RP:Aira Sees Dead People

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Staring Spirits

Orikahn slinks through the ruins, rounding a corner and quietly padding his way up the abandoned street, his bow knocked and at full draw. His movements are silent, even with his armor, and he is on edge. Aira, he spots immediately. From what he can see, his moss bandaging seems to have done its work; the elf's face is free of scars or injury, just as he had expected. She didn't seem like one to let a rough encounter keep her down anyway. But what was she doing out *here* now? "Tss-tss!" He tries to catch her attention with some hissing, brief and sharp, sure to carry through the otherwise silent street and strike her sensitive elven ears. To make his peaceful intentions a little more plain, he lowers his bow, relaxing his hold on the bowstring and pointing the arrow down at the ruined roadbed. Though she cannot see his face, Kahn will attempt to convey his confusion by shrugging and looking around himself, almost as if to ask "what are you doing here?"


Aira caught the hissing noise almost immediately and it was enough to distract her from the windows above. Aira dropped her gaze and instantly caught sight of the feline, easily recognizing him despite his covered face. The runaway quirked her head to the side as he made his hand gestures, only to raise her own hand and point towards the houses. Something caught her peripheral vision then and she spun around quickly turning her back to Orikahn. There, in the house two down, there was something, or someone, in there! Aira moved swiftly, her boots barely making any noise as she crossed the road towards the structure and pushed against the door. She frowned when it didn't budge but that didn't stop her. She simply took a step back, picked up her leg, and aimed a hard kick towards the handle. The door immediately gave way and Aira disappeared inside.


Orikahn startles when Aira kicks in the door, still not quite understanding what all had been going on. She storms into the ruined building with such purpose that Orikahn can't help but follow her, rushing in behind the elf. What had she seen? Curiosity takes the better of him, as always. Ready to cover her from behind, the cat slips in at a crouch, dropping low and redrawing his bow, ready to hurl deadly arrows at whatever foe had lured the elf. In the back of his mind, there remains the nagging notion of hauntings and spirits in these parts, and he remembers how useless his arrows had been against other spirits in the past.


Aira moved with a certain ferocity through the downstairs of the ruined home. "Where you go?" Aira hissed quietly, but loud enough to carry. She turned quickly to face the front door when she heard Orikahn enter, noting his tense bow and crouched form. Her mouth was half open to elicit a response, but the small shadow figure caught her eye again heading up the rickety steps. The runaway quickly shut her mouth and bounded past the feline, taking the stairs two at a time, nearly tripping towards the top when one gave way. "Where you going?" Aira called out a bit louder when she reached the landing. The feline could most likely hear her tearing through the ruined rooms upstairs.


Orikahn flinches when Aira bounds past him and up to the next level. Was she mad!? Seeing the state of the stairs, he makes the very deliberate decision not to follow her. Orikan saw the way the step had given way beneath the elf, and he is well aware of his own size and weight. "Aira!" Though he whispers after her, the cat doubts she hears him, especially considering the din over his head. Didn't she know how haunted these ruins were? Didn't she know how angry and violent the spirits had been in recent days. "It's not safe." The cat dares to raise his voice to a conversational tone, hoping she'll hear him through the floor. He even dares to repeat himself a little louder. "It's not safe!"


Aira hadn't heard Orikahn the first time as she was moving about too quickly, the floorboards creaking below her booted feet. The second time she did and he slowed her movements down enough to walk to the top of the steps and peer down at the feline. "You see it, too?" Aira asked eagerly, her eyes as wide as their almond shape would allow. There was an almost wild look in her eyes and a cold sweat had begun to bead up on her hairline which she quickly wiped away with the back of her hand. Suddenly, the tinkling noise of children's laughter floated towards Aira from behind and she immediately moved forward to seek it out. Unfortunately for the high elf, however, she stepped on a weak floorboard which collapsed beneath her weight, her leg plunging downward and into the ceiling of the room below. Aira let loose a vulgar, elven curse as the laughter died away.


