Legend of Kumari (1x1 w/ RoarkSouth)

[PrincessSkye]

Rain dripped lazily through the thick forest leaves, down to the mossy floor below and onto the bare skin of the huntress. Her pitch black hair sticking to a sharp boned face and around eyes the same color as the stormy sky above. She was bare save for a bracelet resting on her left ankle, carved from a single piece of wood with wooden colored beads rolling freely around, and the spear in her hand. A spear she had made herself not to many hours before out of a sturdy branch and a rock honed to a sharp point, attached with a thick piece of sinew tied around the notch in the wood. The huntress was young, barely entering into womanhood, her steps practiced but lacking the smooth moves of one of the many other warriors in her tribe. 


Today she would join their ranks. Once she hunted down her prey she would become one of them and rise up quickly through the training of her father, eventually leading them herself one day. The huntress let a smile spread thin lips as she scanned the quiet forest around her, breathing slowly, concentrating on her mission. She almost missed the flash of orange fur a few trees away, her eyes locked onto the creature, moving away from her large head bent low as it sniffed the ground. Her prey, on the hunt for its own prey. The huntress pressed herself against a tree and slowly began to climb up it, keeping an eye on the large cat as it continued to sniff at a spot on the mossy forest floor. She made her way out onto a branch, then quickly jumped over to another, then another, growing closer to the large cat.


The tigress looked up with a soft growl and her yellow eyes landed on the girl just above her. She let out a roar just as the girl jumped from the tree, spear ready, and down towards the cat.

 

[RoarkSouth]

It was coming again. The telltale soft sounds as it moved through the leaves, falling from one to next. Millions of others followed it throughout the canopy, rushing downward to their helpless target. Chris knew what was coming, it visited the expedition every day, usually multiple times. It was the one thing he dreaded most in the forest. Before he came to Cambodia, he thought that if something was going to do him in, it would be the rampant mosquitos, or the exotic predators. Heck, even the bizarre locals seemed like a more likely source of misery. He had read about it and dismissed it as something he could overcome with relative ease. Reading about something and experiencing it were two different things.


It touched his neck and crept down his spine. It had begun to rain.


Several voices rung out across the bedraggled expedition as the rain began to poor down in full earnest, either joking about or cursing the downpour. Everything was going to be soaked, and they knew that. Even the gear packed away in as waterproof of a container as you could get would still be damp at best. Chris expressed his distaste silently. Any active complaint from him would make the Cambodian jungle god of rain laugh before making it worse, so he was left internally cursing an imaginative deity about precipitation that he had underestimated. The raining got worse.


Chris was jarred out of internal tirade when a hand clasped his shoulder. "You good to go?" a booming voice asked. Chris looked up to the giant of a man, his pack over twice the size of his own, who was unfazed by the sudden downpour. He was one Edmund Rothman, the veritable personification of the explorers whose stories fascinated children and adults alike. He also happened to be the head of the expedition and quite eager to keep going forward in spite of the rain. All Chris could do was nod, the presence of the man himself demanding more than asking that he was good to go. "Wonderful, wouldn't want to lose a man." he said before continuing up the group, repeating the process with each man in various fashions.


Chris hefted his pack, took a second to wipe his glasses, and continued to follow the expedition.

 

[PrincessSkye]

@RoarkSouth


The tigress let out another roar, the spear biting into her shoulder. The girl let out a curse when her weapon missed its target, and rolled to avoid a deadly swipe from a massive clawed paw. Blood oozed out of the gash of the tiresses flank as she stalked forwards towards the girl, who lifted her spear again jabbing it towards the beast to keep her back. She let out a roar swiping once again and effectively knocking the annoying spear right from the girl's hands, sending it crashing into a tree nearby, the sharp point snapping off as the weapon crumbled to the ground. The girl let out a yelp, quickly scurrying back as the cat advanced towards her, her long sharp teeth bared in an evil snarl. She curled her huge beautiful body, and lunged. 


