There was only wind, and gravity.
The former came like a rushing river current, billowing under his glistening black feathers and making them shudder. The latter pulled from beneath him, tempting him downwards, a siren call that nothing on this physical plane was capable of ignoring.
Not without wings.
Kharon had wings. They were spread wide now, carrying him through the air effortlessly, shifting up and down and forward in a lazy looping eight as he flew. It was, without a doubt, the greatest sensation he had ever known-- in every last minute of every last day of every last year of his two centuries, he had never been as happy as he was when flying.
Kharon let out a cry of joy, and surrendered to the pull from below. He dipped, forward and down, and let the wind rush past him as the earth rose up like a titan eager for its meal. Anthills became mountains, and the carpet of deep emerald green broke into a patchwork of leaves and open ground. The closer he dove to the ground, the darker his shadow became, black and threatening and setting every prey instinct scattering.
Luckily for them, he wasn't interested. His wings spread wide to slow his descent, and with a chatter and grumble he landed on a bare tree branch.
Something cawed in the distance. Kharon cawed back. It was harder to think, in this form; he wasn't incapable of reasonable thought, crows were far too clever for their own good, which was half the reason he loved being them. But there was still the limitations, less a language and more intuition, a flash of memory and color and associations. The caws didn't actually mean anything, and yet they meant so much.
This was bright, the stranger's call said. Yellow. A shiny trinket. Spotting a friend, who had shown you the best places to get the sweetest corn. The feeling of the familiar, the pleasant, the curious.
Kharon tilted his head, hopped a few knots to his left. Spread his wings once more, flapped to an adjacent tree. Tilted his head the other way, and let out a louder caw. Curious, inquisitive, searching, questioning, a soft teal colour, a puzzle of a box that you knew held something interesting inside.
Who's there?
The first call got her attention. Lanaya lifted her head, hands stilling in her lap as she paused in her weaving.
"Lenore?" No. No, that wasn't her raven's caw, that was a crow, she thought. Nearly identical, but just different enough that she knew the difference nearly immediately. Just a friendly signal, nothing to be concerned about.
She returned her attention to the charm she was making, binding the herbs with long strands of grass. Then the second call made her raise her head again, brow furrowed.
Another crow, but one whose voice she didn't recognize. Her head raised again and she twisted her upper body, then rose from the overgrown stump where she'd been sitting. "Hello?" Sharp eyes flickered through the branches and landed on the unfamiliar bird. She smiled, raising her hand in invitation.
"Welcome, wing-brother. I haven't seen you here before-" Her voice cut off and her eyes widened slightly, gold irises flashing. There was something...odd about this bird. Something...more. She cocked her head to the side in a rather birdlike gesture herself. "Well. Aren't you a mystery?"
Ugh. People.
This was the limitation of language, and the part that he liked the least. It might've been nice if it had been physically possible for his fellow crow to mention that there were people, but no, of course not.
So lost in his internal griping was he, that Kharon almost didn't realize that the person was speaking to him. More importantly, she was raising her hand to him. Giving an agitated squawk, Kharon hopped away from the outstretched limb, feathers ruffling in indignation. He really needed to start paying attention, here.
He tilted his head, back and forth, as she spoke, mirroring her own birdlike actions in what was probably the most objectively amusing feedback loop in existence. It took another moment to process what she was saying, and even further to realize that this person here was not nearly as stupid as one might assume. At the very least, utterly observant enough to know when someone was playacting as a bird versus being a natural-grown one.
If he had an eyebrow to raise, raised it would have been. He gave another chittering sort of grumble, the kind he reserved for when he wanted to mutter to himself, dark and gloomy and brown and the feel of earth and bark. He weighed his options: he could fly away right then and there. But to where? And really, the alternative would be returning to his """ward""", wherein he rolled his eyes insofar as a crow was physically capable of doing so.
Fine, then, the jig was up. It would be easier to deal with a person as a person, anyway. So he fluttered down to the forest floor, adjusted his wings and gave one final preening, before in a flurry of feathers the crow was gone, instead replaced by a man.
"Clever girl. You win the prize."
Lanaya's breath hitched on a small gasp and she took a sharp step back as the glossy black feathers and beak were suddenly replaced with a very human, very tall personage.
She blinked at the man for a moment, not quite sure how to respond. She'd known the crow wasn't really a crow, and of course she'd considered the possibility of a shapeshifted human, but...she honestly wasn't sure what she'd really been expecting.
"Fascinating," she murmured. With an apparent disregard for personal space, she set her half finished charm on the stump she'd been using as a seat and moved toward him, tilting her head from one side to the other as she walked a circle around him, studying him from every angle.
"Werecreature? No, that doesn't feel right. A mage then, I suspect. And a powerful one too, to make such a convincing creature. It actually took me a moment to realize you weren't really that crow," she murmured, almost to herself as she wound up back in front of him, almost close enough to really feel the magic she sensed in him.
All of a sudden, Kharon was very much regretting his decision to reveal himself. This person, whoever she was, had gotten right up in his face and started circling him like, like... well. A hawk. To continue with the bird puns, apparently.
