The Big Bad Tengu <Wilderness, Earth Kingdom>

[iikagen]

She's got quite the pair... the Igni thought to himself with a dry sort of humor. Iikagen found during his travels that even outside the Fire Nation, where his people were thought to carry diseases, his treatment in the Earth Kingdom wasn't much improved. Sure, they didn't know of the usual Igni stereotypes, but they certainly found his appearance and mannerisms at least a little imposing. For this girl to be standing her ground, she was either a tough little cookie, or she could gauge the full extent of his injuries.

Either way, Iikagen merely stared at her; an eyebrow raised slightly to one side and a wide, knowing grin on his face. He let the silence sit between them for a moment before turning his extended hand palm up and sweeping it out to the side.

"But of course..." he said, dropping his voice slightly and allowing a more regal inflection into his words, "I am Tengu. Demon Spirit of deception and Lord of these woods for as long as I see fit. Now if you will be so kind as to collect any bounty that my traps may have caught, I will be happy to share the spoils." Iikagen brought his hands together in front of him, fingertips touching as he rested his arms on his chest.

"How's dat?" he asked her, curious to see how she reacted to such an abrupt change in character.

[tali]

Her hands clenched into fists as she watched the man go on, she couldn't help it, she wanted to rub her temples. This man was going to give her such a head ache with his constant shifts in behavior, was this how he really acted or was he messing with her, she couldn't tell. The similarities between this man and the woman from the bar fight the day she left were rather shocking, both have facial tattoos, the designs were different, the accents were the same, where were they from. She remembered the woman eating with her feet, it was a little odd to say the least.

" Tengu?" She questioned tilting her head to the side attempting to keep up with his convoluted reasoning. Rolling her shoulders back and taking a looser stance she looked him straight in the eyes, who was she to question though, the way he spoke he acted as if it wasn't him though, the end of his little speech bothered her the most, he was messing with her. Lightly she flushed feeling like she was being taken as a fool, her eyes narrowed at him.

" You can call yourself a spirit but if you ruled these forests I'd imagine the villagers would know you name, and they don't." She pouted a little and looked off to the side, did he honestly think this was cute? Putting her hands on her hips she looked down at him, softening only a touch, she needed to get out of the forest eventually, he seemed to be the only one she's met that would be of any help. " My name is Tali.." She cast him one last look before she turned away, feeling rather sullen she walked in the direction he pointed out, with a small sigh she imagined she'd be wandering around all day looking for his stupid snares.

[iikagen]

Iikagen retained his wide grin until the girl had said her piece and turned to leave. He didn't bother pointing out a few holes in her logic, because honestly he just wanted her gone. It was surprising, really, when he stopped to think about it a few moments later. He'd been away from civilization for almost a month now and he often entertained thoughts of women, and here he had a rather attractive girl in his company and he couldn't wait to send her away. For a moment he wondered if he'd been in these woods too long....

Then he shrugged and chuckled at the thought of how long it would take Tali to return. The snares were indeed about a hundred feet out, but he hadn't marked any trees. With any luck she'd be so focused on spotting the markers that she'd miss the traps.

In the meantime, Iikagen decided that he was in dire need of a bath. His clothes were as dirty as they'd ever been, but now they were caked with blood. That and his bandages needed to be cleaned and re-wrapped. With no small amount of discomfort, the Igni rolled forward to his feet and hobbled towards the stream. His lower back felt stiff and every step felt like his legs were creaking with rusty joints. The rather unflattering flip into the tree from last night had apparently taken a higher toll than he realized before. He let out a low groan as he scooped upone of the packs that Tali had tossed down from the tree. Iikagen had already sifted through each of the bags and had a vague memory of their contents. He remembered this one containing a razor.

He stopped by the edge of the water and quickly disrobed, giving no thought to his newly acquired company. Iikagen was not exactly a modest person to begin with, and a month of solitude had only reinforced these habits. The Igni waded into the water until it was about knee deep and then dropped down into a kneeling position. The water was cold, but it certainly felt refreshing to get rid of all the grime and congealed blood.