Several of the men on one side of the group stopped, lifting their heads to what sounded like a weird birds call. It had sounded like a loud screech, then cut off shortly, the echos bouncing off the trees and quickly fading with the sound of the rain. "Sir!" A man scrabbled up to the head of the expedition, his dark skinned body covered in a thin layer of dirty cloth. He had the dark skinned tone of the natives of Cambodia, and dark wise eyes that looked up at Edmund with triumph. "Screech." He said in a guttural tone pointing towards the sound and to the men still looking in the direction it had come, "mean. tiger. big!" He held his arms up and out, waving them a bit before pointing back towards the men. "Durk will show. Durk show men tiger." Durk knew little of the language these men spoke, and only knew what he did from other expoditions like this one and from the sparse trading his village did. The man turned and started to push his way through the trees towards the sound, unfazed by the rain or the sometimes rocky ground under his bare blackend feet.

 

[RoarkSouth]

@PrincessSkye


Chris trudged slowly behind the rest of the expedition. The excitement of the past few moments forgotten as they came upon a heavily sloped ridged, forcing them to walk single file along the narrow edge as the sounds of the tiger grew louder as they approached. If the foliage had been less dense, then they would have likely been able to see the mighty beast. Still, they had to be careful, one wrong step would send the unfortunate owner of said foot sliding down a hill into an area with a seemingly angry large feline. Chris was fine with the wait, he didn't feel like dying at this moment in time. He was more annoyed that the rain kept  fogging up his glasses, taking them off for the fifteenth time since it started raining to wipe them off. The downsides of having poor vision became more apparent when his foot landed upon a loose rock, throwing him of balance and falling over the edge of the slope.


Trees and bushes rushed passed him, the brush smacking him upside the head for his stupidity. His back was beaten by rocks, roots and detritus as he sped downward. After what seemed like an eternity he stopped. For a while, he just laid there, gritting his teeth against the pain. Sitting up was an effort, his back would be Rorschach test in a few hours. His glasses were, luckily, still firmly gripped in his right hand. He cursed, using several words his mother would have never approved of, before smacking himself for being an idiot. Continuing to walk on a narrow ledge in a jungle while wiping off your glasses? How stupid could he possibly be.


A tiger roared again, snapping him back to reality. He was at the bottom of a slope, injured and alone in the jungle without a rifle, with what sounded like a very angry tiger very, very near him. So he did the only thing he could do. He closed his eyes, and prayed to God.


"Chris fell."


"What?" asked Edmund, who was preoccupied with clearing a section of the ridge overgrown with brush.


"Chris, that American Naturalists, was wiping his glasses and fell down the slope." Reginald sighed. He had tried to grab the daft kid, but was, obviously,  too late. Now he had to report that one of the expedition members was probably having a face to face meeting with a man eating beast at the moment. It must have been a Monday.


Edmund stopped his hacking with the machete and looked at the cartographer. "He fell?" He resumed his hacking at the overgrowth twofold. "Looks like its going to be the Congo again." He said between swings. "Tell everyone to hop to it, where doubling time. No one is getting maimed on the expedition."

 

[PrincessSkye]

@RoarkSouth


The girl watched in horror as the tiger came at her. Then it was like something exploded inside her, fur ripping from her skin, her bones snapping painfully, claws pushing there way out from under her nails. The tiger was on top of her now ripping at her, trying to get a killing bite on to her throat. She let out an angry roar of her own, pumping her now huge legs under the beast and shoving it forcfully off. The girl rolled then, getting to her paws, her orange fur gleaming, her strips swirling around her long and feirce body in elegant patterns, up her neck and around eyes the same grey as the sky. They flashed with anger and she bared her fangs in a deep growl. 


The tigress snarled and came at her again, knocking her down and forcing them both into a roll, each grappling to be on top. They rolled into a clearing, the sheer cliff face on one side, neither noticed the man sitting at the bottom of it, they were to focused on killing the other. The bigger tiger, its stripes in an odd swirl over its elegant body managed to break off, rolling up to its paws again, back to the man and roared at the smaller tigress. They went at each other again, ripping and snarling, the larger one letting out a roar of pain as the tigress ripped into her belly, blood spilling onto both of the beasts and the ground. She brought down her huge head, sinking those large sharp fangs into the tigresses neck and with one loud crunch, snapped it. The tigress fell limp in and instant and the large tiger stood their, the tigress's neck still in her mouth, blood spilling from the gash on her stomach, breathing hard. 


