homeless_pard | A flight long in the running...

Entry tags:

jason au,
starter

A flight long in the running...

Who: Khem and a new world!
When: Start of canon smash here!
What: Terrified kitty arrives in the vague area of St. Louis.

Tired. She was so bone weary that had someone told her that she'd die but it would be in a bed, she might honestly accept that trade at this point. The pads of her feet were leaving red marks along the rough stone she scrambled and clawed haphazardly upward, ever upward, ever away, through so many terrains they all blurred together in a haze of color and snatched hunts.

She should have lost him. Should have, and there had been times over the past turns where she had almost believed him gone. Finally shaken from her trail and naught more than a shadow left in her mind to spur her onward. Any hunter would eventually give up on game when coursing it had run to long...

...surely?

Ah, but she'd little experience with hunters, those near the abbey were more farmers with the occasional lord's man, and even had they needed care it was likelier that they would seek tending from their own ladies. AN isolated abbey was not easy to seek out when ill.

Still, it had seemed logical that he'd stop. At the Wastes perhaps.

At the Falls.

At the turn of blasted scree to strange, new lands past where tales she knew ended...

...and yet here she was, his shadow practically nipping at her heels. She was flagging and he hadn't stopped. This hunt was soon to end, as any chased thing knew in time, escape simply wasn't going to happen. Mayhap it would kinder, cleaner, to miss a jump. To tumble and not reach for ledges as she went down.

Kinder...but she shrank from it none the less. A little further...

...a little further...

...until there was naught left but sheer walls and a deep, dark crack between. A cave, not a passage. No exit. A tomb for one hard worn girl who had thought, foolishly, that finding fur had granted her freedom. And so it was to end.

If he hounded her even here, his bootsteps harsh on the stones behind her, then she was determined he would know who he was to slay. Not some cat that had teased him, not some furred prize, but as a woman. If he was to slay her, let him slay a woman and be haunted by her face. An unkindness perhaps, but she was far past ability to feel for him.

To wonder if she could explain, or beg her safety somehow.

No, let him have a flickering pang of conscience as he did his fell deeds. And so as the mouth of the cave darkened she set her back to the stone, fingers rather than claws lifted to shade her face, skin covered in long, dark hair and gooseflesh that gave some semblance of proper depth to her too-thin frame.

Let him slay a woman.

And yet, as she watched the dull, metallic sheen of a dart gun rising, it wasn't pain she felt burn through her chest but warmth where her single item, the amber stone on a string about her neck graced to her by Gunnora, flickered like sunlight and the wall at her back faded to naught so that she was falling...

...falling...

...falling...

...there was a brief scream, she couldn't help it, as her shoulders struck beaten grass and tree roots, shock making the sound choke off as abruptly as it had started. A heartbeat, two, as she stared up at tangled tree limbs and dappled light she shouldn't be seeing then she was sitting up with a gasp, trying to espy the Hunter.

And he was not there. Somehow, somehow...he was not there, and she sat in a wood far younger than the one before the stones she'd climbed, hands and feet still bleeding harshly from the abuse she'd pounded into them over the many moons of travel. She was alone and she was...naked. The stone upon her breast cooling from it's earlier warmth. She'd give thanks somehow, later. For now she shivered back into fur in a blur of mist and achingly, carefully, hauled herself up into a tree to try to determine where she might be.

A how would take much longer no doubt, but...

...rest seemed a blessing, and she was still so very, very tired.

With luck there would be no fresh, strange beasts to contest her claiming the crook of a tree, there to watch, or likelier pass into blessed unconsciousness.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He watched her hands settle back in her lap with almost regret, but she was clearly traumatized and he wasn't about to lost his mind over a touch to his cheek.
"You get to stay because you needed help. You're far from home with nothing familiar, in a very very different place than you left." He flashed a cocky smile. "And you get to stay because I invited you to, and Jean Claude said yes."

"Such is a kindness on all parts, lord," she pointed out gently. "And a rarity as such in any world I would think." Yes.

Very much so.

"Is your high lord in need of more vassals?"

He grinned. "Not too rare if you know the right people." They had more than their share of danger here, but his friends were close and they were always happy to help someone in trouble.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. He didn't know if she had some other meaning in mind, but the only he could equate to "vassals" were more donors. Or vampires. "Um...like...?" he stammered a moment and gave up. "What are you asking? Are you...volunteering for something?"

"One hopes that the right sorts are as you say then," she chuckled softly, more sad exhaustion in the sound than mirth.

"This is a holding, yes? And there are people who do many things, yes?" she blinked. "It is best to approach a High Lord with intent to be of service if one wishes to stay within their lands, yes?"

His brow knit together as he tried to think. "Yes and no? He's the Master of St. Louis. He's the leader of his group of vampires. He has a business that's mostly run humans in the daytime, and he's been training me to kind of watch over things to make sure the day-to-day decisions are what he wants. And then there's his clubs, but that's...not for you."

He looked to the ceiling, mentally factoring the extent of Jean Claude's influence in the city. "The wolves are his to call, so they kind of have an understanding. Well, yeah, kind of. Our pack leader and Jean Claude don't really like each other." He winked at her. "Girl trouble. But you're not a wolf, so you don't have to honor that arrangement anyway."

"...ah?" Yeah, he'd lost her.

More than a bit.

