Hunter or hunted? [Lloyd!]

[Rhindeer]

Raxta lounged in the net she was currently trapped in, which swung slowly from the canopy above. Or rather, it looked like she was lounging, but in truth, she'd only worn herself out from her frantic struggles, and now lacked the energy to do much more than just swing there and...

Accept her fate, she supposed.

She had tried to escape, but when the net had swept her off her feet and up into the trees, she had dropped her knife, and though she had claws and teeth, the fibers of the net were too tough to bite through, too thick for her claws to cut. She'd tried clawing at them, she'd tried biting, she'd tried screaming in frustration and thrashing for all she was worth, but it was no use, and it was made all the worse by the sight of her dagger laying on the ground below, hopelessly out of reach.

Like it was taunting her with freedom she couldn't attain.

Eventually, she wore herself out, which she knew was probably good. The humidity was getting to her, sweat slicking her skin, and struggling would only make her lose more water. Dehydration was her number one danger right now--second only to the obvious question of who laid the trap?

And what would they do when they found her in it?

With a sigh, Raxta shifted in the netting and tried to get comfortable, but it was scratchy and bit into her skin in the worst of ways. Her tail slipped through the netting and twitched anxiously as she waited, arms crossed over her chest as she stared up into the trees, currently in human form and clothed in little more than a loin cloth and chest wrap.

At this point, she wasn't worried about being found; she wanted the culprit to show up. If it was an accident, so be it, but if they were hostile?

Well, they would see what happened when one messed with jaguar-kin.

They would learn then and there that she was a hunter, and that they, truly, were the hunted.

[Lloyd Orodelo]

Mordecai was running for his life, through the jungle, like a mad men. He tripped and felt down a slope and passed out. When he woke up, he was so focused on running away that it took him a good 15 seconds to realize that he was standing in a forest, next to a net.

Inside that net was something that, at first, he thought was a feline and jumped a feet high in the air. Then retrieving his cool, his eyes crossed most beautiful pair of eyes he ever saw in his life.

"Hello-o-o!" He thought at first, "Keep you're calm Kai, its not the time nor the place to..."He then realized the situation and asked"Where am I! Who are you...mademoiselle."

He reaches for the dagger, obviously dropped by the lady, and start to cut the side of the net.

He then offer his hand to help her out of this mess.

[Rhindeer]

Eh?

It was at that moment that an oddly dressed human came onto the scene, and Raxta bristled, a low growl rumbling deep in her throat. She tensed, the flicking her her tail becoming more twitchy--but then she caught herself and quieted, forced herself to relax.

Patience, Raxta, she told herself. Patience.

If he was the one responsible, then it was all about timing. Hopefully he would cut her down--and when he did, she would deal with him.

Unless, of course, he decided to hurt her while she was still trapped.

Her stomach twisted at that possibility, but she forced herself to remain calm. There was nothing she could do while trapped like this, so she just had to wait and hope.

But as she watched him, she realized that...this probably wasn't the culprit. He looked genuinely surprised to see her--and confused as to where he was? Raxta blinked her large eyes at him and tilted her head in puzzlement, but as he grabbed her dagger from where she'd dropped it, and went to cut her free, that just confirmed it.

This wasn't her man.

"Raxta," she answered him, her voice a little strange from speaking around her large fangs. He got the net cut open just enough and held his hand out to her, but she ignored that and simply climbed out, then dropped the few feet down to the ground. She landed gracefully and straightened, then groaned and rubbed at the patches of skin where the rope had bit into her. Ugh...

"Raxta is my name, that is. Thank you," she said, and gave an uneasy glance up at the net. "I must leave now." And then she turned to go.

A life of solitude had not given her the best social skills.

[Lloyd Orodelo]

"Wait!" said Mordecai, "take me with you, i don't know where I am or even who I am... except for my name.I will die if you leave me here."
If Raxta turned around to look at him, she would see him on his knees, crying as a baby from despare.

"Please, I beg you. I didn't eat for days now, I won't last long like this."

He stood up again and gave the dagger back to the woman, begging for mercy. "I understand if you can't take me with you. If so... I ask to end my misery!"
As Raxta reached for the dagger, Mordecai pause his mouvement to say something.
"We both need to get out of here."His face was hidden by his hat "I think that the owner won't be happy to see what I did to his property!"
His face had a large grin and his eyes were burning with determination and a kind of passion towards the lady in front of him.

"C'mon, let's get out of here. Together."

[Rhindeer]

Raxta did, indeed, glance back in time to see the man crying. Actually crying! Like a cub! Her eyes widened, at first in surprise and horror, but a second later and they narrowed in disgust. To see a grown adult crying like that was...

Uncomfortable.

It was clear he would die if she left him, if he was going to behave like this!

But before she could say anything, he handed her the dagger and...

Was he asking her to kill him?

What?