Thats when she sented something, and turned that big head and grey eyes towards the man staring at him, chest heaving from the heaving breathing. 

 

[RoarkSouth]

@PrincessSkye


"..And I promise to tell mother that I caught the shed on fire, not John, and I'll also..." Chris was jolted from his pleading prayer as two tigers burst from the underbrush, grappling one another in an intense flurry of claws and teeth. The bigger of the two tigers managed to jump away and land with its back to him, letting loose a roar that shook the trees. Then in an instant, they were back at each other, the smaller tiger getting in a quick swipe before the larger one snapped its neck. Breathing heavily, it turned to stare at Chris.


Chris noticed several things about the winning member of the duel. First, it seemed quite a bit bigger than other discovered tigers, though that might have the adrenaline messing with his mind. The second thing was the odd swirling like pattern of the stripes, something that clearly classified it as a different kind of tiger. Of course, the most important and glaring thing about the tiger was that it was now staring at him, blood dripping from its mouth.


His instincts immediately kicked in as he turned to run, only to be confronted with a steep slope upward. The flight option was no longer available, and according to the end of the previous match, he was more than a bit outmatched for a fight. His mind rushed through everything he knew about any predator, grasping for some knowledge that could give him any option other than death. Bears often left humans alone if they presented themselves as bigger, hopefully tigers were similar. It was a flimsy, unreliable straw, but it was the only one that he had to grasp at. Slowly, he stood as tall as he could, making sure to not make any sudden movements, and raised his arms above his head.

 

[PrincessSkye]

@RoarkSouth


The huge cat dropped the dead tigress, letting it fall limply to the ground with a soft thud. She stepped over it slowly, her lips curled back over her teeth in a snarl as she advanced towards the strange man. The tiger neared, cautiously sniffing him, her face inches from his, her teeth huge and glimmering. She suddenly let out a growl, whipping her head around to glare at a strange object sticking out of her flank. She roared as another one flew it and dug into her skin just above her left shoulder, turning her body towards the direction it had come, her tail thrashing violently. Another shot out, hitting its mark just below her jaw line and she roared lunging forward a few steps then stumbling. Pitching to one side. The tiger let out a growl off confusion and anger as she tried to control her body, move it towards the direction the stranges object had come from but her limps were growing heavy and a fog was pressing in on her vision. 


"NOW!" Someone shouted and nets flew out, catching onto the tigers fur, in her lashing claws as she tried to fight them off. Men streamed in, pointing guns at the tiger while others moved in slowly to keep the nets on her. She roared again, almost screaming it out, another dart digging into her stomach just to the side of the large gash, the blood already slowing. The tiger fell to the forest ground, growling and trying to force her body to move, to keep her eyes open. They landed on the strange man and in them was a fiery hate. Then they slowly closed and her movements stopped completely. "Get in there and tie it up! We got one boys!" Another man called, then men moving in with more ropes, tugging the net off just enough to bind her legs together, one even risking his neck by tightly tying her jaw shut, securing the heavy rope by wrapping it around her head a few times.

 

[RoarkSouth]

The massive feline stalked towards Chris, its teeth bared. Slowly, it began to sniff him, the hot, musty air battering his face, carrying a stench unlike anything he smelled before. What if he was wrong? What if the tiger, presented with an unknown creature that did not cower or hide, though he was challenging its dominance and attacked? Hesitantly, he looked the tiger in the eyes, its face mere inches from his. There was something there in those black and silver orbs. Something intelligent.


Suddenly, the large beast growled and let loose a roar that shook the trees. Chris stumbled backwards, grasping for anything that could slow his defense. The tiger, now whipped into a frenzy, became entangled in a net that had appeared out of nowhere. Shouts of his companions rang out as the tiger was subdued, forced into unconsciousness by narcotic darts. Like the net descended upon the tiger, his compatriots fell upon him.


“How could you be such a daft idiot?” one of the men, a grizzled hunter, berated. “Honestly, falling off a ridge? Just like that journalist in the Congo.” This, and many admonishings like it, were heaped upon him by his fellow explorers. Eventually, they mellowed out into something more akin to jokes.


