The outskirts of the Grand City were littered with copses of trees and sprigs of undergrowth, making it the perfect place to trap wild game. Farmers, hoping to ward off monsters and animals alike, had scattered their traps throughout the undergrowth. A good rabbit pelt would provide coin, while the meat would serve as a decent meal, and they were aplenty in the area. Of course, they also hoped to catch and kill whatever hunted their game. The bigger animals were not only a threat to the outlying populace, but also to the food they desperately relied upon.
It was one of these bigger animals that lay caught in a trap. The thing was not magicked in any way; rather, it was made of two long, wickedly sharp clamps with protruding spikes that had latched deep onto the animal's leg and kept it there. The more the animal struggled, the deeper the wound became, until it lay on its side panting, tongue lolling from its mouth. It whimpered pitifully, sharp teeth gnashing as it tried to focus on anything but the pain radiating from its leg and hip.
Iden couldn't see beyond the flaring agony that came with each stilted breath. Their eyes rolled everywhere, taking in the world that had smelled so blissfully fresh and sharp to a honed nose. Even the thought to move hurt, and though they could hear the ragged breathing in their ears beyond the rustling of the trees and the free winds, there was nothing to be done about it. Shift, yes - that was what they should do. Shift and -
Just a twitch, little more than a breath, and the howl of agony the wolf let out scattered any of the birds in the nearby vicinity. Every instinct, every fear, everything was nothing, and pain was everything. Iden let their eyes close as foam flecked at their mouth. Sharp and poignant, reminiscent of a time they had escaped, a place they had not thought of much. This was not an experience they wanted to repeat, of that, at least, they were certain.
Pyrrha let out a gasp at the howl nearby. She and Bloo were on their own at the moment; she'd allowed her... well, she'd call her a friend in her own head for convenience at least... to accompany her, but it took a predictably short amount of time to for Pyrrha to lose her temper and wander off away from him again. He was probably on the road; She'd warned him not to follow her while she fumed.
Now though, she wasn't fuming so much as wondering what in the world was making that frightful noise. It sounded like it was afraid. Or in pain. Or both. It even had the small crystal drake on Pyrrha's shoulder agitated. Something was hurt - did that mean danger for him and the human girl he was hitching a ride on?
"It's okay, Bloo," she whispered, patting his head gently as she moved forward. She was wearing her normal Dracoknight clothes - the red robes, black skirt, boots, and metal breastplate, tied together with her usual set of pigtails. Attached to her lower back was a folded weapon of some kind - the likes of which was not found in Fiore.
Silently, carefully, Pyrrha snuck up on the howls of pain. It was a canine! a... big dog? No! A wolf! Or a Husky or something. Pyrrha wasn't a canine expert, big or small. It was trapped too. It's paw was bloody, trapped by a fanged hunter's trap. Of course they would. People in Fiore were so careless.. it was just bad. Bad for the wildlife, bad for anyone who didn't know about the traps. it was too close to the city...
"Shhh..." Pyrrha started to reach down and pat the wolf, but stopped herself. It might be feral or mad with pain. "I've got you little... guy or girl." Pyrrha had no idea which it was. That wasn't really important though. What was was getting the trap off. She reached down and gripped the trap, prying at it. It barely budged; she wasn't the strongest person in the world after all. She frowned, looking at it for a moment. "Oh! I know!" Bloo scampered down and sniffed at the trap, his eyes watching the canine's bleeding paw.
Pyrrha pulled the weapon off of her back with her right hand, allowing it to reassemble into its spear form. With a grunt, she shoved the spear into the trap's jaws, using it and her foot to pry it open. Bloo moved the paw before Pyrrha allowed it to snap shut again. She pulled out her bandages she kept in her pack and bandaged up the wolf's paw as best she could. "There you go. I bet that feels at least a little better."
Over the smell of copper and iron came a new one, carried on the winds that ruffled through their fur. Human, or at least they thought it was, and some other scent they couldn't place. Iden lay still as best they could, pierced ears lowered near their skull as another whimper escaped their throat. While pain was not new, it certainly wasn't welcome, not this pinpointed agony. As the scent came closer, it began to filter out some of the blood's smell and instead gave Iden something to focus on. Some of their gray fur stuck up as the wolf gave a halfhearted snarl of warning. While Iden was curious, they were not stupid, and knew they could do little to defend against an attacker.
