Raziya faced a moral dilemma. These sheep were clearly lost, wandering about alone like this over the green hills. Yet they also clearly belonged to someone. They didn't seem to mind his presence as he crouched nearby, half on the verge of pouncing on one of them. It was near entrancing, watching these docile prey animals mill about right in front of him, utterly vulnerable and utterly unaware of it.
They were practically begging him to eat them!
The sheep knew no better, having never encountered a creature like that before. Bleating mildly as they milled about, tails flicking as they grazed grass or lay grouped together chewing their cud, they were oblivious to the danger.
Fable wasn't.
The large, shaggy sheepdog, curled up next to two sheep and blending with the herd almost seamlessly, picked up the predator's scent and exploded into action. Breaking off from the herd and barking loudly, she raced toward the creature, even as the sheep startled and began to bleat their alarm, frightened and confused but not sure where to go or where the danger was.
Tessa, sprawled on her back in the high grass, had been nodding off when the commotion jerked her to wakefulness. With a gasp, she scrambled to her feet and scooped up her crook, grass sticking out of her hair. What in Ansgar's name...?
That was when she saw the cat, huge and black, larger even than Fable--though Fable, fearless as ever, didn't seem to realize that.
Tch. A dog. Stupid, dramatic creatures. He should have stopped to think! There was always a sheep dog, wasn't there?
Razi raised up onto his hind legs, and by the time he'd reached full height, he was a man again. Naked, arms crossed, and fixing a hard stare on the dog as it charged. It faltered, confused, and scrambled to a halt. There it stayed, barking at him and looking between him and its master, a girl that Razi hadn't seen either. Bah, the sheep had made him foolhardy!
"Woman! Call your beast!"
What.
Tessa stared, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, as the cat stood up and became a man. So stunned was she by the sight that she didn't even realize he was naked for several moments, mind struggling to accept what her eyes had clearly seen and running through every possible rational explanation for it but finding none. The cat had turned into a man. He talked. He spoke.
He was naked.
The blood rushed to Tessa's cheeks and clear down her neck and she jerked her eyes up to his face with a squeak and nearly dropped her crook. She'd never seen a fully grown naked man before and...and...now she just knew she wasn't crazy. Somehow that was what made everything make sense, because of course he wouldn't have clothes if he'd shifted and dear Ansgar what was going on right now and why did she even wake up.
One thing she did know, however, was that this was a shapeshifter and a stranger, and one that had been eying her sheep, at that. Still fighting to keep her eyes from straying to places they shouldn't be, she shook her head and put some steel into her spine. "Give me a reason why I should! You were gonna eat my sheep!"
Agh! That damn dog's barking! If it didn't shut up, Razi really was going to kill something!
"I was not! I was only looking at them!" His tail picked up an irritated, back-and-forth lashing. The dog went on baying right at him. "How would you know anyway? You cannot see into my thoughts. Now call him away!"
If the girl ordered her dog on him, this would become ugly for all three of them. He would kill the dog, but not before it tore him up well enough—shifting shapes always took a few moments, and he was vulnerable in the doing. Then he would be injured and stuck up here with a girl who meant him harm, and he doubted he'd be able to hold himself in check from killing her as well.
He supposed he must be...nice, if the lot of them were to leave this meeting well and whole.
Tessa stood her ground, holding her crook like she were holding a sword she had every intention of swinging. Only looking! She didn't believe that for a second! Why would he be skulking about like that if he meant no harm? And yet...what did she intend to do now? He had changed, he was caught, and she had him cornered and vulnerable. And though she'd set her dog on animals that had threatened them, she'd never actually set her on a person. She'd seen how Fable had handled lone wolves and foxes, tearing them up and even killing them, in the case of the fox.
Could she do that to a man?
A man that was, regardless of his previous intentions or lack thereof, calling for peace?
Her shoulders relaxed and she lowered the crook. "Very well." She put her fingers to her mouth and whistled. "Fable! Fable, leave it! Come!"
With a low growl, Fable returned to her side though she still watched the man warily as Tessa rubbed her shaggy head. Likewise, Tessa didn't take her eyes off of him.
"What are you doing here?"
