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 Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 1:46 pm
 The smell hit her senses first. A fowl stench that permeated the air for quite the distance before Matania actually came upon the source. She wasn’t sure if she should have followed the trail at first, but now, as she stared at the mutilated corpse of another soquili she was glad she did. Never before had she seen such a thing, not when she was home, and definitely not since she was exiled. The corpse was barely recognizable. If she hadn’t known what a soquili looked like she was definitely sure she wouldn’t recognize one here in the present. That said, it bothered her greatly to look upon this sight.
It didn’t seem normal either. After her first encounter with a kalona it didn’t seem like this was a normal kill, eat, and move on sort of thing. She wasn’t sure what it was, but something was definitely off. In some ways it reminded her of the unfortunate incident where one of their own had fallen down a cliff during a rockslide. The mangled limbs, the blood. The difference here was that some flesh was rotted away and you could still see the terrified scream etched upon the skull’s mouth.
Matania shifted from one hoof to another uncomfortably. A part of her figured she may as well just leave and move on with her travels. But something else, something deeper, told her to stay. This made no sense to her as she held no attachments to this form. She hadn’t made any friends yet. No allies. Nothing. Just acquaintances and a few enemies. Or maybe it was something simpler than that, her need to help others. Either way, as the skull’s black stare hit her dead on, she found herself staying there. Standing stupidly with a dead horse.
How ironic.
She snorted. Maybe it was her gods way of telling her that this was what her life was going to be like now. That all she was going to see was death. Her punishment for allowing so many to perish at her naïve stupidity. Whatever it was, it was enough to her to move again. Passing the corpse, still semi-reluctantly, Matania made her way towards the path up north. Her wings tucked tightly by her sides so they wouldn’t get tangled in the branches. And just as she was about to move on, she heard something else, voices.
She paused and perked her ears forward to listen. Turning her head she tried to find the source, more than one voice but definitely not an army. And from what she could tell they weren’t evil sounding. But like her old mentor Zikal taught her from day one, appearances weren’t everything. Underestimate your opponent and defeat can come upon you in a mere second. So she paused to wait, waiting for either the voices to pass by, or come into the clearing and see what she saw.
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Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 3:00 pm
  "Lys I am not disagreeing with you but I can only assume that you appreciate my views on this," Tempest ducked underneath a tree branch, casting a disgruntled glance towards it as he passed. Over the course of the last few weeks he had seen more than his fair share of corpse, no sooner had he shooed Syntyche away from one target than she had bounced towards another. As it was his duty to calm the target more often than not, it was becoming more common for him to miss his opportunity to save the next. Similarly, Syntyche was beginning to pause and give thought to her encounters with him, for she was selecting locations that prevented him from moving with considerable ease.
"The fact of the matter is that the more individuals we draw into this war, the higher the casualty rate will be," he continued and turned his gaze towards the blue mare beside him. Up until this point she had held her piece, but then she always did, despite her heritage she had been raised well and had considerable manners.
"I can appreciate it," Lys agreed, releasing a small sigh. The sound came out more like a whistle between her teeth and she furrowed her brow. Even she had noted her mother's shift in behaviour, for what it was worth the walker was becoming significantly more reckless, yet in a moment of pure paradox she had actually become more strategic. She had assessed her opponent and now she knew of his weakness - he was simply too large to fit into some of the locations she was now beginning to choose.
It had placed considerably strain on her partner's patience and she had no doubt that if she was unable to find a way to change Syntyche's behaviour, then he would make a series of moves that could cause significant harm to him as well. "However it is impossible for us to be in all places at the same time," she pointed out and shook her head. "The fact of the matter is while we might seek to calm down those we save, she does not hesitate to pursue another while the opportunity is there," she continued.
"She has cited our compassion and now she uses it against us - though I know you seek to pursue her indefinitely so that she only faces you, this means that you need more than me to provide the counselling that these victims require in the aftermath," she paused to allow this point to sink in, quickening her pace just a touch as she fell behind the taller stallion.
"There is nothing wrong with having a support network, Tempest. At the very least consider it, as the more allies we have, the more of the innocent we can save," she finished and lapsed into silence.
"I will consider it," the stallion agreed, electing not to continue further with the conversation as the familiar smell of blood flared in his nostrils. As his familiar had pointed out, another victim had fallen and Pom hadn't been lacking in detail. The little songbird had given ample directions and sure enough, as he stepped into the clearing, he was greeted with the now 'normal' sight of the sacrificed soquili. However as he drew near there was something amiss with it, something that didn't make sense.
