A/N- Wow, you guys can't see it because this is post-edit, but you know I was bad back then when I misspell the TITLE.
Anomaly
Episode 2- The journey begins
Corvin blew air out his nose, stomping his way into the forest while kicking away some random brush scattered on the forest floor.
His life had taken a turn, sure, and a radical one at that. The situation itself was not ideal as it was, but there was one single thing that was bugging him, and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't get the thought out of his head.
"Now just why in the world would she hug me like that?" he wondered to himself, idly stroking his chin as he walked. "All I said was that she didn't have to go to the city if she didn't want to. It was basically nothing, and out of nowhere she just... egh..."
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was the first girl he had ever seen in his entire life that wasn't related to him, and overall that made the fourth one, which most likely contributed to him being so flustered like that. Sure, she wasn't human, but she clearly had sapience, so it counted. It still didn't explain why she would just jump him like that out of the blue, an act that mystified him to no end.
Then again, supposedly he was in a new world. That meant new culture, new people, apparently new species... all of this meant that he'd probably have to disregard most prior knowledge of his previous customs, but seeing as he almost never left the house he used to live in, it probably wouldn't have to be that bad. Still...
He'd ask her later. Maybe it was a cultural thing, maybe it was a species thing, who knew? Besides, he had to focus on what his body-
Hidden eyes widened in shock and his mouth opened to let a yelp out as soon as he stepped in a puddle of water, a burning sensation felt on his foot. Losing his balance, he tumbled to the ground, turning to look at his right foot in horror.
In layman's terms, it was melting. He could see that his sneaker had dissolved and the flesh on his foot was sloughing off, bone clearly visible beyond the melting flesh. Usually one would scream in pain due to the fact this what was being described is a painful process, and he did feel pain, but oddly not as much as one would assume they would feel.
He still screamed, though, because seeing one's foot melting was still rather frightening.
Then, the screaming lowered in intensity, and Corvin looked in amazement as the foot stopped dissolving, and the black tendrils emerged from every exposed point on his foot, swirling around the wound and knitting the flesh together, and once the process was over the tendrils receded, his foot miraculously looking as if nothing happened. Felt fine, too.
"Oh, sweet," he breathed out, waving the foot while looking at it in wonder. "That is... that is just so cool."
Regeneration. Hm, well that was interesting. Corvin didn't know what was in that syringe, but whatever it was, it was strong if it just let him instantly regenerate wounds like that. He wondered what extent of the healing was, if it would regenerate entire limbs or not.
... Perhaps he'd save that experiment for later.
"Wait a second..." he looked closer at the foot. "Why did my shoe melt away?" He didn't know much about clothes, but he was pretty sure water didn't melt them.
As if activated by his words, the black tendrils came back and swirled around his foot once more, though now he saw his foot shift and morph until it looked exactly like his sneaker, the black tendrils once again receding.
Curious, he rubbed his sho- foot, feeling everything from the rubber soles to the cotton laces to the silky material on top. His wonder only increased when he realized that not only did his foot look exactly like his sneakers, they felt like it, too.
"So that's what happened!" He snapped his fingers, standing up and inspecting his body. "My clothes were destroyed, they just... my skin can change to look like clothes? I guess? Which means I'm... I'm..." his head drooped, hands flopping to his side when he just realized something very important. "Which means I'm technically completely naked... eh, whatever, not a problem."
He assumed it didn't really matter as long as no-one knew, so it wouldn't be an issue. But now he was really exited, holding his hands out in front of him as he contemplated the new developments.
"So," Corvin thought, "It's like shape-shifting, but... more so than that. If it was just changing the appearance of the surface it wouldn't feel like cloth, which means... something. Genetic manipulation...?" He had read enough science-fiction and medical books to know what he was talking about. "No, no way. There's no way it could be that powerful. Unless..."
He remembered, before he came here, when he... consumed, yeah that word... that man. He remembered the flood of information that went into him, among other things he couldn't make sense of. But, if his theory held true and whatever his body had become had some level of genetic manipulation, maybe, just maybe he had absorbed more than just memories from that man.
Stepping to the small puddle, he gazed upon his reflection in the water. Then, focusing on his appearance, he willed himself to change to look like the man he consumed.
It was easy (too easy in his opinion) as pie, apparently, because his body was instantly covered in the black tendrils, wisps of blue light sometimes being seen withing the tendrils, his body changing in almost no time he went from being Corvin to being the person who had tried to stab him, clothes and everything. Even his height changed.
He marveled at the reflection, switching from his form to the man's over and over again, lightly laughing as he did so until he settled on his form. "Man, that's gonna be useful," he noted, once again focusing on his hands. "Alright, dad, what else you got for me?"
"Claws..."
Corvin's head whipped around to look behind him, too fast to be natural, but saw nothing. He looked around, trying to find where that voice came from, but didn't see anyone.
"Hands... focus..."
"Who's there?" He realized the voice was coming from his own head, and tried to get some response from the foreign voice he heard. Yet the voice said no more and, deciding he had nothing better to do, focused intently on his hands. "Claws, huh..."
Black tendril swirled around his arms, and once again his eyes widened in horror once they disappeared, shocked to find his arms had been replaced by arm-shaped, twirled masses of black tendrils, blue bio-luminescence seeping out from somewhere withing, his fingers having been replaced by four long, four-foot, silvery blades.
Panicked, he fell to the ground once again, scrambling against the nearest tree in a vain attempt to crawl away from his own arms, breathing heavily as he stared at his arms.
He noted his panicked look in the reflection of the claws, sunlight reflecting off the blades, and rose, attempting to curl the claws. Amazingly, they did curl inwards, however slightly.
"They feel like fingers," he muttered to himself, turning the "hand" back and forth. "But they look like metal. but, but they curled, they can't- it's organic, there's no way it's actually metal."
To prove his point, he put one index claw against the other and dragged it across the surface swiftly, just to prove his point. However, to his dismay, spark flew off when he did this, the sparks falling to the ground while he stared open-mouthed at the claws in wonder.
"So, they are metal. Or something resembling metal, hm." He looked back at the tree, and idea coming to mind as he raised the claw. "I wonder if..."
He slashed downwards, cutting through the tree. And to his surprise, he felt barely any resistance as the claws cut cleanly through the wood. Whistling lowly, he tapped the tree, and found it tilting backwards and falling to the ground, a cleanly-cut stump looking back at him.
"Well." He looked back at the claws, willing them to turn back. And within a second of swirling tendrils, they were back to normal hands covered by the sleeves of his hoodie. "I can just do that now apparently." He grinned, flexing his fingers. "So, what else have I got here?"
After a half-hour of experimenting with his arms, that strange voice sometimes saying a few words to help, he found he could turn his arms into a large array or weaponry. Large blade, a whip, even a shield of all things... and much, much more. It seemed too good to be true.
