A Perfect Way to Meet [Hikaru!]

[Anonymous]

He'd heard there was challenging game in the area, something he found he could not resist. A game, a contest of his accuracy to be able to bag a rare hide to bring to the city. He did not come, though, for that reason alone for the Niahi Woods presented Dominik with the chance to be away from the noise of the city and a chance to work alone in peace.

At ease with this thought, he scanned the brush as he continued his round of the coastline. Occasionally he looked out to the water below the cliffs, smiling as he watched the waves crash against rock. Then he saw a faint movement in his peripheral and whirled to face the owner, bow at the ready. His eyes quivered from one end of his sight to the other, waiting for another sound or movement to pinpoint the location. Silently he swept through the surrounding area until he found himself staring down a slope, his prey at the bottom, completely oblivious to his presence.

Gripping his weapon excitedly, Dominik grinned as he prepared to take aim. He'd done this plenty of times, was considered one of the best shots in the world. To date, he hadn't missed a single fire in over a year of his near constant work. This was something he held dear and proudly displayed, for it helped him earn a living to have such a reputation. Now, though, was not the proper time to be reflecting on his achievements. As he honed in on his target, balancing his bow skillfully, he took aim on the oblivious and helpless animal. Pressing lightly on the trigger that would set off a swift chain reaction, he checked his aim a final time and settled into his weapon to be sure the shot would be true.

[hikaru.dream]

"There once was a tree---"
Shou sang. She wasn't bad at it, in fact she was very good at singing.
"---And there also was a squirrel and the squirrel said to the tree--"
What was strange was the fact that such a good singer was singing such a silly song. It just didn't feel... right.
Shou, of course, did not care in the least and continued singing her little song (which she was really making up on the spot) while lightly jumping from branch to branch of the forest. Dead branches fell in her wake.
She found it strange that no one took better care of the forest. She had thought that someone would come around to relieve the trees of extra weight, but it seemed it was not so. That was okay, Shou didn't mind doing the job. It gave her a good chance to talk to the trees, and trees usually had better information than humans did if you could sort through the messed up time that trees tended to have. So far, she hadn't learned anything about who she was looking for. She had been so sure that Kei would be here. Or at least, that Kei -had- been here.

Shou blinked and stopped singing. She could have sworn there had been a flash of skin beyond the green leaves. Curious, she jumped quietly until the white thing came into view. She landed on a dead branch, taking care not to break it. Shou realized that she was on a dead one right away and nearly moved to another branch, but she wasn't all that heavy, and besides, it was the closest to the human. Human? Yes, the young man was human, she was sure of it. He seemed a little strange for a human, she couldn't put her finger on it. She still had much to learn.

From the looks of it, the man was a hunter and she could tell from his pose that he was good at the bow. Shou licked her lips. She wondered if he was better than she was.

She didn't like hunting. But she knew some humans lived off it, and that many beings ate meat as well. She had learned that the last time she had stopped a hunter and recieved a nice long lecture from him (Shou had felt very bad and later delivered some extremely rare mushrooms. The hunter's wife recognized the value of them and managed to sell them at an extremely high price. They became very rich and lived happily ever after).
So she sat there and glared at the human man, gripping the branch very tight. She had forgotten it was dead. The branch may have held her weight but it didn't stand a chance in her iron grip. With a resounding crack, the branch broke and Shou fell down in a clutter right behind the strange human.
Shou looked up sheepishly at him.
"G'day, Mr. HunterHuman. Nice day, ne?"

Leaves and twigs were snarled in her brown hair and she had dirt all over her face.
She looked like a total klutz.

((OoC: I apologize for the extremely late response and for the bad writing ^^; Jet lag's killing me))

[Anonymous]

The shot was nearly perfect, a rare chance to have all of his skill and practice finally on display with a single arrow. However, right when he was releasing the waiting arrow, the animal startled and made a mad dash to the deeper wood. The arrow, in all of its glory as it whizzed through the air, missed and sunk itself into the dirt past where the creature's neck had been only a moment prior. Dominik did not see that this had happened at first as he heard a sharp crack resonate from what sounded to be almost directly above him. Startled himself, he quickly stepped away as he watched a girl come crashing down from the tree with one of its branches.

Blinking, unsure of what he should do, he slowly turned his head to look to where his target had been only moments ago and, when he saw that his gloriously aligned shot had missed completely, gave a short, surprised cry. Falling silent, mouth open as he gawked at the little thing that had kept him from bagging the animal, Dominik felt a thousand emotions swirl around at once in his head as he struggled to keep himself from going off at her. Then she greeted him and he couldn't help but smile at the innocence she was attempting to portray in the situation.

