Cat's Outta The Bag[Lyrt, Ell, Mu]

[Mali]

Mali listened as the man spoke. He had yet to tell her his name. She might have heard it between the others as they spoke but she didn’t understand the ancient language so it was nearly impossible for her to make out his name in their speech. Purring slightly, Mali felt it right to ask his name so she could stop referring to him as the man and the Niko impersonator. “What’s your name? Niko never told me your name either,” Niko hadn’t spoken about his brother much. There was a time where she had asked about him, what he looked like, what he was like, but that was about the only information she knew about the man.

Mali felt sad when the man removed his hand. That had felt really nice. She looked over to the boy who had been juggling the shiny fire orbs and moved closer. She moved behind the people that had gathered around, slowly inching herself into the boy’s view, searching for the fire orbs again. She looked up at his face, he wasn’t dazzlingly handsome in any way, but his eyes caught her attention. She shifted immediately to stand right in front of the boy, her face inches away from his as she stared at his eyes. One was green and the other was amber. They were so pretty and reminded her of the yuletide season and her mother.

Reaching out to place her hands gently on either side of his head, she moved even closer, their lips and noses centimeters away from each other. “Your eyes, they’re so pretty,” she smiled to him, her tail swinging behind her, ears perked up and eyes wide and a bright feline green, staring straight into the boy’s eyes.

Mali wasn’t paying much attention to anyone else in the clearing now since they were all speaking in the ancient language. Not realising that she was still holding the boy’s face and for some time that it would be considered awkward, Mali continued to stare at his face, taking in every feature. She wanted to know how he was able to juggle fire. But that could wait til later, she was still entranced with his beautiful eyes.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

Josk rose from his crouch and stretched, unintentionally ignoring Mali’s question. He supposed Yren was ultimately a good kid, very amiable and easy to compel so long as the request wasn’t flat-out malicious or evil. He just needed to make it painfully clear that the clearing and its inhabitants were a secret. The boy would probably understand and watch his tongue. Josk just had to come up with a good reason for the presence of a human in Du Weldenvarden that would keep the boy’s tongue still. Mali would probably prove a more difficult prospect, but he could just keep her at the estate and allow her out in Ellesmera only under supervision.

“The boy doesn’t seem like your type, Josk. He seems far too optimistic and good natured for you... Or is that why he’s still alive? Do you genuinely enjoy stomping such characteristics out of people?”

Josk twisted slightly to look at Baldur with a look that implied the elf would have smacked the humanoid if he didn’t hold Baldur in such high regard. He was about to clarify the situation when Yren piped up. “Josk and I are friends.” The mage jerked back around to glare at the retreating form of the potter’s apprentice, several less-than-pleasant spells running through his mind as he did so. They were not friends. He was practically bristling at the implication that he was even remotely friendly. He had a reputation to maintain, dammit, and that boy was not going to ruin it! He muttered a few choice words under his breath before turning back to Baldur. “I am not friends with that boy. I tolerate his existence because I have no reason to hate him. His exuberance is easily tempered with a few words and he seems to think that I am a valuable critic for his work. While I do not deny feeling delight in destroying another’s innocence and naiveté, I do not do so unnecessarily.” He would have continued, but he was distracted by Mali grabbing Ace’s face. He blinked in surprise. What was she trying to do?

“Your eyes, they’re so pretty.”

The mage closed his eyes in annoyance. Note to self: do not leave the werecat alone near shiny objects. Second note to self: remove all pretty, shiny objects from around the manor or place spells around them so that she cannot break them.

Not even Yren’s return a few moments later distracted the werecat from her intense inspection of the boy’s mismatched eyes.

[Amur]

Despite the boy’s initial fear of Baldur and Ace it seemed as though Baldur had managed to get through to him simply by introducing both himself and his brother to him. The fact that this boy, this Yren had likewise introduced himself in response to Baldur was a good sign; it implied at least some small level of willingness to trust and would ultimately make it easier to keep the boy silent without having to kill him.

He largely ignored the look he got from Josk in response to his initial comment and simply arched an eyebrow at the comment Yren gave before running off to retrieve his bag. Friends? Well, that was unexpected; Baldur had assumed that Josk would have kept the boy about for some variety of sport, or simply as a means of having someone around to stomp on when needed. He gazed at Josk curiously as the elf turned to face him and explained the relationship he had with Yren, Baldur taking note all the while on how defensive Josk sounded.

