Child out of the Wild [RP]

[Hoarfrost Imp]

This wasn't Claw but it was certainly a concrete jungle strewn with graffiti and dirt, bodies even the dead and dying, crime, starvation but that last part was exactly why Juniper was here. During the early throes of Winter she'd spotted a caravan that looked rather well off; The wood polished, wheels finely shaped and polished. Little wear and tear, headed here of all the places in the world.

In the wild the ancient ones had told her stealing for survival was only survival, not stealing. That the imposed rules of the cities couldn't bind her once she understood that all men and beast came from nature and had no right to any of it's bounties. All were borrowing from the planet. Even as she walked, a tatter dress and even worse off battle cloaked wrapped around here and a measly ten senbon and marbles of the small variety. her normally blue skin was a frailish pale. and she hadn't grown in her horn yet. Behind her cloak she hid her exttra arms, hunched low, sneaking up on the caravan.

This was night three of her stalking and poaching, having only dared handfuls of rice grain to sustain herself she was finding hunting in the flat fields of Rice hard and her energy low. Protein was needed and she'd eyed the large side of pressed salted ham with a drooling mouth for two days but didn't want to arouse suspicion but now with the city they were in she could maybe pass it off as just a common thief in the locals and set up a street urchin.

Walking, her invisibility flickered off and on, hunched low on all fours, stalking, her bright blue eyes hooded under her cloak. No bodies. They'd stopped in the middle of the city some time ago and after a solid twenty minutes of no movement and not seeing any guard post up -counting the exiting heads- she was back in with her heart set on the ham. She could smell it before she was even through the curtains! Succulent meat, salted to perfection, crushed grape wine, the rice form her last two nights still on her person as well! She was a little foreign queen tonight! For just a moment she let the greed take over, lost track of time shaving generous sides of ham off to be wrapped in wax papers by the fistful and leave them with... at least one third less ham than they'd started the day with.

Quiet as she could manage she began stuffing her pockets, all of them, fistfuls of more rice, oddly wrapped things she hoped were candies. The little girl inside her was giddy and careless, spoiled from a life before all this. Before the wild and the trees shook her thoughts with that dead language. Four handfuls in she stopped and her head stop up, ears twitching. She smelled pepper. Movement?

[Coal]

Kyuushu walked through the filth-ridden streets with a sharp look in his eye and a half smirk on his face, his black hair pushed back from his head by the Otogakure no Sato Headband he proudly wore, a bow slung across his chest, quiver on his hip, and Naginata propped easily on his shoulder. Souten had not been brought inside the city, remaining outside where it was much safer, rather than in one of those dilapidated fronts they call a stable. Black eyes scanned the roads as the local ‘meat’ scanned his handsome face, soliciting him for a great night or day, anything he wanted at half price no less. Politely he would decline and keep moving, but he would scan their faces just in case, because the Oto Kage could be anywhere after that bandit attack. Just where the hell is she.

It was a cool day, so Kyuushu wore his green jacket, embroidered with gold on the edges and golden dragons on either collar, with what looked like golden waves down the sleeves. It was a fine coat for sure, too fine for this city, yet still none moved on him. His pants were heavy green cloth as well, gold stripes down either leg, ending in sturdy black boots. He had left his large backpack with his food stuffs back with Souten, knowing the horse would protect it, and as he thought that perhaps he should leave this town, he spotted something both common and unusual at the same time. A child seemed to flicker in an out of existence as she moved on a wagon left unattended in the middle of the street.

He started moving toward her, eyes on her flickering form at all time, preparing to stop her from committing this crime despite the city they were in. Dante, a terrible city full of the dregs of society, and the vilest area he had ever entered to date. Bodies lay strewn in the street, filth clung to the gutters and an ever-present film of grime seemed to cling to everything no matter what you did. Whores, pimps, thugs, beggars, murders, and everything in between was in this city. Even the children had been corrupted, as was the case with this girl who had white hair and blue flesh. Hoshigake? In Oto no Kuni? When she paused, he knew that she was finally paying attention to her surrounds, so it was best he address her before anything escalated.

