RP:Deceptive Appearances

Summary: Lita and Dominic have a chance encounter.

Ancient Forest

Dominic stands wide-stanced in a clearing, breath heavy and sweat piling up on his brow. Before him is a roughly assembled dummy of burlap and stuffed with straw, tied to a wooden branch that had been broken off of some nearby tree and stuck firmly into the ground. It had clearly taken quite a beating already; some of the straw had leaked out and onto the dirt below. Dominic swipes an arm across his forehead and bounces from one foot to the other and back, shifting his grip on the stick he holds in his right hand. One bounce. Two. Three. Then he lunges forward and with a rapid stabbing motion impales the dummy before jumping back as if dodging a blow. There’s another bounce and a shift; he mutters something as if to himself as he circles to the other side of the dummy and strikes again, a long slash at the dummy’s “back.” It’s clear he’s been here for some time, and either he is confident enough in its seclusion to not be wary of his surroundings or he’s just become far too fixated on the task before him to be attentive to anything else.

Lita wasn't sure if she was running from one thing or towards something else. The world moved in blurred colors and shadows, stray branches tugging at raven curls and the hem of the little black sundress she wore. Her feet knew the way, thankfully, because a glance over her shoulder told her she was losing ground. The footsteps were faint behind her but there, the beast almost as silent as she was as she barely managed to dodge trees. The forests had changed since she'd bothered to run them last. She never expected the clearing, and in the moment when the tree line broke she found herself frozen, stumbling a few steps as she glanced around and the place where she remembered trees had once been. Dark eyes settled nervously on the stranger and she tilted her head slightly, a question lingering on her lips but there was no time to ask it. Her heart was pounding, as much as it could, and her chest ached with the strain of heavy breaths. She should have told him to run. A twig snapped behind her, just beyond that line of trees and she knew there was no time for it now. Instead she turned to face the trees, eyes darting through the shadows as she squared her shoulder and planted bare feet, steadying her weight on her heels as she shifted the leather satchel that hung at her right hip. "Don't move." she exhaled, not bothering to turn her head to look at the stranger again. A faint growl and a little snarl came from the edge of the trees and she could feel its eyes on her, watching, waiting, and a vicious little smile curled the corners of her mouth upwards. She never could back down from a challenge.

Dominic || It isn’t any typical sense that catches Dominic’s attention; instead, a whisper of caution from some corner of his mind has him freezing in an awkward pose, still off-balance from the momentum of a downward blow. It’s from this position, weight almost entirely on his right, forward leg, his arm and mock-weapon low to the ground, and upper body angled forward and to one side, that he takes rapid stock of the girl at the edge of the clearing. This is… not someone who’d come upon him by taking a casual stroll, he notes. “Don’t move,” she breathes before he’s had time to even consider such an action, but he at least needs to get himself into a less vulnerable position if there’s danger afoot. He pulls his left leg forward to meet his right, reaches for a runed stone in his pocket, and turns the lunge into a crouch just in time to hear the beast from beyond the tree line. Internally, he curses -- this is the worst kind of interruption. Maybe it was naive to think he’d be left alone here.

Lita | The beast that moved through the shadows stalked with the thought of a sentient creature. She could almost feel it lurking, her impatience caused by its impending emergence gnawing through her. Her fingers curled into fists, nails pressing bright red crescent moons into her palms as her knuckles whitened before she'd flex her fingers outwards again. She reminded herself to breathe. A moment passed, a second. A bird took flight somewhere above them and she resisted to urge to turn and look. Barely. And when the beast broke from the shadows of the treeline, its focus was intense as it lunged for her. It might have once been a dog. Now it was deformed, its fur matted with blood in some places, completely gone in others, where bone and muscle sinew were visible to the eye. It was lean, moved with an unnatural swiftness, beady black eyes trained on the girl as it bared teeth and lunged at her. And there was nothing to do but let it come as she lifted her arms as if to block the beast's attacks. Its paws found her shoulders and knocked her backwards, landing her in the dirt with a thud that knocked the breath from her lungs. Its jaws had closed around her right forearm but it didn't break skin, just a lot of slobber as it shook its head over her. "Alright, alright," she chided, a little laughter bubbling through the words. The mutt was wagging the stub of its tail and Lita forfeited. "Fine, you win, now get off o' me!" she heaved as she pressed the palm of her left hand to the mutt's shoulder. The dog gave a playful growl of protest and she reached for her bag once he released her arm. "You cheated," she grumbled as she hauled herself back to her feet and fished a strip of jerky from her bag, handing it to him. The mutt seemed rather pleased with himself as he meandered a few feet away to enjoy his reward. Lita scoffed at the critter and brushed dirt from her dress. "In my defense, this clearing was not supposed to be here." She realized she was arguing with a dog who was far more interested in his treat and rolled her eyes at him, turning towards the stranger, as if just realizing he were present. Dark eyes flickered towards the rune stones in his hand and a wary look of fear passed her features for a moment. "He cheated, for the record. This never used to be here." she motioned around them to the little clearing, as if the stranger hadn't just overheard her conversation.

