[littl3chocobo]

he flinched as the strange woman entered the water and wandered up the shallower part of the water and hid behind a bend near a rock-break. his breaths came quicker as he watched and hoped the woman had brains enough not to scare off the musician, he wanted to hear the end of the song and he was certain if the man was playing so far away from the world he did not want to be heard

[NikkoGallarado]

Looking from Lucien to Noelle she blinked some. "My grand mother taught me how to read atmosphere, she said it will come in handy when something is going on with a group of people." she said to him then looked back to the women seeing she was not really any better then watched her leave. "Something must be really wrong if she feels like that. . ." as she rested her hand on the hilt of her sword watching the women she never really got to meet run off.

"Lucien, did you do something to hurt that lady's feelings?" she asked looking to him.

[Espy]

Hey... Cu resisted the urge to run after the woman, and instead kept walking, wondering what had happened. As the footsteps receded into the distance, Cu wrenched his attention back to the matters at hand. Still intrigued by the girl in front of him, he couldn't resist patting her head to make sure the fox ears weren't still there.

[Ookami-onea-chan91]

Mairi tilted her head and caught the tune, smiling lightly she moved to the bank and sat down. "Mmmm.... What a pretty song." Smiling as she tried to locate the source with her eyes, but have up after a little bit. "Wonder what could be doing that." Murmuring a he lay back in the sun warmed tall grass. "Why can't the forest be like this more often."

[NikkoGallarado]

Suddenly feeling someones hand on her head that was not Lucien's hand, she became scared suddenly instantly changing into a fox her swords and pouch falling to the ground as she curled up. "Please don't eat me!" as she shook trying to hide behind her swords and pouch.

[Espy]

That took several seconds to fully register in Cu's mind. Eat...her? Why would I do that? Do I really look all that intimi-- He hadn't finished his thought when he realized his face was hidden, and that his golden eyes probably looked quite scary. He gave it a few seconds more thought, then somewhat reluctantly pulled the hood down.

...Now why'd I do that? I'm probably even more frightening to her, now, he wondered, his wolf ears twitching in frustration.

[NikkoGallarado]

"Ahhh you're a little more scary now." as she huddled up against her swords bright blue eyes looking up at Cu. She had not idea what was going to happen and now she was scared cause this was happening and she had no idea who this person was. "If. . . your not going to eat me are you going to pet me?" she asked him in wonder she liked that feeling if they where she would let them it was a nice feeling when Lucien did it.

[Espy]

...Uh. Do foxes have the same reaction as dogs? Apprehensively, he slowly slid a hand under the fox's muzzle. Er. I wonder if they prefer to...scent out the person...before... His ears had swiveled around on full alert, and Cu's inner voice scolded himself for worrying about getting a shapeshifting fox to like him more than about his surroundings and the people around him, who, at any given time, could attack him.

..I meant, she's just a fox, really. I don't think she could effectively use the swords much, anyways...

[NikkoGallarado]

Feeling the other softly start to pet her, she slowly uncurled from around her belongings nuzzled more into his hand. "Oh your nice, you also have an interesting sent on you but here. . .I should maybe tell you who I am first." moving away to be able to change back into her human form. Then stood in front of Cu smiled at him some. "My name is Kanon. And you are?" kneeling down to pick up the swords place then back at her hip ting the pouch back to it, then held out her hand to shake the others.

[Espy]

"..."

Cu stooped down and cleared out a twig-free patch of dirt, then started writing. He had barely gotten to the second "A" in Cabhan before he paused, though for a bit, then scrawled out what had been written and simple scribbled "Cu" instead.

...Is that even legible? I guess it's good I can spell my own name...

Finishing and standing back up, he took off the now-dusty glove and took the girl's hand in his own. How old is she? Her hand is tiny!