“You know, it isn’t polite to take other people’s things, right?” His greeting was friendly, the way one should talk to children, especially strange skittish children. She seemed like a wild animal with clothes on, grass and leaves in her hair, and a dress tattered and disheveled. She was filthy as well, but there was no way she was older than eight or nine at most. None stopped the interaction, assuming now she would be dealt with, and perhaps the cart would be free for more focused fingers during that dealing.

[Hoarfrost Imp]

The sensation of pepper in her nose continued to rise and then words. Without even thinking and whirled on the voice behind her, teeth caring as she scrabbled backwards against the back of the wagon, looking at all the open space the city could afford but nowhere directly to hide except the wagon.

Illion, that old beast, he'd scolded her a million times about being greedy, taking only what was enough to sustain till the next meal. The rush of adrenaline hurt like fire in her veins and made her eyes water from the suddenness of it all. Cornered between stranger and wagon. Without thinking she bore teeth, a mouthful of little razors that stretched from end to end and it was clear from the look in her eyes this little girl was abstract, all instinct with a mind that just peeled away the layers of the world around her into Fight or Flight. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to really run. So violence made her skin taut over a wiry impish frame and her eyes dilating like like singular ripples across a pond.

"Ragh! RAGH!" She snapped in a hoarse tone, long nails biting into cobblestone while she made herself as small as possible against the cart, ready to bolt like a coiled spring. He didn't look like the other people who left the cart to begin with. The gravel sift under hand and foot, the smell of wet earth in her nose now.

"No closer..." She warned and rattled in the throaty rasp of the old tongue. Cornered with pockets full of food. If worse came to worse she'd at least escape with what she needed for the evening and prowl a new target.

[Coal]

Her reaction to getting caught was a little more than he had expected, less like a human, and more like a cornered animal. She bared her teeth at him, razor sharp fangs like little triangles, as if she meant to bite his throat for freedom or scare him away. Even the sounds she made were less than human, the snarl she produced, and the little barks or roars that her small frame let free. Just what in the world had happened to this little blue girl? Fortunately, Kyuushu had some experience with wild animals, at least to some degree, and she was not so far off. Without backing away or releasing eye contact with her dilated eyes, Kyuushu would lower himself on his toes, the butt of his Naginata in the gravel. He held a hand palm up before him, the one that had been on the Naginata, and made a soothing shhhh sound.

“Take it easy, little one,” he said gently to her, “I am not going to hurt you, nor will anyone else while I’m around.” She hand warned him to not come any closer, so he had stayed put, but his eyes never left her ready to bolt form. Thinking back on what she had said, he swapped over to Draconic, which she seemed to speak. ”Hey, little one. I’m not going to hurt you. Stealing is not good though, not here at least, where they will try to kill thieves. I won’t let them, but they will still try. You should put it back or at least what you don’t actually need.” His eyes watched as a few people took fleeting notice of the exchange, they did not look too friendly, but they stayed back when they saw the weapon he possessed. A lone guard in this city must be powerful indeed, it would seem.

Yet again he wondered what had happened to this child to make her so, what had changed her to more beast than human, remembering there were others like her in the world. Perhaps she was one of the Abandoned, those children left in the wilderness to die, but then raised by some creature or another as if one of their young. From her look, she could even pose as a forest sprite, one of the Dryad perhaps, or some other fey type of critter. That made it even more dangerous for her to be out and about alone, as there were people that would love to get their hands on fey blood. He had not even realized he had decided, not until he offered a warm smile. Then he held out his hand to her, palm up toward the sky, a gesture for her to take it.

[Hoarfrost Imp]

Even crouching down to her level she was all nerves and kneejerk reactions, slinking up against the cart, feral, drinking in every detail she could but overrall? He was just really green colored. Like the forest. Rusty with common as always she knew enough of the short reply to realize she didn't really give a damn. Good people didn't reside in this kind of city just from her look at it.

