Ren Yo / M / 20 / Tradesman / Mentions: Nala

Ren couldn’t help but feel responsible. He got them in this mess. He flinched as she applied the bandage, but automatically it started to feel better, his wound was open to the cold winds anymore. Once he was addressed to stand by the horses, he refused. “No, no, I’m good,” Ren chuckled waving his hands as she checked the horses. He gulped as he remembered the sight of the man he just killed. I… I killed someone… Ren looked down at his bloodied hands. Is this even… my blood?! He bit his lip as it began to quiver.

Clenching his palms together into fists he tried to push the memory out. The male had… brown eyes, ruffled blonde hair, scruffy beard… he could’ve been a father. Oh, shit- did I just ruin a family? Ren slapped his hands on his face, rubbing at his temples. The bowhunter was old enough to have children from the looks of it. Ren has a perfectly fine family he left back at home… so why, why did he leave them? His brothers, his parents, all in good shape. The real reason Ren wanted to go was so he could visit them. They were farther south down the border than Nala would have liked, but Ren would go there anyway.

“No, we’re not turning back.” Ren’s voice was stern, for the first time in a long time. “We’ll sell these horses, alright?” Ren pointed to the horses, gathering his courage. He walked, wary of the beast before placing a hand on its reins. You’re alright. Just mount it-she mounts it so well.. He looked at the random mare he had picked out to ride and heaved himself on top of it. Not so bad. Please don’t buck- Ren gripped onto the reins, placing his feet in the stirrups. “Alright, let's go,” Ren forced out a weak smile. “If you don’t want to finish the route, that’s fine. I’ll go there by myself,” Ren was stubborn, he wasn’t going to give up seeing his brothers again.

Sabine smiled, "But I'm not a cat, so I don't have to worry much." She listened to him sarcastically comment about her reaching for a weapon. "Hey, I'm not going to use it. It's just a sort of security for me... Weird I know- but still. But it's not like I could use this one anyway- It's gone. I had the misfortune of losing most of my weapons." She explained, throwing her cloak back to show the empty scabbards that lined her belt. Sabine had to admit, he was cute, in an irritating sort of way. But she refused to let herself fall prey to his flirtatious smiles, or magnetic blue eyes.

.

Sabine cleared her throat when Tove reached for her bow, nicking an arrow to it and ready. "You know, you could hurt somebody with that." She said to her. Then she smiled, but this one wasn't snarky like the others, it was friendly and genuine. "I'm not looking for any trouble, so feel free to put the bow away. If I wanted to hurt either of you, I could have done it a lot sooner." She reasoned. The girl was obviously on edge, but Sabine wasn't sure if it was something she was always like, or if she'd just caught the girl at the wrong time. That would be just my luck. She thought. It was true though. Her luck for the past 8 hours hadn't been great, but hopefully that would change.

.

"I caught scent of a hunter and a shifter over here, but I lost the scent in the wind." She explained her coming. And then she stifled a gasp and mentally kicked herself. By saying she had smelled that well, she'd just exposed herself as a shifter. Maybe he would not think anything of it?

Reen was busily scrubbing away at a tankard when a knock interrupted her work. She flashed a glare at the door but continued scrubbing, deciding it wasn’t worth her time. If someone wanted to come into the tavern, they could, it was open and they didn’t need to ask permission to enter during open hours.

However, a male voice interrupted her thoughts, one she knew well, one she knew she couldn’t ignore. “Good morning Reen. I hope you haven’t decided to stay in bed all day. You never know who might be lurking around waiting for you to just open the door.”

Reen rolled her eyes as Dreyvon spoke, setting the tankard on the counter and brushing her hands down the dirty apron to dry them. Moving over to the heavy door, she whisked it open, a gust of chilly air brushing at her short blonde hair.

Her hands found her hips as she quirked a pale brow at the hulking figure before her, his massive height towering over her short stature. “Well, look at what the storm blew in, a nice and large piece of trash.” A small grin found her features as she teased the older man.

They were cousins, though she considered him more of a brother, as living in a small town they had grown up together, and when her family had died, she had ended up staying with their family until she could buy her tavern. They also shared a conection in their shifted form, them both being bobcats.

Reen motioned towards the bar “Come on in Drey, would you like anything to drink?” She moved towards the bar and picked up the discarded tankard, finishing cleaning it before grabbing the next one. “So what brings you here today?”

Ren Yo / M / 20 / Tradesman / Mentions: Nala

Ren shifted in the saddle, trying his best to relax. He inhaled slowly, trying to calm his nerves. Finally, he managed to calm his lower half. He bit the inner side of his left cheek as the horse decided to paw in irritation. He placed a hand on its neck and patted it on its smooth surface. He flinched when she talked about killing. He didn’t want to hear it.

