Kav the Stout's Story

The long track before the fellowship had set up camp was mostly uneventful, safe for the freak appearance of some owl Kindred who, in all honesty, wasn't impressing anyone with his talent for nailing heads to sharp sticks. Unsettling was a better term. But beyond that, not much else had happened. The band of adventurers simply began setting up their respective tents as soon as nightfall lurked over the horizon, although perhaps the location of said camp was... questionable.

When the Dwarf and Kindred duo had managed to set up their temporary residence, they took the opportunity to play a card game or two before tucking themselves into bed.

"Don't suppose ye've changed yer mind?" Ruth asked in light of Hela's decision to join this band of strangers who, from recent observations, left the dwarf with little to expect. Having shuffled and handed out the cards, Ruth looked expectantly at her companion.

"It's a mite soon for that, don't you think?" Hela replied as she was handed her cards. Taking a peek to see what she had, the Kindred tossed a couple of small copper coins between the two of them. "Might as well start small. Anyway, at least we have a few expendable meatheads in case things go south."

The dwarf nodded and flung an equal amount of coins onto the small pile. "That's one way t' think 'bout it, eh?" The dwarf forced a wry smile, grabbing three cards from the deck and alligning them beside each other on the table. "Still, our captain's not very choosy." Case in point being the shady owl kindred. "I'll raise." The dwarf flung a few more coins onto the table.

Hela nodded in agreement, glancing between the three cards and the two in her hand. "He doesn't look very assertive, either. Might be fun to fool around with him a little, but gods help him if he has to deal with a mutiny." The fox woman calmly matched the amount of money Ruth had just bet.

The majority wasn't clever enough to pull that off, they'd probably just blindly follow a kid's demands. Either way, Ruth hoped things would speed up and they'd get to do some actual adventuring instead of meandering about like a lost tourist. At the mention of "fooling around", Ruth took a glance at Kaus before raising her eyebrow at the fox Kindred.

The Dwarf knew exactly what her friend meant by that little note, so she didn't really respond to it at first. However Hela's comment did remind Ruth of something she'd been meaning to ask. "Why bother? It's not like you'd follow through with it."

"I... I know, but you're missing the point. If I really worked at it I could probably have him wrapped round my little finger in a week or two. I know I'm not that cruel, but still..." Hela was about to throw a little more money in when her ears perked up, having heard the commotion outside. "Now why the hell are they making a racket at this hour?" she muttered, moving to take a look outside the tent. Her hand was at her sword, in case it just so happened that random bandits had decided to ambush their little camp or something.

Likewise, Ruth took a peak at what was going on outside. The squeaky voice from Kaus didn't fail to inform the duo of potential danger nearby while the little wannabe-hero took it to himself to check on Miroch who had wandered off into the forest. Obviously letting him take first watch was another one of those brilliant plans. "Think we should go help 'm out, lass?" she asked Hela rather casually, noting that some members had already armed and readied themselves to go after the gullible child leader.

"Hmm... looks like a few of the others have already beaten us to it, and someone needs to watch the camp, of course." She walked back to their tent, and sat down just outside the entrance. Let the others go fight the big ugly monster in the deep dark woods, but she was still going to keep watch until they returned from their hunt.

Huh... Ruth honestly expected Hela to jump at the opportunity to get some of that action, although it probably wouldn't be a good idea to leave the camp unattended. Especially with the majority either sleeping or having buggered off to who knows where. "I honestly didn't think ya t'give up that easily, lass." The dwarf joked, realising this would mean they wouldn't be getting back to their card game. She had a winning hand too.

"Good a reason as any to see what these buggers are made off, don'tcha think?" Ruth took a seat besides her friend, wondering briefly what this big bad wolf-equivalent could entail until she remembered Hela's earlier response. "Yer not honestly plannin' t'have a tumble with 'm, are ya?"

The Kindred promptly burst out laughing, until she realised that her friend was probably being serious. "Of course I'm not! I don't think he's my type, but... maybe." She kept her eyes on where practically half the party had disappeared into, looking relaxed but inwardly ready to spring into action should they need help with more monsters or wounded allies.