Where his crow form couldn't raise an eyebrow, his human self very much could, and it very much did, almost in exact correlation with how deep his frown got. He might have said something particularly barbed and snarking, but for the last comment this strange woman made.
She was... impressed? Kharon felt a subtle flare of pride, and shifted a bit, as if to soothe ruffled feathers. Careful to keep from looking too pleased with himself, he cleared his throat, arms crossed somewhat defensively over his chest.
The gentle boost to his ego aside, the way she had been examining him was starting to make him feel rather raw and vulnerable, two traits he had a rather adamant hatred of. When she had stopped in front of him, and so close, he couldn't help but break eye contact, looking every which way but those piercing yellow eyes. There was just something about them that belied her otherwise human appearance that set him on edge.
Like recognizing like, he supposed it was. The strange recognizing the strange, like when a bird is not a bird and a human girl is not entirely a human girl.
"I am... particularly fond of transfiguration, I suppose. Practice wins out after a certain amount of-- I'm sorry, are we done with the inspection now?"
"Oh." The witch blinked, then took a small step back. "Yes. Forgive me, I'm being rude."
She didn't really sound all that sorry about it.
Her eyes flicked over his face, searching curiously. It had been a long time since she'd interacted with anyone not of a winged persuasion, and if she was being honest she may have lost some of the skill. Perhaps most of the skill.
"My name is Lanaya." She was supposed to introduce herself, right? Oh. And the hand? She thrust a hand out toward him. "Who are you?"
Kharon's shoulders eased up as the woman-- Lanaya, right-- took a step back, the tension leaking out of him the more his personal space was restored. It wasn't as if he could really be too agitated; there was a difference, after all, between invading space because you didn't know better, and invading space because you believed you had the right.
Lanaya, as far as Kharon could tell in the space of only a few minutes, fell into the former category. It didn't mean he trusted her, or anything, but at the very least she didn't necessarily deserve the full brunt of his hostility.
Maybe about 25%.
Kharon looked down at the outstretched hand before him, seemed to take a considerable amount of time weighing his options. His mouth thinned into a tight line before finally reaching out to quickly grip her hand and immediately let it go again. There. He was being polite, and he would argue into the sunset if anyone said otherwise.
Manners, little bird, manners.
"Kharon. Blackwing. I mean, it's just Kharon," he said, in quick succession, and stumbling as a result. Smooth, dude. Real smooth. The epitome of dignity, may we all learn to be as graceful as thee. Pressed for something to talk about other than that embarrassing exchange of names, Kharon looked around them, at the trees and to where Lanaya had left... whatever she had been crafting.
"This, uh... your territory, out here?"
Lanaya glanced at his hand as he withdrew it quickly. Had she done it wrong? Or was that just how handshakes were supposed to work.
She gave a little mental shrug and put it from her mind. It couldn't be that important, really. At his question she smiled slightly and nodded. "I suppose you could say that," she chuckled softly, glancing around at the trees. "I make my home here, yes."
She looked back to Kharon. "I'd thought I knew most wing-brothers and sisters in this part of the forest. You are from further afield, no?"
Just as question left her mouth, a sharp caw sounded through the trees and the branches a little ways to the east of the little glade shivered as a murder took flight. One raven peeled away from the cluster of birds and soared in a wide, low arc before ducking back beneath the treeline and flying toward the two mages.
Without looking, Lanaya lifted her arm to offer a perch as Lenore came in to land. The raven clucked and hopped along her arm to her shoulder, preening a few strands of hair behind her ear before cocking her head curiously at the strange man.
Further afield was one way of putting it. Kharon's mouth worked in a thin line, debating inwardly just how he wanted to answer such a question. Luckily for him, any awkward silences were cut short by the raven's caw.
Whatever ire Kharon had been carrying visibly melted away at the sight of the bird, his dark eyes widening a bit as he regarded the creature. They seemed to mirror one another's movements, Kharon's head cocking to the side in mimicry of the raven's own, and the barest hint of an amused smile passed over his face before it was wiped carefully clean again.
"I'm from an apple orchard." he said, hurriedly, not giving the words much weight at all before switching subjects. He didn't look away from the raven until he absolutely had to, meeting Lanaya's unsettling gaze with a searching one of his own.
"You tamed her?"
She smiled when she saw bird and man study each other in such a similar way, then outright laughed at his question. It was not a dainty giggle, but the raucous laughter of one who had never learned to quell such impulses, oddly reminiscent of the call of a bird itself.
"Hardly," she chuckled, stroking Lenore's breast absently with a finger while the raven clucked and crooned. "She is no more tamed than I am. We are...friends. Companions."
She'd noted the subtle evasiveness of his answer to her question, but decided not to pursue it. "I assume your orchard is some ways from here. I could offer some hospitality, if you are weary." She jerked her head back over her shoulder. "I make my nest just a little further into the forest."
Kharon had been expecting a myriad of reactions. A proud smile, a smug sort of affirmation, maybe a little chuckle, it could have been any number of things. What he hadn't been expecting was how loudly she laughed, carefree and open and like its own sort of birdsong, and for a moment Kharon didn't know what to make of any of it.
