RP:Trial by Spiders, or Khitti Earns Her Stripes

Summary: Khitti and Orikahn, having previously agreed to do so, meet up to exterminate a den of giant spiders. Though Orikahn is suspicious of Khitti when he finds out she's undead, the two have little choice but to overcome their differences as they climb into the dreadful den and confront the eight-legged monstrosities within. A few close calls (and a lot of fire) later, the two emerge comrades. They celebrate their hunt at the Hanging Corpse. There, Orikahn officially inducts Khitti into the Ranger's Guild.

Dark, Twisted Path

Orikahn hangs from the bark of a tree by his claws, about halfway up the trunk, staring down with piqued interest. The sabercat is playing lookout, and he studies an ominous mouth in the root-woven soil, a sort gaping cave whose lips are white-grey with fine, cottony, fibrous mats of silk. Spider silk. A fearsome stench wafts up from the strange, yawning well, and sometimes, strange rumblings and scufflings come from within. Kahn has abandoned his armor, and as he clings there, suspended, he has with him only a few sparce posessions: a flint knife tucked in its leather sheath and hanging from a cord around his hips, a granite tomahawk hanging likewise, a quiver of arrows over one shoulder, an embroidered bag no bigger than his fist, and a very sturdy-looking bow over the other shoulder. A loincloth spares his dignity. The black and coffee stripes of his fur would blend better if Kahn ascended higher into the shadows of the branches, but for the moment, he dares not move. He is watching.

Khitti's silent footsteps brought her into the area, long red locks flowing on the breeze behind her. The former human was nigh elf-like with her movements, an attribute gained from all those years in the forest of her homeland, and heightened by the gift of vampirism. As she made her way further into the dark forest, and the trees became increasingly covered in bits of spider silk, a shiver ran the length of her lithe form. Did it really have to be spiders she was hunting? Couldn't it have been something more pleasant? Something less disgusting? An unnecessary breathe was sucked between her teeth, fangs bared slightly, only to then be let out in an uneasy sigh. Give her a horde of undead, give her necromancers, but give her not the likes of those eight-legged, beady-eyed hellspawns. The ones around here weren't even normal. They carried the taint of the very forest she darted through, and that made things all the worse. -Where was that damned overgrown feline anyway?-, the vampiress wondered to herself. She thought she had caught his scent, but now things were starting to come up arachnid. Adorned in that Kreekitaka-made dress of hers, she glowed slightly beneath her long, black duster, like a faint beacon of light in the cold, dark grasp of the night.

Orikahn very nearly missed Khitti's approach. In fact, if it wasn't for that sigh, she could have passed him altogether. His ear twitches, and his head rotates around toward the source, eyes blinking in gradual succession, one-two-three. Aha. "Kss!" He tries to get *her* attention without alerting the whole forest. "Kss. Ksst!" Lucky for the sabercat, his swelling's gone down since their last encounter with the spiders; he's been more careful since when butchering great, scuttling, hairy beasts. Carefully, one paw at a time, he begins descending his tree, carefull that when his foot touches the ground, it touches down on the opposide side of the tree from that queer, abyssal gape. "Khitti!" It's a harsh whisper, hopefully sharp enough to carry and reach her, and he waves to gain her eye. "The den," Khan points with his other hand, "I found the den."

Khitti blinks those dark green eyes of hers and stops mid-step. The 'kss kss ksst' caught her attention first as intended and then her own name. Booted feet backpedal just a bit and a pivot brings her face to face with the hunter. She gives him an incredulous stare, then a side glance in the direction he was pointing. The direction she had been going. Good job, woman. Let's almost run into the home of one of the very things you despise most. A faint, disdainful smirk forms and then a nod is offered to the cat as she pulls her bow from her and an arrow retrieved from her quiver. "I see you're all better now." is whispered to Orikahn, accompanied with a bit of mirth.

