In the Footsteps of Dragons

[DragonSong]

The wild girl stared him down. She didn't rise to match his height--or as near as she could get--but the snapping fire behind her eyes made it clear that it was far from a show of submission.

"If you want more than my name, you have to earn it," she told him firmly. "These mountains are dangerous. Could be I'm part of what makes them so. Or maybe I just know how to survive them--do you?"

She held his eyes a moment longer, then dropped her gaze back to the kit she held before setting about tucking it back into her pouch. Fine, if he didn't want to use it that was no great loss to her. "I was out hunting," she told him in partial answer to his question. "The storm drove me into shelter, same as you."

[Kalak8538]

The man still failed in his mental evaluation this Vara, but some pieces were coming together in his mind. He actually admired the fortitude of her character. His body relaxed as his guard fell further. Perhaps there was the tiniest sign that a smirk was about to form in the corner of the Draconic being's still-human mouth.

"So, I take it you live out here as well?"

Slowly and with visible hesitance, he reached for the offered kit.

[DragonSong]

That little twitch of his lips was enough to soften Vara's own shoulders slightly. She paused when he reached for the kit, then slowly extended it out toward him, moving with the same slow, careful wariness as with which she might approach a wild animal.

"No. Not here." She glanced out into the rain. "Further in, towards the peaks. I...came pretty far, hunting."

She flicked her eyes back toward him and cocked her head to the side in a curious, distinctly animal gesture. "You?"

[Kalak8538]

The hand off of the pack of remedies proved to be a great leap towards ending what hostility may have remained. The man searched for the described ingredient, but looked back to Vara with a hint of incredulity.

"Nah... You wouldn't find me that high up. That's dragon country."

As his attention fell back to the kit, his claws pulled a single leaf with a surprising amount of manual dexterity. It was obvious he did not know the next step.

[DragonSong]

Vara smiled--bright and wide and closer to an expression of bared teeth than anything truly human. "Course it is," she replied blithely, even as she sat forward to gesture to the leaf he held. "Crumple it, along the veins if you can, to get the pulp out. Then you spread that over the burns."

She nodded to the linen wrappings balled in the bottom of the kit and added, "I could show you how to bind the wounds too, if you want."

She sat back again, not wanting to crowd his personal space. She figured it was best to give people who tended to throw lightning around a wide berth when it seemed they wanted it. 

[Kalak8538]

The man did as he was instructed to the best of his ability..

"Don't need it. It's just the hands."

This was the truth. The draconic body sustained no damage, except on the hands where the spear was grasped. He rubbed the remedy between the scaled palms.

"I am Barak..."

[DragonSong]

"Barak," she repeated. Then she smiled; she was a bit out of practice with the expression, so it was a little awkward, but she did her best. "Well. Nice to meet you. Now hold still."

She leaned forward to wrap his hands once he'd smoothed the salve between them. "Keep that on at least until morning. If you need more salve, I can give you more before I leave in the morning."