Orikahn shakes his head at Aira's question. He hadn't see anything apart from decrepit ruins and a manic elf. Before he can make any sort of attempt to lure her back down and away from this place, she's rushing off again, and Orikahn moves to follow beneath her if he can, trying to listen in on whatever it is she's pursuing. The ghostly laugh strikes his ears. The fur stands upon the whole of his body. "Graah!" Dust and plaster rain down around the feline as Aira's leg pops out of the ceiling above him, and the hunter leaps back in a frenzy of motion, swiping at batting the debris off of himself. As suddenly as his composure had vanished, Kahn regains himself, and he stands still as a statue, staring up at the lone leg protruding from the ceiling. "You brazen, senseless kit." The feline sighs through clenched teeth.


Aira went quiet after the debris rained down on Orikahn. She was stuck for the moment, straining her ears to hear the presence again. She heard Orikahn call her some name that she didn't recognize but she quickly shushed him, banging on the floor with her hand for good measure. She closed her eyes then, stretching out her own energy so that she may sense the presence. After a few moments, Aira opened her eyes again and blew out a frustrated sigh. "It gone," she called down to Orikahn as she began to wriggle her leg, attempting to free it from the floorboards.


Orikahn doesn't have to stretch very far to reach the broken boards overhead, and he pulls some of the splintered wood aside to keep it from catching in Aira's leg as she pulls herself up and out. "Gone for now. We keep up this ruckus and there will be plenty more to follow. You're not even supposed to be out here." The cat warns her. "These ruins are off-limits, and for good reason." If Aira hasn't yet extracted herself, Orikahn cups her foot in his other hand, setting the heel of his palm in her arch so he can give her a boost back up.


Aira halted her wriggling as Orikahn reached up to remove some of the floorboards and then cup her foot to give her a boost. Aira pulled her leg back up and peered down at the feline through the hole. "Thank you, kitty." The runaway moved now with a softer, more careful tread, toward the landing, and back down the stairs. She jumped the last few steps and landed with a soft thud. "If it off limits why you here?" Aira asked pointedly before shaking her head and running her fingers through her golden locks. "Besides they tell me to come."


Orikahn watches as Aira reemerges into view. "Because," he unstrings and shoulders his bow, "I'm here as a city official. The beasts aren't the only trouble in the west. If we can't sort out this whole mess with--wait." He leans in, cocking an ear toward her. "Who told you to come? Here?" He points emphatically at the snowstrewn floor upon which they stand.


Aira folded her arms across her chest, jutting out her hip as she lofted her brows. "City official?" Her mind back tracked to one of their first meetings where she recalled him mentioning it. "Well...I city's token trouble maker," she offered with a slight shrug. "-They- did!" Aria exclaimed exasperatedly. "Little shadow girl. She help me yesterday when we fight and she come again this morning. She ask my help, that why I here!" Aira's copper eyes searched his green ones before her face fell. "You..you no see them, do you?" Aira groaned, crouching down and resting tented elbows on her bent knees, hiding her face in her hands.


Orikahn listens to her speak. With the cat wearing a visor as he is, it's very difficult for Aira to tell whether or not he finds her "trouble maker" comment amusing. By the way he slowly straightens and crosses his arms, though, he doesn't seem especially swayed to sympathy. "I've seen many spirits." Orikahn nods in a matter-of-fact way. "The spirits of these ruins are all bitter and angry, and they wouldn't want to be disturbed, not even by a mighty mammoth-slayer like you." Still on edge, still cautious, he surveys the room, looking for evidence of Aira's claim. He thinks back to the laugh he had heard, and sighs. "Spirits here have asked me for help before, too." With painful reluctance, he drops to one knee, leaning his weight forward on the splayed fingers of his hand so he can bring his face a little closer to the now apparently distraught elf. "What did she ask?" Something in his voice has changed, and Aira might be reminded again of the cat by the fireside, not the frigid official or the bloodthirsty beast.


Aira remained in her crouched position, gently massaging her temples with her fingertips in an attempt to stave off a headache that was threatening to break through. She would be lying if she said Orikahn's confession of hearing spirits didn't ease her anxiety some. She recalled a time when she was a little girl and she mentioned to her mother what she heard and saw--that warranted a smart crack across her face and two weeks locked in her room. Still, Aira kept her face covered, that was until Orikahn spoke in a, gentler voice if one could call it that. Something familiar that brought her some sort of comfort. She breathed out a deep sigh before lifting those mesmerizing, metallic eyes to the feline's. When she spoke it was barely above a whisper, "The bad spirits keep them trapped here. The good ones. They want to go but bad spirits won't let them leave. She want me to help her leave. She say I good at running away," this last statement afforded a sad sort of half smile from Aira.