The Draconian got her attention though. Like a rabbit her head shot up and the eyes open, more aware than ever. The words touched her ears and filled her with the same warmth she remembered when Illion's words had thundered through the trees. A speaker of the ancient ones!

"The cart has more than enough. Gluttony ruins the balance. That's why the villages are frowned upon by the trees." Illion never trusted the ninja, nor did she. Not since expulsion from the Land of Waves and her family washed out of the hierarchy. Villages and politics were unsafe and stifled the natural nature of balance and harmony. "I am only taking enough to make it back home. Nothing will go to waste." All over her own greed. Of course. Stupid, stupid.

Dancing a look over him she lingered on his palm and shifted on her heels, daring to lean over and sniff at him curiously. He wore a headband proudly and her eyes returned to defensive little marbles. "Why do you know the old tongue but wear the villages proudly?" Deceit was everywhere. If family could cut your throat it was nothign for strangers.

[Coal]

Kyuushu was intrigued at how those words seemed to get a reaction, lucky that he had interpreted her poor Common as Draconic, now that he looked back on it. Sometimes you’re the cobra and sometimes you’re the mongoose I guess. Perfect Draconic left her lips, akin to his own ability, and she told of her intent of a sort. Suddenly, she was sniffing his hand, only moments before snarling like a wild wolf, but she now merely wary. However, she also tried to glean why he wore his headband so proudly, despite his own ability to speak Draconic. A single eyebrow climbed, his left, and he eyed her curiously for a moment, a little confused at the question she had asked.

He would tap his chin and look up toward the sky, his head tilted a little bit to the left, as was common of his thinking pose. How exactly do I answer this question? More people were watching them as they spoke Draconic in the middle of the street, less than savory types that thought that certainly these people must be of some kind of nobility, and nobility could equal ransom money, or that at least he carried a large sum on his person. Soon they would be bold enough to make a move, if they stayed there too long, so Kyuushu would propose an alternative. ”Yth jalla move de wer middle di wer revin. Si tir ti huven ekess tepoha ekess levnim nomenoi xiekivi sjek si tir ti tepoha ekess.” ’We should move from the middle of the street. I do not wish to have to harm these people if I do not have to.’

It was clear he was offering for her to walk with him as he stood to his full height of six feet and six inches, looking down at her crouched form, and then moving off toward the only park in town. It was not the most ideal location, but the uncared-for wilderness that was the park in this town would provide some concealment from prying eyes, and the denseness of it would offer a chance for more private conversation without listening ears. As a bonus, if any of those thugs came, he could kill them without others witnessing or becoming collateral damage. He hoped she was following, but he would not sweat it if she wasn’t. Once they were concealed, if she followed, he would answer her questions.

The City of Dante’s park was a wilderness to behold all its own, a jungle within a concrete jungle, wild lands within the ‘order’ that is society. Everything was green and brown, high trees with vines trying to strangle the branches, hanging down to nearly the floor. The paths were almost overgrown, long patches of dirt or broken worked stone the only indicators that the paths had ever existed. In here the dogs had gone feral long ago, more like wolves, yet they avoided people who entered all the same, and the birds sang a pleasant song in the boughs, sunlight leaking through the thick canopy to create pools of light at irregular intervals. Deep in he would find a bench and would have a seat, his eyes finding the little girl should she have followed, and he would tell her his story.

