coming home [finished]

[Jackal]

x x

Kyoku de Ajia

It had been three years since she'd seen the city walls last.

Her cloak was draped loosely about her body, scarf at her neck, hood over her eyes. It was a pale gray in colour, though it had once been black. She didn't dare let anyone see even her eyes, lest they suspect what she was. People seemed to be fine with most Minish, but when they encountered one as peculiar as her ... well, it was safer not to let anyone see her. She was perched high in a tree, overlooking the field, looking towards the castle.

Brother. She missed him. Some nights it hurt so terribly, but she forced herself not to feel the pain. Pain didn't do anyone any good. Dwelling on it was stupid. Dwelling on it got you killed. If you got caught on fire, you smothered it. If you just flailed around and cried, you fed the flame and burned to death.

Jackal's claws, of course, ensured she had a vice grip on the tree branch she was on. There was no chance she'd fall, unless she chose to.

I must stop running. She would face her brother, and discover if he believed all that they said. Even if he didn't, she was still wanted by the Knights. She'd have to be cautious. She was very good at being cautious, though. Life in the wilderness had taught her that much, at least. She raised her right hand and examined the tough, scaled skin there. There was a faded, pale patch, where she'd received a wound, once. She hadn't been able to use her hand for weeks.

The talon jutting out of her wrist twitched, and she smiled. She didn't need to use her wrists. She had other tools, like her blades, and her tails, and her flame.

The flame most of all.

She hoped her brother still cared for her. She hoped things would be okay.

But she was done running. Even if her brother meant to see her executed, she would see him again.

I'm not a monster. Neither are you, brother. I'll make sure you see that.

In an instant she decided to get down from the tree, and relaxed her claws just enough that she swung around on the branch until she was upside down, like a bat. For an absurd moment, her cloak fell around her head, and she couldn't see anything. She was also completely exposed.

That was stupid. It would've worked if she was a Night Dragon, but she wasn't right now. In the past years she tended to forget which form she was in. She supposed she'd need to keep tabs on that if she was going to be dealing with people again. A little frustrated with herself, she let her talons go completely, and dropped to the ground, flipping onto all fours with practised precision. Her ears and eyes were alert. She wasn't in the city yet. She couldn't afford surprises.

Satisfied that there was nothing around, except for a few birds overhead--they looked good and plump, but she didn't want to bother with trying to catch them, now--she got to her feet and adjusted her cloak, making sure she was completely covered. She started to walk towards the city.

[Erik]

Dekethorn had noticed Jackal in the tree, and was now watching the tree for a moment he could strike. In her exposed moment, he took his opportunity, but was too slow. Whether he was stopped looking, or just didn't have the speed today, he didn't know. Didn't care. But he missed his moment. It didn't mean much, she didn't look like one could steal from. In fact, she looked more like someone who could help him out.

Quickly he climbed the tree and began to snipe at the lonely girl. Probably a bad idea to shoot at someone this close to town, he hated Hyrule Castle Town, too many guards. But this was Dekethorn, who spent 17 years tempting fate like this.

"Mwee hee hee. Isn't it a bit dangerous to be out in the fields alone like this?" He asked her in between firing nuts form his little perch.

[Jackal]

x x

Kyoku de Ajia

Jackal felt the strange sensation that someone was watching her, like a spider was crawling its way up between her shoulder-blades. She'd had that happen once before, actually, and the spider had been venomous. That had not been a good day.

She ignored the feeling, though. Just keep walking. Nothing in the wild was stupid enough to attack something that was literally armed to the teeth without having to pick up a weapo--

Or not. A Deku nut struck her in the back and she stumbled, letting out a sharp, deadly hiss, like an angered feline, though the hiss sounded distinctly reptilian, as well. She normally tried quite hard to stop those bloody noises, but she couldn't help it, not when someone prompted her so eagerly. She turned around in a snarl, raising one arm out of her cloak, blades fully extended, claws raised and ready to strike. When she saw who had thrown the nut--it was just one of the Deku--she calmed down a little. She'd thought it might've been some bounty hunter or mercenary using the nut as a cheap trick.

