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 Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 8:21 pm
Claus Arbor was set off from the main cities, set between Makai Royal Academy and Lumena Castle Town. It was a rather large town, despite its lack of tall, turreted buildings, bustling cobbled streets, and throngs of people moving here and there, but regardless of its city counterpart, Claus Arbor was still a very pleasant place to be. The scent of clear, fresh water hung over everything, dew clinging to the tips of the brightly green grass.
X, for his part, hated it all. Or rather, he could not even gather the effort to hate it, and instead gave the land around him a disgruntled, cool sort of glance as the breeze rifled through the thick dark hair that tumbled over his shoulders and back. He would have much rather have gone to Port Privus, but to his complete irritation they had sent him here to take a look around. Around his neck, Hyde gave a soft hiss, the snake's cold scales sliding against his cheek as he unfurled, and absently X lifted a hand, stroking his fingers over the beast.
"Patience, darling, patience," he muttered, and then knelt to the ground.
He was sheltered within a small forest of trees just beside Claus Arbor, the thick gold and orange foliage casting spindly shadows across the ground. The trees here, never changing their leaves like normal, had been enchanted for decades, their wide berth and massive branches a staple in the area.
And also a perfect spot to gather shadows.
His knees pressed against the golden hued forest floor, X frowned slightly, his brow furrowing. A gloved hand reached out, fingertips spread as he lowered them to the shadow of the tree he was beneath, and with a slow, dragging motion, pulled it away. It came easily into his hands, evaporating from the forest floor, and sat nestled in his palm: a curling black mass of shadow.
X eyed it, a smirk touching his lips, then slipped down to sit, leaning back against the trunk of the tree. The shadow in his hands was tossed from one to the other, fingers nimbly working the delicate substance until it was more solid. He had always had such a fondness for the darkness, so learning at an early age that he had the ability to touch it had made him quite pleased.
Now if only he could leave this infernal place, life would be good.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 12:48 am
The peaceful and natural setting of Clarus Arbor was what initially drew Althaia here. Her lack of wealth had taught her to appreciate the simple things in life rather than the extravagant. While Lumena Castle Town and Moonfall were both doubtlessly stunning towns, they were far too busy for her liking, filled with the buzz of constant noise as people bustled to and fro. Gone were the trees and the lakes, replaced instead by huge buildings that loomed over the townspeople. Not to mention all those man-made contraptions which, to be frank, tended to confuse Althaia. Why use a watch or a clock when one could use the sky and the sun?
No, for a sage who dealt in life and natural magic, there was no question as to where she would want to live.
Her plan for the day had been to go out and forage for some wild herbs, and her usual place of choice was among the cluster of trees directly outside of the town. However, the last thing that she had expected to find when she arrived was that she had company today. Though she was unable to see the stranger's face from where she stood, Althaia could at least make out the shape of a figure--probably male--with his back against the tree.
The wise idea would have been to ignore his presence and carry on. However, curiosity got the better of her, urging the kirin to go and introduce herself. Without even a beat of hesitation, she started moving up behind him, her footsteps light as she tried to avoid trampling on any wildflowers. When she finally reached the man, she wordlessly poked her head around the tree and silently hovered over him, brushing her hair over her shoulders to avoid letting any of it spill forward.
Then she saw it--the strange black mass that was casually being tossed from hand to hand. ...Hhm? What is that? Her brows were knit together in confusion as she stared at the inky substance that sat between the man's gloved hands. Wanting to take a closer look, she pressed her hand against the tree trunk, using it as support as she knelt down. Her golden eyes were focused on the shadow as she suddenly spoke up, finally officially alerting the stranger to her presence (if he had not sensed her earlier, that was).
"That's certainly an interesting skill you have," Athaia mused softly, her head tilted in interest as she regarded the substance. After a moment of pause, her eyes slid up to meet his, her tone inquisitive. "I'm curious: does it have a particular texture, or does it simply feel...light, perhaps?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 2:14 pm
He heard her before he came, the footsteps too light and too delicate to even be mistaken for a male. Debating on moving, slipping into the safety of the shadows he held so high in regard, X was too comfortable where he sat to bother, and the notion of moving quickly and easily slipped from his mind. So instead he stayed where he was and waited for her - wherever she was - to step out and greet him.
Since he sure as hell wasn't going to do it himself.
