Pick Up Your Toys And Get Out of My Sand? (Vendaril)

[Una Nox]

:PSure thing, we can always make another one later or something like that, if you feel up for it, that is. He was trying to be inquisitive, or so Una thought as the conversation turned towards her. Quite right he was, still it was a bit scary to think what it just was that he was looking at when he had noticed such a small detail. Una was about to get a bit creeped out at him, but then she remembered that he was not Human after all, maybe it was just a normal thing to his kind. But then again many „unpleasant“ things were normal to the Symenestra, or at least so the story was spun when other people were saying it. Still he was acting quite calmly up until now, and he probably had more trouble trusting her than she had trusting him. His face looked weird, when he did what Una thought was smiling, still she did not get disencouraged; She giggled a bit, escaping to answer his question just yet, as she spoke: „You know, for someone who seems as untrusting as you, that sure was a quick road to friendship“ her voice trailed off a bit as she got back to his question and stated an answer to the question she had previously gotten: „I do wield a sword, and i do so quite well if i may add“ she ended her line with a devilish grin, as if was supposed to intimidate the man, not tht she was any good at it tho. Her mind gave her another mystery to work with, maybe there was actually quite a lot of them, but it all seemed like one big question to Una as she let the words spring from her mouth: „I take it you are not so fascinated by the harvest, like many of your kind, but that still leaves a question, what do you do in your free time, Vendaril?“ she was still using his name, but this time it was more in order to get a good nickname in mind than to actually remember it.

[Vendaril]

Vendaril’s grin widened. Una seemed to be lowering her guard a little. “Untrusting? Me? I’m offended you would say so!” He frowned in mock horror, recoiling as if stung. “I have only ever strived to be as sociable as possible.” Rolling his shoulders, he preened and looked out into the distance. In his own mind he appeared rather gallant. Strands of hair caught in his face as he returned to look at Una, rather spoiling the effect. Sheepishly shaking it away, he continued. “I’ve never been a particularly capable swordsman. For some reason the skill eludes me. Then again, I hardly have a warrior’s physique.” He relaxed his back and leant on his hands. “So, I must resist from enquiring further to prevent embarrassing myself – I know very little on the topic!” He laughed; a quick sharp noise of rapidly expelled breath. The air gained a chill, an edge that it had not before, when Una mentioned the harvest. The corners of Vendaril’s lips sagged and he tensed up. “The harvest… It is hard to avoid it growing up in Kalinor. It is a fact of life for Symenestra.” He drew a sharp breath of bitter air. “I – obsession is an inept word to describe – it is hard to –” He sucked in another gulp of oxygen, and chose his words very carefully. “What I’m trying to say is, even those who embark on the harvest, they are just like you or I. They are simply doing as they were brought up to do. You guessed correctly though, I am not one of them. I have an elder brother; it is he whom enacts that responsibility.” Vendaril calmed himself and a small smile returned to his face again. “As for me, milady. I, am a skilled acrobat!” He pulled at his forelock and inclined his head. “I also train myself in the art of the hunt. I spend much time travelling so it is more of a task than a hobby. However it does bring me a certain amount of satisfaction. You could also say I was an avid reader, although it is not often I have the time to indulge myself in a good book.” He felt the previous tension pass with the awkward subject matter, and he perked up further. “How about you? I now know you practice with a sword, but is that your true pastime? I doubt that is the only activity you enjoy…” Vendaril had a little inward grin at the innuendo.

[Una Nox]

