Loose [anyone]

[Gazeil]

To her, it wasn't just a series of mountains overlapping each other; it was close to being described as 'paradise'. The various mountains huge bulk offered shade, which she gratefully accepted without any complaints; a change from the hot and sometimes cold, sandy Hadarac Desert, not to mention the weather there changed drastically. Gazeil appreciated the direction her luck was moving at this rate, even if it wouldn't last very long. It never did. What amazed her though, was how she had managed to find her way out without a map. Sheer luck alone couldn't have done that, the half-elf knew that her survival skills weren't completely up to par. Neither was her knowledge in the Ancient Language, in fact. The few words she knew however, helped her in the deserts greatly when needed.

But now another pressing matter weighed on her mind -- where was she? She had never felt the need to look at a map, never have and probably never will. Partially because she hated the way they were drawn so crudely, the shapes disconfigured with the writing and descriptions scrawled all over the page. Plus the fact that she couldn't read most of the labels on them in the first place (which may contribute to the idea of her thinking they were scribbles) though she denied this fact to all who asked why she wouldn't buy their maps and had suggested that idea. The best she could do was to scour her mind for any possible mountain ranges she had heard in the passing from the past. A few elusive names managed to escape her thoughts, but she managed to grab hold of a few that stood out clear enough.

Baragh? She played with this idea for a while, before deciding that it was somewhat impossible. The mountains here were far too small, and she was pretty sure she had not gone in the direction where said mountains were located. Besides, the hybrid just had a feeling, an instinct, that she was not there.

Ah, what did it matter? As long as it was cool and shady...she was happy. As happy as she would allow herself to be, that is. Gazeil was still a little worried about night-time, but that would come when it did. Her eyes trained along the ends of the darkened areas, doubting the fact that there would be some sort of humanity around to ask for where this place was, embarrassingly enough, she had to admit that she needed those at least. It would give her a lead; a place to start.

Unfortunately, the only living, breathing, walking 'people' she had seen were a few Urgals. She knew better than to confront them and preferred to avoid them at all costs, however she wasn't so lucky the first few times. It had been easy to dispatch one, but two or three were far harder. Thank the lost kings she had not been unlucky enough to cross paths with a family or tribe of them.

Not for the first time, she wondered why she had come so ill prepared. She should have known better than to bring the meager rations she did when traveling across the deserts. In all her over-confidence, she assumed that it would be as easy as evading her mother with a sthingyful of distasteful broth, but it turned out to be much harder than that. Despite all those thoughts, however, Gazeil knew that she would rather confront travel the deserts, with so much to explore and discover, than to sit at home drinking homemade broth.

Bow and quiver unstrapped and resting to her side, Gazeil sighed and threw her arms back, narrowly missing the tree just behind her. A lone tree, with peeling bark and snapped branches, but a tree nonetheless. For now, she would just sit back and relax. Afterwards, she would go her way to find some villages or civillians. And she would make sure to go the opposite direction of the much hated Hadarac Desert.

[Jaydin]

The hardened pads of his paws beat heavily on the harsh, hot sand beneath him and his fur - which never before had seemed so heavy - weighed him down and made the werecat sweat heavily.

But he had to keep walking - what else was there to do? The werecat paused and licked one of his mottled black and brown paws, but his tongue felt fat in his mouth as he opened it. Alyx laid his paw back down.

Aah, curses to his dark pelt. It only made the sun beat harder on him. He swore softly in his head, almost wanting to transform into his boy form...But no, what if he was sunburned?

Alyx hated sunburn.

He'd been traveling through the Hadarac Desert for several days, now, but he was getting slightly lonesome. Alyx was appalled at himself, but the fact remained that it was so. He had not seen any sort of intelligent being about and he did like conversation...occasionally.

Aha!

A figure!

He peered at the figure, wondering whether to approach it. Alyx came closer.

Oh.

A human - but no...he gave a long sniff and stared curiously at the sentient being.

A strange mixture of something he'd never smelt before laid on her being.

Alyx padded forward, staying to the few shadows and many pawsteps behind before he was finally at the tree.

Hello, he murmured, touching her mind lightly. If she was a normal human, who had perhaps eaten something strange, her mind would open up to his in a matter of moments.

How have you come to be here?