He oughtn't to blame the girl for her caution he supposed, but that didn't make it any bloody easier to stand there and take the indignity of a dog barking in his face. Idiot creatures, they were. He didn't hold with their kind as a rule, and took it as a matter of pride that he didn't let them threaten him. This one was just damn lucky it belonged to a human.
He sighed into the soothing silence when she finally called the dog away. Much better. He could hear himself think again!
"I already told you, I was looking at your sheep." Razi scratched his head and looked about in the grass. His loincloth had to be around here somewhere.
Tessa heaved a sigh. She could see that she was going to get nowhere with this line of questioning.
So she decided to focus on the next most pressing concern: the fact that he was naked.
She flushed and cleared her throat, turning her head away. "In any case, you should dress. We can continue this discussion once you're decent again." Way too distracting, way too inappropriate, and her eyes kept wanting to wander.
"Nn. I'm working on it. I have a cloth about here somewhere."
Razi dropped down to all fours and crawled about. He'd come up the rise from the east, hidden around those rocks there before he'd realized the sheep weren't going to run from him, then crept forward right into their midst. He just couldn't remember where he'd shifted.
"Ah!" There it was. Razi snatched it up and stood to tie it about his narrow hips with a loose knot. It was a simple thing, just a scrap of cloth in front and behind. "There. Better?"
Tessa groaned and put her hand over her eyes as the cat-man got down on all fours and crawled around. It was both a ridiculously humorous sight--and flat-out horrifying. He was a man! Not an animal! Er. Mostly man. Oh, Ansgar, nothing made sense anymore and she wasn't fully certain how she was supposed to react to all this. Wasn't everyday a cat turned into a naked person.
She kept her eyes shut until he spoke up again, and she lowered her hand slowly. And gaped.
"Th-that's not clothing!"
"What are you talking about?" Razi looked down at himself. "I'm wearing it. It's clothing."
Tessa shook her head vigorously. "I'm not sure what it is, but I'm certain it's not clothing!"
"It's cloth and I'm wearing it! That makes it clothing! If it's not clothing then what is it?" The sheepdog was getting distressed with them arguing, but dammit the girl wasn't making any sense!
"It's a rag!" Tessa shot back, hands on her hips. "You can wear rags! That doesn't make it clothing!"
Razi stomped his foot. "It being a rag doesn't make it not clothes! It is a rag that I am wearing as clothes!"
"It's smallclothes," Tessa said with a huff. "It's what you wear under your clothes! Real clothes covers your whole body, and that? That is just indecent. You can't walk around like that!"
"You just said it! Smallclothes! It's right there in the name!"
Ha! He had the girl there. Couldn't argue with that. "Besides, it's all I have."
"I--no! It's like...it's like wearing a shirt but not wearing britches! Just because you're wearing one thing doesn't mean it's complete or appropriate!" Tessa said, rubbing her head. It was so obvious, so simple, and yet somehow he kept finding holes in her argument and twisting it all around so it just sounded stupid.
"If a strong wind comes, you'll show everything. You need...you need something better."
For her own comfort at least.
Backing away from him to keep him in her sight, she stopped by her traveling gear and unrolled her blanket. She held it out to him. "Wear this."
"I never said it was complete or appropriate! I just said it was clothes!"
She was right about the wind, but so what? If he turned to the side, she'd see enough of him as well. He'd had more clothes at some point, but they'd all been lost or torn to shreds. He couldn't keep up with the things.
"What have you got there." He stood on his toes, ears pricked up, to watch her curiously. She produced a blanket for him. Hmph. Now that wasn't clothes.
Razi's ears flicked as he stared at the thing. She was a human, but what harm could a blanket do? It was one simple offering. He crossed over to her and took it at arms length. He tried tying it about his waist like a skirt.
Tessa covered her mouth to muffle a sudden laugh. That would just be rude! Especially after she'd been the one to offer it to him, and especially considering there wasn't much else he could make with a blanket in a pinch. But...it wasn't her fault if it still looked horribly ridiculous, right? Laughter wasn't a sin!
"That's...better," she finally said, going for something neutral. At least all the bits she was afraid of him flashing were taken care of! "That'll do." She cleared her throat, though her lips still kept wanting to twitch into a grin.