"Maybe, she said." The dwarf drew a sarcastic line under her words. "Honestly, yer way too old fer 'm." With a thump of her foot, Ruth kicked herself from the ground and marched back into the tent. She figured Hela would have it all covered, otherwise... well, there's always yelling. Not that the scholar imagined the foxy lady to face anything she couldn't handle. "Right, lemme know when they're done dillydallying, deary. I'm gonna do some readin'."

While Hela kept watch, she saw Miroch return to camp, only to go out again for a walk in the woods a few moments later, without even allowing someone to see to his injuries. Kaus and Kav came back not long after that, with a stranger in tow. A Solarian, from the look of her, and kitted out rather sensibly for close combat, too. Whether she would be joining their group or leaving at sunrise, Hela wasn't sure, but the thought of having a wall of steel between herself and the enemy was a comforting one.

When Claire explained to Kaus that the elf had wandered off, the leader of the group himself tried to go out looking for him. In the wrong direction, no less. The lad vanished from sight before Hela could call out to him. She sighed to herself in mild frustration before opening the tent flap. "Well, we might have a missing person situation on our hands now. Think we should do something about it?"

In proper frustrated fashion Ruth let out a weary sigh in response to the present situation. "Bloody incompetent pricks." She grumbled before slamming the book she had only just now grabbed back onto the ground and approach Hela (although making sure to look outside to get an inkling of what had transpired) before speaking. "Aye, let's."

As the dwarf walked out of the tent for a second time, her eyes fell on the group's alchemist, Claire, who had the sense to remain in the camp. Unlike some other "comrades". And with a brief pause for contemplation, Ruth walked over to where the young woman stood and gave her a nonchalant wave as per greeting. "So... I heard our captain's buggered off. Care to fill me in, lass?"

Hela, meanwhile, decided to go in the actual direction the elf had gone in an attempt to find him. Miroch needed medical attention, so the Kindred felt that it was probably best to look for him first. With her heightened senses, she stood a better chance than Kaus, at any rate. She made sure to keep quiet as she moved through the forest. Attracting the attention of another wild beast would be... counter-productive.

Claire watched Kaus walk off after Miroch. Alone. To her, that action seemed like it would likely be counterproductive, ending up with Kaus getting lost as well in the dark forest. Of course, it was perfectly possible that he wouldn't, too. Claire was simply projecting her own lack of knowledge about traveling the woods onto Kaus. Oh well, she could only wait and see how things would end up. Worst case scenario, he would end up being eaten by a beast of some manner, but Claire tried to not think about that. It was out of her hands, anyway, as she couldn't follow either the elf or their leader herself. While Kaus's getting lost or not was uncertain, Claire's getting lost would be completely certain. Still, she wished there was some way she could minimize the chances of their journey ending here due to the untimely demise of the group's leader, but her worries were lessened when she saw one of the Kindred among them -Hela was her name, if she remembered correctly- follow Kaus into the forest. The alchemist trusted a part-animal part-human creature's ability to get lost much more than that of a Teker boy even younger than her or that of an elf that had seemed barely conscious when he'd left.

With that source of worries gone, Claire turned towards Kav and their guest, the Solarian woman. She was about to engage in conversation with her, to ask about who she was, exactly, and what had happened. While Kaus had told her the main points, he had hardly gone into any detail. However, before she could ask either Kav or the Solarian anything, she was approached by Ruth, who asked her about what had happened.

"Unfortunately, I know very little myself. Kaus saw it fitting to only say very little. Miroch was attacked by a monster of some kind, and she", Claire nodded in the Solarian's direction, "apparently helped them fend it off. Apart from that, I know as little as you do. I was just planning on asking them for more information."

She turned back to Kav and the Solarian. "And, as said, I will be asking you for details. Who exactly are you, wandering around the forest at this hour, helping strangers?" she asked, looking at the Solarian. "I do, of course, thank you for helping us prevent any losses to our little group, but I would appreciate knowing who it is that I am thanking." She held out the vials she had again. "These may be of little use to you -Kaus did mention that you came here to heal Miroch, after all- but they should still at least make some of your fatigue go away, so I would like it if you accepted them. Ah, I would like to have the vials themselves back after you've drunk the contents." She offered some to Kav as well. He had been fighting as well, after all, so he should be at least a bit tired.

