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 Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 12:07 pm
 It was a cold day on the mountain, and as far as Jabril was concerned, that made it a good day. He welcomed the chill north wind at his back and the feeling of frost beneath his paws. It beat sticky mud in his fur and a sweaty coat any day of the week.
Jabril's sisters were off distracting Mom and Dad like good little decoys, talking to themselves and hobbling and giggling and whatever it was that little girls did when he wasn't around. Frankly, he didn't much care. He was happy so long as they were within biting distance of Da. It gave him the freedom to wander off and up the Mountain.
Jabril loved few things better than exploring untouched glades and lesser-known paths. If he was really lucky, sometimes they were full of deadly crags or infested with horrible things. This time around he wasn't so fortunate, but at least he'd come across a small ravine, where breeze swirled with dead leaves, sweeping them up to dance through the underbrush.
Should anyone come upon him, they would be treated to the extremely odd sight of a young Kitsu twisting and jumping and biting at air, like he was trying to get the wind to lift him too.
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Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 8:04 am
 Atae liked to wander as well, though it wasn't for the sake of getting away from people... Well, maybe certain people. But not really because she wanted to be away from them, more that she needed a break from the emotional bombardment that seemed to constantly go on at home. She didn't have to worry about her Empathy when she was out in the middle of nowhere and only likely to meet strangers who wouldn't trigger it...
But the main reason Atae wandered was pure and simple wanderlust. It hadn't really effected her as a kit, but once she'd grown it set in from time to time, gnawing at her. She'd get restless, and unhappy, and irritable... and she didn't like any of the three. She'd wound up finding lots of neat places to go sit and enjoy nature and such, and met a handful of intriguing people. She was probably lucky they'd all been nice so far, though. Well... relatively nice. Riku hadn't been particularly sociable. Snort.
She wasn't sure where she was today, though she was rarely more than vaguely aware of what direction the territory she was familiar with lay when she went out like this. She wound up approaching from the opposite side of the small ravine, watching the leaves swirl. For a moment those mixed autumnal colors and the bits of green still left in them partly masked Jabril as they fluttered past him, but the patterns of his fur soon made themselves apparent and she sat and watched him for a moment.
Was his behavior odd? Odd didn't really register anymore with her unless it really was something truly bizarre. She lived with Shoom and Bryna, one of Dusk Kitsusagi and a silvery offspring of Xigbar. She'd gotten used to them a long time ago and as far as strange activities went, they made this look insanely tame by comparison.
Ah... but it might seem suspicious of her to just sit and watch like this. It made her nervous when people did that sort of thing, anyway... So she felt she ought to make herself known. "Hello?" Hazel green eyes peered at Jabril from between chocolate locks as the petite femme sat down and curled her tails around her paws.
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Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:25 pm
Jabril leapt up one final time, snapping his jaws to catch one of the stray leaves. It made a satisfying crunch between his fangs.
When he landed he was crouching, shoulders low and hind legs tensed to spring. He looked like a cat about to pounce on a ball of yarn. Bits of dead red leaf trailed from his muzzle.
"Yeh've travelled far from tha path," Jabril noted, in his mother's lilting accent.
The female didn't look like much. Her mottled brown hide might help in hiding amongst the trees, but she was small for an adult, and hello was not a question. It was an announcement.
He scented the air, bemused.
"Are yeh lost, or are yeh lookin' fer a challenge?"
Jabril's coat fanned out behind him, and his tails snakes back and forth. Jagged auburn bangs fell into his eyes. His pony tail spiked up behind him. The youth was not exceptionally large, but he dressed like he was trying to look bigger than he really was.
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Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 5:07 pm
Normally Atae wasn't shy around younger kitsusagi, but there was an air of confidence around this one that was unusually pronounced even among adults that made her instinctual timidy want to kick in. She managed to quell it, for the most part, but it made her uncomfortable to be feeling this way again; especially around someone so obviously younger than she was.
She smiled faintly at his remark about how far she was from the "path". "I tend to do that..." she mused softly, as much to herself as to him. "I could say the same of you."
His queery actually drew a laugh from her maw, and she looked at him, equally bemused. "Must it be one or the other?" She tilted her head quizzically. "I took the road less traveled..." Then she shook her head. "I don't suppose you've heard of Robert Frost?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:13 pm
Jabril scented the air, sniffling and snuffling like a common dog, with his snout raised to the winds. The wanderer smelled like road dust and bright fields, with the slightest hint of leather from the belt around her waist.
"Does yer 'Frost' have knowledge of all tha' paths on tha Mountain, then?" He asked, intrigued. "I'd like tae meet such a man. Ye ought ta ask yer friend more questions. My Da lives up near here, an' he eats stray Kitsu fer breakfist."
Being the son of Sigourney-Sigfried Acajou - the greatest Kitsu scientist to ever walk the slopes - Jabril ahd more than his share of knowledge about physics, and electronics, and how to brew chemicals that he planned to test on out his sisters once he was strong enough to hold them down. He was, however, entirely ignorant of modern literature.
