Running Wild

"H-huh?" Alexa speaks up, looking up from her plate when she notices that someone is talking to her. After a moment of pondering, she just nods at Myles and carefully pushes her bowl in his direction. She wouldn't have minded the spicy one too much, but sweet foods were always much better - and that meant it was a very good trade by her standards.

Myles finishes the slide over to his side and then slides his bowl of curry over to the little girl. Seeing her reminded him of something, but he couldn't put his finger on it. His hand went to his chest as he grabbed ahold of the necklace he was wearing. No one could see what was under his shirt, but he kept it close to him at all times. He started to lay his curry on top of his steak, so that way the steak could counteract the spicy nature of his curry.

After he was finished, Myles said a prayer under his breath, and started eating.

Savina smiled leaning back in her chair, "it's not a problem, Kotarou was practically looking after me," she nodded to the mute kid, "isn't that right kiddo?" After talking to the two she trusted most out of the group the lynx +anima turned her attention to the food in front of her. Savina quickly lifted the lid and upon spotting the steak and curry she ignored her grumbling stomach and carefully inspected her plate. She still wasn't sure she was ready to trust her host and she didn't watch him prepare her food. "looks good I guess," Savina quietly said before diving in to the meal after she was fairly certain it wasn't drugged. She hadn't eaten anything the entire day before she was captured and so by now she was practically starving so she ate rather quickly.

Alexa watches him silently, her head tilted as she does so, then she goes back to picking at her food before she finally eats. The little girl seems to be avoiding the steak for the most part, being completely content with her new bowl of curry - which she eats quickly and happily. It's not long before her bowl is empty, after which she starts poking at the steak...
The kid can't seem to eat any food without playing with it first.

Caden's carriage pulled up in front of the inn, "find a place to keep the carriage," he told his +anima as he stepped onto the ground. "Of course," Mia responds not moving from her spot. "I'll go procure us a room," and with that Mia drove the carriage away and Caden walked inside. "I guess Jae's getting lucky tonight," someone spouted on town gossip at the bar, "you kidding he would have been back down here long ago if that happened, I bet he chickened out." Caden ignored their talk, he had more important matters on his mind, if I could get a hold of a blood hound +anima, or another with extraordinary tracking ability it would make things much easier. When he got to the bar he quickly asked for a room for one plus one 'pet,' everyone understood what he meant by that and so no one commented when a women wearing a collar walked through the door. Caden held up the key to the room he'd purchased and gestured with his head for the women to follow him before walking away. "Yes Doctor," Mia said following Caden to their room.

"Since we're all sitting here nice and cozy, eating food and all, I feel that we should all get familiar with each others +anima. There's no sense in hiding it if we all know we are +anima." Myles stated after finishing his meal. It was filling, and had no immediate aftereffects of being drugged.

"Maybe we should go around the table, show each other our +anima markings, just as a precaution in case someone was lying about their +anima."

Myles wasn't going to make it easy to trust everyone. He had a bad experience before about hiding his +anima marking, but he doesn't like to dwell on it. The scars on his back said enough.

"Well seeing as you brought it up i think by logic you should start." the host said without missing a beat. a slight smile lurking on his face.

He gestured towards himself "of course as the host i'll go second"

he proceeded to politely use his fork and knife to eat his steak first then his curry he ate all of it quickly and with manners as someone of his social stature was raised to do.

Alexa just stares quietly, looking around at everyone. The older boy had said something about markings... was he talking about the kind she had on the back of her neck?
Maybe she could convince them she didn't have one...
No, no. Lying is bad... That would be bad...

The girl decided she would go last. If they were all really +Anima like her, then maybe it would be okay. She'd still fit in here... and they'd trust her more... and that was always good, right?
Trusting each other was something that friends do. And Alexa liked the idea of having friends.

Ludacris looked at the food on his plate, content with the meal, especially since he had helped make it a little. He greedily ate the steak, since it had been a long time since he had had meat other than snakes, lizards, and fish. He used to eat deer all of the time, but he stopped out of respect for the little fawn that had become his companion a few years ago. And the steak, whatever animal it had come from, tasted great because of that to the wolf anima. He finished his food quickly, but still used somewhat-good table manners. He then glanced over to Kotarou, smiling a little at the fawn as he watched the boy happily eat the small salad, nuts, seeds, and fruit that lay on his plate. Unlike Cris, the boy ate slowly, savoring every bite. Then, the wolf realized that he was smiling in front of the strangers and quickly molded his face back into a frown, hoping that nobody had seen the expression. He had always been stubborn about looking nice in front of others.
When it was mentioned that everyone should say what their anima was and show their marks, he looked up a little. Even Kotarou stopped his eating and glanced around. They were curious as well. Kotarou was just excited to meet other anima, especially ones who were so nice, and he was genuinely curious about them all, wanting to get to know them in the hopes of becoming friends with them. He liked Savina, so maybe he'd like the others.
Ludacris, however, was curious for a different reason, and he stared intently at the others around the room, particularly the males. What if, by chance, one of them was the terrifying crocodile from earlier that morning?

