Well what do we have here?

[Anonymous]

They had finally gotten out of the Thunderblacks and into Serendipity proper, though only just. Uxia wasn't really comfortable flying on Hatame, despite his offering and she was still shaking off the effects of that fight with the demon, she didn't want to push the gryphon too far.

As it was, they were stuck between towns. Hatame was off trying to find some dinner for them, but Uxia had sensed something darker. There was a demon, or something demon tainted in the woods. Leaving Hatame to find a rabbit or something, she had taken up her spear and gone to hunt her own prey.

It hadn't taken her long to find it. It was a doe, almost normal looking. But there was a demon, a parasite, riding around in it. Without her training, Uxia would never have noticed. It was a pretty simple demon, low powered and waiting for something better to come along.

This would be a new one for her, she wasn't really used to hunting animals. Couldn't be too different she imagined. She needed to move fast or it would bolt and she had no ranged weapons. A deep breath, her orange eyes never leaving her prey, Uxia lunged forward, slamming her spear into the deers back haunch.

With a scream, the deer thrashed, trying to flee but the wound prevented it. Pulling her spear back, Uxia started to stab again as the beast started changing, the demon taking over in an attempt at self preservation.

[Rhindeer]

Cadmus crouched down low, wings tucked in close to his body and golden eyes intently watching the doe feed. The tip of his tufted tail flicked and he crept closer, footsteps silent, muscle and sinew rippling beneath his sleek black coat. His ears pricked forward. Just a little closer. A little closer and he would be within springing distance. He didn't normally like hunting does; it was bad to do. But it wasn't fawning season and she looked lean, her belly not swollen, and after several hours and no luck with game, he'd settled on her.

He stepped closer, and was now within range. His muscles bunched as he prepared to spring--

And then a human leaped into the fray, wielding a spear, and the deer gave an unearthly scream.

And started to change.

Before long, it didn't look like a deer at all.

With a piercing shriek, it turned on the woman, long, talon-like claws slashing for her.

Without another thought, Cadmus lunged, springing at the creature and landing on its back, and it screeched again as his talons sank home and his hooked beak went to work, slashing and tearing viciously at the thing.

[Anonymous]

"Careful! The blood is toxic!" This stuffed lacked the acidic qualities of the dogs she and Hatame had fought, but it was still bad to swallow. Dodging the claws, Uxia let the gryphon distract it. Reaching a hand in between the writhing bodies, Uxia braced against the stranger, hand over the demonic does chest and chanted.

The doe screamed again, thrashing and tearing at the pair, black bile leaking from it's eyes and mouth. Still chanting, Uxia managed to exorcise the demon, doe shuddering as it shifted back to normal.

Panting and flecked with blood, Uxia stood, wiping some hair off her face and leaving a smear of blood behind, "Are you alright? Did it injure you?"

[Rhindeer]

Cadmus had the doe by the back of her neck, beak clenching down until he heard bone crack, but the demon didn't still until the chanting ended, and it was all he could do to hold on until then. When the doe shuddered and then went limp, only then did he let go.

And then he promptly rolled off of it, turned his back to the woman, and retched.

Even though the woman had warned him against the blood, some of it had gone down his throat and more had pooled in his mouth. In this form, with a beak and lacking a human's mouth and cheeks, he couldn't actually spit--but he could regurgitate what he'd taken in, and that's exactly what he did. It wasn't the most flattering thing ever, and not exactly the first thing he wanted to do after meeting someone for the first time after a good fight, but it was necessary. The blood had tasted vile and he wasn't about to be poisoned.

When he was done, he rubbed his beak in the grass to clean it. Then he turned to face the woman and gave her an odd look. Or rather, an odd look as far as gryphons went. He tilted his head.

"How did you know I could understand you?"

Most people freaked out when they saw him in this form and assumed he was some mindless beast.

[Anonymous]

Uxia was a healer and had dealt with her fair share of bodily fluids. Cadmus retching didn't faze her in the slightest, it was in fact, the right move to make. Moving closer, she pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and got it wet with water, "Come here. I'll clean your beak out."

Carefully getting the blood off the beak, Uxia shrugged, "I am currently struck traveling with a gryphon. I have never really met one besides him, so I assumed you would be like him." A small smile tugged at her lips, "I just hope you aren't too much like him."

[Rhindeer]

Cadmus let her clean him off, still perplexed by how she was acting--but soon he got his answer. Another gryphon?

He lifted his shoulders in a shrug, an all too human gesture. "I suppose I can't really say whether I am one way or the other without meeting him," he said, and then dipped his head gratefully. "Anyway, thank you. Now, ah, if you'll excuse a moment, I'll go change. I'm told it's a little awkward talking to me like this."

[Anonymous]

Uxia really didn't have a problem with him in his gryphon form. People's appearances didn't matter much to her and she had found Hatame's gryphon form much more useful than his human one. Well, he was good at washing hair. That was about it.

While he went and shifted, Uxia started to butcher the meat. With the demon gone, it was just a normal deer now and no point in wasting the food.

[Rhindeer]

Cadmus slipped off into the bushes and retrieved his clothes where he'd left them. It took several minutes to shift and then to change back into them--just a simple tunic, worn traveling breeches, boots, and a sword buckled at his belt--but when he was finished he stepped back out from the cover of the shrubbery and headed back over to where the woman was. It wasn't that he was body shy or modest; it was simply that he knew most humans were and he respected that.