Dominic hasn’t even been able to fully process the sight of the thing springing forward through the break in the trees before he feels the sensation of being brusquely shoved further into himself. He resists, pushing back against the loss of control, but the voice in his head retorts -- “Look, kid, we can work on you beating that dummy into a pulp all day, but that beast is -real- and it’s not going to stand around and wait for you to stutter it to death, or whatever it is you’d do on your own. Now, you can let me take this one, or --” and then everything is turned on its head; the beast is not some deadly animal bent on making a meal out of the girl before them but just some mutt play-fighting. Dominic feels the voice freeze in recognition and skulk back into the back of his brain somewhere. “Another time, Brand,” the man murmurs aloud, though from all outward appearances he’s done absolutely nothing in his seconds of internal struggle and is now speaking to no one. He steps forward two short paces, body language guarded, and shoves the rune stone back into his pocket. Green eyes dart from the dog to the girl and back again to the dog before he relaxes his posture slightly. “What is the meaning of this?” he asks the girl tersely, attempting (and mostly failing) to conceal an expression of mild irritation.

Lita was a bit taken aback by the stranger's brusqueness. She hadn't quite been expecting it. Chio looked up from the jerky he'd been gnawing on and licked his lips, baring teeth in a little snarl as he regarded the stranger with a mute expression. Lita what she'd been expecting but she cleared her throat and tried to seem apologetic as she waved a hand at Chio, a sort of 'stand down' gesture. He wasn't always so good at taking orders but the jerky usually held his interest. "Started south of Frostmaw someplace. He likes snow, I miss the islands and unfortunately the simplest way to entice 'im into doing anything is by bribery. He likes the rabbit jerky. Frostmaw has the best. Anyway, rule is if he wins, he gets a piece. Got caught up through the main streets of Kelay, though, tons o' people out that way for some reason. Thought it might be simpler to cut through the forests and try to lose 'im, maybe run through Gualon, but was not expecting this clearing to be here. 'Course it's been a few years since I've ventured this way now, usually prefer Larket to Sage if I've tryin' around Kelay's streets, but ever since one o' their guards put an arrow in me, I've steered pretty clear." She was rambling. Nervous habit. She bit her bottom lip and drew a deep breath. "I'm Lita, this is Chio." she hooked a thumb over her shoulder at the mutt, who was far too engrossed in his treat to be bothered with the pair. "Didn't mean to interrupt your--" she glanced past him towards the straw dummy who may or may not have been winning that fight. "Well, didn't mean to interrupt, anyway."

Dominic takes several slow, measured breaths while Lita prattles on; it would take some time to fully come down from the adrenaline rush. As Lita finishes her ramble, he follows her glance back to the dummy and grumbles something under his breath before eyeing the girl again. It’s clear he’s trying to look stern, but a visible undercurrent of anxiety undermines him somewhat in this endeavor. “Uh, Dominic. And, look, don’t worry about it, it’s fine,” he sputters in response, waving a hand dismissively, “but I’d thought you were in danger. Could have blown your…” here he gives the dog a skeptical look, “...your -Chio- creature sky high.” The man’s statement sounds sincere, but he certainly doesn’t look the part. He couldn’t be a day over thirty at the oldest, but his figure is haggard and he looks as if he hasn’t had a full night’s sleep in a good decade or more. He’s shaved, but his hair looks like it’s been allowed to grow out overlong; black bangs stick messily to the perspiration on his forehead or fall over his eyes. His clothes are simple leathers, cotton, and linen, and with the exception of two well-traveled, sturdy boots they look fairly new but a tad ill-fitting -- as if they were given to him out of charity or else he just couldn’t be bothered with seeking out a tailor. His sleeves are rolled up to his elbows and his left forearm sports a ring of skin far paler than its surroundings. It’s obscured when he folds his arms across his chest. “What’d you do to get yourself shot at?” Whatever his desire to be left alone, it seems to be temporarily overridden by curiosity.