“Interesting, considering what I’ve seen so far he seems to annoy you more than-”
Baldur paused, no, there was practically no chance that Yren annoyed Josk more than Ace tended to, so he took a short moment to rework what he intended to say.

“He seems to annoy you a fair amount, you’re telling me that despite that you can still tolerate him?”
He asked curiously.
---

Ace felt a sense of smug satisfaction when Mentor Josk ceased speaking to him, Ace had done it! He had avoided making any further stupid decisions which had thus avoided him enraging Mentor Josk any further than he already had done. Well, at least he wasn’t getting beaten today, and because of that he dismissed the orbs of fire he had been juggling and sat back a little, allowing himself to relax as the likelihood of getting beaten today decreased.

He did notice –somewhat distantly- that the girl-creature-thing was inching her way toward him, but he ignored her for now. He didn’t particularly feel much like talking to people right now as it was so he kept quiet and cast a half-glance to his brother as he began speaking to Mentor Josk in that language that Ace still didn’t understand.

And then, whatever thoughts he may have been trailing towards were interrupted when he found the face of that girl-creature-thing just inches from his... Ace blinked, already feeling awkward, no-one had ever gotten so close to him before. She moved her face closer to his, telling him that his eyes were “pretty”, which only succeeded at making the awkwardness of the situation feel more obvious to The Young Pyromancer.

And because he didn’t quite know what to say in a situation like this, he just said the first thing that came to mind.

“Whoa! Slow down, babe!”
... That probably wasn’t one of his smarter ideas.

No, wait. He had a better idea! Perhaps if he just said that this was making him feel uncomfortable.

“Ya’ know, babe, if ya’ get this close to people ya’ might give ‘em the wrong impression.”
... What the Hell was he saying!?

[Mali]

Mali wasn’t a klutz she was just easily distracted. For example, the very beautiful eyes in front of her. She wasn’t going to do anything reckless while observing the coloured pools. She was just entertained by the colours in front of her. She had never seen someone with two different coloured eyes before. It intrigued her. She had never thought that it was possible to have two different coloured eyes before. Since she had never come across it, why would she think it was possible?

Babe? What was a ‘babe’? And why was Ace telling her to slow down, she wasn’t moving quickly, she was standing still. So far, the boy seemed to confused Mali. Nothing he had said made any sense at all. As he spoke again, she wondered what kind of impression he would be talking about. She was admiring his eyes and it was hard to do from a distance.

Clearly confused again, she couldn’t help but ask what it was he meant.

“What kind of impression do you mean?” Mali wasn’t stupid, she was just confused. What he said didn’t make complete sense to her. What kind of impression would this give anyone? Deciding that maybe she was making Ace uncomfortable, she moved back a bit, smiling to him.

“Is that better?” she tilted her head to the side as she asked the question, her smile still present. Mali started to feel a little nervous that she might have ruined any form of friendship with Ace and started to fumble with her hands.

“You know, you’re really good at juggling. Could you do it again, juggling I mean” she wanted to see him juggle the shiny objects again. It was a simple request, hopefully one that he shouldn’t say no to.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Elloria]

“He seems to annoy you a fair amount, you’re telling me that despite that you can still tolerate him?”

Josk glowered at Baldur. “Remind me again who my current apprentice is? Then compare him to Yren and tell me which one is a great source of irritation.” Josk turned from Baldur, noting that Yren was now behind him. Irked at the proximity – did the boy just willfully forget how much Josk despised people invading his personal space? – the mage was about to chastise the apprentice when Ace spoke to Mali.

“Whoa! Slow down, babe!”

Josk’s spine instantly stiffened. Surely Ace wasn’t that stupid. There was some semblance of intelligence and sense in the boy’s head, right? He had, after all, wisely held his tongue and sat still when Josk had been furious earlier. He had even given appropriate responses to Josk’s statements! That was progress, was it not, from the buffoon that the mage had met nearly two years ago? Josk prayed that Ace had not only not said what Josk had just heard, but also that the boy would not continue the train of thought. Not only was Mali a werecat – and therefore deserving of the sort of respect bestowed upon dragons – but she was also female. Now Josk admittedly hated females with a passion that could only be described as religious, but that didn’t mean he disrespected them. Not in public, at least.