“Look, there is the man jumped down a cliff to stare a tiger in the face. How brave.” the man said before immediately laughing with his pals. It was not looking like he would live this down anytime soon, but still, the tiger’s eyes were on his mind. Why did they seem so, well, human was the only way he could put it? Like they had a soul behind them. It itched at his mind.

 

[PrincessSkye]

@RoarkSouth (Added to it and fixed my spelling errors  )


"We got one!" The men cried and hooted some of them slapping Chris on the back as they passed to go examine the large downed beast. "Lets get her to camp then! Some of you scout ahead and get that cage set up! We don't want it waking up like this!" A booming voice called over the cheers as Edmund Rothman stepped into the scene, looking down at the huge cat. "That fur...its so strange..."


"Fur of spirit cat....sir..." Came the voice of the native man, coming up behind the larger man to grin down at the tiger, showing crooked yellowed teeth. "You got a spirit cat..." He rubbed his hands together eyeing the tigers sleek fur, then his eyes landed on an odd shape around one of the beasts hind legs. There the wooden bracelet sat, nestled in the fur almost hidden completely. "Odd...Beast has jewelry..." The man says kneeling down to try and get closer to examine it. It looked as though it had been carved from a single piece of wood, beads dyed different shades resting on it. The great tiger let out a growl in her sleep, shifting her big body as some of the men took hold of one side of the net and began to pull her down the beaten path. 

 

[RoarkSouth]

@PrincessSkye


Spirit cat? Wearing jewelry? Chris neared the beast, muscles tensing as he neared the large cat. It was laying down, tangled in the net, its chest rising with each breath. For the first time, he was able to look at the creature without having to fear death. Its stripes swirled over its bright orange fur, seeming to move and swirl like snakes every time it took a breath. Chris actually began to feel relaxed, the playful squiggles dancing around his mind. An explorer crossed his path, cutting off the calming show and irritating Chris. He had half a mind to sock the irritant before catching himself. Why had he gotten so worked up? He stared back at the tiger, and the stripes resumed their dance, pulling him in and... Chris broke his gaze and shook his head.


"The stripes!" Edmund turned to look at the boy, a questioning look upon his face. "I mean, sir, that the stripes, they, uh, seem to cause some sort of trance if you look at them. Sort of a calming feeling. No wonder the people call them spirit cats. Seeing one leaves a person entranced."


"Huh, is that so?" Edmund said, rubbing his chin, before turning to a group of men. "Charles! Get over here!" The man jogged to the leader of the expedition. "Stare at this tiger's fur will you, right there on it side." Charles, confused, looked at the tiger's sleeping body. It wasn't five seconds later that he began to go slack in the jaw, his eyes fixated on the tiger's fur. "Heh, so it seems you are right. Hypnotic fur, that is a new one." Edmund mused as he looked at the tiger's face.


"Yes sir." Chris said, ecstatic at the discovery. Such a trait was unheard of in the natural world, only used by gypsies and magicians. It was really to good to be true. But still, had the intelligence in the tiger's eyes been nothing but a similar trick? One meant to cause doubt in humans, or was it something more? And then there was the bracelet. So many questions, and all from one tiger.

 

[PrincessSkye]

@RoarkSouth


Then men tricked through the dense foliage until the sun, which had been on its downward arch when they had started, was now turning the sky a light pink and yellow as it set. Those who had ran ahead had cut a makeshift path through to a large-ish clearing now crammed with cloth tents, boxes, and a large cage set in the middle a cloth covering most of it. The men dragging the large tiger made their way towards this large steel mass. It took a few men a great deal of effort to tug the gate open, allowing the others to pull the beast inside and begin to untangle her from her net. "Leave those ropes on her legs and muzzle! Don't want her mauling anyone who gets close to the cage!" Edmund called heartily watching his men tug the beast free. "She is beautiful...once your reasearch is done my boy I'm sure that fur of hers will fetch a fine price!" He said chuckling a bit turning to start towards one of the larger tents, erected at the edge of camp.