For the next few minutes, the Igni simply scrubbed himself clean of the mud he had freuqently used to darken his skin during his night-time adventures. He also carefully unwrapped the cloth around his chest and rinsed it clean. Iikagen finally had a chance to inspect his wounds in decent lighting, and from what he could tell it was very close to being fatal. There was a nasty gash running up half the length of his sternum, and very likely it had fractured a rib or two along the way. A little above that was a deeper cut that had pierced about two inches below his collarbone. It seemed like the blow had just missed his heart and lung, and istead just tore up everything around them. He would probably need stitches to close the wounds properly, but for the moment he was content to just keep the bleeding down.

Iikagen did his best in re-wrapping the cloth, though there was still a noticeable trail of blood trickling down his chest, and then dunked his head under the water. He popped back up after a few moments, shaking his head as vigorously as his injuries would permit, and then sat back on his haunches.

[tali]

Tali looked from tree to tree watching for markings on the trees but she couldn't seem to find anything, with a sigh she continued forward. There probably weren't even nay traps out here, that guy was trouble, he smelled bad and he looked like a homeless person. She chided herself mentally, she shouldn't be so callow, technically he was homeless, that left an odd sense of humor. Hugging herself loosely she looked about the land scape from tree to tree looking for the markings he mentioned, she still couldn't find anything.

It was in a second of weightlessness she realized she found one of the snares. Her eyes widened and she yelped suddenly staring down at the ground a foot or two off the ground. Well, at least he wasn't completely lying. Her body struggled attempting to free her foot but it seemed to be useless. Groaning she glared ahead blankly, what did she do to deserve this? The spirits were cursing her, did she do something wrong? If she did maybe she should figure it out and fix it.

Dumping the water onto the man seemed to come up, sourly she pulled herself up grabbing onto the make shift rope fiddling with it to get herself free, luckily this was made for creatures who had no opposable thumbs. With a thud she hit the ground slightly dazed but otherwise alright, rubbing her offended ankle she looked about the area. There must be other traps about then, just where were they. In the trees to the right she heard whining, upon further inspection she found a anelope fox writhing in pain, weakly it thrashed on the end of the snare, Tali's heart broke.

Setting her jaw firmly she looked at the poor beast then glanced towards the location of camp, out of sigh by a considerable margin, well it wans't like he would be able to follow her, she could say there was nothing out here. Moving towards the frightened animal she winced seeing it panic like it did. It took some effort to calm it, more to get it down from the trap, in the end she thought it was worth it. The animal took off like a flash and softly Tali smiled at the retreating creature, she only hoped he wouldn't find anymore traps.

Blanching she noted that she would have to bring something back, he might get mad.. That was when she saw a plant that she recognized.

A brisk walk later the earth kingdom girl happily found herself back at the camp, perhaps her karma was turning around, random acts of chairity usually did that, at least her spirits were brightened. Settling the wild yams under the dying fire she tended to the embers adding more wood springing the fire back to life. Her eyes flickered over to where the man had sat before, she was curious as to where he went, but she was worried that something horrible might come from following him. Still, her curiosity always go the better of her.

She poked around the camp, looking into the nooks and crannies of the clearing seeing what exactly he tried to fashion from the wilderness. Were all people from the firenation this resourceful? Lifting her head up she took another survey of the area, he didn't come back yet. " Tengu...?"

[iikagen]

A long-winded sigh escaped Iikagen after he carefully stretched each of his limbs. The impromptu bath had improved his spirits quite a bit and brought him out of the slight stupor that had been left over from the bloodloss. Leaning back, he sank down into the water until only his chest and face were still above the surface. The Igni remained like that for a while, feeling almost weightless as he reclined in the stream,

With his ears submerged, he didn't hear the girl calling for him, and so remained oblivious that she had returned. His thoughts were drifting elsewhere, primarily along the lines of what he intended to do with his new guest. If she was still sticking around, she either had some motive for staying with him or else just didn't know how to get back. If it was the former, Iikagen supposed he should try and find out what she hoped to accomplish. If the latter, he had but to point her in the right direction and tell her to turn left when she reached the trail.

