Silent Hunter and Spotted Beast

"Hmm." Solasta was dissatisfied with how she seemed to react. She seemed to be more than ready to defend herself when Solasta first attacked her - why was she struggling now? She peered at her assertively, her mouth twisted into a wry frown. "Den how much time do you need?" A stray hand stroked through her own hair. "I was really lookink forward to seeing you perform. Yo' not goink to leave me disappointed are you?" There didn't seem to be much anger present in her expression, only a rather cold, judging expression.

"I don't have my weapons with me for a start, so I can't perform any kata's for you. And I generally rely on my instincts when I'm in a real fight."

Solasta resumed scowling at Raye until she very a casual shrug of her shoulders, dropping her cold, aggressive attitude. "Oh well," she groaned through slightly gritted teeth. "There is one t'ing you should know though." Smirking to herself, she inspected the back of her own hand, flexing it. "If yo' were a junkai, and you said that, yo' would be beaten to a pulp!" A grim laugh escaped her lips as she tossed her hair flippantly. "Yo' lucky dat we live in de land of cowards now!"

"Land of cowards, indeed." It wasn't a land of cowards - it was just a place where public morals ruled out over personal morals.

Was Raye genuinely agreeing with her, or was she only trying to stay on Solasta's good side? She stepped closer, lowering her lips closer to her ear as she lowered her tone down to a secretive hush. "Back where I live," she started. "You don't ever turn down a fight. Broken legs, blindness, leaving yo' weapons - dere ain't no excuses," she insisted seriously, spitting slightly. "Yo' name would be shamed across de tribe, you'd be de one weakling, de helpless little squirt." She gave her a hard, warning gaze. "Don't expect me to be so soft."

Raye shrugged. "Why would I care about what people think of me? Slander my name all you want, Sol, there's nothing in a name."

Solasta let out a loud snort, not believing Raye to be understanding her at all. "It not just yo' reputation on de line - it's yo' dignity, yo' life! You wouldn't understand, outsider!" The last words were practically snarled, and she seemed almost unaware of the hypocrisy in her claim. She turned away from Raye, crossing her arms huffishly.

"Given, I haven't lived life as a Junkai, but you haven't lived the life of Jinn, either. Remember that. Our lives are lived trying to prove we are the best - whether to become alpha or to find a mate, to gain the best hunting grounds, or just to show off. We live by proving we're the best to the other Jinn in our pack."

"Lone wolves are considered weak and pathetic. We're hated by any and all Jinn unconditionally."

Raye smirked sardonically. "There's only one thing worse than being a Lone Wolf in Jinn hierarchy: becoming a Lone Wolf a second time."

"So, Solasta, I couldn't care less what Junkai would think of me - because the Jinn already think that of me ten times over."

Solasta didn't expect her to retort so steadily, and she gave her a cold glance as she began to rant at her. She had to admit she had a point. But she paused to shake her head. "You don't understand. De junkai 'ate me too." Her fingers traced over her tusks slightly as she frowned. "...I guess we both our own race don't want us no more," she cracked bitterly. "We not so different, ai?"

Raye's brows rose slightly. "So it seems."

The Jinn's hand rose to clutch the left jacket sleeve as the two brands beneath began burning.

"Heh." Solasta's smirk seemed more distressed than satisfied, and she was almost grateful that Raye's words seemed to kill the apparent conversation, unsure that she'd be able to carry it on herself. She hadn't lived with Junkais for at least seven years now, who knew if they'd still even practised these traditions? But what she remembered was still very clear. The laws had been hammered into her mind from a young age.

Raye's moment caught her eye momentarily, and she stared at her arm with suspicion. "...What'chu doing?" she hissed suspiciously, poising and ready to act. Perhaps she'd changed her mind and was now ready to fight her? Such was wishful thinking, but it was never a bad thing to prepare herself for such an event.

"My brands are hurting..." Raye mumbled, tugging the fabric away from her arm and massaging two old circular brands on her upper arm. "They usually do when I remember my packs."

The Jinn sighed and stared down at the two circular marks on her skin with barely-concealed sadness. She missed her packs. She missed her brothers constant childishness and her mates calm disposition.

But she couldn't go back to either pack now. This was it. She would forever be a Lone Wolf now.

Looking down at the brands, her expression twisted into what looked like mock-sympathy. "Aww. Homesick?" She reached her hand down in a manner that appeared rather aggressive at first, but would instead pat her shoulders in what seemed to be a genuine attempt at comforting. "Yo' packs don't exist no more. Dey in the past."