”Irral, Si mi Seiryuu Kyuushu, wer adopted deevdru di wer current Daimyo di Oto thric Kuni, zoti batobot ui vi irthos naktada de sia foster isthasy.”’First, I am Seiryuu Kyuushu, the adopted son of the current Daimyo of Oto no Kuni, although that is a secret kept from my foster brother.’ It was a matter of fact statement as well as an introduction, giving her time to introduce herself before he continued. ”Lae ihk wer dril Si wear sia headband zyak proudly, coi ui tagoa Si zklaen jaka, tagoa sia adopted opsola saved sia tobor vur Si owe jacion froneel. Ghoros, Si jahus skriiod vur thirhe, joining wer shripomn ergriff ekess svent nomenes batobot chiana udoka, batobot xoal'si ekess svent udoka. Jaci saved ve spical hak lae algbo svadrav jaci protected ve. Svadrav Si grew versel, Si xoal'si ekess ilroe sia narhethi, shar wer navnikic tepohada vi weyotipre haurach persvek ricin ihk ve, vur astahii claxon sia thirhe de ve ekess clear sia donoap. Jaka Si zklaen eligne wer lands di sia opsola, troth jacion de nomenes batobot ornla svent jacion persvek jacida juanth grapwol, vur nakta sia isthasy de levnim lae algbo svadrav Si shilta ios jacion knowing. Nomeno ui sia purpose vur Si wear coi proudly acht sia brow.” ’As for the reason I wear my headband so proudly, it is because I must now, because my adopted father saved my life and I owe him everything. Before, I was wrath and vengeance, joining the village only to kill those that betrayed us, that tried to kill us. He saved me back then as well when he protected me. When I grew powerful, I tried to exact my revenge, but the spirits had a different fate in mind for me, and they took my vengeance from me to clear my path. Now I must defend the lands of my father, protect him from those that would kill him in his old age, and keep my brother from harm as well when I can without him knowing. This is my purpose and I wear it proudly upon my brow.’

Leaning back, he would prop his arms on the back of the bench, allowing his Naginata to lean as well on his right, his bow having been placed on his left with his quiver, and he watched her intently with those black eyes of his while she digested the information. ”Jaka svabol ui dout story ilroevi. Kii tir wux vucot Vs'shtak vur svabol shinalta ekess wux ekess xurwk wux wer idol wux re?” ’Now what is your story exactly. Why do you know Draconic and what happened to you to make you the way you are?’

[Hoarfrost Imp]

The moment he made any sort of suggestion they were being watched she peeled her eyes off him and her nostrils flared. All were eminent threats but through the course of some talking they eventually migrated and she learned of him and the loose means of he because the man wearing that accursed metal symbol. Not for himself but for someone else.

When the question was redirected she took all the time she wanted mulling it over, pulling back the layer of regression and mental layover to forget it all. She got as far as the first few layers and stopped. Dead quiet for several minutes, hunched in against herself and very much on full alert.

"Juniper." She started in a hard drawl of the southern lands of Claw. motioning to herself with clawed fingers like a child might. Too many teeth showing for the few letters she spoke but it was manageable. The rest she had to drop in their shared tongue (Which I am FAR too lazy to translate). Lips set she pushed on with minimal detail.

"The old ones. They rescue. They teach me and-" She spoke the story as much with Draconian as with her hands, cradling them to herself. "I have always been me, been myself, I--" In truth she didn't remember the regression, the casting out from the house appointed and the abusive man who'd taken her mother in and birthed him the child here more wild that the wind was free. In some ways she did in scars and in hatred but they came and went like storm clouds.

The more she tried to ponder his question and make sense of a way to reply that made sense the more she kept feeling the insistence that she wasn't normal just because of how she spoke and her actions. To be judged irregular and the tension in her tiny jaw was growing palpable. The quiet hung for several minutes but she turned that angry scrunched face from the stone foundation of the bench to the over dressed man on the bench with her like a kid fighting a tantrum. Too angry to find the words so she just stared till it made her eyes burn and she threw that apoplectic stare back to the ground with her lips set into a narrow line.

"I was raised in Claw by the Old Ones and I have always been with them. They taught me to hunt, at and speak." Her fingers worked into tiny fists several times trying to stem her frustrations. "I am normal. I am fine. There is nothing wrong with me." Despite knowing in the core of herself fundamentally she'd never met someone like herself in the wild and the question was never broached during her upbringing- the first person to speak to her in native tongue to suggest she had become this way rather than being born it made her uneasy.

