Three is a Crowd

Eiris listens intently, mulling things over in her mind. When he provides a little more detail to his answer, she nods, leaning back and chuckling. "Alright, I goofed up a little. Not that anything I told you is wrong... just that I wasn't clear enough with my question. All I asked for was a glimpse into your life, but I didn't specify the paradigm. So... it's a little off-center, if you will." She taps the last card, though she neglects to elaborate on it. "And I suspect that what I saw, and what I'm going to tell you may change your plans. Or it might not!" She holds up her hands. "Just so we're clear on this, I'm not saying that anything is written in stone. I'm not a seer, I'm just an interpreter - everything I tell you is based on educated guesses and context, with just a little help from a higher power to nudge my thoughts in the right direction. That's it. Now, I can't say that I'm not usually right, because I am. Sometimes to my detriment. But there's always a chance that I could be off." She dusts her hands off, and rests her hands on her knees, elbows out. That was quite an elaborate disclaimer. She usually doesn't bother telling her clients that they can listen at their own risk. It's common sense - there are too many charlatans out there, and until recently, she's been a fairly good one herself. But this deck seems to have some kind of charm on it. It's the real deal. She may not have the gift, but she can sure as sunshine use the knowledge she's already gleaned from years of practicing the art of bard-ish bullshit to interpret what it shows her. That, and she likes him. Peculiar as that sentiment may be, as they just met - but he seems kind, and he's quite attractive, so it makes a certain amount of sense. But that being the case, she doesn't want to scare him off or upset him. Hence the disclaimer.

"Based on the paradigm I think some of this information was coming from... there's a good chance that your mother lied to you about your father dying - I think she might have done it out of a need to protect you. Was she often preoccupied with the thought that her children would... well, turn out like you - wandering? Did she ever grow anxious at any specific time of the year, as if waiting for something, or hoping to avoid something? Did she raise you or your sister with kind of a bleak view on males, or elves, unconsciously?" It's not uncommon for the race of Men to have a bleak view on other races, but something tells her that if his mother had it in her to bear two children with someone of the Elder race, she was tolerant herself. But if she had a disappearing lover, that might have blackened her views, even with mixed-race children under her roof.

---

Astrior opens her mouth, as she sometimes does when she has words in her head in this form, but closes it again to wag her tail. "Yes, it is." She doesn't realize for a moment that the words she can hear in her head are also audible to her ears. "What..." Her ears twitch, as she tries to look around and see where the sound is coming from, but she realizes after a moment that it's coming from her. Somehow. She's not speaking, but her thoughts are definitely able to be heard aloud, as if she was. "Is... that's... that's me! But I'm not talking!" Her mouth hangs open for a moment, and she tries to form words that way, but all she succeeds in doing is letting out a loud bark. "Ah! Oops... sorry. I don't... why is this happening?" She paces around him, looking at him for an answer, though she know he doesn't have one. So she looks around at the forest. She can still sense everything she did before, but her mind seems much clearer now. "It's this place... it has to be. I don't know how, but it has to be."

Malachite regards Eiris as she explains her off-center reading. He's not sure entirely what she means, but watches her tap the card as if he knew. He looks a bit perplexed by her warning, because he never expected one, not because of not understanding. But what she says next is shocking. He first wants to call the elf a liar, but because he likes her he refrains. He tries to think back to the time she spoke of, it was so long ago. And before today he hadn't thought of it in an equally long amount of time. What possible reason would his mother have to lie? What could anyone gain from this? He realizes his mouth was agape and snaps it shut. His brows lower from their surprise into something akin to anger. He's not sure who to be angry with. His mother, Eiris, his father...He wonders if anything he was told as a child was true.

With a sigh, he thinks back to his youth. He tried to think of his mother and the things she had said. She never wanted them to wander as he did now, this he knew. Had she ever said anything outright about elves? He thought not. But what about her actions? He tried to recall something to disprove Eiris, wanting it all to be a lie, but instead he thinks of a time that proves her right. He nods, looking off to his memories. "You're right...By the gods, you're right."

----

Micah's eyes go wide when he hears a voice. There are so many things wrong with this! Astrior is a wolf, and can't talk. But even if she COULD, her mouth wasn't moving and to his knowledge she's not a ventriloquist, so what the hell just happened? He looks as confused as she sounds and jumps slightly when she barks. still caught off guard. "I don't know why this is happening, but it is beyond weird. I cannot tell you right now how freaked out I am. What is WITH this place?" He gestures at the woods in disgust.