And it was, because, for whatever reason, water was like acid him now. This had the effect of giving him a bad case of hydrophobia, but he could work around it. Hopefully. With the makeshift campsite in sight, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, quietly contemplating the events of the last half-hour.
"Am I even human anymore?" he somberly thought. "I don't think so. Humans can't do the things I do. Humans don't have my speed or strength. Humans can't regenerate wounds like I can. Humans can't change form on a whim. Humans... humans can't consume other humans like that."
He didn't feel the slightest bit upset for killing that man. After everything that had happened in his home, the concept of death grew numb to him, plus it wasn't as if he was in full control of his faculties at the time. But being a cannibal still put him off.
Hmph. No, he couldn't call it cannibalism. He surely wasn't human anymore.
But, it mattered little to him. What was done is done, and the important thing was that he was alive.
Corvin walked back into camp, but found that it was empty. Frowning, he shouted, "Flora! Hey, Flora! Where is she?"
Suddenly, he heard a rustling in a tree, and walked under the leaves, looking up. "…Flora?" He hesitantly asked.
"Not quite," he heard a menacing masculine voice say. "NOW DIE, HUMAN!"
And then someone who wasn't Flora leaped from the tree, falling towards Corvin with a wood spear in hand, stone spearhead aimed at his face.
Only... he was moving slow. Really, really slow. So slow that it didn't even look like he was falling, only floating. And his mouth was moving in slow motion, too. Corvin even went to the effort of scratching his head in confusion, but at least it gave him time to look at who was trying to kill him.
It was another keidran, he assumed, though this one was a wolf, with light-brown fur. And a lot more angry-looking than he was used to. "Did my reflexes seriously get kicked up this high?" He couldn't help but gleefully laugh in his own head at the absurdity of the situation as the spear crawled it's way closer to his face. "Ah-hah-hah-hah! Ah man, this is too good."
He didn't want to kill the wolf, so he applied as much minimum force as possible, flicked the wolf in his chest, which caused the wolf to let a gasp of air out as his body flew back and crashed into the tree. Seeing the spear slowly spinning in the air, Corvin watched in fascination for about a second before grabbing it, pointing it directly in the wolf's face.
The wolf growled at him, but he held back as Corvin inched the spear forwards. "Do you mind not doing that?" The wolf growled at him some more, but held firm. "Why did you just try to kill me?"
"How did this human move that fast?" the wolf thought, staring daggers at the hooded face. "Nobody can possibly move that fast." What shocked him more was how calm the human appeared now. He couldn't see his eyes, but he could tell just from his posture he wasn't fazed in the slightest. "Why would I answer anything for you, human?" he growled.
"You're very partial to growling, aren't you?" Corvin noted, though his answer to that question was just more growling. "Yeah, I don't know what I expected, let's start over. What's your name?"
"Sythe," The wolf answered with narrowing eyes.
"Well, Sythe, that wasn't so hard, was it? Now, next question: Why are you here?"
"To get back Flora," was Sythe's simple answer. Although he'd be lying if he said he wasn't unnerved by the way the human just froze so unnaturally.
"Why." It wasn't a question, and he could tell. "Because we have an arranged marriage, you see our clans…"
When "arranged marriage" was said, Corvin had heard enough. He'd said it before, and he'd say it again that he knew nothing of the culture of this world, and he obviously wasn't the same as Flora. He did mention something about clans, but he could care less. Arranged marriage wasn't really something he ever agreed with, and she sure didn't look like she was going to an arranged marriage when he found her.
The thing was, this Sythe person, he tried to kill him. He failed miserably, but he still tried, and that's what mattered. If Flora came back to a dead body, it could easily be explained away as self defense. Or, even better, he could just consume Sythe. Knowledge of this world that he desperately needed and removing the body sounded like nothing but positives to Corvin's ears.
So, not knowing that the shadows of his own hood started to cast an ominous red light as soon as "arranged marriage" was uttered, he raised the spear higher. "I've heard enough. You can die now."
And then he thrust downwards.
Blowing air out of her nose, Flora looked down as she trudged her way back to camp.
She just wanted to think, and usually walking helped with that. But no matter how much she thought, she just couldn't figure out the subject that was on her mind.
And that was Corvin.
He didn't exactly have the most... glamorous of introductions, having smacked face-first into a tree. She couldn't even figure out why he did that, the possibility of him just running too fast crossed her mind, but that couldn't be it. Nobody was foolish enough to do something like that, right?
Barring that, there was just so much that was strange about him. His clothes, for one. She'd never seen anything resembling them before. They didn't look regal in any way, and he didn't sound at all like he was regal, either, so it was strange to be sure. Then again, she didn't exactly travel, maybe it was common from whenever he came from. It looked tight-fitting yet loose enough to be comfortable in, and he looked rather thin, so maybe he was a runner of some sort? That'd explain the whole tree thing, she guessed.
The worse part was the hood, the shadows and the way it covered so much of his face just plainly creeped her out. And it so all she knew about how he looked was a pointed chin. It's not like she wouldn't mind seeing what the rest of his face looked like.
She blushed, shaking those thoughts from her head. She didn't really trust him, or any human considering her recent events, really. The fact he kept acting like he didn't even know what she was made her even more suspicious, almost like he didn't know keidran were common language. Ooh, but then he kept trying to walk off by his own like saving her was no big deal! And she didn't even know if he was being serious or he was just doing that to dissuade her suspicion of him!
And then... and then he gave her that smile when he said his name. That completely earnest smile that somehow lightened her heart. It kind of looked like he was forcing it, but she didn't know, maybe he wasn't doing it on purpose? He was a very confusing human, the most confusing she had ever met.
At least the camp was in sight, and Corvin was back. Holding a spear over her ex-fiance, nothing new th...
... Well this just raised even more questions!
"I've heard enough. You can die now." Her eyes widened when she heard that, and when he twisted his wrist in order to thrust downwards, she knew he was serious.
She couldn't let him hurt Sythe, he hadn't done anything wrong!... She was pretty sure she hadn't done anything wrong...! Well killing was wrong so she had to stop this anyways!
"STOP!"
It was the only thing she could think of doing, but at least it worked. The spearhead a centimeter away from Sythe's eye, and Corvin's head turned upwards, the black shadows his his hood staring back at her. "What are you doing?" She asked Corvin, her eyebrow's creasing as she attempted her best to glare through the shadows.
Intimidation usually worked in this situations, right? At least that was what she was told.
"Uh… murdering Sythe?" She was shocked at the bluntness of her statement, and started to stomp towards him, frown ever increasing. "I mean, he jumped out of the tree with a spear and tried to spear me and…"
"And that gives you a reason to murder him?" She growled, standing an inch away from him.
To her relief he actually did fidget a bit, a sure sign of her winning. "Uh… yes?"
BONK!
