Thar Shaddin

Rhyn came out of her meditation smoothly, and smiled absentmindedly as she got up, tended to the fire and turned over meat where it was on the rack. As she stepped out of the cave fully, she looked around. How long had it been? And how long would they take? It should only have taken roughly an hour or two.

Restless now, Rhyn started to pace slightly.

She reached for him, something only one other person had done. Aileen stood in place of Soneya for a moment before the vision melted away. He reached out and took her hand, pulling her to him powerfully before pulling her out of the house. She wasn't the only one concerned about the guards being called. So he ran, her bag slung over her shoulder, her little hand in his, as he pulled her along. He wanted to fly - it was faster... but he was too weak, too sore, and magic within the city walls was bad enough as it was.

So when she couldn't run anymore, he took her into his arms and ran further, managing it out of the city walls having taken the guards by surprise, and fled into the woods, his own breathing harsh. It was only once he entered the clearing to the cave that he stopped, breathless, before Rhyn. Setting Soneya down he whirled and listened for a moment before bending over with a winded laugh.

"Lets... let's not... do that again... eh love?" He rasped, peeking up at Soneya through his hair before straitening, sucking in air. "Right... I'm going to take... a lovely bath... in the river. You can feel free to keep me company, but I doubt you want to." He smiled, trying to joke before moving away, coughing. He hadn't moved like that in decades.

He was tugging at the drawstrings of his pants as he reached the water, easily letting the material drop. Kicking it to the side, Kaevad stepped into the waters, the cold not bothering him, but soothing rather. He waded in deep before sitting, humming when the water numbed up to his neck. Taking a breath he dipped his below the surface before surfacing with a gasp. Cold water, very refreshing...

Their escape had been hasty and anything but fun, that much was obvious, but Soneya was also glad they were back out of the city again. After having spent the night in a cave with Rhyn and Kaevad – both free spirits – she had now realised during that short trip just how oppressing Marn could be. It had been her luck that Kaevad was strong enough to still run fast while carrying her because she could not have run any further and was still out of breath now that they were back at the cave and she had been carried for at least half the way.

Soneya waved at Rhyn as she was deposited in front of the cave. “No...,” she agreed, shaking her head though with a smile. “Never again.” Letting herself fall back onto the ground, she breathed deeply a couple of times to try and steady her breathing, which slowly took effect as well. After all, she hadn’t been running as long as Kaevad either, so her heart was calming down quicker. She stuck her tongue out at Kaevad as he joked about the bath before sitting up again and turning to Rhyn.

“Are you alright? I hope we haven’t kept you waiting for too long.” Suddenly, she felt a little awkward around the woman, not sure what to say. Shaking herself into focus, she looked around. “Is there anything that still needs doing? Do you need help with something before we move on? We probably shouldn’t stay here for too much longer, just in case guards are coming this way.” It was only once she had said it that she realised that Rhyn didn’t know what had happened back in Marn, so she related the whole incident with her parents, toning down on the wonky relation between them and herself a little but keeping intact the trouble they had of leaving the house. “So, you know, just in case they get any stupid ideas, we probably shouldn’t stick around.”

Rhyn had paced several times around the clearing. Where are they? i hope they did not run into trouble with the guards there. Bah. Cities. She wrinkled her nose in her manner of distaste, and then her ears turned automatically towards the sound coming towards her, something large crashing through the bushes. Swiftly, she retreated from open sight, into the cave. Better, if it were dangerous, to remain out of the way. The woman crouched down, making herself small. A little while later, Kaevad burst into view and skidded to a halt, Soneya swiftly being set down upon the ground. His breath was a panting sound that was heavy in her ears.

After a few moments, Kaevad had left towards the river, and Soneya was finally gaining her breath once again. Rhyn checked the meat with a glance and a sniff. Nothing was burning. It actually smelled quite savory to her nose. Her jaw dropped open in a fanged smile as the young woman asked if there was anything she needed help with. But her head shook. Nothing needed done at the moment.