[tali]

Trying again she couldn't help but be disappointed by the lack of response, the place he had settled into the ground had some stains from the blood. He must have been pretty badly wounded, why couldn't he just let go and act like it hurt like she imagined it did. He really didn't know how to play the sympathy card. But then again maybe it just didn't hurt, she'd laughed off a broken leg once. Shaking her head she continued snooping about the camp, the potatoes wouldn't be done for a while still being alone again made her nervous.

Idly letting her hair down she ran her fingers through it in an attempt to smooth it out as she walked, the last place she was going to check was the river, right about now it seemed as good a place as any. Half imagining he'd have just ran off she couldn't help but blame him, if those soldiers had friends they'd no doubt be after him. Moving through the last of the foliage before the bank she didn't notice his state of dress right away. Her hands froze in the mane of hair pulled over her shoulder her body turned slightly ridged. Tali's feet wouldn't move like she wanted them to, she just stared turning increasingly red. Karma sucked

[iikagen]

The feeling of something brushing past his leg made Iikagen sit up rapidly from his semi-floating position in the stream. The sudden movement stretched his torso and sen a jolt of pain through his body as his injuries sheared. The Igni let out a slight hiss from the sting, but it subsided quickly and instead he peered at the water around him. A few minnows were floating around him, and he assumed some curious fish had just bumped into him. Regardless, he patted down his lower half to make sure no inhabitants of the stream were attempting to latch onto him for whatever reason.

A few moments later, he caught sight of something in his peripheral vision that captured his attention. Iikagen lifted his head up and gazed at Tali who had apparently returned from checking the traps. A slight smirk tugged at his lips, and on a whim he suddenly stood up straight from the water.

"Welcome back," he called out to the girl, placing his hands on his hips. "Any luck wit de snares?" Granted, at the moment he wasn't at his most impressive condition. Weeks of relatively scarce food had left him much thinner than usual and the water he was bathing it was quite cold... But regardless, he couldn't help but think the whole situation funny.

[tali]

A few times she tried to speak and each time her voice faltered. She'd never really seen, well... anything on the other gender before. Hesitantly her eyes went from his lower body to his upper body then his face. at this point she was bright red her cheeks burning scarlet. Once more finding herself unable to speak her body pushed it's self into motion quickly turning her back to him and yelping in surprise she hid her face in her hands trying to kill the image that burned it's self into her mind. Her heart raced in her chest matching it;s beats with each shade her face had turned.

" Sorry! Sorry I didn't know you were bathing!" Lingering on his form she noted he looked a lot younger with himself cleaned up, almost attractive and in the river with water dripping down his- this was not helping her point in the least. Shaking her head furiously she continued trying to detach the thoughts from her head forcefully. It was rather difficult, taking a few breaths she hesitantly pulled her eyes from her face starring blankly at the forest in front of her making no moves to turn around though part of her wanted to.

" There was nothing in the traps.. I found some vegetables though.... " Her eyes glanced to her side suspiciously, he wasn't there, he was most likely still in the water. Crossing her arms hesitantly she looked back down at her feet pushing a rock lightly with her foot, she should probobly leave, yet she was too nervous to make a move her cheeks were still hott with no signs of cooling down any time soon.

[iikagen]

Iikagen didn't even bother to hold back his grin as he saw the blood rush to the girl's cheeks. If Tali found him strange before, he had no doubt that this last stunt had completely destroyed any presumptions she may have held about his character. Some might think him a creature of pure, unpredictable chaos. but there was definitely method to his madness. Iikagen had learned long ago that people often feared what they did not understand. By appearing as alien as he presented himself, he kept those around him constantly off-balance.