She did what any good person would do and curled her hand into a fist, raising it above his head and bringing it down, hitting the top of his head and him to cry out in pain, cradling his hood while the spear clattered to the ground. "OW! What the- what was that for!?" He shouted, rubbing the top of his head.
There, that should hopefully save Sythe. He didn't look like he wanted to kill him, so the situation was good for now. So, looking sweetly at him, she asked, "Would you just let me have a word with him?"
It's not like the bonk she did hurt or anything, but he assumed she had put some kind of effort behind it, so he acted out getting hurt. Plus, Flora looked kind of cute when she was angry, and he'd hate to replace that look with disappointment if he acted like nothing happened.
... Anyways, she was talking to Sythe now, with he himself leaning against the tree the wold had been cowering against mere moments ago. He usually have conniptions about her talking to someone who had just tried to kill him, but what was Sythe gonna do when the person who almost killed him was about three feet away.
Though... he did wish he understood the language they were speaking, because the argument the two were having seemed interesting. He wanted details, dammit. But at least he knew that Flora was apparently multi-lingual. That was nice, he supposed. Usually someone with a skill like that could be very intelligent.
And oh, how he admired a trait like that.
("Sythe, what are you doing?") She was tired, and tiredness made her cranky sometimes. And the someone trying to kill the person who had saved her not hours before didn't really sit well with her. Even if it did look like he had everything under control. But now Corvin just looked bored, having decided that he'd lose track of the conversation before it would even start and just leaned against the tree, watching the two of them.
("Rescuing you from that human! Now come on, we need to…")
("I don't need rescuing!") she argued, clenching her fist. ("I'm staying with the human.")
There, she said it. She didn't want to say it to Sythe of all people, the insensitive jerk that he was, but she said it.
A frustrated look came across Sythe's face, and he threw his arms up to emphasize this. ("What!? Why!?") He yelled, glaring between herself and Corvin, who had started to rock on his feet, whistling a tune while he looked off in random directions.
Oh no, now she'd have to explain? ("This human has shown more compassion than the people that arranged our marriage!") Corvin actually did look when she pointed at him. ("He saved me from a hunter, didn't kill me or capture me and turn me into a slave, and has overall been really nice to me! You've never done any of that!") she exclaimed every word boldly, and Flora was really glad that Corvin couldn't understand a thing they were saying, otherwise she'd throw a fit if he knew she was showering him in complements. But at least her point was made.
Sythe piped up, ("Flora, he could be alluding you! He could be a Templar! You should have seen how fast he moved! No-one can possibly move that fast without magical aid!")
That couldn't possibly be true, he didn't even know what a keidran was some hours ago. (" I… I just know, okay? And I'm grown up. I can handle myself, Sythe. Besides, you don't even want this marriage… and I don't know how Corvin over-powered you, but he was pretty close to killing you, and if you want, I can sick him on you.") Aaaand, finish it with a thinly-veiled threat. Great, Flora, you nailed it, because Sythe backed down finally.
Taking a deep breath, Sythe sighed, looking her in the eye. ("Fine, Flora. You can travel with him. I leave this up to you… I'll find something to say to the council" Sythe muttered.
"Thanks, Sythe," she said, nodding. There's no way she was going to travel with Sythe, no possible way. It's not her fault he was so easy to antagonize, and she got the gist of him not liking her during their little trip before the attack.
And she really, really did not want to marry him. At all. So the choice between the person she didn't really like and someone who saved her for reasons that may-or-may-not be pure was pretty obvious.
("Yeah, whatever. I'll be leaving now. But have Corvin punch me, I gotta make it look like I didn't go down without a fight.")
"Any day now," Corvin grumbled.
She flashed him a grin. "Heh, we're done, Corvin, he just wants you to punch him so it looks like you two fought."
"But we did fight. It was pathetic, but it was a fight."
"Just punch me, Corvin. And don't hold back." Sythe growled, puffing his chest out and closing his eyes in preparation.
Corvin tilted his head back in a wincing gesture, hissing in mock pain while he walked up to Sythe and reared his fist. "Don't hold back, huh? Aw, big mistake…"
He hit Sythe right in the cheek, a little harder than Flora would have like, and Sythe hit the ground, gasping in pain. Shakily, he got up, welt appearing on his cheek. So, giving one last glare to Corvin, who politely waved back in response, Sythe picked his spear up, running back into the forest.
Flora and Corvin both sighed, the synchronous act causing both to look at each other. Flora looked away while Corvin chuckled, then looked up at the sky.
"Eh... it's getting dark. I don't feel like walking in the dark. Wanna just camp out here?" Flora, without looking back, nodded in response. "Great, I'll get some wood for a fire. You, uh... just hang tight, I guess."
"'Don't hold back'... pfft, if Flora wasn't standing right there I wouldn't have held back..." Corvin internally grumbled, staring at the flames of the fire while he sat on the ground, one hand resting on knee while Flora curled up in the blanket on the other side of the fire. At least making the fire didn't take much work, firewood was easy to gather when you could rip trees apart with your bare hands and rub sticks together at blinding speeds.
Though, he noticed Flora was paying more attention to the fire, actively avoiding his gaze. Or whatever it is she assumed was under his hood, but there was absolutely no way he was putting the hood down. It took him a year just to trust the maid enough for him to let his hood down. Still, she looked uncomfortable, maybe he'd try to open up with a conversation. That always worked in books, after all.
"Sooo..." he drawled out, absent-mindedly tapping his knee. "Keidran, huh? So, um, are there only tiger and wolf variations?" Might as well kill two birds with one stone.
She finally looked up at him, eyes narrowed but wide at the same time... so pretty normal, he guessed. "You're serious?" she asked in an incredulous tone. "Really? This isn't some trick to bring me back? Anything like that?"
"I don't even know where 'back' is, Flora. So seriously, keidran. What's their deal?" he asked with a curious tone. He was interested in the "bring me back" comment she made, but he wouldn't press her.
She sighed, holding her hand up. "Well, to answer your question, no, there's not just tiger and wolf variations. There's dogs and foxes of various breeds, too, as well as hybrid species."
"Hybrid species?"
"They're rare, and you mostly just find them in slavery groups. People selectively bred for... well, reasons."
The word "slavery" immediately sent alarm bells off in Corvin's mind, who held a hand up to stop her. "Back up a bit, slavery?"
She nodded. "Mostly it's the humans who enslave keidran, usually for labor or worse, though there are a few wolf slavery rings with human slaves. That one's just mostly out of spite, though."
That certainly gave him something to think about. He wasn't one to endorse human slavery, that was definite. He wouldn't get all chivalrous and start saying things and start saying things like "the selling of lives is completely immoral!" or anything like that, but... well, he agreed with people who said things like that. He just didn't feel like wording it like that. But it did shed light on one thing.
"So, when you asked if I was going to 'bring you back'...?"
She quickly nodded, looking at the fire again.
Well, damn. How was he supposed to know it'd get this complicated this fast!? He didn't mean to drag up any bad memories or anything, he just...
