The Littlest Tigress! Hunt the Hunters!

[Fox]

Racing through the damp underbrush was an almost animalistic figure. Almost because if one got a good look, it was obvious that she was humanoid. Large white wings sprouted from her back, but they were tucked in tightly against her body as thorns caught on her skin. Her breath ragged, Nea burst from the brush and took a flying leap off of a small cliff, rolling as she hit the ground. From in her arms, an upset rawr sounded, making her look down at the precious cargo in her arms. A Lemurian tiger cub. He’d been caught in a trap by hunters. Glancing around hastily, Nea spotted a small cave with an entrance obscured by shrubs.

Hurrying over, Nea gently placed the cub down. It mewled pitifully, curling up against the back of the tiny cave. Its paw had been broken by the trap that it had been caught in. She carefully arranged the shrubs to hide it a little better and offered it a soft, scared smile. “Don’t worry! Just stay here and stay quiet until the bad two legs are gone, okay? I’ll tell your mommy where you are.”

A shout made Nea jump back from the cave. They were close. Setting off in a dead sprint, she heard their cries when they spotted her, glancing back as they slid down the side of the cliff to chase her. They were still following her! Good! Wait-wait! Nea skidded to a stop and watched with horror as one of them stopped and turned toward the little alcove that she’d stashed the cub in. “N-No!”

Wheeling around, Nea dropped to all fours and sprang off of a tree to pounce onto one of her pursuers. She latched onto his head and scratched at him, screaming in a strangled roar that barely sounded human. Kicking off the man, she dove into the midst of her hunters, bleeding and scared, but unwilling to back down.

“We got her!”

The man that had been nearing the cub’s hiding place turned around with a smirk. More men appeared at the top of the cliff, much to Nea’s dismay. Her eyes widened with despair as they brought out a cage with a very familiar form inside of it. Iryong! Her heart caught in her throat. N-No! She couldn’t let anything happen to him! Charging in a blind panic, Nea was caught off guard by the heavy net that slammed her to the ground. She flailed in a blind panic when something hard hit her in the back of her head, knocking her to the ground and into unconsciousness.

The Lemurian tiger cub burst out of hiding, rushing to the fallen Nea’s side. It let out a pitiful roar, much to the amusement of Nea’s captors. Well, most of them. The one that Nea scratched up walked up to her prone from and kicked at it. The cub took a swipe at him with a paw.

“Damn! That was a pain…”

“But hey! We got her. And a nice little bonus too,” said another as he leaned down to examine the tiger cub.

---

Nea | #98fb98 (Pale Green) | Post Count: 1

[Smiley]

Treasure, treasure, treasure! Marshall's out hunting for treasure, cuz' treasure is what will make him rich and treasure is what will help him get a proper ship! That's why, of course, once he heard that the stupidly-named island had a supposed super duper hidden treasure in the middle of its tallest mountain, the young mercenary had gotten in on a trip to the island, just way too excited to get a truly insane amount of money. It wasn't like he also didn't know about the native tigers and how good their fur pelts were, or for how high they sold. 

In his opinion, the only reason they aren't endangered is because they're so damn dangerous. If he decided to stay there, Marshall K N E W,  in his endless bravado and self confidence, that he'd make them go extinct since he's obviously stronger.

Though.. his success had been middling, honestly. Unable to find a proper way to get to the top without crossing some fucked up terrain or getting repeatedly lost in that confusing forest, which, being a man who lived nearly all of his life in a place with almost NO trees, like, ever, aside from the oasis, confused him to high hell. Two days he had been trying to find his way and for two days he remained lost as fuck...

Shiiiiiit.

---

There was some noise. Then, a lot of noise. Soon, there was so much noise that Marshall actually woke up earlier than what he'd like, his huge body standing up with the biggest scowl his face could pull off. The Antlion is mad.

The men had just kicked the cub away and now, they were gloating over their victory over a tiny girl and a baby tiger. Had they been silent, they could actually bask in that victory glow. Since they wanted to make noise, a shadow, darker than the abyss itself, stood over them. Scornful, furious, Marshall reached out to one of the hunter's head, viciously slamming him into one of the various trees, easily punching straight through it!

With a sickening crunch, his skull had shattered into pieces and, right then, he was no more.
"The audacity to be so damn noisy..
And what's that? A tiger cub and.. that one girl with a prize on her head!" 
Jackpot twice! Now he had even more of a motive to actually give a shit and kill the men who, at that point, were frozen in shock, seeing one of their own die so nonchalantly. 

