paixaorpg | Two-leggeds. Why did it have to be two-leggeds? [COMPLETE]

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Two-leggeds. Why did it have to be two-leggeds? [COMPLETE]

Characters: Spirit, random Lumens, Kit Fisto, Cloud Strife
Content: Spirit arrives outside Niflheim and is very confused, to say the least. Later, Kit meets up with him inside the city, and then Cloud meets up with Kit.
Setting: Outside Niflheim gate, later just inside it.
Time: Afternoon
Warnings: None.

Prey animals that rely on speed are naturally light sleepers, so when Spirit's night abruptly became day he kicked off into a gallop before fulling waking up. As he turned around to face any potential predators behind him, his jaw dropped open.

Spirit's homeland did not, to his knowledge, have nearly that many two-leggeds in it. And he was sure it didn't have... well, it didn't have that thing all the two-leggeds were lined up in front of. As a final confirmation that he either wasn't home or was hallucinating extremely vividly, his herd was nowhere to be seen or smelled.

There's only so much even the bravest heart can take in one go, particularly when it resides in someone whose instincts prefer flight over fight. Spirit wheeled around, away from the two-leggeds, and ran.

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Something kept drawing them back, it seemed. This time it was more bothersome than the last, and they were much more sensitive than the last time, limbs twitching and ears pulled back. There were two of them mixed into the fields, feline-esk, one crouched low in the grass growling as glowing eyes glared at the herds of new people collected around the gate.

The other wasn't too far away, seemingly more on the calm side, though nose twitched as it watched specific people and beings in the line that drew them there in the first place.

The grass seemed to shift around them, even though they hadn't moved.

....and then there was a rather large animal running between them, and both lumens forgot about the gate and its dark people, and turned wild eyes toward the creature, angry hisses filling the silent air are they flared out, on their feet and fully focused on the one to disturb them.

Spirit saw the Lumens' movement and heard their hisses as he dashed between them; he kept galloping for a moment, putting a bit of distance between himself and the unrecognized beasts, then whirled around and reared, letting out a harsh, wordless neigh. Those looked like cats, but like everything else in the past few minutes, they were weird. For all Spirit knew, they could run faster and keep going longer than cougars could.

Or, potentially, fight better than stallions, but most predators not on the brink of starvation backed down with a little intimidation, Spirit had found, and the really hungry ones were never any match for a healthy horse.

As the pair tensed and straightened out from the grass, their other features became more obvious, revealing their nature to this other being. Spikes down their back, wings unfurling and bending threateningly around them, and it seemed so strange because seconds ago it was as if they were barely there.

New arrivals were supposed to go inside the city, not pollute the fields with their impure hearts. The city was bad enough as it was. So much darkness radiating from it, flooding out into the white lands of the Elysium Fields. Every heart should be pure! This was becoming outrageous!

One of the tamafelis pulled back its wings and began to dash to the side, intending to circle behind this beast. Eyes flashed in a narrow yellow warning, as if to say Go back, now. There was at least a sliver of darkness in all these arrivals, this one was no different. It made them flinch and have a need to fix the problem.

But there were worst matters to attend to. Other callings that were blinding them, as if purposely trying to shroud all lumens in the filth. So their warning should be a blessing, perhaps. Their growls took over. GO BACK NOW. The yellow glow surrounding their bodies brightened and seemed to shift as though having a life of its own.

There would be no other warnings.

Cats did not have wings. Eagles. Eagles had wings. Not cats.

Ears back and letting out agitated little snorts, Spirit dropped to all fours and trotted around the tamafelis that hadn't moved, keeping both of them in sight. These spiky cat-bird things weren't hunting, but they still meant business - this fact was made all the clearer by their eerie, unnatural glowing. As far as Spirit could tell, they just wanted him out of their territory... which would put him near the two-leggeds.

With one last snort at the glowing beasts, Spirit at last took their hint, turning and galloping for the gate. At least I know something about two-leggeds, he thought, listening for the Lumens even as he ran.

They watched, carefully and not moving in the slightest. They were always hunting the darkness. It was always being monitored, and they needed to do more about it. Things were getting out of control, and they wouldn't stand for it.

