Something Left Behind

Of course, the hyena who now traversed the monochrome forest paths between her home and the village of the moon had no intentions of harming anyone there.

Her best friend on this entire plane was adopted and raised in the little silk-making settlement. Harming it was the furthest thing from her little beast mind.

It just so happened that she was wandering the forests looking for something to hunt. It wasn't an unusual occurrence. Goat milk and goat cheese and goat goat only went so far in nourishing her before she had to assault some innocent woodland creature. Well, that and hunting was simply more fun.

But what drew her further towards the village of the moon was an odd scent that she felt compelled to follow.

It reminded her of herself in an odd way... some infernal tribe of beasts of one kind of another. She felt as though she should find its source. Being a hyena without a clan, she'd rather desperately been searching for anyone willing to fulfill her needs as a social creature for company and dominance.

This seemed promising, however. Maybe they were creatures like her? The thought brought excitement to her very soul. Sure, the motley array of humans she'd managed to consider her "clan" were nice and all, but she'd appreciate having a real opportunity to socialize again.

[ EXP: 264 || +1 TEXP (2nd thread) ]

Iskra paused suddenly, having picked up the scent of something else in the area. It was faint and cautious, yes, but still there, and she recognized the scent of a human out of all the other scents in the world.

Knowing this, however, she elected not to talk. Rather, she wished to know what kind of human it was before she decided to act. It was definitely a male. One could tell such things by scent alone. Women tended to smell more like... onions, for lack of a word to describe that sort of smell.

Taking a detour on the scent she was currently following, she began to walk towards the hidden assassin, her nose to the ground inquisitively. She couldn't be sure that her presence would intimidate him either. She couldn't smell the difference between a human who knew how to use magic and a human who could not, unless they had just used magic to nuke something, of course.

Then again, she wasn't sure how she would react to something like a human in the middle of these woods. She didn't think she should eat him, since there was a chance that he could be from Village of the Moon, but she did have a powerful hunger and if there were actually some more of her kind out here, then that would diminish her need for human friends.

[ EXP: 252 || +1 TEXP (1st post) ]

The smells became more interesting as Iskra got closer to the place where the young assassin had been sitting. For one, she smelled a bit of anxiety. Fear was a scent that even humans could pick up in high enough concentrations, though they might not be aware that the scent they detected was exactly that. It was a pleasant sort of scent, coppery like blood, and had a tendency to make fleeing prey easier to track.

Perhaps she might have figured out later rather than sooner that the stranger had decided to hide in a tree, but the mystery was solved for her when he called down.

Iskra sat, her blue eyes trailing slowly up the tree until she discerned the milky flesh of her quarry. For a moment, she smiled. She was beginning to develop tastes in humans, and he wasn't bad looking.

Ponderously, she walked over to the tree, not answering his question at first. Her entire manner appeared strangely thoughtful for a beast, her brows furrowed on her head and her steps careful.

At length, the large hyena looked up at the base of the branch that the human sat on, and with a single leap and a gust of cold wind, placed herself at the base of the branch he sat on.

After pulling herself up briefly, she looked down at the human and tilted her head to the side at the human, a certain wistfulness in her eyes like that of hunger.

And then she bit through the branch with one clean snap.

Not to say that she could fit the entire thing in her mouth, but the force of her jaws coming together with a white flash was sufficient to break through the wood.

[ EXP: 317 || +1 TEXP (1st post) ]

Iskra sat in the tree, looking at the silly person.

And in response, she made an oddly, though ominously human noise.

Heh... heh... heh...

...or at least it started off sounding human. It rapidly escalated as the creature began to walk forward, laughing aloud in a weird, shrill, shrieking treble.

Her slow movements gave way to a rushdown, and if he couldn't avoid her surprising speed, she'd knock him down with her superior strength, for she was stronger than the average demon.

And if circumstances conspired to have him on his back, relatively helpless against the malign effects of her fangs, should she choose to use them, she would begin shrinking.

It would be an odd process, the way her flesh would shift until it was a human visage looking down on him and a woman's body atop his, her eyes having never changed and her hair the only evidence of her former coat. It was white and spotted and moved slightly with the momentum of the transformation.

"Bones are delicious. Better tell me how else you're useful."

[ EXP: 213 ]

Iskra looked down on the man, her brows furrowed. The first part was pretty okay, but the second part bothered her a bit. "Civilized... beings?" A confused look came over her visage. "The hell off of you?"

For a few moments, she didn't say anything at all, primarily because the last sentence made it sound like he was trying to intimidate her. She knew a few spells that she could establish her dominance with, and she wasn't sure which one to use. There was the classic "turn him into a girl", but it might be overkill for the moment. She didn't want to scare him away. There was the "turn him into a goat" option as well, but she didn't want to tempt herself with a good meal and conversing with a goat was pretty difficult, not because of the language barrier, but because they tended to freak out so easily.

She could cast a frost spell on him just to let him know she meant business, but that would be a direct attack and probably provoke aggression when she really did just want to talk. Besides, he was, as they say, "cute". She didn't want to bring him to any permanent harm.

Slowly, in her oddly ponderous way that persisted even through the changing of her form, she would lean down until their cheeks touched and her mouth was near his ear.