Taking the last few bites of the meal Savina leaned back in her chair, "sure I don't care" she sighed. Savina really didn't mind everyone showing their markings as long as everyone went along with it, but it felt an unnecessary hassle. This felt almost like it was meant to be some sort of group bonding experience and she wasn't sure she wanted to stick around. Finding a way to Asteria was still high on her list of things to do and traveling with a group might make it more tricky in some ways then getting there alone. Sailand knows it's slave labor would love to get out of the country so they'd be suspicious potentially of anyone trying to leave and a group isn't that easy to hide. Though the group might offer some security or in the case of their host a nice place to stay for the time being. Staying till she could figure out a way over the boarder couldn't hurt and so far no one had done anything to break what little trust she had, so Savina figured she'd play along for now and come up with some sort of plan later.

Myles looked over at the host with a blank look on his face. He shrugged. "I suppose I will start. "

Myles stood and pulled up his sleeve. There on his shoulder lied a Lion's paw.

"I am a lion +anima. As far as I know, I've been a +anima my whole entire life. My first incident was in an elementary school. My name is Myles, by the way."

He sat down and peered at the host, waiting for him to show his mark.

The host stood and moved his hair so everyone could see his mark a crocodiles eye reflecting the moon.

"its a skink's eye it's a weird little creature that's cold blooded" same as our lion friend over there I've had that ability all my life."

he then sat back down with a slight grin on his face.

Alexa eyes everyone silently as they take turns showing their markings, scratching at the back of her neck without thinking about it much.
It was almost her turn, the young girl realized. She looks around, having been listening to all the others, and decides not to set aside her scarf to show them quite yet... there were still a few others who hadn't shared yet. She would go last, she had decided.

((Unless someone prompts her to just take her turn now, because I don't know when Neko or Lucy will be on next. Whatever works best for you guys.))

Savina watches as their host and Myles reveal the location of their marks and wonders who should go next. Naturally it would be rude to expect one of the kids to but maybe Ludacris. no I should let him go with Kotarou. So I guess I'll go next. Savina stood up and holding her right hand in front of her chest she unwraps the bandages covering it, revealing a very intricate image of a lynx's paw print. "My name is Savina Rain and I'm a lynx +anima, and I've been this way for about 3 years now," after this announcement she sat down and once again leaned back comfortably in her chair. It was probably Ludacris's turn next and she already knew he was a wolf and Kotarou a deer so she felt it wouldn't be a problem if she didn't pay attention and proceeded to begin ignoring things as she tried to figure out plan on how to get to Asteria.

Ludacris noticed that he and Kotarou were next, and he side, moving aside his hair and using his hand to move his ear. He turned his head to the others could see the back of his ear, scowling a bit. "My marks are on the back of my ears. I'm a wolf +anima. I got mine after my adoptive father died and some wolves took me in." He then turned his attention to Kotarou, who was pawing at him and pointing to the small pack that he always had on him. He sighed, taking it off. He reached in, knowing what the boy wanted - a small sketchbook, filled with drawings and colorings that the deerling had made. The drawings from when he tried to tell Ludacris who he was and what happened to him were in there, after all.
As the deer opened the book and pointed at the crayon drawings, Ludacris explained. "This is Kotarou. His parents were captured by slave traders, and the leader of his clan of Kum-Un-Kur took him in. One day, he became a deer +anima while being chased by a bear.
"The leader of his clan had a son, who became jealous of Kotarou since he was an anima. One day he lured Kotarou to Sailand and attacked him, causing permanent damage to his vocal cords. Slave traders came and tried to capture the boy, but Kotarou got in the way and was captured in his place, even with what the boy had done. Then I came along and saved him." He reached over, fondly messing with the boy's hair and the beads that were in it a little.
"And his marks are under this wild mop of his, so he can't exactly show them to you."