Little knuckles wore into the coarse wood of the bench and that was as much as she had to say in regards to his questions. Insulted, but honestly just scared to dig inward of herself to an absolute stranger who would wear a village tag. The same ones who took and never gave back. Not well enough to be trusted if at all.

[Coal]

Time drew on as the small blue child turned his question over in her head, Kyuushu watching her with interest and utmost patience, prepared to allow her to take all the time in the world. What seemed like forever, as well as only a short moment, she finally speaks up to answer his question. She spoke Common with a harsh tongue, clearly it was not a language she used often, and she managed to rasp only a single word out. Juniper. It was a cute name, but why was she named that way? Perhaps it was this elder she spoke of. A dragon or something else ancient?

He could see her struggle however, the deep inner turmoil of her current existence, the meaning of her life and the beginning of her story lost in a fog. The way her words were clipped, how she broke off, the rage on her tiny face marring her child features. She was not sure how to handle these feelings, it was clear from how she acted, from her lack of words for so long during the struggle. Finally, she did her best to solidify her normality, to make not only him believe, but also herself. He could not let her spiral into that madness, it was not his intent and he did not know she did not realize. He would speak to her in Draconic as well.

“Juniper,” he began, his voice caring and firm, a rock to hold on to in a river rapid of emotion, “listen to me. Just because you are different does not mean you are not normal. There are many unique people in this world, just like you, but unique in their own ways. You are unique in your own way as well, different from others, but still normal. What you do with your uniqueness will define you, not what you are.” HE began to reach out a comforting hand toward her shoulder but stopped himself, unsure of her reaction, letting it hover there halfway and forgotten. Serious trauma must hover over her, one so young, for her to behave like this at even the notation of not being normal.

[Hoarfrost Imp]

Tugging the thick outer layer of skin back on she shied away from the hovering hand if for no other reason than to make sure both parties were aware she knew it was there and that was that. The set of her lips went thin once more and she flared her nostrils in a wake of a long sigh.

"I am normal. I didn't become this way it's how I've always been." Grinding a heel into the pavement she pushed her way across to the other end of the bench or at least the rest of the distance and sat facing him. More trickery. Village tactics. The way of the wild knows no dishonesty. The way the two worlds clashed always made her see it so drastically. Black and white. Ecstatic as she was to find another speaker he didn't seem all that well attuned to perhaps the more primal side of things. Different, sure but still dangerous

Her eyelids twitched, flickers of thoughts, insecurity though she didn't put it to words. "Mhhhnnn..." The bench hurt to sit up,, forced upright in posture. She slumped instead. "I don't want to talk about it anymore." A moments pause for consideration. "I am only around the city to acquire food from the caravan and perhaps scope them for potential threads to the local indigenous. There have been a spring of fires spanning across two borders close to where the old homes of several elders have been." Hunters of old blood?

"Is there any other reason you snuck up on me other than to startle me?" Glowering with that tiny face she huffed and fucked at those little teeth of hers excessively. The story of revenge and it's casting off played around in her thoughts but she was just bitter. So bitter. Hateful. The primordial ones cared for her more than anyone else had, the original remnants of the way the world should have been It was hard to embrace it all once more. Being feral felt like blood and bone.

[Coal]

Kyuushu cupped his chin in his hand thoughtfully, closing his eyes for a brief moment, then nodding a little bit to himself almost imperceptibly. When he opened his eyes, he had an intense look on his face, far more serious than he had been before. Black eyes glittered like onyx gems at her words, for they mirrored his own reasoning for being in the area, and it was such a coincidence that he could not believe it a coincidence at all. Luck was on his side it would seem, but was that luck good or bad, that remained to be revealed. Whatever the case, this young girl needed his assistance, so he would aid her however he could, as they were on the same path. “I did not mean to startle you before,” he stated with a lighthearted chuckle, “I merely wished to stop you from stealing.”