This whole situation was beyond ridiculous and she was still processing it and yet, despite the weirdness, some small part of her was glad for this break in the monotony that was her life. She knew she should probably be scared, should probably be on guard, should probably be trying to avoid the strange, fearsome, naked shapeshifter-man that had been eying her sheep like meat, and yet she felt strangely unafraid.
Putting that blanket about his waist calmed the girl down immediately. Imagine! That kind of worry over nakedness!
"I don't know why it bothers you all so much to see a naked thing. I mean, I know it does. I've lived in cities before and seen you lot get riled over a bit of skin. But nobody ever could explain the why of it well enough."
All the while he talked, he tried to keep his eyes on her for the sake of manners, but the sheep had taken to milling about and coming close again, and he couldn't stop his gaze from drifting over to them.
"It's just not proper," Tessa said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. She brushed bangs from her face and reached down to rub Fable's ears. "That sort of thing should be saved for your wedding night."
He didn't even bother trying to look at the girl anymore. He stared openly at the sheep and tried to catch on of them in the eye just to see if they would even recognize him as something they should care about, be wary about.
"Hah! Don't get me started on weddings and marriages and that nonsense."
"What? What's 'nonsense' about marriage--what are you doing?"
Tessa followed the shifter's gaze to her sheep and lifted her eyebrows, propping one hand on her hip. "Something you're looking for?"
The sheep were so funny the way they plodded about with that great woolly mass of a body bobbing upon their skinny legs.
"No," he muttered absently. He sank down into a crouch since he didn't intend on going anywhere anytime soon. "Do you call them things? Do they have names?"
"Huh?" Tessa tilted her head at the question, then laughed. "Well...actually, yes."
No one had ever asked her that, and she'd never admitted to it. They were just sheep, after all, and it seemed silly to name them. But it got lonely sometimes, so she ended up giving them names and having idle conversations with them along their travels, even making up stories to tell them. Of course they didn't understand and she doubted they even listened, but it was for her own benefit. Sometimes, when it was dark and scary, you just needed to hear a voice, even if it was your own, and make believe that someone cared enough to listen, even if they were a sheep or a dog.
She rubbed the back of her neck. "It's...kinda dumb, I know..."
Razi tore his attention away from the sheep to stare at her. He didn't get it; she wasn't making sense again. "Why?"
A shadow passed over the hill—huge, fast, but when Razi jerked his eyes up, he didn't see anything. Too many trees around here, too many places in the sky for a flier to hide. That had been too fast to be a cloud, and apparently the dog thought so too, because it ran out to pull the sheep in close.
"Why what?" Tessa tilted her head curiously. "Why I name them? Or why it's--"
She cut off when the shadow passed over and from the looks of it, it wasn't just she that noticed. The shifter seemed to have noticed, too, and Fable as well, and Tessa felt her heart leap. Fable didn't act that way unless she felt there was a problem and she trusted that dog's senses; animals could often see, hear, and feel things people could not.
And here they were, out in an open field. It was prime grazing territory and perfect for keeping an eye out for land predators, but she hadn't even considered the danger from above. There were just enough trees to shelter a predator like that, but too few to offer them any decent protection.
"Oh God. Ah, it was very nice to meet you! We have to go now! Fable!"
Hefting her crook, she motioned to Fable, who was working on herding the sheep together and tightening the group. There weren't many places to go, but there was a copse not far off and it was something. Maybe that had been nothing, but Tessa had heard of dragons from Adela crossing over the mountains and attacking peoples' flocks; she was not about to take chances here.
Razi kept his eyes looking up, scanning about. The thing revealed itself, game swooping about from behind a hill, flying low. It passed right over them, close enough to make even Razi flinch downward. It was a great, brown bird with a body the size of an horse and a wingspan as wide as a small house. A roc.
"That's—"
The girl was already on the move, and the sheep with her. Razi trotted after them and caught up, keeping half his attention on the hunter in the skies.
"You'd best hurry. It's coming back around."
The creature revealed itself, and Tessa's breath caught in her throat. That was no dragon--but it may as well have been. A giant bird, with large talons that caught the light and glinted ominously. A giant bird big enough to decimate her entire flock if it desired, flying low enough now that she could feel the wind from its wings...
Wolves were one thing; the creatures were scared easily enough. But that? Whatever it was? She had never dealt with a sky-predator.
Then the shifter was there, close on her heels, and Tessa shot him a look bordering on panic. "I am hurrying! What is that?"