They did not make chase, and seemed to settle back amongst the grass, less disturbed than before. Their wings were hidden again and the glow settled to its normal aura. The pair glanced at each other, a silent language between them. They had left this gate not much longer, unbothered at the time, yet something like this nearly happened... a disease in their lands. So instead of vanishing again, they fully rested in the grass, and watched, guarding the Elysium Fields

As Spirit approached the two-leggeds, he thought he heard someone speaking. Skidding to a halt - the things weren't following - and sniffed at the air. Oddly, he still couldn't scent any other horses. He slowly followed the sound of conversation, staying behind the line of two-leggeds and stopping a fair distance away from them, listening with a frown.

It slowly dawned on the stallion that it was a couple of two-leggeds, not horses, that he was listening to. And he understood every word; though the actual topic was something inconsequential - some story or another - the fact that Spirit knew what they were talking about was a marvel.

Ears pricked up in fascination, the Mustang apprached the line of two-leggeds, listening to conversations start up and die around him as if he were in a line of (admittedly boring) horses. He hardly registered the line moving with him in it until he was addressed directly at the city's entrance.

Spirit startled and looked at the two-legged who had spoken to him. "I- what?"

"Welcome to Paixao!" the two-legged said - repeated. "Your name?"

Spirit slowly blinked at her, then cocked his head to one side. Well. It was a simple enough thing to ask. "...Uh, my name is..."

"Take care of her... Spirit... Who Could Not Be Broken."

The stallion was so startled that the snort he made was more like a squeak. It works for memories, too?!

"Sir?"

Spirit snorted and shook his head. Well... if I'm going among two-leggeds, maybe I should use a name one of 'em gave me.

"It's Spirit. Spirit Who Could Not Be Broken."

The gatekeeper nodded, then produced a... rectangular... thingy. It was silver and shiny, and had a narrow but sturdy rope attached to it. She came out from behind the wooden thing she'd been standing behind and fastened it around Spirit's neck - he laid his ears back but made no comment or attempt to run.

Stepping back behind the wood thing, the two-legged held a folded, flat thing out to Spirit that also smelled of wood and other things. He took it in his mouth after staring at it for a few moments, then followed the two-legged's arm gesture into the dome.

The inside of the dome was as strange as everything else, but Spirit was more concerned about the strange things on his person. Spirit spat the wood thing out after giving it a cursory chew, then attempted to investigate the shiny thing around his neck. After a little maneuvering, he managed to get it into his mouth, where he chewed at it experimentally.

Kit was accustomed to traveling a great deal in a day, and, for the most part, moving by foot; still, it seemed as if the day had drawn on much longer than it should have, and he looked forward to finding a suitable seat, to relaxing and resting. After a meal, he meant to find a bed...and although he was getting ahead of himself with wishing, he could hope for a hotel with a pool. If there was a chance to swim, he'd happily take it; moving on and looking up, it seemed a shame the city was so sheltered. It had been some time since he'd been swimming, and some time more since he'd swam in a storm...

...though, this was the wrong time to be thinking such thoughts, with so much at hand, and with what was at hand mattering more. Kit shook his head and chuckled to himself, attention down-to-earth again---and caught by a four-legged creature near enough. "Hello!"

[y halo thar: I know it's marked complete, but can Kit come crash the thread?]

((Knock yourself out. :D))

[Ace. You mind getting on AIM sometime tonight to plan a few things? Or just sometime soon, doesn't matter too much. :) And I'll get to threadcrashing shortly.]

((No problem - just give me a few hours. I'm helping out with a play tonight. :3))

By now, Spirit had mostly got the hang of the journal, and as Kit found him he was side-on to the Jedi, sniffing at a sparkling metal tree. At the greeting, Spirit turned one ear in Kit's direction before looking over and smiling at the sight of his new friend. He turned away from the 'tree' and walked over, bobbing his head for balance.

"Hello there, Kit Fisto. It's good to finally see you." Once he was close enough, he gave Kit a sniff, committing his scent to memory along with his face. Not that either would be hard to forget.

"It's good to see you, as well, and I come with new word." Kit smiled; the expression was sort of sharklike, but sunny, revealing neat white teeth and genuine good cheer. "We'll have a little more company; a boy named Cloud will be joining us. He's new here, too---arrived only the day before. Seems like he would benefit, being around a few friendly faces for a time, so I hope you won't mind. Also," here, the smile widened a little, and something in the Jedi's face suggested an eyebrow would've been raised, if he had had any, "you're welcome to call me just Kit."

The nautolan's sharp teeth did trigger muted alarms in the back of Spirit's mind, but since they were in a friendly face he didn't react visibly. He shook his head at the mention of company. "I don't mind. Bigger is better when it comes to herds."

