Extra Credit Work [75.07.18] (Dalonia)

[Shoki]

Lan had left his considerable menagerie at home. That is, Syne was safely put away in his cage, Ethilask in her den, and Arc was sleeping on his bed. Each one he had carefully seen to, fed and generally made sure that they would be content where they were until he had time to come back. He still had the thick glove over his right hand, as he had neglected to take it off again. He was walking down the halls of the inner caverns with one destination in mind. Rather, he was trying to find Dalonia.

Generally he didn’t mind the Crimson Wherhandler as others might. Sure, she was, perhaps a touch quick to fly off the handle but he was in this to become a guard for Rainbow Mists, not to take it easy. His initial fear of her had worn off, but he still didn’t seek her out. Stuttering fool and all that in general conversation. Still he was not going to let that stop him tonight. With a little bit of searching he had found where she was going to be patrolling and decided the best course of action was to talk to her then. Before lessons, and he likely wouldn’t finish what he was saying before getting into lesson time. After lessons, she would probably be sick enough of them that she wouldn’t care what he was saying. Trying to get to Dalonia when she was in her off time just… something about that freaked him out. So here he was, trying to interrupt her shift. So much fun.

As he rounded a corner he thought he caught sight of a Crimson Wher, which had him stop. Trained or know, he wasn’t going to mess with that.

“Dalonia? I w-wanted to t-talk to you.” Stupid stuttering.

[Cait]

It was Dalosk that sensed the presence of one of the new handlers and with a disgruntled thought, alerted his handler. Had Lan been an unknown things might have happened very differently. As it was, however, Dalonia simply sighed and turned stepped out from around the Crimson as Lan began to stutter. She was going to have to do something about that. More than once she'd come across him talking just fine but whenever he tried to talk to her he tripped over his own tongue. Sure she wasn't the cuddliest of wherhandlers but she didn't think she was that intimidating.
"C'mere boy, stop lurking about. What do you want?"

For a moment she wondered if something might be wrong with his wher; the black-gray tended to be a bit dramatic at times. In fact, quite a few of Dalosk's spawn tended to be problmatic but then she wasn't too keen on the creatures in the first place, or that's what she would claim. What she didn't realize was that somewhere along the line she'd begun to take her job seriously and had grown attached to every last one of her brats and their whers. She even had a fondness for that thrice cursed hellion, Misk.

[Shoki]

Lan stepped forward, taking a mental note of Dalosk’s mood before returning his attention to the Wherhandler. He didn’t really think he could lurk effectively. He wasn’t any good at it, and far too tall. He understood what she meant though. Dalonia wasn’t going to beat around the bush, so neither would he. He wasn’t much for that anyway, not with her. He’d rather say what he wanted quick, or as quick as he could manage. Sometimes he wished that he could be taking lessons from a guy.

“I w-wanted to know if there w-was some w-way to arrange extra c-combat lessons. I w-would like to get more t-time in for that.” He had debated the time management of it all, and he was confident he could handle it. A little hard work never hurt him. At least not usually. “If it’s c-convenient. “ He didn’t look down or away, though his voice sort of sounded like he should be. Looking like he wanted to flee wouldn’t help here. So he was standing up straight and looking at her properly. He was decidedly not noting, that again, she might not have been the most welcoming of people, but she was pretty. No faster way to increase the stuttering.

[Cait]

Dalonia really didn't know what she was going to do with this one. He could handle a weapon well enough but the stuttering and the awkwardness were definately going to get him into trouble at some point; trouble that his little black-grey wasn't going to be able to get him out of. She'd never admit to being worried about any of her charges of course but that didn't mean the emotion wasn't there; she just didn't know how to express it. When he finally spoke, she raised a brow as he stuttered through what he'd come to say.

She was amazed to be honest. From what she'd seen, most of the wherlings couldn't wait to get away from her but here was lanky Lan asking for more. She was mildly impressed, not that it showed. She looked him over slowly; shoulders squared, standing straight and looking directly at her. Good lad. Stepping closer, hands clasped behind her back she circled him slowly, playing on the fact that she tended to unnerve people when she moved about, silent as a feline on the prowl. "Don't get enough abuse durin' regular lessons, do ya?"

[Shoki]

Lan would normally equate Dalonia’s inspection of him to some manner of bird looking for prey, but quite frankly, this was entirely within the Wherhandler’s usual actions. He did think that made a good guard. Lan probably only made a good guard assuming the person he needed to talk to was a guy. That wasn’t strictly true, but he certainly felt that way sometimes. Still he tried to keep his eyes on Dalonia as she moved. Not that he wasn’t also listening. Most of the time he was trying to listen for Ethilask sneaking about, so he kept the habit, even if she wasn’t around right now. She asked him if he didn’t get enough punishment. Though he himself didn’t know it, he was very lacking in ability to stop from overreaching. There were a reason for the three tattooed lines on his legs. Still, he wasn’t aware of that.

“I w-would rather have more p-practice. I l-like normal lessons b-but maybe I c-can get better.” He wasn’t strictly being hard on himself, but he did feel that some of the other Wherlings had better foundations for combat. Sure he could do pretty good with some weapons, but that was when he was hunting with Syne, it was completely different. Right? “Of c-course I w-want to be doing both. If it c-can be arranged.” He didn’t look any more nervous than before. His words and appearance were completely different right now. He looked earnest and firm in his position. He sounded horrible though.