RP:A Peppermint Stick with Legs

From HollowWiki

Synopsis: Zahrani while hunting in forest meets the enemy of Saurian Onslaught, before the events.


The Ancient Tree

Zahrani is garbed in warm gear, the feline sitting stock-still within the branches of one of Kelay's great trees. A panther's head pokes out of her grey hood, her ears pivoting at the slighted hint of noise on the floor below. The woman cradles a crossbow in her hands, the string pulled back, a bolt in position to strive when its bearer pulls the trigger. The paladin is hunting for meat for the Sanctum's pantry, her ebony nares flaring when the wind picks up, her predator's senses searching for any sign of prey, her body positioned downwind of the tree to prevent her sent from getting carried off too easily. Cyan eyes scan down her firing lane for any movement.

Aetherclaw ran through the trees. He stood upright, like a man, and yet not nearly so, his tail extending back moving freely and yet covered by a loose cloth that wrapped around it sealing it like his body in a brown and green body glove. The hood of upon his head his red and white eye shining out from under it, and his snout exposing the striped skin remsient of candy in color. His moves are silent muffled magically by the runed clawmuffles he wore over his raptor like feet. There was no scent the clothing he wore made him like a ghost unseen, by the sense, even if sight was lone percievement. At side holster was a small knife and across his back a pole with handle and long blade was strapped against his back. As he approached upwind of the tree behind the figure he halted his movment. Then slowly moved without a sound behind to behind a tree, and a large bush hiding behind and becoming still. Thinking to himself one shot before reload and reloads take time, when she shoots then speak, so she cannot fire at you.

Zahrani decides to move to a different tree as Aetherclaw comes up behind her previous position, the feline not content with the position it put her body in. As she hops from one branch of a tree to another, she stops, catching something red and white out of the corner of her eye. She climbs higher upon seeing...honestly she isn't entirely certain what she had seen. Something large, bipedal, and wrapped in a camouflaged cloak like a peppermint burrito. She finds her vantage point, staring down at the large bush with slight apprehension. She keeps her distance, the panther motionlessly and her crossbow lowered but ready to fire. The cat says nothing and waits for the creature to make a move. She's not the type to fire the first shot unless she absolutely most.

Aetherclaw eyes not leaving the feline as she moved up a tree, his tree. He didn't need to look up his mind forming the logical solution in his mind on how to combat the foe should such thing pose to be a foe. Finally he has it. Stepping away from the tree, without looking up or letting the pantheress know he was aware of her, he walks forward away from the tree, cocking his head in a slight before shifting his neck down, his posture changing and so smoothly as if he were built to do this, and then he took off running. If she followed attempted to follow maybe she could, but as soon as she was briefly out of sight he would leap and twist with a backflip and land on the tree branch of another tree and run toward her along the limb, his tail reaching out to grab limb to yank him to the side should she fire, and then, continue, drawing his knife to attempt to knock out of her hand the crossbow and so that he could finally speak to her.


Zahrani isn't the type to give chase unless she has a good chance of taking down her quarry. As Aetherclaw cocks his head like a giant bird and takes off running, her instinct kicks in and she jumps from one tree branch to another in the Razurath's direction, before stopping and getting a good look at just how big the creature is. The feline concludes that even in full armor, she doesn't like her odds against an unknown entity that big and fast; at least not in a straight one-on-one fight. While Aetherclaw continues to put distance between them, panther woman doubles back and disappears into some underbrush. She has no idea just how intelligent the reptilian even is; and she knows it. Acting quickly, she cuts small piece of one of her dreadlocks, rubbing her scent on it and leaving it in the brush. She then runs off to another section of concealment, reaching into her satchel and pulling out a sealed box of pungent fish offal. She places it in the middle of a clearing; a more obvious choice of bait for hunting predators. The panther then climbs upward, hiding in the boughs of a different tree, taking care not to leave any clawmarks on the bark. Should Aetherclaw return to the area, he would likely detect her scent coming from two different places, overpowered by the strong fishy pile of guts that she had left as bait. The panther thinks to herself, ~Let's see how smart you are, stranger.~ as she readies herself from the shelter of the ancient tree.


Aetherclaw shifts as he moves through the trees leaping off as he begins to sense that the tree was no longer occupied, admist the rustling. As he landed he soon became aware of the scent of the feline and then two scents, Shifting his neck to the right or left he detected a cone of frame of where the two scents were located and then, he chose to put a distance around the the two scents and ran in circle around the vincity without being in her sights, until he spotted not the lock, but the panther in particular, watching and waiting for him not realizing that he was behind her. "Smart move." He said aloud his voice clear without accent, words pronounced as they reverabated into the tree, and additionally grabbing hold to another tree to pull himself to the side should she turn and shoot by reflex. "Well played huntress, I congratulate you on your strategy."