[Gazeil]

Completely oblivious she was to the new presence. It completely escaped her, as she was intent on figuring out what she was going to do about the situation she had been landed in. She didn't hear a noise that would be counted as 'suspicious' or any noise that one would make when trying to be subtle, much less the soft padding of paws against the dense sand, intended or not. So it was all the more surprising when she felt a presence brush against her mind lightly and a voice entered. Out of instinct, she rushed through the teachings that had been imprinted in her head and closed it as securely as possible. The half-elf wasn't so sure the protection she had was good enough, but hopefully, the other wouldn't notice.

The last few words resounded through but she didn't know if it was safe to answer through her own mind. It would be better to say it with words through her mouth. However, perhaps it was just her, but there was something odd about this. It definitely wasn't a dragon; nor was it another elf and it wasn't human either...she racked her brain to try and find a simple solution to this strange thing...when it came to her. Why not just look around?

Eyes blinking out the sand, she turned her head this way and that to spot the source. All she could see was very little grass life, mountains, a black cat, lot's of sa -

"Cat!" she exclaimed out loud. Then, she had a sudden relevation. "No, not cat." she knew about these creatures. Quite smart, they were. And in no way were they feral. Well, some of them at least...come to think of it, she had never met one before. Not a real life one, just drawings. And she couldn't talk to those. "Werecat," she asked, offering her opinion as to what it was, no matter how obvious.

Gazeil referred back to the question asked before, and she patted the space next to her, as if asking if the cat wanted to come and sit. Just because it was polite. "How? Well, simply put...I'm lost." she rubbed the back of her neck in a sheepish manner and also successfully pouring bits of gritty sand down her back. Biting back a curse from escaping her lips, she squirmed uncomfortably, forgetting for a brief moment that she had company. It didn't help, in fact...it made it much worse. So the best thing to do was to leave it, despite how annoying it was.

She decided to ask a question, but nothing came to mind. Nothing sensible anyway. "Eh..." she started, then paused. Perhaps that wasn't the smartest thing to say to a werecat...so intead, she contented with, "...how'd you end up here? I never knew werecats travelled through deserts..."

[Jaydin]

Alyx stared at the strange smelling human, resisting the urge to roll his eyes as she reasoned his existence out...aloud. If cats (or rather, werecats) could smirk, a large smirk would have shoved itself onto Alyx's face. At her pat, he gave a mental shrug.

What harm could it do?

He leapt up onto the tree in a solid, fluid motion...well, almost. Alyx's kitten-sized body seized the underside of the branch before scrabbling up. Sometimes, he hated how small he was.

"...simply put...I'm lost." he nearly snickered and restrained himself, swiping with a sheathed claw at his face to hide his expression.

"...how'd you end up here? I never knew werecats travelled through deserts..."

[glow=red,2,300]Travelling.[/glow] Alyx put it simply. [glow=red,2,300]And we're not a collective race, you know, not like humans are. What I do is not what my kin do. Or perhaps it is. I'll never know.[/glow] a touch of sadness hit his voice, but a moment later, his normal bitter voice resumed. A curiousity lit his eyes, as he sniffed again.

[glow=red,2,300]Just what are you? You smell human...and yet not human.[/glow] Alyx didn't care at all if his question was - what was the word? - rude.

[Gazeil]

Well, that was rather witty wasn't it?

The werecat made his words seem like some kind of song. But it wasn't a very good one, in her opinion. She didn't say this out loud though and made sure not to think it too loudly, in case it offended. Looking up at the feline (which seemed to have some difficulty in jumping up the tree), she observed it's appearance once again. Before reaching a final conclusion to it's overall appearance, she stopped her line of reasoning.

Did it just laugh at her? She was probably just mistaking things for something they weren't (deserts did that to people) but...she was pretty sure she could see something smug on that little, furry face.

"You'll never know?" she queried, deciding to ignore that ghost of a chuckle. It wouldn't do to lose her temper, especially since she didn't have anyone to talk to besides...a talking cat. "I guess I'll never know either." she shrugged. Now, she was confusing herself. That may have been an add-on to the first sentence, yet it could have been the answer to the second. Whatever it was, Gazeil decided to answer the last one. Separately.