Eiris winces slightly as she can see the whirlwind of emotions blur past behind his eyes. He's mad. She knows he's going to be mad now. He might not even want to stay with the group. She hopes she hasn't said something completely backwards... no, she hasn't. She's never been wrong with this particular deck before, for better or for worse. But goddamnit. She could have just kept it to herself - now he's going to be upset with her. She waits for him to stand up and march away, but to her surprise, he doesn't. He doesn't even yell at her. Well, this is unexpected. She doesn't have time to even enjoy that small victory before she hears barking faintly in the distance, and winces over that. She coughs lightly, hoping he didn't hear that. "Yeah, so... um. You're probably upset, so if you want to be alone with your thoughts, I'll leave you to it for a few minutes..." She starts to rise, intending to go check on the others. Astrior ought to know better than to bark in these woods, damn fur-for-brains that she is right now.

---

Astrior moves in a circle as if following her tail momentarily while she thinks. That's the equivalent to her normal pacing, but in this form, it looks silly. "I don't know. I don't understand it. What I DO know is that there's some kind of magic in this forest, and I believe it's keeping track of us. I don't know why, or how, it's just a feeling that I get. Like the earth is pulsing. I... I can't explain it better than that. I didn't feel it before I turned." She stops at his feet and sits, looking at him. "It feels like it pulses more strongly here. That must be why I can talk to you. Well... talk... as it were." She smiles slightly in her wolfish way, and moves forward to put her head in his lap. She can interact with him in ways she wouldn't feel comfortable doing otherwise, when she's in wolf form. "Give me your impressions on Eiris' friend. After I turned, I sniffed around the camp a little, but I didn't sense anything suspicious about him."

His expression turns to one of general sadness momentarily but the bark sets him to alert and he reaches for his bow. "What was that? Is there something out there?" He looks around with concern and wonders why Eiris didn't mention hearing it. She should be able to before he would. Is there something she's hiding? Maybe he was wrong about her. In fact, maybe she's been lying about everything. She could've lied about the cards just to set him on edge and now is trying to lie about this noise...but why? He isn't sure whether to be angry or confused but with the noise out in the woods, there isn't time to bother with her and find out the truth. He looks toward the woods again. "Did you hear that sound? You had to have heard it." He sounds a bit accusing, waiting to see if she will try to cover it up.

----

Micah glances around, "I hope they didn't hear that." He takes in what Astrior is telling him, still confused by it all. Magic? Why would any magic be so strong here? And why would it be keeping track of us? What is that about? When Astrior suddenly questions Eiris' new friend he shrugs. "He seems ok. I don't see anything wrong with him. I mean, he can't be connected to this forest, it's older than Eiris!" He chuckles and crouches beside Astrior. "Don't worry about him." He pets her behind the ears.

Eiris cringes again, adopting an unnatural and unbalanced pose since she was caught in the action of almost leaving. Righting herself, she glances around for anything that might prove to be a suitable weapon, should he decide to raise that bow to her. There's... not much, unless she can somehow vault behind him and gather up her own weapons. "Oh, I'm sure there's plenty of stuff out there. This forest is hella old, and all..." She chuckles weakly, but then gives that up, sighing and drooping her shoulders. "Okay look, yes, I heard it, and I know what it is. It's just... complicated. And if I tell you, you're either going to bolt, or think I'm a crazy person, and either way, it's bad news for both of us. It's not dangerous to us, if that's what you're worried about. I mean, I wouldn't blame you for worrying. It's kind of a creepy forest anyway." God, woman, shut your mouth. She puts her hands up in an gesture of submission. "I'll just keep quiet if you're tired of hearing me talk by now."

---

Astrior's tail wags as he begins petting her ears, and she closes her eyes, obviously enjoying the attention. "Alright... he gets a pass. I won't worry about it anymore." She nuzzles his leg and smiles again in her own way. "It's nice to be able to talk to you while I'm in this form. But I'm sure when we leave this spot, it'll go away. Let's stay here tonight. I'll keep you safe."

Malachite's green eyes narrow, disappointed that she tried to cover things up again. As she continues he gets more confused, but he is glad she decided to come clean. Maybe he wasn't wrong to trust her. Nonetheless, there is no time to worry about her and whether or not to trust her right now. There is still the sound of something and it's close. He has to look into it. This isn't just a sound the woods make, he knows that. Even if these woods are weird, they don't make random barking sounds. So he turns toward where the sound came from. "If you want to explain, I suggest you do it now. I'm going to find the source of that sound and I'm going in armed." He squares his shoulders and faces her head-on. He has never looked more serious than he does now, letting her know without words that there is no time for jokes. He heads toward the sound, if she wants to explain, she can walk with him.

