Hunting the Huntress (Jay/Elraishsa)[74.13.26]

[Shoki]

Mid-Morning

Quiorith was flying over the jungle yet again. Rather than the Cloud focusing on maneuvers and the dark haired rider on his back enjoying the show, both had their eyes on the canopy below them. Burn, the clingy Flame that he was, was curious enough why the pair was moving slower and lower than usual that he peaked out to see what was what. Today they were on a mission. Lucky for them it was not searching for murderers or rescuing victims of feline attacks. Today he was looking for a friend.

Elraisha was certainly an odd one, he knew this, but though he had been keeping an eye out for her, he hadn’t seen her in quite a while. He wondered about that. From experience, he knew that she was a stealthy one, but didn’t know exactly why he hadn’t caught sight of her in so long. Perhaps it was something to do with him? Like he made her made somehow? He hoped not, otherwise today’s adventure was going to be largely pointless. Even if he heard from someone from one of the cot holds that a strange woman had been spotted in the area, he would never find her if she was hiding. Still he held out hope that she wasn’t, she was just being…well, mysterious. She certainly took the title for most mysterious gal he knew, and women were mysterious by nature. Either way he was keeping an eye out today.

Maybe we should be a touch noisy? Quiorith gave a glance back at R’le, whose eyes didn’t leave the canopy as he thought about it.

“Don’t bother. We’re spooking the wildlife as is, I’m pretty sure she’ll want to introduce me to her spear again if we go over board and scare her lunch.” The tone was joking, but Quiorith bristled at the idea anyway. “Relax. If she wants to find us, she’ll probably see you. Small dragons are still dragons, and you cast a pretty good shadow.”

Quiorith snorted a little but turned his head back toward the tree tops he could see, looking for movement below. They would be out quite a while, he presumed, and hopefully they wouldn’t be out for nothing. That remained to be seen though.

[Jay Kitten]

Yes, it was true... she had been in the area for quite some time now. The rumored sighting had been just two days ago, she had been eating a fish on the beach under the moonlight when a woman had spotted her. Apparently the woman, an old mild-mannered flower-stand owner had been seeking a rare plant, and had heard Elraishsa's rather beastly-sounding feasting from a humorously far distance. Unfortunately, though, the nature of it wasn't so funny.

The girl hadn't had a good meal in days, her migration pattern had been off and her chase of several different packs of animals hadn't allowed her to catch them through various means... Alot had happened in the last week alone, yet that did not even include the events of the months prior! And even now, as she sat, she was tired.

It was daytime. She had only woken up a few minutes ago, and already her stomach rumbled. Sleepy and bed-headed, she stepped out from the shelter she had set up, under the side of a long, pointed rock along the crest of a grassy gnoll.

Ironic, though, that she simply wasn't in the jungle whilst R'le came looking, though it was still very near to her. Elraishsa had been picking berries on the edge of the trees when she heard it. That sound, unforgettable to her.

Dragon wings.

With both hope and dread she looked to the sky, in time to catch a glimpse of a cloud hovering overhead. Where was it coming from?! With a lengthy frustrated thought, she made her way to her things, quickly rolling up her sleeping firs with the speed of a practiced nomad. The rest of her things were in a single pouch, except of course, her spear.

She was off in a minute, light feet carrying lithe body as the huntress sprang into her jungle. She was following the noise, if she couldn't see it, then she had no choice... But she had an incredibly good chance it was Quiorith. Her heart raced at the thought.

[Shoki]

“Hey, stop speeding up.” R’le turned his head a moment to frown at Quiorith, but he resumed his search as Quiorith slowed his speed. They were both a bit impatient, and it meant the Quiorith naturally wanted to move more. R’le himself was fidgeting as he looked down, which got the attention of Burn, and not in a good way. The Flame started to try and nibble on the back of the man’s tunic, which cued a brief scolding session and attempts to move the firelizard either off him altogether or into his lap. Burn elected for the former, more amiable at the lower speeds. R’le looked around quickly again, suddenly catching sight of something out of the corner of his eye.

“What was…” R’le trailed off a moment, looking back at where they had been flying.

Mine? Do you see her? This way? The Cloud turned back quickly before R’le could speak again.

“No. It was just my dang hair. I’m wound up enough I’m taking any movement as… well, never mind. Let’s keep on.” R’le continued looking down, but Quiorith took a lazy loop where he was, which lasted long enough that R’le looked up and raised an eyebrow.

