What friends are for

A young blond human women sat at the river. Splashing herself with the cold fresh water. She rubbed her face clean, her long hair fell into to low pony tails behind her ears. She was relaxed but alert. She was a hunter, the human carried a mass amount of hunting tools from knives to scissors, but her true tool of trade was her bow. the long slender wooden handle to her long bow sat neatly beside her leg resting on the quiver. To her left layed her kill, a large buck with a single arrow protruding out of its chest.

Trotting alongside a river, a large male Shinlai travel upstream in search of a village. The gear on his back clink as it bounce slightly, still snugly attached to his harness. His brown pelt glimmer in the mid day sun, deep rich emerald eyes looking around for dangers. Suddenly he froze. Off in the distance down the river he could make out a silhouette on the banks. Getting a bit closer he could make out a human figure. Considering going around in a path where he would not be seen, he decided to go forward to see who was ahead. Maybe this person could tell him where a village was.

Maha turned her head once she sensed a new presence she went to grip her bow once she noticed the size of the shadowed figure in the trees. She stood gently and grabbed her weapons softly. she ducked down closer to the earth finding her cover beneath the grass. he movements were so soft she didn't make a sound.

Losing sight of the human girl, Moose cautiously approached. Catching the scent of a fresh kill he cross the river to the side he had seen the human on out of curiosity. Looking through the grass he saw the buck but no girl. "Hello?" said Moose as he turn around in all directions, his large paws gripping the Earth ready to run.

"one, two, three--" the gentle click of beads through the large shinlai's paws was the only sound in the garden as his mental counting was loud only in his head. the wen shinlai lay up on a sun warmed rock in a well tended garden behind a small mask crafting shop where his dear friend painted masks for shinlai. it was a calm place where the tired bag of bones liked to rest and medatate.

"Lynn!"
a small voice upon deaf ears frightened a few birds from the roof of the shop. a small woman in a white and blue dress stepped out onto the back porch and sliped into her black cloth sided shoes.

"four, five, six--" the blue beast was fully absorbed in his counting and all six of his eyes where closed. the dilian remained open but he saw nothing with them, his only good vision where in the large center set of his main eyes.

"Lynn! LYNN!!" suddenly the shinlai's eyes shot open to the outburst to see his human friend marching towards him with a slightly discontent frown on her face.

"Skaia?" he asked with honest inquiry.


"I've been calling you for the last five minutes!" the young woman huffed as she crossed her arms and closed her one eye, the other was gone and the space it left was always covered in a clean white patch that she often styled her hair over as well.

a soft ragged sigh came next from the large creature . "I'm sorry Skaia I was meditating." he said with mild strain as he pulled himself up to his feet and gave his braced leg a bit of a streatch. " what was it you needed?" he then asked in his usual rhaspy manner.

"the well is still not repaired and I need some water to finish cleaning the paint mess I made. can you help me carry some water?" she asked in a most pleading tone as she leaned up against the soft fur of her friend.

of course Lynn would help her, and it wasn't like he had anythign better to do. within minutes the pair where geared for the trip to the river.skaia had a large water bladder satchel and Lynn was fitted with four in a saddle bag style harness that was modified to only carry what the shinlai could comfortably carry on his damaged leg.

Skaia walked beside her friend with a serene smile on her face as they left town and started through the woods. she never felt safe or confident outside her shop without Lynn. she'd like to tell him that but she knew he had a fair amount of issues. she did not know why he was so down on himself or why he was so fearful offailure in any small task. she was not the sort to pry so instead she just stayed quiet like she did on any other day, her simple smile the best sign there was to show she felt good. subconsiously Lynn knows that the frail human walking next to him relied on hi s presence for security. not something he really felt comfortable with but he tried to keep it out of his mind.

as they approched the river Lynn could smell another human and he could see another Shinlai by the water. he wasn't always met warmly in town but this shinlai didn't look familiar so he chose to greet him rather then slink by like a sucpicious sort. " good morning." he greeted with a slight cough, skaia patting his side and sort of shying behind his large shoulder. she was still weary of strange shinlai, the loss of her eye sill fairly fresh in her mind. but she tried to give the benifit of the doubt and became shy rather then running away or bawling like a little girl.

'h-hello." she squeaked softly from behind her friend's fluff.

