Beautiful Misunderstanding [Closed]

The forest was alive. It had always been alive. From the tops of the trees to the roots below, there was life teeming within every nook and cranny of this place. As a resut, Drake could not help but love it here. He could close his eyes and activate his Lifesense and feel the world just moving around him. Humans thought they were the centre of everything, but if they were able to see what he could see--sense the world through his mind--then they would think differently. They would understand that life was all around, and that the world's natural order would remain. Herbivores would eat plants. Carnivores would eat Herbivores. Omnivores would eat either--Drake lowered his longbow at a rabbit and released the string, sending an arrow into the creature with little effort. He dropped down from his hunting position and picked up the beast, taking the time to remove the arrow and skin it, before heading back to his camp. Every piece of the creature would have some use to Drake. He would cook the flesh and sustain himself. The skin would be used to wrap himself for warmth, or to dress wounds when cleaned. The bones would be buried to stave off predators that might wish him harm. Everything had a purpose.

The rabbit was cooking within minutes of his returning to camp, and Drake sat down to check himself over. He was down about six arrows, which would be fine for now. The greatsword was edged fine, and he was warm and cozy. He would not burn any trees with this small campfire. Everything was calm and still, and Drake was happy. Even though he could hear the sounds of Aria in the distance, it didn't matter to him. Right here was where he wanted to be, feeling the life teeming around him. Of course, he was also keeping a lookout with that sense of his for anything else that might be threatening this idyllic place. When he did finally sense another person, the fire was immediately snuffed. Drake clambered up the nearest tree and started to move through the growth, keeping tabs on the life force that he had sensed. Eventually, he broke through and saw the person, deciding to keep watch on them from above.

He narrowed his eyes. He could sense the fading life of the wolf as the woman knelt down before it. Looking closely enough, he could see that there were arrows missing from her quiver, but could not see the fetching--not that it mattered, he could not sense any other sources of life nearby. They had to have come from her. He crept in closer. A wolf was not something that one could use as easily as one could use the rabbit, or anything else. Its flesh was edible but not that useful, and they made better companions than meals. To kill a wolf like this... as Drake watched Malia drive her knife into its heart, he hoped that the girl would skin the beast, and yet she would not. She would simply get up and walk away from it, knife in hand. The wolf had been harmless, but it had tried to attack her when she approached it. The behavior confused Drake, since most poachers would at least take their kill as a trophy. In fact, Drake had to wonder if she was a poacher, or just someone who killed for the sake of killing. She was a small woman, but Drake had seen smaller people do worse things to animals. He had to act. Without thinking, Drake dropped down from the trees and approached Malia from behind--when one had been in the wild for as long as he had, one could learn to pass through the underbrush unnoticed. He pulled his greatsword from his back and swung at her, using the flat of the blade to knock her aside.

Her small body was no match for the Braukan's power, falling to the side like a doll. He wasn't sure she'd registered his presence yet as he approached her, towering over her with a fierce expression in his eyes. "You're a fool. The wilds are not your plaything." He sneered at her and started to attack her again with the flat of his greatsword, not wanting to cut her or kill her, simply wanting to send her a message. Each hit elicited another scream of pain from Malia, and each hit did little to quell Drake's frustration--and his worries. She did not fight back--well, she didn't have a chance to. When he finally let up on the hits, he saw that she was covered in bruises and cuts, though if he'd done it right, nothing would be broken. She had to be able to leave this place, after all. He was about to threaten her again, tell her that this was a message from the forest, when he sensed it. Three other human life signs--and several more animal ones, all piled together and fading. "No..." As the animal signs began to fade completely, the other humans vanished from his sense. She... he turned down to her and kneeled down, looking her over. "I've been too disconnected from people, it seems." A clear frown crossed over his face and he reached underneath her, picking her up and carrying her away. He would heal her at his camp, and hopefully make things right.


When Malia woke up, she would wake up beside a warm fire with several leaves covering her wounds, and other salves here or there. She would see a shaking Drake sitting across from her with his head in his hands, and realize that she was (mostly) naked, her clothing folded nearby so that he could access as many of her wounds as possible to heal them. If she spoke up, he would look up and give her a weak, sorry expression. He had nothing he could say to her that would fix this.

He'd already fucked up, and he knew that far too well. His reaction had been purely primal, and he hadn't actually thought it out at all--he could have checked the arrows in the wolf, and then checked the arrows in her quiver--she wouldn't have noticed him. He cursed himself for acting on instinct, which was something that, even as a hunter, he needed to avoid. He was spending too much time away from people, and that reaction told him enough about what that'd do to him. He needed to go and stay in a city for a while, be around people for a while, but could he even show his face anywhere after doing something like this? What if he had been wrong like this before, and actually killed an innocent? When she finally opened her eyes, Drake noticed and averted his own. He assumed she was checking her body over to see if he had done anything worse than just beating her up. He would never... no, he didn't know anymore. This girl had proven to him that there were things that he wouldn't be able to control, things that he needed to get in line. While he spent his time cursing himself, he didn't realize that the girl was looking for an opening to escape. He wouldn't blame her for it, but he would realize that--as she bolted--she wouldn't get far with her injuries. "I could just let her die. She can get eaten by something big and mean, and I don't have to give a damn any more. Right?" His stomach seemed to disagree, sending shots of pain through his body. He recognized that feeling as nervousness, worry. "Come on... don't be... ugh, fine." He said aloud, to nobody in particular. He stood up and disarmed himself. He would leave his weapons behind.