Crouching down to be more at eye level with her, he calmly said, "What a fine day for hunting, but you made me miss." He was not the type to easily lose his temper and he felt that he could hold back and allow his friendly nature to lead him to a checked conversation with the girl than the one his conscience was telling him to carry out. Softening his face a bit and giving a twitch of a smile more for her benefit, Dominik pushed himself up and offered her a hand up. "Might I ask what you were doing up in that tree?"

ooc: Apologies for the amount of time it took me to get this up for you. >_<

[hikaru.dream]

He missed.

And from the look on his face right now, he didn't often miss, Shou thought. He wasn't very happy, not happy at all. At least what scared the beast away was the noise of her fall, and she had managed to not call out to the beast to inform it of the arrow pointing at it.
She watched him silently as the fact that he had missed settled into his brain. Then he smiled at her.

She was impressed.

Although she could not understand what all his emotions were, she knew that he had had the temptation to jump at her and he had controlled himself. Not many humans could do that, she thought. He was still calm and now he was addressing her.

There was a brief pause as she thought out her next move. Shou supposed it would be proper to apologize for disturbing his hunt, but unfortunately she wasn't sorry at all. If she apologized now, she would be a lier and she wanted to avoid that as much as possible.
Anyway, what to do about the question. She had realized long back that humans around here did not know of her kin, and she didn't feel like explaining it for the seventh time that day. 'I was knocking dead branches off' did not sound like it would satisfy him. Neither was feigning she was a child from the nearby village. Or maybe it would. Would it?

She politely accepted the offered hand and jumped up, unintentionally making it clear that she had not needed the help.
"Hey, uh, would it sound convincing if I said I was a kid from the nearby village, just playing out here by myself?"

[Anonymous]

In the silent moments that settled upon them, Dominik studied her. Indeed, he couldn't remember seeing someone like her before. Of course she looked like a child on the outside but he was sure that her eyes revealed more knowledge than any young child might; the complete innocence he'd come to expect was marred. When she spoke his thoughts were further confirmed, his expression changing to one of amusement as a short laugh escaped his lips. "No, I don't think so, but if you're ever trying to fool someone then asking if they might be fooled by it will only make the farce clearer, you see. So, if you're not a kid from a village out playing, then who are you?"

By this time he'd lowered his arms, and in turn his bow, wanting to make himself appear more open. His anger over missing was now in the past and he hoped that maybe he might be able to talk to the girl instead of drive her away immediately. Some in his past had deemed him unfriendly on the basis that he was a hunter and he did not like that and some of the other assumptions people made without getting to know him. He hoped that this girl was not like some of those people and might be open to friendship, or company at the least.

ooc: *dies* Apologies for the shortness!

[hikaru.dream]

"The name's Shou," The elf like creature smiled brightly."Nice to meetcha!"
Unfortunately, for the hunter, it probably wasn't nice to meet her, since she had disturbed his sport. But she wouldn't mind about that now, she decided. It was something of the past, and the guy seemed willing to be friendly enough. And he had laughed.

"Oh," she said. "I'm told that often, but I suppose it's always worth trying." Shou cocked her head a little, making the sunlight that peaked through the leaves reflect on her brown hair. "I really am a village kid out here, just that I'm from very far away."
Shou grinned. "Right off the continent, ne."
She didn't bother explaining what she was; the guy hadn't asked anyway. If he did, she was glad (but a little irritated) to explain, but some humans just didn't seem to understand it, the poor things. And elves too, and you know, the lot. They never seemed to like the fact that they hadn't known about the Silva Tutela until that moment. They wouldn't believe her and send her 'off home'. Most anyway. She had met a number of nice people here and there, some who even went out of their way to help her. She would make sure they had a good life; she had her ways. Take the hunter-that-is-now-a-mushroom-seller man.

Shou glanced up at the man and cocked her head again, a question in her eyes. He was hiding something. Of course, if she wanted to, she could always find out, but if he was hiding it that meant he didn't want her to see it so she wouldn't look. She nodded to herself, agreeing that that was the best option.

"So!" Shou said, as if her long stream of thought had not existed. "Your turn, ne! You look like a hunter, but what are ya? I'm sure you know that looks are deceiving, so that's why I'm asking."


((OoC: Don't die, who's gonna reply then? (: ))

[Anonymous]

Dominik watched the girl with interest, sure he'd never seen anyone quite like her before, like she was just a little bit different from what he was used to seeing. Indeed, though, she was quite small compared to his own size and she didn't seemed to be phased by how tall he was, which he felt was encouraging. She confirmed his thoughts when she said she was not of the mainland and he nodded, wanting to still give the impression of being friendly, which he was. "Shou, I'm Dominik and...it's nice to meet you too. Are you from the Islands? I heard there's some nice game over there...maybe I'll go sometime."

