Open - Sanctuary for a Beast {Open for 1 MAX}

Sniffing the new texture might have ruined the canine's reputation, for curiosity was supposed to kill the feline. Odd how this new smell from the strange Two Legged proved to calm the stray's nerves. Regardless, she often questioned any offer of food from people the border collie did not know. Desperation had unfurled itself from the depths of the collie's hunger though, her nose prodding the small cuts of meat. It was the real thing a swift lick of the tongue evaluated. Good, because any longer and she was going to lose her mind.

"That's it, good girl. You shouldn't have to starve today. Or any day, for that matter," Alonso said to the collie, stroking her chin with a single finger. Lucky he was able to find this poor thing, otherwise the builders would have to bash their heads into the wall trying to figure out where everyone's dog fled to. Hell, even the Felis did not know whether this canine's owner was still alive after the siege. That event happened in recent times, considering the age of the game, but felt like it had occurred so far in the past that its aftereffects revealed an eternal torment. With the success of the reconstruction project, however, in time the lands were going to return to a more favorable state. Sighing, Alonso remained sitting on the lone stump. His enlarged shoulders heaved up and down, keeping his breathing rate steady to allow for continuous thinking.

Petting the stray helped a bit too. He never did get around to owning a dog in real life, only pet sitting, but with his daughters in college the man concerned himself more with having spare money to lend. Damn education was expensive. The Felis's hand escorted itself to the dog's ears, now being the time for ear scratches. A faint smile etched itself between his cheeks, bearish eyes denoting a gentle lion, "Now where on Earth did you even manage to run off to. Good dogs need to help out now that's safe around here in... Astorea. I'm still not used to that name. Not egocentric at all there, King." A brow raised at the notion of the country's origins. Player made lands were neat and all, but sometimes he just had to question the nature of humanity and their doing things of the weird variety. Much as Alonso wanted to inquire about that through a personal message, he opted to keep his sanity in check.

In a sudden spurt of energy, the border collie barked a few times towards the open air.

The Felis retracted his hand, standing with bent knees in retaliation, "What has gotten into you! Calm down damnit, there's nothing around." Glancing at the dog's innocent, wide eyes and lazy tongue, the hulking man sighed again. She was just energetic now that she had a proper meal compared to her previous diet. Low growls came from the man's throat, shooting glares at the mutt, "Don't you give me that. It's not goingtookay it's going to work on me." Alonso bent down on one knee, bringing his meaty hands up to ruffle the fur around the collie's head. He let out a few chuckles as this lost pup licked his face every so often.

She was just a sweet little thing, that's all.

 

Inhaling the forest’s fresh hair to the best of her lungs capability, Ursula let out a satisfied sigh. Hauling large amounts of ore like this didn’t happen everyday, so a large grin was plastered all across her face, large, vivid and hurried steps apparently ignoring the ridiculously large and heavy backpack on her back. She used to suffer using it in general in her first few days, but now walking and doing anything with it on was a piece of cake, somehow. Much to her chagrin, her good mood and incessant humming was unfortunately interrupted by a shriek from someone in the middle of Adec- Astorea.

“Huh... Mighty Endra’s sake. I coulda get a day off of dealin’ with others’ problems, ya know!” Ursula rushed to the general direction from whence the scream came, coming across an unusual scene for her eyes. Cornered by what appeared to be some sort of grotesque, giant scorpion, a Yladian yelped desperate for help. These kind of monsters weren’t common around here, so her first instinct was to blame magic, just like she did with a lot of problems she had to deal with in a daily basis. Ursa did not waste any more time pondering the origins of the monster; she had to take action or otherwise the brat would have to pay a high price for doing something wrong. The price? His life.

As the tail loomed over the boy’s small frame ready to pierce his frail and young body, Ursula jumped towards the creature. A powerful downwards swing of her pickaxe pierced the tail before it could inch any closer, following its body right after. Upon impact, the tinkerer addon mechanisms on the weapon triggered the powder catalyst within it, unleashing a controlled kinetic blast much like an explosion. Pros of being a tinker and a blacksmith! All things considered, the hulking felis could probably hear it in the distance thanks to his feline ears.

The large scorpion wiggled a bit, until it finally stopped resisting fate. It’s body started to glow an eerie purple, dismantling itself like dust in the wind and leaving behind a small iron tablet with some weird runic markings in it. With a loud sigh Ursula picked the iron piece up — thanks to her cave raiding, she could roughly make out what kind of runes and magic pieces were dangerous, and she’d need to give a word or two to the boy about it.