Well... that meant it was Alexa's turn, the girl realized.
"I'm a deer, too." she volunteers, raising a hand and pulling her scarf aside.
"See? On the back of my neck," she proclaims, deciding that was explanation enough. Her memory of when and how she got the horn was foggy at best anyways, so... why bother thinking so hard about it?
If someone were to look they'd probably notice her markings are, while a bit abstract in design, gazelle horns (read: not a deer) as opposed to deer antlers... but the girl probably didn't know the difference.
"The kind of deer with long pointy horns," Alexa elaborates. So she does know the difference. Just not the actual name.

Alexa made no comments in response to anything the others had said - it was a lot to take in, and most of it went over the little girl's head anyways. She just clutched her scarf slightly and waited for someone else to start talking again.

((Side note, you guys: I forgot to do this for a reeeeeeally long time, but I decided to go with something more distinctive for her tattoo. Instead of the weird spiky thing I had for it before, it's now this.))

Myles paid attention as each person explained which anima they were. His hunch that he wasn't the only cat in the group was dead-on. Though he didn't expect a lynx. He had stifled a growl when he heard Ludacris say that he was a wolf. Myles hated nothing more than a dog. The mere smell of dog got him riled up. The host stuck to his story of being a skink, but that mark just didn't seem right to Myles. He wouldn't worry about it for now. Kotarou he knew was a deer, after hearing him at the inn they were at earlier. The little girl never introduced herself, but she was only a kid, so he wouldn't worry about it. But a gazelle? Wouldn't be very useful in a fight.

Myles hand went to the necklace under his shirt again, clutching at it from the outside of his shirt. Something about it kept him soothed. But he never knew what it was.

"Oh! Oh!" she suddenly remembers, sitting up again.
"I forgot to say my name. I'm Alexa, okay? It's nice to meet you guys!" the little girl adds, having remembered she didn't share it earlier. The kid was rather scatterbrained, as it would seem...

Jae stands and says "my name is Jae and i must say i find Alexa and Kotarou adeerable". he then sat down knowing how bad that joke was and waiting to see everyone's reactions to humor while semi-serious discussions where happening.

Savina groaned, had their host really just made a pun. "...yeah uh so were are each of us sleeping tonight?" Savina asked knowing that it was in fact quite late, "I assume we can just take whatever room we want?" She felt that she'd done enough bonding for today with people she wouldn't stick around with for very long and the day had been very long. Grateful though to not be in a change anymore as she was earlier she promised herself she'd at least try to get a goodnight's sleep and then perhaps in the morning be a bit more pleasant towards these strangers. it all was very odd though as she'd never been in a group of +anima this large before and while it was very different it didn't seem that bad. "thank you for the food by the way, well unless you put some sort of slow acting poison in it or something," she smiled trying for a bit of humor like their host had, "because then that wouldn't have been very nice. and I know some people here would have a problem with that."

Alexa just giggles slightly at his remark.
"You talk kinda funny!" the girl tells him, before turning her attention back to the food. She had heard Savina talking about it, and she had remembered that she wasn't finished with hers - it was rude not to finish a meal that someone took the time to prepare for you after all.

he said "your welcome "Jae stands and walks to the kitchen, fetches the two cakes and places one in the center of the table and the other in front of Alexa. "and you are correct you can have for the night any bed in the house except for mine"

Somewhere in the woods nearby a man is being chased by two other men those men know who he is or to the greater effect what he is an anima. they heard the stories of the owl man an untouchable being that inspired fear in all who would trespass in his woods after dark. but these men they where different they were trained, they knew how to handle themselves, they weren't afraid of him and they were going to End Him.

the man called Salvador ran and ran as fast as he could trying to evade them his green dress shirt becoming more and more torn as the tree's kept tearing at him. he eventually gave up on running and proceeded to activate his powers and he began flying away from them. one of the men who was a marksman by trade fired two arrow's at the man called Salvador as he flew.

with a sickening "thwap" the first hit his wing the second hit his leg. Unable to maintain the strain of flight, he began to fall out of the sky. he landed in a clearing and he slowly hobbled his way out of the Forrest, knowing that he couldn't keep running that if he stayed in the forrest they'd track him down and do god knows what to him. so as much as it scared him he had to rely on hospitality and if there was a legend as big as the owl man it was of the kind noble who tended to people who needed it. he shambled to the house that matched the description of all the stories he'd heard and began pounding on the door. luckily for our Mr. Salvador Talbot, he picked the right house and was pounding on the door of Jae.

Myles looked up at the sound of the pounding on the door. "Sounds like you have a visitor."

He got up from the table and started collecting the dishes of everyone at the table who had finished eating. A habit he developed from the human parents he had before he had to run away. He carried them all to the kitchen and began washing them one by one. He knew it was Jae's responsibility, but he needed to do something before he went to sleep. And he certainly wasn't about to answer the door