Better safe then sorry. R’le twitched his mouth up and continued to look down for a while, grateful for a understanding dragon. Quiorith lent his eyes to the hunt, wanting to make sure they had the best chance of catching sight of what might be below the treetops.

[Jay Kitten]

Again, the sound of wings through the trees, and again she spotted another cloud against the sky. Why did he have to have the most frustrating hide possible?! She groaned and continued crashing through the jungle toward him. Even slow, a dragon was still faster than her in a jungle. It wasn't easy terrain. She tried calling his name, but noise never travels far when one is below the canopy. Her agile feet took her up another slope. She would never catch them at this rate. But her brain had a plan...

Mantling the slope quickly, she leapt onto the tree directly in front of her, scrambling up to the top. In an impressive display of balance, she gripped the tree with her knees and one hand, her spear in the other. As her eyes shined amid the sunlight, her head turned to see a cloud with a tail, barely outlined against the sky. All at once she summoned her might into her throwing arm, hurling it toward what she could only assume was Quiorith. Of course, she intended to miss, but in her position it was hard not to act with instinct... and her spear seemed to be going right for the cloud. She hoped it was an actual cloud, or that her spear wasn't going to travel high enough.

"R'le!" she shouted, waving her arms, trying to spot them amongst the clouds. Her tatoos alone were obvious to spot now, as her whole body stuck out against the green backdrop of the jungle canopy.

Momentarily, her legs slipped and she gasped, falling a couple feet before catching herself and giggling as she climbed back up. She knew he had spotted her at this point, he was a rider, though she still hadn't seen them completely.

[Shoki]

R’le got a quick feeling from Quiorith and instinctively held on. The Cloud rolled to the side, as a spear had been aimed at him. Burn, completely surprised by the action became rather noisy, chattering his displeasure. R’le and Quiorith didn’t pay attention though, they rounded quickly on the jungle. There! She slipped out of sight a moment later, but they both caught sight of Elraishsa before she slid down. Quiorith moved to hover over where they had seen her and waited for her to pop up again. Burn, not liking the whole affair, grabbed his usual seat, that is clinging to the Rider’s back. R’le was too busy grinning at the jungle to be noticing that though.

“Sorry it took so long! Give me a second to land the grumpy guy.”

I don’t like spears is all. Quiorith wasn’t terribly angry though. It was moving pretty slow when it got to his height. He just didn’t like the idea on principle. Still then R’le pointed to a spot that he wanted Quiorith to land, he went to very quickly get R’le down. It took only a little while, since Quiorith was landing in a very small area indeed, but Neither of them particularly wanted to go farther away to give Elraishsa more of a walk. The moment the Cloud had all four feet on the ground R’le slid off his back and reached for his pouch. He had, for the last…well quite a while, been making sure he had enough snacks on him on his daily flights to share, just in case. For today he had packed some extra anyway. In case this happened.

So he had snacks in hand and a goofy grin on his face by the time Elraishsa made it over to the landing site. Rather typical of him.

[Jay Kitten]

About the same time as he started circling for a landing, she decided it was best to meet him half way and slid down the trunk of the tree she had climbed, her bare feet planting into the soft soil at the base. Ignoring the dirt that got under her toenails, she shifted her weight so that her toes buried into the ground, giving her the push she needed to break into a quick sprint. Doing what she did best, she jumped, hopped, slid, and pushed her way through the brush all the way to the clearing that he had just arrived at. She wouldn't have picked it for landing, but she appreciated the effort for him to be close.

But to her surprise, he had already began dismounting his dragon when she finally trotted up to him, her smile matching his, looking truly different from her usual composure. But it wasn't all pleasantness, indeed she was a bit dirty, hungry, and of course, tired. In fact, if either Rider or Dragon were to even glance, they would say she looked no better than a dead wherry. But her excitement was obvious, as the second she got close, she leaned over and punched R'le square in the shoulder- and not lightly, either.

"THERE you are! Here! Right there..." Her lack of breath was pretty obvious, after all the dragon's wings had spurred her to run quite a long distance to attempt to catch up. And, she'd lost a spear in the process. But now that she actually had run into R'le again, she didn't even know what to say. It had been so long for both of them, she had almost completely fallen back into her antisocial ways.