[NikkoGallarado]

Watching the other kneel down to write there name down she watched carefully seeing how they didn't seem to really speak. "Cu. ." she said softly, "What an interesting name you have." as she looked up at him with smile feeling his hand take hers. "Oh wow, it seems I am very small next to someone like you. But you also have a look of how old can I be. Well to answer your question, I am eighteen years of age." looking him over more. "So what about you? How old are you? What do you do? Do you live here? Are you friend with Lucien and the others?" she asked him since this was another new person she was meeting so she thought it would be good to try and get to know them. "Am I asking to many things? Am I bothering you?" as she stood in her spot still looking at Cu.

[Espy]

Cu winced at the barrage of questions, then trace on his left palm a "23". He supposed that his curiousity much have presented itself on his face, because the girl definitely didn't not have the stature of a normal eighteen-year-old. ..."Friends"? With a guy who just almost attacked me? I think not. He glared again at Lucien, and shook his head, hard. ...Nope, definitely not.

He reached into his pocket again, cautiously unfolding the wrinkled parchment and showing her the bounty printed at the bottom.

[NikkoGallarado]

"Oh your way older then me. . .so how come you don't talk?" she asked watching his shake his head hard against the part of being friends with Lucien then watched the other taking out a piece of paper. Taking the wrinkled paper looked at it. "So is Lucien a bad person?" she asked Cu then looked over to to where he was. Now she was confused he was nice, and the new person she met was nice and maybe Noelle was nice but sad at the moment. "So. . . .are you a hunter of some sort?" asking another question to the other. Now Kanon was confused as to who was good and nice and who wanted to eat her.

[Espy]

Not as if I didn't used to be able to talk... Cu thought back to a certain battle, while lifting up the bottom of his hood to expose his deeply-scarred throat. The skin around the puckered scar had stayed mangled for years, and still was. It had very nearly ended his bounty-hunting career, and more than that.

Lucien... Cu shrugged. He'd only just met the swordsman. No telling whether the man was good or bad. But then again, it wasn't so easy to tell in this day.

[NikkoGallarado]

"Oh I'm sorry I ask. . .I'm sorry you can't talk, I bet when you could talk you had a really nice voice." she smiled up at him raised her had up to try and see if she could touch the scar, it was sad for her no one should never not be able to talk or not enjoy trying to communicate with others. "Maybe we can fine a away to make it easy for you to talk to others." she said to him.

[Natsunaine]

Lucien spaced off into the distance as the two had there converstaion, Something was odd. He had that sudden feeling in his stomach that something was wrong. He snapped out of his spaciness long enough to see that The man had written his name in the dirt as well as showing Kanon a scar on his throat. Interesting so thats why he cannot talk, Never heard of a mute mercenary before. Lucien chuckled to him self then glanced over at Kanon. "Kanon, i must leave to the north i have a strange feeling about something. You stay here with.... Cu was it? Im sure he won't hurt you."

It was at this point that Lucien Drew his sword the lightning gracefully dancing across his sword and creating a small serpent. He dashed at full speed through the forest and out of the path to the north, where he had told his troop to lay in wait for his arrival. As he came upon the site the air was filled with smoked and charred skin the smell made his stomach turn, The camp was dead everyone of his troops were accounted for unfortunately for Lucien they had been slaughtered.

"....C...a..pt..ain.." a struggling voice was heard Near by, it was Then that Lucien noticed a man reaching up towards him at his ankle gasping for breath. Lucien knelt down to the man and looked at him with remorse and fear. "Try to stay calm you'll make it out of this, Who did this?" The man coughed holding his side in pain trying his best to talk to lucien.

"After Mairi had left a group of solider led by this strange human dressed in white bone like armor attacked, we didn't stand a chance. They then burned the entire campsite and left towards the north-east" Lucien placed his hand gently over the man's mouth enough to silence him but keep airflow normal. "Rest, you will be fine im sure Mairi still has that bag of medical supplies buried somewhere around this place." Lucien stood up and began wandering through the burnt and slaughtered camp site.