The wilds (Open)

[TobaisCorbin (DELETED 5748)]

Tobais sighed softly as he ran his hand over one of the thousands, possibly millions of trees that made up the wilderness. How he longed to uncover the forbidden secrets of it, what it held within.

He sighed and shakes his head and walks over to the small table and chairs he had set up when he first joined the ranks of the undead, these were some of the rare few plants that had some resistance to his touch, most of the grass and fallen leaves he passed shriveled and died with the mere pass of his presence the trees however, seemed sickly but did not die outright. He arrives at the table and sets two places as always, there was wine, and a few bits and pieces of food, not alot but of high quality. He pours the wine and takes his place as he looks over the wilds.

He found it quite miraculous this little setup of table and chairs had as of yet been undisturbed, however as much as he knew of the fae he knew they would likely never be permitted to leave the wilds again, not with as many times as he had left them alone here. He tears off a small bit of bread and dips it in the cheese he had brought along and sighs, not in a lonesome way, more in a content manor, as if time were stopped for this moment.

However he is pulled out of his wandering of the mind when he thought he heard a noise off through the trees, surely it had been only his imagination.

[Alexandrea]

The small white rabbit went unseen as it sat perfectly still in the underbrush and just watched. Alexandrea's brain inside the furry body focused on what the male vampire was doing out alone in the wilderness. Safe in her animal form, she debated looking into the other's thoughts but decided against being so nosy just out of idle curiosity.

A tiny nose twitched as the man's head seemed to almost tilt in the direction of a sound off in another direction and the Allurist got ready to shift back if something worth fighting should show up. No fan of the fae, Alexandrea felt sure they had it in for her for years now. The stranger didn't look familiar to the Blonde but if he was new, Alex wouldn't let anything else hurt him either.

But nothing threatening arrived and Alexandrea settled in to just wait and watch, confident in her hiding place and knowing that the fae would never harm her while she wore her rabbit skin. Waiting seemed so much more easy to do when one had fur on and existing in just the 'now' of a single moment, Alex beware apart of her surroundings and alert to everything that was going on around her.

[Mordechai]

The moon shown clearly through the cloudless sky, illuminating the trees and foliage of the wilderness as a massive harpy eagle floated lazily on lingering thermals. Its onyx black eyes glittered with a flinty hardness as they canvased the ground below him. The eagle swept into a tighter turn, as it picked out a man moving through the trees. two powerful sweeps of its seven foot wings drive it higher as it follows from afar. Though curiosity is more of a feline trait then avian, the eagle seems to **** its head almost as if it wonders wtf someone is walking through the wilderness for. Drifting slightly lower, the harpy scanned constantly for fae in the area. He owed more than one, a little bit of blood loss, and some broken bones. Once again its head cocked as the man arrived at a table and chairs set up in the middle of nowhere. It seemed a table for two has been set, and the man inside the eagle puzzles, wondering who the man is meeting, as he is obviously not of the allurist path. One more slow circle before he banked to continue on, changed the course of his night. Just outside the dining area of the wandering man, a nice, plump, juicy, white rabbit, sat docilely. The unwavering stare of the eagle locked onto the rabbit as it folded its wings into a dive. Mordechai loved the hunt, and it seemed the hunt had just begun.

[Zodiac]

This was freedom,

This was life,

This was like being held in the hands of the Goddess herself and carried along wrapped in a blanket of tranquility and peace. Ever since she had learned to shift her form, the skies were her playground when life on the ground became too stressful or drama filled. The cares and worries fading to nothing as she rode the thermals like a massive kite above it all. If any measure of happiness had come from being turned, this was one of them.

Flying over the city itself was an experience, but when she sought to tune it all out, the wilderness was her choice. A blanket of shades of dark green below while above the darkness and the stars. Sharp eyes spying about for things of interest below. She had seen the table and chairs on her first pass, but now as she glided above her eyes saw a male at the setting. Curiously, she circled above. Off to the side she saw a rabbit that was about to get a rude surprise from an eagle that had zeroed in on it. Perhaps if she was in her normal form, she may have tried to save the bunny, but this was nature playing out around her, so she focused on the man instead.

