Serious: Shadows, Blades, and Blood of the Stone Forest Ruins

The sun just beginning to set, though it was darker than usual because of the cloud cover. the persistent drumming of rain had carried on for hours now. The canopy of the trees provided shelter during short squalls, but during these lengthy, soaking rains, the heart of the forest was just as wet as the grassland plains. A few alcoves remained in many of the ruined temples, providing shelter for anything brave enough to share it with whoever ... or whatever wandered in for the same reprieve from the constant rains.

Desiree never had much use for shelter. She was a creature of the desert and was accustomed to dry, relentless heat - that turned to frigid cold after sundown - she learned to run on minimal resources, weather violent storms, and rapid temperature change at a young age. The fairly consistent climate of the jungle wasn't challenging - the humidity could be suffocating but since it was always hot and wet, it was something one just became accustomed to. She left the crumbling shelter for the beasts.

She was currently crouched behind some palm foliage, silent and unmoving. The rain ran down her face, and trickled down her entire frame, coating her body like a shimmering skin. The sound of the rain and swaying of the vegetation further masked her movements. Her reptilian visage, deep pools of intense gold, surveyed the area, focusing on a particular movement. This intruder was new here, the scent fresh, the movements unaccustomed to the landscape. She remained silent and watched. She could always use her shadow ability to appear in the shadow of the creature or a nearby shadow - but there was no sport in that. She didn't want to be fed; she wanted to hunt. She tightly gripped the sarisa at her side but remained steadily in place until the perfect opportunity presented itself.

"Blaaaah, it's raining again?! This place really is gloomy!" After the sound of a yawn, the previous sentence was heard loudly, presumably some distance around it's source, as the creature was obviously irritated by the constant, ever-present rainy climate in this part of the world. The source was a male, that had just gotten out from what appeared to be deserted, old ruins of what could perhaps have been a shrine in older days. Whatever it was, it was good enough to provide shelter for the aforementioned rain.

The male has spent 3 months of his time in this place already, so it was actually a rather idiotic thing to complain about the way things were here, considering that this was normal in jungle forest environments. What was he doing here or how did he ended up here in the first place was not known, but, as he flexed and cracked his joints, and then, bare-chested, begun running around, it could be assumed that he was on some sort of a training program of sorts.

After about 30 minutes of running around the place, an actually mostly opened-up from trees area of a radius of approximately 30 meters, he reached towards the center of this area, where those ruins were, and picked up a trimmed towel from the insides. "Well, there's our morning schedule .. now to go get me some food." he looked around, a bit uneasy. "I hope I don't get lost again.."

She narrowed her eyes in disappointment as the figure came into view. It was that same clown who had past through here eleven previous times in the past four hours. She wasn't sure if he was lost or attempting to wear a whole in the ground. No one who was lost could possibly look that confident about where he was going - but why was he going in circles? - and more importantly why was he walking in circles on her territory, in her hunting grounds. He was the single reason she had not caught a single thing today - the careless ambling about was somehow too loud to be masked by the heavy rains. The rains were thinning and the sun flickered intermittently through broken clouds.

The rains would return soon but for now, enough was enough. He had ruined an ENTIRE day of hunting and if she was going to go to sleep hungry, she should at least get to know why. She had remained out of sight while watching his clown and surveying the area for prey - and now she slipped into the shadow of the temples crumbled wall, silently. Her entire frame malted into one shadow and oozed out of the next, shapeless and shifting - like a wandering spirit.

At last the opportunity struck. His direction shifted against the sunbeam, placing his shadow directly behind him. She rose out of the shadow like a serpent, golden reptilian eyes glowing slightly in the darkness. A small carved onyx blade of the deepest black and a slight sheen has pressed lightly against the neck of her victim - the cold, rough blade against cool wet skin hiding the warmth of blood just beneath ... the pulsing was tempting, reminding her of the hunt she was deprived of. Her voice was low and laced with danger. " ... now that you've frighted off all of the prey during your valiant efforts to vanquish a circle of grass, shall I eat you instead?"