Orikahn turns his head, enough so that Aira might the glimmer of his feline gaze behind the slots of his visor. "The bad spirits," Orikahn repeats after her, barely above a whisper himself, echoing the elf's words. This was new to him, and didn't fit his imagined idea of spirits moving in unison to angrily protest one thing or the other. The story this elf is telling seems... different. What does she mean? "Help her leave?" The question leaves his lips, but there is suddenly a rumble and a cold gust as the ambient light grows a shade dimmer. Kahn's swaying tail bushes to double its volume. White sheets of creeping frost begin growing on the walls, floor, and ceiling, drawing the cat's gaze. He throws Aira another quick glance, then looks to the door and the empty street beyond. "So," he whispers, "you *are* good at running, then?"


Aira sighed deeply again, returning to rubbing her temples. "I no know how to explain well!" She explained in frustration. It was hard enough attempting to explain the ethereal without a language barrier to further hinder such discussions. She was about to answer Orikahn's question when she noticed his tail, slowly turning her head to catch the frost that began to furl on the walls and windows. Aira's breath became heavy and left her mouth in smoky clouds, her body tensing slighlty. "I did get away from you..." she responded in a whisper, copper eyes glued on the door.


Orikahn sees his own breath pouring in thick clouds, clouds that condense as white frost upon the slots of his visor. Outside, the dimming evening sky darkens to a deep violet twilight, and for the moment, an unnatural silence descends all around them. Then, quietly at first, at the faintest edge of hearing, there is a dull rushing sound that, with the passing seconds, gradually crescendos into a mad cacophony of wailing, shrieking, babbling, and weeping. The air is oppressively dense, and it almost seems the deepening darkness will swallow them entirely when, as quickly as it began, the voices fade and light returns to the room. Needles of crystalline frost cover every inch of every surface around them, save for fur, skin, and clothes of the sole two living beings in the room. "Then let's get away from here." The shaken cat carefully stands, with tentative steps, makes his way out the door.


Aira began to turn her head this way and that, her body beginning to tremble, whether it was from the cold or the impending presences, only the high elf would know. As soon as the rush of noise began, Aira buried her face in her thighs, her arms clenched over her ears, fingers interlocking at the back of her head. She seemed to be rocking, as the sounds of wailing, shrieking, babbling, and weeping clanged inside of her brain, seeming to consume her entire being. Then just as suddenly, it's gone. Aira remained in her curled position, trying to tame her breathing and shaking. Orikahn's voice registered as a distant echo and finally she lifted her gaze to her to see him approaching the door. The runaway quickly stood, steadied herself, and followed the feline towards the door. She didn't utter a single word, but her skin was considerably paler than normal.


Orikahn stops outside the door, and while he glances up and down the ruined street, he offers Aira a steady hand as she passes through the decrepit threshold, should she need it. "I believe you," he says, "and I will help you. I'm going back to town." What you do next is your business. Kahn doesn't have to say the last bit aloud, for he is already walking back east at a measured, respectful pace, much like one walking through a room of sleeping guests. Doubtless, Aira had found her way out here on her own, but, given the circumstance, no one would blame her if she didn't want to make the return journey alone.


Aira graciously accepted Orikahn's hand as she climbed through the threshold. She attempted to smile as he confirmed his belief in her abilities, but it merely came out as a grimace. She gently wrapped her arms around her chest, her blonde hair whipping about her face in the wind. She watched as the feline walked back down the street, heading back towards the city. Yes, that sounded like a plan and she would follow him, but not before turning towards the run down house, and tracing a symbol in the air before it. "I be back," she whispered, hoping if the shadow girl were there she would hear and know that the high elf wasn't abandoning her. Aira began to jog down the road, falling a few paces behind Orikahn and pulling her hood up over her head, deep in thought.