After a few moments he felt her move, the rustle of the branches coming from behind him as she peered around the tree and hovered over his shoulder like some overly curious bird looking at its prey. And her voice, when she spoke, was soft and lyrical - what X had rather expected, though it grated on his nerves all the same. Boredly he tilted his head back, eyes flickering to meet hers, and slanted a noncommittal look in her direction.
"It feels like shadow," came the rather deliberately cryptic answer as a smirk flitted across X's face. She was a pale little thing, with hair so light it was almost nonexistent in the day and skin tinged with gold and pink. A pair of horns sat on her head, slanted backwards, and there was something behind her, around her feet - a tail, horse-like and silken.
Mononoke.
It figured. X gave a small sigh, but didn't move from where he sat. Around his neck, Hyde gave a low warning hiss, black forked tongue flicking in and out irritatedly, but he ignored the snake.
"Light, dark, it all feels the same," said X casually, now pulling the shadow straight out so that it formed a neat, parallel line to the ground. "Though if I had to surmise, I would say it's more like hair, almost. Or a very fine silk cloth, something easy to manipulate."
Like most people are, came the unbidden thought, but X merely smirked, tossing the shadow back and forth again.
"What brings you here, little creature?" he asked her, in an almost playful tone of voice. "And what...exactly are you, might I ask? Since you don't exactly look like a normal horse, not with those things on your head."
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 4:04 pm
His initial answer earned him a blank stare, her gaze sliding away from him and to the shade that the tree cast over the ground. She stretched her hand out, palm up so that the shadows could be cast on her hand, fingers curling in and out in a futile attempt to grasp the darkness. When that didn't work, she reached down to touch the shadows over the grass instead, though the only sensation to meet her was the tickle of the blades of grass against her hand.
She looked back up at man and frowned. Though she seemed a little disappointed, she clearly wasn't surprised. She never had had much of a calling to the darkness.
Fortunately, he then went on to give her a better description of the substance, and the mononoke's golden eyes visibly lit up. "Like hair?" She moved from where she was so that she could sit down beside him, pulling her legs up against her chest as she decided to be a creeper again and reached out to give his black hair a gentle tug. Black hair and black shadows--for some reason, it made more sense to Althaia that his hair would feel more like the shadows than her own pale strands.
With her attention focusing back on the shadow as it was tossed from hand to hand, she nearly missed his questions altogether. As it was, it took her a moment to process them before the corners of her lips pulled upward in a faint smile. "I often come here to gather some wild herbs and flowers. I was surprised to find you out here." He didn't look familiar either--perhaps he lived outside of Clarus Arbor? Though she wanted to ask, she had another question to answer first.
"I'm a kirin, of course," She answered simply, seeming unbothered by the fact that he may have mistaken her as a horse. Part of the reason that she was so nonchalant was probably because she had been distracted once more, but this time, by the snake that was accompanying the man. Laying her head on her knees, she lifted a hand and gave the serpent a little wave.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 6:51 pm
He watched her attempt to capture the shadows with some amusement, X's lip curling at her rather abysmal efforts. It was not as easy for those who had not been trained to let the magic of the darkness curl in their hands and solidify the black smears of color within their grasp. X had been doing it for as long as he could remember - it was something as familiar to him as the ground he was sitting on.
Clearly this girl had never had the same experience.
"You're doing it wrong," came the plaintive reply, like someone speaking to a small child who had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Concentrating a moment on the shadow in his left hand, X lifted his palm skyward and flicked his index finger out in an almost bored manner. The shadow shot out and slammed against the tree opposite, splintering the bark and sending chips of wood and shadow across the forest floor.
Something touched his hair, and he jerked his head automatically, until he realized it was her fingers slipping through the black and red strands and tugging on it. He rolled his eyes to meet hers with a lazy sort of smile, lifting a brow.
"Trying to see if I'm made of shadows too, darling?" he said lightly, and snorted. "I assure you, I'm quite human - or as human as I can get under the circumstances. Shadow may run through my hands, but not my veins."
"And believe me," X continued, waving his hand noncommittally. More shadow drifted off of his fingers, disappearing into the sunlight. "It's not as if I have any desire to actually be here myself. I was sent here by someone I can't exactly deny, so here I am." A sigh escaped his lips, X leaning his head back against the trunk of the tree, his legs drawn up so that his outstretched arms were resting lightly across his knees. His gaze was skyward, idly tracing the lines of the gnarled branches with their golden hued leaves. He supposed he should have been more on guard, but she did not seem the type to suddenly drag out a dagger and thrust it into his chest, or drain his body using magic.