“Ya’ know, babe, if ya’ get this close to people ya’ might give ‘em the wrong impression.”

“What kind of impression do you mean?”

Josk just stared, outrage warring with disbelief and horror on his face. This…this was not happening right now. Ace did not just…he was not that…

“You know, you’re really good at juggling. Could you do it again, juggling I mean?”

Outrage won out. If looks could kill, then Ace should be dead or very close to it. The mage could only hope that he wouldn’t have to resort to beating the ever-living shit out of the boy in front of the werecat for the flagrant disrespect that had been displayed already. But after she was taken away… “I do not believe that now is a good time for that, Mali. Ace has lessons that he should be studying right now. And uselessly juggling balls of fire is not one of them,” Josk interrupted. His tone was relatively neutral despite the fact that his eyes were no longer silver or even grey, but almost black in color.

[Amur]

Baldur shrugged his shoulders gently in response to what Josk had said to him, he brought up a good point. He had seen Ace annoy Josk enough to know that on more than one occasion Josk had simply walked away in frustration... Those times were often awkward, as Ace would end up apologising and then somehow find an entirely new way to infuriate Josk. Baldur often wondered how Ace managed such a feat, but had also come to the conclusion that at times Josk could be far too sensitive about seemingly meaningless things.

Though, Baldur knew better than to voice that thought out-loud.

“Point taken.”
Baldur replied calmly, about to turn his attention back to the book he held in his hand when he heard Ace speak... Even Baldur couldn’t help himself; he simply sat looking at his brother in shock. He had absolutely no idea where Ace had gotten his attitude from, but it most definitely was not from Baldur. He brought his expression back to its usual calm self and then raised an eyebrow slightly.

“Do you ever think before you speak, my brother?”
Baldur questioned curiously, he knew that he had taught Ace better than that... Why was it that very little of whatever Baldur tried to teach Ace seemed to stick with him?
---

Ace blinked slowly as his words seemed to confuse this girl... Was she really that oblivious? Nevertheless, she seemed to understand that she was making him uncomfortable and soon put some distance between herself and him... Not that Ace was able to understand how the actual meaning behind what he had just said had managed to get through to her; he had not intended to say what he had just said at all.

Ace allows himself a small smile as she told him that he was good a juggling.

“Well, I-”
Ace cut himself off as he caught sight of Mentor Josk and the look he was currently giving Ace. Immediately Ace silenced himself and stammered for some kind of explanation, since clearly, what he had just said had, for some reason enraged Mentor Josk... But what to say? Ace had never had anyone get so close to him so quickly before, and to top that off this was his first time actually talking to a member of the opposite sex.

Though Ace did make a small “whoop” sound as Mentor Josk informed this girl –Mali- that Ace had studying to do. Since it gave him something else to focus his energy on discussing, that way he felt less awkward about the way he had just behaved.

“Already done, Mentor Josk.”
Ace replied happily, still somewhat surprised that Mentor Josk still didn’t expect Baldur to make sure that Ace committed a minimum to memory per night before he would let Ace do his own thing. Ace didn’t really like the routine, but, it served its uses often enough. He didn’t ignore his lessons; he had been the one to accept them, after all.

[Lyrt]

Yren stared up at the sky his mind drifting off to topics of thought elsewhere, in no way paying attention to the were cat's antics. His bag was the only connecting factor of the abstract threads of the mind. His bag, there was no way to he could trouble Josk to help him find it once again. It would be his responsibility and his alone! Though...it did give him a reason to see Tathar-elda once again, as if he did not see him enough. Much of his free time besides for sleeping and working independently, was spent following the older elf around like a puppy.

He knew so much, and was truly kind to him without any reason or obligation. There were quite a few different times that Yren had been confused by his lack of knowledge of Ellesméra and he had explained it all without even batting an eye at his ignorance. If only he had been apprenticed to someone like him and not his current master...

Yren slapped his cheeks hard and quickly shook the cruel thought from his mind forcefully, his master had helped him much even if he was strict and had high expectations. There was no reason that such dark thoughts should fill his mind.