The bird rose, climbing higher, becoming small against the blue of the sky.
"A roc." Razi didn't let the thing out of his sight. It was as as likely to go for him as anything else out here. "And it's coming."
Even as he watched, the roc folded its wings and fell into a stoop.
Tessa was about to ask what they should do, since he seemed to know more about this than she did, but then the creature folded and fell like a stone and there was no more time for talk.
And the sheep? Her heart clenched, but there was nothing more to be done. There was no way she knew of to fend against a predator like that. Briefly, she pictured swinging her crook around like a sword at the thing and could have laughed if she weren't so stressed.
"Fable! Leave it!" she shouted, and the dog broke from the herd to join her at her side as she fell into a run. It was either the sheep or, potentially, them—and part of her hoped, prayed, that the sheep would scatter and make the hunt more difficult. It would hurt to lose even one, but not as much as the group.
The roc fell upon them then, the wind of its descent nearly knocking her over and making her stumble, and she turned in time to see it grab up one of the sheep in its talons. The remaining sheep panicked and scattered, bleating frantically, and Tessa forced herself to turn away and keep running.
She didn't stop until she'd made it to the trees.
The girl looked like she was cutting her losses. Wise of her. That roc could have carried her off just as easily as one of those sheep, and Razi reckoned it didn't much care what it grabbed.
Razi, however, didn't have such notions to worry him. He stayed with the sheep, running along with them. His timing here would have to be exact.
The roc was upon them in a swirl of wind and wing. Its talons closed about a sheep, but Razi had already begun the change. A panther now, he leapt upon the thing's back, claws finding purchase at the junctions of wings and body. The roc thrashed, the sheep went rolling away. Razi bit at it's neck and head, trying to find a place not protected by thick layers of feathers while the bird beat its wings and tried without success to get into the air.
The roc shrieked in fury and twisted, snapping at the panther with its sharp beak, but it couldn't quite reach him. It beat its wings desperately, trying to strike the panther with them with force enough to break a man's bones. Finally it tried a new tactic, whipping its head forward and rubbing its head and neck along the ground in a desperate attempt to dislodge him.
Dark blood glistened along its feathers where the panthers claws and teeth had found flesh.
From the cover of the trees, Tessa watched it all unfold in breathless horror, mouth open and both hands in Fable's thick fur. The cat was doing well, but the bird was huge, and one wrong move could spell the end of him.
And he was doing this for her.
Actually, she wasn't sure of that, and wasn't sure why he would help her in the first place, but it was nice to think that that's what he was doing.
Razi got both front paws wrapped around the bird's neck and held on. He didn't care if the bird crushed him to death or broke all the bones in his body. He held on and was not letting for anything.
The roc twisted forward, attempting to throw him, and instead of fighting it he locked his arms and whipped his weight over, flipping them both upon the ground. The roc ended up on top of him but it didn't matter. He had it now. While it tried to right itself, he buried his face into the feathers of its neck and found the knobby column of its spine. His teeth crushed down into it, and the bird's thrashing became the convulsions of death before it finally stilled.
It wasn't until the bird's thrashing convulsions died down to residual twitching that Tessa dared move from her spot.
Clutching the hem of her tunic in a white-knuckled grip, she edged out from the cover of the trees, only a step or two. Then she waited, eyes on the roc. Was it...dead? Really dead? And what about the cat-man? She couldn't see him beneath the mess of feathers and outstretched wings, and she worried at the fabric of her shirt as she searched for signs that he was okay. He could have gotten crushed beneath the beast's weight, or bitten or clawed during the tussle--it would have been easy for her to have missed that in all the chaos. God, she hoped he was okay...for him to die fighting the thing off for her, after she had treated him with such mistrust...
She stopped a good few feet from the bird, and shifted from foot to foot. "Uhm...are you...are you okay?"
If he was, and was trapped under there, she was pretty sure she wouldn't be much use lifting that thing!
Leaning forward and stretching her arm out as far as it could go, she poked at the bird's body with the tip of her crook. "Hello? Cat man...?"
The roc ended up squarely on top of him, a mound of flesh and feathers blocking his view of everything beyond. Even after it went still, he clung on, jaws crushing the bones of its neck. Caution served well. He might have waited longer still, but the girl's voice reached him, close by.
