He had been walking again, around and around, in circles that never ended. and got him nowhere. He had been bitching, screaming for some relief and end of the damn jungle. That was when he had heard the sound, notices the thinning of the trees around him.
Perched atop a boulder that cut slightly into the water, he stared down at his reflection the rippling pond. It was calming, this waterfall, and a relief to the endless masses of jungle. "I guess this is better than nothing," he muttered coldly, though he really was quite enrapt with the whole scene. If he never found his way out, then perhaps this would be a little bit of a lifesaver.
That familiar shadow, that plague on his existence, had found him once more. To her credit, Shetani had actually been looking for a drink rather than her current favorite plaything. Still, it was a relief to see him there, for it meant that she'd not lost him to the vast expanses offered by the rest of the world.
Smiling to herself, she approached the other side of the pond and lowered her maw to drink from it. She would wait and see what he said.. he could not miss seeing her, they were right across from one another.
He had been staring at his reflection when she entered, although he had heard the noise. There usually was only one other that ever came near him, and that other just happened to be that annoying brat.
He let out a sigh, shifting his bright eyes to look up at her. "And here I was thinking this was the most beautiful, peaceful place in the jungle," his tone was aggravated, but certainly much less angry than it typically was. "Had to come and spoil it for me, didn't you?"
Shetani's yellow eyes raised from the water. She finished her drink after a few moments and tossed her head to be rid of dripping water. "No' yer jungal, is h'it? Y'shud stop bay-in sah self possessed. M'thirst go' nothin' ta do wit ye."
He snorted, narrowing his eyes on her. It wasn't so much that he didn't think she was thirsty, or that she had been looking for somewhere to quench said third, it was more that she had picked this particular water source. "No, it's not, but I try hard to stay the hell away from you, and here you come prancing in with that smug a** look on your face." He huffed, shifted to let a paw dangle slightly in the water. "If you're done drinking, you can leave though right?"
"Whell sance ye asked sa noicleeyyyy." She drawled with a roll of her eyes. Smirking at him, she then jumped up upon a boulder of her own and laid down upon it. The girl smiled as she rolled onto her back, exposing her stomach to the warm sunlight. "Ahhhh... noice day 'tis."
"Well, it was," he said irritably, tucking his free paw under his chest with a bit of a glare in her direction. "Course, now that I've got this shadow lurking around, it's started to look a little less appealing." With a evil smirk, he accentuated the word 'appealing' with jerk of his paw that send a splash of water right towards her face.
THAT was a surprise. The girl jerked up, water in her eyes and promptly lost her balance. The next thing she knew, she was laying upon the ground. wet and dazed. After a long moment, she rose to her feet, blinking at him in shock. "ye.. ye..."
Her eyes narrowed and she jumped back up upon her rock. Fromt there, she leapt across the water towards him.
He let out a lard howl of laughter, shutting his eyes and putting a paw to his gut as the chuckling made his chest rise and fall rapidly. He opened his eyes, however, to find her soaring towards him - and all the mirth drained from his face.
He didn't have time to more than stand slightly as she jumped on him - which in turn made him wobble on his feet. He began to slip towards the water as he tried to fight to keep his balance, reaching out with one paw to grapple at her before he fell in with a loud splash.
Of course, Shetani ended up in the water with him. Under the water, she rolled away and moved to drag herself back onto the shore. Harsh feelings abated by having been able to dunk him herself, she giggled as she shook the water from her and waited for him, too, to try and rise from the wet.
He swam to the surface, scowling slightly, though he was silently pleased that he had at least managed to drag her in as well. Pushing himself up on shore, he shook his body, casting her an amused glance from the corner of his eye. "You look like a rat when you're all wet like that," he said, the sting still there, but masked slightly beneath mirth. Of course, he had little room to talk - he wasn't precisely a big fellow, and he was quite skinny from his lack of regular eating.
"Oi! Lookit 'ow 'e goes 'bout runnin 'is mouth!" She laughed, not in the least stung and shook her fur once more to fling wetness at him. Then, taking a step closer, she raised a paw to bat at his ear and growin mane in... well, play. Not that she'd ever had another her age to play with. "Iffin ye thank Oi look wyrd, ye shud wait till tha' wa'er stills, ya! Git a gud lookit yerself den!"
He grimaced slightly as she batted at his ear, though he didn't shrink back or tense up - which was probably progress in the world of Niruzu. "I know what I look like, thank you. Rogue life hasn't been real nice to me, and I look like a rat. Least I've got a reason to." He smirked, reaching up to bat at her own mane-tuft, then turned his back to her as he shook out the water with little care as to where the droplets were flung.
"Y'shud sto' blaymin' e'ery li'le thin' on bain a rogue." She chided and jumped at his back to try and pin him to the ground. Now that they'd broached 'playing' with one another, she wasn't inclined to stop. "Oi'm a rogue too, ya kin. So thar. Weren't much noice ta me, t'eithah. M'fader adopted me 'e did. Wit'oot 'im oidda doied. Ahmos' did."