Staring at him like he'd sprouted a third eye, Raxta plucked the dagger from his hand. She had no intention of killing him, and clearly he was funny in the head. But just as she grabbed her dagger, he changed his tune, and was...suddenly asking her to run away with him? And now he was smiling instead of crying, like he hadn't just asked her to slay him, like he hadn't just broken down in tears?

Uh.

Raxta gave him an uneasy look, taken aback by the sudden change--and the fact that he had said about the first sensible thing she'd heard from his lips so far: they did need to get out of here, before the hunter returned.

She shot the man a long, wordless stare, not sure what to make of him except that he was strange, then turned on her heel and started walking. If he followed or didn't, it was his choice, but she wasn't going to invite him. She was used to being alone, and this one seemed..a little off.

"Do what you want," she said from over her shoulder. "But I'm not going to kill you."

[Lloyd Orodelo]

Mordecai,following her, said "I am truly sorry about earlier, I'm just a bit lost. And I even forgot my maners! Let me introduce myself!"
He bowed and took the hand of Raxta  for an hand-kissing, going for his charmer role."My name is Mordecai, I am honored to meet you, Mademoiselle Raxta. I am gratefull that you spared my life because if you did, I wouldn't been able to see your beauty anymore. Those eyes of yours, they are the magnificent thing I ever seen."

After that, he let Raxta take the lead since he knew he was kind of intruding in her space. He took his pocket knife out and proceded to carve a spear, just case of wild creatures.

[Rhindeer]

Once again, the human took Raxta by surprise when he took her hand and pressed his lips to it. She blinked slowly at him as he spoke, then jerked her hand away, confused. She wasn't used to being just...touched like that. And so casually!

His words were even more baffling.

"Is your life worth so little to you?" she asked with a raised eyebrow before she turned and continued to walk, feeling rather resigned to keeping this clueless male alive. Ugh. This was going to be a trial in patience, she could just feel it. "Worth so little, that the only thing worth living for is beauty?"

[Lloyd Orodelo]

"Actually, I don't have anything to lose anymore, whatever I had before yesterday... its all gone, no memories of it. I guess I have the chance to mooligan the life I had and make something better of my worthless ass."
He emptied his pockets looking for something. The content of it: a knife, a ring and a medalion.
On the ring and the medallion, you could read "Remember WHO you are! -M.M."
Nothing could help Mordecai. He sighed and put the ring on.
"I see that I am anoying! if you have to tell me it is working with you, tell me now and I may comply..." He stopped talking and walking."... I like you..." he whispered thinking she wouldn't hear him.

[Rhindeer]

"What?"

The man may have thought he was being quiet, but in Raxta's experience, they never were. Humans were always so loud in everything they did--including whispering. On the other hand, Raxta's hearing was far keener than any human's, so things that would be quiet to a human were loud to her.

She gave him yet another odd look. "What are you talking about?"

[Lloyd Orodelo]

He looked into her eyes, blushing, not knowing what to say, "...eumh... Nothing! I... eumh..." He looked distressed and thought that he was stupid when he realized that he couldn't get away with it.
He took a deep breath to regain his cool, his heart still beating so hard that he thought that Raxta could hear it. "I said that I like you, I... eumh... I think that you are... I ...eumh..." He was embarrassing himself more then anything.

He was a bad liar.

"Look, I am not the kind of guy that will keep his thought for himself. If you want me to stop talking I under..." He then trip on something, his ankle making a weird noise.
"Damn it" he muttered trough his teeth. He stood up and kept walking like it was nothing "I'll look at it later, for now we need to go as far as we can from that mongrel who almost caught you."

[Rhindeer]

...Great.

Not only was he babbling nonsense, but now he had clearly injured himself--tripping over a root! Raxta cast her eyes skyward and sighed, heavily. No, this one would definitely not survive on his own, and at the rate he was going, he might not survive even in her presence!

She needed to return him to the human places.

"You won't get far if your ankle's hurt," she said with a frown, glancing down at his feet, "and you're going to hurt it more walking on it."

[Lloyd Orodelo]

Mordecai put his hand in his face and ran it into his hair, sighing. He stood there on his ankle, pensively, forgetting the pain.

"You know that you could run and leave me here. I can see that you think about it since we met. why would you suddenly give me tips about a barely twisted ankle? But thanks anyway!" He then kept walking as if his ankle was fine, the only sign that it was hurting was the wince on his face.

Mordecai was a bit trouble by Raxta. There was something about her that he wasn't able to put his finger on. He like that though. "I guess I should keep those thoughts for myself if I want to live to see the sun rise again" he thought, chuckling.

"I may look stupid and maybe I am a little, but don't worry about my ankle it don't hurt at all"

Poor him, what a bad liar he was.

[Rhindeer]

Raxta let out a long, low sigh. "If you say so," she said with a frown. "I won't force you to accept my help. But when you're ready to stop being ridiculous and admit you're hurt, I will help you. As it stands now, you're acting like prey."