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 11:05 am
Atae smiled softly. "On the Mountain? No. Robert Frost is from a place very far from here. I'd like to ask him questions, really, but all I have is a book of things written by him. Still, it's insightful."
Atae, between being friends with wizards and alchemists, and studying up on both magic and the alchemy that the Elric brothers used (she could even transmute a little now), she had her own share of knowledge of strange compounds. But odds were that the knowledge the two held was rather foreign to the other if it ever came up.
Her tails flicked with a mixture of many things, amusement, pride, maybe a little bit of that confidence she felt from time to time. "As for your dad eating stray kitsu... well, there are worse things up here to worry about. Besides, I can defend myself if I have to."
The confidence he exhuded still made her feel a bit nervous, but so far the conversation had been genial enough, and the talking was helping her to unwind a bit. He was certainly an usual character... but certainly not as foreboding as Riku had been.
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:26 pm
From- from beyond the Mountain?
Jabril had never seriously considered such a thing. Oh, he knew that Kitsu came from beyond the Mountain, but he had never given much thought to anything that happened outside his homeland. Jabril was still young enough that the Mountain was the center of his own world.
"Can ye?" He drawled, intrigued. "Really? Ye dunna look it."
Hm. Yes, Jabril must learn more of this beyond the Mountain business if he was going to survive to adulthood. Hadn't his Ma and Da come from outside this place? Everard the Experiment was a devourer of armies. He couldn't have been made for the stark, deserted backwoods that Jabril loved so dearly.
"Would ye like to be a part of a scientific expiriment?"
The youth started slowly walking around Atae, like he'd seen the buzzards size up dead carcasses. Apparently the education his mother had given him hadn't included much in the way of social graces either.
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Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 11:45 am
Atae was good at picking up even little nuances from others, so she saw the shock in Jabril when he was informed that Frost came from far away. "There's lots of interesting things outside Mountain... the Kitsu lands alltogether, even." She shrugged not really sure what else to say on that matter. Except maybe for one thing. "My self defense instructor lives on Gaia... on the other side of the portal. He's from here, but he lives with friends there. Going from one world to the other is a little weird though. The portal makes me queesy sometimes..."
When he started talking her like a piece of fresh meat she really did get nervous. She fidgeted slightly and started keeping a closer eye on him. "Experiment? ...What sort of... experiment?" The kid wasn't so foreboding as some she'd met, but... he was starting to get a bit on the creepy side.
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Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:24 pm
"Da ate Ma's foreleg, once." Jabril informed her, as though that were not at all insane or horrifying. "He's eaten lots of people, yeah? An' he's strong."
The young kitsu padded forward through the underbrush, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that Atae was both older and larger than he was.
"Maybe if I took a bit out of ye, I'd get some of those skills fer defending. Cannae hurt to try. That's what expirimentin's aboot!"
With that, he pounced at the older kitsu, fangs bared and ears pressed flat against his neck, hissing like an alley-cat. There was no bloodlust in his eyes. Nor was there malice, or hatred, or cruelty. There was only curiosity, coupled with the terrifying lack of compassion that marked him as a true sociopath.
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Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:10 pm
Atae had never had to defend herself since she'd started training, but Zell and Kitsyn both had been working on her to make sure she'd be ready if something ever did happen. With some of that insane agility that kitsusagi shared with their vulpine and lapine kin, she lept in a backward diagonal before Jabril could land on her, and without even thinking about it knocked him down with a paw between his shoulders. For good measure she drew a quick alchemy symbol in the dirt, put her paw to it, and suddenly Jabril was being pinned to the ground with an earthen collar.
She sat back, shaking badly. "WHAT THE HELL?" She rarely raised her voice, but she was thrown more than a little off kilter by being attacked by a child that apparently wanted to eat pieces of her. "Look, I don't know anything about your parents, but you don't learn someone elses abilities just like that because you bite off a chunk! If you want to learn something, really want to learn it, you have to practice and work hard!" Oh god she wished Ifrit or someone were here. This kid had thoroughly freaked her out.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:08 am
Jabril snarled like an angry dog, all raised hackles and sharp white fangs. The crushing weight of the collar nearly suffocated him, but he wasn't about to let that stop him from struggling with all his might. He raked his claws against the stone, scraping his paws and loosening his nails, filling the air with the scent of his own blood. His breathing was labored and shallow.
Since when did Kitsu have such overwhelming magical powers? He knew about science, but not about this. This wasn't right. This wasn't fair! He studied and worked plenty, but he hadn't even been allowed a chance to dodge. If his father found him like this, he would die. If his father found him like this- If his father-
Jabril would rather be dead than ever feel this helpless again. He couldn't move. He couldn't BREATHE. Panic only made him fight harder. He wasn't going to be consumed like his older siblings! He was going to get free, and defeat Everard! And before he did that-
Jabril would hunt this witch to the ends of the earth, and make her feel exactly like he did right now.
"M-Mum?" He muttered under his breath. "M'sorrah, Ma. This wouldnah happen to ye."