The relating of the run from Marn made Rhyn's tail shift back and forth uneasily. She didn't like the idea of guards. Would be bad idea for them to come out here. They not know what may be in this forest. Marn does not like magic, but there is magic out here. Idiots, if they chase after you, even at the urging of your family." the word slipped from her mouth with difficulty. They didn't sound like very good parents. "But, if needed, the meat is done enough that we could go."

He clambered from the river, numb and shivering. Managing to pull his slacks back on and shake the most of the wet out of his hair, Kaevad returned to his ladies, combing the worst of the tangles with his fingers. "I apologize for the abrupt departure." He rumbled as he stepped into the clearing. "If the meat is done, we should consider leaving as soon as possible. I'd rather not risk Soneya's safety, no matter how minor the threat is." He stepped into the cave, sighing as he moved to pack his things.

"Ordinarily I'd shift into a dragon... but I can't right now." His smile was rueful. "There's only so much even I can take, so for now we'll go on foot. If you get tired, Soneya, I'll carry you." He looked to Rhyn. "I was thinking of showing her some of the smaller villages outside of marn's reaches, perhaps expose her to more magic users." He looked to Soneya again. "I want to show you that while not all of us are evil, not all of us are good, either. We are the same as humans in that sense... but I can say that until the end of time and you still may not fully understand. The best way to learn, is to experience it."

“Yes, a bad idea indeed,” Soneya muttered her agreement. “But there is no limit to how stupid some people can be sometimes.” She would have said more but she quickly shut up when she realised it was actually her own parents she was talking about. No matter how mad she was at them for their idiotic behaviour, they were still her parents and they had never really given her any reason to doubt that they meant well for her, though they had a bit of an odd way to show it sometimes.

When she heard Kaevad coming back, she automatically turned towards the sound of his approach and couldn’t help but shiver at the sight of him. Not only because she felt cold simply by seeing the remaining drops of cold water on his skin but because there was something inordinately attractive about the way said drops were snaking their way down his naked upper body. To distract herself from the thought, she went to fold up the pelt she had left lying by the fire before they had gone to Marn.

At his words however, any inappropriate thoughts were forgotten and she looked at Rhyn and Kaevad. “I guess that is true. Personal experience is worth more than merely hearing about something.” She wanted to ask whether he was sure it was a good idea, but she discarded the question again, knowing that he would not risk her health or anything just for the sake of it. They would be absolutely fine.

“Guess, since we have managed to get out of Marn with our hides still in place, this shouldn’t be too much trouble. After all, this encounter was the perfect example to how mistrusting and ridiculous humans can be sometimes.” Again, she wanted to bite her lips for having said this but it was already out in the open; no way to take it back. The incident really had left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth and she wasn’t about to forgive her parents just yet, though she would like to understand the motivation behind it all. It would have to wait for another time though it seemed.

Helping as much as she could with packing everything up, they soon were ready to go. “It’s fine though Kaevad, you won’t have to carry me. I’m not that weak,” she attempted to joke but was already wondering what sort of ordeal he had in mind for this trip.

Rhyn reached out gently as she stepped past Soneya, her paw-like hand patting her shoulder gently, a little hesitantly, as though she wasn't fully familiar with touching people of her own will. But she did. As Kaevad came back from his bath, her brows lowered. Despite her fleeting thought of how attractive water could be over a half naked man, the words that came from her matched her expression. "Fool! You are reptile, no? River is freezing. You will slow us down, even as you speak of speed." The scold came with her grabbing one of the furs and shoving it at the large man. "Dry off. Human skin is vulnerable, even on shapeshifters. We can pause long enough for that." Her ears were sideways, her nose wrinkled at the nonsensical way he had gone to jump in the river before trying to get them all into a different place.

But she did begin to pack up the meat. Most of it had been sliced and smoked, dried mostly into jerky, though some of it was not quite there,a nd some was almost over done and too hard to chew, There were several pieces that were juicy and just barely pink, part of the ribs, set aside to eat. She took one of these as she packed, gnawing on it carefully.

