the camp (open)

[sashi]

(continuation of "passing" thread.)

That was good to hear he was cut out for the job of being a Hunter, not like he needed the approval, he knew he was capable of taking on new tasks, and the way he carried himself confidently showed that, he didn't need to prove it or convince others of that by boasting any. Konstantin liked his ego stoked, what man didn't? "They seem like my type, I'll join you. -- I have a place. It's this way.." They continued on within the forest for a while, passing along the outskirts of the city into the night as they made their way south.

- around an hour later or so -

The soft rhythmic sound of waves colliding into the beach could be heard nearby. On their walk, the clouds had slowly drifted apart, letting some of the moon's light spill unto the cold earth, which was now lightly blanketed with fog, giving the terrain an eerie glow. Kon had been silent for most of the way there, deep in thought. They approached a tall building, which loomed over them in the darkness. "You say you can't go back.. vhy not?", he questioned her, facing the door to the old warehouse, pushing it open further and holding it there to allow her inside. Here, the moonlight lit just enough through the holes in the ceiling to see the silhouette of a tent and the edges of large rocks on the ground, which had been formed in a circle for a fire pit. It wasn't much right now, but it was functional.

[Anty]

Quinn gave a sigh of relief. "Well, atleast that means I don't have to kill you, not yet.", she said smugly, as she reached into his boot to grab her small wooden knife. She pocketed it. She was actually quite pleased to hear this, knowing she would have a friend... or more than a friend. Yes, she fancied that last idea. She began to daydream as they continued on their march on through the forest and the edge of the city.
She was brought to reality by the soothing sound of waves crashing onto the cold sand. She looked up to see a vast building before there eyes: it wasn't so bad, it had most of the roof and walls to block the wind, which was to her liking. She walked into the warehouse and sat down on a large rock, she rested her elbows on her knees, placing her head in the palms of her hands. "I was going to my mother's funeral with my father... and I ran away... I feel ashamed everyday, but I can't go back. I have a new life now." She looked away to hide the grief filled tears that were gently rolling down her face.

[Mothtoto.]

Charlotte walked up to the beach. She slipped off her shoes, so she could feel the cold sand. Charlotte stepped into the sand, she could feel each grain rubbing against her feet, and between her toes. She noticed an old abandoned dock, and a warehouse looming in the shadows. She jogged over to the dock, and stepped on it, but immediately regretted it for the creaking noise the wood made as she pressed her foot down on it.

Charlotte decided to explore the warehouse, so she walked up to it cautiously. She reached the door, and was about to push it open, when she heard voices coming from within the building. She listened to them talk, they obviously didn't realize she was there. After thoroughly pondering in her mind whether she should go in, she pressed the palm of her hand against the door and stepped inside meekly. She looked around and saw a young woman sitting on a large stone, and a man of respectively the same age. She waited for them to notice her there.

[sashi]

There she goes again, with those threats. "We'll see about that..", he spoke under his breath, a grin edging over his lips. She seemed to have the ability, but was the intent there? Maybe, maybe not. Time would tell if she liked him or despised him, as others often did, she just hadn't found something to argue about with him yet; she hadn't pressed any of his buttons. He stood still and let her take the knife, one he had already forgotten about on the way to the camp. She was distracting, in a good way, and he wasn't used to traveling with someone else. It was nice.

As they went deeper into the warehouse, he went off closer to one of the walls, which was hidden in the dark out of the light's reach, watching her out of the corner of his eye as she spoke. The pack slid easily off, but his two wet shirt layers clung to him tightly and took a little more effort to remove. He tossed them on a rack made out of wood, one that he crafted himself, to drip dry.