“I do not believe that now is a good time for that, Mali. Ace has lessons that he should be studying right now. And uselessly juggling balls of fire is not one of them,”

Josk's flat tone pulled him out of his self absorbed trance and he quickly stepped out from behind him knowing how he hated when the younger elf did such things. "Josk?" he asked catching the change in his eyes and expression immediately. "Are you hungry? You seem to have come in an awful hurry..."

Blue eyes glanced him up and down simply taking in his odd form of informal dress, he had never seen Josk dressed this way before. He was always so well put together, his dress impeccable just like his fair skin. "I...I have..." he hummed softly as he dug through the small pouch he kept with him, eyes pointed skyward all the while. "It looks like it will rain..." he mumbled absent mindedly as he he hopped impatiently from one foot to the other his golden hair bouncing. "I have a hotcake...its fresh from this morning and it is not squashed or blemished in any such which waaaaaay~."

He smiled and held out a small bundle wrapped in a neatly embroidered square of white cloth. "Tathar taught me how to make them! Therefore am sure that you will like it, you must be at least slightly hungry." He swayed from side to side purposely standing right in the line of vision between the elf and the younger of the two humans. "So?" he asked with a soft chirp as he bounced up and down on one foot, very much trying to grab all of his attention from the boy that he looked at with such a horrid expression.

[Mali]

Mali couldn’t see how angry Josk was getting as her back was facing him. If she had known how angry Josk was getting, she probably wouldn’t have asked Ace to juggle for her. She was amazed by this boy. He was able to make shiny balls of fire. She knew that fire was dangerous, but it didn’t stop her from wanting to paw at the shiny orbs of fire. She would probably get burned if she kept trying to paw at the orbs. She really shouldn’t have asked then.

Ace was about to reply when he stopped. Looking at him curiously, Mali wondered what caused him to stop talking. Was something wrong? She turned however as Josk addressed her and told her that Ace had better things to do than juggle fire for her. “Awe, okay. Since he has other things that need to be done, I won’t ask.” she would ask when Josk wasn’t around however. Even though he had studying to do, there should be some time when he was allowed to fool around, right?

Mali looked around at the man that had given her the cake and the weird tongue that he spoke in. She saw him take out another cake and licked her lips. She saw that it was offered to Josk, but should he not want it, Mali would gladly take it off his hands for him.

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[Elloria]

Josk barely suppressed a sneer when Ace cheerily replied an affirmative to beginning his lessons. It was a very close thing, however. Without even thinking about it, he firmly gripped Yren by the side of the boy’s head and shoved him out of the way. Keeping the apprentice off to the side with this hold, the mage said, “Begin your meditations, then. Clear your mind of all distractions and keep your mind clear. Then we may begin with the usual warm-up exercises.”

Once the brat had begun his meditations – with a minimum of grumbling, which indicated he knew just how much he had displeased the mage – Josk turned his attention to Mali. His eyes had not brightened in the slightest, though his expression was still neutral. He would need to make arrangements for her stay. There was no way he could let her remain in the clearing. Ace was easily distracted as it was and Josk could not afford to add another one – particularly a female one who would both stroke the brat’s ego and make him incredibly uncomfortable. But first…

He turned to Yren. Releasing his hold on the boy’s head, Josk took a firm grip on the boy’s chin and lifted his head up so that he could look directly into Yren’s eyes. The mage’s next words were quiet and nearly monotone. “If you ever dare to interfere with my teaching or disciplinary methods again, I will rip that smile off your face. And then I will proceed to punish my pupil twice as harshly for YOUR insolence. Do you understand me, Yren?”

[Amur]

Ace was quick to follow Mentor Josk’s instructions, he already knew that his earlier actions had made Mentor Josk angry with him and he didn’t really want to aggravate Mentor Josk any further. There were more people here than Ace was usually accustomed to, but, he could zone them out, he was able to zone out the majority of Mentor Josk’s rants on a regular basis, after all. Having already sat down a little while ago Ace gently closed his eyes and actively ignored all outside distractions that anyone else would provide for him.

Once he was comfortable he cleared his mind as absolutely as possible –which, by now he was able to do with some ease- and then held himself in that state.
---

Baldur watched the situation wind-down very carefully, taking note of how Ace seemed to have taken note of the situation and had clearly taken the more intelligent route of NOT trying to push his luck any further. At that realisation Baldur allowed himself to sit back and relax just that little bit more, opening the book he had been reading earlier on the page that his brother’s previous interruption had left him on Baldur took one last look around the clearing.