He honestly felt like testing that limb theory out on himself right about now, he felt awful for bringing something like that up. Evidently, Flora must have seen some sign of what he was feeling, because she was looking back at him again.
"It wasn't that bad..." she said rather sheepishly. "My owners were nice, treated me like family, even. And after-"
"Stop," Corvin interrupted, holding a hand up. He could tell oh-so-clearly how she was reacting to this conversation, and it wasn't positive. He didn't want to dig her entire past up, not if it hurt her. Even though they were the wrong color, he couldn't bear to make eyes that looked just like Aya's that sad. "You don't have to go any further, your past is your own. You don't have to tell it if you don't want to."
She looked down again, lightly blushing under her fur. "... Thank you..." she whispered, trying her best to look away.
And he had so much more questions, too. Specifics and differences of culture between species, if there were any other species, how humans fit into this world, current affairs, the arranged marriage. The last one mostly, but he just had so many questions he needed answered if he was going to live in this world now.
But, he already went too far, even if it was by accident. He shouldn't have forced her to tell so much about herself like that, to a random stranger no less. He'd have to fix this somehow... and he knew just how!
"Hey, so..." he muttered, getting her attention again. "It doesn't feel right that I made you say all that, so I think I should do something about that."
She blushed even further, looking away while rubbing the back of her head. "No, no! It's fine, really, you don't have to-"
"Ah-ah-ah, I insist! It's the least I could do, after all that. So please, if you have any questions about me, feel free to ask." He wouldn't tell her everything of course, but if he felt it wouldn't cause a situation, he'd go for it. Besides, she looked almost relieved when he said that, and he could already see her eyes brightening up again. That must mean he did something good.
"Well, I do have a few questions, I guess..." she tilted her head, staring into his hood. "Why don't you know any of this stuff? It's pretty common knowledge, I'd think a human of all people would know these kind of things."
Corvin shook his head. "Not really. I grew up out in the boonies." She sent him a questioning look, so he elaborated. "I grew up in a house super deep in the woods with no outside contact with anyone. Never got any news or anything, didn't even know there were other sapient species until now," he explained. It wasn't technically a lie, just the truth mixed in with some false information.
"I see..." she nodded in understanding. "So, what about your clothes? I've never seen anything like them."
Okay, he could lie his way through this one. "Oh, they're custom made." In a Chinese sweatshop, maybe. "They just feel good, you know? Loose yet tight."
"I wouldn't know, what with fur and all," she muttered, then pointed at the hood. "What about the hood? Why does it cover your face like that?"
"Because I have paler skin than most and get sunburned really easily." He held up his pale hands as proof, Flora wincing when she saw just how pale they were and nodded in understanding. "Yeah, it, uh... it sucks. I didn't really go outside that often." Though he probably couldn't even get sunburnt anymore with regeneration.
"I can tell," she giggled, actually giggled, something that made Corvin both glare at her and smile a bit. "So why is it all blue?"
"I like the color."
She nodded. "So, it's nighttime. Maybe you could... take the hood off?"
"No," he answered flatly. "I mean, I'm not horrifically disfigured or anything like that, I'm just..." he murmured too lowly for Flora to hear, her feline ears perking up to try and hear him better.
"You're what?"
"Shy, I'm shy!" her incessant giggling didn't help him feel any better, so it was his turn to look away abashedly.
But she just wouldn't stop giggling, and it felt like it would explode into full-blown laughter any second. "You'd be shy too if I was the first boy you ever met outside your family!" he snapped, then gasped and clamped his hand over his mouth.
Now she was laughing, boisterously so, tears falling from her eyes as she laughed and pointed. "Y-you really were isolated, weren't you!?"
He sighed while she laughed on and on, but inwardly he didn't mind. He'd never seen her laugh before, and it was... well, it was adorable. The way her pointed teeth showed while her joyous laughter rang in Corvin's ears, the way it sounded so innocent, and that smile on her face.
Well, what was a little humiliation if he got to see that look?
"Alright, alright." Corvin waved her down, Flora wiping a final tear from her eye to focus on him. "Can we stop with the questions, I'm embarrassed enough as it is."
"One more, just one more." Corvin could tell there were still trace amounts of laughter in her, but nevertheless he nodded her on, her face taking a serious look. "Why did you run to me when I shouted for help?"
"Oh. Hmph..." he grunted, looking away. "Well, you sounded like you needed help, and desperately. I'm not about to let someone get hurt just because I couldn't be bothered to help."
"Even though I'm a keidran? Even though the person trying to hurt me was a human, like you?" she pressed.
Corvin shrugged. "It's wrong to discriminate, isn't it? You're a thinking creature, same as me, same as that guy, same as anyone. I'm not gonna let something like 'different species' get in the way of something like that," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "Though, that may just be the isolationism talking there. I don't have any real-world experience, to be honest. 'Sides, saved you, didn't I?"
"Crashed into a tree while you were at it," she remarked.
"Okay, fine, I admit that wasn't a high point in my life, but I still did it."
She stared at him for the longest time, shadows from the flames dancing across her form. Finally, she nodded, laying down on the ground. "I... I think I've heard enough. We should get some rest." She looked up at him briefly, then rested her head back on the ground. "Goodnight, Corvin."
"...Yeah, 'night," he whispered, watching her drift off to sleep, the sounds of the forest and the flickering of the fire being the only thing accompanying him now. He'd sleep too, but... honestly, he wasn't tired. He'd never felt more awake, and he'd been like this ever since he woke up in the forest. Come to think of it, he wasn't hungry or thirsty, either. He felt fine.
He shrugged. Probably whatever was done with his body. He still had questions about that, among the hundreds of others he had. But he'd take it one step at a time. After all, he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. He could afford to play it by ear for now.
Morning came, they packed up, they left. Their destination was still the town, but beyond that, Corvin didn't know.
But he hoped they got to town soon, because he couldn't help but notice the subtle winces Flora got every so-often during their walk. He'd have to get her something to eat when they got there.
"Do we really have to go to the human city?" she whined, looking up at Corvin. "They don't exactly treat keidran well there, you know."
He'd been walking rather casually, fingers interlaced behind his head, but he did look down just to address her. Their height difference was somewhat vast, Corvin himself being a clean six-foot while she was only five-four, but it wasn't anything to worry over.
"Well, we need supplies, so yeah. Speaking of which, Flora, here's the thing. I have no life goals whatsoever at this point in my life, so we're really just going wherever you want to go." Some goal in mind wouldn't hurt Corvin, but wandering aimlessly would. "So, where are we going? Location-wise."
She hummed in thought. "I don't know, Corvin. The only reason I was out here in the first place is because I was on my way to that arranged marriage."
"I've been meaning to ask, what was that about, anyways?"