The girl, though, was soft and gentle with her words, and it was enough to let the instinct to snap and fight back fade. Iden warily watched from where they lay as the trap was examined. They tilted their head, observing the strange little creature that hopped off of the girl's shoulder, and wondering briefly if it was a matter of seeing things, or if the little creature really was there. The pressure finally left from around the meat of their leg, and the wolf flopped completely to the ground with a breath of relief.
Though the touch surprised them initially, Iden restrained the snap of his jaws and instead watched as the girl wrapped the wounded leg. Putting pressure on it would be rough for a little while, but now that it was at least wrapped, they wouldn't attract another predator. Cautiously Iden moved the leg closer and started to get up, only to fall again back to their side with another whimper and growl of frustration. They knew better, for crying out loud! They knew how to set traps and create them and not get hurt, yet here they were, stepping right into one.
Iden yipped quietly at the girl, still too mired in pain to try and shift, and tilted their head towards her hand so they could nudge it with their nose. This, they decided, was an example of a human being with a streak of something rare. Most of the people Iden had encountered would not have spared the wolf - they would have ripped the pelt from the wolf's very skin while it still breathed. Iden admittedly found the thought halfway curious - what would it be like, to be skinned? - but decided ultimately it wasn't quite what they wanted.
Last Edit: Oct 1, 2015 18:23:52 GMT by Iden Valence
Pyrrha sighed with relief when all was said and done. She fell to her knees, which gradually turned to her sitting on the ground properly as her legs lazily spread apart, knees closed, staring at the wolf as she sat back a little bit.The wolf seemed... grateful. Pyrrha raised an eyebrow, raising a hand for the wolf as it came to its feet and nuzzled it thankfully. The dracoknight couldn't help but giggle. Wolves were no drakes, but they were certainly cute. This one though...
"You seem pretty smart and tame for a... you are a wolf, right?" she raised an eyebrow, tilting her head inquisitively. "Where I come from there aren't a lot of dog-like creatures." Bloo climbed up to Pyrrha's opposite shoulder, keeping a watchful eye on the wolf despite seeming to trust it enough to let it near his partner. "If I knew where that Hawke boy was I'd have him heal your leg and stuff... but I left him behind a little while back..." she admitted, looking thoughtful.
"I couldn't heal you if I wanted to." she raised her gloved left hand and showed it to the wolf. "Which I do, but..." she shrugged. She'd find Hawke somewhere in Grand City, maybe even have him take a look at the creature... no that would never work. The wolf would just wander off by then, right? She could take it into the city... but she wasn't even sure if that would work. Gah. Of all the times for that stupid blond boy to make her mad...
The wolf snorted at her comments. Of course they were a tame wolf. What would - oh right. Iden hadn't shifted in front of her. Scooting towards her a little, Iden curled up at her side, resting their head near her hand. His ears had returned to a more relaxed state, though they twitched towards various sounds as the forest returned to its normal state. The paw throbbed with each heartbeat, but the bandage was snug and soaked up the blood better than Iden could have done, especially in this form. There were disadvantages to being like this, they supposed, even if the world really came alive around them when they breathed in the forest air and ran through the moss with others of their kind. Well, temporarily of their kind. No matter what Iden did, there were always the silver earrings in their left ear, and the tattoo that had become, in this form, a part of their gray coat on the right shoulder and over their back to their left hip.
Her question, though, garnered a nod from Iden before they settled once again at her side. They turned an eye on the little creature on her shoulder and they gave a questioning bark at it and a whine. If Iden had been able to talk, they would have wanted to try communicating with it, interacting with it, learning about it and the girl through dialogue, but their mind was too focused on being injured and resting and fighting escape-instincts.
The girl, apparently, was not alone, too. Was this person far away or close by, or perhaps they had gone on their separate way? Though Iden had not seen many girls wandering about on their own, they supposed it made logical sense some must. Iden nosed at Pyrrha's hand and gave it a little lick. Yes, they decided - this girl was far different than the humans of the cities, and of Valland.