:)Sorry for the delay, but i was swooped up in holidays . So he wasn't untrusting? Una had to frown a bit at even the slightest thought of that, it was higly likely that he was, no matter how kind he seemed to be; Still, things were going quite well, too well probably. She could not help but smile as he seemed to be trying to relax. It was not working as well as he may have thought; but still, even if all of his inquisitive questions and mismatched gazes were just a game, she would gladly take him up on that one, she herself loved games after all. She could not help but spread an almost extatic grin on her face as she started to speak, yet again: „So you would want me to think you are quite different from the rest of your kind. I never really thought of Symenestra as loners, yet i do think their and Human ways do not add up quite nicely. I do believe you are, different that is“ she giggled a bit, she was far from done when talking came to take place: „You know, when i first saw you from a distance i got the impression you are the predator, but now, with each passing moment you look more and more like prey“ Una stopped to take a breath and shoot him with a playfull grin, provoking was one of her strong sides after all: „So, you do not have any skill with a weapon, that would indicate you to quite defensless when fighting came to take place, would it not? Maybe not..... maybe you are a martial artist of sorts, but then again, you do not look like one; As i heard you say, a hunter is what you are, and a hunter is what i want to see“ she ended her line ginning at him, as she was slowly closing in on him. She wanted to pull at his nerves some more, even if he was a good guy so far, it did not matter much, this was fun on certain occasions, like this one. As she closed the distance between them, let one of her arms reach for his shoulder. The other one went slowly for his neck, as she stopped it only about an inch away from it and laughed lightly. „Is this all? Do you have no fight in you? We could play this game of cat and mouse longer, much longer, but what's the point? You are a hunter, then why don't you make me your prey, or do you intend to let me win like this. Be warned though, i will give you no quarter for kindness“ she giggled softly as she layed her hand on his neck. She looked around for a moment, and considered it would not be easy for him if they were caught fighting, but still it would not be all that bad if she was on his side. She finally oppened up her lips next to his ear and whispered slowly: „ I promise, i won't scream if you don't“ as the sentence ended, she let the stopped arm progress and get a hold of his neck as she raised her lip up as if she was trying to bare her fangs at him.

[Vendaril]

As loose as Vendaril felt, as Una became more flirtatious he felt slightly flustered. Still, he couldn’t let it show – no, that wouldn’t do at all. As she came closer her scent grew more pungent. Well, she would soon see who was hunter and who was prey. He allowed her to reach out to his throat, sitting still as stone. She put her head next to his and drawled a taunt in his ear. When the Symenestra spoke, it was calmly and with clarity, like a frozen pool. “Clearly you have not met many of my people Una, otherwise you would not be so quick to judgment.” In one fluid series of movements, he grasped the arm holding his neck by the wrist, and twisted it to the side. He then placed his free hand on the ground and used it to propel himself over her head, landing behind her. Almost nuzzling his head over her shoulder he proceeded to whisper into her ear, much in the same way that she had done previously. “Well then, this is hardly much of a game. I was rather looking forward to a little sport, but then perhaps you are not up to it…” He grinned again and poked at the girl in the small of her back, before cartwheeling a good few meters away to allow her to compose herself. “To answer your question,” he continued, hunching down on all fours like a spider, “I do practice a little in unarmed combat. That is, unarmed other than tooth and nail.” Vendaril’s body began to warm to the thought of activity, chemicals buzzing through his veins delivering kicks of energy that flushed his icy skin pink and widened his eyes. He flicked his tongue across his upper lip and winked at Una. “Did I hear you mention not giving any quarter? I’m glad, otherwise you would have an excuse!”

[Una Nox]

Una was not quite sure how to get the spider off her back, literally. As he started whispering in her ear, it was not the same thing she had done to him, not even by a long shot, yet it made slight chills run down her spine. She was now sure that he knew some sort of a martial art, or at least was enough of an acrobat to do all that he had just did. Maybe he was both? That thought bugged Una for a bit longer as she was barely litsening to him. Would she really be able to do anything against him? She knew she was weaker, but he did not, maybe that was her advantage, if she had any to begin with. She grinned from ear to ear at the thought of how easy it would be if her sword was here, still it was probably more interesting this way. Her grin was interrupted by a gentle poke to her lower back, as Vendaril was moving away. It was weird to feel a bit cornered, it was a while since she last had that feeling. Quickly drawing breath, she focused her thoughts on how to knock him out. All of her ideas were not good enough, but it was far from enough to make her quit. She suddenly noticed that the Symenestra was speaking for some time now, but what was he saying, she could not quite pick out; She was too far gone in thoughts of her own. She twitched a bit, as she finally got back in touch with reality; She heard him repeat her own words. No quarter? It sounded like fun to her as she started sprinting towards the Symenestra. When she was about six feet away, she quickly changed postures and jumped as if she was trying to hug him. It was all good in theory, as long as she could disable his arms, he was not that much stronger than she was. The rest was up to luck, if such a thing even existed.

