Silenia X Longcat
 

Silenia:

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Lore kept looking back over his shoulder. The forest was sporadic and spotty, some trees had been logged for heat, others had been burnt in magical incidents, a few more had been twisted and transformed from the magical cloud that surrounded the area. The atmosphere was creepy at best, trees followed their movement and eyes loomed out from the shadows. The wizard's tower loomed above the forest, standing out like a sentinel watching over the landscape. And Lore felt like it was watching them too.

"Ugh." Shuddering he shrugged his jacket collar up further on his neck. "Hey furball, why'd you have to drag me into this. Did you ever stop to think I was happy shoveling poop and being shouted at every waking moment?"

"Raagh kree!" the response came from a creature that was leading them further from the tower, pushing branches out of the way with its paws. It was clearly a half-something creature that wizards seemed so fond of creating. Bird-like legs supported a thick bear torso and head, large wings sprouted from between the shoulder blades.

"So what if they did! At least I got food and a bed." Lore hunched his head down and followed the creature. He had hated being in the service of that guy, but his mother had set him up for it, couldn't get anything better on his own. Now he was following an experimental monster escape.

~LONGCAT~:

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Rowan woke up from the awful screeching of a monster not far from the tent he had been sleeping in.
"Well, fuck," he muttered, "didn't figure that bastard would track me down this soon. Not even a bloody day."

He rapidly threw on his ragged cloak--he'd slept in his clothes figuring that one way or another he might have to respond quickly, but that cloak just was too damn heavy to sleep in and the clasp kept digging into his chin if he lied down--and grabbed his long knife from his belt, then made his way out of the tent into the forest.

Better go and find that monster now, he figured. With a bit of luck, the bastard had sent a somewhat intelligent monster--or at least one with more intelligence than pond scum--and if Rowan could talk to him, he could probably make him believe it was all just a huge fucking misunderstanding.

Not like he had been gone for too long, after all, and he hadn't even harmed anyone as he slipped out, either. He just had... misunderstood an order or something? And if the monster that had been sent wasn't intelligent enough to understand him, well, that was what his knife was for. The dumber monsters went missing all the time anyway.

See, problem solved.

Now he just had to find the monster. He stood still, listening carefully for more of those screeches. It took a few moments, but then he heard the screeching noise again--this time followed by some bear-like sounds.

"Two monsters just for me?" Rowan laughed harshly, making his way in the rough direction the noise had come from. Even with all the logging and fires, it still was a forest, so he couldn't exactly walk in a straight line.

As he came closer, he heard a human voice. "-food and a bed."
In his surprise, Rowan tripped over a tree root and cursed loudly.

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((Will write a piece for my other character later. That one doesn't join up with our travelers just yet anyway, so it's not like you could really respond to it and this post is long enough on its own. [XD]))

"Shit! What was that!? Did they send someone already? I knew they'd notice!" He practically wailed. "They're gonna accuse me of stealing you, you shitty excuse for a monster -Fffff! That hurt!!!" Lore stumbled forward, a chunk of cloth missing from his pants near his knee, a jagged scratch already turning red, visible underneath. He remembered enough to use his forearms to break his fall instead of his sticking his hands out and potentially breaking a wrist. Groaning he tried to get up but stopped, his body forced back down under a weight.

"Grrrr-aaawk." Talons pushed into his shoulder blades. The creature stood still, his nose twitching attempting to locate the source of the earlier cursing. He tilted his head to pick up on any additional noises. Pushing off he jumped, Lore grunting in pain. He wasn't the fastest on land, but covered distance pretty quickly. He skittered to a stop just feet away from a different human. "KREEEE!!" Baring his teeth and puffing out his wings he tried to make himself seem larger, to keep the other from getting up and charging him. There wasn't room to maneuver flight if he had to, the trees prevented that.

"Ouch, sure use me as a freaking launch pad." He pushed off the ground when the second call rang out. "What do you mean you found him? Give me a damned moment to get over there." Running he tried to keep both feet from getting tangled up on roots and fallen limbs. Coming around a tree he startled. The person looked familiar, like wizard's tower familiar. "Oh gods." his face fell. "I'm sorry, I never meant to. It's not what it looks like. He took me from my post I swear! Please don't feed me to the failed creatures."