He had enough, looking to the corner of his vision, trying to ignore it. “I’m fine, I’ll wash up when we get to those stables you talked about,” Ren fidgeted his fingers, nervous thoughts creeping up on his spine. As the horse started to move, Ren didn’t notice, he was too focused on the formations of the rocks. He finally saw the environment moving around him, and he perked around.

Keep calm, keep calm… He looked back up to Nala, who shot him multiple glances. Then, she continued more about death and killing. Now, about her family. Ren couldn’t help but grit his teeth. “J-just drop it already, I don’t want to talk about it,” Ren bit back more remarks, knowing Nala had a terrible past. He probably came off like a wimp compared to her, but killing had sparked agitated fear in Ren. He only wanted the best for people, he always thought about what he does.

He never knew he would kill someone before. He never wanted to cause the death of someone. Don’t break down, don’t break down- Ren felt a clench in his throat, he tried to talk but it came out as a croak. How was Nalaea so good at coping with this stuff? Ren cleared his throat, calming down. “How long until you suppose we get there?” Ren spoke up, finally.

Coalstin | 19 | Male | Hunter/Tracker | M: Tove, Sabine

There was a hum of silence, and Tove had pulled her bow over her shoulder, swiftly pulling an arrow from Coal's quiver. There was a flash of hesitance in the girl, and she glanced quickly to Coal. She then turned back to the other girl, resolve renewed. Tove's voice was wary, warning - she had ordered the girl to leave. It was clear she was still on edge - whatever horrible dream had woken her, it still hadn't left. He needed to diffuse the situation in a calm manner, without provoking Tove further. He reached out, laying his hand on the curve of Tove's bow, angling it at the ground.

"Hey, I vote for not impaling anyone on my arrow, thank you." He quipped, smiling gently at Tove. He was exhausted and slightly irritable, but he could not let the situation escalate, nor anger her further. What troubled Coal was he wasn't quite sure how to help Tove - perhaps she just wanted space. Space, or a shoulder to cry on - two very different needs. Coal couldn't quite discern of which she wanted. He turned away.

The red - head's defense had made perfect sense - but brought the distinct question of why. She had clearly gotten into some sort of skirmish recently, or else she probably would have gound new weapons. Troublemaker, or something else?

The girl reacted to Tove's aggression calmly - which Coal was immensely grateful for. She then proceeded to explain in further detail how she had come here. She had scented a hunter and a shifter - which could only mean -

"I have a feeling that chatting with two of my sworn enemies isn't going to go over well with the boss, now is it?" He joked lightly - although, he was telling the truth.

"So you're one too." Coal released a breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. His golden-brown hair fell over his hands. He was exhausted, and quite frankly, he was committing a crime in this very moment. He wasn't supposed to be speaking with shifters - unless he was throwing insults, or asking for last words.

"I guess I'm the black sheep." He pointed to the girl, then to Tove, then to himself. "Shifter, shifter, hunter." He let his title sink in, then flashed a grin at the two girls, sweeping into a dramatic bow.

"How do you do? Pleasure to meet you. I do hope you don't take offense at my comrade's attempt at world-wide extermination of your kind." He said lightly, mockingly. But there was a hint of seriousness in his piercing blue eyes - an apology.

Tove felt Coals hand press downward on her bow. She sighed and lowered it, collecting the arrow and putting it back into Coals quiver. Her mind was pounding. She needed someone to talk to but no one was there. A unnoticeable tear strolled down Tove's face. She closed her eyes for a moment, staying silent as Coal spoke to the new person. She was trying to decide if it were best to leave or not. She was a tad homesick. Maybe she could go and talk to the fire there. Yeah. The fire would listen. And hopefully wouldn't interrupt. She glared at the girl secretly. Tove wasn't going to be caught up in a love triangle. If he wanted her, he could come get her, if not she'd mourn by herself.
-

Toves blue eyes flashed cat-like, she shifted, her powerful snow leopard appearing where her human form once stood, she looked to Coal one last time and padded off into the forest, crossing the river with one powerful leap. She flicked her tail and walked in the direction of her house, if she were human, she'd be crying. Another reason she shifted. Tove didn't show weakness, especially to someone she didn't know.
-

Toge padded peacefully back to her house, the small cabin in a hidden section of woods looked just as she had left it. She shifted, keeping her head facing towards the ground, she opened the door easily, her head pounding with thoughts of the dream. She couldn't seem to get over it. She started a fire, the crackling soothed her pounding very little but provided her with some ease. She stared deep into it, running through her thoughts.

