Never Trust a Pixie (Juno)

[Anonymous]

There was that flippant attitude again! Miraj almost breathed a sigh of relief when Julian reverted back to his original sassiness; at least this meant that Julian had recovered (somewhat) from his bad mood. Miraj was allergic to emotional tension -- he didn't like it when people were angry with him, even if the so-called "person" was a shapeshifting werecat. The last thing he wanted was for Julian to harbor a grudge against him.

Julian didn't seem like the type to mull over a grudge, though. He seemed more concerned with enlighening Miraj about the nature of his kind than attacking him or eating him (which, Miraj was now ashamed to admit, he'd fully expected Julian to do when he first realized that he could transform himself into a jaguar). Now that he'd satsified himself that Julian didn't, in fact, want to rip him a new one, he was ravenously curious.

Because, well, Miraj was a curious boy. He was practically raised by his books, when you consider the fact that Arsalan couldn't give a rat's shiny pink end for Miraj's healthy emotional growth. Achashverosh was the closest thing Miraj had to a sibling, as Achashverosh -- despite his lack of refinement and incurable vulgarity -- was actually one of the more well-read demons of the Bottomless Void. Some of the more heated arguments they had were over the relative advantages of solipsism in a world of groupthink and subjectivism.

So Miraj was an intellectual fellow. Part of the reason he'd fallen into his current profession were because of the opportunities it gave him to travel across the world, gathering knowledge and artifacts and interesting experiences. "You were born a man? To human parents?" he asked. "How does one develop a 'little' problem like lycanthropy? Or... felinithropy... or whatever you werecats call it." He sifted through his memory for all the lore he remembered about shapeshifters, gleaned from books he'd found in his master's study. "Were you bitten? It's a virus of some sort, right? Perhaps it's curable."

Miraj wasn't trying to be insulting. Really. He honestly didn't realize that the words that were coming out of his mouth could be interpreted as anything but friendly advice. Well, okay, maybe part of him did, but most of him really was trying to have an amiable conversation.

[Anonymous]

No, Julian didn't want to kill Miraj. He didn't even want to hurt him, except that shaking thing, he'd always wanted to do that to someone, but that wasn't hurting him, was it? He didn't know. He didn't really care to know, either. It surprised him how quickly Miraj switched from pouting to genuine curiosity. He hadn't expected this at all. He didn't know the boy's background, but he was sure this wasn't something spontaneous; perhaps he could use it to his advantage, should the need arise.

"Yes. I was born a man. I have human parents, though I don't really know where they live anymore, but yes, I am human." Oh dear, he wanted to know how it'd happened?! Julian laughed, a healthy sound beyond the tiny chuckles of before. "Oh my, you are curious. I don't know what it's called, really, I just know what it is, how it happens... To tell you the truth, though, mine was pure accident. A, uh, love bite gone wrong. I didn't know what he was until he started apologizing, he looked so scared... But yes, I was bitten." Do with that what you will, Miraj, Julian thought, a playful smile lighting up his face.

"I don't know if it's curable, though. I've never really thought about that, about what my life would be like after, or even who I would go to for such a thing."

ooc: Gah, sorry it's so short! D:

[Anonymous]

ooc: lol, no probs... it wasn't that short really ;P

Miraj listened to Julian's explanation with growing fascination. By the time the shapeshifter got around to the "love bite" bit, Miraj's eyes were wide as saucers. He didn't know what he was more surprised by: that Julian had been transformed into a werecat by a romantic partner, or the fact that he freely admitted that his partner had been a man. Granted, Miraj knew that Julian liked men. It was a little hard to miss, what with the way Julian let his gaze linger on Miraj's eyes.

It's just that -- Miraj was used to being the only one who freely owned up to his sexuality. Sure, it had earned him a half dozen death threats from the Thanati clergy back home, and about a hundred hateful stares from his fellow church attendees, but that was life. He had just winked at them and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and that usually shut them up for good.

If Arsalan were still alive and Miraj hadn't, you know, killed him, Miraj would have confidently bragged that the Great Arsalan al-Shaharyar would know how to turn a werecat back into a human. For all his failings as a father, Arsalan had been a talented sorcerer. Miraj was even tempted to say that he could do it -- and he was confident he could, eventually -- but that would take months, perhaps years, of research. Besides, Julian didn't seem to want to turn back into a human. "So. This... partner of yours," Miraj began, "What became of him? I sincerely hope you mauled his skin off for making such a careless mistake." There he was again, talking flippantly about mauling and murder. And he wasn't being figurative: if Miraj had been in Julian's place, he would have cast a hex on the sorry sop that caused his body to rot from the inside out. Miraj knew a hex like that; it wasn't pretty.