He neared the tent nonchalantly and unzipped the door part way to grab some dry clothing. The faint light hugged over every toned muscle of his defined shoulders, back and torso, but only for a moment before he pulled on a heavier, dry shirt. There was also another shirt he had in his left hand. Both shirts were cool to the touch, from sitting in the chilly warehouse while he was gone. Turning back to her, he noticed her looking away, and that her tone had changed, it was much different than before. His eyes narrowed and his lips pressed tighter together, questioning how her voice rang out.. was she.. upset? She sounded like she was going to cry. Instead of being empathetic, he did what he could to help her by fixing her problem.. in sort of a gentle and compassionate manner. He wasn't very good at the whole running to jump in and comfort bit, and would have to get used to doing that. It was a bit awkward for him to be soft to someone, openly without hiding it for once. "If you.. hmm.. can't go back.. vhy are you ashamed? Vhat is there to regret? .. You alright.. Quinn? Here.. " He reached out to give her a long sleeve shirt of his. Doing this, he noticed something move out of the corner of his eye and turned to look towards the door, where a figure stood quietly. Not being able to see them very well in the darkness, he said nothing, and instead took a step closer to Quinn, almost protectively.

[Anty]

Quinn watched him from the corner of her eyes. She didn't like showing her emotions in front of people, especially strangers, but somehow Kon was different. She wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve, but her eyes were still red from crying. She was still watching him from the corner of her eye when he took his shirt off, but not wanting to be disrespectful, she looked away. She looked around the large space, to see he was very handy with tools. She liked that.
She took off her soaked jacket and placed it on the ground beside her feet. "I left my father in his time of need. I feel like I need to be there.", she said, shrugging. She took the shirt from him gratefully. "Don't look!", she said, grinning slyly at him as she slipped off her shirt. She saw a shadow in the corner of her eye, and slipped the large shirt on quickly. She side-stepped passed Kon quickly, taking her knife from her pocket. She stepped closer to the shadow, and saw it was girl, about 19, blond, and shorter than the average person. She raised the knife dangerously close to the young girl's throat. "And who are you?", she snarled. "It's not nice to spy, you should know that," she pressed the knife a little harder into the girl's throat as she said this, making it trickle blood.

[Mothtoto.]

Charlotte looked away as they both took off their shirts, and replace them with dry ones. She noticed that the girl was crying, and had felt a sudden pang of sadness on her stomach, even though she was just a stranger. And then, out of no where the older girl was standing right before her, with a knife pressed to her throat.

Charlotte gulped, only making the short knife moved achingly along her throat. She answered the question addressed to her, speaking in her normally dreamy voice calmly as if there wasn't a knife almost breaking the skin of her neck, "Oh, I'm Charlotte, Charlotte Nix. Am I interrupting anything?"

She took in the girl's features. Her face was cold, hopefully not in the literal sense, and her eyes were red, presumably from crying. She then realized she had wondered off in thought, while taking in the girl's appearance, and missed everything just recently said. "Sorry I didn't catch that last bit." Charlotte smiled, trying to make the atmosphere seem friendlier. Her feet were cold from the wet floor or the warehouse, and there were goosebumps running up her legs, since she was not only barefoot, but also wearing a skirt. "Would you mind taking your knife away, it makes it a bit hard to talk.." She said mistily.

[sashi]

Kon turned slowly away, almost hesitantly, women in a way, were his weakness. They were soft, and delicate, which was much different than he. Out of respect, he turned to face the opposite direction. Reverse physiology usually worked on him, and he was having a hard time not glancing over his shoulder.

He knew Quinn was a bit vulnerable, so his instinctive "protective mode" triggered when the stranger entered the warehouse. The feeling was only slight though, seeing how he had just met her and really, hardly knew her. As she moved around him towards the door, his dark blue eyes watched the scene unfold, waiting a minute before he stepped in. His hand reached out, aiming to firmly grab Quinn's arm and pull it away as he pressed against her side with his own, gently pushing his way in between the two of them. His movements were deliberate and smooth, not quick or jerky. It was natural for him to take charge, even though Quinn proved to be dangerous, he was unyielding, and may have appeared to others at times to be daring, or rather, careless. He glanced at Quinn before looking back to the other young woman. "No, you're not..", he said as his eyes shifted back yet again to Quinn, wondering if she greeted all people this aggressively, if so, it was amusing. If she kept that up, they would be getting themselves into a lot of trouble in the future.