Spirit smiled again as Kit's broadened, and he nodded. "All right, Kit it is." Looking over his withers, he asked, "So what's this Cloud boy look like?"

"He said he's sort of small, and blonde. That isn't much to go by, but we'll have to look for spiky hair. At any rate..." Kit moved to lean against the tree Spirit had been sniffing and shrugged, still smiling. "He'll be looking for us, as well, and we should be easy to spot. It may take him a time to reach us...I hope you aren't too hungry. What sort of things do you eat, besides grass?"

"Spiked hair. All right." Spirit turned a little as Kit moved, facing the same direction as the Jedi.

"I'm getting there... mostly my kind grazes; it takes up a pretty large amount of our days. But I can wait a little longer. As for what else I eat... well, not a whole lot, actually." Spirit slowly put his ears back, looking somewhat worried. "A few fruits, sometimes, and any unpoisonous flowers I find around." He shook his mane out, ears coming up again. "I guess if it comes off a plant and isn't either bark or poison I could probably eat it... what do you think we should be able to find here?"

"Well...it's difficult to say. Judging by the materials in the city itself, it seems to be wealthy enough to import anything the locals might like, even if nothing grows nearby. Fruit, I'm certain we can find, and there's likely a lot of choice; probably as much, or more, regarding other edible plants." Another small shrug. "I wouldn't worry; there will be something, I'm sure."

A pause, and a chuckle following it. "Failing anything fresh, you could sample the soup."

"I hope so. And we'll find out soon enough." The horse grinned. "With any luck it won't kill me, right?"

Spirit chuckled as well in response to Kit's laugh. "That reminds me - what is soup, exactly?"

"Oh, I would hope the Force would hint at something, if what we find would do you such serious ill." Kit looked skyward again, one tentacle sliding off a shoulder to swing for a moment, tip twitching. "Soup is a mostly liquid foodstuff, made with any number of ingredients; vegetables, grains, sometimes meat, cut small and cooked in water, with enough herbs, or other seasonings added to flavour and thicken the broth so it's more than hot water with bits of food floating in it." Another pause. "Granted, there are soups served cold, as well."

"Huh. Well, I'd rather find at least something grassy first, but some soup with plants in it doesn't sound half bad. Sounds sort of like eating plants that grow in water on their own."

Spirit looked around, scanning the vast field of blonde for any spikes. Not finding any at present, he looked back at Kit with a curious expression. "I've never heard of any forces that give hints, either." There was a pause, then a laugh. "I've been getting confused here even easier than the last time I was away from home."

"The Force is the sum of all forces. In a manner of speaking." Kit, thoughtful, returned the glance and spoke seriously. "The Force is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and flows through us, binding us---and all other life---in our connections to each other and everything else, from the plants around us and underfoot, to the other creatures living their lives. A Jedi is trained to feel the Force, and to use it---only for knowledge and defense, never in anger, or for personal gain. There's a feeling in it if someone's unwell or something is wrong, or if everything is in balance and alright. It's hard to put it into words...but I would also hope that this has helped, a little."

The nautolan straightened and stepped away from the tree, half-turning with an air of pleased anticipation. "As an example, I believe I feel a friend approaching."

I think I just broke a lot of rules. That was the only thought in Cloud's mind when he ran a good distance away from Niflheim station.

There's no Shinra here, so there shouldn't be rules I'm breaking. He stomped on the nearly hysterical thought, unwilling to think about what would happen when his CO - did it still apply here? - found out that he disappeared. Granted, he left a note, but...

He slowed down a bit, looking around the new area with a bit more alertness, his breathing just a little elevated but nothing that would debilitate him for long. Half of him was hoping that he'd see whomever he was meeting soon and at the same time, he was wary - how stupid are you, going off to meet with someone you hardly even knew?! but even so, he was still late.

Fiddling with the computer in his pocket, he smoothed down his ruffled uniform and just wondered how on earth he was going to recognize someone whose description was not only suspicious but also so close to a joke, because it wasn't possible that anybody would be-

Oh. Oh.

He stared up and up, and up, hoping that he didn't look as stunned as he should be.

Kit wasn't joking.

Spirit listened, ears pricked and attentive, to Kit's explanation of this mystical Force. An energy that bound all life, plant and animal, together... well, Spirit could get his mind around it quite a bit easier than journals or glowing cats. He nodded towards the end of Kit's speech about it, and would have answered had the nautolan not turned and mentioned a friend coming; Spirit looked in that direction as well.