Why out here? She had seen no evidence to suggest this was a camper or explorer. She dipped a bit lower and caught a familiar scent below. So he was one of them? This made no sense. Why would one of them be out here like this unprotected? Was he a fledgeling or just an idiot?

Or perhaps neither? The items on the table rang a bell within her when one considered where they were. Inwardly she smiled as she decided.

The snow owl landed on the back of the opposite chair and looked at the vampire for several moments. As in her real form, she could not utter a sound audibly so she simply looked at him and his table goods for several moments before her mindspeak reached out and whispered gently across his thoughts.

"I hate to tell you this, but if you are trying to give an offering of appeasement to the Fae, you doing it all wrong." she continued to stare at the man in otherwise silence.

[TobaisCorbin (DELETED 5748)]

He jumps visibly when the owl lands on the chair he had set and pants patting his chest, only to jump again when it speaks. He looks the owl over with incredibly closeness, as one would an attractive woman. He had always adored owls, even when he was alive, and to see one so close was a treat not to be missed. However it dawned on him that the owl was likely sentient and he looked away and cleared his throat loudly.

"Um..uh, no its..a bit of a long story" He says simply and takes out a small flask and sips at it before returning it to his pocket and fixing his gaze on the owl's large orbs. "Although i dont doubt that the fae get unknown manor of entertainment playing with whatever i leave here, or perhaps it just makes them mad, i had not considered that angle" He says frowning.

"Um, why are you here?" he asks the owl curiously, unsure if such creatures were commonplace, perhaps if they were he could get one as a companion or pet. Though he would have to be sure mother did not cut off its wings and try to sell them as a prosthetic or something. He again realized he was being rude and looks back to the owl "Feel free to join me just the same, if you like. Although i can not say the fae will not be along shortly to...well who can say" He say drearily.

[Zodiac]

The snow owl held it's place as the man studied it. She wondered what was going on in his head and was tempted to peek into his mind, but didn't. She probably freaked the fledgling out enough for one evening without answering questions he had not even asked. A talking owl was probably enough. Her eyes just stayed locked onto him for now.

"No one can say why the fae do what they do," she offered while turning her head to preen her feathers. It still amazed her how instinct and conscious thought could work together in this form. "They have been part of this world almost from the beginning, just as vampires have been. A subject I will guess you are just beginning to learn about. I can smell it on you. You are vampire."

She hopped from the back of the chair and onto the surface of the table as she looked over his 'offerings'. "In the past, there were specific rituals a human could do to ask favor of the fae, or to pay their respects and not be bothered by them and food and drink were part of them. However, the fae seem to have a major hatred of vampires, so I have no clue if such rituals would work for a vampire. I warn you, the fae do not play nice when they find a vampire out in the wilderness like this."

"And what am I doing out here?" her head twisted to look up at the stars above, then back to him. "That up there is my playground, and as I was flying over I saw something new so I decided to come see who or what it was that would brave the fae in such a manner." She hopped back to her original perch on the back of her chair and flapped her wings a few times, only to start preening again.

"So why are you so curious about them?"

[TobaisCorbin (DELETED 5748)]

The man stays respectfully quiet through her many statements and questions, barely moving at all as his gaze regards the owl with curiosity. He had many a question to post however it was rude to ask before responding first to hers. He decides to take the polite path as he was still not entirely sure what he was dealing with. When the owl hops closer to examine the spread of the table he wishes internally he could reach out and touch the creature, however he constrained himself well, as he knew what his touch did to most animals and plants.

"I am, i am a recently turned vampire, As to my knowledge on the subject of vampires and fae i must admit it is spotty at best, it is quite difficult to get a straight response from my beloved sire so i have had to research of my own means. I knew fae were as old as time, i did not know that my own race reached as far back as that as well."

"Contrary to your assumption my dear owl i am taking part in no ritual here, as i have said before i know not what the fae do with the offerings i leave here, or how they are received. As it may to why i am here in the first place, the fae are an enigma that so little is known about, how i would dearly like to see one in person. I have naturally planned for all accouterments that may happen. The best result would be a single fae sitting where you are now, the odds of this are of course astranomical, however it was an offer i wished to extend none the less. The worst involves swarms of fae...running streaming back to the city and lots of pain, with the end result of my may or may not actually making it" he says with a dry laugh.