Orikahn unshoulders his own bow and follows suit, slowly plucking out an arrow of his own and careful not to cause any clatter as he does. "Much. Itched and burned. So hot to touch. Then it went down, and I had my face back." Remembering, he touches the feathered fletching of his arrow to his cheek with a few thoughtful, perhaps indicative taps. "Well," Kahn sighs through his nose and tips the arrow to point at the den instead, "there are at least three. Unless there are more." How many more? "Who knows. How are your eyes in the dark? Good? Bad?" Turning the arrow back the right way around, he knocks it and takes a testing step forward, and another, creeping one pace at a time toward the hellish, webspun shadows.

Khitti lets Orikahn go first. She wasn't exactly thrilled to be going into the den. She was, however, quite okay with getting rid of the whole lot of them. She too nocks her arrow, but keeps the projectile and bow pointed towards the ground for the time being. "Good." Using the teachings Daermon had given her, she uses her vampiric sight to survey the area as they crept towards the den. First the ground just near them, then a bit into the trees that surround them, and then...up? Oh. The vampiress' eyes widen as she looks to the boughs of the trees just in front of the cave itself. She imitated his 'kss ksst' to now get -his- attention. "Orikahn...zhe trees...", a nod then sent in the direction she had found them. Three in total, hanging upside down by a single, thick thread. She'd continue to walk just a little past the feline, but unfortunately with a ~crack-snap~ she manages to step on and break a stray branch. This alerts at least one of the spiders, who slowly falls to the ground in the creepiest fashion possible.

Orikahn freezes at Khitti's hissed signal, tail puffing out, and he glances back at her. The trees? Following her eyes, he soon spots the spider as it gradually descends upon its thread and lands, legs splayed to turn and face the hunting pair. Orikahn's not one to hesitate. He draws, he shoots. There's the hssssTHWP of an arrow, accompanied by the sickening crunch of the flint broadhead embedding deep in the creature's chitinous carapace. His colored fletching protrudes from just above a foreleg, not too far below the head, and bilious slime squirts out like a busted hydraulic line. The leg goes slack, momentarily throwing off the creature's equilibrium. No matter. It rears in a territorial display, great curved fangs spreading like a pair of weaponized calipers, black as jet and dripping with milky venom. Likewise, in the same stance, another scuttles up to block the mouth of the den and, conveniently for the spiders, flank the humanoids.

Khitti is definitely the type to hesitate. The urge to have one of those girl freak out moments and cry 'Ew ew ew!' is resisted. The eight-legged beast was utterly vile as it descended and then reared up once Orikahn had taken out one leg. The vampiress is drawn back out of her horror-induced reverie when the realization that they're flanked has entered her mind. A faint growl issues forth from her throat, dark eyes shifting back and forth between the spiders as the hunters now become the prey. Her ancient bow is lifted, aim taken towards the arachnid that blocked the den. An idea occurs to her in the moments that she stands there. Pulling back the string with right hand, the left holds the bow with her thumb and forefinger as tightly as she can. The other digits are left to splay outward, the dark tendril magic summoned forth from the tips of them. The vine-like magic swirls around the tip of the arrow, just below the metal arrowhead and essentially ties itself to it. Like a rope attached to a projectile, it's sent flying into the abdomen of the spider, penetrating the exoskeleton of the beast. With the opening made, it allows her to sink the tendrils inside and weave about, connecting the spider to her like a puppet to it's master.

Orikahn throws Khitti a sidelong glance, mostly to check and make sure that's she's grounded in the moment and not, as his instincts had briefly suggested she might, losing her head. So his hunting mate has chosen her quarry; Kahn will stick with his own spider. Grateful that the giant arachnid's territorial display has bought him sufficient time to asses the field, the hunter cat shoots once more, and his arrow pops right through the base of a mandible, rupturing one of the venom glands and sending the milky toxin to trickle down the spider's hairy face. The monster rattles an alien cry of distress and scuttles suddenly forward in a pounce. This was the moment Orikahn had been anticipating. He throws down his bow and meets the spider, one leap for another, and he takes the curved fangs in his pawlike hands. The spider has no trouble pushing Orikahn across the leaf strewn ground, for the terrible creature far outweighs the cat, but when it pushes in to land the killing bite, it finds its deadly mandibles thwarted by the cat's hold. To the ground it pushes him, clambering atop the might Kahn, but try as it might, it cannot close its pincer fangs upon him. Teeth gritted, the saber toothed Kahn resists the urge to roar, settling instead for grunts of exertion as his biceps strain in the life-or-death struggle. All the while, the great arachnid's wounds are seeping, seeping, seeping. Perhaps it is *time* for which Kahn fights.