He cocked his head to one side as Cloud came into view and stopped dead. Spirit did not have quite enough experience with two-leggeds to accurately judge their ages, but he thought this one looked half-grown - a little older than what would be a yearling among his own kind, maybe, but still not a stallion. He also looked rather overwhelmed.

Spirit put on a friendly, rather gentle smile, one he might have used with a frightened foal, and said, "Hello, there. You must be Cloud."

"It's nice to meet you in person." Kit smiled himself and nodded in greeting, ends of his tentacles swinging forward with the movement. They would have allowed him advance notice of Cloud's approach on their own, the Force completely aside; the boy's unease would have been noticeable rooms away, in sharp contrast to the calm neutrality (which seemed oddly shallow, as if there were room for only one or two other emotions under its surface) most common among the natives to the city. Sympathetic, he resolved to do what he could to alter that unease and make it a little less. He had been told, as a padawan, that 'How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.'. He had believed it then; his belief still held. "How are you?"

A - he didn't even know what Kit was and a horse and oh gods, he was so going to say something rude and screw up and-

He stomped on those thoughts, trying not to focus on just how utterly, utterly confused he was. Not now, he told himself. Talking horses and Kit aside, he could cope. He had to cope.

"It's nice to meet you both," Cloud murmured to the stallion and to Kit, trying not to fidget. "I'm doing well, thank you very much."

The blond looked from Kit to Spirit, trying not to be rude. "I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "I never caught your name."

Definitely a youngster, thought Spirit, and definitely feeling pretty overwhelmed.

The stallion continued smiling in that friendly, hopefully encouraging way. "It's Spirit Who Could Not Be Broken," he said, and the smile eased into a small, easygoing grin. The thought that such expressions might have seemed strange on a horse's face to Cloud never even crossed his mind. "You can shorten it to Spirit if that works better for you."

Jerking his head at the Jedi beside him, Spirit continued with, "Kit said you just arrived here; I only just got here myself." If he found something they had in common, perhaps the spiky-headed two-legged would feel a bit more at ease.

The effort against fidgeting didn't go unnoted, although, again, it was due to Kit's empathic abilities more than anything else (visual and vocals cue set entirely aside, in an immediate appraisal) and a good effort, all told. "I suppose we should start walking soon, if we're to find some suitable spot to stop..." A pause, and Kit reached up to pull a handful of leaves from the silver tree, admiring the work before pocketing them. "There's word out that these---or any other small, shiny objects---can be used as barter. We may as well test it, when we have reached a restaurant."

If Spirit thought that he needed to say anything else to make Cloud a little more at ease with him, he was mistaken, though the effort was not appreciated. Reminded of Chocobos, the trooper was taken to the friendliness of the stallion and he couldn't help but smile back. "Yeah, yesterday, but from a different gate."

He nodded at Kit's suggestion, just to show that he was listening. "I... heard about that. They told me that it's their currency..." Something that he found strange; why did the natives like shiny things so much? And for another, why did Zack? He tried not to make any sound, uncomfortable at the suggestion of food, realizing that he hadn't had anything that morning, too busy escaping. "Which direction do you want to go?"

"Wherever the closest food is," Spirit answered. "I couldn't tell you which direction that is, but if we start walking away from the gate we're bound to find something." At that, he lowered his head to the city streets, grasping a shiny, gold dandelion 'growing' from the cracks between the cobblestones in his teeth and yanking it out of the ground. He then looked expectantly at Kit, the flower's cloth stem and roots dangling from his mouth.

"I'm sure I've passed something this way..." Kit indicated with a step and a shrug. He smiled at his new companions, cheerful enough despite knowing that this could well work against him; he was certainly something strange to Cloud, judging by the reaction when he'd been seen, and a sharp smile sometimes set others off ease... Still, he considered himself to be very like anyone else, and acting on that belief to be the best demonstration of its truth.

Maybe he should take something too. Trying to be as discreet as possible, he relinquished a 'flower' from the ground and stuffed it in his pocket, coloring slightly at the feeling that he was perhaps stealing something.

Gods, Cloud hoped he wasn't. He... really wasn't in the habit of stealing anything. Lowering his eyes, he followed his companions with only two steps away, as he was trained to do.

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Two-leggeds. Why did it have to be two-leggeds? [COMPLETE]

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