Pyrrha let out yet another giggle at the lick. She hadn't noticed the earring before now, nor the strange fur pattern. She'd been a lot more distracted by the trap and the furry creature in general. "Hmm... maybe you're not so wild, huh boy?" Shed decided on boy until she found out otherwise. "I don't think wild canines have earrings... at least to the best of my knowledge. Do you have an owner oooor?"
Bloo made some of his own noises at the wolf, trying to communicate as best he could. Unfortunately, drakes and wolves didn't quite speak the same language. It was closer than a lot of mammals came to, considering his intelligence compared to other animals even of a larger size. He was friendly, seeming to think the wolf wasn't a threat. He was probably even trying to comfort it.
"You could be something magical..." Pyrrha mused to herself. "I do like magic even if I can't use any myself. Well, not exactly anyway." She touched her left hand with the right one thoughtfully. "I guess it doesn't matter though. You're friendly. I'm friendly. I mean, who doesn't want to be friendly to a cute girl like me? At least that's what you'd think. There's a surprising number of people around here that think they can take advantage of me, and I've got a weapon. Stupid boys..." she grumbled at the last part, frowning momentarily. Her track record with men and boys who weren't her brothers was not so good, especially since she came here...
Iden barked at her in agreement, tail swishing back and forth in the dirt, but when she asked if there was an owner, a tilt of the wolf's head and a quick shake were her answer. Even with their legs tucked carefully close to their body, the shifter seemed fairly at ease. The weapon the girl wielded could easily do them harm, especially if the thing was magicked in any way, shape, or form, but she had saved a (as far as she knew) wild beast rather than attempting to put it down or leave Iden to their own devices. Besides, it was nice to listen to her voice; higher pitched, yes, but there was a hint of something comforting in it. Perhaps it was her age - like many of the children they had run with before being chased off by terrified adults, she seemed to have an easy air around her.
And her little companion! Iden's ears perked up at the sounds the creature made and they yipped at it again in amusement. Yes, these two were good companions for the moment.
With every passing moment, strength returned to aching limbs, and the ease to shift returned. Iden was content, though, sitting there in the forest with their new companion. When the girl spoke up again, though, Iden tilted their head and snuffled at her hand. The strange mark looked similar to some of the tattoos others sported, only this one looked somehow more impressive than any the sailors had. Sniffing at it revealed nothing, and poking it with their nose had the same result, so with a huff Iden lay his head back down. With a wiggle Iden managed to get their huge head under her hand and glanced at her expectantly, eyebrow raised as if to ask 'Please scratches? Please?'.
Last Edit: Oct 6, 2015 16:38:21 GMT by Iden Valence
Pyrrha scratched the wolf's ear idly, watching both it and the forest around her. Eventually Bloo flapped his wings and landed on top of the wolf, making his own bed there in a rather catlike manner - including a gentler version of the kneading thing cats often do. "Too bad you can't talk. Of course Bloo is my best friend - almost like a brother or something - and he can't talk so I guess I'm kind of used to it."
Bloo made a small noise. "Okay, he can talk, just not in a way human ears can really understand it." Pyrrha rarely admitted she was wrong, but Bloo was a special case. Bloo made a small purr of satisfaction before resting his head once again. "You goof, you know I don't mean anything by it." she stuck her tongue out at the drake before returning her attention to the wolf. "You know, I've thought of getting earrings too. I keep seeing girls with earrings around here. I didn't care so much back home where I didn't know hardly anyone outside my family. They're kinda pretty though."
There was nothing quite like a good scratch behind the ears. Iden pressed into the attention, going as far as pushing up their chest to better angle their head. When they settled once more near Pyrrha's side, they looked up with interest at Bloo - apparently the little creature had a name - as he settled into Iden's furry back. The wolf twitched their tail, head tilted a little, and decided that they indeed liked the gentle movement of smaller paws against their back. Iden arched a little into it, though not far enough to throw Bloo off, and let out a rumble from their throat in contentment.