And so he just stared, at least until she explained herself, wherein the tension that had crept up his shoulders eased once more. The raven seemed content enough, especially as she was stroked, and Kharon watched with some mild curiousity the exchange between the two. Some uncategorized feeling welled up at that, bitter and foul, and he had to swallow hard to rid himself of the taste of it.
"I see..."
Companions. Friends. Genuine affection and mutual understanding. How delightfully unfair.
"...It has been a long flight." The truth was Kharon hardly noticed the distance, so enamored was he at being in the wide open air, but it was true that he would not likely be able to make the return trip tonight. And nor did he really want to. He figured he had a few days before the magical compulsion pulled him ""home"", but until then he was perfectly free to do as he liked.
And right now, rest sounded good.
"If you're offering, of course." he added, hastily, with his head bowed in polite deference. Manners, manners.
Lanaya's smile widened and she inclined her head to him in turn. "Yes, I am offering." She turned, shifting Lenore to perch properly on her shoulder and twisting her head to press a light peck to the bird's glossy feathers.
"Just this way then, follow me," she tossed back to Kharon as she started into the trees, pausing to snatch up her half-finished charm from the stump where she'd left it.
A gently winding path that seemed to be second nature to the witch but was rather hard to differentiate from the forest around it curved through the trees and Lanaya tripped lightly down it. After a few minutes of walking, the trees opened up slightly into a not-quite-clearing, with a massive oak in almost the exact center.
Her "nest" was settled among the branches of the great tree, woven through and around them to create a treetop hut. The little almost-house itself seemed to be made as much of living plant material as it was of tried branches and the like, complete with a ladder made of woven vines that she called down to them with a casual flick of her fingers.
Kharon tried his best to mind the paths they took through the trees; Lanaya had seemed nice, but not nearly enough so that he was comfortable not knowing where he was. However, the more they walked, the less sure of where they were Kharon became.
More agitated with himself than anything else, it took him a moment to realize they had arrived. Everything that was Lanaya's nest blended in so seemlessly with the flora of the forest that it took a second glance to realize it wasn't meant to be there. Kharon blinked, momentarily stunned at the careful symbiosis he wouldn't have expected to find out here.
Color him impressed.
"Did you... facilitate this?" he waved his hands vaguely, trying to find the right words to best describe 'magically patchworked plants into a house'. "On your own?"
She smiled and nodded quickly. "Yes. I-" Her expression suddenly changed, eyes flicking away for a moment as a furrow creased her brow and her mouth drew into a tight line. "I've been...living here for some time, with just the creatures of the forest. They are true companions, but not always helpful in construction."
She was smiling again, her moment of melancholy seemingly dismissed and forgotten. With a little shrug, she urged Lenore off her shoulder so the raven could fly up ahead of them, perching on what was, upon closer inspection, the edge of a roughly shaped window in the little nest-house.
"Here, step up." Lanaya placed one foot on one of the higher woven rings of the ladder that she could reach, hands moving easily to position themself on the vines. She jerked her head toward Kharon in invitation.
The sudden melancholy was short-lived, but it struck a chord nonetheless. The way Lanaya had said she had been living here for a while, that hadn't sounded much like it had been her choice. With that, Kharon could entirely sympathize. Life tended to be cruel, more to some than others, and it seemed that Lanaya was part of the former group.
It left him with a sense of... camaraderie? Was that even the proper label for this feeling? It had been so long since he had an opportunity to be objective about his own feelings and not have them immediately twisted into... something else. He wasn't sure which way was up half the time, but in this particular moment, yeah. He was pretty sure 'camaraderie' was accurate.
He didn't press the matter any further, but there was a subtle softness in his expression as he followed the woman up to the tree and took hold of one vine, slipping his foot into the provided rung, all while craning his neck to better keep track of where the raven had flown off to.
Being closer to the tree had the added benefit of being able to further marvel at the design, how that had been a window this whole time. Clever, clever. That must have taken some forethought-- he shook his head a bit, because really, it all must have taken some forethought-- and he had to appreciate the effort.
Lanaya's smile widened when he easily stepped onto the ladder and she gave a low, lilting whistle, something like the call of a mourning dove. The vines trembled, then started to curl back up the tree, bringing their passengers along.
"Here we are." The witch stepped off her rung and onto the thing band of relatively flat woven leaves and branches that surrounded the enclosed hut, a miniature porch. Lenore hopped toward her and clawed, earning a "Yes, yes, I know. Check and see if Gale's awake, would you?"
The raven croaked and fluttered into the little house through the window and Lanaya bumped open the door- woven into the branches so effortlessly it at first appeared to be just another section of wall- open with her hip. "Are you hungry?" she asked Kharon, tilting her head.
Woven into living plant matter, and still being pliable enough for proper movement. Now Kharon was really impressed. All the different types of vegetation-- the oak, the vines, whatever that particular space of leaves was-- probably took a great deal of care and consideration based on their individual needs. It was the kind of webwork magic that he himself rarely had the patience to weave together, but nonetheless appreciated.
