A snap. A whipping sound. Tan'un's ears perked when she heard the peculiar sounds. They were barely audible from her distance, yet the sound was so foreign to a forest that she couldn't help but hear it. And it was music to her ears. Immediately, the black panther turned on her feet, huffing softly and breaking into a sprint across the forest.
For a sound so foreign couldn't be anything but one of her traps. Which meant it was set off by fresh meat that would be her dinner. After a while of sprinting at the massive speeds her panther form allowed, the predator skidded to a halt, looking at one of her traps which was broken open. So, whatever was in there was wounded now, but the scent of blood hung in the air. While she had to put in more effort than she would've liked, it was a start.
The panther padded in direction of where the scent of blood took her. At least it wasn't raining, else her nose would've been thrown off. After a short walk, she discovered a wounded deer that limped away desperately, calling out for help. Well, at least it wouldn't run from the huntress. With a soft huff, she morphed into her human form, taking her spear in hand.
She popped out of the brush and flung the spear at the deer with great strength, hitting it square in the throat. Tan'un let out a soft, content hum and walked over, dragging her prey away in the bushes.
Skiff was, frankly, kind of lost.
Not that he really minded, it wasn't as if he had tried to stay on a certain course, he had just been wandering.
His home was in Draconi forest, or, it was as close as a home as it could be to the scavenger, but one day as he was being chased from a wolf-shifter pack's territory, he had just kept running, even after they had stopped chasing him.
Maybe he needed a change, maybe he needed to get away for a while, and just travel, not having to worry about the other packs chasing him or attacking him every second.
So now he was wandering through a forest, but a forest that was different from his home, he knew.
He was a scavenger, and, admittedly wasn't very good at hunting, unless it was a mouse or a vole he was after. Occasionally he was able to catch a rabbit, but he had been mostly been living on small rodents for the past week, since he'd been traveling.
He was quite hungry, even after eating a mouse, but that was when he smelled it. Fresh blood, and not far off.
He set off at a run, but slowed to a trot when he caught the scent of another animal. It was vaguely familiar, but he wasn't sure. It could be the owner of the fresh prey, or it could be scavenger like him, whom he could hopefully scare off.
So, still in his wolf form, he crept forward, and then he caught sight of it, a deer, through the bushes. He could see a shape near it, but couldn't tell how big the creature was.
He was so hungry, and in his haste, he crept forward to fast, not careful enough, and he loudly brushed against a branch. He froze, the creature must have heard him. . .
Even in her human form, Tan'un's ears were always perked and always listening. She heard sound shed rather not heard and turned around, charging forward.
As she jumped towards Skiff's general direction, mid-air, she morphed back into the form of her panther, aiming to pounce ontop of him.
Skiff yelped as the human shifted into a panther and landed on top of him, hard.
He struggled to get out from under her, but she was bigger than he was, and stronger. Attempted to claw at her face, and his head whipped around, his jaws snapping.
This wasn't going to be worth it, he could already tell.
Tan'un roared in agony as her face was scratched, she recoiled slightly, before whiping her head back forward to chomp down on the paw that had harmed her, other claw pinning his other paw down, growling slightly as she boiled with anger.
Skiff howled in pain as her mouth closed around his paw, and as her claws dug into his other paw.
She was way to string and way too big, there was no way he was winning this fight.
'Okay, okay!' he yelped. 'Don't kill me!'
She disloged her teeth and claw from his flesh, still shooting him a wary glance.
The soft growling subsided and the panther sat up, morphing back to her human form, still ontop of Skiff. "You.. Talk the human?" She asked, blood trickling down her face.
Dang, she was scary.
He turned into his own human form, hoping that it would show he didn't want to fight, and nodded at her broken sentence.
"Yeah," he said, still breathing heavily, his eyes darting around her face. "I do."
Tan'un sent the other antromorph a wary glance, before pushing herself off, rubbing the blood off her face. Which was wholly ineffective, the clawmark he left still made it so blood trickled down her cheeks. "Leave," she snorted, standing up straight and heading back to the fresh prey she had caught.
As she walked, she got on all fours, having changed back to the form of her panther. She closed her teeth around the deer's neck and started to rip it to shreds.
Skiff turned over as soon as she got off of him, exposing his stomach was not something he wanted to do for any longer than necessary.
When she went back to her prey and told him to leave, Skiff hesitated. "Actually. . ." this was going to be a huge mistake, but he had already started. "I'm kind of hungry. . ."
Tan'un, in her panther form, glanced at him, snarling softly and notioning at the prey, before proceeding to eat herself.
Skiff took this as a yes, and, surprised as he was, he cautiously walked over to her, morphing back into his wolf form.