April 9--10:15 PM
Forests on the Solarian Empire/Sylvana Border

"...a snake Kindred..." Kaus repeated, before smiling and nodding. "Yeah, that sounds good enough. Good thinking, Hela." Of course, Hela was already walking back towards her tent, so he doubted she heard him. Oh well.

After mentally preparing himself to speak to the group as a whole, he looked in Hylonome's direction. "Right, then...if you're not too uncomfortable with introducing yourself to the others, follow me." Then he tapped Miroch on the shoulder...well, a bit more forcefully than that. "And you, sir, need to go get yourself healed up. Go to Claire or that lady with the shield, right now."

Once that was taken care of, he pushed back into the camp and cleared his throat. "Everyone...I'm back," he called, hoping he could get their attention (even though part of him didn't even want that attention). "It took a while, but we got Miroch back...and, as crazy as this sounds, I found yet another person who will be traveling with us from here on out."

Assuming the snake-elf followed him into the campsite, he gestured in her direction. "This is Hylonome. She helped us out when a beast attacked Miroch earlier, and is interested in joining us on our journey to find a Magic Vault. So yes, while it's a bit weird that we picked up a member here of all places, I hope the rest of you will accept her."

Now for the next item of business...Kaus quickly walked up to the lady with the shield. "Hey...thanks again for helping us out. So, I was wondering...would you be interested in joining us, too? As you just heard, we're looking for Magic Vaults. We could probably use your help, since you seem to know how to deal with monsters pretty well..."

Miroch had followed the three other members of his group, one newly joined, back to the camp. He had stayed silent during their walk realizing some drawbacks to Hylonome joining the group. He no longer could use his spirit powers near her without causing each other pain, though he was pretty sure she could still use hers, with the evidence being her holding that phantom sword, and unless a deal was broken between the two spirits then it would remain this way. Though even trying to speak with his spirit was likely out of the question, seeing as he needed a solid flow of energy for any prolonged conversation. He could still hold his own, but his potential strength had been slashed nearly in half, as his strength doubled when he used his sprit magic, and his spell shield was by no doubt disabled as well, so his own defence against long ranged magic had been reduced to dodges. Soon they reached the outskirts of the camp and Miroch nodded along with Hela's story. It was believable though he doubted any of the spirit tethers would believe it if their spirits talked to them and notified them of the truth. Then he merely stood still as Kaus clapped his hand onto his shoulder, which would have looked fairly ridiculous considering how much taller Miroch was than him. He nodded before entering the camp with the group.

After Kaus's announcement and seeing him approach the lady of the shield, he had little choice of choosing healers so he headed over to Claire, who was sitting by the camp fire and sat by her.

"Kaus wanted me to see you, though I'm perfectly fine." He pointed to where the Atilgan had lashed out with its tail and created a tear in Miroch's robes. It had not gotten to the skin underneath. "The sonic attack has not any lasting injuries on me either. I recovered from that just after I came back." Miroch continued sitting next to her, to humour her if she still wanted to check on him. He still needed to patch up his robes with the extra cloth he carried with him.

The beast was slain, the party regrouped, and somehow Varghos hadn't reached it in time to join in. Odd of him, but it'd happened before. So far, none of them seemed to be the worse for wear. They did end up with two new potential hires, though, and the leader-- Kaus was his name, pretty sure-- was already trying to hire them, and succeeding.

Kav walked up to Kaus once he was done recruiting the weird Snake-kin and asking the shield bearing lady to join.

"So, do you hire everyone you meet? Traveling minstrels, maybe? Merchants? I mean, I don't mind. You hired me, after all. But it might be wise not to field a small army."

Kav asked. Maybe it was just because he was used to the Shadehands, which were a laughably small group, but fielding a small militia seemed a strange way to lead an exploratory expedition.

April 9--10:18 PM
Forests on the Solarian Empire/Sylvana Border

Blinking, Kaus looked at the armored lady before cocking his head. Was she spacing out or something? He couldn't even tell if she had heard his invitation. How strange...

With perfect timing, someone--Kav, to be precise--walked over, apparently to call him out on how he had basically been accepting people into the group indiscriminately. To be sure, this was a very, very odd bunch of j--er, a very odd team. Yeah.