All of this, of course, resulted in raised eyebrows and a soft 'hm' as they stepped onto the porch, which was about as close to a sound of approval as he was capable of making, it seemed. He noted the conversation between bird and... he was just going to say human for the sake of brevity, and was again a bit impressed. He turned into a crow, and spoke the language therein as a result, but it was all with a bird brain, the mindset alloted for such a creature and without the typical linguistic inventions of more bipedal folk.
Colors, shapes, feelings, friends and enemies, danger and safety. Fun, occasionally. But what he was witnessing here was like...
He didn't even know how to categorize it, but it was nearly as impressive as the nest.
"Hm?" he finally responded, as if only just then realizing she had spoken to him. "Oh. A little, I suppose. It's hard to tell, sometimes. ...Who is 'Gale'?"
She chuckled a bit at his apparent absent-mindedness and gestured for him to follow her into the nest as she ducked through the door.
"That's Gale." She waved a hand toward the woven and growing ceiling above their heads as she bustled across the small space, indicating a small spotted owl, almost perfectly camouflaged into the foliage, who blinked and hooted sleepily. It was not quite dusk, far too early to be awake.
Lanaya chuckled again at the owl's quiet protests and murmured, "We have a guest, Gale. You'll survive, I'm sure." She knelt beside what appeared to be some sort of small fire pit, the only part of the nest not made of plant matter- or rather, it was, but stones had been carefully stacked inside and around it so if a fire was lit it could be contained, and the wall beside it opened out into a gap into the branches, like a chimney.
Her gifts had never been with fire, so the witch resorted to simple flint and stone to light a spark, blowing on it to get the kindling properly lit. That done, she straightened up and moved to a set of sort of cubby-holes seamlessly grown into the near wall, retrieving a simple pot- old and cracked- and a wooden bowl.
"I'm afraid I don't have much. Just stew," she said to Kharon as she returned to the fire and hung the pot over it, thanking Lenore when the raven flew to her with the strap of a waterskin clutched in her beak. Lanaya filled the pot about halfway and began adding an assortment of herbs, mushrooms, and vegetables she'd picked earlier that day. Her half-completed charm hung from her hip, swinging rather dangerously close to the fire when she leaned over the small glow of it.
Kharon tilted his head upwards to follow where Lanaya was pointing, just in time to lock eyes with what appeared to be a still-very-sleepy owl up near the ceiling. Or what Kharon supposed was the ceiling. Honestly the further one got into the structure the harder it was to tell what exactly was "tree" and "not tree."
Whatever the owl had hooted, Lanaya had been amused by, and Kharon had to snort in his own mild amusement in turn at how she seemed perfectly comfortable communing back and forth. Kharon, as it stood, out in his human form, did not understand a single bit of it. And so he instead fell back to watching Lanaya move about collecting pots and bowls, and he had to snort a bit at her apology.
"Considering you're going out of your way to feed a stranger, I sincerely doubt I have much room to complain." Which was... a bit of a conundrum, now that he had a chance to think about it. Here was this person who he had never met before, who had no reason to be kind to him, and here she was offering him not only a place to rest but a homecooked meal.
It was entirely suspicious, and Kharon fully expected the other foot to drop any moment now. The question only remained: what did Lanaya want.
He supposed he might better mitigate the price by offering assistance.
"Is there something I can do?"
Lanaya sat back and turned her upper body a bit to look at her guest as she addressed him. "You could keep an eye on this?" She gestured airily with a wooden spoon toward the pot, then used it to stir absently. "Just make sure it doesn't burn."
Leaving the spoon in the pot, she got to her feet again and slipped across the small space toward a mat of woven reeds and leaves, one of the few pieces of her nest that didn't seem to really be green and alive. She settled herself onto the mat and took the charm from her hip, tucking it underneath the makeshift bed with a muttered phrase that might have been a spell.
With a sigh, she sat back and arched her spine in a stretch, arms extended over her head. Her back was hurting again. That had been happening more and more often lately. Frowning slightly, she reached behind her neck to unfasten the wrapped fabric that served as a semi-shirt, letting it fall away as she got to her feet again and crossed to the shelving holes.
She hummed to herself a bit as she searched for something, drawing her hair over her shoulder and twirling a finger through the locks absently, inadvertently revealing the ragged scars that had been twinging in soreness.
Keep an eye out and don't let the food burn. Kharon supposed he was well capable of such a thing. He moved across the floor and over to the fire, where he settled down with his legs folded beneath him. As he reached for the spoon, he looked over to where Lanaya had gone.
And very quickly had to look down again, away again, anywhere else again. He completely missed the spoon, and hissed quietly as his fingers instead brushed the outside of the pot, and he pulled the burnt pads to his mouth as he tried very hard not to blush.
Even with his darker complexion, it was not working.
Even less so when Lanaya stood up and walked across the room like it was nothing. Kharon again had to figure out where to look, but with such a cozy little nest there wasn't much he could do without being overtly obvious.
