"You slow me down... that's trouble enough. You are of no use to me, name one reason I should allow this." She hissed, finally irritated enough. She did not need tempting living flesh to eat, inhuman flesh or not. If anything her beast was so spiritual powerful it preferred inhumans. They gave it sustenance on so many levels and tasted so good... She said none of this, however, and simply glared at the boy. Maybe if she created a fairy he'd follow it into the inn and she could make her escape... hmm... this and other plans crossed her mind as she glared at him.

Leah blinked at the extreme reaction, clearly uncertain briefly. What was his problem? She was frowning at him as she looked at him and listened. Had he been used so long that he liked to be used? She glanced to the side a moment, a little uncertain what to do. With greedy adventurers looking for treasure lured by the tower he would most certainly be able to find someone to use him. She sighed and reached over to tug his ear gently to get his attention.

"Well.... you did find a book with clues in it, I guess that was useful... but i did not free you simply for another person to use you, do you understand me?" She said firmly, as she attempted to be comforting in her own little way. She wasn't sweet and loving or cuddly... she'd forgotten how. Still her heart was soft in its own way and it did not like people to be unnecessarily hurt. He just seemed so innocent despite his age and had been abused and used to the point that he didn't seem to know how to live any other way judging by how he looked right now...

Leah tensed as she was touched and her eyes flashed gold but she suppressed the beast that was so angry at being challenged. She would not let anyone force that beast out of her. She watched him in silence as he spoke, inwardly falling into thought as she gazed at him with that same cold expression. The therian finally decided on one thing, he would have to know it would seem... at least part of it. She gripped his arm and pulled him into the forest besides the path just outside of town with a lions strength. She then partially shifted her arm so it was clawed, covered in spotted fur, and her eyes were flecked with gold. She gripped his throat and pinned him to a tree.

"I am nothing like them and have few needs. I am not human, I have no use for other creatures except as food. It has nothing to do with you, or who you are as I don't know you. You could be an angel but would still only be useful as food, you very well may be. I saved you because I saw no reason for you to die and you're pretty enough despite what you think that i figured someone else wouldn't mind taking care of you. Which is worth more? Your life or being useful to me? You are being foolish. Do you really want to live as nothing but a thing to be used?" She chided patiently.

She wanted to make it clear... that he was useless to her for reasons that had nothing to with him. She wanted him to know that it be near her was to be near death and she didn't want him near her for that reason. He needed to know rather then be so foolish as to keep fighting with her. It would also tell her... was he really so desperate to be used? Would he really just become another play thing if she left him here?

"I said nothing but the truth, you are of no use to ME because i do not wish to eat you. I was under no obligation to tell you why you are useless to me, personally. I can not die... at least any normal way even for a therian so that would not be 'a while' whether you are immortal or not so you can not save mine. There is no 'life for a life' save as food. So either you are food or you are under no obligation to me and free. Which do you choose?" She responded sharply. It was the simple truth, no matter how she tried to escape it as she had tried when she was younger. A life for a life with her was very literal if you spent even 'a little while' with her so just made sure no one did. She ignored his hands on her wrist, her eyes combination of flaming gold and icy blue.

"I am a thing of the desert, fire does nothing to me..." she responded with a darkness in her tone that indicated she had found that out herself somehow and a small smirk. Silver was her only real weakness, and even it would only kill her under very specific circumstances. It hurt like hell was generally all it did and annoy her briefly. She leaned forward as if to bite into his shoulder so she could rip out his throat only to sniff it and frown. Even if he tried his fire it would only be met by her own white flames and disappear. Unlike most therians fire was not her bane but her friend.

"So, You are a fool but I don't think you'd taste very good. Cats rarely do" She hissed in an annoyed tone before she threw him to the ground and started for the path without looking back. She didn't look back to see what he did either but just kept walking. She saw no reason to see if realizing she could eat him and he would have little chance to escape would change anything. If he followed her it was because being needed was more important then living and he was too dangerous to himself as well as others to leave behind. If he stayed there then he had learned the instinct of self preservation and might just survive on his own.