Might still be, yet. Keep your guard up. Jackal had long abandoned any notions that she shouldn't talk to herself. She'd been her only intelligent company for months at a time. The next nut Jackal saw coming, and she sliced that one in half with her blade, before leaping up through the trees with alarming speed and agility, crawling among branches and leaping between them with a supernatural grace (see ability; BAD. ASS.). She got to the Deku and raised her claws, clicking them for good measure.

"Yes," she said, her voice smooth like a panther's gait, "Exceedingly."

[Erik]

Dekethorn wasn't pleased that she was mocking his nuts. He could have tried something else, but she was a little close for comfort. Although her attitude worked incredibly well for bouncing off against his. She seemed just as fearless, and maybe even more dangerous.

"Well well, you're the first one in weeks who hasn't run away. Kind of ruins the fun, but it does make things interesting." He showed no signs of backing down, even though he was limited in close quarters. Living on the edge, as he always does.

He started to sway slightly, almost happy. "Well, then what is a girl doing here, in the field, heading towards Hyrule Castle Town." His voice sounded wonderful, almost sing-songy. He showed no fear on the outside of this girl.

[Jackal]

x x

Kyoku de Ajia

"Fancy that," Jackal drawled, rolling her eyes and resisting the urge to knock the Deku off the tree. He was lucky she didn't eat bark. She wasn't sure if she liked the Deku, but she supposed she'd oblige him. Even tell him who she was. Maybe that way Rwaht would get news of her. If not, that meant the Knights wouldn't, so she supposed it was favourable either way.

Of course the knights will be after me. But I don't fear them, she told herself, unconvinced it was true.

"A girl's name is Jackal," Jackal said bluntly, her voice having drifted from smooth to a harsher version of her usual tone, as though her vocal cords couldn't quite decide which tune they wanted to play. "Tell the girl your name, and perhaps she'll be inclined to say more, hm?" Jackal asked, raising an eyebrow, while her claws twitched beneath her cloak, ready to spring if she detected the slightest sign of trouble.

[Erik]

Funny, the girl seemed to be becoming a bit friendlier. Perhaps this wouldn't be a complete waste. But he wasn't sure which name to use. He had his given name, but that seemed too safe, too wussy.

"Dekethorn. No sense in hiding it. I've got enough people ratting me out to the guards, what's one more going to do?" He's spewed his life story so many times he decided to skip it on this occasion. Maybe with hers on the table he would be more forthcoming. He took a leaf from the tree and began to munch on it with his snout.

[Jackal]

x x

Kyoku de Ajia

Jackal chuckled at the little Deku. He had enough spunk to make up for a good family of his species, and Jackal wasn't sure if she liked that or not. She was sure that it was entertaining, though, and entertainment was hard to come by when you spent your time in utter isolation. She supposed she didn't regret the thing had hit her in the back with one of those blasted nuts.

"Well, Jackal is going to Castle Town because she has a long-standing engagement with one of the guards. She would also appreciate it if Dekethorn didn't, in his words, rat the girl out to the guards," Jackal said, her voice moving like smooth poison again. "So now I have a question for you, little root. Why are you here, pelting strangers with your nuts?"

[Erik]

Dekethorn spit out his leaf with laughter, fortunately missing Jackal by being off to the side. This was fun, and he didn't much like getting his bark scratched at.

"You telling me not to rat to the guards? The Deku King has a bounty on my head for months now, no doubt the Hylian Guards know to look for me. I get within 50 meters and they'll sound the alarm. Which is fine for me, Mwee hee hee, because I can snipe at 100."

