Private Cats and Bears

Crownshold market was the envy of all Northern Illica.

The dock brought goods from all the world, Sonshan and beyond. The market bustled with animal and folk alike, pressed hard against one another like ants in their hill kingdoms.

Arbok stood above all, scanning faces and looking for someone. She was looking for a man. Somewhere here was said to be a man who could speak to cats. That alone was worth a look but in light of her quest to seek out any trace of her lost people. If indeed any trace was able to be found perhaps where people had failed cats might prove to have longer memories. To Arbok cats always seemed to know something secret anyway. If not the location of her lost kin then maybe some other knowledge.
How to get bloodstains from shirts perhaps or where the left sock keeps going!

He was supposed to be fair of flesh and hair and serious countenance. Arbok wondered at that. She herself was often thought serious but was given to whimsy as often as not.

"Um, excuse me..."
Her voice belied her size, it was soft and small.

"Hi, have you seen... no I don't want to buy a fish I was hoping that..."

"Wow, that's a big pumpkin did you grow that yourself?"

"Hi, I was wondering if you saw a man speaking to um... cats?"

Despite her best efforts Arbok's talents were not in deduction or locating missing things and there were too many smells to discern much. Still though, she persisted and in her covered cloak of heavy cloth she asked for the man who could talk to cats again and again.

@Laric

*

Turning, Arbok took down her hood and let a truly gigantic mass of braided dark hair that each ended in copper spheres. Her face was young but scared in a way that seemed unnatural and erratic.

Despite this her face shone bright through her bright brown eyes and round features.

"Oh hi."

Her voice was common as grass and like the blonde man was from North Illica, central to be specific.

"Right! Yeah, cats and bread. Of course."
Her hand reached behind her head to scratch an itch she didn't have.

"Why didn't I think of that heh."
Some people slip through crowds, like fish in a river and others marched heedless of the flurry about them, Arbok waded. Past the folk and bluster she managed to get to the bread stand leaving plenty of room in her wake for the blonde man.
"So you're him right? You're the man who talks to cats?"

Arbok was simple, homely and above all genuine but she wasn't a fool. She wanted to know this was the right person before she bought him breakfast.

@Laric

*

*I'm paying* were the magic words as Arbok wasted not a second with jerking her whole body to face the bread vendor and begin her order.

"Two honey and nut bakes, a seeded honey loaf and that walnut cake!"
Her hand pointed at the most sumptuous and fresh looking of the walnut cakes.

Her smile was gentle and wide as she turned down to look at the man who might be the man who talks to cats.
"Are you having anything?"

It was a mistake made only once in Arbok's presence to offer her anything she wants when it comes to sweet things for her appetite more than matched her size.

"I hope you are."
Her mouth closed over the walnut cake first.

"I came a long way to find you. If you're him. Are you?"
She chewed and asked. Wondering why he'd not admit it outwardly. It's not as if it was illegal, that she knew of anyway, to talk to cats. Odd but not wrong surely.

@Laric

*

She laughed a deep private laugh and marvelled at the small beast at her feet.
"Oooh, hi."
Her hand crumbled one whole honey bake to bits for the creature who sniffed and nibbled on it tentatively.

"Um yes, well first off. My name is Arbok and I'm glad to meet you."
She swallowed and kept talking as the moved among the crowd looking down to make sure no more cats were underfoot.
About them the market continued its noise and the chaotic din of people and beasts became background to their talk.

"I'm looking for someone, well someone's. My someone's, that is to say my people. I mean, people who can do like I can..."
Words dried on her tongue, she wet them and spoke again.

"Have your cats seen, I mean do they... do you, know what I am?"
She hoped they did, it was always awkward to show people.

@Laric

*

Oh boy, this was the hard part.
"My parents are dead."

She said it to to throw at him but to correct him and put a notion to bed.

"The monks at the Abbey call me a werbear but I don't like that name. Gran always said we were the last so when she died I found people. I never knew any people before then, just my gran and they were nice and all but they're not like me."

She took a deep breath, the bread in her hands forgotten and her pace paused as if she needed to root herself to stay upright.

"I don't know where I come from or what we are but I found you because I hoped that you might have seen one of us or heard something maybe."

Lately she had told a few of her feelings, Saskia first, then Gruki because she really felt she should have told Gruki first, then Roki because he was with Gruki and Alouette because she didn't want her to feel left out.
She didn't tell Monroe, she was scared of that one.

In all the telling she hoped it would get easier but it didn't. It still felt heavy in her every time she said it. So that weight fell on her again as she told Laric and weighed on her face.

"Please, if you know anything I'd be in your debt. I can pay even, if it's not too much."

@Laric

*

That was a bit of a relief, that Laric did not have the ability to communicate with the cats of the Abbey.
On hot summer days she often slept in the barn and she wasn't supposed to do that but several of the cats often watched her and she didn't want to thought of as a slouch.

"That's fine, anything you can tell me would be good. Honestly, I don't know anything about it really. I change and sometimes I change when I don't mean to, like during an eclipse. That was a day let me tell you!"

She walked on for a bit before answering his question about Threnodyn in between bites of her loaf.
"No. Is it far away? Do you travel much? I thought you lived in Crownshold. What's in Threnodyn that would help me?"

Excitement was hard for her to curb so she didn't bother to keep it in check much. Laric seemed friendly enough and the day and the crowd would keep him as honest as she needed him to be.

@Laric

*

Brown eyes snapped to Laric and her weighted braids swung dramatically through a wide arc to bounce against the round cheeks of her face.

"Ruins, like... as in... buildings and that?"

In all her years Arbok had not ever even entertained the idea that her ancestors were builders of much of anything, let alone ancient in their ways. The lack of any information at the Abbey left her feeling like her people were already passed on, existing in remnant alone. As a hidden people.

"Are they... nice?"

She didn't have much to compare and certainly she wouldn't know them from any other old castle that dotted the countryside but the notion captivated her. She found them that she very much wanted to see them.

"I'll need to ask if I can go... my friends are with me in the city and, I have a horse but she's tired from the journey here. We only arrived last night."

Excitement was in her voice and awe at the possibility. She had had no leads, nothing at all so far and now what might be something, SOMETHING tangible and real, something she could see and touch. She could not resist it.

@Laric

*

It took Arbok a whole four seconds to remember that she did not tell Saskia or anyone else about Laric. But she didn't know him then, what if he wasn't real? Now he was though and now she had a good lead. Statues of bears.

"Oh I will and I don't know if they'll want to come but maybe. Wow, statues? Really? I need to see those."

"Hmmm..."
The ponderous note came from her mouth as she was struck with a thought. She probably shouldn't run away to with a strange man she just met to his mansion right away.

"Hey..."
Again she stopped and clearly did not want to actually ask this next question. She was embarrassed to even think it but she had been warned of her trusting nature before.

"You're not... some weird killer man who just uses cats to lure people back to your trap filled murder house are you?"
As she spoke her face squinted. The idea that what she was asking would offend him was only slightly favourable to being scolded for getting into trouble.

@Laric