"Everyone...? Well, no, not really," the young leader replied, turning to look at Kav. "It was mostly just on a basis of who was interested...and honestly, this number of people is just fine. Besides, if I invited everyone I met, we'd have a full tavern's worth of people here."

As he talked, he sat down slowly, and lowered his voice so that only a few people could hear. "All the same, I do wish I got people who were a bit...easier to work with. You know, ones that don't seem ready to slice your head off the moment you make a mistake...? Ah, but there aren't too many people like that who also are capable of surviving the wilderness--or want to try and brave it. And really...I don't know if you guys will find me that easy to work with, either..."

After pausing for a few moments, looking into the flames with a somber expression like pretty much every tryhard JRPG protagonist, Kaus stood back up and stretched. "Well, that's enough monologue out of me. As I said earlier, I'll be keeping watch now," he declared. "You should probably rest for the night, Kav." He turned to the armored lady as well. "And, ma'am...I know my invitation was kind of abrupt, but please do think it over. You can rest here with us, if you like."

The sounds of insects and wind echoed through the trees as Kaus moved to the edge of the camp. It was going to be one long night...

Uriel checked all of her equipment to make sure she hadn't dropped anything again, feeling the comfort of the pendant dangling around her neck in her gauntleted hand before scanning the traveling party she'd been led to. They all seemed capable enough, so it was probably time that they parted ways. As they mingled amongst themselves, she was just about to turn to leave when a small crowd seemed to gather around her. First the stoat, and now two women had confronted her about her presence in the forest. She folded her arms over her chest with an audible clank as the plates of armor met, briefly surveying their faces before shrugging and moving her hands to her hips. Well, it's not like they mean any harm.

"If you must know," she began, "I escorted a supply convoy through the forest earlier today upon request and I came back to pick up something that I dropped." She held her pendant up for them to see, the pure silver glinting in the moonlight. "And now I've found it. I didn't feel that it was my place to question your business here myself, so I was about to be on my way." The moment those words left her mouth, the young man from earlier came and joined the circle, perhaps a little too eagerly.

"You want my help? That's fine by me. I offer my services to any who require it, though if you harbor any ill intent, speak now. I do not assist criminals. Otherwise. . ." She looked around, letting the realization of night start sink in. ". . . perhaps I will take you up on your offer to spend the night and accompany you on your travels." She rapped her knuckles on her shield. "And if you haven't already figured, my specialties include blocking anything and everything, though I will inform you that I will perform my job better if you assign me to a single person during combat."

Claire received the answer she had thought from the Solarian. It made sense, though she did think of her as a rather reckless person to come looking for a simple pendant in the middle of the night. Though she had not bothered actually mentioning her name, Claire decided to accept it as an introduction. "Well then, as said, I thank you for your assistance. I am Claire Lucion, and act as... a pharmacist of sorts for this group. It is a little more complicated than that, but explanations will have to wait until later." Few people knew anything about Alchemy, and even less people understood it, so she had found it easier to just call herself a common woman of medicine.

Soon after, Kaus returned to the camp once again, with Miroch and Hela with him. So he had managed to find the elf without getting lost... though Hela may have had something to do with that. Then, Claire's eyes spotted something. Another person following them? Had Kaus managed to pick up two different people, both in the middle of a forest at night? He seemed to have a knack for that sort of thing.

But then, when the one following Kaus came into full view, revealed by the light of the campfire, Claire froze. For a moment, she simply stared at the strange figure in silence. A single word, barely audible and only to someone right next to her, left her mouth. "Chimera?" No, no, it couldn't be. The very concept of an Alchemic manipulation of different lifeforms was only two and a half years old, and even the most advanced chimeric research had barely managed to create fusions of different plants. Manipulating living substances was far more complex than that of dead or lifeless ones. Any attempts to combine parts of different animals had ended up with either dead animals or utterly insane ones that died after a few minutes regardless. Yet this one seemed to be functioning perfectly well. Was there a different community of Alchemists somewhere, one that had managed to create such a perfect product? If so, where? She had to find them at any cost-