And then, realizing he might not know what she meant by that, she gave him a a sidelong look. "When prey are hurt, they try to pretend they're not, so the predator won't notice. But we predators do notice, and I can see you're putting on an act. So can every other predator in this jungle. Your limping, to them, is delicious."

[Lloyd Orodelo]

Mordecai exhaled deeply, looking down at his boots. He knew she was right, even tough he didn't know what she meant at first.

"You're right, I shouldn't act like this right here, right now. Will you help me please" He sat down, took his boot off, and looked at his foot for a few second before putting his boot on again. "I guess it doesn't look that bad, I think its just twisted. So Raxta, whats your plan to get us out of here?"

He tried to get up but lost his balance and felt on Raxta. After a few seconds of commotion, Lloyd realized he was lying on Raxta, a few inches of her beautiful face. He blushed, stood up and offered his hand to help her.

"I'm so sorry, are you alright?" He blushed more and more until he wasn't able to look at her in her eyes.

[Rhindeer]

Before Raxta could ask him what he meant by 'out of here', Mordecai was suddenly...falling atop her.

Raxta let out a loud grunt as the air was knocked from her lungs, and she went toppling over, landing hard on her back with another sharp, "Oof!"

For a moment she just lay there, a little dazed, but then Mordecai scrambled off of her and she gave him  a puzzled look. He looked so embarrassed, and she couldn't figure out why. Probably because he'd made of fool of himself, tripping and knocking her over like that.

Sitting up, she plucked twigs from her hair and brushed dirt from her skin. "I'm fine," she said curtly. "But are you honestly okay? If you're going to keep stumbling like that, you're a liability. Pride isn't worth that."

[Lloyd Orodelo]

Lloyd tried to shake off his embarrassment by looking at the canopy in an effort to judge what time it was.
"Time flies and with my ankle i don't think I'll go very further, I propose to set camp here."

He looked at Raxta while she was turning her back, with the only one thought in his head "Her skin his so warm and soft." He blushed again. "Damn Mordecai, what is wrong with you! Why are you blushing so much?"

He then started to slap his face to make himself focus. "What is wrong with me?" He then realized he said that out loud, he then tried to. "I mean, I've lost my memories..." He then started to laugh uneasily.

Poor him...

[Rhindeer]

Raxta watched Mordecai as he slapped himself and talked to himself, and decided right then that, yes. As soon as possible, she was leading him out of the jungle and back where he belonged, because clearly this human was...crazy.

"Ah...huh..." she said slowly, and then shook her head. "Right. Well, set up camp how you want it. I'm not sure what you humans need. Do you sleep in the trees, too?"

[Lloyd Orodelo]

"I could try to climb up there. I'll take my time though, so if you wanna go first, go ahead!" said Lloyd still trying to figure out what was the look she gave him a few seconds ago.

Once he got up the tree, night was almost upon them. Lloyd eyes were reflecting mysteriously the feeble light filtering trough the canopy. He tried to get into a comfortable position, lost his balance again. He tried to get his balance back but fell on a branch right under making a muffled "Oof".

He suddenly stopped moving.

[Rhindeer]

For Raxta, climbing was as natural as breathing. But it also helped that instead of blunt human fingernails, her fingers and toes sported sharp, retractable claws. She dug her claws into the bark and just about sprang up into the trees, body powerful and athletic, and before long, she'd found a sturdy branch eight feet above the ground. With a sigh, she got herself settled, her back resting against the trunk and one leg stretched out along the branch, her other leg and tail dangling over the side.

Maybe now that night was falling and the human would no doubt want to sleep, she could get some rest. She'd wait a few hours, until the human was asleep, and then she'd steal off to hunt without distractions. It was a perfect plan, in her mind, and she glanced over the side of her branch to watch the human struggle into the tree.

Which he then fell out of.

You have to be joking.

With a huff of frustration, Raxta leaned over the side and peered down at him. "Are you okay?"

He hadn't been high enough to kill himself! At least, she hoped not. This human's only talent seemed to be in injuring himself, so maybe he would surprise her here.

[Lloyd Orodelo]

Lloyd was hanging like a piece of cloth on a drying rack, out of breath. Even him was surprised by his unbelievable clumsiness. He remembered being the best tree climber in his home town...

...He remembered...!

Forgetting about the pain, he got back on his feet. He climbed to join Raxta on her branch as if it was nothing. He sat in front of her, in perfect equilibrium, and looked into her eyes."They are like jewels, magnificent and perfect" he thought.

Lloyd blushed but he kept looking in her eyes, trying to say something but the only thing he could do was smile adorably.

He took a deep breath, got closer to Raxta. Their hands were so close he could feel the warmth of hers. Raxta could see in Lloyd's glowing purple eyes something that even him wasn't sure what it was. His voice was nothing more than a whisper "I have to tell you something..."

He was interrupted by a low rumbling coming out of nowhere. He was hungry.