He wondered how someone could find this place so easily, it was abandoned with plants stretching up and growing over some of the sides, and wasn't the greatest of places to adventure into, but he had found himself in stranger places in his own wanderings, many which were more awkward that this.

[Anty]

Quinn swung around towards Konstantin, her knife still tight in her hand. "I've got this.", she said with a bit of an angry tone to her voice, she wasn't angry at him, she was just pissed that a stranger had tried to spy on them... probably an Innocent. Kon was just trying to help, but she wanted to show him she was capable of fighting her own battles too. She wriggled her arm free from his tight grip and swung back to Charlottte. "It's a pleasure to meet you... Charlotte. What brings you here? Are you a spy of the Innocents?", she said through her teeth. If this girl wanted to get on Quinn's nice side, she was going about it the wrong way.
The wind was now blowing violently, rushing against the side of the warehouse. She flashed a quick glance towards Kon. She didn't always understand it, but she had somehow felt the need to protect others. Now with Kon, she didn't really need to, but that wasn't going to stop her. The pair could cause a lot of mischeif around the small town, but it had seemed that the mischeif had already come their way on the stormy night.

[Mothtoto.]

Charlotte drifted off again, looking around the warehouse. She ignored all of their questions and comments, seeing as none of them seemed very valid. She slided along the wall around the couple, and started walking around. She noticed it looked like they had been sleeping here. It doesn't look like a very nice place to stay, but it looks like a shelter away from the rain. Charlotte thought, adding the last part as raindrop fell from a hole in the roof, and ran down the edge of her face.

Charlotte was getting slightly bored of just wandering around the warehouse. She slapped at a bug that had flown onto her throat, only to find something wet running down it, and no bug. She then remembered the knife which Quinn had pressed into her skin. She felt a small amount of blood well from the small abrasion. "Do you happen to have a bandage?" she inquired as she turned around to face them.

[sashi]

It seemed that Quinn was adamant on "welcoming" the guest they had, and Kon, being half interested, decided to leave the two of them alone for the moment to sort things out. Without a word, he quietly made his way outside as the wind picked up, causing the fog to dissipate over the terrain, making it easier to see any obstacles in the way amongst the faint light of the moon. They couldn't do each other too much harm, could they? He was oblivious to the stranger's wound that Quinn had recently caused, and was out of ear shot before the other woman asked about the bandage.

It was lighter outside and his eyes adjusted quickly, allowing him to see the branches and sticks he began to gather off the ground. Picking several up two or three at a time, he pressed them into a small bundle under his muscular arm, holding them firmly against his side. Suddenly, he felt strange, and rather weak, his mind felt like it was spinning, and then everything went black, his body soon falling to the cold ground. -- A few minutes later, he awoke, but again, he did not feel like himself, and nor was he. His hands were paws with long talons, and his body was coated with thick, coarse fur. He laid there on his stomach, still feeling uncoordinated, giving his mind a chance to catch up.

[Anty]

Quinn soon tired of the torturous game with the girl, and let her roam the warehouse, she obviously wasn't a threat, but just a weird teenage girl, or at least in Quinn's eyes. She slumped down to the ground, leaning her head against the wall and closing her eyes. She had begun to drift off to sleep quickly, it had been a long day, but definitely interesting. Her head drooped down, and she finally fell over, sleeping on her side. Quinn woke when she heard rustling noises from outside but had decided to ignore them, probabl just the wind. But wait? Where was Kon? He was probably in the tent.. or something, but Quinn was too lazy to find out. She immediately fell into a light doze.

Quinn woke from the sound of a blood curdling scream, she winced at the sound. Jumping to her feet, she felt foolish to think she could have drifted off in such an unknown territory, especially on her own. Her knuckles were white from her tight grip on the knife still in her hand. She slipped out, unseen, and looked through the darkness. The piercing scream had resembled the voice of Konstantin, but as she looked around, the only thing she was a... badger? "Konstantin?" No reply. Could it be?

There was only one way to tell. Quinn approached the creature slowly so that she was just at the range of its eyesight. She looked through the mist to see a large pile of sticks, probably to start a fire, but it looked as if the person who had been collecting them had fled quickly... or turned into a badger. Quinn sighed quietly and waited.