Zahrani turns to face Aetherclaw right as he opens his mouth, her cyan eyes on the lizard man. Her face is neutral, her eyes glancing around for a brief second before looking back at the red-and-white Razurath. She remains in a ready-to-spring position atop one of the larger branches, her tails swishing and maintaining her balance while her crossbow remains half-raised. The paladin then responds, "And...what exactly am I hunting?"


Aetherclaw stared back her no change in the tone or his eyes, face as neutral as it could be for the saurian creature. " An opportunity, to learn a little something more, or a curosity feed the mind, but considering the crossbow, it likely something that you cannot approach without alerting it, its fast, and be we in the woods, and the size of the crossbow, i sense that you look for a mammal with antlers. Or Peppermint stick with legs." He said without laughing or giggling but passing a dry obersvant joke. It wouldn't have been the first time somone made the reference.

Zahrani raises a brow, not changing her position, but also double-checking the surrounding area to see if there were any more 'Peppermint sticks with legs.' The panther is indeed here for deer-hunting, so she's impressed enough with the Razurath's ability to observe and articulate. The feline offers a polite nod, before saying, "So what are you called, and where do you hail from? I'm guessing your name isn't 'Peppermint.'" She matches his neutrality and dryness, careful about what information she volunteers to this complete stranger.

Aetherclaw makes note of the nod but keeps his eyes locked on the panther. Reaching up to his hood knife in hand still, as she had not dropped her crossbow. Pushing back his hood exposing his very saurian raptor like head, and how the eyes red and white were perfectly matching to color of the stripe that spiraled around the creature. "Venturil." He said with no more emotion then he had used previously. "Your Warrior's Guild would call me a Saurian, but I would tell them I am a Razurath, we are not beasts as the Saurian name implies." He said with no change in tone or emotion. "I am known as Aetherclaw."

Zahrani watches Aetherclaw carefully as he lowers his hood, before glancing at the being's knife and shifting her weight carefully. "And what business brings you to Kelay? You're not outfitted for heavy combat, and you didn't attack me outright." The panther remains vigilant; she wonders if the reptile is here for espionage or scouting. And he's matching her poker face quite well. But for all she knows, he could just be a merchant. A very sneaky, almost silent merchant, ideally.

Aetherclaw knew where he could share only so much so he didn't let on to much. If he had been a full red he couldn't have lied and likely have stayed silent, but had be an entire white, he could have easily lied likely gotton away with it, but this was wear compromise came about. So he planned well. "Artist, some times to get the image you desire the most you have to see it in action, provoke it if necessary and study it acutely. Figure out what makes it tick, so that when all aspects are remembered, they can be displayed for all to see, and not all things like to observed."

Zahrani appears neither convinced nor unconvinced at Aetherclaw's explanation. Her eyes narrow, before jumping down to the ground and retrieving the box of bait from the clearing, making sure not to turn her back on the Razurath in her midst. The scent of fish guts seems to all but vanish as soon as she closes the container and puts it in her pack. As much as she would like to continue questioning the being in front of her, she still has duties to perform and people to feed. "Well, your 'artistic' antics have helped scared off the deer, and now I must find another place to set up." She shoulders her crossbow and prepares to leave, "Until we meet again, Aetherclaw of Venturil...don't follow me." With that, the feline proceeds to depart into the woods.

Aetherclaw watched the panther retrieve her as she retrieves her stuff, and narrowing of her eyes seemed to indicate that she was justly fed up with his 'artistic' antics. As she turned to go he said sheathing his knife as she had shouldered her crossbow. "I have what I wanted, and you will to, try a mile to the south of here, saw two bucks stuck in pit together, and a doe waiting on top, perhaps you will get lucky and get one of them before they kill the other." He said as she was within a earshot remaining. Then with that same eerie silence he began walking away without a sound. And soon by the time she would look back he had surely vanished.

Zahrani hears the lizard's words, the panther continuing on her course before heading south to see if there's any validity to Aetherclaw's claim. Of course, given that she's starting from square one on her hunt thanks to the Razurath, one direction in the forest was as good as any other. Either way, that's not a face or name she'll forget soon. She can't help but feel as though she had seen creatures like that before; possibly in the presence of one of her draconic friends.