A Strange Intruder

[Sterling]

[span style="text-shadow:1.5px 1.5px #087F6A;"]Sterling[/span]

"Maybe this, ah yesyesyesyes" The lynx seemed smitten with his current find, paws digging away at the dirt in this way and that, claws extended forward to rake through what would be scooped up in the next stroke. It would seem that Sterling had wandered his way up into some mountains, bucket in tow as per usual for him. "Just a little bit more! This'll show that pompous jerk. Who's the one with all of the riches now? It is I! Not me, I." He was near by the Orchard, his current hole mere feet from the old decaying buildings. What on earth was this feline digging for anyways?

After a huff and a few more well placed drags of his paws Sterling reached down and was finally to get purchase on his prize. Claws sank down into the earth around a very dirty and mostly tarnished pendant necklace. He worked carefully, flipping the bit of metal upwards, letting the ground hold it steady as his head delved into the hole. After a moment of wriggling and rustling he pulled back out, tugging firmly as the string loosed its way from the soil, pendant clutched between his teeth. "Yesh! Hahah! I got you now!" He spoke excitedly, bob tail flicking here and there, reflecting his rather open disposition. With a flick of his head the bit of old jewelry was tossed into his bucket with an audible TING as it settled in. Currently this was the only trinket in his precious bucket, the last batch he had ended up lost after a night of wearing his bucket as a hat. Easy come easy go! "Do you see that? Now who is the one with all of the riches? It's not you, that's just some garbage you dug up. Bah, you wouldn't know treasure if it came up and drew the 'X' on your face!"

Reaching forward he took the bucket handle up into his maw and started to trot proudly towards the abandoned looking building, almost like he owned the place. He wasn't quiet about it, though he wasn't exactly speaking for the moment either. His head tilted from side to side with each step, almost bobbing with an unheard rhythm as he made the pendant tak and ting against the walls of his bucket.

[Warringkingdoms]

  [font=trebuchet ms]Rin could hear a voice echoing through the mountains nearby- a strange voice, one she'd never heard before. Though she couldn't hear what they were saying perfectly, she thought she could make out the words "riches" and "treasure." While the Captain spoke like a stereotypical pirate, and riches probably weren't far from his mind when he wasn't thinking about killing them all, the fact that the voice was coming from on land suggested it wasn't him. He'd be stupid to stray so far from his domain for an unrelated mission.

  Of course, the plan was to eventually draw him out onto land anyway, but it wasn't a matter of making him fall for that. The idea was that he wouldn't have a choice, if he wanted to get at Rin.

  Nonetheless, Rin decided to investigate the odd voice, descending from the mountain camp to the orchard via the pulleys. Indeed, there was an unfamiliar lynx walking towards one of the buildings, carrying a bucket. Quirking a brow, she walked through the grass towards him, and asked, "Who are you, and why are you in the middle of Elysium territory?"

  If he was there to attack someone, it wouldn't make sense for him to carry a bucket, but Rin still glanced briefly over her shoulder, at the arrows in her quiver. She still had six arrows, just in case. Glancing back at him, she waited for an answer.

[nemhain.]

Nemhain had never been one much for riches. It made sense, considering a persona would probably have very little use for any actual sort of money or valuables – although there were a few greedy shadows that enjoyed collecting things just for the hell of it. Still, even if she hadn't been Rin's persona, Nem wasn't sure that she would've been much for riches anyways. They were just things, and there were more than enough things to go around for everybody. She didn't see why things like pendants and gold were considered to be more valuable than something else just because they had a bit of a glint and gleam to them. So deep down, yes, she understood the base desire of mortals to get shiny things and feel important, but personally? It didn't really make sense to her. Which was why, when she was flying over the territory and heard the frantic ramblings of someone eager for those precious shinies, she felt a soft sigh leave her. Obviously she couldn't just leave it unattended, since the voice was unfamiliar and could easily be a threat, but she also wasn't sure she wanted to deal with someone like this. She could just as easily continue on flying, and perhaps bring back some food to camp in order to make it seem like that had always been her original goal...

However, what drew her downwards was the sound of Rin's voice, and the appearance of her user down below. A heavy sigh left her, knowing that she probably shouldn't leave Rin unattended, in case this was some plot by the gods to get a drop on them. So, the enormous bird swooped down from the sky, plummeting until she eventually came to a landing beside Rin. Chest puffed out a little from the big gulp of air she had taken in, Nemhain eyed the lynx slowly, dragging her gaze over ever part of him until it lingered on the bucket. What the hell was he intending to do here...? Considering Rin had already asked the important questions, and Nem didn't intend to introduce herself to a possible threat just yet, the fenghuang said nothing. Instead she just dipped her head to Rin in a polite way, waiting for Sterling's response.

