This place...this place stank of death and blood. Hak'Zhakuu's nostrils flared as he puffed in the musky stink. Over the hill, a boneyard of some sort. He could smell it. Like fear, acceptance, old flesh. A shudder ran the spine of the normally bold lion, and he turned from the gray smudge on the land. How like that place it was. The color was the same, it brought back such memories. A crowded cave, the raking claws...He turned his eyes to the wide blue sky. A bird flew overhead. He was free, there was nothing to fear.
Still, he determined to change course and detour around the boneyard. With luck it would be soon long gone and behind him. Ever since his stay in that horrible pride he could never inderstand why anyone would want to linger in such a place of hopeless endings.
Mora'era didn't quite see it that way, after all...death was her job, in a way, though she had to admit that the aftermath itself was quite messy. Picking her way over the stones...away to greener pastures for the moment, she wondered if the world outside was as large and scorching and unfriendly as she remembered it. She'd found solace amongst the demons, and Vergil in especial. It was time, however, to leave...at least for a little while. She was on a quest of her own, and she had her Aran'shale's blessing, and that was all she cared about.
Raising her head, she scanned the horizon with bright eyes. Well...there seemed to be life out here someplace. Scampering a bit, she stopped again, tilting her head as those eyes narrowed. Well then, there was something living out here. "Greetings, Stranger!" She called out, as she was not on patrol, had no reason to be aggressive...in fact...every reason NOT to be aggressive.
As if in a blatent attempt to betray his previous thoughts, indeed a voice met Hak's ears. They twinged and he slowed, glancing around. Against the dark land she was hard to see at first, but a moment's observation found her well enough. A lioness to match the landscape, dark in fur. She seemed friendly enough, and so he offered her a return greeting.
"Greetings to you as well, my lady!" Somehow yelling seemed unfashionable, and with a little frown he deviated from his course to approach the newcomer. "A frightful place for the fairer gender to linger in, it seems." as to if he was joking was unclear. He dipped in a slight bow once he faced her. "My apologies for not giving my name before. I am Hak'Zhakuu."
Ah, what a particularly nice fellow he seemed, and what was he doing all the way out here? With a pleased smile on her maw, she dipped her head politely in greeting. "I am Mora'era, and it is a pleasure. You don't see many fellows with your manners out here. If indeed, you see anyone at all." Unless they be demons or vampires or something even nastier. "But I, myself, am on a journey, not lingering at all...I don't mind death so much, but its aftermath is less than pretty." A frown of distaste. She was, by trade, an assassin, not a gravedigger.
Ahh, a fine lady indeed, with manners unfitting for the time and place. That struck Hak's fancy immediately. How long had it been since he'd met one of similar mind to his own? "Mora'era...a pleasure. Indeed, manners are rare this day and age, but I assure you there are some who still hold them in the highest value. Ah, I too am on a journey." Who wasn't, really? He was slightly bemused to find her so openly admitting her acceptance of death...a flower with thorns, then.