She sighed, but continued anyways. "The tiger and wolf clans don't exactly get along. The whole marriage thing was supposed to just be something to improve relations between the two."
"Huh… so, do you want to go back with your own kind? To marry that guy and stop a war?"
"Not really. I don't like Sythe, and our clans have been in peace for years. There's no way we'll go to war. I'd rather just travel with you, but, well... what do you mean you don't have life goals?"
Did she really think he wouldn't notice that change in topic? He wouldn't say anything, but sheesh. "Yeah, the whole reason I'm even out here is because my house burned down."
Her eyes widened in shock. "Y-your house burned down!?" she gasped, mouth agape at him.
"Yeah, the darnedest thing, knock a candle over, then next thing you know I'm homeless." He stopped, holding his head as that startling revelation came to him. "Oh my gosh, I just realized I'm homeless."
He didn't know if that was a look of disbelief or shock on Flora's face, but he ignored it, electing to continue. "Anyway, a long time ago I wanted to open a clinic somewhere. Just, you know, help people? It was a dream of mine, just helping people without charging them to the best of my abilities. But now, it just... it just seems so out of reach, I'm not so sure anymore."
Flora would have asked Corvin to continue when he stopped, pointing ahead. She could see the human city ahead, housed and establishments dotting the land ahead. "Anyway, you said they don't treat keidran right here?" she nodded in response. "Well, wait here, then. I'll be back for you in a half-hour or so, okay?"
"'Kay."
And with that, Corvin walked into town, Flora choosing to climb a tree in wait. Plus she needed somewhere quiet to think.
Well, Corvin could tell that the technological level of the world he was in now was about medieval level, based on the homes and businesses he saw around him, speech mannerisms he heard from people he passed, clothes and weapons. The strange robes he saw some of the townspeople wear were a bit off-putting to Corvin, but he didn't really care that much.
What he did care about were the "magic shops" he kept passing. He waved it off as utter nonsense when he saw the first one, but after the sixth one he grew curious and actually did hang around one of the stalls, waiting for someone to come and buy one of those strange glowing blue crystals.
Well, someone did buy a couple of them. Then apparently he decided to test it out by destroying a target dummy near the stall by means of lighting it on fire. With the fire coming out of his hand.
It was a strange sight, seeing flames just materialize in someone's hand like that. And Corvin instantly despised it. After that night, he couldn't deal with magic anymore. It was too much emotional strain, and it took him a good bit of will to not just kill the man out of fright. But magic was a tangible force in this world, however. It grated him to no end to call something magic and see it be real, but it was real here. And yet even more questions to add onto the pile...
But barring that, he had gotten tents and other survival items using the few coins that were found in the knapsack, and a bright blue backpack to put it all in to boot. So that was one thing accomplished one task, at least. Now all he needed was to get Flora something. Oh, and some food, that was important.
It wasn't a priority, but he still felt bad about making her say all of that last night. He just, well, didn't really know what she liked. at all. So anything at this point was guesswork.
"I don't know, I could get her food. But food isn't exactly that meaningful, is it? Plus I'm already getting that. She's part feline, so she's got to have some feline instincts and therefor similar likes... so what the hell do cats like!?" He was running himself ragged with these questions, and still no answers.
He'd think about it later, right now he needed food, and every single food vendor happened to be out of food. Which was great, because he couldn't go back until he got the food. Asking around had just garnered him the answer of "go to the tavern" over and over again.
He didn't know why a tavern of all things would have food, but he was desperate, so to the tavern he went. And when he arrived, the first thing he noticed was the sign hanging over the entrance that proudly read "NO KEIDRAN ALLOWED".
"Well that's real nice," Corvin muttered as he walked into the tavern. It was packed, he'd say that much, patrons chatting away all around him. It made him uneasy, never having been in a crowd before, but he could cope.
At least he could until he was greeted by… a creature of some sort, with green hair. It was a girl, that much was obvious. Human, but with light brown/gray fur. He'd call her a keidran, but she had human and animal ears, so he'd just call her a creature for now.
"Hey! Welcome to our little tavern, what would you like?" She asked in a bubbly voice that was too much to bear.
"..." Maybe he could just skip the food, he was sure Flora would understand.
"Hey, guy? you okay?" She leaned forward, face an inch away from his as she tried to stare into the shadows under his hood. "Hey, that's pretty neat! How do you get your hood to do that!?"
He'd take any distraction as an excuse to get out of here right now, he didn't care what. His were answered when he heard a thump in the backroom, followed by someone grunting,"heh, stupid animal…", followed by more thumps.
Better than nothing, he'd take it. He pushed past the girl, making his way to the back room, poking his head to take a look. He saw two people: a red-haired man, and something else. A keidran? He looked like on, almost the same shade of fur as the creature from earlier, only he had these big ears. Impractically big, almost. That combined with his dumb blue cape and bucket helmet almost made Corvin snort.
The the red-haired man bringing down an axe on him kind of killed the mood. So Corvin decided to be a good samaritan and run next to the two.
Though, for him, actually putting effort in running made him look like a blur due to the fact he moved so fast. He was getting better, at least, at controlling direction whenever he did that. Corvin turned his head to see the axe inches away from the bucket helmet, so he merely reached his hand out while the other was lazily tucked in his hoodie pocket, grasping the handle and stopping it from hitting.
The... whatever's eyes widened, as well as the red-haired one's, yellow and green respectively. Their eyes followed the hand, resting on Corvin.
"So, am I interrupting something or...?" Corvin asked, nonchalantly wiggling the axe.
"Yeah, you're interrupting me killing the damn keidran," red-haired man spat, trying to wrench the axe from Corvin's hand, but he refused to let go.
"For the last time, I'm not a dirty keidran! I'm a basitin!" bucket-head argued, standing up and pointing the red-haired man, while at the same time looking at Corvin. "Look, you need to believe me, he started it, not me!"
"Okay," Corvin simply stated, pulling the axe out of the red-haired human's hands, then twirling it around and hitting him in the face with the flat end, causing him to comically spin around a few times and collapse to the ground, unconscious.
"Weird," Corvin thought, inspecting the axe while... hm. "Basitin?" he wondered, watching as bucket-head let a deep sigh out, staring at the unconscious man with a blank yet bored look. "That's what he said he was. So, a different species? And what's with the cape?" He saw his tail swishing impatiently, Corvin focusing his attention back on him. "Need something?"
"You're just going to trust my word? Like that?" he asked, looking up at him.
"Man, he's short. I'm pretty sure Flora might have him beat,"Corvin internally noted, then responded. "Well, you didn't even have your sword drawn." He gestured to the sword strapped to the basitin's waist, "so it's pretty telling that you were the victim."
Bucket-head seem to accept this, and nodded in understanding. "How did you do that so fast?" he asked.
"Uh… you know. Practice." All five minutes of it. "You wanna talk outside?" he asked.
"Sure," he nodded, pointing to the door leading outside, the two leaving the unconscious human behind.