[Sterling]

[span style="text-shadow:1.5px 1.5px #087F6A;"]Sterling[/span]

Sterling was interrupted just a few paw steps away from a large hole in the wall he was planning on walking through, the swaying stopped and he froze. Slowly, ever so slowly he turned his head; upon seeing the smaller female it would seem like all of his limbs sputtered. Grass and dirt was kicked up behind him as he scrambled immediately into the building. The lynx tumbled forward, tripping on the ledge of the ruined wall rolling forward a few feet and getting his head stuck in the bucket. After another moment of struggle he rushed up towards the edge of the wall, bucket gracing his head and peering through the hole at the other feline.

"Sorry, no, I'm not interested in buying anything, scarf sales person." He said fidgeting and occasionally ducking his head back down in a rushed fashion as if someone were throwing rocks at him. "No one is home!" He added to the end of that statement. His fur was bristled up and on end as he watched to see what the female would do, still having not answered her question in the slightest. More hushed tones would come from the wall whenever he ducked down for more than a few seconds; "You need to run! Save the bucket! Have you seen the sky today? It's quite lovely. Why would you want to talk about such a thing right now!?" Silence followed whenever the bucket headed lynx poked out from the wall to peer at the female, hoping she would simply understand that no one was home and move on to peddle her scarves somewhere else.

'WHAT THE HECK IS THAT' As the giant bird swooped down to land in. A second threat to everything Sterling was appeared. "This is a no giant scary bird zone! Please vacate!" His voice cracked with panic. He was safe behind his wall. Yes. And with his bucket on his head he was surely even that much safer. Ducking back down, paws scuffed nervously against the dirty wooden floor, drawing little streaks in the dust and grime. "I have an idea! Oh by the gods no! Anything but that! But it is a great idea, you don- Never has such an idea been formed, you can't think it could be real. Nitwit. Don't interrupt me!" Sterling slowly peered back up and over the ledge of the wall.

[Warringkingdoms]

  [font=trebuchet ms]Watching the lynx just completely flip his lid was... almost enough to make her laugh, but she maintained a straight face even as he got his head stuck in the bucket. The fact that he immediately assumed she was a scarf salesperson, however, made her raise a brow. He thought someone as scruffy as she was had any hope of selling something? Most salespeople had the good sense to at least look like decent creatures.

  "No one is home," he said- she was tempted to sarcastically agree, but instead chose to let him continue babbling about the sky and giving orders. She had no clue what he was talking about, but she suspected that was the point. Before she could say anything, Nemhain arrived on the scene. Offering her a nod of acknowledgement, Rin then turned back to the lynx.

  ...who was now freaking out even more. By this point, Rin was used to other creatures being startled by her persona- Nemhain had even startled her the first time, so it was hardly an uncommon reaction. Unfortunately for the lynx, the two of them were sort of a package deal, so he was unlikely to get Nemhain to "vacate."

  He started talking again, back and forth to himself. Rin had to admit she was a bit concerned about whatever was going on in his head- it couldn't be pleasant for him. Furrowing her brows, she said, "I'm not here to sell scarves, and we're not going to hurt you." Unless, of course, he gave either of them a reason to, but she'd get to that in a moment.

  Leaning slightly towards the building but not taking a step closer, she continued, "I just want to know who you are. As long as you aren't going to hurt anyone, you have nothing to be afraid of."

[nemhain.]

Screeching and terror wasn't really an uncommon reaction to Nemhain appearing, unfortunately for her. It was annoying, given the fact that Nemhain hadn't exactly chosen her own form. It was just what she had manifested as, and she had never exactly attempted to change it. Sure, she was massive and had powers that could be quite the scare to anyone who saw them, but it wasn't as if she had threatened Sterling on sight. Hell, he didn't even know what she was capable of yet! Yet here he was, screeching his head off and mumbling to himself as if she had threatened him and his entire family. A snort left Nemhain as she shook her head, her wings pressing down tightly against her sides as she stuck her head in closer. She chirped deeply to Sterling, her head tilting to one side as she inspected him, "I am not a giant scary bird. My name is Nemhain, and I am a persona. I am not going to hurt you. Not unless you are a threat to me or lady Rin." Her voice was straightforward and slightly aggravated, but not outright threatening or anything along those lines. Although she was primed and ready to resort to violence, in case Sterling's seemingly cute and amusing little rants devolved into threats or crazy violent rambling.

With her tail feathers flicking back and forth behind her, the fenghuang stepped back a little, figuring that was the best option for now. After all, Sterling seemed to be panicked and erratic enough. Curious about why the other kept mumbling to himself and acting as if he was having a conversation back and forth, Nemhain hesitated for a moment before she spoke again, "Are you... alright? Healthy? Have you been dropped on your head at all lately?" Her line of questioning might've been a little bit rude, but her people skills were rusty – actually they were essentially nonexistent – and she felt the need to be direct. Besides, it was probably just what Rin was thinking and was to polite to ask. At least if Sterling answered Nemhain's questions, they could figure out how to possibly help him. Or maybe not, if he was just... like this. She hoped it was just a temporary thing, since she wasn't sure she could take much more of the strange ramblings with no point.

