The Favoured (language)

[Clockpunk]

Julian Ivan inhaled through his snout, taking in the breeze around him, and enjoying his time while it lasted. He could be found on the boarder of the Meadow, leaning against a tree and nibbling on some huckleberries that, to their misfortune, decided to grow right next to the tree Ivan had favoured for the time being. He let his massive weight sink into the ground as the peaceful morning slowly crept into noon. What time it was was beyond him, though at this point it was completely irrelevant.

Knock on wood, Ivan had finally in all his years found a spot where no asshole could disturb him in his time of peace. The Meadow had been some sort of solitary for him since he arrived to Noatak, and though he hasn't been there long, it felt like he's been there his whole life. He hadn't had the chance to really get to know some of the natives in the area, so making the full decision to stay here was probably not to good of an idea, seeing as enemies can arise in even the smallest of population (not saying this one was small). However, it never hurts to try something knew? Make new choices and just start from scratch. Maybe he would find what he's always wanted here in Noatak; Peace and Quiet. Thus far, it's all he's gotten, and he's come to really enjoy it.

Ivan reached down to the bush once more and snagged up a branch, bringing it to his mouth and chomping down on it in hopes of getting a mouth full of berries. However disappointed. He opened his eyes to find an empty stick with even fewer leaves. He raised his eyebrow and threw the branch aside, peering over his mass to find it half empty. How long had he been munching on these? He reached down with his massive paws and searched the bush for some scragglers, but found only three small ones left.

Welp! He thought to himself, Time to look for more! New spot! Ivan shifted a little, throwing his forepaws forwards in an attempt to get up. Sliding his rear and back he managed to get himself to a proper seating position, glancing around the Meadow before him. Nothing else was in sight but a few trees branching off from the forest behind him. With a heavy sigh, Ivan heaved himself to his feet and wobbled forward, his snout towards the ground in hopes of finding more huckleberries.

[Melissa|Tristan]

The summer was definitely the best season, Mel reasoned with herself as she made her way through the spaces on the forest floor. It was the warmest, and lacked the wetness of spring and the depressing dry chill of fall. Her talisman agreed, and as she reached an open patch of sunlight the large cat stretched, exposing as much of her fur as possible to the warming light. Getting used to the cold weather in the Canadian town had been difficult, which is why she'd moved overseas for a few months and only just returned now.

Well, if Mel was going to be completely honest with herself she admitted that Vicky and the Hunters had something to do with it. She'd taken Vicky's threats seriously, and decided to take a vacation from the town, leaving her things in the apartment with Tristan but taking the important things and disappearing for a while. Hopefully the Hunters had completely forgotten about her, though it was more likely they had gotten preoccupied with matters more important to them.

The large cat's lithe body moved through the forest with little difficulty, and though a large open area would have been more natural for her talisman, the cover made her feel safer. Still, she was gradually heading in the direction of the open meadows in the middle of the forest, where she could go for a good sprint or two and laze around for a bit before heading back home. As she got closer got to the meadow the cheetah's pace picked up until she was loping excitedly to the open space. It was her first time returning to the familiar place since returning to Noatak.

Before she'd left Mel would ordinarily thoroughly checked the surrounding forest for other animals, but upon seeing the sunlight her talisman's excitement was uncontrollable and she moved quickly into the open area. Unfortunately she neglected to notice there was another creature in the area immediately so she continued straight into the open space with barely a glance. The rookie mistake caused her to pull up abruptly when her keen yellow-brown eyes keenly caught movement at the edge of the meadow, instantly pulling her up short.

Oh, shit.

Big didn't begin to describe the beast sitting on the cusp of the forest. Massive, enormous and scary were three that did however. Eyes locked on it, the sleek cat circled to face it more head on to get a better view of it, unsure of how to handle having an intruder in what she'd come to think of as her clearing. And so the cheetah simply stopped and stared at the bear. Oh, shit.

[[OOC: Nice first post! Whoot, I am back!!]

[Clockpunk]

Ivan lifted his head from the ground to take in the surrounding scents, failing at tracking down any more berries. Hmm, maybe he had eaten them all. He had been at the boarder for quite some time, moving from spot to spot. But what's wrong with gorging out on berries, they'll grow back! Eventually.

With the summer sun high in the sky, Ivan made one last decision; Sun basking time! It was as if he had left for vacation.