Almost without realizing it himself, Miraj inched back a few surreptitious steps. Imagine what would have happened if Julian had bitten him! Miraj shuddered to think of it. He plucked Achashverosh from his shoulder and held the lemur against his chest, a protective shield between himself and Julian. The demon flicked its ear irritably.

[Anonymous]

It was funny, watching Miraj. He seemed so curious, so intent on knowing more about this whole shifting-to-a-jaguar thing. "Mauled him?! Oh, no!" He laughed again, smiling, eyes softening as he thought back. "He was so sweet... He cried, you know. He cried, begged me to forgive him, told me he hadn't meant to bite so hard; the fangs have to completely pierce the skin, you know, all four of the canines...it does take quite an intimate position for that to happen, I suppose, or someone with a taste for unnecessary torture."

He noticed Miraj's movement and him grabbing that...monkey thing, whatever it was. Smiling, he asked, "Oh, what's that?" But he didn't really care for the thing right now, it didn't look all that dangerous. "Anyway, at first I didn't understand, but he sat me down and explained it all to me. I was about your age, I suppose. Seventeen - maybe sixteen, right?-, but around there. I can change at will, no "full moon" sort of thing, if you've ever heard those stories, and...I'm harmless." His smile had gotten wider. "Unless you'd like me to be...dangerous, hm?" He flashed his teeth, understanding that Miraj was a bit frightful of the idea of something that wasn't...well, human.

"To answer your question, though, we thought it would be best to part after it happened. I don't know where he is now."

ooc: But it was x3 this one is as well, but it moves everything along so :3 Miraj is so cute, by the way XD hilarious threadness

Edit: Sorry! I totally forgot about the question. o.o *makes Julian answer* XD

[Anonymous]

ooc: hehe, Julian's hilarious too -- I think he and Miraj are a good match XD

The image of a ferocious werecat weeping his eyes out over a bad love bite was so strange and ridiculous that Miraj couldn't help but grin. That poor werecat must have been in the throes of some truly tremendous passion to accidentally turn Julian into a beast. Miraj tried to visualize it, but felt himself blushing hotly, so he quickly shooed the image from his mind. That's a thought for another time, in a rather less public place, he told himself.

He was surprised when Julian mentioned the demon, and even more surprised when the demon spoke; Achashversoh had explicit instructions not to speak to strangers until it was absolutely neccessary. Most people had the annoying habit of screaming when they heard a talking lemur. "I was wondering when you'd finally notice me," Achash grumbled. He folded his tiny arms across his chest and raised one of his bushy eyebrows. The result was a very un-lemur-like expression that still somehow managed to convey the demon's sarcasm.

Miraj tightened his grip. The demon wheezed, and coughed, and made a pathetic little squeaking noise before Miraj finally released him. Achashverosh gasped and said something that sounded like, "air, sweet air!" but was difficult to interpret over his wheezing. "Don't mind the monkey," Miraj said tartly. "I'm too lenient with him, I think, so he's rather poorly trained. Doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut."

Miraj took another step back when Julian bared his teeth, but after that, he made a concerted effort to stop being such a sissy. "That's too bad. I'm sure the world would be a better place without a halfwit like that stumbling around." He hadn't even met the werecat who turned Julian, but Miraj had already decided he didn't like him. "And for your information, Julian, I'm much older than sixteen. I'm not old, like you, but I'm certainly not a little boy."

[Anonymous]

He looked at the lemur again when he spoke, chuckling. "Ah, you're no animal, are you? Good, good...and I did notice you, but you were all clingy with him, I assumed you were scared and--say, where did you come from?" Julian was a little puzzled, he'd seen no monkey before Miraj went after him. Shaking his head a little, figuring he could ask about it later, he looked back up to the other man's eyes, captivated, again, by their gleam. "I suppose you're right, Miraj, but I've never seen a trained monkey, I wouldn't know the comparison." Wild monkeys he was used to, though. He saw plenty of all kinds whenever he was in his jungle.

Miraj started talking bad about his past lover, though, which irritated him a little. "Hey, he wasn't a halfwit. He was very kind to me, loved me, really. He was incredibly smart from what I remember, we just got a little carried away that night... Great man...great lover...but, oh, you don't want to hear tha-HEY!" Julian growled a little, frowning and pulling his eyebrows together in a scowl. "I am not old! Hmph! Well, how old are you? You don't look...that old...?"