[sashi]

The honey badger rested it's narrow head on the some of the scattered sticks and branches, motionless aside from the slow rise and fall of it's chest amongst the long grass. After a moment, it sat up, sensitive black nose wiggling in the air as it took in several quick sniffs with quivering nostrils.

Konstantin? Although the voice sounded familiar, it still took a few seconds to register in his mind. It was Quinn, investigating him in the nearby distance. As she approached, his muscles instinctively tensed, his tail fluffing up a bit as well. His head moved side to side slightly, letting his eyes adjust as he attempted to find her with them, which only made out the faint shape of her body, however, his nose could detect that she was in fact human, female, and knew other things about her body as well, and so it made more sense to rely on his nose, it made up for the eyesight.

He stepped out of the bushes, clumsily at first, but then became more balanced, carrying himself with a certain confident swagger that slightly resembled his human form in manner. As he ventured forward, he was easier to spot, having that thick white fur along the top of his body, which sharply contrasted with his dark black face, belly and limbs. As he neared her feet, within a foot or so, he gave a soft rumbling growl and then a distinctive snort, before gazing up to her with shiny beady black eyes with a raised head.

[Anty]

Quinn backed away from the creature quickly, feeling suddenly dizzy. She blinked. It seemed as if everything was spinning... then it all went black. It seemed hours before she woke back into consciousness. She found she was not herself, but a small silver fox. Was she dreaming? Maybe she was dead? No, it all seemed to real to be a dream and she had no recollection of dying.

The light, silver fox swiveled it pointed face around to see that it was outside near the beach. There was an odd stench in the air.. But was it? The fox looked around to see a large badger in front of its pointed nose. It instantly fluffed the fur along it back and tail, to make it seem twice the size it already was, and bared its teeth. But as it looked into the creature's eyes, some sense of recognition occurred and the dangerous air faltered. It pinned its large pointed ears back and whimpered quietly, as if apologizing. It had recognized the larger figure from somewhere.. but why would a young but wise fox be associated with a badger? The fox cocked its head sideways, as if in question. Where had it seen the creature before?

[sashi]

Not this again. The transformation was smooth and quick, but always had a lingering feeling of nausea afterwards, that left him uncoordinated for several minutes. With each shift of form the process was less and less agitating and more natural. He only wished it gave him some sort of warning besides nearly blacking out each episode, which was quite sudden and awkward.

The furred creature shifted, short, stalky forelimbs stretching out as thin, sickle shaped claws arched and carved into the ground, chest lowering to the earth to graze the solid, cold dirt, rear still in place, with jowls spreading apart as if they were going to suddenly snap closed ahead of them, though.. it's body was only lazily performing a stretch. It barely noticed the other creature puff up like a frayed feather-duster with a flash of teeth, but as the moonlight gleamed off of them briefly, it's eyes averted back to the furry form, staring blankly, like it didn't seem to compute the message.

He plowed through the grass, the moisture from it gathering on his dark chest, causing his fur to become glossy and damp on the tips of hair along his sides. As the distance closed between the two, his posture stood more erect, only lowering as he paused, briefly shaking the water that had collected over him, sending it flying. He leaned towards her, taking several quick sniffs inches from her neck.

[Anty]

The silver fox blinked lazily, watching its breath turn to a misty ice. She was always weary after transforming, but it passed quickly. She watched the badger stretch, but as it did, she saw almost a reflection of a man, tall and lethal. Like a tiny light bulb, the fox recognized the animal, Kon. The fluffy creature eyed the badger cautiously as it made its way towards her, not quite sure whether this creature was a threat or a friend.

She stretched her neck out towards him in greeting as he neared her. She shook her coat clean of the water that had dropped onto her from Kon, not wanting the rain to seep into her coat and give he a chill. She allowed him to sniff her, not wanting to be disrespectful. She began to circle him now, sniffing at his shiny fur coat. She stopped, flicking her tail towards him so that the white tip smoothed out a rough spot in his fur.

((Hope this makes sense, kinda muse less at the moment -_-))