The Hunt

[Razor-D-Belphe]

Grizzly shifted.
"You keep saying 'human'. Are you not human originally, then? Also, I can understand your trepidation about people, but you kind of have to take them on a case by case basis. I'm no more a monster than anything else that hunts to survive. If something kills me, it's all fair. Nature doesn't play favorites, and it doesn't deal in right or wrong. It's just all one big fight for survival."

[DragonSong]

"I'm not...originally anything," Ghost replied with another little shrug. She gestured to her humanoid form. "This is my earliest shape that I can remember. But they're all me, all those shapes. Just me."

[Razor-D-Belphe]

"Fascinating. How far back do you remember?" Grizzly asked between swigs of ale.

[DragonSong]

Ghost blinked at him. "Um...I'm not sure? How far back can you remember?" she countered.

[Razor-D-Belphe]

"Age three." Grizzly said. "I was gifted my first axe."

He smiled in fond remembrance.

[DragonSong]

"Why?" Ghost demanded, blinking.

[Razor-D-Belphe]

"My tribe carved out their living in the wilds, far away from civilization. If you couldn't fight or hunt, you didn't survive. Simple as that." Grizzly shrugged.

[DragonSong]

Ghost shook her head. "But not even forest-animals do that to their young," she pointed out with a frown. "Kits don't hunt until they are ready. Birds do not leave the nest before they fledge."

[Razor-D-Belphe]

Grizzly was silent, as though he had never considered the possibility that he had been forced to grow up young when he didn't have to. This thought was alien and confusing, so he brushed it aside. But it would return.

"Well. It is what it is."

[DragonSong]

The shapeshifter took another sip of her water. It tasted strange, like metal and finished wood.

People were staring at them. She could feel their eyes on her back and hunched her shoulders, frowning. "Why are they all looking at us?"

[Razor-D-Belphe]

"Well, probably because you're completely naked." Grizzly said, slightly amused. "It's customary among most people to wear clothes in public, you see."

[DragonSong]

Ghost looked down at herself, then to her companion, then around the tavern, then back. "That's the people-fur. Why?"

[Razor-D-Belphe]

"To keep warm, originally. Now it's something like being ashamed of one's naked form. Others use clothes as a status symbol. Ridiculous." Grizzly said, oblivious to the bear pelt he wore with pride.

[DragonSong]

"You do it," Ghost pointed out easily, raising her eyebrows.

[Razor-D-Belphe]

"Huh? Oh, this? I killed it myself, so it's different. It shows my strength and skill, not that I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth." he argued.

[DragonSong]

"But you still wear it," Ghost retorted, desperately trying to make sense of what he was telling her. "It just...looks different from the others'."

[Razor-D-Belphe]

Unbeknownst to either of them, a hooded man watched from a corner of the tavern, eyes burning holes in their backs.

He watched them very carefully, sensing something amiss.
Watched - and waited.

[DragonSong]

The shapeshifter took another sip from her drink, then shivered and looked around. She'd been hunted often enough to know the feeling of being watched.

Abruptly, she got to her feet. "I should leave. I've been here too long." She tilted her head at her strange companion. "You...should not hunt in these woods anymore."

[Razor-D-Belphe]

Grizzly chuckled. "Gonna have to try harder than that. There's plentiful game in these forests. In any case, my cabin is back that way. We're heading the same way, so I'll accompany you.

Grizzly was no shapeshifter, but his instincts weren't much slower. He had soon caught on to the stranger's presence, and decided to see what he would do next. As they stepped out into the now dark wilds, Grizzly listened. There were footsteps behind them.

[DragonSong]

Ghost rolled her eyes-- a very human gesture, but one that she had actually picked up from her foster mother-- and headed in a beeline for the woods.

She glanced over her shoulder, but only saw Grizzly following her. Not feeling the need to continue conversation, she huffed and shook her head, then let her form melt away into that of a snowy white doe, all big eyes and delicate legs.