Julian was confused, he wasn't exactly sure how old Miraj was, but if he was calling him old, then he had to be somewhere in the middle. "Pardon me, sixteen and a couple months tacked on. Better?"

[Anonymous]

When Julian started going off about his ex-lover's romantic talents, Miraj went an unmistakeable shade of green. It wasn't that he didn't want to hear all the gnarly, juicy details, it was that he really, really did. And that was the problem. This shapeshifter was undeniably attractive, and Miraj needed something to distract him from the fact that he was completely alone with him, in the middle of a forest, with no witnesses for miles around... He knew what Achashverosh would say about that. If two men get down and dirty in a forest, does anyone hear their screams?

"No, that's not better!" Miraj said through clenched teeth. He was trying not to let Julian's sarcasm get to him, and failing epically. Truth was, people had a habit of consistently underestimating his age. Most of the time, he worked that to his advantage, but now it was simply disheartening. "I'm almost twenty," he said, straightening his back so he stood a few precious inches taller.

He could feel Achashverosh shaking with mirth, and flicked the demon in the ear. Damn demon didn't have a self-preserving bone in his body. "And you're, what? Thirty?" He was a terrible hand at guessing ages; to him, anyone older than their teens was unceremoniously shoved into the category of "old fart."

[Anonymous]

Julian couldn't help but smile at Miraj's efforts to control himself. He was getting used to this, he loved the reactions he was getting for speaking extremely minor insults. He was still staring at him, at his eyes, but he did take a quick glance to look over the rest of him as he straightened up. He liked what he saw. "Ah, really? Twenty...hm, good age. I'm sorry, I'm kind of bad with guessing stuff like that...hardly anyone looks their age anymore, right?" He lifted a hand to scratch at his stomach a little, relaxing and surprising himself; he didn't realize how tense he'd been before.

Unaware of the dirty thoughts going on in Miraj's head, Julian did find himself briefly wondering what could be found beneath that rich clothing. Perhaps smooth skin or, adversely, a deformity. He wasn't sure, but he was pretty damn curious, though he didn't think he'd find himself asking anytime soon with how their conversation had gone so far.

"Thirty? Hah, no! No, no, definitely not thirty yet, that would be such a shame... I'm twenty-three now." He'd noticed the little creature's reaction, almost as if it was trying not to...laugh. That was strange. Very strange. Monkeys didn't laugh. Then again, monkeys didn't talk either. He isn't really a monkey, Julian concluded.

[Anonymous]

Damn straight he wasn't a monkey. Miraj wasn't sure if he would tell Julian the truth about what Achashverosh was, either. Most people heard the word "demon" and immediately rushed to their cottages to grab a torch and pitchfork. Sure, Achashverosh had popped out of the Bottomless Void with a few unsavory habits, but Miraj had broken him of all of them except for his foul mouth. Achashverosh wasn't any more bloodthirsty or wicked-minded than the next man, by Miraj's estimation.

Twenty-three, eh? Julian wasn't so much older than him after all. Out of habit, Miraj started doing some mental calculations (he couldn't help it; he had a faculty for mathematics) -- if Julian was sixteen when he was bitten, that meant he'd been a werecat for seven years, which meant that he'd been human for nine years longer than he had been a shapeshifter. Which, by Miraj's twisted logic, meant that Julian wasn't that inhuman after all.

"I guess you're not that much of an old fart," Miraj conceded. Speaking of farts -- he smelled absolutely awful. And because Julian didn't have a horse he could steal, or borrow, or buy, he would be forced to return to his aimless wanderings on the back of the rotting reanimated horse. An unappealing thought. And he still didn't know where he was. He was sorely tempted to ask Julian, but his pride just wouldn't let him. "So, Julian," he said brightly, "Where are you headed? You don't live in this Inima-forsaken forest, do you?"

[Anonymous]

Julian didn't know what the monkey was, but he stood there trying to figure it out. Looking as if he might be going somewhere with his thoughts, he was quiet for a time, looking off at some of the trees surrounding them. He didn't figure it out, though, and he wasn't sure if he would without any additional information. For now, though, he classified him as "the talking monkey".

He was well aware of the smell still heavy in the air, but it wasn't just Miraj and he obviously wasn't the source of it either. Looking around but seeing nothing, he decided to let the issue lie. It wasn't going to kill him to have to smell something bad for a while. And besides, if he was lucky, maybe he'd get to see Miraj bathe...he liked the idea of that. Grinning that personal, knowing grin, Julian nodded in agreement. "Definitely not old."