[Sterling]

[span style="text-shadow:1.5px 1.5px #087F6A;"]Sterling[/span]

'I'm not here to sell scarves' Now that really didn't make sense. Why would a scarf salesperson not be there to sell scarves? His head would tilt at this, speaking up once more. "That's not a very sound business practice then." The lynx said very matter of factly. His eyes narrowed as he digested the chorus from the two of 'Not being there to hurt him'. He ducked his head back down for a moment to confer. "They don't want to hurt me? If they don't want to hurt me, what of my bucket?" He rose back up for a moment, scrutinizing the two for a moment, before once more ducking his head back down on the other side of the wall. "I don't think they are here for that. If not then why?"

'I just want to know who you are' OH. MY. GOD. Had he truly been so rude? He had never introduced himself! His eyes got wide from the sudden realization, head shaking the bucket off and letting it clank down to the floor before promptly being picked back up into his maw. Seems his new trinket was lost to the floorboards inside of the decrepit building he was hiding in. With a quick shake of his fur he hopped out of the hole and sat as neatly as he could, head tilted just a bit. He rose one big paw up and swiped harmlessly through the air with a limp joint. "Oh my oh my I have been entirely rude please forgive me! Sterling at your service, Ma'am and bird!" He gave a wide smile from around the handle of the bucket as well as he could, talking carefully through the somewhat closed mouth. Surprisingly articulate considering.

He listened carefully to the birds questions, tilting his head from one side and then to the other. "My head? Oh no no no. If I am ever in danger of that I my bucket here!" He gave it a swat with his paw as if to emphasize just in case the bird didn't understand what he was talking about. Seriously, how could one hurt their head with such fabulous and fashionable protection. The swat let out a long resonating 'tinnnggggg' To which Sterling grinned wide. Delighted. In standard fashion though, Sterling answered the birds questions in reverse. 'Are you...alright? Healthy?' Absolutely he was alright and healthy! Could someone not healthy create such wonderful sounds with just his paws? He thought not. "Do I look ill? Could someone ill and unhealthy make such wonderful music?" He inquired before flipping his bucket upside-down and proceeding to tap tap tap on the top of it with both paws, carefully balancing himself on his hind legs, still in the sitting position. Boy he was getting really into it; swaying his head a bit from side to side, even humming a small bit.

It took him a few moments to snap out of it before he rested both front paws on the back of the bucket. "See with your lookers and gaze upon a clean bill of health!" He said proudly, shaking his fur out just a bit and sitting just that much taller, clearly proud of the point he had certainly made. "And now. Who might you two be? If you aren't here to sell me a scarf then I am simply perplexed as to what you want of me." He nodded his head, those tufted ears flicking a bit sending some dust from the floor tumble he took before falling from them.

[Warringkingdoms]

  [font=trebuchet ms]As Nemhain explained herself, her aggravation was palpable to Rin- probably due to their bond more than anything else. Rin could understand her irritation, but in this case she didn't think it was personal. I think this guy just scares easily, she messaged Nemhain over their bond, twitching her ears. He outright fled from me, and I'm smaller than he is.

  As her persona asked whether the stranger had been dropped on his head, however, Rin turned her head to face her and raised a brow. You probably could have stopped at asking if he was healthy. Yes, being direct was valuable in these situations, but you could be direct while still maintaining some level of tact.

  "Not a very sound business practice," he said. Leveling her gaze at him, she twitched her whiskers. He was still on about that? Was he trying to imply that he wanted her scarf? Before she could ask, he started talking to his bucket again- like it was a prized possession of his, or even a method of channeling other spirits (it wouldn't have been the strangest medium of communication she'd ever seen).

  Finally, he introduced himself- and before she could inquire further, he insisted his bucket would protect his head. That hadn't been the point, but even if it were, that wasn't how helmets worked. Rin opened her mouth to quip about his questionable safety practices, but before she could he dived straight into playing a "song" for them. Perhaps an avant-garde music critic would be able to find beauty in the odd beats, but she was neither qualified enough nor in a good enough mood to do so.

  She got the feeling that if she examined him she would find quite the opposite of "clean health," but if he was walking and talking, he was probably fine for the moment- physically, at least.

  ...and there he went with the scarf again. Shaking her head, she answered, "This scarf is mine. I'm not selling it- it's as valuable to me as your bucket is to you." Well, that wasn't entirely true. Sterling sounded like he would be utterly despondent if he lost his bucket- she could recover if she lost her scarf.