At that point, Claire blinked, and her line of thought broke. In the first place, was she even certain that what she saw actually was a chimera? While she was aware of the concept, the chances of one being made successfully was very slim. She took a closer look at what the second newcomer actually was. The lower body of a huge snake, and the upper body of a High Elf. While there were some differences even in the upper body, it was still clearly an elf. Not a human, an elf. That, Claire believed, was what had made her discard the notion of this strange creature being simply another member of the Kindred. The Kindred were either 'animal with human features', or 'humans with animal features'. She had yet to see one that was 'an elf with animal features'. Though it was theoretically possible, it did not quite seem to fit, somehow. Still, thinking of this person -a woman, now that Claire looked closer, so it should most likely be referred to as a 'she'- as one of the Kindred would make things simpler. She could not, however, fully discard the possibility of her being what she had first thought of her as, a chimera.

While Claire was still thinking about the half-snake half-elf, Miroch sat beside her to insist that he was perfectly fine. Claire's attention took a second to turn to him -even after turning, she spent a moment studying his features. Yes, those were elven features. But then she shook aside her thoughts and concentrated on her job. "Well, I will still need to check on you. Stay still."

Claire began to feel around the elf's sides, including close to the spot where he had been attacked. While she was not actually a medical specialist, she still seemed to have some experience with this sort of thing, moving carefully to not cause any injury as she checked him for any possible painful reaction. No such reaction happened, so she had to conclude that he was not seriously injured. Or maybe he was just very good at pretending. When Claire took a closer look at the teared clothes and the skin underneath, she found no wound, and no major bruising or the like either. At least there was no damage Claire could find with such a quick check-up.

"You do seem to be in good enough a state to function properly, at the very least. You were not quite as clear-headed as one might hope when you last came to this camp, and even if you do seem to be fine now, there is still the possibility of longer-lasting damage. Even if you think you are fine now, it may come back later to haunt you." Claire once again pulled out a vial full of clear liquid. "Drink this should you suddenly feel fatigued. It should clear your head and make you less fatigued in general, as well as lessen any pain. I would also give you one that accelerated the healing of wounds, but since you seem to be fine on that front..." She took a brief pause. "In any case, that medicine should work perfectly fine, but I have never had anyone who wasn't a Teker use it before, so there may or may not be different effects for an elf such as you. It is unlikely, but still a possibility. Should you experience any strange side-effects after you drink it, please do report it to me. Oh, and please return the vial to me once you've drank the contents."

Claire stood up after having said that and headed for her next objective. Hylonome, Kaus had called her? Claire couldn't shake off her curiosity when it came to her. There was something odd about her, even if some people acted like there wasn't. Claire was curious, very curious. She had to study her.

First, she had to get close. She couldn't just approach her like that. She might scare her away. Claire returned to the pot she had made food in earlier. There was still some stew left. It was only slightly warm at this point, but it should do. She gathered it into a bowl, and, with the bowl in hand, moved towards the snake-woman.

'Claire, you can do this', she told herself. She recalled what she had read earlier in a book. 'Approach at an angle. Do not come from directly in front. Do not move too fast, nor too slow. A relaxed pace. Hunch down a bit to make yourself look smaller. Avoid eye contact. Do not look directly at her. Make a bit of noise to make sure she is aware of your presence. Wait to see how she reacts to you. Then carefully approach, ready to back away at any moment...' Finally, she arrived close enough. She put the bowl full of sted down in front of her, and then backed away slowly. No running, just moving away naturally.

First steps were important. Do not scare her away, take your time, search for an opportunity.

Once she had pulled away from her target, she relaxed. She bid good night to everyone, and retired to her wagon. It had been a rather tiring night. It was too late to make any more experiments, and her head was too full of thoughts about the maybe-Kindred maybe-chimera maybe-something-else to fully focus on experimentation anyway. For now, she should rest, and make plans for how to approach her the next time.

April 9--10:21 PM
Forests on the Solarian Empire/Sylvana Border

Not long after Kaus had settled down on a fallen tree at the edge of the camp, that armored lady walked up to him and stated that, yes, she was willing to join...as long as they didn't have "ill intent." "Huh? No, of course we...well, I, at least, don't," he quickly replied. "Well...I'm glad to hear you're interested. You'd best get some rest, then..." It took quite a while for him to realize, however, that he somehow completely forgot to get the lady's name. Wow, now THAT'S an embarrassing mistake...