"Doing... What?" she asked, it was a rather obtuse question. What had he been doing? What were they going to do? What was he doing now? Her mastery over her language- especially when short of breath- was as minimal as ever, and she sounded like she felt a bit awkward about the situation. But, there still existed a glimmer in here eye that was unmistakable, she was happy to see him.

[Shoki]

“Oof.” R’le wasn’t quite expecting the rough punch to his shoulder but he laughed a moment later. Looked like she was doing okay though, if she had the strength to punch him like that. He was in a pretty good mood now, half relieved, half glad she was here. Her usual disjointed phrases were just right for her, and it took him a while to settle down back into a wide grin rather than muffled chuckling.

“Well of course I am here. I heard that you might be around here so I came to see you. Well, not that it was you exactly, but it sounded like something you would do, so I headed over. I haven’t seen you in forever, so I was wondering where you had gotten off to. Worry wart was thinking something might have happened.”

Untrue. I just thought you might want to consider the possibility.[/color]

“Hey don’t rain on my parade Quiorith.” R’le was half ready to give the Cloud and ‘I told you so’ but both of them returned their attention to the jungle woman instead. “So where have you been? I’ve been keeping an eye out but you sure slipped through my notice. Of course when you look like that I coulda been looking at ya and mistaken you for the ground.” She looked, thoroughly dirty, like she had been running around looking for stuff to be coated in. Maybe that was the case? She didn’t look like she’d been hiding from him, but who knew what she could have been hiding from. It was the jungle after all, and she didn’t have a dragon that kept most of the riff raff away.

[Jay Kitten]

"Worried?" she questioned, and gave him another sock on the arm. She laughed a bit, mostly to herself, over that fact. Him, worry over her? He had nothing to worry about.

"It is you that needs worrying." She looked at him like a predatory dog would look at a defenseless kitten. He was much more out of his element in the jungle than she was, any step outside of that Weyr of his, and she could consider it dangerous. For a second, her face seemed solemn as the wind ruffled her waving locks, and she looked passed him into the distance.

When she looked back, she lightened up again. "But you have been well?" She snatched the small snacks he had brought, and ate hastily, figuring table manners were best left for a table. After eating her fill for the time being, she handed it back to him and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Giving a sigh, Elraishsa decided it was a good time to grasp his wrist then, and start to pull him off into the woods. She knew he'd protest, and the dragon would as well, so she took a moment to turn around and put one soil-covered finger to his lips, and shoot a reassuring glance to the big oaf of a Cloud.

It wasn't like she hadn't done this before, after all.

Bringing him into the brush, she started working her way through the trees. It didn't slow her down any, but behind her, R'le might have been taking some hits from the stray bush or large, leafy fern. Where she was taking him, that was a bit of a mystery, but that was definitely all of the fun. Never a boring person, Elraishsa was certain to show him something worthwhile. Or was she simply dragging him somewhere to catch him in a trap again? He would just have to find out.

[Shoki]

R’le chuckled as he got more bruises on his arm. Him, worried? About himself? She still had plenty to learn about him. He didn’t worry about himself. Not really. He raised an eyebrow as she looked seriously into the distance, but she returned her gaze back to him soon enough. Considering she looked like death warmed over, he was rather surprised the serious look didn’t seem amusing. Guess that was just one of the things she was good at.

“Of course. I hardly ever have reason to complain.” R’le grinned. It was ture. Even with all the crazy stuff he got involved in, he wasn’t the kind of person to regret things that he’d done, or that had happened. Life was a pretty cool place for him. He suddenly got dragged along, and he gave a mild protest before just going with it. That’s what he did.

Quiorith was about to protest but he watched Elraishsa give him some reassurance. He watched them go before just letting out a long breath and curling up where he sat. They better not forget about him or else he would have them both in trouble.

R’le was having a time ducking around plants as quick as the jungle woman did. He was at a disadvantage, since she was leading, so he wasn’t quite sure where she was going as they moved. He didn’t get banged around too much though, and looked generally pleased. He liked going out on adventures after all. He never would have met her in the first place if he didn’t.

[Jay Kitten]

It wasn't like him to protest, so she had a feeling he would just go with it, which he did. It was good to know that he hadn't changed much in the few months she had been away. She started to laugh lightly every time she took a jump he couldn't quite keep up with, he was a silly kind of person when he was being dragged. Or maybe her humor wasn't as advanced as civilized society, but either way she found the situation funny. But it wasn't long that they were in said situation.