"Live here? No, my home is much, much more beautiful than this forest. But I'm just traveling the continent, I suppose. End to end and I'm on the northbound trip, so I guess I'm just traveling north." He shuffled his feet a little, wondering why Miraj was asking. "And yourself?"

[Anonymous]

Miraj didn't know if he liked the look of that grin. There was something predatory about it, something that made his legs feel distinctly gooey. Was this the shapeshifter's way of flirting?

"South. I left Serenpidity a few days ago," he lied, "bound for Adela. I know of a sorcerer there who's supposed to selling a grimoire of some sort in Ketra." Grimoires were a guilty pleasure of Miraj's; he liked studying demons, and summoning them, too, when it was prudent. For the most part, demons tolerated him; he didn't force them to perform any demeaning tasks, like many sorcerers did. When Miraj summoned a demon, it was usually to learn from them about magic, and history, and sacred artifacts. He wondered what the demons said about him when he released them back into the Void. Probably, "What a nerd."

If Julian was traveling north, then there was a good chance he knew how to get to Adela. Still... there was just no way Miraj was going to admit that he'd gotten himself lost. He thought he had been traveling south up until this point, but even of that he wasn't sure. The Draconi forest had the inconvenient habit of becoming too foggy or overgrown for the sun to be visible.

ooc: agh, so short! x_X

[Anonymous]

Julian blinked. He blinked again, slowly, confused. "A few days ago? You travel...fast." Perhaps he had some secret hidden beast that traveled like lightning, but Julian was sure that trip was nearly impossible in a few days of walking, and even having a horse was pushing a few days. If he had a horse to ride through that much space he'd probably killed the poor thing with the effort.

"Did you use some sort of magic? I've never heard of people making that trip that fast. I mean, I don't travel much, but I thought it was a week's walk at the least... But why are you this far out in the forest? Detour? Meeting a secret lover?" Julian waggled his eyebrows suggestively, laughing lightly. "This is pretty far out to go in just a few days...why did you go west first? If you don't mind my asking."

It then dawned on Julian that this was an opportunity. "Do you need help getting there? The forest can get confusing at times and...I'm in no rush." There, he said it. There wasn't anything wrong with wanting to watch Miraj, to admire him in silence. Julian was making this trip for his own amusement and Miraj presented the prime opportunity for amusement.

[Anonymous]

Miraj could have hit himself for being so stupid. He'd completely forgotten that Julian didn't know about the horse! "Ah... yes. You might say I used a little... magic to get here." The lemur was laughing again, but Miraj pointedly ignored its sniggering. 'This far out in the forest,' he asks? Just how far off-course did that pixie lead me? And when did I go west, for that matter? Julian's questions only confirmed the niggling fear that had been hovering in the back of Miraj's mind for the past week and a half: that he was truly and utterly lost. Even if he were to try to retrace his steps back to Serendipity, he wasn't sure he'd be able to.

So when Julian offered to help guide him, Miraj brightened like a sixty-watt bulb. Then he forced his face into a neutral expression, not wanting to appear too desperate for the man's help. "I don't need help getting there, no, but you're welcome to come along if you don't have anything better to do," he said. Then he added, almost contritely, "I wouldn't mind the company, I suppose. We will have to make a slight... detour into the forest for a moment, though." Sooner or later, he'd have to do something about that damned horse. The spell he'd used to reanimate it would last until he cast the cancellation spell; if he was going to travel the rest of the way on foot, the least he could do was put the beast out of its misery.

He almost pitied Julian the sight he was about to see. A necromancer himself, Miraj was accustomed to seeing rotting, disease-ridden bodies. Most people, though, felt their dinners coming up their throats the moment they saw anything that had been dead more than a couple of days. Oh well... it'll be well and truly dead soon. Poor Bessie. He turned and made his way into the foliage, pushed past a few spindly bushes and into the clearing where he'd left the reanimated horse. The air was rather ripe, and he was forced to press the cuff of his sleeve to his nose to keep himself from feeling queasy. He hadn't realized just how badly the creature smelled till now.

The horse was pawing the ground restlessly and nibbling at the leaves of a nearby bush. Miraj always found it somewhat ironic that undead horses retained their appetites even after their stomachs had long since become inactive. Where did all that chewed-up foliage go, anyway? Did undead horses still have digestive fluids? These were the pretty thoughts that ran through Miraj's mind as he untethered the beast from its tree. He didn't want to look at Julian's face, but he imagined he knew what the man's expression would look like, and it wasn't pretty.