A shorter statured man waltzed through an abandoned section of forest. He did not walk, he waltzed, each stride a cocky contribution to the humorous looking dance he performed as he moved about the abandoned woods. He had no reason to be there, had no place to be, he just was.

He kicked and skipped and leaped and twisted, each move horribly choreographed, but blending into a dance that suited him perfectly. The tune that twisted throughout his head was occasionally let out in a horribly off tune version, his voice pitchy and hard to listen to, but he didn’t care, no one was there to hear it, and if they were, he still wouldn’t give a damn.

As he hit the last note of the song, finishing his dance with a huge leap, he landed and proceeded to trip on a log and tumble face first into the dirt with a muffled “oof”.

Peerance lifted his now dirty face from the ground and stood shakily, searching the ground for the bottle he had previously grasped in his hand. He didn’t immediately see it so he began to spin in circles looking for it, slowly backing up as he did so.

His fuzzy mind failed to spot the steep hill that was placed directly behind him, so he failed to stop himself as his clumsy limbs twisted up on themselves and down he went.

Crashing through what little undergrowth lay in his path, Peerance went a rolling, tumbling and bumping, bruising and plenty of “oofs” followed. He rolled for what seemed to be forever until he flew right over the edge of a small cliff and, with a startled shout smashed stomach down, into the hard ground.

He let out a groan of pain, his body felt like he had hit every god damn rock or log in the entire forest, his face throbbed where he had, twice, smashed it into the ground, he could feel a black eye coming on, blood dripped form a variety of cuts, and welts covered his legs, though they couldn’t be seen.

It took a moment, but he soon sat up, wincing as a fresh collection of bruises screamed at him. He rubbed the back of his head, ruffling his chocolate brown hair around until he felt a large goose egg. He groaned and felt around in his pocket, pulling out sticks and pine needles until he reached the bottom.

His murky blue eyes soon found the ground between his legs, the open pocket knife dangerously close to his one family inheritance.
“Well that could have been dangerous.” He shivered, then shrugged and tucked the knife, still open, into his coat pocket and stood, with a wince as his ribs shrieked in protest.

As he proceeded to pull some twigs from his hair, he turned to examine the small cliff he had fallen from, he was greeted with the entrance to a large cave instead of the cliff face he had expected to see.

“What the hell?” He muttered as he moved towards the entrance, in his drunken state, he didn’t even think twice about what could be within.

He was surprised to find, instead of a cold, damp, empty cave, a warm camp, a fire had been started and a hare hung, blood dripping from its decapitated trunk.

“What the hell?” His gaze then found the tall, bearded man, a younger man, and, of all the places to be, a yak. Peerance’s jaw dropped as he gazed at the animal, then the younger man, then the bearded man. Then, a grin spread across his features and he laughed, he laughed so hard that he doubled over wheezing, his already bruised body aching even more.

He fell to the floor in a fit of giggles, tears streaming down his dirty face. He was far from sober, having consumed a bottle of liquor already and on his way to finishing off a second, so this whole scene was hilarious to him, and he didn’t even think about what danger he could be in. “W-who.. hehe.. w-ho are you?”

Maximillian Trujillu / M / 28 / Hunter / Mentions: Artem, Yarene, Peerance

Max was just finished feeding the fire when he heard footsteps, tumbles, then a long sequence of ‘oof’. He got to his feet, looking around to see a body plopped on the floor beside them. He crouched on one knee. The small child within him asking if he should poke at it with a stick.

Dazed, it suddenly rose. Max wasn’t pulling out any weapons, he could tell this kid was drunk. With a heavy sigh, he watched as the man’s jaw dropped. He looked back to Yarene, still in yak form, obviously holding back bursts of laughter. Even in her large beast of an ox mix, he could see her lip quiver as she bit back her fun side. Max couldn’t help but grin as the man plopped on the floor wheezing.

“Had a little bit too much to drink, eh?”

Max patted the younger man on his shoulder before gripping it tightly and slinging him up from the ground. He was covered in debris and dirt. “Don’t be feared by him, he’d probably be too drunk to harm a fly in this state,” Max spoke, aiming his voice to both Artem and Yarene.

“How sober do you have to be to tumble down a hill?” Max squinted, looking him in the eye before glancing at the rest of him. Horrible state. When Max got this bad, he at least kept to himself and stayed in the same place.

“The name’s Maximillian Trujillu, who the hell are you?” Max grunted, he was growing tired of this boy, if he was lucky, it’d be a shifter. He looked back to Yarene, her yak form head-turning as a signal of ‘no’. “Boy, if you were a shifter I’d slit your throat, go back to where you came from before you seriously get hurt,” Max rolled his eyes and grabbed the rabbit hanging from the cave, pierced it with a stick and started to hang it over the fire.