He smirked a Deku smirk, different from a regular smirk because a Deku has no real mouth, just a snout. "Why am I pelting strangers with nuts? Why does the Zora swim? Why does the Goron roll? It's what I'm good at, and what I love to do. Besides, it's fast money to pelt Deku Merchants. The way they squirm and scream, it's music to my ears." His voice sounded like he was having fun. And he was. he act of pelting people with nuts was the one thing he loved most in life.

[Jackal]

x x

Kyoku de Ajia

Jackal smirked. Bloodthirsty little midget. She had to admit, though, he had a brand of brazen charm. Still, Deku didn't like fire, and Jackal was, in many ways, all about fire. You could even say without it she wouldn't be the person she was now.

"Yes. You do it because it's what you're good at," Jackal purred, studying the back of her nails rather pointedly. She flicked out the blade on that arm, the leathery membrane connecting it to her arm flexing with an eerie strength. "What do you think I am good at, Dekethorn?" Jackal asked, raising an eyebrow. She took out one hand and cupped it over the other, forming a shadow in the bottom. She pulled that small, miniature shadow under her control, then turned the shadow into a smouldering black flame, wavering back and forth. It was strictly under her own control, of course. She knew better than to let loose wild fire in a wooded area.

"Look what I can do, little root. If I just did what came naturally to me, why, there'd be no forest left. Would there?"

[Erik]

Dekethorn looked at the fire with an eerie stare. The one thing he couldn't ever control was his race's natural arsonphobia, and it came out here. The comment about being a root didn't bother him though, that was normal. He had been called worse.

"Bah? Why should I care? The forest is dead to me. Most of it I can't even access because of the Deku King exiling me. But I'll get back there, one day I'll be king." He started to cackle evilly at the thought of unseating the Deku King. He so badly wanted to do that. All in due time though.

He started to sense a pattern. Fun relationship with the guards, and a tendencies towards the flame.

[Jackal]

x x

Kyoku de Ajia

Jackal stared at the Deku, deadpan, before raising the fire in her palm rather pointedly and saying,

"In case you've forgotten, you're made of wood." She snorted when the Deku claimed he'd be king. High aspirations. All she wanted to do was to go home, and meet her brother.And somehow she thought the guards would be more upset about someone they thought had burned an orphanage to the ground than they would be about an obnoxious Deku.

She clicked her claws together idly, and shrugged.

"A word of advice, little root. The world won't wait for you to grow up. You shoot the wrong person in the back some day, they might come back and make sure you never shoot a nut again."

[Erik]

Dekethorn looked back to the girl, intimidated by the fire but not willing to back down.

"So what? Yeah, I'm made of wood. Yeah, someone may come along and stuff me. Yeah, one day my habits will probably kill me. I have no aspirations to live a full life, die an old man. I just want to have a little fun" Dekethorn shrugged and cackled a little. "As long as it's at someone else's expense. Mwee hee hee." Dekethorn, despite being wooden, was still adolescent wood, and acted like it.

"Don't give me any more of your speeches. Just go to town, do what you're gonna do. This is boring." He hopped down from the tree and peered around for more victims.

[Jackal]

x x

Kyoku de Ajia

Jackal rolled her eyes. She closed her hand around the fire, and opened it again, revealing the flame to be extinguished. She slowly retracted her claw into her cloak, looking at the young Deku. She couldn't say she liked him, but then he was just an ordinary kid. Which meant that he was, essentially, especially dumb. Except this one was also selfish, impulsive, and violent. She wasn't sure if she liked that or resented it.

She shook her head and looked at Castle Town. It was a long way away ... and maybe not that good an idea. The guards were observant, and even though she didn't trust the Deku half as far as she could throw him, his information was probably at least half correct.

Kakariko, then. Not so many guards. Not so many well-informed guards.

Her mind made up, Jackal leapt down from the tree and began walking to Kakariko, without looking back.

_\\\ EXIT JACKAL _///

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[Erik]

Dekethorn was walking when he spotting a Deku Merchant and cackled softly.

Party time. Mwee hee hee.[/color]

And like a rocket, he was off.

Exit