Tali's news about the state of their food supply was good enough news, and it prompted him to leave the stream. Iikagen scooped up his sarong that he had also brought to soak in the water and looped it hastily around his waist. He tied it quickly to one side and also picked up the small traveling pack that he'd brought down.

"Well done," he said to the girl, fishing through the pack until he found the razor he remembered it contained. After a little further searching, he also managed to locate a tin cup. He thought for a moment and then scooped up a cupfull of water from the stream and then started back toward the camp.

He passed by Tali quite closely and patted her on the shoulder, offering a smile. "Let's see what we can do for a meal," he said with a strange amount of enthusiasm.

[tali]

Tali couldn't find what to say, thankfully he wasn't as stealthy as she thought, she could clearly hear him moving about behind her but it didn't allow her to calm down all that much, her body stiffened when she head him coming closer, with a glance she gratefully noted he covered himself, it was a small comfort. Still why was she checking...? Her eyes lingered on his lower body for a moment before remembering herself and looking back at the forest. Her cheeks kept a light blush as she titled her head with enough time to catch him patting her shoulder, feeling rather like a puppy who did a trick she pouted, she didn't like being patronized.

Still his smile made her wonder what he was thinking, she was lost in her own thoughts and just quietly followed him her attentions preoccupied. Her hands keeping themselves busy fiddled with her necklace, tracing the familure markings and the smooth texture she'd come to have memorized. Standing at the edge of the camp she stared at nothing for a while, not really paying attention to what he was doing. This time she was successful in keeping certain unwanted things from her mind. It wasn't hard, she often liked analysing people, it was a hobby, helped her find predictable things, every move he made was cataloged in to her memory.

Tilting her head in his direction with all the assertiveness of a wet puppy she watched his face rather closely. "What do the tattoos mean?" Swiftly her hand left her necklace going to her face tracing the patterns on her own skin. Sure she'd seen people with tattoos before, but never on the face, it had to mean something, perhaps it was a mark placed on children at birth, she quietly mused that it marked the mentally ill firenation citizens. Still she knew better, this man was far from ill as much as it would be fitting. " I met someone else with tattoos and the same accent a while back..." It was a little rhetorical, she already knew part of the answer at least.

Still she'd wanted to ask the woman, Manju, she finally remembered her name. If she wasn't in such a time crunch and worried that she wouldn't get away from the odd group she would have stuck around long enough to ask her. The womans fighting style was impressive, she'd seen it in the bar fight, the way she carried herself, the way she shifted her weight, it was the same as this man.

[iikagen]

Moving about the Camp, Iikagen tossed his soaked pants at a nearby tree to let them hang on a low branch and air out. He also deposited the tin cup full of water in the embers of the fire to heat up and tossed the traveling pack toward the base of a nearby tree, holding onto the razor. When Tali eventually worked up the nerve to ask about his tattoos, he already had an entertaining thought to tell her they were made with the blood of his enemies. But upon hearing the mention of what sounded like another Igni, his interest increased greatly.

"Is dat so?" he asked, allowing his interest to show in his voice, "And here I t'ought I was de first Igni in de Eart' Kingdom... What did deir tattoos look like?" Iikagen took a moment to crouch down to the ground and drawn a figure in the ground. He drew a vague outline of a head, and then used his finger to produce a pattern of dots that encircled the eyes; five over and five under each eye. "Anyt'ing like dis?"

[tali]

Igni in the earth kingdom? So he was an Igni? She'd never heard of it really, were they a race of warriors or were they some thing else. There must have been a lot that people didn't know about the firenation, non the less she moved over next to Iikagen crouching down to look at his drawing, those weren't right. She closed her eyes and thought about it for a while, bringing her face to mind, trying to remember all the details, when she was finished she opened her eyes and shook her head at the man, refusing to make eye contact with him at the moment.