Khitti's dark tendrils weave and sew themselves within the spider's body, grappling onto any sort of muscle it can get ahold of. With a flick of her wrist, the arachnid is brought down to the ground as it's insides slowly spilled out of the hole made in it's abdomen. Thankfully she was far enough away from it, whereas the giant cat was not so lucky at the moment. Once the spider was grounded, a bit of vampiric agility was issued forth and in rapid succession, three arrows were let loose. The first two miss their mark as the spider starts to gain its bearings again, but still manage to penetrate different parts of its body. The third, thankfully, finds home in its skull and it's horrible screeching and skittering comes to an end. "Vell, zhat vasn't so hard..." was muttered as she turned around to find Orikahn battling his own opponent for his very life. The vampiress hisses softly, booted feet adjusting her position so that she was looking the spider in the face. Again a few more arrows are nocked back and fired off. Two find home in it's front legs, in hopes that the distraction and lack of strength would allow Kahn to roll out of the way. A third and forth arrow are then sent without hesitation towards its target: right between the mandibles.

Orikahn has to jerk his head upward and away to avoid allowing a drop of venom to fall onto his face and, potentially, into his eyes. It comes at the cost of exposing his neck. Now struggling blindly against his monstrous adversary, the can instead can see "up" from his place on the ground, and he gets a good upside-down view of Khitti's supporting fire. Ah, good. Knowing relief is soon to come, Kahn finds his second wind and, as the vampire's volleys begin biting the beast, the sabercat finds his chance to give a shove and scramble away, twisting and flailing on the forest floor until he can find his traction. Kahn slips away just as the spider's fangs "clack" against the ground, snapping against the empty dirt where the hunter had laid a split second before. As the killing blows land, the feline leaps to his feet, knocking off the soil and detritus from his fur, and looking eagerly around for any remaining threats. Nothing but a couple of twitching carcasses here. "Good, good," he looks back to the spider that had moments ago threatened his very life, then to his bow on the ground. He'll let the death thrashing settle down a bit before he tries to retrieve his weapon. "Good arrows, with the 'tfffwip, tfffwip'," he mimes a bow shooting gesture, "fine shooting." The cat sounds winded but otherwise unphased by his brush with mortality.

Khitti allows a fanged grin to grace her lips as Orikahn compliments her skill, a dip of her head returned in thanks, "Zhank you, Orikahn. Zhat means a lot. I had a vonderful teacher. I've not exactly been doing zhis all of my life like I'm sure you have, but I've been practicing and getting better." She moves to retrieve her arrows, wiggling them free instead of outright yanking them out to avoid a mishap like what the feline had gone through. "Being a vampire helps a bit too" is added in as she shrugs, wiping the bit of spider guts off onto the ends of her duster. She'd have to wash it -again-. Damn those disgusting arachnids. She pauses a moment, hesitantly staring towards the den before casting a side glance towards Kahn, "Shall ve continue? Or do you need to rest?"