Ignorant to the fact that Shou didn't necessarily like his sport -he just stood there smiling as if she did-, Dominik looked down at her as silence fell between them. He wondered if he'd done something wrong but it did seem as though she was thinking and he didn't want to interrupt her if she was. When she spoke again, probing for information, he hesitated a bit because he was unsure as to how this girl had detected something different about him so quickly. Dominik chose, though, to play it dumb and responded to her by saying, "I'm just a human, Shou, one of many around here."

[hikaru.dream]

((OoC: I'm sorry for the late response, it's been pretty hectic with my going back to Japan and finishing homework up.))

"Oooh," Shou said, the laughter dancing in her eyes. "Nice guess, Mister Dominik. Yeah, I'm from the Islands or the Isles or whatever you mainlanders like to call 'em."

The little lass looked into the eyes of the taller figure.  She got the feeling that he liked his job very much. Well, she couldn't say that a good hunt wasn't enjoyable. On the rare occasions she had done it, it had been some fun.

"Ah," she said sweetly. If she felt any discomfort, it was well hidden behind a friendly smile. "I see you enjoy your sport."

Her eyes drifted from his and stared at the small bit of sky that was peaking out through the leaves. It was clear and beautiful, with hardly any clouds in the blue sky. But it would rain tonight. The trees strained for the water, patiently waiting for dark to come.

Her eyes snapped back, not in a threatening way, but as if she was waking from a pleasant daydream. Dominik had hesitated before he answered her, and she felt that immediately.
Shou really didn't mean to trespass on other people's feelings, but it was hard to control, to not look. Emotions effected one's aura, and reading auras was like a habit to her. They were so beautiful to look at, too.

Dominik really didn't want to share his secret, but in telling Shou he was 'just' human, he gave himself away. Shou was full of innocence and cheer like a child, but that did not mean that she thought like one. She had not questioned whether he was human or not but he had hesitated and said 'just human'. He could have said he was a hunter just how he looked. Or was a official or something with a hobby of hunting. Or simply 'human'. But something had made him put another word on there.

But that was okay, secrets were fun. Shou smiled and rubbed her wrist, where there was a large scar covering her wrist. Sometimes, secrets were fun.
"Nah, Mister," Shou said, smiling gently. "No one's 'just'. That wouldn't make it too fun, ne?"

[Anonymous]

He never really liked lying. Of course, what he was doing probably couldn't be considered outright lying, but avoidance of her question made him look bad, like he had things to hide. In truth he was more ashamed of what he was than anything, feeling that people would judge him too harshly for something that was out of the bounds of his control. This girl, who had happened upon him with awkward timing, seemed merely curious for conversation and he couldn't really blame her because it was quite natural. The way he felt about it, though, made him even more self-conscious, like she knew his secret already and simply wanted him to reveal himself to her on his own. No, that wouldn't be a good idea! His feelings were strongly against ever showing, or even telling, his secret to someone that had no reasons for knowing it because of his fear of rejection.

Even so, he felt bad about what he'd said and it was made clear to him very quickly that she knew he was trying to hide something from her. It made him feel dirty, like he was performing an evil by attempting to deceive someone who appeared so innocent. He looked down at her and noticed that her attention was drawn to something else, something distant. He felt guilty then, knowing that misleading someone that he might like to be friends with was wrong. It grated at him still and he shifted his footing slightly, his body tense in obvious discomfort. The thought crossed his mind to just run away but that would be too cowardly and he didn't want to run from his problems anyhow so he quickly dismissed the rough plan.

She was now talking again and he focused his attention on her, hoping that she might steer their conversation elsewhere but, to Dominik's great dismay, she hinted at the fault in the wording of his answer. He swallowed nervously and looked away from her, his mind unable to draw away from the fact she was dwelling on the topic further. "I'm...a bit different from the rest. Perhaps a little too modest, I suppose," he said, trying to still talk of it without seeming rude to Shou. "And...I do enjoy my sport very much. It's my life really and I'm fortunate to have the skills."

ooc: Aww don't worry about it, things happen. =) And my apologies for taking so long. No excuse other than laziness this time. x]

[hikaru.dream]

Shou beamed at him.
"Ah, so you're not 'just'."