The rest of the night passed by uneventfully, though Kaus actually had to make an effort to stay awake. He wasn't even sure if anyone took up watch after he fell asleep, in fact...

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April 10--7:26 AM
Forests on the Solarian Empire/Sylvana Border

When Kaus awoke, he found he was still lying down on the exact same fallen tree. Multiple parts of his body ached from the tree's awkward shape, and going to sleep much later than he was used to hadn't been pleasant either. Guess this is part of adventuring, though...

As people continued to wake up, something was found amiss--to Kaus' dismay, the numbers had decreased overnight. We've only barely started, and already people abandoned... It was a huge damper on his spirits, even as he read an apologetic note from one of them stating that he couldn't carry onward due to some prior obligation. The other one had just disappeared without a trace...

Nonetheless, Kaus tried to stay optimistic, and chose to look over his maps yet again while eating breakfast. They just had to get out of Sylvana...as quickly as possible, at that...and continue through Alne until they reached the elven city of Gienah. Many of those Elder ley lines met up a short distance from Gienah's walls, and they could stock up on anything they needed...though, considering how they only visited a blacksmith's shop before leaving Alshain, they probably would need a lot of things.

Even so, it should be smooth sailing today, Kaus told himself. Calling for everyone's attention briefly, he told them about their planned destination. "If we keep going at the same pace as we did yesterday, we can definitely get to Gienah before dark. So, let's pack up and get moving!"

However, as they split up to start putting away their tents and such, he quickly moved over to the armored lady, glanced around to make sure no one was paying him any mind, and asked her--whispering as quietly as possible--what her name was. Even now, that was way too embarrassing of a screw-up to let anyone know about it.

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To her surprise, Hylonome's arrival at the camp wasn't met with much of a response. A Kindred of some sort eyed her askance at one point, and a few others gave her strange looks, but for the most part, nobody - not even the Kindred - seemed to question what she was. She'd opened her mouth to say something, or give some introduction, or even just apologize for not intervening and assisting them sooner, but couldn't find the words, and so left it to Kaus to explain. The rest of the party seemed to buy it, so she decided she'd just slide out of their way into the darkest, shadiest corner of the camp, not wanting to trip anybody up with her long tail or otherwise make a nuisance of herself. They'd probably be suspicious of any mysterious arrival who'd appeared amidst the woods and asked to join them, even if that person wasn't also half snake. In her own case, she doubted any of them would be particularly keen on interacting with her, so distancing herself as a protective measure would be in everyone's best interests - especially since there seemed to be more Spirits than just the Dragon partnered with Miroch amongst them.

She'd just been dozing off, curled up atop her own coiled tail, when someone approached her. Hylonome's ears perked up at the sound of footsteps rustling through the tallgrass, and cracking one eye open, she noticed a young woman with rather dark hair and skin approaching her slowly, carrying what looked like a bowl or dish of some sort. She was advancing rather slowly, measuring each step as though if she moved her foot an inch too far forward, she'd be struck by lightning on the spot. The serpentine hermit cocked her head slightly to the side, silently inquiring what exactly the woman thought she was doing. She was certainly headed towards her, but was coming at a bizarre angle, with her eyes seeming fixated on something above, behind, and to the left of the young former elf. What was the meaning of this, exactly?

"This one seems to think you're more snake than woman, my dear girl. She seems to be under the impression that you'll attack her if she startles you," Said Gaius gravely, his voice ringing through her mind. Hylonome started at the sudden realization, flushing red with humiliation as the woman stopped in front of her, still without looking at her, set down a pot of what looked like some sort of stew, and then backed away.

"Erm... I'm not... that is... you don't have to be afraid of me," She pleaded quietly, trying to reason with the young woman. Either her voice wasn't heard, or the one who had accosted her didn't hear her, however, as she immediately began backing away to a "safe distance," and then turned and walked away, never once even looking at her. Sighing dejectedly, Hylonome bent down to pick up the bowl, gazing down at the leftover dregs of stew at the bottom. "Am I supposed to lap it up like a dog?" She murmured to herself gloomily. This was probably the most courtesy a fellow person had shown to her since her transformation, and yet, for some reason, it didn't make her feel happy at all. Actually, much to her surprise - as she'd almost forgotten she even had feelings that could be hurt - it made her want to cry. Placing the bowl in her lap, she rubbed her eyes, trying to hide the tears that threatened to fall.