Though, now that he thought of it, perhaps that was all a cover. X gave her a quick once over, his eyes flicking up to the horns again on her head.
"A kirin, is it," he said, interested in spite of himself. He had not yet met a Mononoke of her kind before, but he could not afford to be curious of her origin - at least, not without a little bit more prying. reaching out, X copied her gesture, and tugged on a strand of her pale hair, giving a small, derisive snort.
"Never heard of you before," he said, in almost sickly sweet tone and then smirked. "Aren't you afraid, little kirin?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 8:20 pm
Before Althaia could ask him to show her what the right way of capturing a shadow was, he shot the shadow that he had been holding out at a nearby tree. She jerked her head up just in time to see it hit, flinching at the splintering noise. Her shoulders stiffened, but when she saw the actual mark that the shadow had left on the trunk, she immediately relaxed. It had not done too much damage--would having used a bigger shadow have made the shot more powerful?--and she slowly moved to rest her head back on her knees again. "I'll have to fix that later," She murmured, brows creasing as she stuck out her bottom lip in a childish pout. "Please choose something else to hit, next time. Like something dead." Or, you know, like something that had never been alive to begin with.
Clearly she did not approve of the trees being used for any kind of target practice.
Althaia may have looked a little disappointed at the fact that this man was, in fact, not made of shadows himself. However, she quickly got over this as he continued on to tell her that he had been...sent here? "You're on a mission of some kind, then?" She didn't bother keeping the curiosity in her voice hidden, the wide-eyed look she was giving him imploring him to tell her more.
...Because that was clearly a safe idea, divulging detail to a complete stranger. She must have been naive if she thought that everyone was as open about their thoughts as she was.
She kept still when he reached out to tug on her hair, moving only her eyes as her gaze slid up to meet his. "That's alright," She answered easily, "I don't think we kirins are all common. And--ah?" Frowning, Althaia slowly lifted her head, reaching out to brush her hair free from his fingers as she glanced around searchingly. After a moment, she turned her eyes back to him, cocking her head to the side.
"What would I be afraid of?" She looked genuinely confused, pushing herself onto her knees as she scanned their surroundings again.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:05 pm
He lifted a brow, clearly amused in spite of himself, more so than he should have been that she was disgruntled over his shot at the tree. X personally so no issue with it - after all, it was not as if he cared about the welfare of something like a tree - but the fact that she was looking at it with a concerned expression made him interested as to the reasoning behind hit.
"And why," he drawled lazily, stretching out one leg and linking his fingers behind his head of dark hair. "would I do that, pray tell? What makes that tree so important to you? Is there something about this forest that needs protection? I could have shot at you, I suppose - " A shrug of his shoulder, up and down, the gesture fluid and easy. " - but I'm too nice."
There was an almost mocking grin that stretched across his face as he said this, X tilting his head to the side to give the pale-skinned young woman his most innocent look, as though to remind her he was never in the wrong. However, the expression was sharp-edged, almost feral, and after a brief second he looked away, the smirk still tugging at his lips.
"A kirin, hmmm..." he murmured, and his tone was musing, X's mind shifting, delving into his own thoughts as he replied, almost absently "Something like that, yes," as a delayed answer to her earlier question. Something about this girl seemed...off. Different, somehow, and it was making him just the smallest bit ill at ease.
He rolled his neck to look at her again. Hyde made a soft hiss, rising and uncoiling, peering at the kirin-girl as he tried to figure out who this stranger was.
"You tell me," X said, with that same dark grin. "There are many a thing going on around here lately...strange, unexplainable things."
Hyde hissed again. X smirked.
"What's your name, little kirin?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 12:13 am
(( So I have to just say that...this is what I was visualizing @ splintered tree bark. Whether that's too much damage/too little/etcetc idk but I can edit this post a little either way! ))"It's not just that tree," She protested softly, combing her fingers through her hair, "People seem to forget--or simply not care--that plants are living things too. Living in a place like this makes you appreciate things like that." The last thing she wanted to see was for the same huge buildings and smoke that dominated the other towns find its way to Clarus Arbor.
And this man...whoever he was, he was certainly strange. She met his gaze evenly, and though it did not show on her face, he unnerved her a little. It wasn't the way he spoke or that smirk of his, but there was just something in his expression...