But..."so you are to be his seneschal?" Raised to handle his affairs and smooth running of lands so the High Lord may focus on other matters? IT SEEMED THE MOST RELATABLE THING HE'D SAID!

Girl trouble. She had...no idea where to go with that. "Ah...they are...shield brothers whom a lady is playing off one another?"

He's just as lost at the word "seneschal". "I...guess? He trusts that I won't let them change what he's ordered. And being his pomme for as long as I have, I guess he feels I know him well enough to handle it."

He snickered at her description. "I guess you could say that." He sobered a bit, smiling sadly. "There's bad blood there. Neither of them are bad guys, but when it comes to Anita they're just ready to kill each other. Or try to make shit more difficult for everyone if it means taking a poke at the other."

"A seneschal," she agreed with a small smile "A good role for a kind man who may also know when to be firm as it aids in ensuring the High Lord need not worry at the daily aspects of his lands and his time is not wasted with such worries as may be resolved by you." And he would do well, she was certain!

"Ah...such as might be best neither had such Lady so that the lands may be at peace proper?"

He smiled, and his cheeks may have colored slightly at the compliment. Which felt weird, too...

He bit his lip to keep from laughing. "You will not get me to admit that out loud," he said as he strangled back the laugh. "Every time I get involved I end up getting thrown through a wall or something."

He was fair when be blushed was he not? She blinked and shifted her gaze away at that realization!

"Mayhap I may speak to her, as a woman? Strife benefits none..." she mused. She'd be willing to try at least though..."is it common to go through walls in this world?!"

He shook his head emphatically. "I wouldn't. She gets...prickly when you try to tell her something she doesn't want to hear. And Jean Claude likes her, so it's best to not stir that pot. Sometimes they all fall into a quiet spell and then we can all enjoy it."

He made a face, looking sheepish. "Uh, well, sometimes I can't keep my own mouth shut and am...uh...quickly and firmly corrected."

"Ah...so it is that which the two lords involved must realize on their own and she may cause harm to their people with angry words in their ear?" she sighed. Such was the life of lesser lords and ladies, immensely, but...yes.

"Please do not do so! People are not build to survive such well, especially if it is often!"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. Or she doesn't even say anything and just stops banging them and starts banging everyone else..." His eyes widened. "Shit. You did not hear me say that. Seriously, it's comments like that that get me in trouble."

But, she at least seemed concerned? "I mean, it's rarely bad. And we're built a little sturdier than most 'people'."

That was blank, mildly horrified, staring yes. "She abuses the lords and others?" What awful creature was this woman?! Banging and beating was not conducive to a healthy holding in any regard!

"Sturdiness or no walls are not kind!"

"Well I'll do my best to keep from denting them while you're around," he teased.

It took a minute and he was biting back another laugh. "I mean, you could say that. But it has a...uh...different meaning in this situation." He gave her a pointed look, raising his eyebrows.

She met his look with a blank one of her own? No, it was not a term EVER used in sexual context in her knowledge so it was NOT what she would think of? Um? "And what meaning may it hold beyond abuses?" she asked, trying not to feel utterly moronic as it seemed obvious to him?

The blank look kind of tugged out some guilty feelings, and he dropped the knowing look. He wasn't used to people who were so...innocent, and she was already having to make some major life adjustments finding herself here. He didn't want to make her feel like an idiot on top of all of that.

"Sex," he said gently. "It's slang for sex."

"...ah." She perhaps understood why he could not, or should not, be clear in such but..."she is such as trades her favors lightly and often?" She asked it carefully, not assuming the woman was a, ah, paid woman but...

...mayhap the lords in question preferred a degree of skill rather rather than the stability of being wed?

"There's a lot more to it than just that, I'm just..." He laughed. "Probably just bitter than I'm not on the list of regulars."

He joked. Right? Mostly joking...

"But again," he urged seriously, "it's a topic that gets a lot of people on edge, so let's just keep it between us, hmm?"

"...ah." He yearned for others. Specifically a woman who claimed many and might cause instability. Of course, a kind lord was merely that, kind, not open to such as she. It was because she was tired that she had even briefly thought otherwise. "It is not such as I would be known to speak of," she admitted quietly.

She smiled at her, not knowing the thoughts now dampening her mood. "Thanks." He might not know her thoughts, but he noticed a slight shift in her manner. "Hey, I'm already feeling better. Let's figure out something to eat. What would you eat if someone brought you anything you wanted right now?"

She leaned against the wall on one side of the bed and huffed a small, very small laugh, "bread. I have not had honest bread in turns now. Fresh foods that are not meat..." There was honest yearning in that tone! Hard to eat a turnip as a cat on the run after all, much less anything else!

He thought for a moment. "I mean, bread we can do. And something vegetarian? Or something that's not just meat?"

There was a small local place that did the sort of home-cooking style comfort food; he didn't know if they had any vegetarian options, but it would probably be more familiar to her palate than some of the local chain restaurants.

"Not just, or not all meat, I have had naught but," she chuckled softly. Likely she was going to critique the bread though. And the cooking. And practically dissect it yes.

How could she not?

"Well this place nearby, it's a small place but should still be open for an order. They have stuff like pot roast, chicken and dumplings, and they have this really good paprikash dish there, too. And they usually have some steamed veggies, mashed potatoes..."

He grinned. "Is there anything you don't like? We can order a few things and you can pick what you like."

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