Good to know - injuries sometimes led to meeting non-violent people. Yet another bit of information to store away. The shifter studied Bloo a little more with half-lidded eyes, searching for minute details in the creature's form. What would it be like, to experience life as something so small yet clearly intelligent? Was it like the rabbit, whose heartbeat was always thumping too hard and ears were always alert for danger? Or perhaps more like a hawk, hunting for prey atop the vantage point of a human's shoulder? Intriguing, certainly.
Iden barked a little at Pyrrha, nipping without actually using teeth in a reprimand of sorts. Of course they could talk, just perhaps not in a way she could understand. Silly human. Lifting a paw, Iden batted at the ear with the silver earrings running down the curved edge. As soon as they had understood how to speak, they had gotten the earrings put into place. It hadn't been their first experience with pain, either. Iden might not understand the magic that allowed the earrings and tattoo to shift when they did, though perhaps it was merely their body accepting the earrings and tattoo as a part of it, much like their clothing.
Movement. Iden's eyes darted to the forest, and before they could think they were up on all fours, chest lowered towards the ground and teeth showing in a snarl. The growl that emitted from their throat was low, deep, and about as threatening as a wild bear's. Even limping, Iden edged ahead of Pyrrha, still growling, as a man with a pitchfork carefully moved into the area.
"That's what happened to my trap!" he said, eyes wide on the snarling wolf and its bandaged leg. "Why'd you free it! This thing's been eatin' my livestock!"
The growl grew louder. Iden had carefully avoided the cows and chickens - they were friendly when they wanted to be - and only hunted out in the forests. What lies, to accuse them of harming the animals that had sheltered Iden when they first arrived!
Pyrrha hopped up when the farmer... or whatever he was... addressed Pyrrha. Her dracoknight's robes billowed a bit around her as the wind caught them, though it was a bit wasted on the fact that this was a belligerent farmer and not some monster that needed beat up or something. Ah well. Bloo, for his part, stood in front of the wolf in a defensive posture, though his small size made it rather hard to actually cover the wolf. "This wolf is a tame wolf!" Pyrrha insisted with a frown.
She glanced back at the wolf with the earring before glancing back. "He's a smart doggy and your stupid traps were the only thing hurting anything around here. They're way too close to town anyway! Why would you set them here where some kid might step on it, huh?" This farmer was just asking for trouble, but if it meant saving earring wolf doggy, Pyrrha would be more than willing to provide it.
As if to agree with Pyrrha, Iden barked at the farmer. The man jumped, flinching back, and quickly returned to glaring at the wolf with everything he had in him. Just because some kid was - wait a minute! A kid was next to a wolf!
"Little girl, get away from that thing!" he insisted frantically. He apparently wasn't listening to her firm words or the set of her jaw, or the small creature now standing in front of Iden. No child should be playing out in the woods this far from the town anyway. "You should be at home with your family!"
Iden had had enough. It was one thing to be accused of something they actually did. It was quite another, they were learning, when they were accused of something they had nothing to do with. They leaned forward to brush their muzzle against Bloo in thanks before backing up a few steps and bowing their head. The shift came as it always did: it started as a rippling feeling over their back, rushing up their spine like the caress of a lover, and branching out into limbs and head alike. The farmer gave a pitiful yell of alarm as the wolf's fur receded into human skin, lupine features transforming into a sharp nose, gray eyes, pursed lips, high cheekbones. Light brown hair came to fall along her face as she finished transforming and the glare did not leave her face.
It wasn't easy to anger Iden, really. She understood that her role in this world was different, confusing, the moment she was created. Flexing her fingers and getting used to the feeling of them again, without claws, she finally addressed the pale farmer standing only feet away, and only just standing.
"You really should only accuse those who have actually done something," she insisted and crossed her arms over her chest. Her bandaged leg really wouldn't support much of her weight, so she stuck to leaning on the other leg and the tree beside her. Beneath her thick leather boot, the white of the bandage peeked out, twisting up to meet the worn trousers that ended at her knees. Her white shirt was laced up to just beneath her collarbone, and held in place by a leather vest. Aside from those basic pieces of armor, she wore a tight band around her right arm, and another set around her wrists.
"Wh-Wh-what?" the man stuttered, and Iden rolled her eyes.
"This girl is right, too - since you probably don't want your own children getting caught in those things, you shouldn't put them so close to the town. Or anywhere, really. They're cruel to the animals. Go hunting like a normal thing."