"This is mostly inconvenient ..." The male responds, calmly and with composure, which was definitely not what she'd expect of a person that was basically placed in such a dangerous situation. But there he was, seemingly as if he had somehow detected, or foresaw, an event as unexpected as a female figure to literally emerge from behind him, out of the blue, and threaten him whilst also keeping him in a position where she could actually slaughter him. Was he that powerful or perceptive as to actually be able to remain unfazed from what was arguably a considerably frightening scenario. What was inside the man's mind, during that time? Maybe we should take a closer look, into his mind indeed.

*Oh dear, what in the world is that now? Why is there a chick behind me, how did she even drew this near without me realizing it, why is she speaking nonsense, and why is she claiming that I can be a source of food? .. Also, what do I do now?! .. Better play it calm.*

Maybe he wasn't as much of a perceptive wise man as he was just an actor, or a dare devil betting on a silly mind game of sorts, after all ...

((OOC: Apologies for the delayed response, I've been sorta off in terms of roleplayin mood and/or ideas. Shall try to get warmed up, again.))

Her eyes blazed a vivid gold as blade bite ever so slightly into the soft skin of nis neck, teasing out the tiniest droplets of red. "Inconvenient? Not only have you frightened off my lunch, you've scared away everything within a 25 kilo radius - probably for days. What are you doing here?" Her breath pulsed warm and dangerously against the back of his neck as she lightly altered the angle of the blade. She was never one to play with her food - but this walking starvation machine had not earned a quick and merciful death. "Choose you next words carefully, boy. I'm growing impatient and ... hungry." She sniffs suggestively at the back of his shoulder, never relieving the pressure of the blade pressed against his neck.

"What am I doing here? ... What are YOU doing here?" The male responds, his voice's tone was raised at the word "you", however the general output was calm and without a hint of anger, discomfort or interest to pick a fight. A wise decision probably, considering how the situation was escalating. "But I suppose, when someone asks you a question, it'd be better to answer first. I am here to train. These lands seem perfect a habitat, albeit a tad confusing and hard-to-navigate into. Now ... why is a female living off this wilderness, and why is she willing to, apparently, feast on human flesh? Would it be just out of fury, or, who knows, even with that anger condition absent"

"I LIVE here, you clown! You are trespassing on my territory." The chill of the blade continued to tease out more small droplets of crimson life to coat its reflective surface. The teasing scent of fresh blood was doing little to calm this shadow beast. Her eyes flickered to some of the crumbling statues carved in stone the were perched along the edges of the ruins, bearing the same snake head of her family's crest - she wasn't quite sure what this ancient pile of rocks had to do with her family, nor did she care and she half felt the statues were mocking her by sending this idiot to plague her by scaring off all of the food. She had training of her own to do and answers to find, leaving little time to deal with imbecile distractions.

"My purpose here is my own concern, boy. ... and don't worry ..." She pulled the blade away from his neck and wiped the small amount of blood against her lips. "... I don't eat junkfood. Just stay out of my way and stop scaring off the bloody game."

"You live here, you say?" Shadow calmly, and with a stern, steady voice repeats to her with a question. However, as soon as she actually retracts the blade, the action of her licking off the droplets of his own blood being somewhat unnerving to watch, he extents his hand, and rubs the back of his head, while facing her.

"So, is there anything we could eat? I actually haven't had a proper meal in a couple of days." he asks her that, in a more casual, almost friendly tone, almost as if they were acquaintances. What a weird, weird creature he was! "Why would you want to live here for longer than just a training period, anyway?" he then adds, still maintaining this, more relaxed than earlier on, behavior towards her. Was it the absence of the blade endangering his life, was it him being naive, or was it that he was just an insane moron?!

His demeanor changed a bit too rapidly, almost as he wasn't smart enough to regard her as a threat any longer- or he was severely underestimating her. She didn't want to make that same mistake either - he showed no signed of elevated strength or power - but in this world, that was never a safe bet. She knew to little about this person, other than he was inept to survive in this environment. It was an edge but not enough to let her guard down.

Her luminous gold eyes studied him, glowing slightly from the shadows created from her long dark hair. She had an ethereal beauty - more dangerous than alluring - like an elegant snake or a graceful spider. She narrowed her eyes regarding him as he casually invited himself to dinner - as though they were old friends. His current state of starvation was unsurprising, considering his notable lack of hunting skills and the general isolation of the terrain.

"I live nowhere."

