Frost Forest [Goblin]

[Juno]

She winced for his yelling but glared at the tiger that appeared, recognizing him all too well. Moving up to stand beside Ultan she crossed her arms and just stared at him with a scowl. "See? He's probably gone and hidden it somewhere, this isn't going to get anywhere," she conceded, fully expecting this man to cower in the face of the tiger.

[GoblinFae]

Fintan screamed in horror at the woman hoping to warn her away from the bully before rushing at Ultan who only laughed and opened his arms wide. The two crashed into each other just as Ultan shifted into his own ferocious tiger form so that the pair became a blurred ball of screeching, screaming, striped orange and black fur. The girl was quickly forgotten as they fought over everything they always had, their territory, their pride, their honor, and their very lives.

[Juno]

She stepped back as she saw Fintan running for the man, not wanting to get trampled, but she stood frozen with shock for witnessing Ultan shift as well. Blinking at the fighting males she was so very discouraged by her task and grumbled under her breath, "I suppose nobody thought to tell me this was a jungle of shifters before coming all the way out here."

Shaking her head, Sophie stubbornly stepped back into Fintan's territory and marched on, determined to retrieve her belongings if she had the good luck to find them at all.

[GoblinFae]

Oblivious to the female leaving them both, Fintan and Ultan continued with their brawl, tearing into each other with the intent to kill. Teeth sank into flesh as claws raked across it and screams rent the jungle air, silencing all other natural sounds until a victor could at last be found. One tiger had managed to flip the other onto his back and currently stood over him, his teeth sunk into the vulnerable throat to slowly cut off air supply.

[Juno]

All the terrible sounds they created had her wincing and flinching as she could hear other animals startling or fleeing the area, but she pressed on. Her eyes were peeled for any sign of the worn bag, worried that he'd just dumped it somewhere or torn apart her journal. The sounds in the distance continued as she pressed on, sending a shiver down her back and giving her pause to wonder if she should try to stop them. What use would it be, though? She'd already been shown she was much weaker than just the one and she didn't know the politics of these shifters as she hadn't known they'd existed at all until the past day.

[GoblinFae]

More scuffling followed before silence once more fell over the jungle. "You idiot!" a voice roughly declared as a hand yanked the girl around to face him. Fintan, once more in human form was huffing for breath even as blood ran down from cuts to his face, throat, and abdomen. "Do you have any idea what he was going to do to you? Are you that daft woman?! Stay away from him!" he roared while trying to shake her.

[Juno]

Distracted by her search she hadn't heard his approach and squeaked in surprise as he pulled her to a halt. Staring up at him and blinking in surprise, Sophie just shook her head though she frowned some for the blood she saw. "You're hurt," she stated plainly, as if reminding him of wounds he didn't know he had.

She winced for the shaking and tried to back away from him. "Don't be so dramatic, he was fine. Much nicer to me than you were. He's going to be helping me, I just came back to take what's mine," she explained, stupidly trusting Ultan still despite what Fintan was saying now. "Where did you put my stuff?"

[GoblinFae]

"Helping you do what?" Fintan barked, refusing to let her go as he blinked blood out of his eye. "Ultan is the biggest, meanest bully of this jungle. If you think I was bad booting you out of my territory you have absolutely no concept of what he would do to you. What did he promise you even? Because I assure you whatever it was would lead to you being his little pet until he tired of you and dumped your furry carcass somewhere in the nearest river."

Breathing heavily still while his whole body tensed under the effort not to shake or crush her to understand the seriousness of the situation, Fintan finally sighed painfully and dropped his head in defeat. His hands slid down from their bruising grip on her biceps to fall limply at his side. "It's in the tree hollow," he replied quietly without looking at her.

[Juno]

"He was going to help me. I'm looking for a tiger, a wild one mind you, and he... he said he knew where one was and..." It slowly dawned on her just what Ultan could have been implying by that and she let her eyes fall in shame, embarrassed that if such a thing were true she had entirely fallen for it.

"I just don't know my way around here. And he offered to help me so I thought he meant good by it," she apologized, watching him slump in defeat. "The tree hollow," she repeated thoughtfully, lifting her head. To her, that meant absolutely nothing with all the trees surrounding them. "Well...which tree? There's quite a lot of them here. I...have some bandaging if you haven't destroyed anything. You can have it. I mean, it's meant more for setting bones but," she winced, looking him over again. "I wouldn't be surprised if you had one or two."