Too late, he realized he hadn't told Julian that he was a necromancer. He'd told him that he was from Thanatos, but not all Thanati were necromancers; some of them, strangely enough, even abhorred the practice. Crap. There were countless people in the world who hated his kind; what if Julian was one of them?

[Anonymous]

Miraj was fast, but Julian was faster. He caught that little glint of hopefulness in his eyes, and he began to grow curious as he noticed that look of neutrality appeared forced. Interesting, he thought. Shrugging a little, he said, "I have all the time in the world." And it was true. He had no job to hold him down, had no lover, no children, and no pets.

"A detour?" What could he possibly mean by that? Curious, though, Julian followed him through the brush. What he saw was a bit startling, but nothing to be scared or disgusted with, really, or at least he thought so. The horse he saw looked like it should be dead, for all its missing parts, and he wondered why it really did look so dead...and then it dawned on him. It's dead. But it moved, and that was confusing, but it was so obviously dead to him. Baffling. "Umm...it smells bad," Julian complained, voice soft as he covered his nose with a hand. "Oh, so this was what smelled so bad back there. Did you ride it here? How long have you been riding that thing? Poor creature."

Julian wasn't mad at Miraj, he didn't yet realize that this was his doing, but he wasn't likely to be upset even when he would find out about what Miraj was, or did. "Wait...are we taking that thing with us? I think that's considered torture, Miraj, let that poor thing die... You can walk, can't you?"

[Anonymous]

"Yes, I rode it here, Inima help me." Miraj still couldn't believe he'd gone for fourteen days without shooting himself with a crossbow bolt. "Torture?" he asked. He'd never thought of raising the dead as torture; a body was simply a vessel, no more sacred than a tree or a flower. It was the soul that was truly sacred, and the horse's soul had long since gone. The beast was simply an empty, soulless husk of meat. Was it even possible to torture something that didn't have a soul? "Nonsense. The raising spell kills most of its nerve functionality, so it feels very little at all."

After all, if the horse could literally feel its hide peeling off its bones, it wouldn't be of much use to him. The necromancers of Thanatos had perfected the art of preserving just those nerves that were useful to their purposes (e.g. nerves that registered pressure and temperature), and killing off those that weren't (e.g. nerves that registered pain). A liberal-minded nitpicker might argue that just because the horse didn't feel pain, didn't mean that it wasn't suffering. After all, it was watching helplessly as its flesh decomposed from around it. But necromancers weren't liberal-minded nitpickers.

"Don't worry. I'm not taking it with me. Hold on a moment and I'll cast the cancellation spell." Miraj removed the horse's saddlebag and sifted through its contents to make everything was still there, then slung the pack over his shoulder. He debated over whether or not to take the reins and saddle (they had been pretty pricey), but decided against it; there would be no end to Achashversoh's complaining if he made the demon turn into a donkey to carry it.

[Anonymous]

"Hmm." He wasn't really sure what to make of it with Miraj insisting the horse wasn't feeling anything. He wanted to believe it, he didn't like to see animals in pain. Then again, it really didn't look in pain anyhow, and it was eating. "Well, I suppose you're right..." Julian had no experience with spells or anything, and the word caught his attention.

"Are you one of those...magic people?" He had no idea what to call it. "Umm, I'm forgetting what it is...but you're one of those, yeah? Casting spells and all?" He was probably embarrassing himself. In fact, he knew he was embarrassing himself. A touch of red came to his cheeks, both for the frustration of not knowing and knowing he'd said something stupid like that in front of Miraj. "Well, if you're done, or will be done soon....umm, we can get going."

He looked out at the little trail he knew to follow, still a little unsure about what to think of the dead, or undead horse and just how it had gotten there. The obvious answer was not something he was willing to accept yet, that Miraj had that sort of "power" to do those sorts of things. "What did you mean by "cancellation", Miraj?" he asked, eyes bright with curiosity.

[Anonymous]

Miraj stopped sifting through his saddlebag to give Julian a long, hard stare. 'One of those magic people?' Miraj found it hard to believe that anyone could be so sheltered that they didn't know what a sorcerer was. Which left one of two options: 1) Julian was toying with him again, or 2) Julian really didn't know what he was. Miraj was leaning toward option two, though; there was no way that Julian could have faked the blush that rose to his cheeks.