At least, until he caught sight of those scars. The bottom of his stomach dropped out, vivid memories rising up unbidden, and it was only with careful deep breaths that he was able to keep the attack from getting worse.
His eyes dropped to the stew, which he then had a bit more sense in stirring with an actual spoon this time around.
"Are you... injured?" he asked, not quite willing to trust himself in asking any other way.
"Hm?" Lanaya glanced over her shoulder at him, then realized what he was referring to. Right. She supposed most people didn't have scars like that, she'd forgotten. Things she took for granted might draw attention outside of the forest.
"Not exactly," she answered with a careless shrug. "They...hurt sometimes. But I've had them as long as I can remember." She found the little clay jar of salve she'd been searching for and scooped a glob of in onto two fingers, reaching awkwardly in an attempt to smooth it into the scars.
A small noise of frustration caught in her throat. This was always the most irritating part- trying to reach the scars just made them hurt more, why did they have to be in such a damn awkward place?
Lenore had kept her eyes on their guest all the while, and suddenly gave a low, hoarse call. Lanaya paused, glancing over to her friend, then to Kharon. He seems off, the bird had said. He didn't really look it, but...
"Are you alright? I can take over, if you want." She moved to kneel beside him in front of the pot, still absently rubbing what she could reach of the scars over her shoulder.
"I-- no, I am fine, there's no need--" Kharon muttered, his eyes fixed on the pot of stew with increasing determination as Lanaya approached. There was simply no winning in this situation. At least with his face so close to the fire he could pretend that was why it felt so heated.
What was he even supposed to do in this situation? What was the protocol? Which did he address first, if anything at all?
Two hundred years in a tree and he was being utterly decimated by social etiquette concerning half-naked women.
Pushing the sincerely unpleasant feeling as deep down as he possibly could, Kharon tried to forget his embarrassment as he stirred the stew, his gaze flicking up to regard the raven, who he was sure had somehow told on him. He didn't have proof, or really any logical reasoning, but he was so very sure this was her fault right now.
Cocking an eyebrow at the bird as if to relay that accusation via body language, Kharon chanced a glance at Lanaya, very careful to keep his eyes trained directly on hers. It made for another rather uncomfortable conundrum-- her eyes were haunting, as avian as any of her companions and yet beyond that, and as such Kharon had the distinct feeling that he shouldn't linger there for long. But, all things considered, he really didn't have much of a choice.
"Are you... do you need... assistance?" he finally managed. He wasn't exactly looking forward to a closer look at those scars, but right now he was ready to take any available mercy he was granted.
Lenore made a rather smug clicking sound and fluffed her feathers primly, a subtle enough gesture that Lanaya didn't notice it- which was obviously meant for Kharon's benefit.
The with sighed sightly as she added a bit of grain to the slowly forming stew, then snapped her head up and tilted it at her guest, surprised by the offer. "Oh, um...really?" For the first time, she seemed to display a more human outlook, flushing a bit before she bit her lip and nodded slowly.
"If you...don't mind. That would really help."
She shuffled back from the fire a bit, breaking eye contact, and twisted to put her back to him as she drew her hair over one shoulder. Every line of her body was suddenly set and tense. She really had no idea what to expect from this, and that made her nervous.
Not to mention there was something about the way he looked at her that made her feel...fidgety.
Outside of his crow form, Kharon couldn't be sure what the raven had said, but he was sure it was some kind of snarky comment or another. He wanted to glare daggers at the bird, but didn't quite get the chance before Lanaya's attention was back on him.
He could only nod numbly, confirming the offer, even as he felt his internal screaming rise in both volume and pitch. he pulled at the wraps around his arms, peeling back the black cloth to free his hands and thusly avoid getting any of the salve on them.
Deep breaths, that's all he had to remember. To just take deep breaths and not think too hard. Consider the components of the salve.
His mind given a puzzle to task out, he was able to scoop up a bit of the salve and apply it to the portions of scarring that hadn't gotten attention before. He ran his thumb over the raised tissue, working it in with a mechanical sort of efficiency while he tried to pinpoint what this substance even was.
Deep breaths. The texture suggested the base might have been honey, but he couldn't be sure for how much plant matter had gone in. He had never been that good at remembering the different herbs and plants that went into green healing, and that particular lesson had been over two centuries ago.
"I... take it you made this as well?" He chanced a glance around the room before going back to focusing on nothing at all. "I don't see books. You do it by memory?"
Lanaya slowly started to relax under the touch, pain faded gradually and she gave a soft, relieved sort of sigh, her shoulders slumping forward a bit as the tension eased.
She nodded. "Yes, most of it's from memory," she murmured. She almost shrugged, then remembered to hold still. "Hero helps me sometimes. His memory is better than mine, and he teaches me new things..."
Her voice trailed off as she sort of leaned back into his touch. It was surprisingly soothing, actually, to have her back rubbed when she wasn't contorting herself to accomplish the task. A small crooning sound, curiously similar to a pleased dove or pigeon, hummed in her throat.