"Hylonome, there's no reason you should stoop to the level of a pet! Disregard that one's condescension. Go ask around for some sort of utensil, at the very least!" Gaius protested, sounding quite indignant at her treatment. Hylonome merely shook her head, however. To ask any more of these travelers would just be selfish. It wasn't her place, after all, to deny the kindness of those who had taken her in. So, she would oblige them, even if it meant degrading herself. This was the role she was to play, the atonement she had to make, in order for her wishes to be granted. Being treated like an animal was nothing new to her. It was normal. So then... why did she still feel crushed by the renewed knowledge that she was nothing more than vermin in the eyes of others?

She swiftly raised the dish to her lips, tipping it back so she could get at the more solid parts of the stew stuck at the bottom. At least eating this way would cover her face, so that nobody could see tell that she was crying. Once she was done, she set the bowl back down, pushing it away from herself, and drawing as far back into the darkness as she could, wrapping the end of her tail over her head and burying herself in her coils to hide until morning.

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When the dawn finally came, it found Hylonome already awake. She'd been too nervous to get much sleep, and had spent most of the night writhing about, tying herself in knots and then stretching abruptly out to her full length before winding ever inward, starting the whole process over in a futile attempt to find some position that might accommodate her. Sighing as the warmth of the sun pulsed through her cheeks, she shielded her eyes against the light, glancing around to determine the state of the camp. It looked like the others were also beginning to stir, but although they seemed like they were preparing breakfast, she decided it would be best not to bother them. Feeding on their scraps was distasteful, anyway. So, slipping into the Phantom Realm while nobody was looking, she moved a short distance away from camp, into the woods, to the base of an apple tree the location of which she knew quite well. Scaling it as best she could, she hung from one of its branches, picking at whatever fruits happened to be within her reach, and devouring them in short order. Given the great size of her serpentine body, she had quite the appetite, and so consumed several before her hunger was sated. Even still, some predatory element of her nature craved a more substantive meal. It had certainly been a while since she'd last had meat. Part of her wanted to track the nearest prey she could find down, pounce upon it and lay into it with her teeth until it could move no longer, then peel away its hide, roast its flesh with her phantasmal flames, and then devour it whole. But, hungry though she might have been, she could never quite stomach meals thus obtained, and, in fact, usually ended up vomiting them up in disgust shortly thereafter. No matter how satisfying it was to the more snakelike part of her to subdue and consume her prey, the feeling of a living, breathing being writhing in agony upon her fangs filled her elven side with nothing but horror. It was for this reason that she had mostly lived upon fruits and vegetables scavenged from the vicinity of her cottage, only going out to hunt when no other options presented themselves to her.

She sighed again, her discomfort at the thought of the hunt coupling with her lingering gloom from the way she'd been fed the evening prior. Maybe before she complained about the way people treated her, she should have taken into consideration exactly how much of an animal she was. In any case, she'd been away for several minutes, and the others might get uneasy if she was gone too long and they noticed. So, tossing aside the core of one of the many apples she'd consumed, she once more entered the Phantom Realm, and moved back to the nearby camp in a single instant. Emerging in the woods just out of view, she came slithering out from amidst the underbrush, once again shielding her eyes from the oppressive sunlight. It seemed she'd arrived just in time to hear what exactly the group's plans were, as Kaus was in the middle of saying something about where they were headed.

Wait... Gienah?! They were headed to Gienah? But that was in Elven territory! If she were seen there, people might put two and two together and realize that the infamous serpent-woman who had taken the lives of two young hunters wasn't just a myth. And, given prior experience with the Elven justice system, she sorely doubted they'd even bother listening to her side of the story. So, meekly sliding into Kaus' line of sight, she raised a hand timidly and spoke up.

"Erm... if it's not too much bother to transport me... could I hide in the carriage while we're traveling? I'd really prefer it if nobody outside of your group had to look at me..." She asked weakly, hoping nobody would question why, exactly, she was so insistent on not being seen beyond embarrassment at her own appearance.