A Place to Rest (Slaughter)

[gareth]

Gareth let out a heavy sigh of relief as the lake came into view. He had been certain that he'd gotten lost trying to lose his tail in the forest. His precognition had been acting up as of late and it was starting to get him into trouble. It was possible that the fact that he spent most nights drinking that was screwing with his head. But so what? If he wanted to drink then he could.

He glanced back over his shoulder as he made his way toward the water; he wanted to be certain that he was no longer being followed before he allowed himself to stop and go through the spoils of his latest heist.

It wasn't much, a bit of money, some trinkets and jewelry that he could sell the next time he hit a merchant or a town. He reached into the bag and pulled out a rather nice looking pocket watch. Gareth held it up in front of his face, swinging it gently back and forth by the delicate gold chain as he tried to decide if he wished to keep it or sell it off.

[Slaughter]

Slaughter stumbled into the area, feeling grimy and dehydrated. "Oh, water!" she cheered to herself, struggling to physically transport herself from position A to position B. Her memory was foggy, it almost felt as if she had just suffered through some mild form of amnesia, or as if she had just woken up from a dream. She was pretty sure she had just come from the desert, and it must have been the lack of water in her system that was making her memory fail.

She eagerly jumped into the lake without a second thought, just happy to feel the cool liquid envelop her. She wondered if this was water she could drink, if not, she knew how to distill water, but that would only prolong her thirst.
She looked up and saw another male in the surrounding area; normally a timid girl, Slaughter stepped out of her comfort zone this one time out of pure desperation.

"Erm, hello, over there!" she called out, a rid tinge immediately spreading across her face. "Do you know if this water is okay to drink?"

[gareth]

Gareth snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of the girl splashing into the lake. He scrambled to his feet and held his hand out, ready to blast the person with a bit of electricity. Whatever it was he had been expecting, this girl certainly was not it. She did not seem like someone he had wronged or even anybody who knew him.

He let out a sigh of relief; she seemed to be harmless. As she approached him, he looked over over once, taking in everything about her. Although it could be seen as something more, his goal was to try and size her up both physically and mentally; he was trying to decide just how to approach her.

A slow and easy smile crossed his face as she asked her question. "I can't say for sure honestly. It doesn't seem too dirty, but there are things that live in there so you never know." Gareth considered for a moment before rummaging through his bag and pulling out a small container of water.

"Here. I think you might need this a little more than I do right now." Gareth would seem friendly enough and he seemed to be more than willing to give the girl a hand. "Are you alright?" He asked her with a concerned sort of frown on his face.

[Slaughter]

Slaughter was not a typical young girl, she was in fact quite peculiar. Her days consisted of milling about, trying to simply find meaning in life, rather than fulfilling any predisposed ones left by her ancestors, or friends, or aspirations of her own. Slaughter's memory had been virtually blanked out, due to the aftermath of a genetic hiccup. She was a hybrid, half Ooccan, half-human, and when the girl went into battle, her Ooccan blood eclipsed her human blood to help her grow stronger and defeat her enemies, but wiped out most of her memory in the process. And thus, that is where petite Slaughter found herself now, unaware that she had just came from the desert, unaware of all the things that had happened there.

All she knew was that she was thirsty.

"Oh, yes! Thank you so much!" she cheered as she waded over to where the male was and gingerly grabbed container as if it were made out of fragile porcelain. Her initial plan was to only drink a few sips, but thirst and instinct took over and she finished half the bottle before she could manage to stop herself.

"I-I'm sorry," she mumbled sheepishly. "I know how to distill water, I can replace it!"

[gareth]

An eyebrow was raised as he watched her gulp the water down as though she were dying of thirst. "Must have gone some time without a drink, huh?" He let out a little chuckle and couldn't help but wonder where she had been before now.

As the young woman apologized and offered to distill some in change he only gave a warm smile. "Do not worry about it. It's a gift. I have another one." He reached into his pack and pulled out a second canteen, this one slightly smaller than the one he had given to her. "Besides, I don't need much water anyway." Perhaps it was his monster blood or maybe he was just strange, but he did not seem to need as much food or water as most people.

Gareth slowly opened his own canteen and took a small sip before closing it again. It wasn't really his, at least not until he'd taken it for himself earlier in the day and while it seemed that giving the canteen was a simple, offhand sort of gift, what he really wanted was for this girl to come to like and possibly trust him. It was simply the way that he was; he tried to get everybody he could to like him because you never knew when you would need to use them for something.

[Slaughter]

"Thank you. I think I came from the desert..." Slaughter said breathlessly. 'Think'. Why was it that she could not be certain of this fact? Had she come from the desert or had she not? Her mind felt so clouded, she could barely recall a single detail of how she got here.

"I think I might be losing it," she said with a little chuckle. Her hand tightly clutched the canteen that the boy gave her as a gift, and she used her free hand to lightly pat her skin. It felt a bit rough to the touch. She certainly felt a bit sunburnt; for some reason her eyes felt very strained as well, she couldn't even make out if her skin was red or not.

"My name is Slaughter. What's yours?"