[Vendaril]

Vendaril’s smirk faltered a little as Una charged. He certainly hadn’t expected anything like that, he had marked her for a more cautious fighter. This was brash, possibly even downright idiotic. Still, he had been put off guard and drew back a little, rising into a hunched stance. Apparently he had guessed incorrectly about the girl. When he saw the determined, slightly playful expression on her rapidly advancing face he was struck by an eerie similarity to a myrian tigress. He followed he approach as she powered her way towards him, judging the speed she was picking up. He would use that against her he decided. She was almost upon him when he flung out a foot to try and trip her whilst the rising to a higher position, meaning to leap over her as she was flung shamefully into the dust. Of course, not all went as planned. Given his mistakes concerning the fair woman so far it was hardly a surprise when Una leapt at him at the last minute, catching him around the shoulders in a tight embrace. Together the pair tumbled backwards with the unfortunate Symenestra landing flat on his back. Mentally scolding himself for not seeing it coming, Vendaril couldn’t avoid enjoying the way her copper hair scattered over his face. Of course with the air expelled from his lungs and dust scuffed in his face, the good was outweighed by the bad. Well now, he told himself, this won’t do at all. Stop thinking with your loins and fight! What happened to “no quarter”, eh? Another voice spoke up in his mind, or rather grumbled back: Oh shut up. You weren’t complaining about it earlier. Well earlier we weren’t caught in this shameful bear-hug, the first voice retorted. Just shut up and help get us out of this mess, the latter voice muttered, and Vendaril returned his attention to the situation at hand. While lying on the ground in the company of Una would have been pleasant in any other situation, Vendaril’s wounded pride fuelled a squirming struggle; he writhed and turned to evade the tight arms trapping his shoulders. It was a harder task than it would have seemed to an uneducated bystander, as Una appeared to have a masked strength in her demure physique. Seconds passed, and Vendaril realised that playing the worm was not helping the situation, and so rapidly reassessed his battle plan. Slipping his hands up between their two torsos, he planted them square - just below her breasts - and heaved with his limited might.

[Una Nox]

Overjoyed would probably be the best word to describe how Una felt after successfully tackling the Symenestra. She could not see much with her hair in her face, but she could feel that he was subdued to some limit and that made her feel like she won already. And in fact, the tables were quite turned now which harnessed all of her wavering confidence into quite achieveable ideas. As she struggled with all of her strength to keep him pressed down, it could not be helped, she knew what his weak spot would be in this position, and after all, she did promise that there would be no quarter, didn't she? With a slight nudge of her head to the left, she got most of the hair out of her line of sight in order to have better grasp on the situation. She then slowly whispered: „You know this would normally be the time that i would ask you to give up, but i think we both know what answer i would get...“ as her voice trailed into nothing but another breath she parted her lips again: „I did promise there would be no quarter, after all, i 'oughta keep my word“ her line was ended with a devious smile as she quickly brought up her knee into Vendaril's crotch. She did try to control the strength of the kick to the best of her ability, which was not really a good thing, as most of her concentration was spent onto keeping him on the ground. Releasing the grip on his arms a bit, she shot him an inquisitive look, wondering what colour would he turn, if any. Further violence would have probably severly injured the delicate frame that Vendaril had, so Una asked once again, but waiting for the answer this time: „Giving up yet?“ she could not help but giggle a bit at their current situation, but she could not deny the simple fact that it was fun.

[Vendaril]

Vendaril grunted and expelled air through his nostrils as Una’s knee made acquaintances with his male members. His face flushed and he let the tension leave the arms poised to repel her. As was to be expected, he felt his gorge rising as pain ran from his groin, searing into his brain with a vividness unmatched by other injuries. That was a truly dirty tactic, and if she were Symenestra she would never have used it. Damage in that area was particularly awful for his kind, to whom children are both rare and greatly sought after. To risk sterilisation of a male, particularly one of such lineage as Vendaril’s, was a cruel insult. “You besmirch my honour, miss.” His voice was a little hoarse, as his lungs were still heaving from the shock. “I am a nobleman in my own country, I would never surrender so easily.” Fighting to master the pain, Vendaril slung a scowl over his features and dove between the human’s legs and slid away again. What took place next was a merry dance as Vendaril danced and dodged continually out of reach; scuttling on all fours at times, before leaping overhead or cartwheeling aside. No matter how the girl tried to land a blow on him, he always ensured he was one step ahead. Vendaril had learnt of the brutal nature of her, behind the demure mask was a vicious opportunist, and yet he still felt playful vibes coming off her. This knowledge helped him – he would not underestimate her again. Eventually as they both seemed to slow down, he made his move. Lunging forward, he swung on set of hooked nails towards her right arm, aiming to score a set of red stripes over her alabaster skin. It would serve her right he thought to himself mid-swing. Even so, he aimed only to scratch, not to draw blood. Still, what would happen would happen, and as she said herself – no quarter.