No matter. She countered his dark grin with a bright smile, giving a light shake of her head. "Strange things? I'm sorry--I really don't know what you're talking about. Not unless you've been using other trees as target practice without my knowing." He asked another question then--her name--but the mononoke had been successfully distracted again, her gaze having drifted off elsewhere. Without a word, she pushed herself to her feet, and head towards the damaged tree.
Humming thoughtfully, she leaned forward to assess the damage. After she was satisfied that it was just a quick fix, she turned her head slightly, her even gaze directed at the man from over her shoulder. There was a moment of pause, and then Althaia smiled, her voice light. "To be honest, I would have preferred if you shot at me. I think I would have taken it better than this poor tree did."
All it took was a few seconds of work--really, this was back to the basics of when she first started using life major. She carefully brushed her fingers against the splintered bark, a strange golden light faintly radiating from beneath her fingertips. As she slid her hand down the trunk of the tree, the splinters flattened out, curving back into its original shape against the tree. The seams between the split pieces of wood fused together, and soon enough, the tree looked...
...Well, not exactly brand new. Though she had fixed the inner layer, the outermost layer of the bark was still gone. That, however, would take a little more time to heal, and she would rather leave it to later in case this man decided to shoot at any more trees. She would much rather fix them all at once than one at a time. Moving back to where he sat, she knelt down in front of him.
"My name is Althaia. And you are?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 8:40 am
[ Nope, that's about right! <3 ]
Strange girl, thought X, eyeing her concerned expression with a wary one of his own. Since when did people care about what the damned trees looked like? It's not as if I destroyed the entire thing. It's just a little scratch.
The shadow beneath his legs stretched out, long and angled in the wake of the tree. Idly he pressed his index finger into the darkness, absently swirling it around as though he had slipped his hand into water to cause ripples. "Plants are living things, perhaps," said X, in a flat tone of voice as his eyes traced the lines of the splintered, broken wood. "But people are far more susceptible to breaking, wouldn't you say?"
He left that cryptic sounding thought lie where it was, his gaze following the path of the kirin as she abruptly stood, crossing the forest floor towards the tree. It seemed as though she were examining it, golden leaves rustling around her feet, and after a moment she had stretched out her hand, fingers sliding against the bark of the tree. When she drew it back, the inside of the tree lay flat and smooth, though the outer layer of bark was still missing.
"Interesting," snorted X as she knelt down in front of him, her large golden eyes watching him intently. "I never knew there were such soft-hearted people such as yourselves."
It was mocking, of course, but internally he could not help but be a bit curious. Her magic was clearly strong, whatever she was - and whatever the magic was - and her concern for a mere tree was an indication that her abilities lay far deeper than at first glance.
Her question, though expected, startled X out of his internal musings, and he lifted his chin, dark eyes flashing as a sardonic grin stretched across his face. Hyde gave another warning hiss, clearly unsettled by this girl, but X's fingers smoothed across the cold scales, amused and interested despite the fact that he did not know what she could do.
More information is necessary to complete my duties.
"X," he said, giving no implication as to what that might even stand for. "My name is X, little kirin....Althaia."
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 3:18 pm
Soft-hearted? Althaia considered this term thoughtfully for a moment before giving a little shake of her head. "I wouldn't really call it that. What you said before--about people being more fragile--is true. And when someone gets ill..." She scoured the grass around them for any wildflowers, perking up as she found a small daisy. Pinching the base of the stem, she plucked it free, twirling it between her index finger and thumb. "That's when plants like this come in handy. For example, supposedly daisy tea is good for suppressing a cough, among other things."
Of course, the other--and in many peoples' eyes, more simple--way to fix an illness was by using magic. While Althaia had been trained to cure illnesses and wounds through this method, she didn't approve of how dependent some people were becoming with magic. If it was a seriousness illness or injury, then yes, by all means she believed that one should do anything in their power to fix it...but a light cough or fever?
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she scanned her surroundings for more daisies, picking them until she had a small bunch in her hands. Spreading them over her lap, she began to link the stems together, pausing only when the stranger finally gave her his name. She looked up from her work, smiling.
"It's nice to meet you, X," Althaia replied pleasantly. There was a moment of pause, and then she looked back down at the flowers in her lap, fingers moving deftly as she tied more of the flowers together. Her eyes were focused on the growing chain when she spoke again, her tone inquiring. "What does the 'X' stand for? Xyloglyph?"
...It was hard to tell if she was serious or joking.