Orikahn wipes at his neck and feels the venom clinging to his fingertips, and he makes a face, wrinkling his nose and looking down to the slick, opalescent fluid. It seemed harmless so far, but it disconcerts Kahn nonetheless. Procuring a half-pint bottle from medicine bag, he uncorks it and shakes out some fluid (grain liquor, by the smell) to try and wash out or neutralize the icky stuff. "No rest for me," he immediately insists, liberally rinsing, using about half the bottle before he stops it and sets it back away. Next is to retrieve his bow and arrows, and Kahn uses caution to imitate Khitti's own. "What is 'vampire' anyway?" Orikahn's genuinely curious. He pads his way toward the mouth of the den, reeking of spirits, and he knocks a salvaged arrow. Curiously, cautiously, he peeks past the corpse of the spider in the den's mouth and peers down into the darkness. "Ugh," he rubs his nose on his shoulder, "what a smell." Tenderly, as silently as one might, he steps over the haphazard limbs and into the silk-lined tunnel.

Khitti makes a face at the smell that wafts from Kahn's bottle, watching as he cleans himself off. A few blinks is first awarded to the cat in response to his inquiry, "Vell...uh...vampires...are..." How does one describe such a thing delicately to one like Orikahn so as not to invoke their sharp claws and terrifying feline rage? "Zhey, um, are dead. But not? Ve're different zhan zhe usual undead zhat I've heard roamed about Frostmaw or still do? I'm not sure. Our abilities, senses, and strength is more heightened zhan most races." She thinks on how to better explain things, a short pause taken to gather her thoughts before continue, "Some are bitey, murderous beings, zhough. Ve all survive on blood, vhether it is of zhe living or in a bottled form. BUT!" And she puts her hands up in the air as if to say 'whoa', defending herself immediately before he can hopefully decide whether or not to kill her now, "Not all of us are like zhat. Some veren't taught any better. Others are just crazy." Lowering her hands, she lets this sink in and hopes that she doesn't have to try to defend herself physically against the male. That didn't exactly sound appealing to the dark ranger.

Orikahn listens with half an ear as he tiptoes deeper and deeper down the inclined tunnel. As the light of the forest, dim dismal twilight as it was already, recedes behind them, he must pause just a moment to let his eyes adjust, and in that moment, he hesitates, actually processing all that Khitti has been explaining, and he turns back to look at her just in time for the vampire's hands to raise defensively. Kahn's phosphorescent eyes narrow to glowing slits as he considers Khitti's message. The dark ranger can likely tell that this news is a strike against her, but the feline doesn't lash out violently. A low, suspicious growl rumbles out of him, and he turns forward again. Not far ahead, the tunnel narrows, and beyond that, the keen ear will hear scuttling, shifting, and crunching. They certainly aren't alone. Creeping up to the lip in the passage, Orikahn presses his back to the wall and dares to peek past. Ah. A sheer vertical drop waits just beyond. This is the den proper, a space large enough to hold a modest cottage, chimney and all, and the tunnel comes in about where one might imagine an attic window. There are four spiders in all. Three cling to the silk-strewn walls, resting perhaps? The keen eye will see the truth; they stand vigil over bulging sacks of eggs. The fourth is happily digesting what looks like some sort of overgrown snake, a giant constrictor of some kind, now in a scarcely recognizable state. If the spiders are aware of the hunters, they haven't yet acted.

Khitti's mouth contorted into a deep frown as she's growled at, dark eyes fixating on the den's floor as she followed along behind him. Should she even bother to further stick up for herself? A heavy, almost sad sigh issues forth from the vampiress, but her focus on the task at hand isn't entirely lost. After a brief moment of composure as Orikahn assesses the situation, she shifts her attention to the various lurking spiders. The frown remains, the vampiress looking to the cat to see if he had some sort of plan. This was definitely not the time to go in and start shooting up a storm. Regardless of whether or not he -does- have a plan, she retrieves an arrow from her quiver and nocks it into place. You studies the rather formidable scene ahead of them. "Gatekeepers are dead." He dares to whisper at Khitti, and he jerks his head indicatively toward the mouth of the tunnel. "Makes me nervous, though. These are prowlers, and if one comes back from the hunt right now, khhcht," Kahn draws a line across his own throat with the upper tip of his bow, "no good for us." His eyes sweep over the den. The spiders have certainly made themselves a comfortable home; every wall is padded with ample silk. "Maybe we should burn them out and wait at the top." Glowing eyes slide to Khitti for approval. Khitti surveys the scene as the cat lets her in on his logically sound plan. She was certainly all for not getting ambushed. In an attempt to keep things quiet, she does nothing more than nod, giving him his needed answer in silence, though she looked weary about it. Hopefully he had something on his person to light the fire that he suggested, for she had nothing to do so. Instead, she'd take a few steps back in order to avoid anything that'd be set aflame, occasionally looking over her shoulder for any spider that might return to the rest of the nest.

