15.06.02| Jungle outside RMW - Afternoon

[Jay Kitten]

It was true that she wasn't very talkative, but she wondered herself why he was being more quiet, he seemed like one whom would normally ask a lot of questions. She had to wonder exactly what she would say if he asked certain things, if anything at all. If the question was stupid, she would likely ignore it.

As the fire picked up finally into full strength, the top of the cave was fully illuminated enough to reveal a rather spectacular sight. The roof of this hole was decorated with illustrations, pictures of boats and men with weapons and even a Weyr, depictions of women under the moon with children and a man dying. Symbols of the moon and the stars, and a storm underneath, destroying a ship at sea.

She said nothing, didn't even acknowledge the pictures, nor look at them in any way. She kept going about what she was doing like they weren't there. She looked up at him as he spoke. Her eyes reflected the firelight just enough to give them a strange glow, the fire visible in her iris.

"I agree." Simple enough to respond to his comment, he had said just how she felt about this place. It was a great place to be in, as long as it didn't rain profusely, as that tended to flood the cave with enough water to make it uninhabitable. It was hard to swim in and out of, she had had to do it once. She bared her pointed teeth, this time in a smile as she looked up towards the sky. The small hole in the roof allowed them to see two stars, which she had named Ursulat and Kidor-Silli, they were in a picture on the roof that had the surrounding stars as well in the night sky. If he was savvy of Pern's astronomical charts, he might have recognized that, but she did a lot of star observation in her journeys.

"So who are you?" she asked, obviously meaning it on a deeper level than when she had asked his name, the inflection indicating she wanted to know what it was his life was like, or something similar.

"I am Elraishsa," she said softly, in return, a name for his own.

[Shoki]

R’le had continued his thorough observation of the strange woman’s home and spotted the hole for smoke to escape to. It was a rather important thing for this type of set up, but it was decorated in a lovely way. He tried to recognize the style of the illustrations. He couldn’t put his finger on the reason why, but he was guessing it was a historical reason that they were up there. He peered at them some more before turning back to the fire and his strange hostess. The firelight was throwing flickering light around the room and when she looked at him, he was reminded of a feline again.

She spoke in response to his comment for once, making R’le surprised for just a moment. He had rather gotten used to her not responding to him. Still, he was glad for once that she seemed happy. It was nicer when she was not as tense. When she asked him a question he looked at her with a small smile. “Just R’le.” He gave a slight shrug, trying to convey that he really had no idea how to answer that question beyond a name.

“Elraishsa,” the rider said, trying it out on his tongue. “Huh, it sounds really nice. I like it.” R’le looked pleased to finally have a name for her. He was thinking more and more that he was lucky to be a impulsive person. It meant that he cold randomly meet people like Elraishsa.

“I have to remember to return the favor of inviting me in.” The words were half mumbled to himself as he stared at the fire, enjoying the warmth and light from it. There was something about a fire that demanded attention. Quiorith usually agreed with him on that, though the Cloud was not currently observing this fire. Quiorith was watching the sky instead, enjoying the starlight. If you must you must. The Cloud was still not completely sold on the wild woman, though he had calmed considerably. R’le only chuckled softly at that.

[Jay Kitten]

The girl went about removing her hunting gear, placing her spear against the wall near her bed and removing the fur-made leg coverings she wore to protect herself from the thorny underbrush in this particular area. She stretched her bare feet out, her callused, tough skin looking like it had seen many paths. The small pack she wore was emptied, it housed a few herbs and some nuts and berries she had scavenged from the jungle, as well as a small rabbit, which she had caught earlier that day. It was starting to smell, and so she threw the carcass onto a flat stone she used for a table, starting to skin it with a stone knife that had been resting on its top as well. When she finished, she staked it and set it to roast over the fire.

As he mentioned his name, her attention flipped back to the Rider, and she nodded in greetings, accepting his comment as well, with another silent nod. She wasn't much for compliments, they meant a whole lot less than actions. Not that she expected him to show her that her name was nice, she wasn't even sure how he could do that. Rather, words were simply words.

When he muttered to himself, she narrowed her eyes, and slowly began to raise her knife, looking rather menacing for a moment. Then all at once she flipped the blade and spun it toward R'le, the thing whizzed right by his head and impaled into the rock. Between the handle and the rock, the blade had quite cleanly stopped a rather large fang spider from leaping on R'le's back when he wasn't looking, and she went over, pulling the blade from the softer stone and tossing the dead insect out the entrance.