Within another few seconds, the daisy chain was complete. Beaming, the girl shuffled forward on her knees and promptly deposited the crown on X's head. Her tail swished behind her as she leaned back to examine her work. "There we go! It looks..." A frown. Reaching out, she gave the chain a slight tweak. "Better. Symbolically, daisies mean innocence. It looks like you could use a bit of that!"
...Now it was hard to tell if she was taking a shot at him, or if her words were just all in innocent fun.
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 6:26 pm
The way she spoke indicated something deeper than just a simple talk about plants. X felt his brows draw together as he eyed her, one hand resting in his head of dark hair, idly sifting through the strands as though it were a gesture of habit, rather than one of vanity.
"Sounds like you've had a bit of experience when it comes to someone getting ill," he said, as Hyde uncoiled himself from around his master's neck and dropped down to the ground with a soft thud, slithering through the grass. He did not go near the kirin, however, instead shifting to where a slash of sunlight had broken through the tops of the trees and was spilling over the golden leafed ground, curling up in a small pile.
X's eyes fixed on the flower in her delicate fingers. It was so small and fragile - so easily crushed, though she held it carefully, with a reverence for life that he did not share, nor understand. Even as she was gathering more of the tiny white flowers into her lap, her hands beginning to work with them, X was staring at her with a somewhat disgruntled, curious expression.
His lip curled just the slightest, but it was quickly replaced by that mocking grin again, stretched across his face.
"No," he said, and gave a snort. "Like I would be named something that ridiculous. Where did that even come from?"
He supposed he should have expected it, but he was not in the habit of giving his real name out to complete strangers - especially ones that were playing with flowers and had already shown their devotion to nature by repairing a tree he had cracked. There was something distinctly odd about this Mononoke - Althaia, as she called herself, something he could not put his finger on.
It irritated him.
...especially since, five minutes later, she put the crown of daisies onto his head.
X's expression was a remarkably calm one, though he was giving Althaia a look that was partly amused, partly exasperated, and with an edge of something else, something harder, darker that flickered in his black and red gaze.
"Do I, now," he said, his teeth flashing white as he grinned sardonically at the kirin. "Why, my darling little kirin, why on earth would you suspect that I'm anything but innocent?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:43 am
She pulled her legs back up against her chest, resting her arms atop her knees as a small smile tugged on her lips. "I've just met a fair number of ill people in my time. It should be no surprise that I've picked up a few tips and tricks here and there." Or perhaps "few" was an understatement, considering that she had been poring over textbooks with such information ever since she was a child. "I've simply had experience with trying to develop some treatments, is all."
Althaia may have divulged more had her attention not been drawn towards the snake, watching as the serpent moved towards the warmth of the sunlight. She observed it silently for a moment before asking, "Your familiar? Does he--she?--have a name?" The kirin kind of looked like she, against better judgment, wanted to go pet it, or at least move towards it so that she could take a better look at it. She tended to disregard her own safety when it came to pursuing knowledge.
Her smile spread into a grin as she lifted her index finger. "If not Xylograph...than Xylographer, perhaps?" With the same raised finger, she turned and pointed it towards the semi-fixed tree. "A Xylograph is a wood engraving. Considering what you did to the tree there, and the fact that your name may start with an 'X', I thought it was a good guess."
Was...was this Althaia's attempt at humour? It wasn't very good, but clearly she thought that it was amusing. How awkward.
In fact, she seemed more amused by this than how out of place her daisy crown looked perched on the man's head. She met his gaze steadily, golden eyes twinkling with amusement, her calm expression unfaltering despite the fact that she sensed some kind of indescribable emotion within his dark eyes. At his question, she let out a light laugh.
"You cannot fool me, Mr. X. Even if I were to judge you off of appearance alone, the word innocent is not one that comes to mind."
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:54 am
"Is that your magic, then?" X asked her, tilting his head and slanting a deliberately unreadable expression in her direction, lips curling upwards in some semblance of what might have been a smile. "Healing the sick, fixing plants..."
But again, her answer had been a little cryptic and more than a little interesting. With each word she spoke, it just drove further the belief that she was not nearly as ordinary as she was assumed to be on the outside. A kirin Mononoke was rather unusual in and of itself, but it was not just that that made X believe she was hiding something else. The lyrical tone to her voice when she spoke of certain things, the way she carried herself, the fact that she did not seem frightened, when he knew himself the impression he gave (purposefully gave, for that matter)...
It was curious. Very curious. His eyes moved towards the snake.