The men inside the cage finally got the huge tiger free of the net and got out quickly. She had started to growl and mewl softly, her muscles twitching, eyes flickering behind her lids. They closed the gate with a loud click, securing it with several chains and pulled the large heavy drape over it, sending her into total darkness.

 

[RoarkSouth]

Chris sat in the newly constructed camp, scribbling in his notebook. The tiger, or rather tigress as he found out, lay in the cage. Every now and then it stirred, sometimes growling, sometimes mewling, but always falling back into unconsciousness. At any moment, the effects of the drug would wear off and it should return to consciousness. Till then, Chris had to think.


“But how can I convince him to keep it alive?” Chris muttered as he wrote aimlessly. He had already documented everything about the tiger that he could without it being conscious, and without anything else to study, he was left with a weight on his conscious. Sure, the tiger wasn’t a thinking being, it was an animal, it had no soul, yet he couldn’t help but feel sympathy towards the beast. It was, by all accounts, illogical, it had tried to kill him after all. Still, the eyes had shown a modicum of intelligence, of something deeper than pure animal instinct. “Perhaps he would consider selling it to a zoo. A live, new kind of tiger would be sure to fetch a good price and herald fame, but what if he doesn’t….” He continued to scribble into the notebook as the tiger stirred again.

 

[PrincessSkye]

She could feel her body shifting. Her claws, once long and sharp, begin to retract back into her large paws. Her bones began to move and snap back inside her, she let out another mewling sound trying to shift her large body to try and make the pain go away. Her body wouldn't move to her command, not at first, it felt heavy while in her mind she felt like she was floating in darkness. But that darkness slowly turned to a dark gray, and the heaviness of her limbs slowly began to deteriorate, but that only make her change even more painful. Her spine snapped, rolled, twisted. The phalanges in her hands grew, her humorous shrunk, and her legs broke in half like they were butter. She could feel the fur being pulled back into her, her skin toughening around a face that was pulling back into itself.


When it was all over she lay still, the rope that had tied her hands, feet, and jaw together now lay limp around her naked body. The girl slowly opened those storm gray eyes and looked into total darkness. Was she still dreaming? No...There was a strange glow coming from a spot in the darkness. She pushed herself up into a sitting position, to fast, her head spun and a sharp pain rushed through it. She put her hand to her head shutting her eyes tightly for a moment to allow the pain to simmer then fade away. The girl opened her eyes again and now saw several dim lights glowing around her. She stood up slowly, the lights coming into sharper focus as the drug wore off and shivered a bit from a light breeze that blew through the strange encampment she saw. It looked like some sort of hunting camp, but the tents were made of different materials and she saw no fires or any dead animals from what she could assume would have been the days hunting. She turned around slowly, scenting the air, it smelled different here as well, dangerous, strange. Her eyes focused on the cage surrounding her now and she reached out to touch the cold metal, narrowing her eyes for a moment. Then she looked up into the eyes of the same man she had met before, and it began to sink in. She had been taken by these strangers, captured so easily and locked in some strange cold tree like structure. The girl glared at the stranger, her knuckles turning white as they gripped onto the poles of the cage. 


@RoarkSouth

 

[RoarkSouth]

“Okay, so I have to appeal to his sense of pride of being the only man to ever bring back a Cambodian Spirit Tiger alive, as well as how much certain people would pay for a live tiger, then I’m sure that...” Chris quit his monologuing and looked up from his scribbles. The tiger had started to move, twisting and stretching as if waking.


Leaping from his stool, he pulled a big crate over to his lantern. The steady light lit the contents of the box in a warm light as he pulled out a camera piece by piece. Now would be the time to take a photo of the tiger, right as it is waking up and still passive from the drugs. Chris, putting the picture machine together, glanced back up at the tiger, ensuring that it was still waking up before continuing with the camera. It was still there, same storm gray eyes and long black hair. Wait…


Chris looked back up at the cage to see not the giant tiger, but a girl staring into his eyes. She looked like she could be no older than himself, though he could be off based on how bad he was at judging the ages of other races. For several minutes, he could only stare at the brown-skinned native as his mind went through a jigsaw of thought processes, with reoccurring patterns of ‘how,’ ‘what,’ and ‘when.’ It was only with the realization that he was staring at a naked woman that snapped him out of his stupor.