She let herself enjoy it a moment longer, then pulled away with a quiet sigh and twisted to retrieve the salve. "Thank you," she murmured, smiling up at Kharon through a few locks of hair that had fallen into her eyes when she twisted around.
She fastened the cap back in the jar and stood to return it to its place. "Do you learn your magic from books then?"
Kharon distantly registered the name "Hero," and tried to imagine what sort of bird he might be. With a name as noble as that, he supposed it would be some larger bird of prey, one of the more native species like an eagle or a hawk.
Or, and here might lie an amusing turn of events, Kharon was entirely wrong and Hero was some bear. He smiled a bit at that, overwhelmed by the mental image of a great brown bear trying to hunker down here in this nest and remind Lanaya of herbal components. A bear with... spectacles. Or, no, wait, a bear with spectacle patterned fur around its eyes. And who walked on his back feet almost exclusively, prim and proper and completely incongruous to his size.
So lost in his own rapidly deteriorating train of thought, Kharon almost didn't notice as Lanaya pulled away, blinking up at her question before remembering that he was, in fact, talking to another person right that moment.
"Hm? Oh, just for certain things, like more complicated sigils and ritual work. I don't... dabble in potions and poultices as much, I--"
hate the ever loving life out of it, the sting of it on fresh marks, the way it made his skin itch as it dried, the fact that it seemed every other day he had to slapdash something on to keep himself going--
No. No. He pushed the thought away, firmly, and wiped his hands off on the side of his breeches, before replacing the long wraps that wound down his forearms and around his hands, leaving only his fingers free.
"I never had the head for them, or the patience, as it turns out. I just like to make things into other things."
"Transfiguration?" Sevsmiled sort of wistfully as she settled herself next to the fire again, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. She let her chin rest on her knees and tilted her head at him. "I'd love to do things like that, but..." She shrugged with a small smile. "I've only ever been good wth plants. And birds, I suppose, though that's...less magic, more a knack, I think."
Her eyes flicked to the stew and she uncurled herself to carefully remove the pot from the fire, scooping about half of the steaming mess into the wooden bowl and leaving the rest. She nudged the bowl toward him and offered the spoon.
"What brought you here, anyway?" she asked curiously. "It's...been a long time since I've seen someone- well. Someone more human," she chuckled.
"It... does take a bit of thought. Though, considering what you've done here," he gestured, vaguely, with the provided spoon, before dropping it back into the stew and scooping up a sizeable amount, "I wouldn't say you're far off yourself. Transmutation is just... a shift, really. Rearranging properties and substituting others, which you must've had to do to get all this to grow together. A different means, maybe, but similar results."
He snorted a bit, slanting a cool glance in the raven's direction at the mention of Lanaya's 'knack' for communication with the feathered devil, as he was starting to mentally call her. Magic or not, some natural ability or not, it was certainly something in and of itself, and not one he entirely trusted, considering he was incapable of understanding half the conversation. And birds tended to always be watching, which set him on edge a little more than he'd have cared to admit.
He lifted the spoon to his mouth, and took a careful, curious bite. Satisfied that nothing immediately seemed off, he dove into the rest, barely pausing to let each bite cool before shoveling it into his face. He hadn't realized, in all of this, just how ravenous he had been, and now that food was A Thing, he could barely be bothered with much else.
As for what brought him here, well...
"I just wanted to get away," he muttered, scraping out the last of the stew before finally setting the bowl back down again, "just, see how far I could go. The bonus was that there were no people out here-- ah, less people, I mean."
Lanaya's eyes widened a bit as he dove into the food. He must have been hungry. When he'd emptied the bowl, she took it carefully and spooned more of the stew into it before placing it in front of him again, a silent invitation.
"Do you know how far you've flown?" she asked quietly. She could be mistaken, but he seemed to her to be the type of person who didn't always keep track of such things.
A sentiment Lenore seemed to agree with, as she cawed harshly and Lanaya snapped her head around to frown at the raven. "Well, there's no need to be rude, miss. Mind yourself." She waved a hand at the bird in a shooing motion and Lenore puffed her feathers up indignantly.
"Too smart for her own good," Lanaya muttered, shaking her head before she turned her attention back to Kharon.
"How far?" it was in that moment that Kharon realized that he... was not entirely sure. He had been, previously, in the plains, and he wasn't sure exactly when it stopped being grasslands and instead wove into trees. Borders and parameters had all changed so much since he had last seen everything from the air, and now he was left with the very real notion that no, he had no clue.
"I... began somewhere just before dawn. Admittedly it was not a straight line, but however far it is from here to the far end of the Serha plains." he took the second bowl with a nod of thanks. The outright admission of where he had come from and how early he had began only served to solidify that no, he was absolutely not leaving these woods this night, not without substantial time spent getting his energy back.
His eyes narrowed as the raven cawed, and he leveled a cool stare in her direction. He might not have had the talent of being able to speak with the birds, but even he could recognize a jibe when he heard one. He was tempted, sorely tempted, to give the raven something to actually caw about. Like being turned into a crocodile. A tiny, finger sized crocodile. A tiny, bright pink, finger sized crocodile.