Well, they followed suit. And while one would love to narrate the details, it'd likely get someone banned. Oh indeed, there were screams, there was blood, there were so many broken bones that it became actually ironic, considering Marshall's fruit. In the end, amateurs who only hunted mindless animals anymore were no match to a brutal giant, specially not when their fighting spirit was dulled by fear and reactions slowed by shock. 

It took a while.
Not a long while.
A while nonetheless. 

Marshall quietly sat next to the blacked out girl and her pet tiger, staring at them intently. They were worth good money, without a doubt and, hell, they were already beaten up and passed out, easy pickings! ..Too easy. A mercenary, a hunter. Of man and beast. To take prey this easy would be lowering himself even further than the men he had just buried in a ditch. 

Besides, he felt.. a weird sense of pity in his gut whenever he looked at the girl. 
Like he should wait for her to wake up.

So, instead, he lit up a small fire, just to keep him warm, since the North Blue was cold as shit, even in the "warmer" islands.. and waited for her to wake up. He'd get his answers once she was up, whether she wanted it or not.

[Fox]

When what amounted to a monster appeared, several of the men retreated with Iryong in toe. The men up on the cliff had the luxury of escape. The few that had gone below… not so much. They ran and fast with their serpentine catch still in their possession. They feared death from the strange monster that had slaughtered their comrades, but they also feared their boss’s retribution for coming back with nothing. They’d report the man who had interfered with their hunt. The boss wasn’t gonna like it, but at least he would take out his rage on that bone monster instead of them hopefully. Of course, there was the matter of who was going to deliver the bad news to the boss.

Despite her earlier ferocity and injuries, Nea slept rather peacefully. The tiger cub was poised over her protectively, hissing whenever Marshall would look their way. Fear was evident in the little feline’s body language. It wanted to run and fetch its mother, but it couldn’t leave Nea either. It warred with itself for a good while until Marshall built the fire. That was the final straw for the cub as it hissed and mewed pitifully, shrinking back before disappearing into the underbrush.

Nea’s peaceful expression grew troubled as she slowly started to wake. The reality of losing Iryong and her crushing defeat all rushed to the fore in her mind. Anxiety seized her heart as she jolted upright with a start. Looking around at a scene of carnage, she was confused and more than a little apprehensive. Her eyes finally fell on Marshall. Jumping away from him in a panic, she hissed with pain as her injuries ached. She stumbled and fell, hugging herself weakly.

“Wh-who are you? Where is the cub? Where is Iryong? What… happened?” she managed to ask hoarsely, her wings twitching with hostility.

She didn’t trust the man, of course, but she didn’t recognize him as one of her pursuers. She wasn’t sure why he had been sitting beside her either. Maybe to rub his victory in? She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything! Why were people so awful?! Why did they have to come into the forest and try to hurt her friends? She bit her lip and sniffled softly.

---

Nea | #98fb98 (Pale Green) | Post Count: 2

[Smiley]

Marshall paid no mind to the scared tiger cub. In fact, he barely even acknowledged its presence, choosing to, instead, just light the fire and look on as it fled. Not his problem, the fur of something so small probably wouldn't be worth the moral burden. Instead, Marshall would choose to close his eyes and fall asleep, sat down, still as a stone. Wind would blow past him, animals would come close and leave, though nothing else seemed to want to stir shit with him. In fact, he only woke up with the words of a young girl.

Huffing and opening up his jaw so that he could yawn, the young mercenary turned his face to look directly at the little Nea with tired eyes, his still drowsy mind trying to process what she was asking of him. Questions he could answer, others he only had an idea relating to what they were. Once he lightly rubbed one of his eyes, he finally had the mental presence to actually answer.
"I'm Soben, a.. traveller. I don't know what this "Iryong" is, but if it's a pet, I saw some guys take a cage back home. The cub ran away, I figure to his mom."

Now, when it came to him.. he felt like he had to lie a bit. Not lie about his intentions now, but lie about his intentions then. As people are people and even someone raised in bloodshed and manhunting as Marshall had been, even he had his limits and morals, as scant and twisted as they may be. "As to what refers to me, I was sleeping here after failing to find this island's treasure. These guys woke me up and we got into a fight, I simply couldn't stomach them doing whatever they want to an unarmed child. 

..It was to the death." Yes, he first killed them because he was extremely grumpy that he had been woken up. But yes, he too wound up continuing the fight because he, in his gut, felt a desire to protect someone that small and unarmed, who still fought so valiantly.
"I don't need to know your name, if you don't want to tell me. Honestly, you can go back to the forest, I won't stop you." Marshall figured that, once he said that, she'd probably just run into the forest again and hide properly this time. With that, he could finally get a real nap in.. 