"Really though i am curious about you, i have loved owls since my childhood, everything about them, now obviously you are no real owl, so who or what are you? A Shifter, a spirit, perhaps one of the fae we were talking about just now toying with your prey?" He says not rudely as he takes out a small flask from his coat and drinks deeply. He adjusts a few of the placements at the table before returning the flask to his coat, ignoring the wine and food entirely.

[Mordechai]

The air speeding over his wings and body formed his feathers into a perfect aerodynamic bomb. No flapping was needed, just roll, tuck tight, and become natures largest precision missile. The eyes, able to spot a rabbit two miles away, were now locked on to one that sat only one hundred yards below. As the speed rapidly increased, motion from the corner of its vision captured the attention of the man inside. There was an owl, a snowy owl, sitting on the table, staring at the seated male. A slight widening of his wings slowed him slightly as the killers mind took over, an owl doesn't sit with a man. Mordechai reached out with his mind, knowing it had to be a shapeshifted vampire, he appraised it to decide if it was friend or foe, or rather, friend or target. Zo. It was the little mystic, that had become such a good friend, to the ascetic male. That she was in the wild was unsurprising, her rituals used many herbs not found inside the city limits. To see her poised on a table, that his eagles eyes told him appeared set for two, in the form of an owl staring at a male, in the middle of the wilderness....was.

The rabbit was momentarily forgotten as a slight shift of one wing aimed his dive at the nearby settee. As the distance closed he opened his beak, a piercing scream echoed across the wilderness as his wings spread to their full seven foot span, and talons outstretched he flared up and gracefully landed behind the snowy owl. Stretching his wings once more the forty-two inch tall eagle leaned forward, his flinty eyes locked unblinkingly on the male before him as his beak opened again, and the slightly possessive sounding shriek screamed forth once again. Gently reaching out with his mind, his thoughts touched the owl ''Am I late for the party, Madam Zo?''

[Zodiac]

Ah, the man's response was perhaps too typical of the newer members of their ranks. Sires. Either a lack of a reply or the simple fact they did not know everything that wanted others to think they did. It was a sad truth of this side of existence. She had been through it herself, learning everything the hard way. She felt sorry for the fledgling, but this was perhaps a bit of an extreme to get an answer to a question like this. His methods left not much room for error, but the desire was there. She approved of the attempt, but now how he was trying to gain knowledge.

"I assure you, was not my wish to assume anything. It was simply what made the most sense to me when I saw what you was doing is all." she clarified. His suggestion that she herself might be a fae toying with him before the kill made her wish she could laugh.

Just as she was about to reply, a piercing scream directly behind her caused her to duck down. Suddenly she was in shadow as the larger bird sat over her owl form. She turned her head 180 degrees, another aspect of this form she totally loved, and looked at the mass of eagle suddenly behind her. It was playing stare down with the fledgling now and screeched again. It wasn't till that soft voice brushed against her thoughts did she finally relax and reach out with her beak to pluck away a bit of feather from the eagle's neck.

"Not late at all really, but I am glad some parts of my body don't work anymore, else the back of this chair would be a total mess right now," she sent to his mind only as her blue eyes (a rare but not unheard of trait in a snow owl) studied Mordechai. She had never seen him in his shifter form before and was quite impressed. A bit more preening of his neck feathers, then her head snapped back around to look at the young vampire again.

"Don't mind him. He's my body guard. Ain't he handsome?" she sent to the man's mind as she sat up straight.

[TobaisCorbin (DELETED 5748)]

He nodded and smiles "It is fine, i took no offence and was only curious" He looks about for a moment and jumps a bit when the shriek of the large bird follow's the owl's suit and joins his table. At first he did not mind the intrusion however the second threatening screech accompanied by the stare down he was given soured the arrival of the admittedly beautiful creature.

Judging by the unusual behavior of the bird, and the owl he could only assume they knew each other, he watched in a respectful quiet as they stared each other down. When she plucks a bit of feather from the other bird he knew he was right. It meant the bird had made a conscious choice to screech at him like it had, and he felt a dislike for it forming.

He was again spoken to by the owl he nods "Quite handsome, and i think i will take your advice my dear owl" He says his eyes burrowing into the pair "Because to be honest if he shares your intelligence than he is rude."