Instead of getting an answer, Iden got to watch as the farmer sprinted away, white as a sheet. A smile eased onto her lips as he disappeared and she lowered herself again to the ground so she didn't have to worry about keeping up on her leg. She tilted her head and thrust her hand out to the girl, as she had seen so many others do.
"Thanks for the help!" she said brightly, the former animosity completely gone. "I was kind of tempted to just chew the thing off, but they don't regrow, you know? It would have been awkward."
Pyrrha, for a moment, stood ready to defend the wolf from the big man with the big assumptions. She She had yet to draw her weapon, but had no idea what this man would be willing to do to hurt the poor intelligent wolf. "Okay first off I'm not a little girl," Pyrrha crossed her arms and huffed. "I'm fifteen and I can take care of myself just fine! ...And besides, my family doesn't even live in this country!" She was old enough! Why did no one get that around here?! Ugh.
Her fuming was interrupted as the wolf behind her spoke. She hadn't watched the transformation so much as the look on the now pale farmer's face, though she knew when she turned around and spotted the earring. For a moment she looked surprised. "Wait... so... you're a - a girl?!" Pyrrha tilted her head and re-examined the former wolf, placing her hands on her hips while Bloo instead watched the farmer run away. Maybe he was going to go start looking for his traps and be responsible? "I knew you weren't a normal wolf! I'd just had you pegged as a boy wolf. I didn't exactly check. That would have been awkward in retrospect."
Pyrrha couldn't grasp why the farmer would be so surprised, to be honest. Magic was everywhere in Fiore. It was more common than almost anywhere in the world as far as the dracoknight could tell. Sure, Pyrrha was surprised, but mostly because she'd literally just been petting this woman, which was weird to her. "Er, yeah..." Pyrrha blushed and coughed into her fist. "I'm uh, Pyrrha. This is my best pal, Bloo." She gestured awkwardly at the drake, who turned around and chirped a greeting.
Iden's smile widened, glad to see Pyrrha wasn't scared off like the farmer. The intention had been to scare him off, not the girl. As she leaned back against the tree behind her, she let her hand fall to her side. This form wasn't particularly uncomfortable or anything, but it was definitely jarring to not smell the forest so keenly, or the blood staining the bandage around her leg. She pushed back her hair, giggling a little at the feeling of it, and refocused on the young woman.
"Iden is Iden," she said simply. "Or rather, I'm Iden. Thank you for the head scratch. It was lovely." She brushed her hand through her hair and wiggled the other's fingers at Bloo. "And you're simply amazing! So small but so smart - and you choose to stay with a nice person too. Nice people are rather rare." Iden considered Pyrrha and Bloo again, studying them for a brief moment before glancing down at her leg. "Few I have seen would have stopped to help." It would take some time to heal. Hopefully it wouldn't be too long - she really didn't want to have to wait for the thing to mend itself enough to move. "I'm a normal everything, just so you know. A normal wolf, a normal rabbit, a normal... people? Yeah, normal people..." Iden ticked off on her fingers as she went down her list, and paused, tilting her head. "Lots of normal things. Well... maybe not normal. Normal's such a strange word."
Above them, the sun shined through the trees and warmed her face. She was tempted to shift back, as no skin ever felt 'right', but it would make speaking with Pyrrha rather difficult unless the girl could secretly speak wolf.
"Are you around here for a reason? Like... hunting for treasure or fighting or joining a... what's it called... guild! Yes, that's it! A guild." Iden's unblinking attention was completely focused on Pyrrha, though she offered her hand to Bloo for inspection before moving to brush her fingers down the little creature's back. It would be good to get a feel for what being this little creature was before she attempted to shift into it. A shiver of anticipation ran down her spine, her smile unwavering.
Last Edit: Oct 6, 2015 16:39:58 GMT by Iden Valence
"Iden is Iden?" Pyrrha looked at the woman with a quizzical expression. At first she'd thought the woman spoke oddly, then she realized it was her explanation. Her quizzical expression turned into a look of surprised realization after a moment. "So you have the magic to transform into anything then!" she concluded after the explanation was over. "Wow, that'd be cool!" Pyrrha clasped her hands behind her back as she stood there watching the girl. "Is this your real form then?" It would be impossible for Pyrrha to tell; it wasn't just a sustained form when she shifted. If it was she'd have dispelled it when she touched the wolf to bandage it, thanks to her 'always on' mark on her left hand.