Which meant he was in for a big surprise. "I'll show you," he said. He twitched back the cuff of his left sleeve, pressed his middle- and forefinger to the horse's forehead, and muttered a short incantation underneath his breath. The part of the horse's forehead located directly beneath Miraj's fingers glowed faintly as he spoke. When he was finished the glow vanished, and so did the light from behind the horse's eyes. The beast fell to the ground like a jointless rag doll, well and truly dead.

Miraj took a step back, brushing his hands together, like he was wiping them clean of the whole affair. "There," he said. "That's what I meant by 'cancellation.' To answer your question, Julian, yes: I am one of 'those' magic people. A necromancer, specifically, though I dabble in other arts like demon-summoning and the occult. I try to be well-rounded." He stroked Achashverosh absently. "Shall we go, then?"

[Anonymous]

He'd watched in amazement as Miraj did his thing. At first he didn't think anything would really happen, but when he saw a little bit of a glow he wondered what was really about to happen. Staring, wide-eyed, his jaw dropped a little as he watched the horse crumple to the ground. "Wow." That was all he could say and he thought it was...well, lame that he couldn't come up with any better. "You...did that? It's not an illusion? Necromancer?" Julian had so many questions now, the act of "re-killing" the horse tickling his mind.

He decided to shut up, though; asking questions was only going to get him in trouble or embarrass him eventually by asking something stupid or too obvious for normal people to ask about. Eyeing the demon, still unsure about him, Julian nodded. "Y-yeah, um...yeah, let's get going."

Leading off, Julian took them down a trail he'd used for hunting the previous night. He knew that it would reach the main road eventually, he just wasn't sure how long that would take as his sense of navigation was much, much better in his jaguar form, as was his speed. Walking, though, could provide him with some insight.

[Anonymous]

Miraj raised an eyebrow, an uncertain smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Of course it wasn't an illusion. What would be the point of that?" Miraj didn't know what to make of Julian's seeming ignorance: it was amusing, but it was also astonishing (how can one get to be Julian's age and never meet a sorcerer?). Then again, there was something refreshing about it. Miraj had been surrounded by sorcerers, necromancers, and occultists all his life, memorizing incantations and studying demonic grimoires; Julian was in-the-flesh evidence that there were other people on the planet who weren't completely consumed by the desire for magical power.

Of course, the notion was completely alien to Miraj. His whole life was one big mission to become more powerful, more skilled, more intelligent, and more resourceful than any other necromancer on the planet. His master was consumed with the pursuit of magic, and so was his master before that. What on earth did Julian fill his time with, if not with the quest for limitless magical prowess?

He must be simple-minded... or something, Miraj decided. He followed Julian's lead, making an effort to appear as if he, too, knew where he was going. He had to walk just far enough behind Julian that the werecat lead the way, but not so far that it was apparent that Miraj was following. It was exhausting. "Do you mean to say that you've never met a sorcerer before? I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the first necromancer you've met; we aren't too common outside Thanatos. But you haven't even met a witch or warlock?" The thought was mind-boggling. Then something else occurred to him: "Is Achashverosh the first demon you've met?"

[Anonymous]

After he was "turned", Julian began leading a very minimalist life. He didn't travel more than was necessary to get a book or something because he felt it would expend too much time and energy. For about seven years he'd been living in the Kishahn Jungle, alone. He'd enjoyed the solitude because even before he hadn't been all that social. Julian simply enjoyed an uncomplicated lifestyle, by nature, but he'd suddenly gotten the bright idea of leaving the jungle for a while and doing a bit of sight-seeing.

Until he'd met Miraj he hadn't encountered hardly anyone outside of a city or village he visited. As much as he hated to admit it, Julian was very uncultured by design. Before his little bright idea to do some exploring he had never really shown interest in learning about new kinds of people and the species of the world in which he lived in. Now, though, he found his mind full of questions, his eyes surely bright with that twinkle of curiosity he thought would better suit a young boy than a man in his early twenties.

Blushing again for the thought, he angled his head a little to look back at Miraj when he spoke to him again. "Ahh, no?" His cheeks redden to a deeper shade. "Is that what it's called? A "sorcerer"? What's a, uh..."necromancer"?" Thank the gods he'd heard of Thanatos at least, he was extremely thankful for that. "No, I haven't ever met one of those...is that weird? Am I weird? Oh goodness...a demon? Wait, are you messing with me?" Julian had been slowing down this whole time and finally he stopped. "I thought...well, I just-...uhh." How was he going to say this without looking stupid? Oh yeah, he wasn't. "I thought demons were...just a myth...but he's just some talking monkey, right? No demons?" Oh dear was he in for a rude awakening.