----

Micah pets her again. "Yeah, it's nice to not have to talk to myself when you're a wolf. Whatever it is about this spot...it's still kinda weird, but we can stay." He glances around again, the woods still make him uncomfortable, but with Astrior here, he knows he's safe.

Eiris wants to stop him, but she's not about to lay her hands on him - in this heightened state of anxiousness, he's as likely to knock her out as let her tag along, so she's taking no chances. But she does move after him quickly, trying to talk him down. "Mal, I'm sorry, really. It's not that I didn't want to tell you... hell, we were kind of hoping you just wouldn't notice. Not that Micah's got the good sense to stay in camp... it's not him, don't worry. Well, actually, it might be him. I don't know anymore. See, we've got this problem, but it's more or less under control, so it's really nothing to worry about... god, you walk fast." She's used to a respectable pace herself, but his quick clip through the trees has her working to keep up with him. Damn fast for a mix-breed.

---

Astrior's tail continues to wag, and she soaks up the feel of the pulse under her. It's like a lullaby, coaxing her into the arms of sleep. But she can't sleep, she has Micah to look after. That's likely the only reason she doesn't miss the sound of Eiris' rushed footsteps approaching - her companion's footsteps are almost impossible to hear on the moss-cushioned ground, as he's in hunting mode. Her ears perk up and the hair on the back of her neck rises, a low growl escaping her throat as she scrambles to her feet. "Micah, someone's coming. Be still."

Continuing his quick pace through the woods, Malachite's brow only furrowed more. He was already focused and now he was irritated. He wasn't sure what Eiris was stammering about, but it made no sense to him. Who was the problem, what was the problem and how could it be partly under control? Anyway, Eiris was smart not to touch Mal right now, considering his tight grip on his bow. With his free hand, he draws an arrow, ready for anything. He ignores Eiris' babbling and hurries onward, listening carefully for another sound.

Micah freezes, looking worried. He doesn't hear the footsteps, but he knows Astrior can hear much better than him. He starts to ask who exactly is coming, but before he can, he hears the footsteps himself. He swears under his breath, not sure if he should try to hide or run or just stay. He realizes he is without a weapon, and finds himself wrapping his large hands into fists. This will have to do.

When he gets close enough to see, Malachite's face becomes a map of horror. A wolf? And it's so close Micah. But it doesn't appear to be attacking...he is hopelessly confused, but for safety's sake, readies his bow and aims at the wolf. He steps out where he can be seen. "What's the meaning of this? Someone explain now, before I shoot."

Micah is startled by the sudden appearance of the little man and is more surprised to find him pointing his bow at them. "Malachite?" He frowns and steps between him and Astrior in wolf form. "Wait, um.." He has no idea how to respond. He makes some more noises that aren't quite words and makes a face that would be comical if not for the current situation.

Given the situation and that Micah's answer was not useful, Malachite looks more irritated. He glares at Micah. "I want answers and I want them now. You can explain or Eiris can explain but if one of you doesn't very soon, I am going to shoot and then ask about it. Do you understand?" Micah squeaks out an "understood" but that seems to be the limit of his vocalization.

Eiris is no better at the moment than Micah, stuck between deciding to step up and join them, or slink off into the bushes, and he doesn't want to hear her babbling explanations anymore anyway. Astrior is the one who acts, stepping slowly forward to stand at Micah's side. "I will explain. I am Astrior, and I am lycan." She moves once again between Micah and the armed half-elf, in a stance of unmistakable guardianship. "Shoot me, and I will live, however uncomfortably - I have no intention of attacking. But harm Micah, and I WILL kill you."

Behind Malachite, Eiris shuffles her feet and crosses her arms, sighing and murmuring. "Yeah, that pretty much sums up their relationship." She makes no move to try and disarm Malachite, though she probably could if she put her mind to it. This is just a heap of fun. Party members pointing weapons at one another, Astrior all wolfed out, and talking no less, and she's completely shot her chances with this handsome stranger because she couldn't keep her nose out of old business.

