Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me except my OC/SI
Chapter 3
"What?" The place where eyebrows would be, furrowed. His stiff body expressed his weariness from her abrupt very strange question.
She couldn't pay much attention to his reactions however, since her mind kept shifting in and out from blurry images that she just Knew were important to her, and overall this, this World.
"Yeah.." She whispered absentmindedly, the word Human repeating itself within her dazed mind.
"I think I was a human..." Ignoring his questioning grunt, she continued without really thinking on the words coming out of her lean snout since her head was preoccupied with mentally organizing all the strange information that was only slowly confusing her more.
She mentally categorized the pieces so far from what she knew:
Humans don't have fur, because then I wouldn't be so alarmed at seeing myself this way.
Pandas shouldn't be walking around bi-pedal.
Nor should they be wearing clothes. A wrinkle of her nose, not that she Wanted to see them without clothes, but it sounded Weird, glancing at the attire of the silent observing Panda.
A non-audible exhale of breath from her nostrils, yet it seems to be the norm here- for animals.
"Sienna." Her body straightened at the serious tone and the younger female returned her attention to the panda, blinking at him almost expectantly.
(Not that she knew the way her lowered ears had flickered upwards in attention and the way her dark doe eyes beamed at him was more innocent than Gouhin had seen in a long time.)
He seemed to deflate before her eyes. Body unwinding, shoulders lowering with a long exhale, bringing a palm to his face then running it down with an almost exasperated pained groan, leaning his body weight over a forearm on his knee.
"You don't know where you are, from what you've told me so far right?" The hand now joined the other in hanging in between his knees, both forearms putting weight on his jean clad knees.
I love pandas, I even had a Kigurumi of it!
Ears flickered at that, filing that little random thought to think over later...will she have to get used to random little pieces of information appearing whenever in her head at unexpected moments? She'll have to adapt to it soon, or she might go crazy. Maybe?
If she wasn't already.
Which, considering her position, she was strangely now not worried about?
Huh. Her eyebrows furrowed at the realization that she felt eerily ill at ease after the first few minutes of internally panicking.
"Sorry.. if I keep spacing out. Sometimes information pops into my head and I'm terrible at multi-tasking," she gave a small huff, "apparently."
Sienna took her time trying to articulate her words, inwardly very very thankful for the giant pandas patience in listening to her.
"I honestly don't even know what I am." Gouhin tilted his head, an almost cold humming sound coming from him. A frown on her slim snout, "I'm a herbivore from what you told me, and what I've seen of my body now." She cleared her throat, swallowing down the sudden dryness and only stared thoughtfully after Gouhin as he stood up and went to the small kitchen section of the tiny room, absentmindedly following his moving figure with her head, "So yes, I have no idea where I am as well."
Sienna's frown switched to a small grateful smile at the cup of water he came back with, mumbling a soft thank you and taking it with both steady hands, giving an airy chuckle when Gouhin waved a remiss hand, plopping himself back down to the large wooden chair that creaked slightly from the full weight of the giant panda who brought an arm around the back of the chair, crossing his ankle over his other legs knee again.
She took a small sip, stopping to breath out a sigh of relief, it was more refreshing than she thought it'd be down her raspy throat. Then resumed with small gulps, little by little. She was thirsty, and it felt so good to swallow the clear cool water, but somehow she knew that it wasn't a good idea to gulp large amounts all of a sudden when she hasn't had any in awhile.
How she knew that, she wasn't sure. She just did.
Frowning around the clear cup, it was going to be a bit annoying knowing things without the Whys or Hows behind them.
It was a motor action; the way she acted just now. Meaning she's been through a similar situation before enough times that she knows to take it easy with the water thing.
Resisting an irritated groan at herself, water thing? How old am I augh.
Unconsciously her hands lowered after taking her slow fill, giving an absentminded thank you to the shaking-his-head Gouhin as he left with the cup and returned seconds later, falling onto the chair with the same lax position.
A flash of curiosity, because yeah, how old was she?
Twenty one. Finally they can't tell me anything when they see my wine stack.
Well then... she had to bite down on her bottom lip in momentary amusement for the rapid response spoken in a rather annoyed tone she recognized as her own voice.
"From your appearance, I'd say you're a Chital Doe." Snapping back into focus at that, Sienna's large eyes stared thrown off at his matter of fact tone, not minding his intense stare up and down her figure since it felt more clinical the way he was staring at her than anything else.
"I'm a What." Her nose wrinkled in disquiet. Gouhin snorted, amused at the befuddled look that overcame the eerie almost completely blank expression from before. He preferred this over that other default expression, with her expressive reactions she looked less broken than when he first found her.
"How the hell do you even know that?" She was quite a dramatic little thing, wasn't she, he mused to himself as he watched her.
"Your appearance can't be mistaken for any other herbivore, little missy."
"But isn't there a ton of animals in this world? How can you know so specifically a species just by appearance?" Slow drawn out words in contemplation.
Gouhin sent her a gruff grim small smirk, "comes with the job."
Here is where the atmosphere would have turned strained, menacing, and the little herbivore would have flinched with widened frightened eyes at his statement and the hidden dark meanings with his size, species and position in the Black Market.
But no, not this broken little thing.
Sienna hummed gently, gradually raising her knees and turning a bit more to face him, leaning back against the wall while folding her hands together over her jean clad knees. "I still don't know where I am, what your position entails, and what animal I am." A resigned half smile, eyebrows quirking up, "If you could kindly explain, I'd be most appreciative. Much like how you saved me, let me use your bed, your home-," she gave a low laugh at his loud groan and wave of hand, interrupting her continuous monologue on his actions.
"I didn't do it specifically for you, there was just too much danger for everyone involved in allowing you to roam about the way you were near the Black Market." The panda roughly huffed out, crossing his arms together.
She merely blinked. "Okay."
He growled at her speculated response, and immediately stifled it, freezing as he cursed in his head for his careless response towards a herbivore. If a herbivore were to hear that type of irritated threatening growl from a carnivore, their instincts would immediately flash Danger! They would show it in either their scent, a flinch, a twitch, any sudden nervous gesture that would show them trying to battle their instincts down. it wouldn't appear too strongly in friends of different species who already know each other better, as it would show up in strangers.
But... despite the hidden worry, the slim female doe simply raised an eyebrow at him, nonplussed at the sound. (She was rather transfixed, it was fascinating his reactions and movements, all that fluffiness moving alongside him.)
She had a feeling that the sound should have made her react in another way than the lackadaisle one she had, considering the way Gouhin now gazed hard at her with narrowed scrutinizing dark eyes.
"I'll explain everything," She nodded her head, knowing he wasn't done when he leaned his head forward a bit, snout curved into a pensive frown, "and maybe we can think on why you don't have your instincts turned on."
What is she, a car now?
But she nodded again, not really caring either way.
What other option does she have anyway, what with her broken fragments of a mind.
It's in her best option of survival if she sticks with the giant fluffy panda.
AN: Thank you BlackOut55, AnimeLover229, Guest (Chapter 2), AyyyMi for reviewing!
And those who fav/folls! Hope you've enjoyed reading so far!