"Hyde," said X, and the snake made a soft hissing noise, basking in the warm sunlight that spilled over its long body with its emerald scales. "His name is Hyde, And he won't hurt you...at least," he added, with an undercut of dark amusement. "not unless I tell him to."
Xylograph. Was she making fun of him? X's eyes followed the direction of her finger as she pointed back towards the tree and made a small face, amused in spite of himself.
"Clever," he agreed, shaking his head. "You're more entertaining than I thought you would be, I'll give you that. Especially with - this - " He waved a gloved hand at the ring of white daisies that still sat on his head, considering that he had not bothered to take it off yet. In his hands a shadow unfurled, and X closed his fingers, tighter and tighter until, when he released them, the shadow was a long, thin object, roughly the size and shape of a pen.
"The word 'innocent' s not one that comes to mind."
She had him there, and it made his eyes dance with the same dark amusement from earlier. X idly twirled the shadow around in his hands, tilting his head a bit so that he could flash a toothy grin in Althaia's direction.
"So what would be a word that comes to your mind, then?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:40 pm
”I wonder,” She answered vaguely, the smile on her face becoming cryptic and perhaps a little teasing. It looked as if she was just going to leave her answer at that, but after a moment of pause, she added, ”I might dabble a little in those things, yes. Whether that’s the focus of that magic...”
She trailed off with a light laugh, pushing herself up to her feet again so that she could move over to where the snake—Hyde—lay. ”Well, assuming that you don’t ask him to attack, then there’s no harm in me approaching Hyde, correct?” She glanced over her shoulder at X, grinning cheerfully at the man before she promptly flopped down on her stomach in front of the snake. She crawled forward until she was dangerously close to the creature.
”Hello, Hyde. Enjoying the sun?” Her tail swished behind her as she folded her arms in front of her, using them to prop up her head. Her curious golden eyes swept over the serpent, taking in his slender, elegant appearance. She reached a hand out towards it, but stopped a few inches away, curious to see what it would do.
She vaguely hoped that it wasn’t poisonous. It would be such a waste to have to use her herbs to make an antidote for herself.
Hearing X speak again, she rolled into her side to face him, blinking up at him with wide eyes. ”Entertaining?” Her gaze slid up to the daisy crown, and she giggled. ”As I said, I just thought that you could use a little of innocence—hmmm? What are you doing?” She perked up as she caught the glimpse of the shadow in his fingers, lifting her head off of the ground in an attempt to get a better look.
She stared at the shadow with interest, tearing her gaze away only at his question. She didn’t hesitate with her answer--”Weird.” A pause, ”And maybe a little mysterious and dangerous as well.”
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 4:04 pm
"My, my," said X, in a lazy sort of drawl. "You are even more cryptic than I am. I didn't know that was possible, but I think you might have just surpassed that line of 'talking in riddles.'"
A slow, mocking grin spread across the man's face, contrasting sharply with the daisy crown still on his head as he leaned forward, crossing his legs and resting his chin in his hand, his elbow on his knee.
"You're even more interesting than I thought, little kirin."
She was inching towards Hyde now, lying on her stomach in front of him, and the snake lifted its head, dark eyes flashing towards the stranger. Clearly she wasn't afraid of the creature, which surprised X (considering that most stayed away from the familiar), but he made no move to do anything to stop her.
Not that he would have. If Hyde bit her, then she would learn not to cross the snake, wouldn't it?
Hyde hissed, black tongue flicking in and out as he lifted his head, staring beadily at Althaia. His upper body swayed, the sunlight streaming down and warming his scales, which was probably a reason why he did not make a move to attack, instead curling back up into an emerald pile.
"...he likes you," said X, sounding mildly disgruntled over this fact as he toyed with a fragment of shadow. It seemed he had forgotten over the accessory on his head - either that, or he was just choosing to ignore the little white flowers. "And nothing," he added, glancing down at the pen-shaped black smear. "Just making a bit of something out of nothing, is all."
His dual colored gaze cut in Althaia's direction as his brows drew together, X's lips pressing into a thin line.
"Weird?" he said, in a voice that suggested he might have been hiding amused laughter, despite his dark expression. "Weird?"
Who IS this girl?
After a moment it passed, however, and X's expression was a lazy, lightly mocking one again.
"I like the mysterious one," he said, teeth glinting as he grinned, tilting his head. "And the dangerous one...yes, I like that one very much."
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