“Hey, knife-ear shrimp.” She crouched near the now relieved Yladian boy. “Ya know, check this thing. Ya see these runes here?” Ursula let the boy lean closer to look at the magical tool and in the moment he approached she bapped him on the forehead. “When ya see them, remember this. Stay away from these, gotcha?” Ursula huffed while scolding the boy.

“Whatcha doin’ here in the middle of nowhere either way?” Ursula got up and checked her surroundings with arms crossed. Apparently, he was alone. “Sorry, miss. I was looking for my dog. I’ve lost her when we finally managed to settle down yesterday…” The boy glanced to a ruined, moss covered shrine hidden between trees. “We’re always in need because of everything that’s happening and then I found that magic thing. I thought it was worth the try…” Ursula scratched the back of her head. Great. She’d have to take care of the brat now!

“Alright, alright. Let’s find that dog and I’ll get ya to yer parents, aye?” Ursula ruffled the boy’s hair, though his expression didn’t look any better. The minutes flew by them as they walked along a rough path in the Astorean forest. “Mom and dad died in the exodus... So me and Pita are on our own.”

Well, she had just opened a can of worms. Ursula remained quiet while the boy continued on with his story as the Yiladian’s long ears trembled, built up emotions almost taking over the young boy while his teary eyes were locked on the ground. “They died trampled when things got out of hand midway through… I was the only one saved by the newcomers. But I don’t hate them, you know…?” the Yladian boy fiddled with his shaky fingers. “Ya can cut spouting that crap already, ya know? If ya want to cry, do it already. It’s not a bad thing.” In her eyes, the boy was probably told by elders to not blame or look so sad near any newcomers. They did their best, after all. Upon hearing her words, the boy broke into tears while hugging her waist.

Ursula ruffled the boy’s hair again; Though she was comforting him in one of the harshest ways possible, she still envied him. Even if tragic, he had his origin, and her heart sank as she realized once again she had no memories of any origins of her own. But that was something she had to worry about later. She’d put up with drama, even if only this time.

He was just a sweet little boy, that’s all.

Before long, they arrived somewhere in the forest occupied by someone she couldn’t just mistake. That hulking felis had to be Alonso, the one who finished Azog along with Ozwin and her relic hunter team friend, Eleanor. Regardless if Alonso recognized her however, the boy sprung towards the dog and embraced it in a tight hug, the collie licking the his face. Ursula approached @Alonso Thorlion , arms crossed by his side. “Found the boy lost in the middle of the forest...” Ursa chuckled. “That said, never thought I’d find someone as big as ya in this big ol’ a forest, ya know?” Ursula poked the man with her right elbow, a grin plastered on her face. She couldn't help but feel a bit happy seeing the reunion before them.

OOC: Got a bit arried away while writing. Sorry about that orz

 

"Doooh you just want me to take you with don't ya. Adorable son of a gun," the Felis said, scrunching the dog's cheeks together and squeezing the poor girl's face. The canine enjoyed this, however, letting out various whines displaying her enjoyment of this. Big cat person was a good person. For once, this made Alonso form a wide grin from cheek to cheek, chuckling as he messed with this stray. The temptation to bring the dog on various adventures and future brawls rose, a companionship spanning the infinite potential of the game world.

Ears perked up from both man and beast, interrupted by an explosion of sorts in the distance.

The first reaction was for Alonso to go on the defensive. Fists raised up, eyes scanning the forested area, ready to crush the fragile bones of whatever decided it was going to ruin his day. "Hey, that's enough, down," he said, giving a quick glance towards his growling companion. Even she knew something was up. Silence became the next big thing, the man lowering his arms once he confirmed that random incident was not hurtling towards the hulking cat. Another sigh rushed from Alonso's lips. This game was starting to become stressful, "Enough of that. Let's go and get ya to a town or somethin' at least and, uh, where the hell did you go now?"

No longer in the same spot, the collie was wandering about, displaying herself from behind a log. The dog's nose slid across the ground, nostrils flaring out at a rapid pace. She noticed something, and determination filled her soul once the mutt discovered the scent's purpose. Her ears shot up again with nose sniffing the air. There it was. Looking back at the cat man, she began bounding further into the woods, hopping back and forth to get his attention.