Waddling his way to the center of the meadow, Ivan came to a halt. He twitched his eat and peered around, narrowing his eyes, I know you're out there... I can smell you. He banked his head and began sniffing around him, eying his surroundings. Where ever it was, it was close. Finally the scent hit him full force. Bears are known for their sense of smell; they can pick up a scent fairly well for the benefit of their... stomachs. BERRIES! His talisman reared up and bound towards a lone tree on the out skirts, bypassing something he thought to be... unnatural. Despite his crave for the beloved new taste, Ivan came to another halt. He huffed and glared into the opening, rearing up to his hind legs to get a better view, and sure enough, there it was. The gleam of a pair of eyes... staring at him. He smirked slightly, grinning a little inside, because whatever was stalking him was no match for his size, and besides, he really just wanted to be alone with no intention of a fight. His talisman was that of a dark brown Kodiak bear; kind of an ego booster instead of protection to himself. Ivan liked that he had this as his familiar. He bothered no one so long as they didn't bother him.
Unless this was a hunter, to which it was hunter be hunted to him. Finally he had found something close to a haven, and its ruined by this lousy hiding hunter.

Well...? What are you waiting for? I know your there, I can see you. grinning inside even more. He dropped to his front legs and huffed hard, waddling towards the berries by the oak tree.

[Melissa|Tristan]

After staring for a second at the massive beast a flood of memories came rushing back to Melissa, causing her to step backwards a few feet. The whole scene with the bear up on the mountain when she had first arrived came to mind, and it almost seemed as though her shoulder twinged in a reminder of the not-so-nice injuries that particular bear had caused. This could be a totally different bear, she thought as her talisman -in her mind's eye- tilted it's head in suspicion. They mentally argued the pros and cons of giving the bear a closer inspection until -giving a silent sigh- her talisman gave in and agreed that getting slightly closer wouldn't be that dangerous. They were the fastest land mammal on the planet after all.

Keeping that powerful thought in mind made Mel braver than she normally would be approaching another predator as large as the bear. It was easy to circle closer, since the beast seemed to be absorbed in hunting a diet staple for a bear; berries. Huckleberries to be exact, and their scent wafted towards the cheetah causing Mel to want some and her talisman to wrinkle it's nose in disgust. They didn't have much time to be distracted by the berries however, because the ginormous animal had reared up on it's hind legs and was peering around intently.

Unable to suppress a chuckle, the cheetah's muscled side rippled with laughter at the comical bear. The thought that it's eyes were too dull to spot them was quite funny, given that her own keen eyesight could spot prey from long distances away. That didn't mean she was going to underestimate the one who'd invaded her clearing though. If anything his huffing and snorting served to warn her just how powerful and large a mammal he really was.

A quick check around revealed there were no other creatures in sight, so she felt relatively safe. Besides, the bear seemed more interested in food than in her, being omnivorous to her carnivorous. It was easy to stalk closer and more closely examine the powerful paws that were currently sticking in her general direction as it sat in a vaguely human manner. Her semi-retractable claws were fully extended, making her nervousness plainly obvious. At her talisman’s urging the small feline grew more cautious as the distance between the two decreased. Melissa's ears flicked forward and back as she listened to the distinct sounds of him eating. Gosh, even his breathing was pretty loud! Her shoulder blades rose and fell sharply on her back as she moved still closer, curious about him.

Deciding that she felt like taking a break and talking to the bear, whoever he was, she folded her lanky form into a sitting position facing him. Her mouth opened to speak to him as her intense orange-brown eyes found his muddy brown ones. "Who are you?" Feeling that that may have been a teensy bit rude, she decided to keep talking. ”It’s a little early to start storing up for winter, don’t ya think?" She grinned; her smaller teeth revealing an almost canine smile. There was no way in hell that a bear could catch her, no matter how fast he thought he was, unless she was injured, which she wasn’t. Still, his enormous size led her to guess he weighed in at about the average 700 pounds, and compared to her 90 pounds that was a lot. From far away he’d seemed large; from close up he was massive.

[Clockpunk]

Hearing the voice behind him, Ivan spun around, landing on his forepaws, "Ah-HAH!" However, with great disagreement to this sudden quick movement, his back half was taken to short, causing him to fall in a sideways spiral and land with a thud -back to the same seated position, mind you, only a few feet over. Taken by embarrassment, Ivan shut his eyes and bit his lower lip, only moments after, with the slight glimpse of what he saw, it had finally registered in his mind. His eyes shot open as fear slowly crept upon his talisman's face. Small ears, lanky body, swishing tail, "SPOTS!? CAT!" he called out before jumping to his feet and lunging towards the oak tree he had accompanied before. Julian grabbed it with his forepaws and swing around behind it, staring at the large feline before him and clinging to the tree as if his life was about to end and the world was about to tip over on him, "You're a fucking cat! Who are you!? And where did you come from?" he panted with panic, "and for the love of god don't chase me! You look fast..." he winced, clinging to the tree harder.