“Oh God, I’m sorry and I didn’t me to…” Chris jabbered as he averted his eyes, trying to not look at the at piercing gaze of the encaged woman while continuously spouting out apologies. Eventually, his rationality returned, bringing his thoughts into line and the important questions to bare. Where had the tiger one? How had the girl gotten in the cage? Was one of the plants he collected a hallucinogen? All were pressing, though the most important was who the girl was, and if she was okay. Then he could alert the camp that the tiger had escaped/been freed with a girl left in its place.


Having composed himself, Chris walked towards the woman, trying to keep his eyes level with hers. Holding up his hands palms out, the (hopefully) universal symbol of peace, he asked “Are. You. Okay? Do. You. Need. Help?” enunciating each word carefully and loudly as if it would let her understand him.

 

[PrincessSkye]

@RoarkSouth


The woman watched him closely, her eyes following him as he neared the cage. Locked onto his eyes, her knuckles still white from their grip on the cage bars. Her lips peeled back from her teeth in a vicious snarl and one hand shot out, grabbing him by the collar and yanking him forward. Slamming him into the bars and nearly lifting him off his feet.


"Tea khnhom now tinea?!" She spat out in a rough guttural voice, "Tea khnhom now tinea?! Khnhom nung samleab anak! Saum aoy khnhom tow ilauvnih!"


The woman dropped him, shoving him back hard as she began to pace up and down the length of the cage, her steely glare never leaving his face. Every now and then she would let out a growl, almost like a hissing snarl and reach out to grab at him again. She would then retreat back to her pacing and glaring at the strange man. He looked weak to her, body to skinny, odd things of clear rock over his eyes that enlarged them, and his facial hair oddly styled. Her eyes darted around the camp, then back to his, then back around as she paced, back and forth, back and forth.

 

[RoarkSouth]

The girl stared at him and smiled. Chris relaxed as it she seemed to understand what he was saying. Suddenly he was reeling forward, smashing into the bars. Stars flew overhead and he was held in a constellation for what seemed like forever. The stellar objects began to fade and the girl’s face came into view, holding him off the ground, glaring and snarling at him like a tiger at prey before throwing him to the ground.


A tent opened and Reginald came out, pistol at his side. There had been the sounds of a scuffle. The clang of metal, what sounded like a yell, and the thud as someone hit the ground. Had some wild savages come to attack? The other men were out at the original campsite, packing equipment up to move to the new location, so he was likely to be out numbered. Running past several tarps, he turned past the study tent and came across Chris lying on the ground dazed.


“What in God’s name did you do to cause that much of a ruckus” he said, lowering his pistol back into its holster. “You dang near gave me a heart attack.”

 

[PrincessSkye]

"Khnhom nung samleab anak! Saum aoy khnhom tow ilauvnih!" The woman snarled again turning that steely glare onto the new man, her shoulders rising up and her hands curling as if they were claws. Her eyes sparked with anger as she continued her pacing, her dark hair flowing around her face and down her back just past her shoulder blades. The woman's eyes darted around, resting on each man's face for a split second longer before jittering away to look for an exit. Her chest was heaving and she let out a growl, rushing forward to slam into the bars of the large cage, staggering back with a hiss of pain. 


The woman rubbed her arm snarling a bit, her eyes meeting with the man with the funny rocks over his face. She would kill him first once she was free, she wouldn't save him for her father, she would instead rip him limb from limb and where his bones as a war trophy. She growled deep in her throat, advancing back towards the side where he and the other man stood, arm out stretched to grab at him once more.


@RoarkSouth

 

[RoarkSouth]

Chris scrambled off the ground and backed away from the feral woman, pointing at the cage and speaking in something that could have been the English language if it was spoken at a slower pace.


"So, somehow a native girl released the tiger and got stuck in the cage bum-naked?" Reginald's long history of adventuring had made him fluent in multiple forms of gibberish. "And you have no idea how she did so as you took your eyes off the tiger for less than a minute? Hmmph. Wonderful." Reginald eyed the girl, keeping his hand over the holster. One native showing up meant there should be more nearby. If there were more nearby, then the expedition could quickly turn into a Fort Mims situation. Plus, there was still the tiger who had been very recently loosed in the campsite.