Packing things wouldn't take them long.

He flushed at the clear chastising tone the cat had adopted, using the fur to dry himself obediently. "Meant if you tired of walking, love. We shall be walking a far distance with as few breaks as possible." He shook his mane of hair after drying it before tossing the fur to the side and running hands through the tangles once more, his eyes intense as he thought. "It'll be quite a distance, but we could take it slower than usual, let you adapt. It'll build strength and stamina." He told the girl, eyes warm before moving to help the cat break camp. He paused before looking back at her, thinking.

"Why don't you pack some of these skins in that bag? Keep it fairly light - that'll be the bag you carry besides your own. Don't worry about keeping it 'even', I can carry this alone, but this'll help with building strength, which will come handy in journey's ahead."

Unsure how far they really were going to walk or how heavy the bags would start to feel after a while, Soneya merely nodded and did as Kaevad had suggested. She really did want to build more strength and the endurance would certainly come with walking for the majority of the day, but she also knew that generally all those things took some time.

Once they were all packed up and ready to go, which was fairly quickly, Soneya had mixed feelings about being on the road. On the one hand, she felt weird for leaving behind the only place and only lifestyle she had ever known, but on the other hand, she felt relieved for finally being out of the daily, boring trend that didn’t have any sense of a future for her and instead to be out on an adventure, despite the fact she had never really considered herself an adventurer. Daydreams had very rarely been part of her way of getting by.

The journey started out nice and quiet. The weather was good and was keeping that way as well, though Soneya soon found the sun to almost be too much. Unused to walking far and carrying things, she soon started sweating, though she wasn’t tiring as quickly as she had feared she would. On the contrary, maybe some of her grandfather’s genes had jumped over to her after all – her parents had never really left Marn either, or at least not during the time Soneya had been alive.

“So where exactly is it that we’re going?” she finally asked after quite a long stretch of relative silence. It was a companionable silence that didn’t need to be filled with idle and nonsensical chatter, or at least Soneya felt that way.

Her cloak swirled around her shoulders, the dark grey of a mountain rock. It covered the white, spotted fur that stood out so much. Out of them, she carried the least, but it was apparent that the fact that Rhyn wore no clothing aside from her cloak, and carried nothing but the absolutely necessary was the cause of this. She moved in relative silence, following Kaevad. Since they were travelling together, she didn't mind where they went.

The snow leopard kept a watchful eye on the other two. Nonsense while travelling was not somethign she could tolerate, but she understood that Soneya had never traveled. They would have to keep a careful eye on her in order to keep her from becoming overtired.

The dragon bore the most, easily, far too used to travel and the hauling of heavy objects to be too concerned with either. He caught Soneya's question and turned his head amiably. "There is a village roughly a weeks travel from here, it's mostly composed of magic users, and are a very peaceful group. I visited them for a period of time." He grinned largely. "I've been told that there are legends of a flaming haired dragon man in the village, so I thought it would be fun to stir up a little trouble."

It was a little out of character of him to joke like this, but he couldn't help but want to. Two new friends, they were traveling with him, and the city of the corrupt was already disappearing behind him. "We'll take it easy, though, so I'm not exactly positive how long it will take us, exactly, to get there."

“A week, huh?” Soneya didn’t say anything else, slowly letting the news sink in. That really was a long time to travel, and obviously the longest she had ever travelled at all, whether by foot or anything – given the fact she had never left the city of Marn. Of course, it sounded almost traumatising and she could literally hear her feet sighing of the blisters she would most definitely have in not very long but she tried not to show it too much. It really was exciting and fun after all! She did want to see the world and get to know a little something about the places and people living in it. So there really was no better opportunity.

After that, the conversation slowly ebbed into silence again and they walked on for many more hours, resting from time to time before they finally looked for a place to make camp for the night. This, they repeated for a little more than a week. Their companionship was amiable and they didn’t run into any sort of trouble – counting out the blisters and sore muscles Soneya had to deal with, unused to all this exercise as she was.