Her face marred into what looked like an attempt at a small smile - but her tusks would often get in the way of this, appearing rather freakish instead.

"No, they just hurt," she replied, rubbing at the sore flesh. She had no home in the first pack and the person that made the second pack was done. There was no way she could be homesick. "I get memory pain sometimes. The brands are the worst for that."

Raye smiled when Sol patter her shoulder. "They're in my past," the Jinn admitted. "I left both of them so it's quite possible that they're both thriving. Me leaving them wasn't the end of the world after all - I'm not that special."

Raye trailed the backs of her fingers across the raised skin on her arm tenderly. "But, you're right. I have to stop living in the past." She tugged the sleeve back over the marked skin roughly. "It'll do me no good and I can't enjoy what's happening in the present."

Her half closed eyes flittered briefly over the brands before returning to Raye's face. The hand was removed from her shoulder. Memory pain! What bogus! She'd never experienced such things, then again, she'd never done anything that she had regretted in the past. "Dats more like it," she said as she finished, smirking.

She wondered briefly why she felt the need to tell her about herself. Did she trust her that much? A finger rested on her lip in thought. "How would yo' like to help me with a little problem I have?" Little? No chance of that. But she continued anyway, without waiting for Raye's answer. "Yo' happen to know anythink about curses?"

Raye;s mouth turned down into a frown. "I know a little bit about them but I'm not very good at magic." Not very good was an understatement. Raye was abysmal at magic. Just learning how to shift between forms took her twenty years to learn whereas it took her littler-mates two. And she could barely dwell in objects for ten minutes if she really pushed herself.

"I...don't think I'd be able to help you," she sighed.

Raye's answer caused Solasta to huff irritably, unsatisfied. What if she was lying, what if she knew more than what she was saying? She pressed on rergardless. She'd never encountered many co operative people in the academy so far, and she wasn't about to blow this chance.

"My little problem, you see," she started, raising her hand so that her palm was showing. It was charred and black, likely from the fire she'd started there earlier. "My fire powers burn me as well. I can't let dat happen. Was just lookink for some way of..." She searched for the right word. "...Amendink it. Yo' sure yo' know nothing?"

"I can barely stay in an object for ten minutes," the Jinn whispered mournfully, hand rising as if it touch the outstretched burned limb in front of her. "I'd never be able to lift a curse of the magnitude."

Her brows furrowed as she thought back to what her sister used to say about curses. She was always the one gifted with lifting and creating curses in the pack. "Joey was the one with the great magical talent. I'm useless at magic. It took me twenty years of hard work just to be able to shift into a human."

"I'm sorry, Sol..."

She peered searchingly as if to decipher if Raye was really being honest. Her sharp expression eventually calmed, and she gave a defeated sigh. Her hand lowered and her fist tightened, ignoring the sting in her palm. “Ai. Alright then.” Even the apology failed to lessen the lump of disappointment that seemed to be lodged in her throat.

“Not’ink has helped me. I’ve been searching for de answer for so long. Maybe I should just be giving up and dealing wi’ it?” The chuckle that escaped her lips was anything but amused, and she shook her head. “A-ai! I don’t care!” She raised her hand to the three leaves attached to her forehead, and it almost seemed like she was going to pull them off. However, she stopped herself, slumping her arms down before sluggishly trailing towards the edge of the stage, sitting herself on it again. “...I have a question,” she asked offhandedly, staring at the ground. “Why yo’ think I have so many enemies here? I don’t nothnik wrong!”

"I feel the same about my powers. Jinn should be able to dwell in objects indefinitely. I, despite being an alpha female, am one of the weakest Jinn I've ever known. I've thought about giving up hundreds of times before - just accepting that I'm pathetic and weak and that I'll never be as strong as the other Jinn. But I've kept searching for someone or something to help me improve. Yeah, in the last one hundred and sixty two years I've only ever been able to stay in an object for eleven minutes maximum. It's pathetic but I'm drying my god-damned hardest and I'm gonna continue doing that until I roll over and die." Raye gave the Junkai a weak smile. "If I can do that against all odds, what's making you want to give up?"

The canine peered up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Why do you have so many enemies...? I don't think you have enemies - just people that aren't too fond of you. You come off as quite a mean person on first meet. And most people will evade others if they seem mean." She loped over and sat next to Sol, resting her hands arms on her parted knees. "And I admit that I wasn't too fond of you. But, I've learned quite a bit about you and I realised you're not quite as bad as I thought you were when I first met you. And even if you still have quite an abrasive attitude, I like you a hell of a lot better now."