[GoblinFae]

Fintan sighed again and shook his head. "It's over there," he said while pointing in the general direction of the tree before plopping down on the ground to give his shaking body a break. "He's the most dangerous tiger here," he admitted weakly. "And I don't say that just because he's a bully and an asshole and my brother but because he truly has earned his title."

[Juno]

"Oh, your brother... I knew he looked familiar but maybe not that familiar." Sophie headed off in the direction he'd directed her, crouching before each of the trees she came across before finally plucking her pack from its hiding place. Gripping it to her tightly, she quickly opened it to find its contents undisturbed and her journal safely where she'd left it. Trotting back over to him, she knelt and offered him the roll of loose bandaging in an outstretched hand.

"I didn't know that... I don't really know anything about this place," she admitted. "Are you two the only tigers here? Are there any wild ones? Non-shifters?" she questioned him gently.

[GoblinFae]

He shook his head at the bandaging, already in too much pain to be able to apply it properly himself and too stubborn to admit someone should help him. "For someone so sure she knew what she was doing you really did come unprepared. There are others like me here, my mother and sister to name too. The non-shifters exist but we do not see them often. We are considered the upper end of the territorial hierarchy. Is it possible it was in fact one of us you were after and not one of our shyer brethren?"

[Juno]

"I see," she offered, a bit disappointed he wouldn't take the bandages, feeling like it was a rejection of her. Setting the bag down to put them back she cautiously sat beside him and listened to his explanation. "No... At least I hope that wouldn't be possible. I was sent here by a wealthy man," she explained. "He wanted a tiger. To hunt for sport or as a trophy if I can't bring one back alive, but I wouldn't dream of treading through shifters' ground for one. I'm sorry that I didn't realize any sooner." It upset her slightly, knowing now that there was an entire family here and she'd been none the wiser.

"You blend in, though, so that's good," she offered, smiling some as she made to stand. "Very...tiger-y. I'll get out of your hair, sorry about...this whole thing. Thank you for letting me have my things back."

[GoblinFae]

"Stay," he said with a sigh. "You might as well. You've already wasted the day and it isn't safe for you to head back to his territory. At least here you know your "enemy" as you may call me is too weak to put up much of a fight. You can rest here and sort yourself out in the morning. I won't chase you off this time. My word is my bond," Fintan assured her.

[Juno]

"Well, thank you. That's very kind of you. Certainly not an enemy." Sophie flashed an appreciative smile while holding out her hand, fulling expecting him to shake on it anyway. "Fintan? I think that's what he called you. Sophie."

[GoblinFae]

He looked up and down between her hand and her face before slowly reaching his own out and pressing his palm flat against hers, not understanding what a handshake was. "Aye, Fintan. You are...Sophie, then? Where do you hail from little fluffball," he teased while trying to hide the pain he was in as it was all just starting to hit him at once.

[Juno]

She shook his hand enthusiastically, delighted that he'd even gone half way on it. "Yes, Sophie. I-" She let her jaw hang slightly for being called a 'fluffball', and she couldn't help a small laugh for it. "I'm from Hyoite. In the north. Lots of snow, that kind of thing. And there I am no 'little fluffball,'" she assured him, kneeling to prepare a nest of dead leaves for herself without ceremony. "I am a great huntress. I have fame and honor and I am utterly beloved," she teased back.

[GoblinFae]

Fintan snorted. "Your people must either have very small standards or are just extremely lazy," he jested back. "Alas though you are not home and here you are indeed a tiny fluffball. Or perhaps I should call you a snowball?" He wiggled his brows at her teasingly, then flopped back to lay down, uncaring how vulnerable he made himself.

"Bastard Ultan," he cursed under his breath.

[Juno]

"Snowball?" she chuckled, shaking her head in disbelief but knowing this was not a battle to fight, playful or otherwise. She settled in the bed of leaves she'd made and set her head to rest on her pack as she was most comfortable with, at last able to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Ultan?" she wondered aloud, flipping to lay on her other side to face him. "The...other man?" she guessed, glancing over what injuries she could see and frowning, knowing it must still hurt a lot. "I wish you a speedy recovery," she told him sincerely, wincing.

[GoblinFae]

The tiger-shifter hummed in agreement. "My brother, yes. Unfortunately. He'll be back eventually. My chance at recovery never truly lasts long. It is the way of the wild here though. Your land is yours and you must defend it from any outsider or risk losing it to that outsider. I'm sure you understand though. Surely it is the same in your homeland."