"Yeah, so thanks again," thanked the basitin, Corvin shrugging.
"And again, you're welcome, mister…?"
"Just call me Keith," he said.
A little generic for Corvin's taste, but any name was better than none, he supposed. "Alright, Keith, so what are you doing out here?"
His eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure I can just tell you the reason I'm out here."
"You want my help or not?"
"I don't need your help."
"Really?" Corvin pointed back to the inn. "You realize that guy would have killed you back there, right? Now, I don't know why you're out here, and I don't really much care. But to be honest, I'm destination-challenged at the moment, so if you have something you are trying to do... well, I'm free is what I'm trying to say."
Keith scoffed. "You're that desperate?"
"Not really, but, well, I'd take it."
He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose while looking directly at him. "Fine," he said at last. "I owe you this much for saving my life, at least."
"I..." he began, looking about as serious as Corvin assumed was physically possible for him, "was on a quest for the Grand Templar."
Wind blew past the two, nothing being said until Corvin asked, "who?"
"The Grand Templar?" Corvin shook his head. "His name is Trace? Trace Legacy?" Another head shake. "Most powerful mage of his time? Ring any bells?"
"Nah."
Vein lines appeared on Keith's forehead, glaring into Corvin's hood. "Have you been living under a rock or something?"
"Something like that, yeah." Corvin supposed he'd have to keep going with this whole "lived in isolation" thing since it suited him so well. Once again, not a total lie. "I've just been living in the woods my entire life, I don't really know the current affairs. Or anything, matter of fact."
Keith blinked, shaking his head. "Great," he muttered, "of all the people to save me, and it's some idiot?"
"Hey now-"
"It doesn't even matter," he sighed. "Rumor has it he died, and without him to help me fix the political issues going on in my home, well... I'm out of luck."
"Well if that's all you mean, then I can solve your political problem!" Corvin said, throwing his arms open.
"Wha… you?" Keith questioned, crossing his arms. "What can you even do? Do you even have any experience in politics?"
"None whatsoever." Corvin answered truthfully.
"Then you can't... hm." He stroked his chin in thought, then pointed at Corvin. "Back in there, I saw you in the doorway; you were there, then next to us in no time. Not to mention you stopped that axe with barely any effort." He looked serious again, and Corvin could tell some gears were turning in his head. "You... you're strong, right?"
"Pretty strong, yeah." Corvin nodded in confirmation.
"Really? Because you sure don't look it." the basitin gestured to Corvin's arms, then legs. "These don't look like you've put much, if any, effort into training your muscles."
"Uh-oh, I didn't think of that." The truth was Corvin had never exercised a day in his life, and his body betrayed that lifestyle. He never really did do many strenuous activities, besides lifting a book or a instrument... or rather recently a chainsaw. He would have factored this in had he known about the shape-shifting earlier and would have attempted to make himself a more believable body, but Flora already knew what his body was shaped and he wasn't confident in his ability to lie that one off.
"So, are you a magic user?" Keith asked.
"No, I'm just naturally that fast." Yeah, sure. Naturally.
"But can you fight? How confident are you that you could win a fight against anyone?"
With his strength, Corvin was fairly confident. But he couldn't just blatantly say that, now could he? "Er, I guess?"
"I need to know, can you say with a hundred-percent assurance to me that you could win a fight against someone strong?"
"I mean, I'll go up to ninety-nine if it'll make you happy, but I have to ask. What does this have to do with politics?"
"Basitin politics are very complicated, I'll fill you in when we get there." He looked very unsure, but still determined. "Fine. You can come with me to help, but I warn you, I'm not responsible for whatever happens there."
"Who ever is?" Corvin chuckled, shrugging.
"Okay" Keith said, "I need to go and get some supplies. Meet me at the edge of town in five."
"Sounds good." Corvin waved Keith goodbye as he walked off, Corvin nodding to himself and walking in the other direction. "Alright, just one more thing to do..."
Corvin wasn't lying when he said he was destination-deprived... no, that wasn't the word he used. Lacking? No, challenged, destination-challenged is what he said. Flora looked like she was unsure, and he didn't even know what the land looked like. Plus, Keith seemed... alright, was a word Corvin would use. Put together right, if one were to go off by first impressions. He sure did sigh a lot, though, something Corvin could relate to, and his eyes looked so blank sometimes. He'd chalk it up to bad luck along his life, but who knew? He sure didn't.
But, Corvin still needed to pick something up for Flora. He didn't have much coin left, but he had two faces. If worse came to worse, well, anybody he angered would be chasing a ghost.
He shivered. Too soon to mention ghosts. But it's not like he wanted something to go wrong, but he really needed this. Well, he wanted this. But wanted it badly, which usually evolved into necessity. So good enough.
So here he was. A jewelry shop. He couldn't think of anything else, and the few romance books he had ever read hinted that most women appreciated it when someone gave them jewels, so it didn't seem like a bad idea. And he was out of options, so it's not like he had a choice here.
So he entered, seeing the jeweler who ran the shop eye him as soon as he entered. He seemed in his late twenties, light brown hair and light blue eyes. Though, there was something wrong. Corvin was greeted with a smile, but it looked... forced. Really, really forced.
"Eh, probably just hates his job. Whatever." Corvin waved back, walking to the counter and resting a elbow on it. "Hey, I'm kind of in a hurry here, so can you just tell me if you have anything here... I don't know, that someone would like? Something special?" It's not like he knew a thing about jewels, so it was off to relying on the advice of a total stranger.
"hmmm…" the jewel man pondered. "I assume this is for a woman, no doubt?"
"... I'm not saying yes. But I'm not saying no, either."
He smiled, though it seemed more like a veiled grimace to Corvin. "Well, I do have this…" He pulled out a glowing blue gem attached to a string that formed a necklace, a small, glowing red core seen in the middle. "…It's called a subtle-stone. It's sure to woo…" He was cut off by Corvin, who grabbed it the second he saw it.
He didn't know why, but... it spoke to him. Maybe it was alluring blue color it had, or maybe something else. But he needed to have it. "I'll take it, how much?" He asked.
"Well, for you, free," the jewel man chuckled.
"Free? What, am I the millionth customer?" Corvin joked, twirling the necklace on one finger.
"Sure, something like that…" the jeweler grunted, nodding his head towards the door. Corvin walked through the entrance, turning his head just fast enough to see that smile disappear from the man, and be replaced by a downcast, somewhat angry look.
But then the door closed, and, not really caring what the matter was with the man, made his way out of town. He'd been here long enough, and he wanted to get back to Flora. It was rude to keep a lady waiting, after all.
... Well, at least that's what his books said.
"Oh, jeez, where's Corvin?" Flora wondered, feet swinging freely as she sat in the tree high-up, staring out into the distance.
He said he'd be back by now, but maybe he was just held up. He said he lived away from civilization all his life, so it was understandable if he got lost.