(( ok this has been like the THIRD time writting this post as it's been eaten twice >.< so! the typos are gonna stay there for now and likely won't be fixed until I get my new computer = C hopefully that will be today or tomorrow but I don't really know. anyway! I was kinda hoping moose and maha would have met before I brought Lynn and skaia to the river but this seems to need some extra life here so BIOOM))

The sound of the river water was what caught Silas's immediate attention. And then the smell of human. The scent was not particularly welcome. Though he was so thirsty Silas was willing to risk an interaction. He crept out from the surrounding forest, on the other side of the river he could see another lai and a human clutched to it. Disgusting He huffed to himself then stuck his muzzle into the cool water, lapping it up like he hadn't had a proper drink in days. Silas didn't seem to have any interest in speaking to anyone, at the moment he was just fixated on drinking some water.

Moose look up, his attention taken from the hidden girl and placed upon the Shinlai and human that greeted him.

"Oh hello" Moose said taking a few steps toward them before looking around again.
Noticing another male shinlai not too far down the river on the other side. Approaching the human and shinlai duo, he was cautious not to scare them away.

"Its rather active along this river, is there a village nearby?" Moose ask, his voice somewhat deep yet soft and friendly.

Maha kept low in the grass, trying to keep herself hidden. This was something she was used to. She was so small and so good at hiding that she could stay in the grass like so for hours. Its not that Maha was afraid of the Lai's, hell there wasn't much she was afraid of creature wise. In fact she thought of about peeping out to call attention to herself, until the other human showed up.

And that was more of the problem. Maha didn't go into the village much, her interactions with her own species was very little.

And this one was beautiful, there for she became nervous and shy, so she kept to her patch of grass, in hopes the crowed would pass.

Lynn could feel a glare of discontent from the dark colored Shinlai that came to drink but he was used to such feelings and even worse displays of disapproval with him. he shook his mane and instead of addressing the on looker
he nodded at the much friendlier Shinlai. "Yes, the village is only about 5 minutes down that trail" he replied in a somewhat rough voice, the sound was very deceptive of his nature, he was very kind hearted but rumors about him kept a need for a 'tough' outer shell and his gravely voice helped when he needed to intimidate.

"Are you here on business or just passing through?" he asked with honest curiosity as he knew where to point him to an Inn or i needed.

he tried to sound as friendly as he could seeing that the stranger did not obviously harbor any animosity towards him. while Lynn engaged the newcomer Skaia was busy filling the water bladders while keeping her one cautious eye on the dark and silent stranger.
she could feel she was being watched and she did not like it. the number of strangers around her was making the young woman anxious and flighty.

Silas was tired, the glare was not meant to be disapproving as much as a warning to leave him be. Though on his side of the river he could see a human attempting to hide. When he finished his drink he approached her, standing right above her and looking down.

"Who are you hiding from?" He asked. It was hard to tell if his tone was conversational or confrontational.

Maha shot her head around and caught sight of the huge dark shinlai above her. despite the obvious size differences she glared up at him. She then stood and spoke her mind. "I dunno a big ugly Shinlai who stole my drinking spot." she gripped her bow, and went over to her kill, ignoring the others in the area, hoping they would ignore her.

Silas walked over to her, that kill smelled fantastic... "It's your river, human?" he lowered his head to her level, staring her in the face. "And already name calling? How uncivilized of you... Perhaps I merely wanted to make friends." He poked her with his muzzle. Though the gesture wasn't meant to be threatening it did look as if Silas was harassing her.

Moose look down the trail the Shinlai gestured to for a moment before looking back to answer his question.

"I am here for business, I sell armor, tools, and other crafts" said Moose "Would either of you be interested in anything before I head to town?"

Before they had to chance to respond he said "Oh by the way my name is Moose" his tail perking up swaying a bit with excitement of meeting new friends.

"nice to meet you, I'm Lynndercote, or just Lynn" he said pleasantly forcing a smile, it wasn't common to feel like someone enjoyed meeting him so he was a little weary but pleasantly surprised at the other shinlai's outwardly kind demeanor. "Oh, well come to think of it I could use a few good leather straps if you have any-" he stopped suddenly as he noticed the dark shinlai who had up until now minded his own business seemed to be harassing some poor girl.

By then Skaia had finished gathering the water and scurried behind Lynn's very feathery tail to hide from the 'bully' just a short distance away. she was even still intimidated by Moose

Lynn narrowed his eyes and straightened his posture as he tried to figure out what was going on. " is there a problem here?" he asked aloud to the pair, he wasn't usually one to get involved in other peoples problems but he wasn't the sort to walk away from someone in need of help either.

Rummaging in one of his side satchels, Moose sift through his leather crafts. Looking up ,with a couple leather straps in his mouth, in the direction Lynn was addressing.