The remark about the undead simply got him another one of those dark smirks, sadness and amusement mixed delicately. Using simple undead against a sorceress so aged as she was, someone old enough to make him look a baby, was not the wisest idea. She did nothing to explain it, however, or indicate her power... His hesitation showed to her that on some level he realized how easily she could kill him if she really wanted to. Still as he followed her she suppressed a sigh, he really did need someone so badly he'd rather die then be alone. She shook her head and sighed.

"Masochist..." was all she said to acknowledge him as he caught up to her. Then again after what she had read... maybe he'd grown to like being abused. Did he even have a concept of what abuse was? or when sex was appropriate or what real sex was like? What a mess.... He was like finding a growling puppy with a broken leg on the side of the road. You know that you're going to get bit but you just can't help but go to it because it's just so pathetic you can't leave it there. At this inner thought the beast informed her that she could just eat him and be done with it but she squelched the thought quickly.

Leah glanced to him as he spoke, a rather withering gaze as if she knew he was teasing her. She only looked at him a moment before looking forward again and at the sun. They probably wouldn't make Oberon before nightfall due to her pausing to educate him and find out a few things herself. She hated having companions... they always wanted to talk and to ask questions that were complicated then they realized. It also meant she couldn't turn cheetah to run to the town, he either wouldn't be able to keep up or he'd do something to test her willpower in controlling herself.

"I have little use for socializing...." she responded finally. She wondered if she was abusive she could trick him into the arms of a healer she knew in Oberon. She'd take care of him... but Leah wasn't so sure he'd go to her. She shook her head as if pushing away these thoughts. After reading the diary she was sure part of him would think it was normal and maybe even like it. Those who were abused often did...

"I didn't think you'd mind...... You seem to like a little abuse" She finally said in a sickeningly sweet voice. She glanced towards him to see his reaction. Did he have any instinct of self preservation to actually deny it? Why didn't he want his freedom more then sit with her, one who had made it clear she would only ignore or abuse him depending on her mood? It was driving her crazy not being able to understand it.

He still hadn't answered her question... he was just so her opposite she couldn't understand him. She hated being abused or abusing.... but then again she hated being touched anymore at all since the accident. She shook off the thought, anger at herself rising despite it. She refocused the irritation on him as she turned and gripped him by the throat to pin him to a tree on the edge of the path. She put her hand against his belly even if all she felt right now as the desire to rip it open. She put a little pressure into the touch, just enough that her nails would hurt but not tear the skin. She would have an answer... she needed to know if the reason he stayed with her was because he craved her cold attitude and rough careless touch she ironically used to keep people away.

"You didn't answer me....Do you like it, yes or no?" She said with no emotion in her face or voice. She looked like a statue as she easily supported him against the tree. She was watching him closely, a predators gaze. No matter how she fought it, ultimately a predator was what she was. Still, those instincts would show her now, if this man was prey. If this man wanted to be prey, wanted to be abused.

"Such an answer...This from the creature who says a life for a life? Mine to eat if I so desire? Do you know anything of who you are what you want? You can't even make up your mind whether your life belongs to me for the moment or not. You are a predators dream and will draw them like flies to honey." She said with a dark laugh, her eyes not even glancing to where he he gripped her wrists. He inflict no pain that compared to what she had caused herself over the years. Hell.... Part of her reaction was simply to think she deserved pain when it happened. Even if to draw her blood was more dangerous to others then herself.

She then simply released his throat so he'd drop right where he was if he didn't balance himself. She then ripped her hands from his with a remark that he 'did not want her to bleed' so he would release her quickly if she was wise. She turned and began to walk again, her eyes searching for a good campsite along the path. They had a few hours of daylight left but she didn't know how long the nekomata would hold out considering his earlier problems. She sighed to herself, as she had found what she wanted but was apparently dissatisfied with it. He really was a lost, confused little kitten no matter how tough he had just tried to act.