“How about we take another small break? Please?” Soneya had been fighting against overused and sore muscles all morning, and as much as she hated to be a pain, she couldn’t walk any further without resting a few minutes again. It hadn’t been the first time she had asked this question either and she was painfully aware of the fact that she was most likely starting to get on their nerves, though so far, she had held on better than she had imagined herself.

“I’ll just sit down for a few moments,” she muttered. “I’m sorry.” And already she was heading towards a nice patch of lovely green moss that looked terribly invited to sit on. It should be soft and somewhat comfortable in comparison to the rest of the earth which tended to have some sort of stones or sticks or roots or whatnot that made it all bumpy and uncomfortable at times. She had not even fully stepped onto the moss yet however, when she gave a gasp, completely lost balance and crashed down into the pit which had been innocently covered by a carpet of moss.

Rhyn said few words as they traveled. It was as though she had become more like a helpful shadow. She spoke rarely, and usually only if directly addressed, but she often left the side of the other two, scouting ahead and off to the side, hunting along the way. She would speed ahead and set up camp so that by the time the other two arrived, there was a fire started and usually food started as well.

The company was wearing on her though. Used to solitude, even two people was too much for Rhyn's nerves. as their journey lengthened, and Soneya's complaints, understandable as they were, continued and grew, she would disappear for longer and longer. As they closed onto their destination though, she stayed with the group, staying mostly in sight and calling distance.

Black-rimmed ears turned sideways as Soneya's voice reached her ears, and her nostrils flared. They had only been walking for less than an hour this time. But even as her tail flicked irritably, she knew that this was the lowlands. Even the travelers here were soft for the most part. She was used to going for days without a proper meal, but here it was so easy to get fresh food. Soneya, who had never traveled at all, was even softer. Thick tail flicking, Rhyn didn't stop her movement, but rather, changed direction, moving to scout around the area while they were there.

The short, cut off gasp made her spin towards the girl, and as Soneya crashed through the ground and into the pit below, Rhyn was already running towards the area. She slowed as she came closer, ccarefully testing the ground so that she would not join the girl in the hole.

Kaevad was a little more easy-going than Rhyn, and yes, perhaps he pampered her a little too much, sneaking some of her furs into his pack, not complaining with the frequent stops. But even he was beginning to lose his patience with her.

So when her startled gasp reached his ears, all he could do was run and blame himself. He slid to a stop at the edge of the hole, peering inside anxiously. "Soneya!" he called down, anxiety warring his voice. His head snapped up at the sound of laughter, cruel and jaunty. "Well lookie here boys... We got ourselves a little party!" Red rimmed his vision. Bandits. Always bandits.

She was trapped again and bandits threatened her life... Kaevad would not lose another-! He roared his fury, the temper that had built over the past week snapped as he lunged at the group. He didn't even bother shifting fully - just his claws.

He slammed into the first, one claw sinking into flesh, lifting the man clearly off the ground before slamming him down on a rock with a sickening crunch. Another man came at him, only to be lifted clean off the ground by his throat, choking and drowning in his own blood as Kaevad slowly crushed his jugular in front of his paling 'friends'.

"Thou shalt not pass me foolish mortals, for your destiny was cast the moment you set that trap." He language slipped into the tongue of the old, his years showing, and all he could see before him was the bloody bodies of the villagers and the only woman who had loved him. "Aileen... dilectione mea (my love)" he moaned loudly, pained, before racing forward, the bandits moving at him, screaming in enraged terror.

The village was burning. He froze and a bandit got in a lucky strike. Aileen screamed. Aileen. 60 years vanished and he was fighting to defend his love and the village he built with his own two hands. He roared bloody murder as he grabbed the bandit who had struck him, punched through his chest and ripped out his still beating heart. The body fell as the beating muscle slid down his throat. The bandits froze, horrified. Kaevad wasn't finished, less so the dragon. Rising to the surface with a triumphant roar, the demon within him took over, forcing him to shift despite the agony. As Kaevad screamed in agony, the dragon shredded his human form and pushed forward, jaw snapping to eat the now fleeing bandits.