Rowan heard the man whining. He wasn't close enough to hear everything he was saying, but he certainly could hear most of it...and sighed in relief. Looked like the man, at least, was no danger to him. The monsters, though... he couldn't see what had happened but he certainly heard the man yell in pain just before they both made their noises--a bear-like growl and the same screeching that had woken him up.

Then the monster appeared just in front of him and he realized there weren't two monsters--just one with traits of two different animals. He didn't dare to get up, though, knowing it may well attack him if he did so...and those teeth looked like they could do some serious damage.

Then the man appeared shortly after, and with a shock Rowan realized he recognized him. Not that he knew the man well, but well enough to realize he came from the wizard's tower just like him and apparently was afraid of being turned in. Pulled a runner as well, I guess, Rowan thought. He looked too afraid to be attempting to trick Rowan into revealing that he pulled a runner, anyway.

"Bloody gods, calm down and help me up, would ya?" he said loudly, "I ain't gonna turn you in. Would defeat the purpose of gettin' away from that bloody wizard and his bloody tower. You may want to try makin' a bit less noise though. If I could hear you and that winged bear of ya from half a mile over in my tent..." He paused for a bit.

"Well, y'know how the hearing of some of those creatures is."

BearHawk lowered his wings and waddled over to the man, offering a thick paw. If this guy wanted away from that prison too then we wasn't going to pick a fight. At least not under the shadows of the tower. "Grraw."

"He said 'Come on'" He translated for the monster. "Look I'm sorry man. We weren't expecting anyone else out here, well anyone who wasn't going to kill me. He's to valuable to kill outright." he had lowered his voice after being called out on it. The man didn't seem to want trouble, just wanted as far away from the same tower they were running from.

"Don't worry, if he wanted to rip your arms off and beat you to death with them he would have already done that. And I'm no threat, you can check me for weapons if you want. I just want to get away from the gaze of the tower." He looked back, the tree cover becoming thicker covered the view of the tower. He knew it was there regardless.

Rowan frowned but grabbed hold of the thick paw all the same and pulled himself back on his feet, then roughly brushed off the various clumps of dirt, branches and leafs that had gotten stuck to his clothes.

"Thanks. Eh, you can understand him?" he asked after a moment. "Thought only wizards could do that, but you don't look like no fuckin' wizard to me."

Too fearful for that, he thought. Besides, a wizard wouldn't be trying to get away from the tower, most likely--or at least, he wouldn't be looking with such fear at a tower that was mostly hidden from sight.

"As to weapons, do you mean you have none?" Rowan cursed softly. "That's dangerous out here even without a raging wizard that may or may not be hiding your ass down, yes?"

Lore cringed at the mention of the wizard. He really couldn't wait to be far out of sight of the tower. If the guy told his mother he had been torn apart by the monsters he had been keeping an eye on all the better he supposed. "Not a magical nub in my body, much to my mother's disapproval. I'm the only one who can't even cast a spot on a wall in my family. She figured my being around powerful magic would cause some sort of absorption or something. Best it got me was being mauled by magical animals and hit by practice spells. Can we just get the hell away from that thing? I'm sorry. I'm gonna shut up. I haven't had a human talk to me without screaming or beatings and shutting up now." He was nervous, but more tired than anything. His body was screaming at him to stop and take a break for a while, and his mind was just shouting GO GO GO.

The monster looked at Lore then back at the other male, then back to Lore and grinned a big toothy smile. "Brauuwk kekeke. Taking a few steps he was next to the one who had escaped with him. "Kraaaw. Grrraa. Eeergaah!" He nodded with emphasis as if they could understand him. He stood there for a bit before nudging Lore, who had taken to staring at the sticks on the ground intently.

"He says that you're right but he doesn't need a weapon because he has teeth. And that he saw me use a shovel to hit a thing that was going to bite me once, so I can have the first shovel we come across... You know you're an ass. Also he thinks you're not bad and can travel with him if you want. Like anyone would want to travel with you, you're a narcissistic hair ball that kidnaps its friends." Taking a large step to the side, he avoided a paw swipe that would have knocked him over. He looked up at the familiar face. "My name's Lore and this is... Bearhawk. They were super creative in naming him. Now we're just trying to get far away quickly. You can come along if you want."