Instead, however, Kharon went back to eating his second helping of stew, though his black eyes remained fixed on the raven in a watchful manner.
"So I'm beginning to gather," he agreed with Lanaya, though his tone and raised eyebrow hinted at anything but approval for the matter.
For some reason that made Lanaya smile and duck her eyes while Lenore clucked impishly. The witch frowned though after a moment, tapping a finger against her bottom lip. "That...is a far journey," she murmured.
With a soft breath, she got to her feet, brushing out her skirt and crossing to her bed-mat again. "You are welcome to spend the night here, if you like. It's not much, but it's safe from night-hunters." She glanced out the window as she spoke, considering.
The sun was nearly set now, the light that managed to filter through the trees and into her window deep, fiery red and orange. Gale seemed more alert than she had been, shuffling back and forth on her perch and flapping her wings every so often.
Lanaya turned to a pile of mismatched fabrics bundled at the head of her little bed and shook it out, revealing a blanket that seemed to have been hand-woven, through the yarn used to do so changed colors frequently and rather spontaneously, as though when it was being made the weaver had simply run out of one color and moved on to the next.
Which was true, but it was the best Lanaya had been able to do with the scraps and pieces her friends found for her when she was girl.
"Even if you're not going to stay, you should finish the stew," she told Kharon, glancing over at him as she spread the blanket out and tucked it under the edges of her sleeping mat. She gathered up her breastband and folded it neatly before storing it in one of the little shelves as well.
"Ah..." Kharon could only say, suddenly rather unsure of himself. He had taken Lanaya's hospitality thus far with a vague sense that what she offered was truly without any strings, but the concept of spending the night, well...
For some reason, that just made him anxious. He looked down at the stew still in his bowl, and then up where Gale was beginning to shift and turn and ruffle her own feathers in what was seemingly a nightly ritual of preparing for the "day". It gave him a moment to consider what he wanted to do; he still felt... relatively free. The compulsion to return wasn't there, and so there was a good bit of time before he had to worry about all the unpleasantness that that compulsion brought with it.
And then Lanaya had mentioned that he should at least finish his stew if he were going to choose to leave. Once again, Kharon was left... unsure. He wanted to believe that Lanaya had his genuine well being in mind, that this really was a kindness, and yet every last inch of him was fighting that particular conclusion.
Again and again, that nagging little voice, high and soft and mocking, telling him but what if, but what if, but what if...? Kharon swallowed the last bite of stew, though at this point he had stopped tasting it entirely.
"I... might simply roost on one of the branches." he said, finally. It seemed the best middle-ground available to him, staying and yet not quite staying. He stood, then, still holding the empty stew bowl, and licked his lips a bit before continuing, "Is there a stream I can wash these out in?"
He pointed, between the bowl and the pot, wanting to at least feel like he had done something to earn his stay, and thus hopefully silence that nasty little voice somewhat.
"Oh, yes." Lanaya gestured toward the northeast wall of the nest. "Just a little ways into the trees that way. There's a path. But I can get those in the morning, you don't have to worry about it." She moved to a small chest- one of the few pieces of her home that seemed to actually be man-made. She rummaged around a bit, then emerged with another few blankets, adjusting the folds as she laid them out a few feet from her bed.
"In case you decide you want to be human for the night," she offered quietly. She crossed to the fire and damped the flames slightly so it could burn itself out through the night.
Gale hooted quietly and finally left her perch, swooping low over Lanaya's head and mussing her hair before she circled back and apparently decided that her head would serve as an excellent perch itself, blinking wide eyes as she tilted her head at an impossible angle to observe Kharon.
Lanaya gave a rather undignified squeak, throwing her arms out in an attempt to keep her balance at the sudden addition of weight. She glowered up through her hair, blowing out a sharp breath in an attempt to clear a lock from her eyes.
"Yes, thank you for that," she muttered with a huff.
A little ways into the trees, a path to water... Kharon was already logging that information away when Lanaya continued, instead stating that he need not trouble himself and simply leave it for her to do in the morning. It was... more than a bit conflicting, but in the end Kharon reasoned that he could always go ahead come sun-up, and deal with the dishes then.
It was a far sight better than trying to find his way in the growing dark, in a strange wood, filled with strange things. Giving the illusion of acquiescence, Kharon set the bowl and pot back down, at least stacking them for an easy grab in the morning.
Just in time, it seemed, to avoid Gale as she swooped down-- the owl's target was not Kharon himself, but the sudden movement had him ducking regardless, very nearly knocking over those stacked dishes in the process. The action alone had been enough to put the offer of a real bed-- the offer to spend the night as a human-- clean out of his head before any further panicked suspicion could rear its ugly head.
Kharon scowled, looking up and over at Lanaya where the owl had gone and...
and promptly burst into laughter.
The sound was short-lived, and he choked it down almost immediately, pressing one hand to his mouth to stifle any further sounds. But the way Gale had so nonchalantly claimed Lanaya's head as a perch, had seemed so completely unbothered by Lanaya's jerking attempts to keep balance-- that had been too much. And the wide stare the owl had given him had done him absolutely no favors.