"Poisonous. Very," she stated, then crouched near the fire once more, turning the rabbit over. She extended her hand to pick up a few of her other food bits and press them toward R'le. "Eat," she commanded, giving him five berries and a handful of nuts. He would find them to be rather plain in taste and texture, but they did the trick for sustenance.

"You are from Weyrs?" she questioned, clearly not very proficient when it came to dragons. She wasn't even aware that Riders belonged to only a singular Weyr. It seemed her intelligence was very selective.

[Shoki]

The silent nod only cemented a theory in R’le’s mind. Elraisha was a feline. No doubt about it. Fangs, eyes, her movements, all like a feline. What got him most was the personality. She was pretty much a feline, in that just like them she did what she liked and would very clearly show disapproval. Elraisha was certainly a feline in a human form. R’le found it in him to avoid chuckling at his new found information, but only just.

When the blade whizzed past him, he tensed up, never having noticed her readying it. He had been too distracted with his train of thought. He looked over his shoulder at the bug impaled on the rock and blinked slowly. He didn’t exactly hate spiders but that big sucker was something that deserved a girlish scream. Not his scream, he after all he was now thinking about how Elraisha had ‘pounced’ on that beastie rather quickly. With one more comparison to a feline he had to chuckle, very softly at his little theory. He was certainly pleased she saved him from the spider, but it was amazing what he could roll with if it came up.

“Thanks. I owe ya one.” He watched as she continued cooking and stared at the food for a moment after she pushed it toward him. He didn’t exactly have a choice of it he supposed, and he could use it since he hadn’t eaten in a bit so he accepted them with a nod. He almost put one of the nuts in his mouth before she spoke again, but lucky for him, he hadn’t quite yet. That was one of the things about eating and talking, people loved to ask him questions just as he was chewing.

“Well I’m from Rainbow Mists Weyr. So, just the close one.” He popped one of the nuts in his mouth and chewed on it. He was not sure what to expect from the food so it seemed fine to him. It was nice to have something to munch on anyway. “I like it there.” He summarized his feelings nicely, if only because he didn’t want to get into it unless she asked. It sounded like she hadn’t been to Rainbow Mists so he didn’t want to blather on about it.

[Jay Kitten]

(Just want to say, in some way, I think of my characters as all different cats. xD Elraishsa, is definitely a Jaguar. She sits in trees and hunts her prey, traps them with clever tricks, and she's swift and powerful and stealthy. R'nos was the Tiger, K'cin is a loud housecat of some kind, Felora was a lynx, S'nire's a black alleycat, V'ridian reminds me a lot of a leopard, while his sister, Lavender, is probably a cougar or panther. Rowensae is totally a lion. And Lylore is a really quiet long-haired grey American housecat, the kind that leaves dead mice on your porch because he loves you.)

With a grunt and a nod she accepted his thanks, she wasn't really much for pleasantries it would seem. The feline woman turned over the rabbit periodically, and when it was finally finished she removed it from the stoke and set it on her rock tablet, using her knife to remove the biggest chunks of meat she could from the carcass before she tossed that out of the cave after the spider. The next step was to pull the meat into nice thin strips of tender, juicy deliciousness, add a few spices, and then dish out two portions.

She mixed some nuts in with her meat, and started to eat it with her hands, not caring to use any sort of utensil of any kind. She seemed not to make a very large mess either, which was likely harder for most people who weren't used to eating with only their fingers. Needless to say she didn't even have to wipe her mouth when she was finished, only "clean her paws" and she was back to normal. Her tongue of course served that purpose easily enough. She licked her fingers clean and wiped the saliva off on her furs.

"Not terrible," she said in the usual brief manner, in fact that had been one of the better rabbits she had caught. Not too stringy, not too fat. Just the right amount of meatiness. Tender, almost melted in the mouth. It had been cooked well, that was for sure.

His comment about Rainbow Mists left her arching her eyebrow, however, and she rubbed her stomach, looking over to him with those glowing golden eyes.

"Is that so?" she questioned, and moved closer, shifting to her knees to crawl toward him some more so she wasn't on the other side of the fire from him. She lay sideways, relaxing as best she could on the stone interior of the cave. Her chin rested on her hand. The pose could be, yes, feline looking, if he was so inclined to continue his train of thought on the matter, at least. She grinned that pointy grin again, curious as a kitten about him, it seemed. Truth be told, she enjoyed learning of the world that moved around her, and he was no exception. Caught in her traps, and all. She still hadn't decided what to do with him. Probably let him go before she went to bed. Didn't need him stabbing her in her sleep after all.