Razi released his hold and heaved, rolling the bird off of him easily. Larger than he though it was, he bore far greater weight and strength. Its bones were hollow, its muscles built for the endurance of flight. He was built to haul prey up trees.
As a panther, his eyes were on a level with the girl's—he made for a very large panther indeed. Which...she may not have expected. He sat on his haunches, ears relaxed, in as mild a pose as he could manage lest she become afraid.
The bird moved, and Tessa jumped back in horror. Maybe it wasn't dead! But then it rolled over, revealing the panther beneath, who sat up and...
"Oh!"
And turned out to be really big this close up.
From a distance, the roc and Razi had looked much smaller, but even sitting he could look into her eyes, and Tessa's breath seized. She clutched the crook to her chest and bit her bottom lip, startled, and quickly averted her gaze, because she knew it was unwise to look a predator in the eye.
Even if they were a shifter?
She'd met one shifter before, a wolf girl, but wasn't sure what the rules were. And the wolf had been small! Razi looked big enough to bite off her head, and even though she had seen him change into this creature, that primal, instinctive fear was there in full force even though he looked totally relaxed.
"A-are you..." She cleared her throat when her voice came out a squeak. "Are you okay?"
Slowly, so as not to startle, Razi lay down. Speaking involved bearing his rather intimidating fangs, now covered in roc blood. Maybe making himself even smaller would help.
His voice came out whispy, raspy, and deep. With inhuman lips, his words did not enunciate completely. "I am uninjured. How is your sheep?"
"Oh! You can talk!" Tessa blurted, and then flushed and pressed a hand to her mouth. "Oh, er, of course you can talk, but I mean as an animal! Oh, not that you're an animal, just...um..."
Her voice trailed off and she forced an awkward smile. Now that Razi had spoken, the initial nervousness melted away. Weird as it was, it made him suddenly not dangerous. She crept a little closer, curiosity replacing nerves. "Sorry. You know what I'm trying to say, right? Oh! My sheep are fine. Can't say they would've been if not for you! Thank you, mister...ah..."
Well, this was embarrassing. "Can I ask your name?"
Razi let her ramble. He didn't mind, even rather liked it. He was never one for talking much himself but often found he enjoyed listening to others. His tail swayed back and forth and he blinked at her in long, slow movements.
"Razi," he said. It came out not quite as it would had he been human. The r rasped and rolled a bit, and the z wasn't entirely pronounced, but it was close enough.
"Razi?" Tessa repeated as she moved even closer, hoping she'd heard him correctly. His cat-voice was sort of funny, and some of his words were difficult to understand. "Razi. That's a really nice name!"
She was watching his tail move as she spoke, and now that he was no longer dangerous in her eyes, she found herself growing more and more enthralled. He was a gorgeous animal, like nothing she'd ever seen before--even with his bloodied mouth--and his fur looked really soft and smooth...
Wait. He didn't know her name, either, did he? "Oh! Sorry, I'm Tessa. Tessa Sommer, but just Tessa works. Or Tess. Or...really anything you wanna call me, as long as it's not rude. It's wonderful to meet you!" She held her hand out before she realized that wasn't actually going to work, started to draw it back, and then remembered...no, it actually might! Animals sniffed each other in greeting, right?
After a moment's hesitation, she held her hand out again, near his nose, like he was a dog.
"Tessa," he repeated, but all his attention was on her hand. He tried not to get too excited and just lunge at her. He had to remember what he looked like to a small female human when he was like this.
But her hand was so close. His tail lashed, and he inched forward, just barely containing himself. She held her hand out like she was offering her scent, but he had something else in mind. He jutted his head up into her fingers and rubbed at her hand, trying to get her to scratch at him, and as soon as he touched her his dignity rather went out the window and he nudged forward more, rubbing his head and his ears all about her hand.
Tessa just about died.
When Razi first jutted forward, her heart leaped and she nearly jerked her hand away as what little prey-animal instinct remained shouted, he's going to bite you! Not a second later, though, and he butted her hand like a cat, and all pretense of caution crumbled. Tessa gasped, bit her lip to hold in the squeal she felt welling up inside her, and practically squirmed with excitement because oh gosh, he was so cute! Just like a house cat, only huge! And his fur was so soft and his whiskers were tickling her arm omigosh!