The Iryong matter though did weigh on his mind, not that he'd ever say it.

[Fox]

A still frightened Nea stood her ground when the stranger apparently awoke from… a nap? Sitting up like that? That didn’t look comfortable, but maybe he was a weirdo. The weirdo introduced himself rather lethargically as Soben. A traveler. Nea didn’t really believe that. Most people that came to this part of the island came for the tigers. As their self appointed protector, she wouldn’t let this Soben or anyone else hurt them! Still, he answered a lot of her questions, which both made her relax and worry all at once. At least the cub was safe… but Iryong.

She hadn’t been apart from him in all the years since they’d fallen down together. Without him by her side, she felt… strangely empty and anxious. She tensed back up as Soben continued his explanation, feeling a touch confused. He was certainly not here when she had been attacked. He meant nearby probably. But the unarmed child… Did he mean the cub? Nea’s expression softened for the first time as she thought that. If he was nice enough to care for the cub then maybe… wait. It took a moment or two for his actual meaning to click in her head. She bristled.

“I am not a child! And Iryong is not a pet!”

As soon as she snapped at him, Nea regretted it. After all, despite his intentions, he had helped her when she might have died or worse. The overwhelming loneliness of having Iryong taken from her seized her throat all at once. She sat down slowly, lowering her voice to almost a whisper.

“He’s… my family,” she muttered softly, keeping her gaze firmly affixed to the ground. She wasn't willing to look him in the eyes. Too scary.

“Nea… is my name…”

She paused again, poking at some of her wounds. They had, for the most part, stopped bleeding already. Her wings were a mess, so she pulled it out in front of her and straightened the feathers out. As she sat there preening, she remembered that usually situations like this called for… certain etiquette.

“Thank you…”

Nea knew what she had to do next, but the thought of it frightened her. She’d have to go into town to find and rescue Iryong from his kidnappers. She hadn’t been around that many people in so long… her hands shook just from thinking about it. Subconsciously, she shuffled closer to the fire and Soben. She was afraid. Afraid to lose Iryong. Afraid to face people again. Afraid to be alone. And this stranger… Soben. He’d saved her, so maybe… he wouldn’t… be as awful as… Nea stopped herself from thinking much further along those lines. No, she had to be brave! For Iryong!

“C-Can you help me… get him back…?”

---

Nea | #98fb98 (Pale Green) | Post Count: 3

[Smiley]

For once in his serious, brutal life, Marshall allows himself to laugh at something that isn’t the misery or the failure of an opponent. This time, when Nea actually realized that Marshall had been referring to her when talking about a child and reacted in such a huffy and snappy manner, the young, massive man let out a hearty laugh at her expense, feeling his groggy mood lighten quite a bit thanks to that. If she wasn’t a child, then what was he, a grandpa!? Complete hogwash!

What came next did silence him, even if for a bit. To call a pet “family”, and not just family, but “my family” did tell the sharp and ever so slightly paranoid man a few things. Like how she was probably alone here not by choice, but by circumstance. She probably didn’t have parents of brothers, or if she had, something must have happened to them. Now, if he wanted to get into semantics, she had not said “my only family left”, which could indicate that she either reneged her past family or had none to begin with, at least none that she knew.

Whatever the reasons or backstory were, it did strike a chord with him.

A lonely child, without family or anyone to care for her, but a pet.

“Nea, huh..?” Marshall remained quiet while she took her time to actually ask him a favor. She had shuffled closer to him and, while he did feel the instinct to pat her head like he used to do to the few younger siblings he had when their day was bad, he still had no idea of what her reaction would be like. She clearly wasn’t fond of him, though he couldn’t feel hate. Confusion? Couldn’t be, but it was an emotion he had never encountered to this extent, not one that he had ever paid any mind to.

Hearing her actual request was a sobering moment for him. To ask help of a stranger she clearly didn’t trust was something that he would have never done in a thousand years, save for a moment where he might be in true desperation, on the precipice of losing everything. If what she told him was true, then she may very well be in that position.

Marshall smiled. He decided to actually, even if briefly, pat Nea’s head once while he got up, stomping the small fire he had created a while ago with his right foot, his dark shoes easily snuffing it out. Taking a look around to gather his bearings, he turned his head slightly to Nea.

“Pack your things, girly, we’re going to get Iryong back.”