"Very well then," she whispered. "You're very brave. I like that. I'd be happy if you could squeeze me into that tightness, human. I'd be very happy." Her tongue flicked out to lick his ear before she continued in a low growl. "Kuum nagu päike; märjad nagu vihm"

The words didn't have any inherit meaning in the standard language, but in reality she was projecting her spiritual energy onto him in the form of pain that she'd absorbed from numberless spirit-bearing prey in the past. Should it affect him, he would soon feel all the sensations that accompanied having ones body eaten alive by a pack of ninety starving hyenas, though it would occur in great bursts of agony every few moments.

With that, she'd move herself backwards off of the man's body, allowing him to stand to his feet or move freely if he wanted. "What do you know about Mare Maris?"

[ EXP: 437 || +1 TEXP (1st post) ]

Iskra found herself little surprised by the sudden show of the other's breakfast. The spirit did little more than seat herself on a mossy log and politely wait for him to finish vomiting. As a hyena, she wasn't grossed out in the slightest. In her days as a beast, she might have ripped open a stomach and eaten the contents straight from the source. It was little more to her than watching the juices ooze out of a roasting fowl.

"You're welcome." Her voice was passive, as though nothing unusual or sinister were transpiring at all. "I don't want you to kill anyone. In fact, you won't have to put yourself in much danger at all." A toothy grin slid across the woman's face. "It will be like a vacation, my friend. All expense paid... rather, I will pay you for information about the army there. A young man not unlike yourself attacked me there, I suspect because of my race." She held her arms wide. "I can't help what I am, but they can help being prejudiced, don't you think? There's no other alternative."

"So will you do me this small favor?" There was an intensity in her blue eyes as she leaned forwards, propping her elbows up on her knees. "I want to know everything you can find out about their defenses. Do they train their men? What are they equipped with? What are their numbers and quality of armor? These answers will please me."

He looked like he may become sick again, and it occurred to the demon that the human probably knew to respect her now. Rather, she thought that he wouldn't be in the best shape to continue if the poisonous influence of her magic continued to act on him. "If you agree, I can fix you. Come now. Bring your neck over here."

[ EXP: 347 ]

Iskra didn't hesitate once his throat was in range. She simply reached out, pulled it right up to her mouth, and licked it once, releasing him immediately afterwards.

Now she was aware that humans sometimes viewed the "neck lick" as a bit of a lewd gesture, but she never really let it bother her on issues of practicality like this. Namely, her tongue left a thin coat of saliva on his flesh, a coat that seemed alive and moving and glowed a very faint blue. The liquid would sink past the skin and into the large bloodstream, traveling throughout his body and taking with it a healing power and a slight pleasurable feeling that would destroy the pain she'd inflicted earlier.

"It's settled then." The woman's smile became somewhat more benevolent. After all, she had to respect him now that they were in an employer-employee relationship, and he was sort of handsome in that weird, human kind of way.

"Do you have any further questions before I leave you to do your thing?"

[ EXP: 204 || +1 TEXP (1st post) ]

It was another incident that induced the woman to furrow her brows. A lot of things about dealing with humans was complicated, and when they talked that fast, the confusion only compounded. She'd learned, however, to just slowly go through these things mentally, reducing them to a single string of information and thoughts, but the process constituted a bottleneck in her brain.

So she was quiet for a moment, looking as though she were deep in thought until finally she spoke.

"I want it as soon as you find out something interesting," she began, somewhat vaguely, though she assumed he would know what she meant by interesting. Her tone was very polite, with a slight hint of friendliness, which contrasted her words at points. "I don't need proof. If you are wrong, I will find you by your scent and eat you. I would prefer if we met in my estate in the eastern woods close to Medius. If you ask any random villagers in that segment of the woods, they will be able to point you towards me. I'm somewhat famous there. If there are other operatives, I do not know them. I have no associates in Mare Maris, which is why I have so little information. If I do acquire one, however, I will give you a passcode that you can know them by next time we meet. I'd prefer if you were discreet. When we start the war, there will be plenty of bloodshed. You can participate then, if it's your thing. Yes, I am taking over Mare Maris. Most of the men will be slaughtered or enslaved, and most of the women of childbearing age will be used for that purpose. If you wish for your friends to avoid that fate, feel free to warn them. Most people are to me as you humans consider beasts and demons: useful things to be used or pests to be killed. Friends and friends of friends are different."

She breathed a long sigh, as though afraid that her answers might have made her appear incompetent if she didn't exercise absolute vigilance over what she said. "Are there any more questions, friend?"

[ EXP: 404 || +1 TEXP (5th post) ]

The man went so very fast. Her brows furrowed again. More time passed.

At length she responded that she wasn't sure if she'd have any way of knowing if he was in trouble, as Mare Maris was very far from her usual course. Perhaps if he befriended a rat oni or a crow one or something small and mobile, then things would go easier for him as he'd have someone to tell her if he needed help.

Then there were more questions. She felt like a man who, having fell out of a boat, struggled to keep his head above the figurative waves. And the waves were his questions.

So she answered again that he could ask whatever he felt like. After all, there were no harm in questions. She didn't like keeping people in the dark.

For a moment, she simply stared at the extended hand before she remembered what it was for. A human greeting ceremony... like sniffing genitals, but with hands instead of noses and posteriors. With a grin of relief that the questions were over for now, she vigorously shook his hand, once again advertising her unusual strength, even for a demon.

"My name is Iskra. I'm a hyena from an exiled clan. They're all deceased, but it's my ambition to make a new family and to make a safe haven so my new blood and legacy doesn't meet the same fate."

A mission statement with a greeting seemed proper. "I'm famous around these regions for my brothel. If you plan to buy some time on your stop by, I could save you a virgin. It's the least I could do."

[ EXP: 301 ]