Turning on the Lifesense, he noticed what he recognized as Malia's life force slowly making its way through the growth. It was slow going navigating forest--Drake knew this well--but this girl was travelling far too slowly. Her injuries had to be slowing her down. "Fuck..." Drake clambered up a tree and started to use the branches to follow the lifeforce, ignoring all other sources below a certain size. He had to focus on her. Focus, Drake, focus. An image of Malia's face entered his mind, distracting him long enough to cause him to miss a step. He tumbled off of the branch and to the ground, feeling pain with every hit on the way down. He groaned as he touched down on the earth and slowly got to his feet, rubbing his forehead. "If I'm like this with her like that, I probably wouldn't be able to function if she died." He sighed in defeat and started picking his way through the underbrush, still focussing on Malia's life force. It was at that point that he noticed it. A predator, stalking its prey. The life force was too small to be human, so it was creature--but he did not quite recognize it from here. The growling that came from nearby gave him cause to understand it, though. Another wolf. This one was stalking... not Drake, but Malia. He bit his bottom lip and dashed through the bushes, bursting out of one just in time. The wolf leapt out of the undergrowth at Malia, and a body appeared between the two. He shouted out as its jaws clamped down on his shoulder, and gave Malia a look. "Don't run. Might be more. Just... wait." He reached up and turned, throwing the wolf off of his shoulder and to the ground, straddling the beast as it flailed. He turned off his lifesense for a moment and placed a hand on its head, trying his best to calm the creature and get it to leave. When he felt that his Wild Empathy had done enough, he clambered off of the wolf, who turned over and stood up again, yawning as it retreated into the bush.

Turning back to see where Malia had gone--and if she'd listened--he would see that she had fallen over in another attempt to escape. He shook his head in understanding and walked slowly over to her, holding out a hand. "L-look, I can't say anything that'd make this better. But I know this forest better than you, and it is dark. I may not be here to stop the wolf next time. I just... Can you let me at least take you back to camp? I have food, it's warm, and in the morning you'll be able to get out with no trouble. I'll sleep on the other side--shit, I'll sleep in a goddamn tree if I have to. Just let me at least get you out alive. It's the least I can do to repent for my crime."

"Why.... WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO ME!?" Drake's body froze, and he looked down at the ground as she started to tell him what he had done wrong. He did not speak. He did not defend himself. He let her get it out on him. "WHAT DID I EVER DO TO DESERVE THAT!? YOU JUST SNUCK UP ON ME AND KEPT HITTING ME OVER AND OVER AGAIN! I SCREAMED! I BEGGED FOR YOU TO STOP, BUT YOU DIDN'T LISTEN!" He swallowed back the bile that had formed in his throat, and reached up to wipe a tear that had edged on one of his eyes, "D-Do... Do you have any idea how much this hurts? Or how scared I was?" He kind of understood. He kind of knew. But did he really know what she had gone through? Drake found himself suddenly sitting on the forest floor, holding his head in his hands. Apparently she was done, because he heard her turn away and sniffle, "You're a jerk..." A few seconds of silence stayed between the pair, before Drake let out a sigh and looked up at her.

"I am... uniquely connected to life," he began, trying to word this as well as he could, "So much so, that I can sense it all around me. When I... when I felt that wolf die, it hurt. It wasn't a quick death. If it was a quick death, I would not have noticed. The death came slowly, and then it was cut off. It suffered. And then... I saw you... with arrows missing from a quiver... and... a knife in your hand." He away from her, at the trees, "I didn't think. I just acted. I should have done differently, and I didn't. I don't know... what else to say here... but sorry--a word that doesn't even fit how I feel right now," He stood up and folded his arms, "I realized too late that the actual poachers had already gotten away. So I brought you back to camp and dressed your wounds as best I could. I'm not a healer, but I have salves that will cure some of your ails and soothe the pain. They're not Arcana, but they'll do something, I'm sure." He smiled weakly at her, trying to get her--not to trust him, but to at least understand his position, "When it gets light, I can lead you back to the road. I don't know what else I can do here to make up for this." He looked truly sorry, and the look in his eyes was almost that of someone ready to die for his mistake.