Astrior continues, watching Malachite closely. "I do not change every night - I have a suppressor that can keep me human indefinitely... but I removed that suppressor tonight so that I could better keep watch over the party while we're in this forest. I feel I was right not to trust it - there's a deep magic here that I cannot begin to understand, and I doubt that either of you can, either - Elder blood in you or not." Eiris shrugs, giving an inconclusive nod. "Yeah, more or less. I can't begin to fathom how you're talking, since that doesn't happen." She glances sidelong at Malachite. He's probably not going to take kindly to her doing or saying anything right now. Sighing, she looks back at Astrior. "We heard you barking. Everything alright out here?" Astrior nods, but doesn't take her eyes off Mal. "Yes. We were taken aback by my ability to speak in this clearing, that's all. I don't sense any additional danger, unless we do something to anger the forest or stir the magic here. If we keep more or less to ourselves, then we should be fine."

Malachite was already caught off guard, on edge and confused and when he heard a voice coming from nowhere that appeared to be the wolf, that made it all much worse. He freezes, bow still in hand, and simply stares as his mind tries to make any kind of sense of this mess. With Astrior's threat, his aim wavers, but he moves it back again just in case. He's not sure if he believes this. Everything has been rather unbelievable with these people around, which makes him wonder if he should just leave without bothering with this bunch of weirdos anymore. He opens his mouth as if he is going to speak, but nothing comes out so he shuts it again.

From behind Astrior, Micah breathes a sigh of relief. He feels much safer with her between him and the armed guy. But he doesn't want her getting hurt either. He has his eye on Malachite's bow, but he seems distracted by the news he just received. People usually react in one of three ways when they find out there are lycans nearby. They freak out and create an angry mob, they freak out and run like hell or they deny it until they finally freak out and run away. Since there was no one to create an angry mob, Micah expected this guy to run away, but so far he was standing his ground. This could be interesting.

It certainly would be interesting. Malachite slowly lowered his bow, raising his hands in a non-threatening gesture. "I need a moment to process this." He keeps his hands up as he speaks, "Alright...You are a lycan." He motions toward Astrior, "And you don't have to change, but you were afraid something would happen to us...Most likely to Micah, and you changed. You didn't know you'd be able to talk so you barked and here we are now...And Micah you..." he makes a face of confusion, "You know about they lycanthropy? And it doesn't bother you?" He looks to Eiris now, almost having forgotten her. "And you know! You tried to hide it! Are you all mad?" His eyes grow wide and imploring, trying to understand this. "That's it, isn't it? You're all from some asylum, aren't you?"

Micah shrugs. "Well, we did escape from somewhere recently, but it wasn't really an asylum and it was a really, really bad place to be. But they did give us these neat bracers!" He holds his arms up to show his off, without realizing he just implicated himself. "Anyway, it's not that bad. Astrior doesn't hurt anyone. She didn't even hurt me when we were first traveling together. But I was scared of her, so I climbed up a tree.."

Eiris makes an apologetic face when Malachite looks at her for answers, wishing she could be more helpful. Astrior looks up at Micah and shakes her head as he implicates herself, and Eiris speaks up. "Yeah, Micah's got it too. He's just not wolfed out. Actually, we stole those bracers, but they were going to give them to you anyway, so..." "Enough of this." Astrior sits, now that Malachite has unnotched his arrow and lowered his bow. "As you're seening, it is possible to live with Lycanthropy and not be the mindless monster that everyone thinks of when they imagine a Lycan on the loose. We didn't tell you, for that reason."

Eiris reaches out and lightly touches Malachite on the shoulder. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before... I didn't want you to shoot either of them. And... I'm sorry about the cards." She doesn't elaborate, which leaves Astrior and Micah exchanging a glance, but Astrior returns her attention to the newcomer quickly. "We don't have anything else to hide. Any other questions you have, we'll answer. But now that you know this secret, we would be very much appreciative if you would keep it to yourself. We've already had people after us for various reasons, and it's not like there are a lot of Lycan duos running around who match our description, so we're easy to track."

She looks up again at Micah. "Since I don't think the forest will give us any trouble, I think we can all rest easy tonight. I'll stay here with Micah - I know it may be unsettling for you to have a wolf in your camp, Malachite. Eiris will go back to you. We'll meet you in the morning." Eiris nods, crossing her arms, and waits for Mal to decide whether he'll come back to camp with her, or whether he's had quite enough of them.