Her tongue flicked over her lower lip. "You have a mask just like I do. You... you're scared of people hurting you, ne?" she whispered in a rough voice. Her voice took on an airy tone. "You hide behind that abrasive attitude and make people believe you're tough and need no one so you dont run the risk of getting hurt." Even the Jinn couldn't tell if she was talking to the Junkai beside her...or herself.

Solasta listened intently to Raye's speech, her finger absently trailing the edge of the stage. The more she went on, it seemed, the more she found a reason to agree with her. A hundred and sixty two years? She stroked her three leaves again. She'd barely lived fifteen. She'd only recently obtained her third leaf - by the standards of her race, she wasn't even halfway through her life yet. Of course, she knew the age of her race would never stretch into the hundreds. The Jinn, it seemed, had a very long time to amend their fallbacks.

But the suggestion behind the her words was something she could not stand. Raye had a very good point, but if Solasta agreed with her completely, it would mean she would be agreeing with how weak she had been. It most certainly wasn't something she wanted to admit to.

She eyed her suspiciously as she went to sit next to her, not all to pleased about the 'mean' comments, even if it was somewhat true. However, she couldn't help that others would often take things too personally. But her irritated look quickly disappeared at her later comment, to which she bit her lip. It had been a long time since she'd recieved such flattering words.

It was her later comments that caused the junkai to bury her head in both of her palms. "Shu'up," she moaned, not bothering to raise her head. It was accurate, almost scarily so, and she wondered for a brief second if the Jinn had managed to jump into her mind. The tight lump in her throat failed to budge. The palms of her hands were feeling wet, and she didn't know why. "Jus', jus' wantink t'impress people, a-ai? Not mah faul'..!"

"I understand that. Bloody hell do I understand that," she sighed, resting a hand on the Junkai's shoulder and giving it a very light squeeze, mindful of she sharp claws she had in this form. "Y'know, most of my scars-" she shrugged out of her jacket and pulled her shirt up slightly, turning her back to the Junkai. Her arms and back were littered with scars from blades and teeth and claws. A long thick scar travelled diagonally down her back over her spine, trailing down into her jeans to cut off just above her backside. "They're from fights I got in trying to get better - to impress myself and occasionally other Jinn that would take the time to talk to me and not hate me on spot."

She stared blankly ahead of her. "But who are we fooling, ne? We're tough independent women and we need no one," she said with a hard frown before her face softened and her shoulders slumped. "We need people more than we let on and we get hurt when people think bad of us."

She flinched slightly at the unexpected touch of the shoulder, but she didn't attempt to bat the intruding hand away, instead staring at Raye as she displayed the scars on her back. Was it impressive or a failure? She found it difficult to make the distinction and her eyes narrowed in thought.

She let her words sink in for a moment before Solasta too decided to stare at the blankness just beyond her. "...Ai." Her distant expression hardened. "Ai. Dey odda people, we don't need 'em, we bettah off wi'out dem. Friends, dey only stay wi' yo' til de moment yo' need dem most, den dey let yo' down! To 'eck wi' dem I say!"

"You haven't had very good friends in the past, ne, Sol?"

Her tongue ran along her bottom lip. "Don't let a couple of bad experiences make you bitter. Friends...are complicated." Raye lifted her legs and curler her arms around them, resting her chin on her knees. "Sometimes they have their own agenda that's much more important to us. The world doesn't revolve around us. No matter how much we want everyone helping us - sometimes that's not possible."

"When I was mated, I was scared beyond belief. I had a friend - a very close friend called Quetzalcoatl. He was always there for me. But, at that time he was dealing with his own problems. I was furious with him; why couldn't he drop everything he was doing and come comfort me?"

She heaved a sigh as her ears pinned back on her head. "We got in a big fight. We didn't speak to each other in months. In that time, I realised that he had to deal with some really heavy stuff. I...I couldn't apologise to him for another couple of months."

She didn't know where that little story led to. She was just mumbling to get it off her chest. She doubted Sol would care about Quetzalcoatl.

Was Raye trying to give her advice? She didn't need help from anybody - she wasn't weak! She turned her head away, so stubborn to accept what she said. Friends were selfish, two faced little things that'd talk dirt behind behind your back.

She listened to her store, wearing an expression that was barely sympathetic at all. "Dat was foolish," she spat. "Yo' should have left him. 'Eck, you could apoligse an' be friends again, but you kna what? Yo'd only start fightink again later." She absent mindedly stroked the tips of her tusks. "It's de one thing you can always trust a friend to do."