She lightly bit her lower lip. She still couldn't believe just how well he was taking to losing his home. She didn't know anything of his past other than what he'd already said, but he seemed to be taking this too much into stride. She was sure devastated when she lost her home, but he seemed... well, okay with it.
Then there was that comment he made about the clinic, how he just seemed to give up on his dream. The way he said it, "just so far away...", he sounded so tired when he said that. It made her happy when she heard him say what he wanted, but then she was saddened to hear how he thought achieving all this was impossible, that and the house thing...
Maybe he lost it awhile ago? Gotten over it? Oh, she hoped he hadn't just been wandering the forest for a long time looking for a reason to live, because the way he said it made it sound like he didn't even have one.
She sighed wearily, leaning back into the trunk. Then he'd asked where they were going, and what'd she say? That'd she'd rather travel with him. Why'd she even say that, he didn't even know where to go either! And it's not like she didn't want to go back to her people, just... she didn't know, and that's what frustrated her. That, and that since he was taking so long it was making her think these things.
"Oh, I don't even know why I'm doing this. I should be home, getting married! But, when I'm think of Corvin…" she thought. Whenever marriage ever crossed her mind, she always imagined herself in a white wedding dress, Sythe being in a nice suit, holding her at the alter. Now though, an image of her and Corvin getting married replaced that image in her head. A version of Corvin with a suit that still had a hood on.
Her eyes widened dramatically. "What am I thinking!?" She yelled at the top of her lungs, the volume causing nearby birds to scatter. "I haven't thought thoughts like that since I was a slave…"
But how could he not make her think like that? Especially after last night, when he actually saw her being hurt while talking, and let her stop. He even took it further by shedding light about him to try and take her mind off of it. Very few people in her life had just been so, so considerate towards her like that.
He even made her laugh a bunch, and that was something fewer people in her life had ever done. And it made her feel nice, the way he kept trying and failing to smile at her mirth.
"Flora! I'm back! Also I brought a friend!" Her ears picked up when she heard Corvin's voice, her head peeking down to see him coming up from the town, another figure in tow.
"Oh, it's Corvin. Better go say hi." She could think more later, right now she had to focus getting down the tree.
"So who exactly is this Flora?" Keith asked Corvin as the pair approached the tree Corvin had left the girl at.
"Oh, Flora? She's nice, you'll like her. Although fair warning, before you see her-" he was cut off when Flora came up smiling and waving, saying, "Hi, Corvin!", eyes closes and with a big grin.
He would responded back had Keith not stuck his hand out in front of Corvin. "Corvin, get behind me! A keidran!" he shouted, drawing his sword.
Corvin opened his mouth to say something, but was too late as Keith was already rushing towards Flora, sword poised to strike.
"Nya?" Flora meowed weakly, eyes shrinking as Keith swung the blade, sunlight glinting off the edge as it moved downwards. She would have moved, but she was too paralyzed in shock to do anything.
Then Corvin moved, a little faster than what Flora would call normal, his feet skidding on the ground and stopping just in front of her, extending his hand towards the blade. To both Keith and Flora's shock, Corvin actually managed to catch the blade between his his index and middle finger, other hand in pocket.
"What the… Corvin what are you doing!?" Keith growled, not letting go of the handle of the sword.
"Ya know, Keith, I don't really appreciate it when someone tries to kill my friend. So you better give me a good reason for what you just tried to do," Corvin said, letting go of the sword.
Keith scoffed, sheathing the blade. "I was just trying to kill that mangy feline" Keith said.
"'Mangy'?" Corvin asked, disdain clearly present in his tone. While they were talking, Flora saw a butterfly float past, softly meowing when she saw it.
"Look, Corvin, I know that you don't know much about anything, but her race are nothing but monsters! We should just kill her now! I mean, just look at her! She's the pure essence of evil!" Keith shouted, pointing at he to prove his point.
Corvin didn't know what Keith saw, because the only thing he saw was Flora playfully chasing a blue butterfly, cheering "BUTTERFLY!" in the process.
Corvin stared at Keith, who stared at Flora. "You see… what'd I tell ya… pure… evil…" Keith mumbled.
"Yeah, pure evil Keith. While we're at it, you wanna go fight some lovely flowery meadows?" Corvin retorted, then nodded his head to Flora. "I'm not going anywhere without Flora, so like it or not, You're stuck with her."
Keith grunted, turning around and walking off. "Fine, I'll go with the keidran, but Corvin… their kind are dangerous. She'll probably kill you the moment she gets it." Keith stated, then continued walking.
"Somehow I doubt she could if she wanted to," Corvin muttered once Keith was out of earshot.
"What?" Corvin glanced back at Flora, turning around.
"Nothing. C'mon," Corvin said, but then stopped. "Oh, yeah, almost forgot, got you something." He said.
"Mer?" It interested Corvin why she was making those sounds, but he wouldn't ask about it. She'd probably stop if she was doing it sub-consciously, and he found the sounds rather cute. "Yeah, uh… where is it, oh, here." He held out the subtle-stone, her eyes widening when she saw the shining jewel.
"MEEAAARR!" Flora cried, falling backwards on the ground.
"What? You don't like it…?" Oh, don't tell him this thing has some kind of symbolic meaning he wasn't aware of.
Maybe that wasn't the case, because Flora looked at the stone again, strange glint in her eyes. "Well… yeah, I DO want it!" she got up from the ground, snatched snatching the stone. Rather curiously, Corvin notes, was the way they were shocked once they both had contact with the stone.
"Ghk," Corvin grunted, holding his hand while Flora inspected the stone. He felt all the flesh in his arm writhe momentarily, then stop. "Hm, so I'm weak to electricity too, huh?" he thought dryly. "Well that's just great, wasn't one vulnerability enough?"
"Oh, I can't believe… well, he couldn't have known, he doesn't know much of anything..." she thought, looking at the stone, then at Corvin, who was staring at his arm. Well, she didn't want him to think she didn't like it, so she put the necklace on. "He couldn't have known those stones are used in human marriage… but I didn't think they were actually magic and actually DID something! Oh well, it probably doesn't work if I don't wear it… I'll just take it off later."
"Thanks, Corvin," She said, Corvin smiling at her n response.
"No problem. Now come on, we need to catch up to Keith," he replied. Flora nodded, albeit with some hesitation at the mention of the basitin's name, the two walking to catch up with the third.
It was the second time someone called Flora dangerous. First was the guy threatening her, second was Keith. Corvin knew that he didn't have any knowledge of keidran culture, but the way Keith made it sound painted them out to be bloodthirsty killers. Flora just looked away when he tried to mention it, so he let it be. That question could wait with the other million, he supposed.