And her barking was not going to stop until he listened.

Raising a brow, Alonso wandered towards his new friend, "Guess you found something then. All right, what is it?" Of course, the mutt's answer was to dash off into the forest, the hulking brute stumbling as he made note of the current situation. One foot in front of the other was the key. Grateful for his innate agility, the oversized player felt a burst of speed push his legs against gravity, leaping over a stump here, and a log there, all the while ducking any branches too low for him to ignore. Both arms raised into the air at one point in order to sideways jump between two trees.

He slowed down to a jog, then a walk, and at last stopped his chase. A drop of sweat rushed down the side of his head and met the mane like beard adorned around his head. Moments went by as he noticed the two new faces to the scene. Rather, one of them he noticed, even if they had not spoken during the Azog fight. @Ursa had escorted a Yladian boy, the youth overjoyed at the reunion with his dog. "Sometimes the quiet is nice, until you hear a random explosion before chasing after a random canine," Alonso said to the blonde.

At most he raised a brow at the elbow poke, before placing his massive hands on his waist. "Well by the looks of it reuniting them was easy. Considering you found the poor kid I assume this dog is his," the man continued. To his knowledge, Ursa was not one of those players who was going to do nasty things to this realm's inhabitants, since the user population of the game seemed to interact with each other regarding news on a regular basis. Hell, the Felis still was not sure how everyone managed to get their act together and take over Dormont.

The man needed to focus. Sure, they reunited a boy and dog, but there were other matters to discuss, "Don't suppose you had any plans for the kid after you left the woods? I was gonna take the collie to a nearby town and see if anybody wanted to take her in, but if I still do that she's gonna want to be with this kid. Now I don't want to assume, but were you involved in that explosion I heard? Unless you took care of-"

He stopped again, eyes narrow and ears raised in alarm. Was there something rubbing against the trees? Alonso slid his foot across the ground, rotating his body to get a better observation, "I hope you know this area and what's in it well enough, by the way."

((OOC: It's fine, I took forever to respond. @_@ Kinda rushed this post too.))

 

As Alonso mentioned that the quiet was nice instead of explosions, the blonde’s arm reached up to the back of her head, scratching it in nervousness. Much to her chagrin, she wasn’t known to be someone graceful and quiet when it came down to her battle tactics. She didn’t have much of a training on martial arts, so her best bet was blowing enemies with enough force to bring them down at once with as little resistance as possible. The blacksmith sighed, “Sorry ‘bout that. It was either that or the knife-ear runt over there would be a mess right now, ya know?“ With a light shrug, she kept her gaze on the reunion unfolding before them.

Her eyes shifted once more to the large, hulking cat beside her. It was impressive how she actually had to look up a bit to take a proper look on his face; as the felis mentioned how easy it was to reunite them, the blonde chuckled in response. “I guess yer right, and ya, he’s the owner of the doggo.” Thanks to the reunion event that unfolded before her eyes, Ursula supposed that that was a fairly obvious information. Could it be the hulking felis was attached to the boy’s pet already? “Boy’s lost his family on the exodus thing that happened where yer newcomer bunch fought the big mushroom monster, or so I heard. He’s been havin’ trouble since then…” As she noticed Alonso rest his hands on his waist, she crossed her arms in an attempt to get a little bit comfortable herself, despite the huge backpack she carried. Her mind was in constant motion in order to try and find a solution to the boy’s situation.

If things remained the way they were, they’d end up dead one way or another. Even if the Yladian were a tightly knit race, they were probably at an all time low after so many tragedies and lost lives — she may not be part of them, but her intuition was sure that he’d have no support from his kin. Especially when they were left to roam around in Astorea’s forest like this, with no one watching over them. She didn’t know the boy very well yet, but if he proved to have a few skills of use, she could probably find a way to snuck him in the guild as her apprentice. Only time would tell, and she’d need a lot of it to consider different outcomes before taking someone under her wing.

It was at that moment that Alonso questioned her if she had any plans about what to do with the boy — just in time. She let out a loud sigh, followed by a long and drawn-out hum that denoted her thinking on the subject. “I was considerin’ a few things ta help him out n’ all that, but I’ll have to put his skills to the test, whatever they may be, ya know? If he’s good at somethin’, I could probably git him to work with me in the guild.” Her eyebrows rose up as he mentioned the explosion. “Ye, that was me alright. I ain’t any graceful swordsman. Gotta do what I can, ya know?”