Hearing the words coming out of his mouth, Ivan couldn't help but sympathize with his talisman. He was dead scared of cats for some unknown reason, and yet his talisman was a bear. A bear. Why was he so fearful of something that lazes around all day and scratched trees for entertainment?
That is, till the memory of that stupid kitten came to his attention. He could feel the bear rolling its eyes at him wondering why he had chosen such a whoosy for a familiar, but at the same time, he IS there to help Ivan.
Fearfully, he remained hidden behind the tree, staring at the felineous-monster thing before him.

OOC || I will warn you, I think in cartoon as opposed to real life, so some movements might seem a little exaggerated, but its all for comedic effect.

[Melissa|Tristan]

At the bear's exclamation the cheetah backed up a couple steps, fearing the large animal might fall over and land closer than she wanted. He did indeed fall over as it turned out, but only onto his butt again, a few feet from where his freak-out had begun. Mistake One: Letting his guard down. Mel's talisman snickered at it before continuing to mock the bear inside Mel's mind. Mistake Two: Closing his eyes. What? Melissa's keen eyes focused on the bear's face, and found that he had indeed closed his eyes. Ah, the fun we could have with him now. Her talisman visualized sneaking up to the bear's face and breathing on it before sprinting to a safe distance to watch the apparently scared animal freak out.

Turns out they didn't need to do anything to make the bear freak out, though Mel still chastised her talisman for thinking that way. It assured her that it had only been joking, knowing full well that a slap from one of those paws could easily break the cheetah's petite frame. The chestnut coloured fur-ball began spewing words at them, apparently not caring who heard them in his distress. The bear's voice told her that he was male, and she guessed it was a young-ish male at that; probably around her own age. Her cheetah was seething at the bear's foul language, especially given the obviousness of his statements, but Mel was too amused to notice.

Without a doubt, this wasn't the bear that had attacked them upon their arrival, unless he was acting, which she severely doubted. Mel didn't think anyone was that good of an actor. Her eyes crinkled and she grinned again at the large mammal, who'd panicked when it heard her voice. It was comical, one of the top ten biggest -easily- land mammals being afraid of her. If she was a lioness or something, well then maybe it wouldn't be so funny, but given that she weighed less than a fifth of his weight, and even that was pushing it. Keeping this in mind, it was difficult to keep the laughter from bubbling out of her mouth.

The instant the bear grabbed the tree Melissa was unable to contain herself, and she ended up rumbling with laughter. The image of the gigantic animal frantically trying to hide behind hold onto the tree was too funny. She quieted as he spoke again, though the words were spewing up so fast they were slightly difficult to understand.

Ears pricked, Mel walked back to the spot where she'd been before and sat back down to focus her attention on the still-nameless bear with a tiny sigh. Her talisman was still indignant over his rudeness, though Melissa was willing to let it go simply because of the frightened look on the poor guy's face. "Yes, I'm a cat. A cheetah, actually. My name's Melissa, but you can call me Mel if you want." Her voice was as calm and steady as her yellow-brown eyes, and it easily carried over the distance even though she wasn't shouting at him. "Have you never seen one like me before?" Curiousity coloured her voice as she continued. "I am very fast. The fastest actually. But I'm not going to chase you, don't worry." She tilted her head sideways as she inspected the way he was sitting.

"That doesn't look very comfortable." A pause. "You can come out from there if you want. I won't bite as long as you don't." To prove her point she stood up again and backed up a couple steps before sitting down again. There, now he had more than enough space to come out like a civilized person and tell her his name. In order to be less threatening to him she lay down on her side, knowing full well that she could easily jump up and take off if she needed to. Mel chirped a couple of times, calling to the stranger, who was still attempting to hide his massive girth behind the tree, which dwarfed in comparison to him. Since when were their comedians in Noatak??

[[OOC: No worries, I'm good with that. Haha, I think I might think like that sometimes....like right now lol]]

[Clockpunk]

He remained behind the tree for a good while, soon realizing that the cat was speaking. Opening his eyes to see what she, as he gathered her to be, was saying, he gradually began to relieve the tree of his bear hug. Concluding on what had just taken place, Ivan moved from behind the tree and sat down beside it, facing Melissa and sighing heavily, "I apologize, I have this kind of irrational fear of cats... something about you guys just... get to me. My name is Julian," he spoke, raising his head and sitting upright in a fashionable, more appropriate manor, "but I usually go my my last name, Ivan. I just recently relocated here from Anchorage, Alaska.