"Lys," he glanced over his shoulder towards his companion, temporarily ignore Matania, though he had seen her. "This isn't right," he stated darkly.
Slipping passed the stallion, the blue mare moved towards the corpse and came to a halt. Amber gaze surveying the victim, she made some notes of the important and immediate points before grimacing.
"Tempest this one is old," she uttered slowly and cast her eyes back to her friend. "Either it wasn't her, or she's found a way to evade us."
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Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 4:24 pm
Matania listened quietly as the stallion and mare spoke to one another. Neither noticing her presence at first. She knew with time, and the wind, they would catch her scent no doubt. And if she hadn’t come out to claim her presence before then she knew it wouldn’t be a very good meeting, let alone productive at all. She tilted her head from side to side, quickly gauging the percentage in which was the possibility of them attacking her. It didn’t seem likely though. As far as she could tell they weren’t the types to just outright attack. Their scent wasn’t on the corpse so she doubted they were the ones who killed the creature. But like she and the other two noted, the corpse was old. So it was possible they could have done the deed and come back to take care of the rest.
However, that didn’t seem likely either. If they were the killers then it would have been counterproductive to come back at this point in time. If they really wanted to cover their tracks they wouldn’t have left the corpse out to decay has much as it had. They would have certainly done something immediately to cover their tracks. And so, Matania was left with the only logical conclusion.
They weren’t the killers and Matania wasn’t in any immediate danger.
Hopefully.
So she made her presence known to them quietly, but effectively. Stepping out of the trees of her hiding place and making sure her wings were secure along her sides. Her words light, polite, and she made sure she didn’t sound or look threatening.
“Sorry to intrude, but do you know who killed the poor creature?”
Simple enough question, hopefully enough to keep the tension little to non-existent. But already she felt that things may not be as simple as she hoped.
“I’m Matania by the way; I was traveling through the area when I found this corpse.”
Sure she had seen her fair share of corpses and death. But this was the first time she had come across it in the Kawani. The two had also caught her off guard which was something relatively new to her. Granted, she had gone from extreme to another. So she was still getting used to everything. Maybe they had information that would help her to be more prepared and alert to the differences and dangers here in these lands. Already they seemed fairly knowledgeable. And the more connections and acquaintances the better. At least, in her opinion it was. To this day she was still very much a loner. And It was worth a shot at least to try and put herself out there, try something new.
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Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 5:31 am
It was Tempest who raised his head and turned it to meet her gaze, his lips pursing into a thin line as it became apparent that they weren't alone. Evidently both he and Catalyst had tunnel visioned during their hunt - they hadn't found a kill for weeks and it had grown concerning; hell, Syntyche had even disappeared completely off the radar and neither of them had been able to track down their scent. At this rate they were beginning to suspect that she had been killed at some point, but then they also knew that this possibility was extraordinarily slim based on her tenacity and abilities.
Alas when they had gotten wind of a corpse, it wasn't surprising to discover that they had found it too late, it had been completely out of the range of their search had been turned on its head. Something or someone had disrupted it, the irony being that neither of them was aware that it had been Kiyoshi. His grandfather's decision to strand Syntyche on a sandbar until Tempest's wounds had recovered had never really been communicated to any one and remained a secret!
"Lys, just check," he murmured, glancing over his shoulder with a sigh. "It looks like her work, old as it might be," he pointed out and shook his head slowly. "If it is her then it would explain why we couldn't find her for so long," he pointed out. As Lys gave a nod, he returned his attention back to Matania and regarded her with an additional air of curiosity, the revelation that she had claws only served to make him more suspicious... Anything harpy-esque tended to give him cause for concern, more so because they enjoyed meddling at the wrong moments.
Granted his brother's mate was a harpy, but it had taken her a great deal of time to persuade those on the Summit that she meant no harm.
Nevertheless, Tempest had a multitude of qualities to his advantage and a companion, thus he doubted the mare would be so foolish to get in the way. That being said, if she had found the body first, or rather stumbled upon it, then she might also have caught wind of other issues in the area. At this point any hints would be of use, and he meant any, for the scent left behind by Syntyche was going to be difficult for either he or Lys to detect, despite Lys's heritage.
"We might," he replied at last, failing to introduce himself as he continued to regard Matania, his lips pursing into another thin line. "It depends entirely on whether or not it fits categorically into my companion's list," he explained before tilted his head to the side, his long braid tumbling to the ground.
"How did you come about this body?" he asked at last.
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