A few managed to get a little further, though not far, the dragon lunging after them, part after part sliding down his throat as blood soaked the ground. All the bandits dead, and now sated, the dragon slid back and purred in delight, leaving Kaevad to regain his senses and reign in on the agony that left him wanting to writhe. Then came the memories and nausea rose, self loathing hot in their heels. He shuddered. He'd lost control... how... how would he go back to them? He turned, head bowed, and moved back to the two women that meant the most to him as of now, trying to look as submissive as possible.

"I... I...am... I apologize." He ground out, his voice icey. They'd leave now, no doubt. They'd seen the real demon - his dragon - in action. They'd seen him at his worst. Eating souls without mercy or remorse. "Not for my actions, the bastards deserved it. But for you seeing that. You did not deserve that horror. I-I understand, if you wish to continue without me."

The pit was dark, a little muddy but not all too wet. It hadn’t rained in these parts for a few days, giving the earth a little time to recover and soak up the water. However, the bandits had nicely worked on this hellhole. The walls were nicely smoothed over and there were barely any roots strong enough to hold on to, so it wouldn’t be an easy feat to climb out of this dunghole. But she would have to try. Even if Rhyn or Kaevad managed to reach down to her, Soneya didn’t want to rely on them even more than she already did. After all, it hadn’t escaped her notice that even Kaevad was starting to lose his patience with her, which was saying a lot.

Soneya’s head was spinning a little from the fall as she had managed to hit it on the way down and she could feel her left hand throb from where she had stupidly tried to break her fall with it. But for now she ignored it, getting on her feet as she sensed that the pit was not the last of it, and surely enough, malevolent laughter soon drifted down to her. A shiver ran down her spine as she heard Kaevad roar, a roar unlike any of those he had let out before, full of fury and bloodlust. The hair on her arms and neck were standing on edge and she felt incredibly cold at the sound but she forced herself to push past the terror that gripped her and instead look for a way out.

For a brief moment, she surprised herself by actually using her brain in this situation rather than sitting in a corner and whimper sadly about her misery. Then again, if Kaevad was engaging in a fight – undoubtedly with more than one person from the sounds above her head – then Rhyn and the dragon were in danger, and even though she would not be able to do much about it in her measly condition, she would not sit around and let anything happen to them while she was safely – for now – tucked away in this trap. No, that simply would not do!

Desperately, she tried not to hear the agonising cries of the bandits above or the angry sounds of the dragon, claws ripping through bones and tearing through still living flesh. Tears were stinging her eyes at the horror of it all but she refused to listen, she refused to acknowledge what the sounds meant.
Instead she focused on the task at hand.
Pushing around the walls with her hands, she finally found a relatively wet spot that seemed to extend a little higher up as well and ignoring the pain racing through her left hand and up her arm, she dug in her fingers and nails, hoping she would somehow be strong enough to try and pull herself out. Her hands and feet surprisingly had a bit more grip than she expected but she was tired and could feel her limbs wobble under the strain. Yet she didn’t give up, the fuel of the exercise being the fact that she was still painfully aware of the battle above and anything would do to drown out those sounds, even if it was hearing her own heartbeat resound in her ears from overexertion.

She had brought a bit of the way behind her when suddenly silence fell. It was uncomfortable, even more so than the sounds of fighting, because it could mean only one thing. They were all dead. Now tears really were streaming down her face. Something terrible at happened, and when she heard Kaevad’s apologetic and torn voice, it was clear to her that it was even more terrible than she could have imagined.
Suddenly, his voice wasn’t the problem anymore when a piece of torn limb slipped over the border of the pit and came crashing down, straight onto her. Screaming, she batted at it, smearing blood even more over her face and losing her grip. With a helpless yelp, she fell back to the bottom, immediately scrambling away from the bloody bodypiece, her eyes staring fixedly at it as though she was afraid it would jump up to attack her.