His gaze briefly settled on the interaction between Josk and Yren and for one brief moment Baldur narrowed his eyes slightly. He had seen and heard enough about Josk’s relationship with the boy to know that Yren irritated the elf, but, had yet to see the two of them interact at any real length to make a concrete evaluation on their relationship. So, for the time being Baldur shrugged inwardly and turned his attention back to the book Josk had loaned him.

For the time being there was little he needed to worry about... He did silently resolve, however, to once more teach Ace the importance in showing restraint, clearly, Ace was still having difficulty taking-in those lessons.

[Lyrt]

Yren blinked up at Josk quietly when he grabbed his chin and tilted it up to stare at him, feeling no fear at Josk's wrath towards him. He had not acted impulsively on that anger towards the human and it was all that did matter to him. Soft blue eyes glittered up at him calmly, meeting the stormy ones without hesitation as Josk scolded him.

He had expected it though, it was not like he had bothered to hide his intentions from the elder elf, though he did wish that he would have tasted it anyways. Yren bobbed his head in understanding to his words, taking note of the threat against the apprentice. There was nothing for him to do from there, yet teaching? His mind swam with questions and he bit them back hurriedly, Josk would explain it all in good time.

"What did you think of the vase though?" he asked bluntly, taking the moment to get the opinion he had come for in the first place before it was forgotten. "I used a new mineral in the golden glaze to give it some extra sheen, yet not too much so it looks fake." He smiled up gently at him and held the small cake out towards the werecat who was glancing towards it.

[Mali]

Mali watched as the boy, Ace, went off to do his exercises and looked over to the other man who was being held by Josk, the man that looked like Niko. She should really stop referring to him as the Niko impersonator, the man who looked like Niko, etc. He had given her a name, and it was Josk, but she couldn’t help it. He looked so much like Niko. And she missed Niko so much.

Feeling her stomach grumbling, she looked over to the cake that had been held out toward Josk. She had no idea what the man had said, seeing as she didn’t speak the ancient language, but she was still hungry. She wondered if Josk was going to eat the cake. She doubted that he would though seeing as he appeared to be angry with the kind man.

The tone that Josk used to talk to the man was cold and icy. She still had no idea what had been said since he was so quiet and said it in the ancient language, but it sounded like something mean. Maybe he was threatening the man, or he was scolding him. Something to that extent.

Looking at the cake again, she noticed as the man handed it toward her, speaking to Josk in the foreign tongue again. She took the cake and started to nibble on it. She didn’t want to swallow it whole as that would be rude. But she felt so hungry that she could swallow the cake whole. She quickly finished the cake before wiping her mouth on her sleeve and grinning up to the man.

“Thank you,” would he even understand her?

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[Elloria]

“What did you think of the vase though? I used a new mineral in the golden glaze to give it some extra sheen, yet not too much so it looks fake.”

Josk let out a harsh sigh. The crap he had to put up with. Nobody seemed to appreciate just how much he hated them all. It was infuriating sometimes. He was tempted to just kick over the stupid vase in question so that he wouldn’t have to deal with that particular source of irritation, but the thought of having to look at that stupid wounded-puppy look on the boy’s face made Josk want to vomit. He glanced down at the vase that was still at his feet – he might as well get this out of the way now. If he didn’t, the boy would just follow him around until he gave an opinion on the pottery.

He lifted one foot up and used it to tilt the vase back slightly. The sunlight caught the golden glaze at an angle, making it gleam. It was almost like it had been gilded, though anyone looking very closely would see that was not the case. As he moved the vase to and fro with his foot, he heard Mali say thank you – presumably to Yren, since Baldur was reading and Ace was “meditating” at the moment. “Yren does not speak Broddring Common, Mali. But I will tell him you said thank you,” Josk said as he picked up the vase and handed it to Yren. “Baldur, I will be back. I want to take Mali and Yren back to Ellesmera before continuing Ace’s lesson.”

With that, he motioned for Yren and Mali to follow him and made his way out of the clearing. “We will just leave Ace to his meditations for a bit. I want to show you the place where Niko and I grew up. I think you will find it an interesting place indeed.”

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END