Then there was Keith. The basitin didn't really tell them where they were going, but Flora did mention something about basitins being native to an island in the middle of the ocean, a fact Keith confirmed. The prospect of possibly having to ride a boat terrified Corvin, but he hid it well while with the two. Then again, he didn't exactly know the destination, unlike Keith. He'd really have to ask if that was what they were really doing, because the idea of being surrounded by a substance that could dissolve him for an extended period of time did not sit right with him at all.
But it would have to wait until morning, because the three had been walking all day, so the three of them had decided to camp for the night, the three sitting around a fire with three separate tents pitched around them. Flora was drinking some ale Keith had gotten, and Corvin and Keith were conversing.
"I still can't believe you caught TWELVE rabbits in five minutes," Keith said in disbelief.
Corvin shrugged. "I guess I'm a natural." Hunting and killing things tended to be easier when you were faster and stronger than what you were hunting. And had knives for fingers.
"But... about the crow..."
"What, this?" Corvin held a live crow up, the bird squawking in his hand as it tried to escape his grasp.
"Please tell me you're not going to eat that."
It's not like Corvin had to eat the crow, but... well, on his way back he actually tried to consume on of the rabbits he killed, only to immediately spit out the biomass he got from it.
He just felt revolted, and his body seemed to agree with him. And he couldn't call it taste, but something in him told him it tasted awful. But at least he learned that he couldn't consume dead things, not even fresh, because those rabbits hadn't been dead that long.
And he couldn't just say he wasn't hungry, because they hadn't seen him eat a thing in awhile, especially Flora. And if they tried to feed him something that was already dead only for him to puke it up the second he ate it, questions would rise. So he would have to find something small and easy to hold to eat in front of them, and crows came to mind instantly.
Crows... they had a special place in his heart, not just because his name alluded to crows. During the incident, the crows he and Aya had seen at various tables in the house always made them calm, and he was grateful for that. Plus he always wanted a pet crow, though he was never allowed. Something that he never agreed with considering Aya got to have a rabbit, but he obeyed nonetheless.
So Keith's question to whether Corvin was going to eat the crow or not was answered when Corvin bit down on the crow, the bird'd squawking's growing quieter and quieter as he shoved more and more of it into his mouth while biting it to pieces, his body consuming it once it reached the inside of his throat until the entire bird was consumed. Tasted awful, but what was one to do? Keith visibly blanched while Flora... well, Corvin was a little concerned there, because she slammed the bottle of ale down on the ground, light blush on her cheeks and body swaying as he looked at Corvin.
"Ah! T'anks for da drink, Corvy!" she thanked, swaying some more. "Ya know, isn't camping out here fun? We shoul' do it more often, huh?"
Oh dear. "Uh, Corvin? What drink did you give her?" Keith asked.
"Uh, the… what was it… um, ale?" Held the bottle up for confirmation, then nodded. "Yeah, I gave her the ale." Which was a grave mistake, apparently.
"Hah! You mean human ale. Keidran can't handle much of that stuff." Keith explained.
"Now you tell me?" Corvin hissed, dropping the bottle in shock when Flora draped her arms around him. "Haha! You has no fur, jus' a hood-thing. You're a human! I haves orange fur. I's keidran!" Flora slurred.
"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask you, what's with the hood? I can't even see anything above your nose. What's with that?"
"It's just special, okay?"
"You ever gonna put it down so we can see what you look like?"
"No."
"He has weird head, he hath no eyes!" Flora chirped, giggling while she cradled his head to her chest.
He'd make her stop, but coherent thought was beginning to grow absent due to him becoming increasingly flustered, so his head turned to Keith for help.
"… let me try something" Keith said, snapping his fingers to get Flora's attention. "Hey, Flora. What do you think of me and Corvin?"
"Huh? Corvy? I like him. I kno I shouldn't, bu he's nice to me," she looked accusingly at Keith, pointing a few feet to the left of him. "Oh, and you? You're just a jerk!"
Keith rolled his eyes while Corvin let a laugh out. "Heh, thanks for sticking up for me, Flora," Corvin thanked, gently pushing her arms off of him.
"Welcome'ese! He'd assume that meant what he thinks it meant. "Yeah, we should probably get you to bed, Flora. C'mon."
"Yay, bed!" she cheered. He picked her up, his left arm going under her knees and his right arm under her arms, and she draped her right arm over his neck as he carried her to her tent. "How's 'bout you come to bed wits me?" She giggled, looking up at him with glazed yet alluring eyes.
Corvin sputtered, looking away. "Um, I-I don't think that'd be the best idea..." Corvin mumbled, lowering his head so his cheeks were obscured by the hood.
"Awww…" Flora whined as Corvin laid her in her tent and she passed out, Keith going to his tent and doing the same. Which just left Corvin standing there, not really tired and starting to accept the fact that he didn't really need sleep. Another bonus for him.
Then he heard a rustling in the bushes at the edge of the camp, though combined with the sheer amount of shrubbery and the fact it was too dark to see what made the sound, Corvin didn't know what was there.
"We have something that can help with that." There was that voice again.
"You again? What do you want?"
"Mrf... still waking up, getting used to things... just focus on your eyes, you have multiple vision modes."
"What does that even mean?" Corvin asked, but he got no response, the voice having left.
It really irked him, how he just had some... some presence in his head, and it even further irked him how the voice knew so much about his body. He had questions about it, but the voice never stayed long enough for him to ask.
"Fine, whatever. Focus on my eyes, huh...?" It said something about vision modes, and all of his transformations had been instinctual so far, so if he just focused like this...
After a few seconds of focusing, his eyes started to glow purple, illuminating the shadows in his hood. Intrigued, he looked around, most of the environment being shaded a dark blue, with the exception of the fire, the ground around it being green while the fire was red, a white center being seen.
"What, some kind of infrared vision? I can really see in multiple spectrum?" Oh, this just had so many uses. Such as seeing the green and orange figure hiding behind the bushes. "Hm, what else have I got here?"
Focusing some more on his eyes, the purple illumination went to yellow, a the world itself being tinted yellow as a transparent pulse was sent out, the figure in the bushes becoming visible in a red outline, skeleton visible, as the pulse returned to Corvin.
"A... sonar? I won't ask how that's possible, but if I can get an internal view of him..." he could question the mechanics of how such a thing could even work later, he needed to know who was there. He focused on giving the figure image become less internalized as the outside layer was formed.
"Sythe? Really?" He'd be annoyed normally, but Flora and Keith were asleep. Which meant if Sythe tried anything Corvin could actually consume him without fault.
He grinned, pretending not to notice anything while he sat down. Oh, how interesting this would be...
A/N- Those who read the original version of this chapter will probably notice that a lot was added in, while at the same time a lot was taken out. This was intentional on my part in order to help the story flow better, but it looks like in the process of fixing the... everything in this chapter, I somehow doubled the length. Maybe that's a good thing, who knows? I really hope I don't double chapter six's length, because that one's long enough as it is...
Well, troubles for another time, I suppose. Cya.