Orikahn echoes the nod and, considering the matter settled, stoops at the lip of the den to pull out his bottle of grain spirits once more. Again, the moment he's unstopped it, the smell of potent liquor fills the air, a smell that quickly intensifies as he begins tipping the contents down the side of the den. In agitation, the spiders raise their forelegs, the same territorial display Kahn and Khitti had seen before, but Orikahn is not about to wait for them to make good on such threats. He drops the bottle down the ledge and swiftly procures a flint and steel. A strike sends a spray of sparks dancing over the threads, a second catches silk and liquor alight. Kahn begins backpedaling now, too, retreating away from the flames that are beginning to spread with truly impressive rapidity. There is a smoldering inferno in moments, and a rush of heat and smoke rolls up to greet them. Kahn turns around properly, and he is just about to jog for the entrance when, in that instant, his worst fears are realized. The silhouette of a living spider appears in the mouth of the tunnel, blocking their escape. "Grah!" The cat snarls his anger and flashes his teeth, his own way of cursing fickle fate. "Go, shoo!" He calls, even as a fresh cloud of smoke rolls past him. Deep in the den's heart, the hisses and shuddering shrieks of the spiders below are raising.

Khitti was keeping an eye on the entrance as the smell of the liquor hit her nose. The potent stench caused her to give a look of disgust. Thankfully, however, he had the necessary things to start the fire. And start it he did, for when she looked back, she was met face to face with the very thing undead feared most: the hellish, heated approach of a fiery, painful death. Dark verdant eyes widen in utter fear as she stumbles backwards, nearly falling on the ground before righting herself and heading towards the exit. With the intention of not dying by fire today, she's caught off guard by the spider that blocks their way out, the vampiress skidding to a stop just a few feet from those horrid, dripping mandibles. Why ever did she agree to something like this? A scream bubbles up in her throat, but she manages to stifle it so as not to call anymore attention to their plight. With mere moments to think, she remembers that they're in the middle of the dark forest. In Vailkrin: home to as much dark magic as you could ever possibly conceive. As that thought crosses her mind, her bow is forgotten and her magic called upon once more. She makes a motion in the air, as if to call some invisible force up from the ground. Soon, those same wispy tendrils that had once danced from her fingertips sprung up from the ground, much like a druid's vines, breaking the soft ground up around the spider. Much like she had with the corpse that Kahn had been tending to when they first met, she lets out a growl, both wrists flicking towards the earth, pulling the screeching arachnid down underneath. "Come on!" is shouted over her shoulder at the feline, trying to raise her voice above the shrieks of the spiders in the den, booted feet already carrying her swiftly from the den.

Orikahn had shouldered his bow to draw tomahawk and dagger instead. It's a straightforward business to psych one's self up for a charge, and the cat's breathing is already deepening, his head ducking below the rolling clouds of smoke so he can fill his lungs and stoke the fires of his vigor. Right about the time he's gotten a firm hold, right about the time he's ready to brandish his inner rage and leap into death's jaws, something unexpected happens, something so bizarre that the feline isn't sure he can trust his own eyes. As quickly as the spider has appeared, it has vanished, disappearing from view as though the very earth had swallowed it. He snaps his eyes over to Khitti, perhaps to find some sort of confirmation, but instead, she only urges him to move. Well, far be it from him. Close on the vampire's heels, the feline runs, and as he draws near the mouth of the burrow, as he readies himself to clamber over the fallen body of a once-arachnid, he dares to glance back and can see, scrabbling up after them, many thrashing legs and glinting eyes. He vaults out into the dank forest above and scrambles to put some distance between himself and the cave and must, yet again, switch his weapons. Skidding to a halt, he slips behind a tree for cover and drops his crude, melee implements on the ground. The shrieks and thrashing grow ever louder, but now the flames surge ever brighter, and in the pit of his stomach, Kahn prays that the fire has halted the monsters in the tunnel.