Micah scratches his head and mutters 'oops' now that knows he gave himself away too. Well, it didn't seem to do anymore harm than was already done. He wonders what the cards are all about and with all that's going on, expects Malachite to leave. Actually, he's a little surprised he hasn't left already. That must mean something about the guy. He's either stupid or brave or maybe a little of both. Micah sits by Astrior again, making himself comfy. It doesn't bother him one way or another what the guy decided to do.

Malachite is certain he's never been this confused in his life. He's not sure if it would do any good to run, after all, what good would it do? If these weird lycans wanted to hurt him, they would've already. Although that doesn't make him feel much better. How could he not have noticed there was something wrong with these two? He frowns deeply, not pleased at all that he overlooked this. He's overwhelmed and has no answers at the moment. He shrugs. "I suppose I will make camp with you still. I need some time to think." He still looks displeased, but he doesn't think it will help to leave now. He doesn't want to travel through these strange woods at night. Without another word, he turns and sets a quick pace back to camp.

Eiris gives a quick waves to the strange lovebirds, and follows Malachite back to camp, keeping his quick pace. God, she could go for a drink right now. He's more upset than she is, but she feels she's at fault for at least a fraction of that. But being unfit to really deal with that kind of turmoil, she'd rather drown it than dwell on it. He doesn't seem to want to speak on the way back to camp, so she keeps quiet, just walking in his footsteps. Well, it's an adventure alright. A goddamn mess of an adventure.

When they make it back to camp, Eiris begins digging around in her bags for some of the bottles she was able to stash away before they left the last town, and she pulls one out, uncorking it and unceremoniously taking a few swigs directly from the bottle. All they've got to do now is make it over these mountains. Think about that, she tells herself. Don't think about the rest of it. It's been entirely too long since she had it in her head to allow someone to strike her fancy the way Mal does, and that's just trouble. Well, it worked out for the Lycans, but they're weird in their own regard, and that's not to be compared with her situation.

Glancing back at Malachite from her perch beside the saddlebags, she sighs again as she notes the way the firelight reflects off his features. There's never been anything more beautiful to her than the way the race of Men and Elves can come together in one being, their two completely different aesthetics coming together into one new form. And HOW FAST did she blow her luck with that. Ugh. She takes another hit from the bottle, and then stands, moving hesitantly over to Mal, her voice quiet. "Can I offer you a drink?" She looks down at her shoes momentarily. "If you want to be alone to think, or just to be alone... I'll understand."

After the quick walk back to the camp without saying a word, Malachite sits by the fire again. He looks into the flames, searching for answers but finding none. He couldn't begin to fathom what was going on here. It was all just so incredibly weird. He's still bothered that he didn't notice the lycans and though they didn't hurt him, they could have. This is really troubling to him. He feels like he's failed somehow and put himself in danger. But still, they have done no harm. That must be worth something. He was interested in the girl but now he's so confused he considers fleeing before the sun even rises. This is too much. He heaves a sigh and hears a small voice enter into his thoughts. A drink sounds like an awfully good idea right now and he isn't going anywhere, so he might as well. He shrugs. "A drink wouldn't hurt." He gestures to where he's sitting. "You don't have to stand."

Eiris waffles for a moment about whether to take his offer at face value, or whether he's just being polite and actually wants to be alone. She goes to fetch a couple of cups, so that he won't have to share a bottle with her, and returns again. When he doesn't say anything else, she does take a seat beside the fire, but gives him a little space, as he looks like he needs it. Pouring him a drink, she passes it over to him, then pours one for herself and sets the bottle between them. Staring off into the white-hot coals, she sits sullenly, silent and exhausted. They'll have another day much like this one tomorrow, so she may as well save her energy and go to bed after she's pickled herself, she thinks - Mal very likely doesn't want to talk to her, anyway. She can't say she blames him... she wouldn't blame him if she woke up in the morning and he'd disappeared, either. But she'd miss his face. She already misses having someone like him to talk to. The damn Lycans have each other, why can't she have a kindred spirit to hang around with?

She sips her drink, unmoving, but looks sidelong over at him again. He looks about the way she feels. Dazed and confused, upset and out of sorts. "Really... you're more danger to them than they are to you. If they were dangerous, really, I wouldn't be traveling with them." She looks back at the fire. "They don't have any tells, because of their suppressors. So even someone experienced with that sort of thing could have missed it. They're just a couple of weirdos, who happen to be just each others kind of weird. A perfect pair of spades." She chugs the rest of her cup, but sets it aside without refilling it.