[PRP]Looking At Life Through A Loaded Gun[ Maeryn/Gen/Seres]

[Celeanor]

He'd wandered farther than he'd intended, searching, perhaps, for some sign ... some trace of the monster he knew he couldn't face alone but sought nonetheless.

Black nostrils flared when he picked up the scent of decay, his green eyes flashing as his head snaked to the left to snap irritably at a fly. He waited, muscles tense, as he took in the smell.

Nearby. Old. Small. He backed up cautiously and turned, testing the air again.

There!

Branches cracked against the force of his passing, but otherwise he was remarkably quiet for a beast his size. He'd learned a long time ago to make good use of his naturally dark coloring and blend into the shadows of the forest, and this time was no different as he followed the taint in the air to it's source. It'd been a rabbit once, his eyes told him once he reached the scene of the creature's passing. There was no sign of violence, just an old creature whose bones would soon be picked clean by scavengers. Closing his eyes briefly, Gen wished the rabbit's soul to the Great Spirits with a simple spoken word ... and turned back the way he'd come.  

[Celeanor]

Her sudden appearance took him unawares, a fatal mistake under most circumstances. Why she hadn't used that opening against him was unknown, particularly as she was .... quite clearly... a full-blooded kalona. Gen didn't need stories to know how dangerous a kalona was, he had enough monster blood of his own coursing through his veins to know what a pureblood was capable of.

If he'd been tense before, the locking down of his expression and the quick halt and mantled wings were doubly so.

But she hadn't attacked, merely spoke. He took the opportunity for another step back, wings still half spread as space allowed, his eyes focused on her.

"Not your concern." He replied, his usually abrupt tone thick and gravely with disuse. "Go back." The warning came with a flaring of his wings and flash of teeth.  

[Celeanor]

It was not often Gen showed his age, as he'd always been a sober youngster, but the arrogant tilt to his head and the subtle swell to his chest were clear markers of a stallion still in his youth. His body may be fully grown, but he'd spent far too much time alone to have learned the finer points of polite conversation.

Sirian had only taught him to control his beastly temper, after all, not play nice with others.

"Unlikely." Came the short retort to both of her statements, though he had to admit he would not recklessly charge this strange mare despite her age. She had a presence about her that reminded him (oddly enough) of Flame, and as that thought flashed through his mind, so to did the realization that she was the same. An Elder, then. A kalona Elder? The thought was puzzling, as in the world according to Gen, kalona were dark and malignant creatures ... fell beasts only dwarfed by the greater threat of skinwalkers. Kalona could not be Elders, yet here one stood.

The oddity required more thought and investigation, which could start with ... answering her first question.

"Hunt Skinwalker." He amended after a long silence, wings gradually smoothing down.  

[Celeanor]

He flinches, visibly and shamefully, at the reminder of home .... of his mother who would certainly not be pleased to learn he was ranging this far from home in search of the creature that had taken Tai from them and forced them from their old home.

The memory is an old one, he'd been but a colt when Seethe had come for their herd and hunted them across the continent. Just a colt, but he would never forget that scent of the monster nor the terror of seeing his mother return with broken wings and a bloody white coat from her own fight with the beast. He'd been new, a foundling, but it was because of Seethe that he'd been so hard for everyone else to accept. A monster, they'd called him, with fear in their eyes and remembered pain from the skinwalker attacks. Shaking his head slightly, he frees himself from memory and responds.

"Alone. Better that way. No casualties for stupidity." He replies, drawing himself to his full height. "She does not know. Would stop me. It will kill her if I do not kill it, hunts us still." Then, a note of pride in his voice, as he had been responsible for driving Seethe off twice (with help.) "Wounded it. Will finish it. Old beast, prefers to prey on young and the weak, I am neither." His voice is scornful, though not of Maeryn's question, just of the habits of the skinwalker Seethe. "Cream stripes, takes form of wolf. Old like you."

Tellingly, he did not appear to realize that last part was probably rude.  

[Celeanor]

"He will die." Gen agreed, eyes and teeth flashing again. "I will kill him." It was odd, this feeling. This mare, this ... kalona... it was almost as if being near one of the purebloods was kindling the fire of the monster blood in him.

That could not be allowed.

"I am not child. Have faced Seethe before, lived when others have not. This vengeance is mine." He went on, tone considerably more measured as he controlled his rising temper. "You will die, Elder. This beast takes pleasure in the dying screams of foals and old ones. Sets traps and waits, like a spider. Consumes when fear is greatest, Seethe revels in torment." Tone now cool, there was a tinge of concern lacing through his speech as he interpreted her words as if she were inviting herself along.  

[Celeanor]

Finally, what wisdom experience has granted him shows itself ... and he falls silent before blurting aloud why he doesn't just believe he can face a skinwalker and live, but has. This mare, name unknown and unwanted, is still a potential threat to him ... for all that she has been conversing with him in a manner not unlike his own mother lecturing him.

"I am alive still, that is the difference." He says quietly, but firmly. Deep down, he knows he should not hunt Seethe alone ... but he doesn't trust anyone else to be his backup. Well, except for his mother, but as strong as she is, Gen is all too aware of her shortcomings. Wind soquili, while fast and airborne, were heartbreakingly susceptible to mortal wounds once their wings were taken from them.

"Seethe will know what it is to be hunted, Elder." He goes on, subconsciously straightening and flaring his wings again.  

[Celeanor]

She wasn't going to stop him? He studies her, weighing her words along with the threat she posed and...

No...

Instantly his teeth are bared and he rears back, forelegs striking out threateningly before tearing into the ground. "You would know their names to hunt them yourself? Do you take me for a fool, monster?" Earlier suspicion becomes anger and a clear display meant to warn her off. She must think him an idiot, to give a pureblooded kalona his last word to pass on to his family in case he should fall. She was no better than Seethe and all his tricks!  

[Celeanor]

"They are not helpless. I am not your kind." He snapped, teeth clicking audibly across the distance between them before lapsing into deep growl.

He continued to snarl at her for a long moment, the sound hardly that of a soquili at all when combined with his long canine teeth. He clearly did not believe her for a second, and his wings continued to mantle.

"Just because you did not say, does not mean you would not do. Rabbit and quail are small, you spoke of children ... surely they or their children may be hungry and require more." His head came down, ears flattened. "I say nothing. Do nothing. You cannot track them."