"I smell human yet not human simply because I'm not fully human." she shrugged once again, "Straight-forward, yes?" she didn't understand why some people didn't know at first hand. The locals at her 'home' (which was no longer really known as such) didn't seem to have a problem at poking fun at her appearance. Was it different in the eyes of a werecat? It did mention something about a scent, so it could have been from that alone.

[Jaydin]

His mottled brown and black ears twitched and the kitten-sized werecat's red eyes gleamed with curiousity. This human (creature?) did like reasoning aloud.

"I smell human yet not human simply because I'm not fully human." The human-not-human shrugged. "Straight-forward, yes?"

[glow=red,2,300]Aye.[/glow] he agreed. [glow=red,2,300] Very. [/glow] Alyx stared at her unblinkingly, thinking...

Humanoid creatures...Prettier than average.

It finally clicked.

Elf! She had to be part elf. That would make sense. Even explained why she'd had a better resistance to his mind touch than he'd thought she would, though, truth be admitted, it wasn't as strong as he had expected from an elf.

And truer still - Alyx had never met an elf and all his knowledge came from his readings. Suddenly, he jumped as though he'd been struck.

[glow=red,2,300]Ah, how rude of me! I am called Alyx, what be you called?[/glow] he turned his head to the side.

[Gazeil]

Nodding at the cat's agreement with whatever statement it was, she was grateful that the cat was at least, a little reasonable. But she hardly expected it to be degrading. And still...she couldn't tell if it was male or female judging from the voice alone, simply because she couldn't. Not from any difficulties of doing it out in person, but this was an exception. Her eyes following the werecat and it's movements, it startled her a little by jumping as if a bolt of lightning had hit it in the backside. It's little voice floated into her mind once again, and she had to stop herself from snorting disbelievingly. In a good way, that is. If 'unbelievable' could really be called 'good'.

The sudden change in the werecats attitude surprised her. Which, she reached the conclusion that it had realised what her other-half was. The elegant one, possibly. It was a wonder how some stopped being so arrogant as soon as they knew what you were, and it was just concerning her. There were quite a few others she knew who had high positions, yet preferred to mix with commoners.

But her thoughts did not reflect on her visage; it kept that grinning expression through her doubts, "I'm Gazeil, nice to meet you..." she was about to hold out a hand before stopping. The cat would have to jump and shake, and that would be a little troublesome. So, she bent down (not to closely), and tilted her head before inquiring the same question, "What're you called?" then she remembered the small facts about names, "Oh...what you're normally called, not your real name if you have more than two..." just in case it was like an insult to the feline.

[Jaydin]

A scowl crossed his face and red eyes darkened. Alyx's fur bristled and his tone grew bitter.

[glow=red,2,300]I believe, Gazeil, that I just informed you that I am often called Alyx.[/glow] his tail twitched animatedly and his shoulders tensed. The mostly black werecat climbed a little further up the branch he had been resting on. Even if she had not intended to insult him, he certainly took it as an insult.

[glow=red,2,300]Just what are you doing here, anyhow? Most senients - obviously - don't wander throughout the Hadarac Desert aimlessly![/glow]

Alyx licked the back of a paw and wiped his ear, flicking it irrantly.

[Gazeil]

"Ah," she snapped her fingers. Her memory must have been failing her, for she could not remember when the cat had introduced itself (it could be a female name) until it finally came to her that that was when it asked her her name. "Sorry, had a mind blank." she replied sheepishly, not really embarrassed by her mistake. Everyone did it, right? Except for maybe those perfectionists...

She felt as if she had offended the other, and apologised again, "Alyx. Right." she made sure to get it into her head before she began to talk again. "I have a perfectly good reason." she said, tapping a finger on the side of her head as if she knew something the other didn't (which was just for show), "Travelling, just like you. Except, like I told you, I'm lost right now."

Which brought her to her next point. Except, she wasn't so sure if she wanted to ask anymore. The werecat was somewhat arrogant compared to her air-headed attitude, and she certainly didn't want to query if the other could lead her out. It probably couldn't be bothered, and though she knew that it was (almost) impossible to tell what the answer would be unless one asked, she didn't want to bother wasting her breath. The cat wasn't itching against her nerves just yet, but it would be a matter of time before it did end up getting too far.

"So you say you're travelling," she said, slapping the back of her neck after feeling some sort of bug bite it again, "Any reason as to why?"