Khitti was still ever thinking, ever strategizing as they made their way out of the cave. Turning around to find that the spiders were still hot on their heel, as was the fire, the vampire is left to quickly formulate a plan again. Using more of her magic, and further draining herself of it, as those acidic globs of hers formed in both palms. She chucks them at a tree to the left of the mouth of the den, enough to cause an unsightly hole in the middle. The same is done to one on the right, ensuring that they'd be easy enough to pull down. Quickly weakening, she sinks to her knees, wisp-like strings issuing forth from her hands again. They lash out and grab hold of the boughs, gripping them tightly as Khitti uses that last bit of her strength to pull the two trees inward in front of the den. The spider that had blocked their path is crushed with a sickening, yet still satisfying 'splat'. One fiery arachnid manages to squeeze through before the opening is closed, intent on feasting first on the now depleted vampiress.

Orikahn gets his bow in his hands and has an arrow knocked and ready when, yet again, strange wonders unfold before him. Aha, so his senses had not deceived him. There is strange, powerful magic at work here, and Khitti is at the source. The trees tumble down, the entry is shut, and all that remains now is (Orikahn's favorite part) mopping up. The flaming, sizzling spider squeezes out and Kahn, whose bloodlust is now peaking, stands and advances from behind cover, drawing and knocking in a flurry of arrows that pepper the addled spider, sending it stumbling and careening, tipping and teetering on its kamikaze course toward Khitti. Arrow after arrow splits the spider's blistered husk and, at last, it nosedives. Skidding, fangs in the dirt, it slides, smoking and steaming, across the forest floor, and finally grinding to a halt no more than an arm's length away from the drained vampire. "Gaha!" Orikahn calls in triumph, and he raises his bow over his head, pumping both arms up and down as he dances in a small, highly animated circle.

Khitti watched wearily from her spot on the ground as Orikahn and his flurry of arrows took care of that last, wretched beast. She braced herself as it skidded towards her, the dark ranger letting out a horrified yelp only to not be pummeled over by a spider corpse. With a heavy sigh of relief, she falls back onto the ground and sprawls out, staring up at the sky. With a turn of her head, she watches Kahn and his victory dance, a wide grin forming as she snickers to herself. "You're quite zhe crazy kitty." She wasn't sure how he'd take to being called a 'kitty' but it amused her nevertheless. She was in no state to fight and would likely just take whatever beatings he'd assail her with.

Orikahn continues his little celebration dance until Khitti's words strike his ears, pulling the sabertooth back to reality. He plucks an arrow out of his quiver and bounds over to her, his animated display no less lively now that he's changed gears. With eyes wide, he towers over her and whips the arrow to point the flint tip down at her breast. "You. You used the wicked ju-ju. You name yourself undead. Tss tss!" Orikahn's eyes widen ever brighter as he stares down the bridge of his nose, hoping to keep her pinned with the ferocity of his gaze. "What bond of trust can bind us? You who walks in death and I who walk in life? What pact can save the kinship we have forged?"