Chris was calming down, his speech becoming perceptible as basic English. "Yes. And I think that she maybe angered that we captured that tiger." Chris looked back the girl who continued to glare at him and shake the cage. "Make that definitely angered."


"Well, we cant let her go then." Reginald said.


"What? We can't just keep a person locked up in a cage. What if her tribe finds out?"


"What if her tribe finds out that we locked up their sacred animal?" Reginald said. "I'll tell you what happens, we get picked off one by one by the people who know this land like the back of their hand. If we keep her here, we might have a bargaining chip. You know, if these savages actually value their own kin."


Chris looked at the girl in the cage. Reginald was probably right. They couldn't let the girl go if it meant risking the life of every person on the expedition. Still, it just did not seem right.

 

[PrincessSkye]

Kumari grabbed the bars, watching the two men as they exchanged words in a language totally foreign to her. One gesturing towards her while the other kept a hand on the strangely shaped pouch as his side. That one had a funny look in his eyes along with the strange smell, a metallic smell, something telling her that this man was evil.


Her eyes narrowed as the skinnier one looked at her and she snarled again. He was the one to blame. He was the reason why she was in this strange cage. Kumari let out a growling howl trying to grab at him again. She pressed herself up against the cage, reaching as far as she could through the bars towards the man. Then she let out a snarled gasp backing up quickly a hand going to her stomach. Blood started to seep out of the freshly scabbed wound, opened by her sudden movements. Kumari turned her back to the two men, hunching forward and walking a few feet away before she dropped to her knees, pressing a hand to the gash in an attempt to stop the bleeding as it steadily grew worse.


What had she done to deserve this. Why were the gods punishing her. She had done the trial, had successfully killed her first tiger. And now here she was, trapped in a large unbreakable cage, no where near where she had been and bleeding from a wound she knew how to mend but couldn't get to the supplies she needed. 


"khnhom somtos..." Kumari said softly, bowing her head, her hair falling over her shoulder to hide her face, "aphytosa aoy khnhom phng...khnhom somtos..." She pressed her lips together, feeling the blood seep through her fingers, and tried to will it to stop, praying the gods would show her some mercy and help her find a way free. A way home.


@RoarkSouth

 

[RoarkSouth]

Chris looked down at his pocket watch again. They should have been back by now. He flipped to cover shut and placed it back in his pocket, sighing. The expedition team had yet to return with the rest of the campsite and he was still here alone with the savage girl. Reginald was off doing something on the edges surrounding the preliminary campsite, probably rigging some alarms to warn if more of the tribesmen were approaching. Chris shook his head. He still couldn't believe that they were going to keep this girl here.

Chris ate another bite of his meal, yet it didn't sit well with him. He wasn't hungry anymore. The savage in the cage. The girl. She had not eaten since she had gotten captured five hours ago. Who knows how long she had gone without food in total. It could have been days. He looked down at his meal. It was still warm and barely had a bite taken out of it. He would give it to her, but how? He was in no mood to be smashed against the bars again.

Taking a nearby shovel, Chris put his bowl on the flat blade. He stood well out of the reach of the surprisingly strong girl and extended the junglefowl soup to the edge of the crate, right next to the bars. He yanked back the shovel, leaving the plate within reach of the girl and the shovel, something that could easily be turned into a spear-like projectile, well out of reach.

Satisfied with his good deed done. Chris sat down in a nearby tent, lit a lantern, and began to read. It was a new book he had just picked up before coming on the expedition, Great Expectations.

 

[PrincessSkye]

Kumari sat at the total opposite of the cage,as far from the strange man as she could get. Her knees pulled up to her chest, an arm wrapped around her legs while her other hand poked at the dirt around her. Her side still hurt though the bleeding had thankfully stopped, building a dark scab over the wound.