Running his fingers through his shaggy black hair, he paused behind Uxia, watching her butcher the animal for a moment before he cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Do you need any help?" It wasn't that he didn't think her capable; she'd long since proven herself and, well, his clan just didn't have the gender roles that these people did. It simply never crossed his mind to think of a woman as not capable; rather, it all boiled down to what the individual could do--and wanted to do. He only offered because it would make the job go faster..

[Anonymous]

Turning, Uxia started to let him know she wouldn't mind the help when she totally forgot what she was going to say. She hadn't really thought about what he might look like, but that wasn't it. He was, with out a doubt, the most attractive person Uxia had ever seen.

Warmth rushed through her, her body tingling slightly and she was suddenly aware she was covered in blood flecks and her hair was a mess. Something she normally never even considered.

"Oh...what? Um-" Uxia flushed, feeling stupid as she quickly regained her composure, "Yes. Please. The help would make this go faster."

[Rhindeer]

Cadmus blinked as she stumbled over her words, but as soon as she gave him the go-ahead, he knelt down beside her and drew a knife from his belt.

"I figure I ought to, as I helped take it down. Which means I should also take a share of the work, not just the glory." He flashed her a brief, friendly smile before he took the knife to the deer's flank, shearing muscle from the bone. Normally, he would just eat straight from the kill and drag the rest back to camp, but he'd done his share of butchering, too.

People weren't always okay with him eating like that, after all.

"I'm Cadmus, by the way," he said as he worked, the knife going slippery in his hands from the blood, blood he was tempted to lick. "What's your name?"

[Anonymous]

Uxia nodded, very quickly controlling her emotions. He was a very pretty face, even more so when he smiled, but that didn't mean anything. She had no use for any of that...stuff.

"Would you rather I leave your share on the bone?" Uxia spent enough time with Hatame to have picked up a few things and the simple act of eating wasn't going to bother her. "I'm Uxia. Thank you for your assistance in dispatching the demon."

[Rhindeer]

Yet again, she--Uxia--surprised him. He tilted his head curiously, but after a pause he nodded. Well, she did say she had been traveling with a gryphon, so that probably explained it. "If you would. That'll make a little less work for you, anyway. That doesn't bother you?"

At her next comment, he gave a little laugh. "Honestly, I didn't know it was a demon," he admitted. "I'd been hunting it for a while. I thought it was just a deer."

[Anonymous]

Uxia looked up, puzzled, "Why would it bother me?" She was dead serious. She actually had no idea why the act of watching a gryphon feeding from a deer corpse should bother her, "It was a low level demon. Weak. They attach to things, ride host bodies. Probably been trying to find something better to jump into. Just be glad you didn't eat it."

[Rhindeer]

Cadmus grimaced at the thought of eating a parasite like that. Honestly, though he was a fighter through and through, his knowledge of--and experience with--demons was scarce. He hadn't encountered many and didn't plan on it. "Would it have possessed me if I did?"

[Anonymous]

"Probably. Not right away, I imagine you would have been a little strong for it. But eventually." Uxia felt her ears heating just a little, eyes focused on the meat, though she kept sneaking glances at him and wishing she wasn't so disheveled.

[Rhindeer]

"Oh." Cadmus paused in his cutting and gave Uxia a sidelong, appreciative look. "I should be thanking you, then. If we hadn't been hunting the same beast, if you hadn't known what it was..." He trailed off, then looked back to his work and finished up, wiping his blade off with a corner of his shirt.

"You're very good, by the way," he added, still looking down at his knife. "How did you know what it was?"

[Anonymous]

Uxia cleaned her knife as well, taking care with it before getting her water skin out and trying to clean up as best she could, still not even noticing the smear of blood across her cheek, "I am a member of the Order of the Moon. It's what we do. I can sense demonic presence if it isn't too far away."

She glanced over at the dark skinned man, her heart thumping again, "What about you? What brings you here?"

[Rhindeer]

"The Order of the Moon...I've heard of that. In Moonspear, correct?" Cadmus had never met anyone in the Order but he had heard enough about it--and this woman was swiftly proving more and more interesting. "As for me, well..." He sheathed his blade in his belt. "Just hunting. I'm originally from Serendipity but I do a lot of traveling and--ah, pardon, you have a little--"

Reaching over, Cadmus smoothed his thumb over her cheek, trying to wipe away the smudge, but in doing so he only smeared more blood on her face, having forgotten his own bloodied hands.

[Anonymous]

The light flush on her cheeks darkened and her heart pounded. Uxia's brain went blank, her body responding the the attraction. These were normally things she repressed and ignored and Cadmus was making that very hard.

Her hands, only half cleaned off came up, trying to smooth her hair down as well as clean her face, "Oh. Uh, thank you. I'm a mess...sorry."

[Rhindeer]

"Sorry? For what?" Cadmus asked, genuinely confused, and grimaced. He wiped his hand off on his shirt and tried again, but only ended up smearing the smear. "I just made it worse, anyway. I'm as bloody as you are. Ah, there is a stream over by--"

"You get your hands off her this minute, you beast!"

Blinking, Cadmus twisted to look, right as Hatame, in human form, burst onto the scene. He was panting, dark skin shining with sweat and leaves in his currently braided hair; it was obvious that he'd been running hard and he had been, ever since he felt that odd, abrupt spike of pleasure along their connection. It had immediately gotten his attention, because that had to be the first time he'd ever felt that, and he had to investigate. For Uxia's safety, of course.

His narrowed green eyes fixed accusingly on Cadmus and he marched over to the pair, scowling. "Taking advantage of a lone woman like that! For shame! Uxia, c'mon!"