Ursula noticed the sudden change in Alonso’s intonation and abruptly finished sentence as his ears perked up in response to something. She quickly pulled out her pickaxe from her backpack and activated the pump-action mechanism that exerted the old, used mana powder from her own energy used in her previous blast attack. “Boy, get yer butt over here, now!” Before her eyes, another scorpion similar to the previous one approached, rubbing on trees in a fairly clumsy way, as it seemed to not be in its natural habitat.

From Alonso’s eyes, another one approached as well, both of them jet black in color and with many insidiously purple runes all over their bodies. It shouldn’t take any genius to get to a proper conclusion; they were summonings. Essentially back to back with Alonso while the boy and the dog remained between them, they were cornered. Ursula chuckled in nervousness at Alonso’s remark, “Heh! Ya are expectin’ too much from me. I’m just a lowly miner!” Ursula finished activating the pump-action mechanism and it sprung back to life letting out a vicious hissing sound.

The giant scorpion on Ursula’s side advanced in an attempt to pierce her with its sting. In response, she held up her large backpack filled with ores and rocks to defend herself. This was a terrible match for her - she only managed to kill the first so easily because of a surprise attack. Meanwhile, the second scorpion before @Alonso Thorlion tried to advance as well, using it’s pincers instead in an attempt to break him in half should it succeed.

 

Though doubtful his warning growls were going to do anything useful in this situation, it became an instinct the man refused to rid himself. Having a young one around did nothing to soothe the animal like nature of his physiology. Children needed protection after all. Worse, Alonso was right to be cautious. From the trees came two, scorpion like monsters, and fantasy logic stated these two wanted to murder the group standing in the middle of the woods. There was no choice in the matter: one for him, and the other for Goldilocks. Not quite her name, he figured, but the woman's true name had not been given.

Arms raised as his posture shifted. Knees bent, stance wide, and his thumbs rested on top of his fingers. It was going to give him the best outcome in regards to retaliation, as well as provide the Felis with a better chance of defending himself. Glancing towards the Yladian child, the man's booming vocals erupted, "When we get these damn things distracted, you go and find a hiding spot so you stay OUT of the fight, got it?" He did not want the boy to be on his own, the sole protection being a dog who has not eaten a proper diet in who knows how long, but this situation was too grave to risk the potential injury.

Swift disruptions in the air noted the creature began its attack. Pincers, cute. Despite the reputation of scorpions, they did have a rather obvious attack pattern. Alonso was confident about the game upholding its mechanics if he messed up. The pincer nor the stinger was going to maim the hulking mass of muscle so easy. Using the natural dexterity of his race, in addition to the man's personal strength, the joints in his knees bent down and up before he lunged on top of the pincer. Got it on all fours, just like the cat he was. Perhaps the thing would be stupid and try to use the other-

Wow, okay, it really was that stupid.

Leaping backwards, he grabbed onto the pincer's limb, pulling it back to make the scorpion clamp down on the grappled limb. Excellent. The beast squirmed in pain as it flailed about, although the brawler felt a mighty thud against his chest from the flailing. Another growl rushed from Alonso's throat, "Not gonna do it against me!" Ducking down, he avoided the next swing, rushing in towards the scorpion's face. Right hook, left hook, then another. Soon, a battle cry as he let out a flurry of punches, frequency rising over time until Alonso let out a swing downwards an n angle.

"Hope you're holding up over there. It's a bit harder if I have to focus on two of these fuckers at once," he called out to @Ursa. Yeah, foul language, he knows. The kid was just going to have to deal with it. Looking up, the stinger came crashing down towards the Felis's being. Being so focused on his little combo attack, he had little time to react. Pushing his body backwards, it seemed Alonso's timing was off as the sharp end managed to raze down his upper body. Oh no, he did not take kind to that abuse. Wrapping his arms around the tail before it rose, the man's eyes glared daggers towards the beast, "You went and made a terrible mistake."

Placing one foot on the creature's face, Alonso began to push on it, taking slow attempts at shifting his hands along the tail. Muscles bulged as he tugged on the beast, the scorpion feeling the harsh strain of its body about to be torn in parts. The Felis unleashed a mighty yell at the peak of the pull, forcing adrenaline to fill his body and rip the tail from the creature's behind, "WANNA KEEP GOING?"

((OOC: OMG I'm so sorry I took so long again! D: ))