Every now and then she would send dark glances over towards the man who had captured her, and tricked her into the trap she had fallen for. When he lifted a hand, taking a bite of the food before him her stomach gave a long growl. Kumari shifted, facing more towards him now as she tilted her head, scenting the air. She jerked back as he looked up, letting out a snarl of warning that died away when he stood setting the food on a strange looking spear and walking slowly towards her cage.

The girl stayed absolutely still, her lip still pulled back in the snarl though she didn't make a sound while she watched him place down the tray of food before her. Her stomach gave another long growl and she slowly inched forward towards the food, reaching out to take up a piece of it.

Sniffing the piece, Kumari turned it in her hand examining it before she slowly placed it in her mouth, chewing. Her eyes looked over towards the man, now sitting again his head over some strange looking tome. She had watched him eat this food, so it couldn't be poisoned. By why had he given it to her? She took up another piece, eating it slowly while to watched him. Then she picked up another, extending her arm out of the cage, holding it out to him.

"briphok..." Kumari said watching him now with curiosity, thinking a bit, "Need....help...." She said after another moment the words rolling off her tongue in a deep guttural sound.

 

[RoarkSouth]

Chris was engrossed in his novel, wondering what would happen to poor Pip now after his love had been spurned yet again. Truly he could find a more loving woman, not the same cold witch that had kept him entangled since his youth. But then, that wasn't how love worked, was it? Love ensnared its victims in relationships that abused, hurt, and scarred the participants, yet the unfortunate souls would still seek their abusers. It was truly something both horrifying and beautiful.

The sound of the native tongue annoyed him, but then a word he recognized: need. He tore his gaze from the pages and stared at the caged woman, making sure he was just hearing things. "Help." she said, with a thick accent, barely discernable, but still recognizable as help.

Chris leapt off his stool, his book sinking into the mud forgotten. "You can speak English?" He said before stumbling and falling into the mud. Rising, he hastily wiped the mud off of his glasses and face. "Can you understand me?" he said, parsing each word slowly and carefully while looking into her eyes.

 

[PrincessSkye]

Kumari brought her hand back, lifting the food still in it to her mouth and nibbling while she watched him. Her eyes still reflected the hate she felt towards this strange man, though curiosity now mingled with it. She had really just repeated the sounds he had made to the other man in the hopes of luring him over so she could finish what she had tried to do before. But he had given her food, horrible food, the woman thought forcing herself to finish off the bit in her hand, but food nonetheless.

Now he was before her again, still to far for her to grab but watching her. Slowly she nodded at his question, though she had no idea what he had just said, the tone giving her the sense he was asking her something. "S....speak..." Kumari tried, the foreign tongue rolling out of her mouth in the same guttural sound.

She watched him, wrapping her hands around the bars of the cage as she tilted her head. Like before, she could smell the weakness of him, his scent different than that of the larger man. The one who had snuck up on her while this one had distracted her. Kumari lifted a hand, pointing to herself, "Kumari..." She said before reaching through the bars and pointing at him.

 

[RoarkSouth]

Of course she doesn't speak English, chided Chris to himself. Still, he was disappointed. This entire situation would have become so much easier.

"Kumari." Chris looked up to see the jungle girl pointing to herself before pointing to him. Was that her name, Kumari? Did she want to know his name?

Pointing to her, Chris repeated "Kumari" before pointing to himself. "Chris." Thinking quickly, he picked up the his book and turned the page to his drawing of the tiger. "Tiger" he said, pointing to it. Maybe, just maybe, he could work out some type of understanding with this girl soon. Then they could sort out this entire mess.

 

[PrincessSkye]

Kumari tilted her head with each word he spoke, her eyes following his movements. She blinked once, mouth moving a bit as if practicing the way his had formed the words. Then, slowly, she tapped her chest again.

"Kumari.." She said once more before moving her arm and pointing to him.

"C..." It was difficult to get the sounds right, "Chris...." Then she moved her arm down, pointing at the book. The image on it page similar, if more refined, to the one she had seen throughout her childhood.

"Ti...tiger..." Kumari spoke before looking up expectantly at the stranger, or rather, Chris now that she had an idea of what his name would be. A strange formation of sounds for a strange formation of people. The girl leaned forward, trying to poke her head through the bars, squinting her eyes a bit to get a better look at him.