"You know... that sounds like a really bad excuse for all of this..." He didn't blame her for thinking that. Frankly, he didn't blame her for much right now. But he was sitting here and telling her the truth, as well as he could. "Where the hell are my clothes? Did you take them? Are you a pervert too?" He raised an eyebrow and shook his head vehemently, "I only took them off so that I could clean all of your wounds. They're back at camp, folded up. Not clean, but folded and put to the side. They're ready for you whenever you need them," he sighed. He wasn't going to get much out of her, he was certain. She was probably going to go traipsing off into the forest and die, and he'd feel guilty for letting it happen. People were stupid, frankly. "And you did this over that big ass wolf I killed? I only did that because someone had left it there to die! I heard him crying and went to end it so he didn't bleed out. Did you even think to as-... No... You react on instinct, right? You didn't think to ask or even observe the situation for more than half a second." He bowed his head, "You were the only human life I sensed. It was a bad assumption to make, but given the circumstances... I still reacted terribly. I've been away from other humans for too long. It's dangerous." His ear was grabbed, and he yelped.

"When I get to Aria, I am going to give a very detailed description of you and have your ass thrown in jail..." If Malia could have seen him there, she would see his face blanch completely. That would be the worst idea. The very worst. It would cut off his connection to the natural world. He would go literally insane. He would actually go feral. There would be too much to deal with in terms of people. It would be the definition of a living hell for Drake... and no more than he deserved, right? The same part of him that had made him attack her earlier was telling him to just kill her and be done with it; but Drake knew better than that. He was no creature of the wild. He was human, even if he didn't always act like it. He needed to accept his punishment justly... even if it meant ruining his own psyche in the process. When she spoke again, Drake raised an eyebrow. Her tone had changed, and he wasn't sure he liked it just yet. "Unless you decide to travel with me to be my bodyguard. That's the only way I'll forgive you! I need someone to make sure no one sneaks up on me, but I don't have the money to do it, so a jerk who feels sorry for beating the shit out of me with a sword is my best bet." He blinked a couple of times and frowned.

"That... hm," he sat back, wrenching his ear out of her hand and rubbing it, "It is probably my best bet too, but what is to say that you wouldn't just turn me in when we got to Aria?" He sighed softly, "Let's discuss it more at my camp. We can get you back in your clothing or whatever, and the fire is warm. I also have food; freshly hunted. I might have to pick up another rabbit, unless that's not your thing. I can improvise." He stood up and extended a hand to her gently, taking care to either look only at her face, or to avert his eyes completely. "As I said, I can sleep up in a tree if need be. I just need to get you somewhere safe, and safety is closest in that camp. I doubt I could get you to Aria without hurting either of us. I'm good at manoeuvring through this shit. I don't have night vision." He hoped that she'd at least accept, since he didn't know what he'd do if she didn't.

"You're the one who snuck up on me and tried to kill me! You're the one who can't be trusted here!" He laughed softly, "You're right, I can't be trusted. However, I'm also your best bet for getting out of this damnable forest, am I not?" He folded his arms, huffing out a breath, "I am the one giving a second chance and offering you a path that won't lead you straight to jail. Don't you try to turn anything on me, like I would be the bad guy, so are you taking the deal or not?" He sighed softly, "Does it seem like I have a choice? If you put me in jail, I will be liable to murder everybody in there. I don't... take well to small spaces. At all. You could almost say I'm deathly afraid of them," Revealing a weakness like that was probably a terrible idea, but he needed her to at the very least see him as somewhat human. If she didn't see any kind of redeemable humanity inside of him, she would very likely still send him to jail. He didn't want that--both for his sake, and the sake of other people.

She was hesitating when he held his hand out to her, but he didn't stop. He simply stood there impassively, waiting for her response. If she deigned to refuse his offer to take her back to camp, then he'd probably have picked her up and carried her there whether she liked it or not. It seemed, however, that she would accept his hand, standing up but making completely certain to cover herself up. He sighed softly and closed his eyes, activating his own Naturesense and seeing if he could recognize anything large enough and safe enough to at the very least give her some modesty. He found something and let go of her, "Give me a few seconds," Darting into a nearby bush and pulling out a pair of particularly large leaves. He walked back over towards her and held them out, "If you hold them in place, I should be able to help preserve any of your remaining dignity." If she accepted his offer, he would help, making certain to not look at anything that would get him punched. If she accepted the leaves but refused his help, he would turn away until she was done. If she refused the leaves, he'd simply put them down and nod, preparing to lead her to the camp.

"Carry me." He sighed softly and nodded again, picking her up and carrying her bridal-style with little difficulty. Her frame was small and light, but it was going to be difficult to manoeuvre through the jungle while carrying her. In fairness, it would have been more difficult leading a wounded young thing like herself anyway. It took some time, and several slow waits while Drake let his Lifesense keep night-time predators at bay, but they eventually reached his camp once more. He brought her clothes out to her and set her down underneath his shelter. "Run or stay, I'm not too fussed. I'll be in a tree if you need me." He marked a tree with an obvious shape and clambered up to a thick-looking bough, leaning his back against the trunk and closing his eyes. It wasn't long before the soothing sounds of the night rocked him to sleep. He just hoped that she had an easy sleep as well.