She stepped closer to him with an eerie fluidity, that suggested a oneness with shadows and the atmosphere itself. She eyes him suspiciously and the homicidal glint in her eye implied that her blades hadn't been entirely divorced from the idea of meeting his blood. "Why would you train in an atmosphere which, based upon your hunting skills, you are clearly unfit to survive in. Asking a stranger for food is like admitting defeat - and anyone who would come here to train isn't the kind of creature who would rely on another or admit defeat - so forgive me if your request strikes me as suspicious."

She stepped forward almost as if walking into him but only melted into his shadow, disappearing entirely. A few minutes later, she emerged from the shadow of a nearby tree, carrying a wild turkey and a small pouch of berries. She tossed the carcass and the pouch at him as she leaned against the tree. "Care to tell me what you're really doing here, city boy?"

"Hmmmmm ..."

A few strikes, rock against rock, and actually there were some results. Small sparks managed to ignite the sparse timber that was placed between a small section of rocks. "Ah, finally." he comments, while setting up what seemed to be a rather flimsy contraption to impale the turkey in, so he could, apparently, begin to cook it. Seems that some time has passed, however, the unknown, mysterious female wasn't gone, instead left some distance away, occasionally glaring him, the expression was hard to be read; was it anger, curiosity, irritation .. could be a lot of things.

"So, you are a fruit user, eh? Ah, where are my manners?" Shadow speaks, while clumsily clearing the turkey from it's plumage, wanting to prepare it for grilling. "You asked me something. Well, I ended up being washed out at some shore some days ago, and walked deep into this area, basically I was searching for my bearings. But, this place does looked like a fine place to train around a bit."

So, he was lost, stranded here, yet, he found it a "good" idea to use this to his advantage and actually transform this into a training camp. What a weird way of thinking. "How long have you been living here? Oh, and thanks for the meal. We can share, of course."

She watched him, annoyed as he casually worked with the poultry. He spoke to her like they were old friends at tea. She couldn't tell if he was sincerely and idiot or if he was up to something. She didn't say much during her observation. It was always better to gather more information than you gave away.

His story didn't make any sense to her. You don't randomly end up in a place like this without trying and you certainly don't come if you can't survive. She didn't believe or trust him. She didn't live her, exactly, but she did have her own reasons for her self-inflicted exile, reasons that were none of his concern.

She absently wondered if his flesh tasted better than the turkey's. She was so tired of turkey. She caught the occasional rabbit, goose, or boar - but this place was infested with turkeys. She usually only caught them because they were loud, annoying and in the way. They made for an easy meal, but somehow, even their flavour was annoying.

Her eyes never left the stranger, gleaming, golden and unsettling luminous orbs seemed to glow next to the darkness of her hair. She didn't speak or answer his questions, making her looming presence all the more unsettling. Something about a stranger showing up here without a purpose was disturbing. What did he want - was he an assassin? Was he after information about the yonkou? Her fingers switched, instinctively dancing around the hilt of her blade. She did not draw the blade but her had always remained close. She would only attack if forced to do so.

"Well, that looks like it's cooked enough to be eaten." Shadow casually speaks, apparently he didn't quite minded her not responding to his questions or remarks, at all. In fact he didn't even remotely seemed bothered that he was effectively just talking to himself.

Chopping the turkey with a military knife he pulled off his belt, he sliced a large enough piece off the fowl, and presented it to her. "Last offer, would you like a piece?"

He actually continued to hold the slice with that arm, while he grabbed the stick he used to grill the creature, and begun to avariciously devour the rest of it. Clearly he was quite hungry, the part of him stating he had received little to no nourishment for the past days appeared valid, seeing him eat like that.

She watched him carefully, gold, savage eyes settling on his movements. How was he so casually accepting food from strangers - pretending they were old friends. She couldn't trust this sort of odd behavior. He must be up to something - he must be after something. His casualness did not disarm her, it only made her more guarded. Oddly, she would be more comfortable if her were actively trying to kill her. This behavior was too puzzling; she didn't know what to expect.

She had to find out what he wanted - she had to break this casual demeanor by getting under his skin. She would make him talk somehow. Her golden eyes settle on the piece of meat he held out to her. What a curious opportunity - it would have to do. She melted into her own shadow and emerged from his. Swiftly she grabbed the arm holding out the small bit of meat and nibbled at it, not stopping when she reached his fingertip. She offered him a dangerous gaze as his finger went into her mouth before she allowed his finger to slip out harmlessly and very slowly from between her lips. "Mmm ... I was right. You do taste better than turkey."