  Twitching her tail, she continued, "Anyway, I'm Rin." Nemhain would probably prefer to introduce herself. "And this is our group's territory. You can stay if you don't cause problems- you can keep looking for treasure, for all I care- but when someone unfamiliar ends up here, we always check them out to make sure they aren't going to cause trouble."

[nemhain.]

Nemhain's talons sunk down slightly into the ground beneath her as Sterling continued talking, a soft hiss of air forced to leave her beak in an effort to calm herself down. The usually confident and refined persona could usually deal with the more difficult types of people that would show up to the group, but in this case the newcomer was totally erratic, and his nonsense was making it difficult for her to breathe. She only relaxed the slightest bit when Rin's voice entered her head, reassuring and chiding her all at once. Nem forced her feathers to lay flat after that, not wanting to explode on this poor clearly deranged little man. After all, he seemed the type to be terrified by his own shadow, and if he knew what the fenghuang in front of him was truly capable of? He'd probably run for the hills. Which Nemhain didn't personally see a problem with, but seeing as Rin was making a legitimate attempt to be friendly and peaceful, even if the other male didn't actually officially join Elysium, Nem figured she should make an effort as well. All the massive bird could really be glad for was the fact that she didn't have teeth she could potentially hurt by grinding them together in frustration. Her resolve only weakened when he launched into his little song atop his bucket, and Nemhain had to actively restrain herself from leaping forward to grab the guy's neck in her talons. At the very least, he had actually introduced himself this time.

Making an active effort not to sound too strained as she spoke, Nem stood up a little straighter before she mumbled, "A pleasure to meet you, sir Sterling. My name is Nemhain, and I am Lady Rin's persona. As she said, this is the territory of Elysium." For what it was worth, the fenghuang no longer found herself worried that this fool was 9me of the gods coming after them in disguise. None of those gods, even on their most clever of days, would deign to choose a form so ill fitting and incompetent, even for the sake of a scheme. Hopefully, Sterling was just a passing crazy traveler that had decided to take up residence in Elysium's territory for the moment. However, given how he dove into his old little home and seemed to be used to a bit of a routine, Nemhain found herself doubting that this was the case, most unfortunately for her. She tried to keep her emotions under control as she felt all this, not wanting to inadvertently send a wave of disgust or annoyance Rin's way somehow. She doubted the magna would be too happy about such an unpleasant surprise gift, and Nem also didn't want to reveal just how unhappy she was to Rin at the moment.

[Sterling]

[span style="text-shadow:1.5px 1.5px #087F6A;"]Sterling[/span]

The lynx would listen as both spoke and introduced themselves in turn, head tilting some from side to side as he let the information process in what ever way it could inside of his head. As Rin mentioned the scarf being a memento just as important as his bucket his ears would fold just a bit back. That must be one very VERY important scarf. Sterling's bucket was absolutely indispensable to the Lynx, allowing him to create wonderful music and carry much more at once than he would be able to otherwise. Yes, a very precious and useful tool. "Oh dear, Oh my. What a terribly dreadful and depressing thought!" He said with a sharp, single nod.

'Anyway, I'm Rin' Oh! A name! About time. "Rin...Hmmm...Rin Rin Rin RinRinRinRin.
Territory?" His ears would twitch straight up as she mentioned treasure. This was his moment! "Treasure yes! I find many things! Just today I found this wonderful string with a shiny on it!" He proceeded to flip his bucket over onto its side and stick his nose inside, ruffling around inside of it for a minute before letting out a nervous laugh. "It seems the universe ate my shiny. I did find one though! Sterling never lies!" He said proudly to defend himself after lifting his head up from the bucket, the process lifting the bucket up by the handle around the bridge of his nose. Oh so carefully balanced! "I try not to cause trouble. Trouble is trouble! Ofcourse trouble is trouble nitwit, you just said the same word twice! Listen here, I am allowed to define trouble as trouble as much as I want." As he started to get into an argument with himself the bird began to speak.

Though it may not look it, Sterling was certainly paying attention her, ears twitching even as he berated and defended himself all at the same time. What snapped him out of it wasn't the name given but the description of the bird's self. 'Persona' No no, that wasn't right at all. This was a bird. He had seen people, persons. They we definitely NOT birds! "Do you think me daft? I can very clearly see that you are a bird! You have far too many feathers and far too many wings to be a person! I have seen persons!" He said stamping a paw on the ground. "A group of them even used to feed me!" He huffed just a bit, looking the pair over. From small feline to large bird and back. "This place is called Elysium? Never heard of it!" He shifted his weight, bringing one paw up into the air to ding his bucket. "Such a strange and large cage.. Now I am not complaining! This is much better then my previous accommodations, but it is oh so strange. No matter how far I go I cannot find bars or the invisible wall!" He prattled on a bit, looking around, up at the sky and from left to right.