He rose from his seat as well, taking two measured steps forward, with his back to the girl to show he trusted her not to either stab him or run. After a moment, he looked over his shoulder at her, the seriousness of his face returning. “I do not know these Elders, but we are on the same path, nonetheless. Someone has been burning the surrounding area and it damages the land and will soon damage homes. Already it disrupts the homes of the animals that live in this land, upsetting the balance that we have now, and will soon threaten human lives as well.” His left hand clenched into a fist, the knuckles popping and crackling, an anger on his face. “I will not allow it to continue. They will bleed for this.”

What seemed a lifetime of anger was only a brief flash of a moment, though the memory of the night he was almost killed was fresh, brought to the front of his mind by these fires, always these raging fires. Slowly, he began to calm himself, releasing the rage on his face that made him seem more of a beast than a man. The smell of wild horse always grew more powerful when he became angry. Where does that come from? Shaking himself of the last of that rage, he turned to her now, a smile on his face once more. He had one more question of her before they could move on something that he was very curious about.

“Can you tell me of these Elders?” The question was simple, but it was complicated all the same, something small, but something immensely powerful, precious and coveted by this little girl. IT was who she was, it was her family, it was a nature that humanity did not know of like they must have long ago. Knowledge, a knowledge that was powerful and might require trust, which he had hoped he built enough of to at least know what these creatures were. Knowledge fascinated him, but even more so, he wished to know who else he was protecting and if that would come to bite him in the end.

[Hoarfrost Imp]

Tilting her little chin indignantly she flared her nostrils. "Those who steal are destined to be stolen from. It is simply the way of balance." He could poke holes in it all he liked but this was going to be the logic she stuck to till the day she was dead and back in the ground with the dirt.

The subject was quickly cast aside and his interest in whomever was burning the forests seemed to align with hers. Though it didn't reflect in he dull gaze of indifference towards the man it was clear to see there was passion there. For what? Remained to be seen but he had a purpose and a drive behind him. If in his pursuit to ceasing the fires aligned with her saving her mentors and teachers then so be it.

There had to be a little transparency but she already had the idea in mind mind from the start. "The elders go where the heartbeat of the Earth is strongest. The forests are always thickest where the beat is it's healthiest and that is where the elders make their homes to protect that. When villages expand and grow they infringe on this and that is why I believe the fires are coming from the villagers themselves."

There was a shift in her whole posture to catch the approach of the caravan owners abut she just sat perched like a cat on alert, following them with her eyes the whole while. "I did not get the pickled beets from them I wanted... they can thank you for that." Yes, salt. There was salt in her tone. Her dirty dress rode along her thighs ass she scooted to the end of the bench and hopped off to smooth it down, her cloak in tatters but still useful. "I wont take you to the elders but I will take your help in stopping the death of their homes and mine."

Staring off towards Yuki she thought of Kahimi the aloof woman she'd run into once before. The smell of peppers and cherries in her nose. Silly woman. Hopping off the little partition the bench rat up on she made her way to cut directly across the square and make her way outside of the city. Fires usually only stopped after everything was gone. That was not an option.

[Coal]

He could not help but smirk just a bit when she was not looking, noticing that she had not answered his question in the least, clearly trying to deflect him from them. Very well, he would find out on his own soon enough. She had given him enough information for at least that bit of an excursion. That lost knowledge, so very enticing! She seemed a bit upset about not getting those pickled beets as well, but some people had no accounting for taste. Regardless, it looked like she had taken to ground and was headed toward what he assumed would be the destination to save her family. With a shrug he grabbed his gear, he would follow behind, led by this wildling child, toward something that was none of his business and completely his business in the same package. He snagged Souten before they left, of course, the horse was very happy to see him, its red tail swaying as it nuzzled his hair.

[exit with Juniper]