He grunted as she jumped on his back, legs buckling from the weight of her and his body hitting the ground with a loud off from his mug. "Hey!" he grumbled, shifting to stare at her over his shoulder. "Well there's the bloody difference there! I didn't have a damn father, and you did! I had to cut it on my own since I was small." He sneered, wiggling slightly to test how much it would take to get her off of him.
Shetani happily chewed on his ear, "So? Ain't no poin' in cryan o'er it. Don' make h'it no beh'er, an' don' git ye no whar. T'leas' ye lurned ta take care o' yerself. Tha's worth somfin, nao ain't h'it?"
He growled and shook his head back and forth, trying in vain to get the brat to stop chewing on it. With a hard shove to the left, he moved his body weight, trying to make her fall off. "Yeah, well, I was just saying that's why I'm so small. You haven't got to get so bloody high and mighty about it all."
She 'oofed' a bit and fell over onto her side and off of him when he hit her. The girl rolled onto a shoulder and looked up at it. "Gee, ye can' bay seein' t'gud in anythin' can ye?" Shetani shook her head, "Sad, tis. Iffin ye stop ta smell de flowers aht sum point, den ye moight act'lly bay a bit 'appier."
He snorted and pushed himself up onto his paws, staring down at her with a bit of a sneer. "Don't start that crap with me." He shook his head, sending droplets from his mane as he did so. "I mean, hell. My bloody mom died when I was little, I had my a** beaten almost every day of my life just trying to scavenge on someone's leftovers, and now I'm lost in the middle of a damn jungle with a shadow whose only concern is mocking me." He scoffed, waving a paw away at her, "you try smelling the damn roses through all that s**t."
"Oi did an' h'it act'll ain't all dat 'ard." She replied eaisly, raising a paw to her mug to clean it. The girl kept her eyes on her paw rather than him, but continued to speak--no he wasn't getting off so easily. "Iffin ye go on thru loif foh-cussing on such thin's den thin's only git worse, no' be'er. Oi dun 'member me mum o' me foirst da'. Oi only..."
Shetani frowned, tilting her head. Slowly the girl retraced her 'steps' back through time as she thought of it. "Der was blood. dat Oi remembah, bu' no moar. Hanywhay, Oi jus' mos'ly 'member ... bein' schared. h'always schared... Den de strahnge loi-han an' 'is treasure came... 'e 'elped me h'abit, thu no' much... an' when Oi git bigga, Oi runned oof. Found m'dad, thu h'ain't rally m'dad... an stayed in this 'ere jungle, cuz h'its safe. so's... mayhap ye don' need ta leave... iffin you be gittin yerself 'urt oot thar. Den again, mayhap ye deserved th'urt... wut wit yer attitude."
He gritted his teeth as he glanced over at her. Thinking about it, it made sense, but that didn't mean that he wanted to admit she was right. With a huffing noise, he turned his back on her, "nobody deserves a life like mine, or yours I suppose. I don't care what anyone says. I've got a right to be bloody angry."
He huffed, jumping up onto his rock again and staring down into the water. "I think I'm going to stop trying to leave anyway. My paws hurt from all the walking, stepping on all the sticks, and I'm not getting anywhere anyway." He seemed beaten down somewhat, though he just huffed, a slight growl on his maw, and shook his head.
"Nah, ye sur weren't," She replied without remorse for the pain that was liable to cause. Instead she merely smiled at him and shook her head. "Ain't no re'sin ta be angry, tho, dere. Ain't no'one as dun dat t'ye.. simply da way tis. But ye ain't gonna bay listnen ta me, are ya?"
Shetani laughed and drug herself to her feet. She stretched, then joined him on his rock, whether he wanted her to or not, and pressed herself against him. Good, amusing little toy, he was.
He huffed again as she got close to him, but didn't even bother to move away. He'd already determined by now that it was much easier to just let her do whatever the hell she wanted. Fighting her just made her push him more. "Why the hell would I listen to you?" he asked, but it was half-hearted and not quite as angry as usual. He let a yawn crack his jaws then, settling his maw onto paws, despite the fact that they were still fairly damp.
"Cuz Oi'm rite an' ye know it," Came the maddening response. She settled her chin and neck over his shoulders, burrowing softly against the mane there. Now that he'd broached the subject a mid-day nap would be nice.
He just shut his eyes with a soft sigh, hoping that if maybe he squeezed them tight enough that she'd be gone. He figured she probably wouldn't, but it was nice to dream. He drew a deep breath, shifting slightly until he was comfortable, and settled down for a nap in the sun that came through the open section of the canopy above. Well - at least he'd found a nic eplace to sleep.