Grinning ear to ear, Tessa rubbed the top of his head with her hand before scratching him behind his soft ears, then gave up even trying to control herself and used both hands on him, getting behind both his ears at once. It took her last ounce of willpower not to throw her arms around his neck.
"Oh my gosh, you're so soft!" she gushed, finally scratching at his neck.
Nearly the second she began petting him in earnest, a hearty purr rumbled out from Razi's throat. It would embarrass him to admit it, but he did so love when people petted him. Craved it, adored it, constantly wanted to ask for it but never could. Ah, but now he'd found someone just as zealous about providing pets as he was to receive them!
Razi tilted his head this way and that, leaning into her scratches and showing her where he wanted more attention. Soon the throes of giddy happiness were too much and he rolled over right then and there so she could get at his throat and chest and dare he even hope his belly??
He purred! Oh dear Ansgar, this got even better because he purred! Just like a cat! Ahh! At first, the sound startled her, for it was deeper and louder than a house cat--of course!--but then once she realized what it was, she laughed delightedly and was more than happy to scratch where he wanted. It was almost hard to believe that just minutes ago this very same cat had taken down a roc.
But Tessa wasn't thinking about that right then, because then Razi was on his back with his soft belly exposed, and she could feel his purrs rumbling in his throat and chest as she scratched him there with both hands.
"Haha, I'm guessing you really like this, don't you?" she asked, and soon Razi was getting his wish as she stroked his belly, completely forgetting that this was a man she was petting.
Razi wiggled about on his back, too happy to just lay still. Whenever Tessa reached a place he really liked his put both paws on her arm to keep her scratching in just that spot. Claws in, of course, though with many things he had to remind himself of that.
He rumbled out some words through the constant purring. "Mmm, you will put me to sleep like this."
Indeed he could feel the lethargy seeping in. If she kept this up she would lull him right into slumber.
It was a little startling to be grabbed by such a huge animal, but it was mostly just amazing, and Tessa laughed whenever he held her arm and made sure to give that spot extra attention. God, he was so cute! Just look at the way he wiggled! Actually wiggled!
His words, however, gave her pause.
"Oh! Oh, sorry, should I stop?" she asked, freezing in place.
Razi heaved a great sigh that rocked his whole chest up and then down. Oh, how he wanted to say no! Alas, she needed to collect her sheep and he needed to butcher this roc.
"Yes, we should." He growled in frustration as he righted himself. "I am going to eat this roc."
He warned her mainly because it would be gory and noisy and not likely something she would care to see.
Tessa sighed, a little sad to stop--but it probably was a good idea. She didn't want to put him to sleep! And she did sort of have things to do, like checking on her flock. Fable was doing a good job keeping an eye on them while she was occupied, though, and a quick glance their way showed that the dog had managed to keep them all together.
Good ol' Fable.
As Razi righted himself, Tessa gave him an odd look at first, because why was he telling her that--and then one of realization. Did he mean...right then and there? Eat it like a cat? Like dig into it on the spot?
Ew.
Tessa wrinkled her nose. "...Oh. Ah, okay, you can do that. I'll just be..." She pointed toward her flock. "Gotta check on them all, okay?"
Razi grunted, his attention all on food, now. Over the course of minutes, the mass of feathers became a bare, torn carcass. Longer still, and he had it stripped of meat and was crunching contentedly on bones. When he was satisfied, he shifted back into his human shape, hefted the meaty wing he'd spared, and went in search of the girl and a stream to wash in.
Tessa wasn't far from Razi, and had spent the time tending to her flock. The one sheep that had been picked up by the roc was, as it turned out, miraculously unharmed save for some bruising; her thick wool had protected her, and the roc hadn't gotten far off the ground before Razi had taken it down. Clearly, Ansgar had been looking out for her this day; it couldn't have been a coincidence that Razi, a powerful shifter, showed up minutes before the roc.
If not for him, she might have lost everything.
She had just finished up and had turned to see how Razi was faring when she came face to face with a naked man carrying a giant wing--and she jumped and yelped in surprise before she realized it was Razi. Really, the tails and ears should have been the giveaway, but she'd gotten used to seeing him as a panther, and the reminder that he was actually a man was...startling.