"I think she's very much awake right now," he said, careful to keep from looking too residually amused. Perhaps remaining human in the night was a better plan; he didn't much enjoy the idea of being suddenly smaller than a prankster owl on the loose.
"Oh, yes. Please, laugh at my humiliation," Lanaya grumbled, but there was no trace of real irritation in her voice. She was actually smiling a bit as she brushed her hair behind her ears and waved her other hand at Gale.
The owl finally relinquished her perch with a small, churring hoot, fluttering silently to the window to land beside Lenore. The raven shuffled over to give her room, though she clucked in annoyance about it.
"Girls, be nice." Lanaya leveled a firm look at them, then glanced back to her guest. "Feel free to get some sleep, however you like," she murmured as she moved back to her bed. Settling herself, she wriggled out of her skirt and slipped under her blanket.
She hesitated a moment, then rolled to put her back to the rest of her home. It made her tense, but she thought the show of trust, however small it was, might help put her unexpected guest at ease some.
There was another soft call from Gale and she heard and answering hoot from outside, in the branches of the tree. Norn, come to collect his friend. They'd be out hunting, probably return before dawn- which was when she would wake.
Hopefully. She frowned a bit, thinking of the unfinished charm beneath her mat.
"Well," Kharon said, his tone dry and teasing, "if you insist, I suppose I can muster some more."
He looked almost surprised at himself at the joke, and very quickly busied himself with unwrapping his arms once more, rolling the long cloth up into small balls and setting those aside. By the time he had finished (and admittedly he had taken his time if only to better fill the awkward little void he had created), Lanaya had already turned her back to him on her own bed.
Kharon, for his part, was not entirely sure how he felt about any of this. Lanaya seemed nice, after all, but then again, everyone almost always did. He took a breath, let it out, and slowly worked his boots off of his feet. He supposed there was no sense in dreading it-- if things were to "go down", he was as prepared as he possibly could be.
After all, he wasn't helpless. And she was just some woodland witch. It'd be fine. And more to the point, he certainly wouldn't be any better off exhausted as he was.
Still not quite feeling like this was altogether true, Kharon settled down onto the borrowed blankets, and stared up at the natural ceiling of the treehouse. He blinked, slowly, tracing the path of branches with his eyes, until somewhere in the quiet of the lengthening night, sleep overcame him, light and fitful though it was.
The nightmares were back.
It seemed a half-done charm would not work the way she wanted, and couldn't chase the bad dreams away. Perhaps she should have spent more time on it.
Lanaya's brow furrowed and she tossed in her sleep, murmuring and whimpering quietly. Her hand clenched in the blanket and she curled in on herself slightly, her breathing starting to pick up. Shattered and confusing images flashed behind her eyes, pieces of not-quite-memory that pulled and scratched at her mind.
Her back arched and she drew in a sharp breath. Alone in the dark, calling for a mother who'd already turned her back and left her. Pain she didn't understand spreading from her shoulders, through her whole body, deeper, deeper-
Someone was grabbing for her, pulling her down from her trees into the thick briars that covered the ground, scratching at her skin and seeming to twist and reach deliberately to trap her in place. The hand that had pulled her from the safety of her nest was gone, leaving her to struggle.
Her eyes snapped open and she gasped, bolting upright. For a moment she was frozen, panting and looking around wildly.
Lenore was still perched at the window, head tucked under her wing as she slept. It was not quite dawn- Gale and Norn must still be out hunting. Lanaya sighed and dropped her head into her hands, trying to breath through the shivers that wracked her frame.
Nightmares were always hard. Some less than others, but then there were the ones like this, the sort that wracked your body in your sleep and left you sweating and shaken in the dim darkness. It always left an edge, even in wakefulness. Every shadow was now somewhere for a threat to sit and hide, every movement of leaves the prelude to some awful great monstrous thing.
They made the peace and quiet of predawn in your own home into a horror all its own.
And certainly, having a stranger that normally wasn't there didn't help matters much at all. Which is why Kharon tried to keep his movements slow and careful, pulling himself from where he had been sitting in front of the spent firepit for the past hour or so. He seemed to have lost his prior shyness somewhere in the night, because he kneeled down beside Lanaya's bed, reaching out to offer her a small cup (that he had quietly scrounged for) filled with some murky fluid (that had been water but he had "persuaded" to be otherwise).
"Here," he said, almost tenderly for all his aloofness the day before, "I'm not one for herbcraft but... nothing quite beats tea for bad dreams."
"O-oh..." Lanaya glanced up at him, a little startled to find him suddenly so close, then took the cup with a small, grateful smile. "Thank you," she murmured, simply holding the cup between her palms and appreciating the warmth for a few moments.
She took a sip and looked sidelong at her guest. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," she said softly. "Did you at least get some sleep?"
A small shiver ran through her and she pulled her blanket a little tighter around her body, huddling into her bed. Perhaps she should put her clothes back on- it wasn't as though she'd be getting back to sleep.