"Tell me about it."

[Shoki]

(That's awesome. XD Jaguar fits her so well. Gotta make sure my characters don't get mauled or anything...)

R’le chewed on the berries and nuts slowly, enjoying the texture mostly. It was interesting to watch Elraisha expertly prepare the rabbit, or at least that’s what he thought. He was rather cooking illiterate, so he found it amazing when others could manage. Of course he would never actually tell anybody that. The rabbit carcass vanished quickly, out of the cavern. She was rather efficient that way. Was it trash? It was gone. Else it was used. It spoke of her lifestyle he supposed.

She remarked shortly on the food, thought he thought is smelled rather good. However, it was her next actions that really grabbed his attention. She commented vaguely, but got closer and lay by the fire. The feline alarms were going off in his head again, but that was not all that was interesting. He looked very curious, and to him, relaxed. She then requested he talk about it. Where was he supposed to start?

“Well, it’s busy. Lots of people running around, with dragons, firelizards, whatever. The Weyrbowl has a lot of people in the middle of the day, not that I hang out there much. Of course, there are always dragons in the air. Blue, green, black, white, every color. All different sizes, all different personalities. From the ground it looks cool.” A grin spread, insidious across R’le’s face. “But my favorite view is from the air. Me and Quiorith head up high and get a real look at the place. You get far enough away it looks like a little structure squished between the jungle and the sea, with little bits of color hovering around it for the dragons. Then Get closer and all of the dragons look like dragons again and all the people walking around below are close enough to see but you can’t hear them. Not individually. The whole place has this voice of its own. During the day it’s a busy rumble, but it really sings if there is a hatching on. All the dragons hum, and tons of people go to watch. After that’s done, it’s all feasting and fun. It’s fun and all to be down there with them, but I like it best from the sky. You can actually see the Weyr all at once.” R’le leaned back a little, watching the smoke escape into the sky with a grin on his face. He was a Cloud rider through and through, more interested in flying then anything else.

[Jay Kitten]

It hadn't occurred to the female that he would end up giving her such a wordy description of the Weyr, and soon she found herself lost with his discription, unable to imagine such a place. She had only ever seen Weyrs at a distance, and to her they looked simply like a pile of rocks with a few caves and some overgrown lizards buzzing about in the air. But in the interest of being polite and not insulting her "guest/captive", she didn't mention that she thought such a place was silly. She couldn't, coming from a different life, understand why anyone would want to live in such a place.

If she lived in a Weyr, she would likely go crazy.

In fact, if she lived near other humans, she would likely be incredibly uncomfortable with such a lifestyle, even moreso with a non-nomadic disposition. She chewed on her food some more, eating barbarically with her hands, not caring what sort of disgusting sounds she made in the process. She thought idly about dragons and weyrs as she did so, her thoughts whirling as he spoke, her imagination struggling to keep up.

She cleared her throat and swallowed what was in her mouth, before looking up to him again, her golden eyes glittering once more in the firelight. "Why would you live there?" she questioned, and she hadn't meant it that way, but she had sounded as though such a place were completely undesireable in her eyes, which was true, however. She wouldn't be caught dead in a place like that. Chances are she would try to eat one of the dragons, and she knew how offended Riders would get if she tried that. But some of them looked delicious, especially the golden ones!

[Shoki]

R’le had stopped his monologue for the time being and tried some more of the food available. He liked it well enough, but tried not too quickly. He had habits from eating with friends that meant he liked having food between talks, and usually the kind of people he hung around with took turns talking a while. He was gathering that this would not be the case with Elraisha but he would rather not stuff food down his throat to compensate. It really didn’t occur to him not to eat, as he was hungry and she had offered.

Trying to gauge her reactions was a little weird for him, mostly because she was hard to gauge in general and he go the feeling she didn’t react the way most people he knew did. When she responded with a question R’le half choked on what he was eating. After he swallowed properly he took a moment to breathe and then looked back at her cheerfully.

“Well, same reason most people live there I guess. I got searched for a dragon hatching and never left. ‘Course I doubt I would half left even if I hadn’t impressed. After all, I got good friends there. As long as I got sky over my head and friends on the ground I think I could live anywhere. Not that I SHOULD.” He chuckled lightly, fully aware that there were places he really should not live. He would still go for it though.