"Do you .. behave like that towards anyone you first meet? Needless to say, quite an unorthodox way to leave a first impression .." Shadow mutters, managing to maintain his demeanor to the same way he had it before, or at the very least, just barely that way so he won't end up looking uneasy or awkward, a thing that -given her behavior- would be quite natural.

Having finished with his meal, he wiped his face with the back of his hand, before he got himself up and, inexplicably, removed his upper body's garment. "Well, that was good, but it was too hot, so I'd rather take off any extra clothing so not to burst from all this heat. Guess I should go back to my camp and wait a bit till I work out again .. so, thanks." He tells her, and actually turns his back at her, quite an action not familiar with someone that is aware of her rather murderous intent.

Quickly he stops, however, and turns his head towards her. "Uhm .. any chance you recall where my camp is located?"

She quirked her lips to the side, annoyed that he seemed relatively unbothered by her creepery. "No.  It's usually worse - though, you seem kind of use to it, so who is really the weirdo here?  What are you doing?  Put your clothes back on, idiot.  You're going to get to get burned - you're clearly not an outside kind of creature. Where are you going."  She stood there, mouth agape as he asked her where his own camp was.  No one can be that stupid.  No one.  
"You can't be serious.  Why in hell are you asking me where YOUR dwelling is. It isn't my job to babysit you.  You need to go home. ... and if by 'camp' you mean that jacket hanging on a three, those five pieces of wood, what appears to be a fishing net, and three rocks stacked up... for some reason, it's about six steps to your right. You need a better qualification than a pulse to survive here - this is a barren wasteland and the best thing you could find to bring is a fishing net?!  Even if there was a body of water to merit it, your net is full of HOLES!" Her head was now throbbing from the frustration of encountering his idiocy.  She had not responsibility nor care for his survival, yet watching him was still stressful and painful.

"I got hot, so I removed it. It's not a big deal now, is it?" He casually, once again, too casually, responds back to her. Then, turning his head, he notices that, indeed, his "camp" was actually right there. Placing his hand on his cheek, it was more of a very light slap to his face, he continues to remain alarmingly calm. "Ah, dear, how careless!"

Listening to her yells, and commentary about his apparent incompetence, surely that should set him off, right? That'd make sense .. right? "Oh yeah well .. those were the only things that I managed to rescue from my boat, so I decided to try and use them some way. Guess it doesn't work out too well, tho!" He laughs it off, like it's nothing. This man .. he had to be the king of idiocy!

She blinked slowly, still unsure of how a creature this dense manages to sustain vitality for a greater duration than ten minutes. "Removal of a thin layer of fabric isn't going to reduce your body temperature by that much - you are far better off keeping it on as sun protection - bah ... never mind! Why do I try? I certainly don't care how you chose to get yourself killed. What mission from hell sent you here to plague me, boy?"

"Mission? To plague you? Huh?" Shadow speaks to himself, repeating some of the things she said, obviously the man was perplexed as to what she meant. Scratching his head, an expression of ultimate indifference and lack of seemingly any hostile or cunning plans in his mind, the same finger now turns towards her, pointing at her, while the other hand was resting on the man's hip.

"I just explained to you what happened to me and how I ended up stranded in there. Are you not paying attention? Or maybe, are you a lunatic?" He asks, pure, simple, neutral expression and posture. He actually deemed HER to be the idiot!

"All i know about you is that you got here in a boat, in an environment you obviously cannot survive in to 'train'" ... Her golden eyes narrow at this imbecile. He just had to be playing dumb - he had to know she was here, did he know who she was or just her familiars? "You're a spy aren't you? I don't know where the bloody yonkou is, and if I did it would not help you. No fleet can match that paid network of endless influence."

A shrieking sound harkened a dark figure exploding from the brush. Desiree turned as the read eyed, enraged creature entered the clearing where the stood. It was moving toward the stranger, probably alerted by the scent of the array of personal items he had scatted all over the territory of various ecosystems including the giant boar that seemed to want to skewer him. Idiot. He probably reserved the fate at the end of two tusks he was about to receive. Something bout this idiot nagged at her curiosity - she really needed to know how anyone could be that dumb. Sighing, she shifted into the shadow of the tree and emerged from the stranger's shadow moments before impact.