Khitti laid there on the ground beneath his arrow, staring first at the projectile aimed at her face and then up at it's owner, her signature frown reappearing. She wasn't really surprised though by his actions, and all the while as he talks, she doesn't flinch, but instead just focuses on him. When he's finished, she turns her head to the side, looking past him into the forest, "I didn't ask to be zhis vay, Orikahn. Zhe magic is zhere regardless. -She- is zhere regardless." Amarrah appears and floats around near Khitti's head. "Neither of us vanted zhis." She paused, gathering her thoughts. "I may be a vampire, but it vas necessary. Being from zhe shadow plane and humans are not meant to exist in one body. It vas killing me." Looking back up at him, she shakes her head, "I told you vhen I met you zhat I am now in service to Hildegarde. I am giving up my beloved and my home in order to save hers, to keep zhe bad magic from getting in again. I'm not going to let zhat happen." Crimson brows knit together as she finishes her little speech, "If Hildegarde zhe Silver trusts me, zhen vhy can't you?"

Orikahn considers all this, tilting his head to one side, then the other, letting her words roll around in his noggin. A beat of silence passes and then, as quickly as it had come out, the arrow is away again, and he's offering Khitti a hand to help her up on her feet, should she accept it of course. "Good enough for me. You're good with a bow nonetheless, and you're no coward. I need hunters, Khitti," Kahn, ever direct, doesn't hesitate changing gears yet again, "and you're made of the stuff I'm looking for. Say you will join my pride." You appear out of nowhere, spontaneously generating in this area.

Khitti observes the feline in silence as he passes his judgement, blinking as the arrow disappears and the hand is soon offered. She takes it readily and uses it to pull herself with a tired, but once again relieved sigh. She's now the one to tilt her head a bit, a faint grin surfacing at his words. The vampiress takes a moment or two to think about it, then gives an enthusiastic nod, her mood changing like the wind, "Of course I vill, Orikahn." She was quite pleased with this, almost as if she'd do her own sort of victory dance.

Hanging Corpse Tavern

Orikahn glances up and down the bar, still enjoying his post-adrenaline buzz and feeling accomplished. Steadmen, with a wordless scowl, slides two beers toward the cat, and Kahn slides him money. A foamy ale in each hand, he walks back to their table and takes a seat across from Khitti. "Ah, drink, drink. Good hunt, good haul." Kahn glances out the window at the "haul" to which he refers, a giant spider that he's dragged all the way back into town. "Don't think you can leave that outside the shop," Steadmen barks at him, "for hours at a time or something. I'll buy the eggs, and I want it hauled off." Kahn sips his beer, his three eyes never leaving Khitti as he drinks. "We are not friends," Kahn explains, "Eyepatch and I." Orikahn's mood is much too good to spoil just now anyway.

Khitti takes the ale with a nod in thanks as she casts a side glance towards Steadmen upon hearing the barkeep's angry words and Orikahn's explanation. Stifling a giggle and biting her bottom lip for a moment to resist a grin and compose herself once more, she shakes her head, "I can't imagine vhy not?" Her attention sliding back towards the massive feline as she takes a sip, "I've never had a problem vith him. Zhen again, I don't leave giant horrid beasts sitting outside his place of business." Another bit of laughter overcomes her and this time she fails in properly hiding it.

Orikahn can tell Steadmen is still scowling, even without looking, so all the more reason not to turn around. The barkeep doesn't say anything more (for now); he knows he outnumbered and adequately compensated. Another deep swig, and Kahn sets down his half empty drink to wipe the foam from his fangs. "I wasn't being trivial when I offered you a place among my hunters," he dives right into business, "and I hope your answer earlier was serious."

Khitti quirked a brow at the cat, peering at him over the mouth of her bottle before she takes another long drink, secretly wishing it could actually have some sort of affect on her. "If ve had known each other better, I'd likely scold you zhen for not knowing. I'm hardly ever not serious." The red-head leans back in her chair, slumping down a bit into it, feeling quit lazy all of a sudden, "Zhough, zhat also depends on you. Are you fine vith vhat I am and zhe zhings zhat I can do besides shoot a few arrows?"