Lita wasn't certain the boy would've done much damage with those pretty little rocks of his. She'd read enough about magic to have a basic understanding. She didn't trust it much, certainly wasn't a practitioner. Didn't meet many who practiced the craft on an island where brute strength and secrets were used as currency. She bit the inside of her lower lip to try and keep from smiling as he mentioned that he could have blown them, 'sky high', was it? She glanced over her shoulder at the mutt, who seemed as amused by the concept as he made a little growl at the pair before going back to that jerky. Lita didn't much enjoy letting this stranger have an upper hand in conversation but she'd let him have it, for now. She'd lived just over three decades as a human and was still a young vampire by any standards, but the change had left her with a love for life's adventure and a willingness to live with a sense of reckless abandonment that often made people assuming she was much younger. His question was a distraction from her own thoughts and she blinked dark eyes at him as he reclaimed her attention. "Oh, it was a couple of years ago. Turns out Larket guards are pretty particular about who they do and do not let into their armories." She shrugged bare shoulders but the memory made her smile and left her with a sudden craving for muffins. She shook her head lightly and nodded towards the strange little training dummy apparatus he'd been whacking at prior to her interruption. "What are you trying to fight?"

Dominic followed Lita’s nod with a turn of his head. When he spoke it was with his eyes at the dummy’s ‘torso’. “Uh, nothing especially. Just going over the basics.” This seemed in conflict with the power his previous statement implied, but he wasn’t forthcoming about any reason for the contradiction. He shrugged and blew a strand of hair out of his face.

Lita lofted a brow at Dominic, not quite believing his statement but wasn't her place to contradict it. And what should she care anyway? "Would've been pretty heartbreaking, I reckon." She stood akimbo and shook her head at the thought. "To see Chio, what was it, get 'blown sky high'?" She didn't bother trying to hide the sarcasm in those words. She made a low whistle and Chio moved to his feet, padding the few feet to where she stood. The mutt nudged Lita's knee with his nose and she bent a little to scratch behind his ear, at which point he shook his head and gave a little growl, eyeing Dominic with his one good eye. The fur surrounding the creature's left eye was gone, leaving patches of skin and muscle visible. The eye itself, while intact, was absent of color, having long since turned a cloudy white. Lita still wasn't sure if it had rendered him unable to see from that eye or simply allowed him to see something else entirely. Lita nudged the animal playfully with her knee. "We should get going, I s'pose. Leave you to it."

Dominic twisted his lips to one side at Lita’s sarcasm, but stood statue still otherwise. His reply, when it came, was only to her last few sentences, a simple “Okay then, see ya.” He dropped his eyes down to meet the dog’s and shifted his weight from one leg to the other and back again. He didn’t move back to the dummy or make any other indication of resuming his earlier routine. He just … stood there. Guarded.

Lita made sure that little smile never faltered. She didn't mind him being guarded. She was used to guarded, could handle guarded. There was a certain finesse about the games that she'd never quite been able to walk away from. But for now, she'd got what she'd come for. She tugged at Chio's ear to get the mutt's attention and when he looked up at her, she whispered a few words under her breath that weren't of a common tongue. Elven, if he knew any of it, a southern dialect, judging by the accented drawl. Chio took off at a sprint, running towards the opposite end of the clearing from the way they'd come. "Been a pleasure, Dom." Lita managed, probably still with a little sarcasm, as she turned on her heels to make her way after that critter.

Dominic || “A pleasure…” Dominic echoed thoughtfully, sans the sarcasm. He remained rooted to the spot for as long as he could still see or hear her.