The Kitsu youth writhed against the stone locked around his throat, until Atae heard his neck give a sickening crack, and he fell, limp as a corpse.
((Note: He's not dead. Just faking. XDDD *hearts Atae*))
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:13 pm
Atae stared in shock for several moments at Jabril's struggles with the collar, both horrified and fascinated. Then she realized she needed to do something and started over to remove the collar. "Kid? Kid, hang on a minute, I'll take it off, I wasn't trying to hurt you..." But she was pretty sure he either didn't hear her or didn't believe her because he kept at it. And then she heard the crack and froze.
"...Kid?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper as dread settled like a heavy boulder in the pit of her stomach. He wasn't moving... she couldn't even tell if he was breathing. Oh God... Oh God no... She nudged at his shoulder gently with her nose, and then almost tenderly brushed the hair out of his face. "Kid? Please? Please wake up..." But he didn't move. He didn't...
Numbly she drew another transmutation circle to remove the collar and walked a few paces away. There she paused, shaking, before she collapsed in a sobbing heap and curled up in a ball. "Oh God... Oh God... I'm sorry... You scared me! I just wanted you to hold still for a minute... I just... I wasn't trying to hurt you! Oh God... I'm so sorry..." She was crying too hard after that for anything else she was saying to be made sense of.((... D8!
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:57 pm
The earth crumbled and Jabril could breathe again. Fresh, pure mountain air, crisp and clear. It smelled like the juniper bushes. It tasted like freedom.
Jabril lay still for a moment, letting the sting of his paws dull the drumming of his heart. The adrenolyn was fading. His blood ran cold once more.
He gritted his teeth and then wrenched his neck back into place. The cracking noise was quieter, this time - barely audible above the witch's choked sobbing. Almost every part of his ached with the force of his struggles. His voice felt strange. His neck was probably bruised.
"An' what use are ye, witch?" Jabril rasped, deftly twisting himself upright. The youth wasted no time in backing towards the nearest path away from this place. He would not show this female his back. "Ye can fight, alright. And ye have the devil's own power oe're the crushing earth. But ye're such a peaceful kitsu? Hah! Yuir just like me Mum and Da. Like all of us. Who d'ye think yuir foolin'?"
Those were big words. Fighting words, even. But Jabril wasn't looking at her with the same assured detachment he'd had only minutes before. He was too shaken. This quivering, shuddering thing had beaten him! He'd underestimated her. How had this happened? What was this strange mixture of disgust and respect?
"Ye stay back, witch. Ye stay back, an' I-" He made a low, hissing noise. His body shook with anger. Or was that terror? Jabril didn't want to feel fear, yet it twisted around his heart all the same. "Ye willnae do that twice. I willnae be helpless again, just ye watch!"
All those feints and dodges he'd studied had meant nothing, but playing possum could turn a witch into a wreck. Was it possible he'd been wrong all along?
Perhaps the way to defeat his father was not force, but cunning.
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:19 pm
Atae heard the faint crack all the same. She hadn't been doing it intentionally but she'd been listening, hoping... she swallowed another sob and looked up. If his words were meant to sting... they didn't. What he'd played at, what she realized she very nearly could have really done to him, stung far more than any words he could have tossed at her. And she was also too relieved to see him up and about to care what he said. In a way she probably felt she deserved those cutting words.
"A peaceful path can be just as effective as one of war, if you walk it correctly..." Something... Valefor said something like that once, she forgot what they'd been talking about now. She stood up slowly, watching the youth with sad eyes. "And no. I'm not like your mom and dad. You'll learn some day that not everyone is like them, and not everyone is what you'd expect."
He wouldn't accept an apology from her, she was pretty sure. Not the way he was acting. It pained her... it pained her greatly. She removed something from a little pouch tied to her belt, a small bottle, and walked a few paces forward. "What I did isn't magic... though it seems like it. It's alchemy. It's based on science..." She set it down several steps away from him, sobbed once, softly, and turned to walk away. "Take it, or leave it. I keep it for emergencies... it is magic. It'll heal your paws." Then for good or for ill she turned her back on him and started walking away. She was shaken, down to her core, and she wanted nothing more than to go home and hide under her blankets.
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:26 pm
Wh-what? Why was she giving him that? He had[/i[ been going to take a bite out of her. Granted, Da did far worse to Ma, and they were fine, but-
The gesture just confused Jabril, and that, in turn, made him angrier.
"An' what path are ye on? That's war, that is! The good one! Yuir tryin' ta mess me up, are ye?" He called after her, willing his termors to stop and meeting with little success. "Like I did you. W-well it willnae work! I'll see you again, witch, and when I do-"
When he did, they'd be the same size, and she wouldn't be walking away from him like she was now. He wouldn't be screaming into the wind like a dumb kit.
Jabril sniffed curiously at the object, and then grabbed it up in his mouth. He didn't trust it enough to use it, but Ma might wish to take a look.
Tsk- he hoped she wasn't disappointed him him.
Troubled and confused, thoughts racing ever faster, Jabril took off down the opposite path.
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