Orikahn has to raise his brows, eyes widening in acknowledgement as he consider's Khitti's question. "Ah, the bad ju-ju." His tone lowers. "I know it because I have been touched by the darkness, too." Reaching up, he lightly touches his third eye, letting it fall shut and open again. "If, around me, you are a hunter first, always first, that is good enough. Mind your ju-ju, Khitti," solemnly, he takes another sip, "and we have no quarrel." Reaching into his bag, Kahn pulls out a small pouch of some kind, a little square of hide bound tight with a leather tie that he begins unfastening. "Give us a hunter, loyal, and you'll have loyal hunters in return."

Khitti dips her head a bit to Kahn, a slight frown creasing her lips, "I vill do my best, Orikahn, to abide by zhat rule. Zhere are some parts of my magic I cannot contain fully, but I am least vorking on getting it sorted." With a few more gulps, she finishes off what's left of her ale, her dark line of sight shifting towards the bag, and then the pouch, curious of its contents. "Vhat is zhat?"

Orikahn manages to tug the knot in the leather cord loose, and after a bit of unwinding, opens it into a wrinkled square with a little lump of greasy red pigment in the middle. "An ointment. I'm going to anoint you." Standing up, he scoots his chair around a little closer and drags the square across the table, tugging it along so he can sit back down next to Khitti. Well within arms reach, now, he turns and studies her face. "Now," he takes the little hide square in one hand, and he wipes the first two fingers of his other in the pigment, and he clears his throat, taking on a much more somber demeanor, holding up his reddened digits. He's waiting for a sign of approval from her before, you know, wiping paint on her face.

Khitti almost seems uneasy as the cat gets all up in her business. Sadly for him, she's got those terrible personal space issues. She buries it deep down though, in respect for him, and offers the nod of approval that he was seeking. With a faint 'one moment', she slides her right hand through her hair, raking it back out of her face. Once it seems like she's done, he's allowed to proceed.

Orikahn waits until she's surely ready before proceeding. "In the sight of mighty spirits, I annoint you a hunter, that you may live the savage ways and remain ever awake in the primal struggle. Be sealed with vigor," he marks her left cheek, "might," her marks her right, "and ferocity," he wipes a line from the middle of her brow down the bridge of her nose, "that you may uard yourself and of your fellow hunters, in body and in spirit." He punctuates the last by wiping a broad line to redden her whole chin up to the bottom edge of her lower lip. So concluded, he wipes off any remaining excess on the edge of the hide square and sets it down, tying it easily back up so he can hand it to her. "And that's yours, don't lose it."

Khitti bites her bottom lip a little in an awkward way as he goes about with his ritual, applying the ointment and saying his piece. Covered now in what felt like a warrior's war paint, she peeks towards the left of her, then the right, then at Orikahn, taking the pouch and nodding in understanding, "I von't...and zhank you for giving me a chance. Most vouldn't even give it a seconds consideration." A glance is given towards the nearest window, studying the time of day, "I suppose I should head off." Sliding from her chair, she manages a smile for the feline, "I've some zhing still to do before Hildegarde vants us all to set off elsewhere. Good luck vith Steadmen. If he gives you trouble, just tell him I von't buy anymore of his alcohol."

Orikahn finishes wiping his fingers off on the edge of his loincloth and stands. "Very good. Speaking of alcohol," his eyes light up as he remembers his beer, and the sabercat pushes in his chair to walk back around to it. "I'm heading my own way, too, after this, but we'll be seeing more of each other. In fact, I'll need help with something soon. It can wait, though, I'll tell you later. You said you had something to do." Plucking up his beer, Orikahn polishes it off. Steadmen shoots another surly glance toward the two, but continues wiping dishes.

Khitti dips her head in acknowledgment, "Of course. If it becomes something of importance, I actually stay here for now until it's time to move on vith Hildegarde's var party." She juts a thumb towards the staircase that leads up. "If you don't vant to mess vith Steadmen, zhen just holler for me near zhe doors. I'm a light sleeper, unlike zhe drunks zhat take up zhe other rooms." With a slight grin and a wave, she takes off towards the door, exits, and heads down the street towards the west side of the city.