"See," she continued. "Everyone has something they're good at but most people don't know their good and bad. I love it when I meet someone who knows their talent! Doesn't it sound so wonderful? Other folks have qualities you don't!" She nodded, as if agreeing her own words. "I also like helping them find 'em, it's so nice when they stop feeling like a loser!"
She smiled brightly and then tilted her head.
Looking quickly around, she found a low branch just about the right height. Grabbing Dominik by the hand, she pulled him over to the tree. Then she jumped and landed lightly on the branch. To tell the truth, she had jumped backwards and had jumped a little to far up. She ended up twirling around the branch a couple of times before she could sit still on it.
"There!" she said, looking into the human's eyes. "Now I can talk to you without hurting my neck, ne!" She flicked a strand of brown hair that had planted itself between her eyes behind her.

Shou had pretty much talked nonstop until now, but then she started up again.
"Say, you said you have the skills, ne? Just how good are ya?" She jerked her thumb to the bow on her own back. It was a beautiful thing made of sleek brown wood. It seemed as if Shou loved it very much, for on a closer look, it was quite worn out. Despite the age of it, it remained strong and beautiful, catching a little light here and there along the wood to make it look like it was shining.
"I love her! I think I'm pretty good, but I have to admit, I do miss." She laughed and stroked her beloved bow. "I don't get the chance to use it so much other than practice, though. I don't meet many people who want to dig my guts out or something. That's good, at least!"

[Anonymous]

Dominik was a bit surprised by Shou's seemingly nonstop chatter but he didn't mind it so much and he smiled at her as he listened. He'd never really given much thought to the talents of others and wondered for a brief moment which this girl possessed. His wondering was quickly answered, though, as she pulled him forward and jumped up into a tree. Smiling as he watched her, craning his neck to see better, he laughed at what she'd said. "Sorry Shou, I am a bit on the tall side, I'll admit."

When she drew his attention to the bow on her own back, though, he stared at it. Indeed it was beautiful, older than his own but somehow giving the air of a rustic sort of strength. He wondered how good she was with it -she obviously loved the thing enough to carry it around with her- before she admitted it didn't get much use. He cocked his head to the side and smiled up at her. "You know, the owner of something like that can't be that bad of a shot. It's a good thing really that you don't get practice with it in battle, I suppose. I myself haven't used mine for self defense but a few rare occasions but it gets enough attention due to my occupation, you see." He knew he was rambling and cut himself off there, shuffling a boot among the dirt and dry roots beneath himself.

"Ah, well... Would you like to get some practice in with me? See how well you can shoot?" he asked, turning his head back up to show her the eager grin of challenge resting on his features.

[hikaru.dream]

"Nah," Shou said, twirling around the branch again. "That's okay. When you're my height, most people are on the tall side."

"Oooh," she said. Her brow furrowed for a split second before her face lightened up again. "Sounds fun, ne! Don't blame me if I miss though!"
She smiled brightly.

The reason for her slight hesitation was simple: she was uncomfortable with the target. She really hoped they weren't going to go hunt animals. She would have to go along with him. If she refused, he might think she was accusing him for hunting animals as a job or something. But unfortunately for little Shou, it was quite likely that they were going to do so. What else would you use to show your skills?

It was just...

It was just that although Dominik needed hunting to live, she did not and that would be taking a life for personal purposes.

[Anonymous]

Dominik was pleased with her agreement, the slight hesitation noted but not for concern. Glad to have someone to go up against in friendly competition, he nodded curtly before setting off in search of a prime location. As he came to a small clearing he stopped, looked around, and then chuckled under his breath. Jogging across to face the closest trees head-on, he took out a small knife and carved jagged 'x's into a few, seemingly random trunks. When he was done he retreated back to the trees and settled himself down a little ways under the cover of such giants. "Now let's see how many of these we can hit, hm? If you hit any part of a mark it will count towards your score, fair enough?"

An eager gleam entered his eye, a grin spreading across his features as he began plotting out the order he would attempt at for this little game. Of course, he felt he would not lose, but one could never be so proud as to fully count others out. Shou seemed like she knew what she was doing and Dominik was all too ready to see what she could do.

ooc: *hands a basket of cookies* :[ Sowwy I took so long with this.

[hikaru.dream]

Oh.

So they weren't going up against real game, she thought, watching Dominik carving the tree trunks. That was good.

"Gotcha!" she said, nodding happily. Using another twirl to power her jump, Shou landed lightly next to him. She looked at the targets, judging the distance and the size of the 'x's.

"Oh, oh! What happens if someone else takes the center first, ne?" She asked, raising her hand. Not that she thought that she couldn't hit the center just because there was another arrow there. It was good to be sure what she should do.

She took her small bow off her back and slide her hand up and down the ancient wood.

"And who should go first? I don't mind, either way's fine!" She smiled happily. It had been ages since she had last used her bow for simple leisure. She was looking forward to the game. It had been a while since she had met a good bowman. She hoped she would find one.


((OoC: Yikes! Three months><
I'm real sorry.

...er... cookies?))