“So what about you? Why do you live here?” R’le realized before he said it, this could be a can of worms. He asked anyway.

[Jay Kitten]

Elraishsa looked up at him from where she lay, her feminine features coming out a bit more when in this position than when she were standing, crouched in a hunting pose or running along the jungles. In fact, in the firelight, she looked a whole lot less feral, more gentle. And to R'le, she should be, because she was going out of how she normally acted towards Riders to be nice to this one, and so far she was glad she had.

He would be allowed to go whenever he wanted, though she was sure at this point that he was going to stay around for a bit more before he went back to the Weyr. After all, their meeting in the jungle wasn't an everyday thing, and both of them seemed to enjoy the company. Besides, it wasn't like he couldn't be back there in a second flat on that dragon of his. But she wouldn't know anything about that.

"Friends..." She knew the meaning of the word, but, to somebody like her, it didn't seem right. It was abnormal for her to speak even this much to someone she would consider an outsider, as her jungle did not see many native inhabitants as far as human and dragon. They lived in settlements, not the wild. She lived in the wild. Her jungle.

"A good enough reason," she stated then, and nodded, running a hand idly over the curve of her hip. His question sat with her for awhile. And it was soon that she realized there were many reasons.

"It is what I know," she started, and rubbed her chin, thinking longer. "It is right. It is beautiful, and it is away." She paused, looking back to him now. "Away from evil." This wasn't so obvious, though from what the pictures on the roof were depicting, it was likely that she meant evil in society. Bad people, mean people.

[Shoki]

The way Elraisha tested out the word on her tongue, R’le guessed that there were not many people that lived out in the middle of the jungle. Not that he was surprised, as he had not expected her to be out here. It also seemed that she did not go near hold or weyr to talk much. He wasn’t sure if she had been to any at all. She seemed to respect his reasons for living at the Weyr, and he appreciated it. For her answer, she seemed to mull it over which allowed R’le’s mind to wander.

It was going to be another time where R’le had to remember not to be distracted. He had not really had to worry about it before because Elraisha had distracted him with food and conversation. Now that a break had occurred in the conversation, and he was done with his food he was being distracted by her. Once he caught himself staring at her he realized he had to mentally distract himself. He had to do this a lot around chicks. He was had enough of a brain on him not to become a drooling idiot though. It was just that occasionally he got distracted by certain aspects of the female anatomy. Quiorith’s wry amusement was felt in the back of his mind. ‘You are not any better; I catch you just as often.’ The mood from the cloud changed to more of a sheepish feel, and R’le grinned to himself. They had to keep each other in check. And it sort of worked. Most of the time.

When Elraisha started speaking again he focused on her words, letting it sink in. She was a woman of few words, but he got the feel of what she meant. The kind of way she lived was different, but she loved it. He imagined that they both would sink like a stone if they switched places, but R’le was particularly sure he would not be able to live alone. And as he was now, he literally could not be alone.

“Amazing what I can learn in a day.” He mumbled softly. It really was educational, just from a cultural standpoint. Not that he would call it that. Getting to know a new person was educational, and with one so different it was very interesting. “I get the feeling I’m going to want more of these chats.” His voice was more of a conversational tone this time, more directed at Elraisha. “Uh, I mean if you want.”

[Jay Kitten]

The girl hadn't noticed his staring, in fact, she was more concerned with her own thoughts than paying much attention to R'le at this point. She looked into the fire, watching it dance slowly as the smoke drifted out of the makeshift chimney. It was calming, but the cave was starting to smell a bit smokey. Maybe she would put it out soon. She looked back to her guest, crossing her arms and laying her head on them. Her bright golden eyes glittered in the flickering light, and she gave him a small smile, her fangs poking through a bit.

His words confused her, though, and soon her mouth drifted more into a neutral look, her thin lips covering the view of her pointed teeth. More of these chats? First off, what is a 'chat', she thought, and secondly, what did he mean by that? She propped herself up on her elbow. "What do you mean?" she decided to ask, leaving it at that.

Elraishsa was finding the fact that she hadn't really... "Chatted" with many people to prove a bit annoying right now. He seemed not serious, like this was all funny to him, but she couldn't tell why. Perhaps he was just too different for her to understand so easily? Then, she thought, maybe she did want to talk to him more often. She removed the small ring of flowers that sat upon her head, and tossed them on the fire. They were starting to brown, and were losing their color anyway. She would find more beautiful things to put in her hair. Maybe some seashells from the beach?

