Post by Maya Tanner on Jul 28, 2015 20:13:54 GMT -5
In honesty, it was more of a road-trip than a hunt. Her companion was good company, even if he shedded now and then. They tried new things, got into scrapes as they tried to keep the trail from getting cold. Picked it up in the wilderness, weeks later, after several tiny adventures.
It would not be right, at any point, to say either of them shared their soul with the other, but they certainly grew closer. Proximity tended to intensify emotions, creating hatred or love, and the bond of companionship she now shared with this often-silent predator ran surprisingly deep.
The sharing of stories, the taking the measure of eachother, gradually slowed as they got closer to their prey. They stalked mostly in silence, the taller gliding stealthily through the underbrush and Maya making an unacceptable amount of noise until she mastered the trick of making it hers, making the tiny trees and branches animate and slide away from her as soon as they touched her skin.
An observer may wonder why there's two of them at all, the walking man-cat and the girl beside her, unremarkable except for her style. Someone who walks so companionable beside a monster, what would they think of her? What would she be for? Isn't he enough for whatever their demon's errand is?
If they thought that, they'd be mistaken. He might have been, if he was what he was in life, but that's not his role this time around. He's here for finding, facilitating. Companionship. Not to do the deed.
He may be the tracker, but she is the hunter here.
Appropriately, characteristically, he slips away into the forest once they reach their target. He becomes a shadow, a gentle breeze, not quite absent but mostly undetectable. These are not the forests his kind grew up in--he would blend in better other places--but the effect works well enough.
When she approaches Yumi Hikari, she appears to be alone.
"Remember me?"
She probably does, but she does not have time to express it. There is a brief, mercifully brief exchanging of blows but her flesh flows right back when her enemy tries to burn it away. The outcome was never in doubt. The surroundings, the plants and perhaps some unlucky insect life, were the only other things to suffer. The Quincy had always been prey.
She stands there, breathing out, as silence reasserts. The girl's life is leaking out into the soil and animal noises, quiet noises, begin to fill the air again now that the intrusion into their lives has ceased. The months-long errand the two Shinigami allies have been pursuing for weeks has seen its end.
As has Yumi Hikari.
It would be time to head home, to resume their near-indefinite lives, if the tiger's ears hadn't pricked up, his eyes flickered in the direction of the sun, back where they'd came. She felt it after a few seconds. A presence was approaching; similar to the one they'd just snuffed out, but not quite the same. Another of the same breed.
They didn't need to talk after this much time together. He looked at her, his eyes asking the obvious question and she answered with a smile and a shake of her head, a jerk of it in the direction they both felt the oncoming soul. He nodded assent, and they went their separate ways. Him through a rift he opened in the fabric of the world, her to the intruder.
She pushed through the dense plant-life, not bothering to hide her presence. He could know that she was coming, whoever he was. There would be less surprises, that way. A possible peaceful end.
She wasn't really dressed for socializing, stripped down to a tight tank-top in the summer's heat, stained with sweat and other things, jacket tied around her waist. Her hair had gradually fallen down around her head, surrendering to gravity, abandoning the swept-back spiky style she preferred.
She still looked wild, though.
She reached a place where the vegetation thinned, eventually, the wild growth of the forest giving way to the tamed, pared-down green of human culture. She emerged from a gap between trees, wiping sweat from her brow, blinking in the sun.
There he was.
He hadn't mastered the knack of dressing for summer either, wearing a button-down shirt with a jacket over it. The heat had not gotten to him as much as her, yet, but it would in time. He was smoking, or at least holding a cigarette. He looked unshaven. He had haunted eyes.
"Hey there, sunshine." She stared at him through the sun's glare, eventually taking her hand down as her eyes started to adjust. Her fingers found their way to her other arm, scratching away at a spot of blood that was starting to dry.
"Anything I can help you with?"
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