...wow. Point aside, I don't need no job. I got me a whore already, and he better be makin' my money, for Yshul's sake." Finn went quiet for a moment, kneeding the soft flesh of the prostitute's breasts with her tiny fingers, thinking about what thew bigger, more alive woman had said.

Though many moons had passed, it was all too easy to remember the snarling, animalistic growls and bellows of the half-mad kelvic she'd saved from death. It was hard for her to imagine a place full of rabid, teeth gnashing Kadarusi, but it seemed like a good enough place to look for the golden wolf. "So, hey. That Laurel Canal, where's that at?"