A very naked, very attractive, very...bloody...man.
Her eyes went wide and for a moment she just stared, before she realized she was staring and flushed red. She snapped her eyes back to his face and took a step back. "Wh-where are your clothes?"
"I lost my loincloth. And I saved you this." He raised the plucked wing then dropped it on the ground before her.
He looked about for water, or for his loincloth, and saw neither from there. Where exactly had he shifted?
"Is there water nearby?"
"Ah, thank you!" The wing gave Tessa something safe to look at, so she looked at that instead of him and knelt down to inspect it. It had been a while since she'd had meat--or rather, good meat--and while she had no idea how roc tasted, bird was bird. This wing was huge, enough for several meals, at least!
"Kind of nearby? I passed a stream about a mile back--did you really only have a loincloth?"
He had been distracting enough wearing that little strip of cloth!
"It is all I ever wear, unless I have cause to go into a city." Which he tried to avoid mostly almost entirely because it forced him to put more clothes on.
He traced a trail with his eyes backward from the dead bird. "Ah, there!"
The little strip of cloth had snagged on a cluster of sticker bushes. He ran over to get it and tied the ends about his narrow hips with bloody fingers.
Tessa glanced up when Razi bolted, but quickly looked back at the wing and stared very hard at it, even as her face grew hotter. She had picked a really bad time to look up. Male anatomy was...not made for running.
Keeping her head ducked down, she waited a few moments and then called out, "Ah, are you decent now?"
"Am I what?"
He rejoined her and hefted the wing up again. No sense in both of them getting bloody. "Lead the way and I'll carry it home for you."
"Decent," Tessa repeated, and risked a look up at Razi as he rejoined her. Ah, good, so he was! She smiled and straightened up, climbing back to her feet. "You know, everything covered that ought to be covered which...looks like you've got that covered now! Though, ah..."
She shifted her weight from leg to leg, hands clasped together. "Home may be...I probably won't be able to bring you home with me."
He shrugged. "I'll carry it wherever you like."
Whew! He wasn't offended! Tessa relaxed, smiling brightly. "Thank you! In that case, follow me! Or rather, us. The church isn't far away."
Razi fell into step beside her, eyes flicking up to the half-clouded sky every now and then. He knew not one blessed thing about rocs. Did they hunt solo? In pairs? Flocks, even?
"You live in a church?" That sounded odd to him, but then again he knew as much about churches as he did about rocs. Maybe it was normal for shepherds to live in them.
"Oh, yes," Tessa answered, like it were the most normal thing in the world. Which it was, for her, and for many mages like her. "Sort of. Much of the time I live out here, actually! It depends on the seasons and where the grazing is, or if I have to deliver sheep somewhere. Right now I don't have to go far from the city, but my home's at the church."
Which was about the only place she felt safe at in the city. They said the open country was unsafe for women, especially young girls, especially alone. But Tessa felt safer out here with Fable and her flock than she did among people.
"Feh. Cities." Razi's face twisted in distaste. He could get by in them when he had to. He could get by rather well, in fact, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it. Cities were dirty in a way the wilderness was not.
"Out here is better," he said, waving a hand to take in the countryside that she called her home.
"Oh, I agree!" Tessa said, turning to look at Razi with a smile. "They say it's dangerous out here, and I agree. But I feel safer here than anywhere else in the city."
Razi returned her smile readily. This was a good day. A battle, a feast, and now fellowship.
"At least out here, you know what the dangers are. A roc won't smile at you then try to stick a knife in your back."
He scoffed, dwelling with gratitude for a moment upon this landscape, this countryside, and how far from him the nearest city was.
"People are scarier," Tessa said quietly with a small shudder. "Animals just do what animals do, 'cause they have to. People are scary. Animals don't hate."
And even as she said it, she looked over at Razi (at his face) with a slightly startled expression, because she realized then that she wasn't quite sure which category Razi fit into, or if what she said might be offensive--or untrue!
"Nn, you have the right of it."
And if he were being honest, he'd far more readily trust even another shifter over a human. Shifters were as capable as any intelligent thing of deplorable action and thought, but they still had one foot on the instinct side of the fence and that at least put them a cut above humans in Razi's mind.