" Well go on eat me'" she responded, mimicking exactly how he said the words earlier with ease. "Did you not say those words? Asking me, Daring me to eat you? and do you not choose to travel with me when I have warned you that will make your life mine to take at any moment i so choose? You may say what ever you wish but your actions make the words lies. Or are you really so naive you think that following me is the same as following a human and the dead can protect you?" She said to him quietly, not seeming to react to his fall even if inwardly she felt the slightest guilt. Still she had to persist, to know if he was just that desperate for company or just that unable to face up to the reality of his situation he was choosing. If he did not face up to the reality... it would get him killed or enslaved by whoever he went to once she separated from him. She turned to him, a finger touching his chin so she could look at him. Partially to see his reaction and part to see if he was as tired as his loose legs had suggested...

"Poor lost little kitten. Do you really think predators can't see right through your huffing and conflicted, stubborn words? Even your anger at me is half-hearted and you follow when you're so exhausted you can barely stand if you fall without a word about it. You may desperately speak like a willful being but you're actions are still like a slave. No matter what excuse you use to keep your life bound to another." She shook her head at him, and briefly the tiniest emotion touched her ice cold eyes...pity. She turned towards the place she'd already chosen for a camp site. After being locked up she had figured he could not keep up with her pace and been looking for them.

"we will make camp..... it's two hours until sunset but if we add in your rest we will not make it to oberon anyway." She said simply and released his chin before she turned and headed off the path. She would walk a little slower to make sure he kept up until she reached the small clearing she had spotted. She would begin to set up a small cover of branches and vines that sprouted from the ground at her spell. She actually had very little skill for the element so never used it in battle but she still could do a few basic out of combat spells. It would act like a tent big enough for both of them. She would then lay her sleeping back out, unbound so it laid out flat like a mattress almost. She was always too warm for covers anyway once the moon rose at night so always did so... this time it just happened to have the bonus that it would make it big enough for them both to lay on. She did not make a fire since it was not yet cold but simply sat up a fire-pit with stones around it for safety so she wouldn't have to fiddle in the dark if it got too cold for him. She didn't look at him as she did these things, not seeming to particularly care if he came up to her or sat fuming at her words.

"If you're tired rest in the tent. In oberon we can purchase you a sleeping bag of your own....but for now you bunk with me" She said simply as she caught his yawn and lay the last stone. She said it in a tired tone, though not a physically tired one. It was the tone of someone who knew they would face a battle they really had no desire to fight. The sexual abuse she'd read of in the diary meant he might make this complicated.... If he didn't, the beast would if he woke her or touched her unexpectedly. She shook her head a little at the thought. What a mess...

"I'm going to go hunt something while there's still light... No reason to waste supplies. Stay here and rest while I do" She said quietly as she stood. She tossed her pack into the small cover she'd made and would take only her staff with her. She figured this would let him know she would return... though she did enchant the pack so he couldn't get it open. She then headed to find something. She would be gone only a short time until she found a couple rabbits, using her throwing knifes to kill them in one swift toss before they could know what hit them. She returned with the two rabbits, holding them by the ears and would glance around to see where he was. She could roast them or stew them, it didn't matter to her so she would let him choose.

Once she had seen he fell asleep she sighed and stood there debating a moment. Stew would likely be easier on his stomach considering everything. She nodded to herself and lit a fire. Soon she had the rabbits prepared in tiny pieces and was on to preparing the rest of the fragrant, hearty, but simple stew. She didn't wake him and had no intention of doing so. He would wake up for supper when the smell and his stomach decided it. She focused only on preparing the meal and then sat by the fire. She stared up at the sky, as if deep in thought about something. Was she really making the wisest choice?

"Are you really awake?" She asked with little emotion as she began to prepare him a bowl. She normally had two in case she splurged and made herself two different dishes. It was rare but sometimes she got in the mood to cook. She would make sure to put just enough in his to likely fill him up but not enough for him to make him sick. She would put the bowl in front of him slowly, as if half expecting he was so asleep he'd knock it over. With a sigh she put a spoon in the bowl and turned to prepare her own. She wondered if he'd slept the whole time she'd been gone...