I have seen your type before, but not in person like this, no. And I wont attack unless attacked. I'm like a bee. Don't bother me, and I wont bother you." he explained, keeping alarmed in case she was to suddenly decide something drastic. Being the fastest, one would assume quick actions were made with quick ease. Being on his guard was all he could think of, despite her vibe being that of a calm one as her body language stated so.

"I'm sorry, I have to ask. Are you... in association with that sort of... 'cult' if you will?" he raised a paw and, with an odd amount of ease, made the quotation hand signal, "You know, they call themselves 'hunters' or whatever. Do you..." he winced to the side, backing away slightly and eying her. "I mean it's just, I don't want no trouble. I'm finally happy with a setting, and trouble is the last thing I want to deal with. If you wish I can leave." he said, pawing towards an open exit in the tree's, finally realizing that this Cheetah he was speaking to had made herself comfortable on the grass. This was hard to decipher, jumping back and forth between weather or not she was acting or just being friendly. Good actress, that's for certain. But how good? All he knew was that, despite being slightly absent minded at times, he knew what the plan was if this happened to be, in fact, an unwanted civilian. Just like that kitten back in Alaska, that was completely unexpected, and to him, was the last time he would trust a feline just by their body language and calm words.

[Melissa|Tristan]

With her head cocked at the stranger, Mel kept thinking about just how large the bear was, and whether or not she was doing something stupid by lying there in the open. Sometimes to gain a friend you have to take risks. She thought about Aras, and how she had attempted to save him from being attacked by the hyena, and failed. She had of course taken care of him afterwards, supporting him from deep in the forest to the hospital. The nicest way to put it was that it hadn’t been a good day. A quick glance around and behind her showed that the performance wasn’t going to repeat itself. They were alone.

The male bear’s girth was probably large enough that was she in her human form -and choosing to hug the massive creature- her arms would not span it. Her ears flicked in his direction nervously at his voice, though it sounded as nervous as she felt. As Ivan who was also Julian spoke of his fear it became obvious that the whole tree hugging thing had actually been a tree hiding thing. Fail. The cheetah in her mind’s eye chirped hysterically, recalling how comical he’d appeared trying to hide behind the midsized tree. That is, compared to a human it was midsized; compared to the bear it was a mere sapling.

Mel raised her eyebrows at the word ‘Alaska’, knowing it was a place one would never, ever find her. Noatak was plenty cold enough in the winter, thank you very much. She wouldn’t however, mind visiting it. Supposedly it was actually beautiful in a way far different than her beloved hot plains. The guy’s nervous tone continued to dominate his voice, despite all of her calming signals. The only other thing Mel could think of to help him not be afraid of her would be to shift into her human self again. At the same time though, she herself didn’t want to be the vulnerable one, and with him being a bear she felt much safer as a cheetah. ”Pleased to meet ya, er, Ivan. You’re a bear. That must have come in handy up in Alaska.” All that fur certainly must have served him well, and it looked soft enough that she had to control the urge of wanting to rub her face in it.

At his whole bee metaphor speech thingy she simply repeated herself with a shake of her head. ”I seem to scare you, but you shouldn’t be afraid of me. I won’t bite unless you do.” Mel gave a small smile and tentatively moved a little closer. Ears pricked and listening to him the whole time she shifted her body closer to his in a manner that was akin to an army crawl, and she hoped he wouldn’t panic at her movements. ”A cult?” There was a pause as she sorted through all of her own baggage on the matter of Innocents and Hunters before answering in a quiet voice. ”No, I’m not with any of them don’t worry.” The extra emphasis on her words made sure that he know she wasn’t to be associated with either “cult” as he’d so aptly put it.

She gave him another small smile at the funny attempt at quotation marks he made with his paw, and was finally close enough to him that she felt like sitting up. Her doglike paws propelled her slowly upwards, shoulder blades poking sharply up and down as Mel settled herself into a sitting position on the grass. In the small silence that followed, Mel tentatively spoke up, figuring that it was fair for him to answer the same question. ”Why, are you associated with either of them?” There was a small note of disgust in her voice as she recalled the way the Hunters had hounded her before she’d left. The last thing she wanted was a repeat, so it would be best for her to leave if he was. She got up in preparation, backing up a few steps to resume their previous distance again.

[Clockpunk]

ROAR! I know, I know! I'm sorry for keeping you waiting! I will announce in the Shoutbox when I have replied. :D