Bloo enjoyed the compliment he was given, giving off a proud chirp at being called amazing and smart. Had he been able to talk, he probably would have tried to explain that Pyrrha was basically family to him, but that proved rather hard when the only language the drake was physically able to speak was that of crystal drakes - it was less a language and more a combination of chirps and body language that most humans, including pyrrha, couldn't entirely pick up on. He nuzzled the woman's hand as she petted him.
Pyrrha sighed and hung her head dramatically. "Nothing about Fiore is normal. I have only been here a few weeks and I think I've run into precisely zero normal people by my count. At least that I've talked to for any length of time." She perked back up rather quickly, her head moving to a tilted position at the question. "I don't belong to any guilds. I'm Pyrrha Drakos, Dracoknight from a faraway island. It's kind of like being a noble by your standards, but that's not really important in Fiore. I'm here looking for something for my Mistress, Lady Belfyire," she explained. "Something very important but also very secret." She held up a finger to her lips in a 'shush'motion before shifting her legs to a more 'restless teenage girl' type stance.
"Bloo and I are partners. We're almost like siblings but it's a little different," she tried to explain. It was really hard to explain to someone who hadn't been bonded to a crystal drake when it hatched. They didn't have a psychic connection or anything, but it was almost like it sometimes. "I know I look young to everyone in Fiore, but I'm here cause I'm capable and stuff, and to that end I'm here to go try to talk the Templar people into letting me see their magic items to see if what belongs to Lady Belfyire is there."
Iden blinked, still smiling pleasantly up at Pyrrha, as she ran her fingers over the small creature's head. "I don't know magic," she said brightly, as if talking about the sunshine or a brilliant day. "I just... am?"
It was something Iden had considered many a time before while traveling on their own. Be it in this form or another, there was no way or shape that felt completely natural. In the back of their mind, they questioned what would be most comfortable, and never found it. The fuzzy moments after their creation, and subsequent testing and processing, didn't give any answers, and despite the time away from those who had created them, they had discovered little more about their own existence. It was all wrapped into experiences and scents and feelings that were as foreign as another language. Iden scratched under Bloo's chin, the smile slipping from her face into something more thoughtful.
"I'm from Valland," Iden explained and shifted a little where she sat. Her leg was extended out in front of her, leaving it to simply rest without any kind of pressure near her ankle. "There, I don't know if there were others like me either. I don't know much about it, or Fiore, come to think of it. Discovery is the best way to learn, though!" Her smile quickly returned as she looked up at Pyrrha. "There's no... 'real form', I guess." She shrugged. "Iden is Iden."
She leaned forward when Pyrrha stated her title. "That's really incredible! You have a mistress, and you're on a treasure hunt, and you're a Dracoknight!" Pulling away from petting Bloo, she clapped her hands delightedly. "Amazing! I really hope you can find what you're looking for! There's so much to study and sift through - it's going to be difficult, isn't it? To find what you're looking for?" She quickly clasped her hands over her mouth and muttered from behind. "Oops, right - not loud. Quiet." She closed her eyes, brow scrunching briefly, and added, "What's a Dracoknight? And who is Lady Belfyire? And you called what I am 'magic' - can you do magic? And what is Bloo? Besides amazing, of course."
Everyone had secrets, and Iden didn't want to give away Pyrrha's, not when the other girl had been so kind and treated her ankle. A favor for a favor. She leaned over to pick up Bloo and raised the small creature to in front of her face, where she could study him in greater detail. Her fingers stroked along his body gently, learning with every touch something that sparked a resonant something inside of Iden. It was the same thing they had felt when they first encountered the birds high on their barred windowsill, or when the wolves sprang at them in selfdefense. Learning was the most important thing, always, and if Iden could do so peacefully, without being chased away? Well, then, all the better.
Last Edit: Oct 7, 2015 14:03:32 GMT by Iden Valence