He carefully stuck his head out and took a quick bite before drawing back, unsure if she would change her mind or not even have meant it in the first place.
Tan'un snarled softly as he approached, though it wasn't in a threatening matter. It was more of a warning to Skiff. That he was still keeping an eye on him.
After a short while, Tan'un would take several steps back, licking her mouth clean from the blood.
Seeing that she wasn't going to attack him in the immediate future, Skiff stepped forward again and started to eat.
When she stepped back after a few moments, Skiff did as well, he didn't want her thinking he was going to eat more than she was.
Shifting back to her human form, Tan'un stepped over to stretch her shoulders. "Done?" She inquired, glancing at Skiff.
Skiff nodded, he didn't want to be greedy and pay with his life. He shifted back to a human when she did.
"Thanks," he said. "Do ya live around here?"
Tan'un glanced at him as he went back into his human form aswell, she slid a stone dagger from underneath the fur waistband she wore, hezding over to skin and cut up the prey, considering her answer carefully.
"Yes," she breathed after a short while.
Skiff smiled a little at her blunt response, and he motioned at the trees around him. "Um, it's a. . ." he struggled for words. "A very nice place you got here. It must be, uh, great for. . . uh hunting."
Usually he was quite good at talking to people, mostly to get himself out of trouble, but this shifter was very different from the wolves that he most often interacted with.
Tan'un glanced at Skiff again. "I move when prey lacks," she pointed the knife at him. "Follow nature. Respect... Or die," she stated simply, flicking the knife around and plunging it back into the remnants of the creature.
"Oh," he jumped a bit when she stabbed the creature again. "That's. . . nice."
He glanced around, then back at the shifter. "What are you going to do with that?" he motioned towards the animal carcass. "Do you have a place to store it?"
Deciding not to reply to his remark, rather continuing the skinning of the deer. "No store. Leather is worth. Flesh will rot, scavengers feed," she answered with a nod, pushing herself up with the ragged skin from the creature.
"Oh, okay."
He glanced around. "So. . . what kind of creatures are in this forest?" he asked. "Are any of them dangerous?"
Best to get a good idea of what lurked in his new surroundings if he was going to be lost here for a while.
"Much dangerous," Tan'un replied with a soft hum. She tucked the freshly cut skin under her arm, glancing up to one of the trees. "You die.. Quickly."
It was then that Tan'un looked back at Skiff, before letting out a defeated sigh. "Follow," she commanded.
Dangerous. Die. Quickly.
Skiff blanched, that did not sound like a good time. When she turned away to leave, the werewolf was going to call after her, to ask her to stay, but she paused herself, and turned back to him, and he sighed with relief as she ordered him to follow.
"Happy to," he said, falling in step behind her. Thank the gods, he didn't want to be alone in these woods. All the same, he still didn't know if he could trust the shiftier he now followed, after all, he had just met her, and she was in these supposedly dangerous woods.
"Good," she answered with a soft grunt, making her way to the shrubberies.
And after a short, rather event less walk, Tan'un ducked to head inside a cave. One she had selected as her temporary home. It seemed rather small, designed for one person. And besides some other hunter's tools, there were only furs on the ground. Probably where she slept.
Skiff followed her silently through the forest, and followed her, somewhat hesitantly, into the cave.
"Um, nice place," the werewolf said, glancing around. Indeed, despite it's simplicity, it was better than where Skiff had been staying the past few nights as he had traveled, which was just curling up in any hollow or outcropping he could find.
"Do you live here all the time?" he asked. He assumed she did, but perhaps there was another cave somewhere else? Or maybe she mostly traveled, not staying in one place for too long.
"For now," she answered, putting the leather against the wall. "Darkness will fall," she stated curtly, leaning forward to grab a small bottle she managed to scavenge, filled with water. "Thirst?" She inquired, looking up at Skiff, holding up the glass container towards him as an offer.
"Umm. . ." he was about to decline the offer, but then he realized that if he was thirsty later, there was no way he was going to ask her for a drink. ". . .sure."
He took the bottle and took only a few sips. He didn't know how much water she had, but he didn't want to drink it all.
"So, what do you do out here, all by yourself?" he asked after he handed the bottle back to her. "Just survive?"
"Survive," Tan'un replied with a throaty grunt of acknowledgementpain, taking the bottle and placing it down with the greatest of care. As if it was a sacred item.
"Where you from?" She inquired with a soft frown, leaning against the side of the cave, eyes sliding shut slowly.
Survive, that's about what Skiff did all the time too. It was especially hard for a wolf to live by themselves, they naturally wanted companionship. But skiff supposed that a panther was naturally a loner.
"Draconi Woods," he answered her question after a moment. "Draconi Woods." Not quite sure what to say, he shot the question back at her. "Where are you from?"