As swiftly as her knife came into her hand, it was gone, moving too quickly to be seen - the hilt of the blade catches the light as the blade finds its target. The boar suddenly slumps, the momentum causing his body to slide on the ground, stopping at Desiree's feet. She pulled her blade from between the creature's eyes and began to walk away. "I hope you're still hungry." She wanders to the edge of the treeline where some wove-leaf vessels had been collecting fresh rain water. Carefully, she begins to clean her knife, which a bizarre and almost affectionate manner.

"Oh, more food." Shadow nonchalantly speaks to himself, turning his upper body towards the direction of the now diseased boar. The odd thing here was that he was still behaving as if nothing happened. Was he that much of an idiot? Did he noticed and was going to act but her actions were too fast for him to follow up?

Moving closer, he then casually, as odd as it was, lifts the boar up on his shoulders, which was at the very least kind of impressive, as the creature was actually quite larger than he was. "Thanks for the bother." he says, chuckling. Bother? So he noticed. But why didn't he reacted? Was he that arrogant? Couldn't possibly be that he predicted she'd react to that, right?

She narrows her eyes at this idiot clown who seemed to have little idea of how dangerous this place was. The pulled one of her hunting knives from her thigh holster ant threw it before she turned to walk away.  The airborne blade came dangerously close to his head - enough to leave a slight cut on his ear as it whizzed past and found its mark in the center of the giant boars skull with a satisfying crunch as it penetrated the bone and lodged in the brain matter. "You may need on of these - not that it is much protection between your stupidity and death. That may well be your last meal so try not to waste it."

"Dear, you really aren't very good at making a good first impression with a stranger, right?" Shadow comments, with a rather cocky smirk on his face. "However, thank you for your time." he turns and, while, oddly, holding the boar over his body with one arm, he reaches to his swords, placing them over his hips. And then turns and smirks again. "You are free to come by and visit me again any time you like.~"

"Dear? DEAR?! I'm not sure condescending terms on artificial endearment are precisely appropriate when you are too incompetent to acquire your own meals. Furthermore, you have encroached upon MY territory - so it is not my burden to impress anything upon you. You are trespassing. -- and stop acting like your camp is more than 5km from where you're standing! With you camping IN my territory, I don't have to 'visit' -- what's WRONG with you?!" While in her state of annoyance, the girl had slipped in and out of the shadows, coiling around trees with the same slender fluidity of a snake. She flowed and melted into her environment and shadows with terrifying ease and elegance. She peers down at him from a tree branch, her eyes a flickering gold, like a lurking predator.

"Ah .. that wasn't the type of dear I pronounced .. eh, nevermind that." Not paying much of an attention at her moving around via the use of her Devil Fruit ability, the male merely begun walking away. For some reason, he actually went past his own "camp", and moved forward, before he stopped and slowly turned to go sit where said "camp" was. "Hmmm .. needs more wood." he mutters, and turns towards some trees, with one of his swords sheathed out. "Black Shallow."

A rippling blast of energy travels in a spiral, actually slashing throw several of said trees. "Oh dear ..." Shadow mutters, with a slightly awkward expression. "I overdid it again."

A flicker of steel catches Desirees eyes - the familiar gleam of a katana - the sound- the air pressure ... such skill. He eyes watched the rapid movements that could barely be seen almost in slow motion. Something about the moment isn't right - it is not hindered by the wood in its trajectory. The fluid movement isn't pause in the slightest, slipping through the trees as if they are nothing more than holograms made of light. Moments later, gravity catches up to the movement and a wide radious come crashing inward.

Desirees eyes wides and a circular clearing of destruction is made, smashing into any standing structure. She narrowly avoids being crushed by slipping into a tree's shadow before it falls. Moments later, she emerges from the shadow of the swordsman. This the speed a precision of a snake she leaps upon him, snarling, her eyes wide with rage.

"IDIOT! Are you TRYING to get us killed?! You've destroyed your own camp, collapsed one of my cave entrances, and have alerted every human, fishman, and animal in these treacherous woods of our presence, location, and have even provided with with an impossible-to-miss landmark of cleared land! I should crush your skull right now - but I'm sure someone else will take care of that task in short order. You are a walking land mine - why in hell are you here?!"