After a couple minutes of running, the trees broke into a clearing again, and she let his hand go, panting lightly as her feet found flatter grass. "Ah... Running." Of course, it would be one of her biggest hobbies. What else was she going to do for fun. The reason she had brought him here was pretty obvious, however, as just as soon as she got to the middle of the clearing, she pointed at her spear, the front half of which was jutting out of a tree, one of three or four that dotted the clearer ground. It had broken, just as she had figured it would, but it was nice to know that for sure, so lucky her it landed in a less-dense part of the jungle. Of course, that wouldn't matter, she was very adept at direction and finding things in this habitat.

For a moment, she gave a sad look back to R'le as she pulled her weapon free and cradled it like a dead pet. All of her tools took hours to craft properly, so such a thing was of course a real setback in her day. However, Elraishsa wasn't too upset, as she had known it was bound to happen, and in doing so she had summoned R'le's attention, getting to meet up with him once more. The goofy man was just too good of a friend to pass up. Really, her only friend.

"Broken," she stated, sort of half-hopping on all fours toward him like some kind of ape, keeping her crouch once she was near and holding it upward to him. Near his feet was the other half, which she also picked up and gave to him.

"Take it. Do not need it." A gift, for whatever reason. If he was astute enough to know how these kinds of things worked, he would have one of his Weyr friends make it into a knife for him. The other "metal" (such a strange material) ones he used were inferior in her eyes. Though the one he had given her had served her well, until it dulled. She had tried chipping off bits of the edge until it was sharp again, but instead she only managed to chip the blade to the point it was unusable, got frustrated, and cast it off a mountain. So, unfortunately, she lacked a metal blade again. If R'le had seen it, he'd have known she had no understanding of metal whatsoever, nevertheless how to sharpen a metal blade...

About then, she perked up, and sniffed a couple times. When her nose didn't give her what she wanted, she instead went to use her eyes, making a few steps here or there, until she finally dashed west a small ways.

"Water!" she exclaimed, and grinned over her shoulder to the man, slipping down a small incline to splash into a small river. It was wide enough to be about waist-deep, and she waded out, cupping her hands into the water to take a few sips. It had been awhile since her waterskin went empty, so she reached behind her and undid the bindings, filling it up for later. Ahhh, the simple joys of life in the wild.

[Shoki]

R’le grinned a little more as his jungle friend got a kick out of his clumsiness. He wasn’t not afraid to laugh at himself or let someone else get a kick out of his own failings. He followed until they reached their destination, which was evident when they got there. It was a clearing, and Elraishsa’s spear was broken in the middle of it. He was released and observed the spear. It had broken, but he was pretty impressed with how well she had thrown it in the first place. He wasn’t too surprise that it was broken now, considering how high she had gotten it. R’le watched quietly while feeling a set of claws on his back. Oops, he had forgotten about Burn back there. Well, he wasn’t trying to eat his collar so – Oh wait, nope. The Flame was now chewing on the back of his shirt. He was displeased with him about that run through the jungle. R’le let Burn vent, leaving his tunic to its fate. He continued to watch Elraishsa deal with the spear. He wasn’t going to say anything, she wasn’t big on words, it seemed to him. She eventually turned her attention back to him, handing him the broken pieces of her spear. He looked surprised before smiling.

“Thanks. I appreciate it.” He examined the pieces for a moment, before observing Elraishsa. Uh, did he smell or something, I was pretty sure he wasn’t that bad. Oh, wait, she was looking around too. Must be something else. He tried to get a feel for what she was trying to get a feel for, but as she dashed off, he figured he would see in a second. He followed until she found what she had been looking for, a river. He grinned and watched her go to splash around. He followed to go down, pulling his boots off to get his feet wet. Felt cold, but that was good. He felt the back of his shirt being released and a Flame colored head peer out to look at the water. Maybe he wanted to wet his throat after chewing on his shirt. R’le was thinking a little bit as he watched her enjoy the water. So he spoke up, since he wasn’t much for keeping quiet if he really wanted to talk.

“Are you going to stay around here?” Keeping track of her had, as they had both seen, been a little problematic. His kinda wanted to see if she would be staying in one place for a bit.