She suddenly perched upright, crouching and scrambling toward the entrance on all fours. She squeezed through, and slid down the rock face rather quickly, heading toward the water. She didn't seem to care if R'le followed her or not, nor did she really seem concerned about Quiorith.

[Shoki]

R'le was a little bit confused by Elraisha's response to his statement. It seemed like she had no idea what he was talking about. He got the impression that her reaction was genuine, not joking or deceptive. For some reason she didn't strike him as that kind of person. "Uh, I mean I'd like to have another conversation with you one some other day I guess." It didn't bother him, having to state something again. If he said something once he would say it again, he didn't take things back.

She tossed some flowers from her head onto the fire, without much of a indication that she was going to do so. Just as suddenly she headed out, making R'le stare after he for a moment. He chuckled lightly and got up, heading outside as well. Quiorith was still outside, of course, sitting against the rock wall still. His head had momentarily followed Elraisha's movements, but returned to facing the night sky. R'le glanced at his Cloud dragon, then looked at what he was looking at. The stars were out, and R'le could see that sky looked lovely and clear. He checked Quiorith again, noting that his wings were clamped to his sides, so he was content on the ground for the time being. Still, both he and his dragon would be tempted to get up into the sky with such a lovely night like this one. For the time being R'le followed Elraisha, leaving Quiorith to his musings on stars.

R'le noticed she was heading toward the water then abruptly stopped. All at once he had decided to watch from here to see what she was doing rather then go closer. He was not sure why he had decided this, he just kind of did. So he watched where he was, standing on a rock and enjoying a slight breeze off the water. It was always cool near water. He liked that about it.

[Jay Kitten]

She spied the dragon as she moved passed him, but said nothing to him and otherwise ignored his existence, in preference of skirting the water's edge, where she crouched and began digging around in the sand. She worked her hands into the half-wet muddy sand, shifting it around until she pulled out a few small, round, white objects. They were some kind of muscle, living in small white shells. She grinned.

"I didn't check before," she mentioned to herself, though it was likely R'le could hear it as well. Elraishsa usually checked beaches she stayed nearby for the shells, as she thought they had a great measure of beauty about them. They were small and pearly with tan spots on the back, and curled inward near the opening where the creature inside could stick it's small feet out and walk along the ocean floor. They liked to burrow in the sand, and she liked to pull them out and make them into necklaces or hair ornaments until they lost their shine. When that happened she crushed them up and made white paint by mixing the powder with a small bit of fish oil.

She took a handful of the shelled creatures back to R'le, and offered out her hands with all the small wiggling shellfish in them. It didn't seem to bother her, and she dumped them into R'le's hands with a perky smile, before she darted off back towards the cave to get the fire going again so they could burn the muscles out of their shells.

Once inside, the girl waited patiently for the rider, humming to herself as she lit the fire once more and stoked it to a full burn again.

[Shoki]

R'le watched as Elraisha searched the sand for some of the shelled inhabitants of the shore. She clearly knew how to find these sorts of things, something R'le had never cared to find out. He'd always worked as an apprentice to the Harper Hall, and cared a lot less for finding critters as he did drum beats and pranks. He glanced over when she found some, saying something about not having checked before. Was she out getting more food? Seemed odd, but he didn't know how much she had in the way of food stores. Unless she dried her own proteins. He would not put it past her.

He pondered this for a moment before Elraisha returned to show off what she had found moments before she dumped the lot in his hands. The salty, vaguely wriggling mess brought a grin to his face as well as a low chuckle, though he would rather not have his hands too cold from the residual moisture. She was very interesting that one. He followed the wild woman back, pausing a moment when he got back to Quiorith. The dragon's head was still craned skyward, but his wings were just a hair removed from his body. Looks like he still had some time left, but not as much as he had thought. A rough timeline formed in his head, but it was not like he wouldn't know when the cloud would want to go. Quiorith and R'le were similar enough that whenever one got the itch, the other would get it by proxy. In other things they differed, but the itch to fly was what they could agree on.

He made it back into her home, noticing the fire was burning much brighter now then when she had left. He took a look at the shellfish he was holding then dumped them near the fire, though not so close one would have to burn their hands just getting to them. He held his hands near the fire, hoping to dry them more quickly. He watched her closely, curious how she was going to work with the mussels. Or whatever they were, they were some sort of bivalve. He was still curious.