Whew! So she hadn't been offensive after all! Though...now she was just curious, because she didn't want to offend him in the future, but this question might be rude? Agh!
"Um...I hope this isn't offensive to ask, because I don't mean to be! But, ah...what...are you counted as? Are you human, or an animal, or...?"
She would find that Razi did not take offense easily. Ignorance, he had excessive patience for, and anyway he didn't mind talking about himself. He just rarely had a chance to do so.
"Most of us--shifters--we think of ourselves as neither. I suppose as an orc or an elf would perceive themselves. Certainly not human, but also not animal."
"Ohhhhh..." That made sense! And seemed so obvious now, but Tessa had never actually interacted with an orc or an elf or anyone not human. "Oh, I think that makes sense. There are lots of you?"
"A fair amount," he said. "Enough that I encounter them sometimes out in the wilds. Most of us avoid cities for obvious reasons."
"I can imagine..." Tessa said, frowning as she thought of the markets, and the exotic pelts she sometimes saw there. Her stomach twisted as, abruptly, she wondered if all of them had been animal after all--something she'd never thought of before, considering she'd never met a shifter until now!
"How do...how do you know if, um...if you're hunting a real animal and not a shifter...?"
Razi's face darkened. "It's usually not so difficult. You saw me. I'm far larger than any animal panther, and most shifters have similar tells. Strange colors and the like. And most can speak in some way, and we can shift out, as well."
None of which made a difference. It wasn't telling shifters apart that was the problem. Many hunters wanted shifter pelts and feathers, precisely because they were so unique.
The tension melted out of Tessa at that, and she heaved a giant sigh of relief. "Oh...okay, good. Then, um, I don't think I've actually eaten any of you."
And she gave a small, weak laugh at that. "Did catch a really big rabbit once but um...I guess they'd probably turn human if they got in a fix like that, right?"
The truth? The truth was that maybe a shifter couldn't change after being injured like that. And that some shifters could only change at certain times.
But he felt to tell her that would be cruel. He doubted her rabbit had been anything but a rabbit. "I know I would," he said with a smile.
Tessa's relieved sigh came out in a loud whoosh. "Oh, thank God!" she said. "I guess I'm just going to have to be more careful from now on, but...you'd recognize one by looking, right? So we won't accidentally be catching any or anything, right?"
Living spirits, she was nigh unbearably precious.
He flashed her a toothy grin. "I'm adept at recognizing other shifters, never fear."
"Good! Though I don't know what I'll do about that when we part ways. Do you think dogs have a sense about that?" Tessa asked, glancing over at Razi again--and promptly blushing when she realized, yet again, that he was basically naked.
"I surely do," he said, casting a glance at the sheep dog. "They can smell the difference, after all."
"Then maybe Fable will warn me if something's odd," Tessa said with a nod, still pointedly avoiding looking over at Razi.
"Um...hm...maybe when we get into town, we can get you some new clothes, too..."
Razi cocked his head. "Why would I need new clothes?"
"Because, erm...well, the thing you're wearing is hardly appropriate, or clothes at all," Tessa said, still avoiding eye contact.
"You don't like what I'm wearing?" Same toothy, baiting grin.
Tessa's face flushed bright red, vivid against her pale cheeks, and her pace quickened enough to put her a little ahead of Razi so she didn't have to look at him!
"I...um...how's that wing holding up!"
Razi switched the wing to his other shoulder, feathers dragging against his skin. "It will feed you for many days! Or feed many people."
"Probably many people!" Tessa said with a laugh. "I don't think I could eat that much--ah."
She blinked, sudden realization dawning. "I may not be able to take that with me," she said, grimacing. "I...I don't know how I'd explain, you know...a giant roc wing..."
Razi considered that. He hadn't thought of it either—but then, why would he? For whatever reason, the truth would not do for her people.
"You could lie," he offered. "Or we could find a place to clean and section it before anyone sees the whole?"
And if that would not do, he would eat it himself, or find someone else who wanted it. Above all, he would not see it wasted.
"Lie? Oh, no, I couldn't do that," Tessa said with wide eyes, as though shocked he'd even suggest such a thing! "Lying's a sin, and I've got enough sin on my hands! No, we'll just have to find a place and clean it there."
There was an awkward pause as she looked at Razi. "Do you know how to do that? Butcher meat?"