"No, not like that, three circles along the cheeks, they were either brown or red..." Her finger traced out the general location of the marks in the dirt on his person, she would have filled in the rest of her features but she wasn't must of an artist. It didn't pass her attention that he seemed rather calm now, with nothing more than a small glance in his direction she stared at the dirt drawing trying to recall the event in perfect detail. " Her name was Manju, we almost got into a fight but then a brawl started in the bar when someone tried to break us up, I caught glimpses of her fighting, she's an amazing mele fighter."

[iikagen]

"Aah," Iikagen nodded, recognizing Tali's decription of the other Igni's tattoos. It meant she was from one of the lesser tribes, and not from the rival tribe of his own. With that little piece of knowledge, he figured he wouldn't have to lie and slander the reputation of this other Igni on the simple basis of tribal rivalry.

"She was from de Umi Hebi tribe," he informed her, plopping down into a seated position with his legs folded in front of him. The sarong that he had hastily tied around his waist was lucky enough to keep everything covered. "Never had de chance to fight dem so far," he mused, thinking out loud, "But I suppose any Igni would be impressive to an outsider." The comment was boastful, and he flashed a smirk at the Earth Kingdom girl beside him.

After that, Iikagen gingerly grabbed the tin can and pulled it to the edge of the fire. He dipped a small rag into the bubbling water and then pressed it under his jaw, letting the heated water diffuse for a moment before dragging the blade carefully across his skin to remove some of his beard.

[tali]

Now her interest was piqued, her eyes followed the mans movements carefully her lips pursing slightly, she wanted to know more about this, part of it was simple curiosity, the other part was her background in martial arts, she enjoyed learning about other styles, the conversation taking a more serious tone set her at ease, she was almost coming to tolerate this mans pressance, as opposed to glaring quietly at him for no other reason than doing so. Though she was still on the edge of what she should do, it was pretty early in the morning.

Granting him a meek smile she settled down a bit, not so edgy as she was before, there were a lot of things she wanted to ask. " So there are different tribes of Igni and the tattoos tell you which they're from?" The simple idea of that reminded her of the nomads tattoos. her grin spread and her eyes lit up, this was interesting, a nearly secret culture with their own styles and traditions. " So which tribe are you from? When did you get your tattoos, what do they represent, what tribes are there?" The questions just spilled out of her mouth like those from a young child exploring a new place, she was just as excited about the answers.

Her eyes glanced down to his chest and with a pout she noticed it wasn't looking too good, bandaging himself didn't seem to help too much, ignoring her other questions, well, at least willing to wait for the answers she frowned. " I think you need some real medical attention... it might not heal properly...."

[erlang]

Erlang felt something impact his head causing him to open his eyes. When reality reasserted itself he felt Kweh pecking at the back of his head in an attempt to wake him up. ‘Uuugh’ was all he managed before exhaling and raising his head. Seeing it’s master not dead Kweh nuzzled Erlang with its beak. Patting it’s head he pushed himself up onto his knees. ‘How did I go down?’ he was asking himself when he grunted and pressed a hand below his left rib. He looked down where he was just laying and say a corresponding bloodstain.
‘Damn..’ He thought reaching up and tugging loose the knot securing his plates at the shoulder. When it came undone he pulled it away and eyed the several inch wide bloodstain on his shirt. Sometime ago a fire nation soldier had scored a lucky shot when his arrow had found its way between the plates of Erlang’s armor (he promptly killed him by nearly cutting him in half). It was in the later stages of healing before the fight, Erlang guessed that the final exertion had torn the wound open again.

With the fight resurfacing in his head he forced himself to his feet and eyed the era around him. With the light streaming through the trees he could see his spear in the brush. Approaching it he could see no small amount of dried blood on the blade and the ground around it. Mixed in freely with the blood were feathers.
‘They say any creature can become a spirit… when killed they reveal their identities.’ Baek’s words replayed in his head.

“Bastard, I should have brought you along..” he muttered while gripping his spear. He found some difficulty lifting it as his body was still shaking off the paralysis from being out, nearby his sword was also in the dirt. He secured both to Kweh’s saddle.

“Come on.. We‘ve got digging to do..”

erl is gone