[Una Nox]

:)I improvised your reactions a bit, but i doubt that Vendaril would mind his current position much if you do mind however, Pm me and i will edit my post. What came to take place came all too quickly for Una as she did not have the time to reposses the grip on Vendaril. She could feel a certain edge to his movements, almost as she could predict them, yet she was not strong enough to interfere, tho it was probably more of speed thing now. She grinned from ear to ear as she could see the claws swing at her, it was fairly impossible for her to evade them, but she could probably make use of the situation; "No pain, no gain" as and old gambler once told her...... and in a way, she really was like him, like her father. Instead of moving out of the way, she forced her arm more into the blow. She could feel a certain pain in the area the blow had landed, but it still was not enough to bother her seriously. Quickly pulling up the hand of her wounded arm, she used the lack of speed it had after the hit to interweave both of their's fingers. Now it was her time to act, and she did not take her time, as she made use of the lock in she had on his position. Her foot was quickly brought over his other hand as she stepped over it as quickly as she could. She was not skilled at unarmed fighting so she was too quick to disregard the factor of balance. As she was falling back, she pulled at the hand she had caught as hard as she could in order to salvage some of her past efforts. She probably did not have more strength than him in such a position, or at least so she thought as he seemed to have fallen over her. Using the surprise on Vendaril's face, she grabbed his other hand and pulled it under her back, along with one of her own. It was not particularly clever, but it made her position a bit better. She wondered a bit on how long could she remain a cool grip on Vendaril's hand with her arm bleeding as it did. Finally a small defaint smile appeared back on her face which was only an inch or two away from Vendaril's, and there it remained, as she whispered: „Now that was not polite, i am fond of sharp things, but only when the blunt part is turned to me“ she paused a bit to laugh at the irony before returning to her sentences: „ We really should call it a draw, otherwise who knows what might happen to the delicate you, and poor little me“ she giggled at her taunt while winking at him. She was not yet out of ideas, it was much easier to take down a man, even a stronger one, especially if he did not know his advantages.

[Vendaril]

Una had guts, he’s give her that. The messy punctures where his nails had inadvertently been thrust into her flesh released rivulets of blood, pouring down her arm in an abstract formation that was both repulsive and appealing. Like some kind of exotic art. Not that he had time to survey the damage, Una took advantage of the his loss of momentum, and caught him in some form of clumsy hold. Awkward as it was, it did the trick. While she fell backwards, the Symenestra was dragged with her. Once again, they found their bodies pressed together. In his mind, Vendaril thanked her for the blow to his lower appendage, for it was highly unlikely to stir and cause him embarrassment now. The ashen skinned man found that Una had landed upon his arm, whilst still retaining a hold on it. Not that he was worried about that; the blood ran slick through her fingers and over his skin leaving him with very little resistance if he should choose once more to wriggle free. The slight girl appeared to be feeling the effects of her wound now, for her composure was broken a second or two, before the usual arrogant smile returned to her lips. Another shrewd innuendo passed through the little air between their faces. As eager as he was to end the conflict – especially after injuring her the way he did – he was certainly not prepared to lose, not to this little girl. “Well,” he began, his own face twisting into a smirk. “As well as you have fought so far, you have overlooked one aspect of a Symenestra that is most unfortunate.” Leaning closer, he allowed her a perfect view of his lengthening fangs. He came closer still, and noticed her jugular pulsing as he rested the deadly needles upon her pale, exposed neck. "Naughty little fly, Why does it cry? Caught in a web, Soon will be . . . eaten" This last word was whispered with crooning victory laced upon it.