[Fox]

Honestly, Nea wasn’t sure what she was thinking, asking a total stranger to help. She didn’t really have anyone else to turn to… except maybe the tigers. And, while they would help her, she didn’t want to put them into any more danger. Nea managed a glance up at Soben only to see him smile and pat her head as he stood up. H-Huh? She rubbed her head where he had touched it, not used to human touch. It felt… oddly nostalgic. She watched him stamp out the fire and jumped to her feet when he said that they were going to get Iryong.

“O-Oh!”

Nea hopped from one foot to the other, unsure what to do before dashing ahead and clambering up the small cliff with ease. She figured that she ought to lead the way for a variety of reasons. She knew this island like the back of her hand. With a hand, she gestured for him to follow along. Come to think of it, Soben was really, really tall, wasn’t he? Was that normal? Most people that she had seen on this island weren’t that tall.

“S-Soben? Why are you so tall? Is that normal for Blue Sea d-dwellers?”

She wasn’t sure that she liked being towered over so completely. Nea considered going up into the trees. It would provide her a good vantage point… Plus, maybe they would be able to talk eye to eye. With catlike agility, Nea flew up the side of a tree and settled on a branch about at Soben’s eye level. She’d been doing this for years, so it wasn’t really any problem.

The sound of a large twig snapping nearby instantly set Nea on edge. She knew what that was. Hastily, she glanced around, but she didn’t spot what she was looking for very easily. They were camouflaged really well in the jungle. Nea abandoned her plans to intercept and hopped onto one of Soben’s shoulders.

“Wait!” she called out into the jungle, “It’s okay! He’s okay. He’s helping me get Iryong back.”

The jungle was still for a few moments after the thick foliage seemed to swallow it up. Two huge tigers melted out of the trees, towering over even Soben. They gave him a few dubious looks, but chuffed warmly at Nea, gently nuzzling her. Nea smiled and giggled softly, patting their large muzzles.

“I know he doesn’t look it… Yes, but he agreed to help. No! You can’t come.”

Nea exchanged words with the tigers as they chuffed at her, having a conversation that Soben could only hear one side of. Nea pouted at the tigers as their chuffs turned into soft growls. With a huff, she jumped onto one of their faces, climbing up to sit on top of their head. She looked rather annoyed.

“Soben, they’re insisting that they come with us… They want to pay us back for rescuing their cub,” Nea grumbled softly, but loud enough for Soben to make out. The other tiger - the male - lowered himself down onto the ground so that Soben could climb aboard. “They also want you to get on. They say it’ll be faster.”

---

Nea | #98fb98 (Pale Green) | Post Count: 4

[Smiley]

Marshall followed the small girl up the cliff, not with agility, but with raw strength, his weathered hands gripping tightly onto the wall as he forced himself up it, soon rising to his own feet next to her, clapping his hands a few times to dust them off. His height? It is indeed striking and he knows it, something that is a big point of pride for him. Obviously, he HAD to answer her question.
"Absolutely not. Only very few humans are taller than me. Other races are more common to be bigger, like Mermen or Giants." 

Bragging aside, the keen instincts on him did leave his gut feeling like he was watched, a bit after something seemed to get Nea's attention. His right arm outstretched a bit, his hand tightening a few times, resting in a semi-open position, as if he was about to grab something. Danger was afoot and, like the experienced hunter that he was, he'd refuse to die without making his assailants suffer. Nea seemed to know what they were, since she hopped right on his shoulder to tell them that he was good.

The fabled tigers.
The ones that gave a hell of a ton of money. Way bigger than him, to a point where he wondered if they were able to break his armor should he summon it up - not that he was scared of that, in fact, he showed a complete lack of fear, something that he knew predators like those tigers surely felt. After all, why fear what he can defeat?
"Doesn't look it? I'm not that ugly, hmph." The young man joked with a slight furrow of his brow, not giving his own self doubt any time of day. Besides, what she said once she finished with the conversation did catch him a bit off guard, not thinking that they were that ballsy, even being predators.

After all, what type of predator goes after another predator if they can avoid it, just to save an offspring? 
He didn't want to believe it, in fact, he didn't believe it that much at all, that animals really did have sentience like Nea implied.. It already was hard as is to believe that she could talk to animals, were it not for her clearly being able to at least control them.

"When I dreamed of riding into battle as a glorious king, I did not imagine a tiger."
Even as he said it, he couldn't help himself from smiling, moving to get himself comfortable on the back of the beast who surely was more than strong enough to carry someone as surprisingly heavy as him without much trouble. Damn thing looked like it could carry ten hippos. 
"This is cooler, though. We ride at your discretion, little girl." With that, he crossed his arms all cooly, thinking that he could DEFINITELY go for that ride without having to properly balance himself. Even though he has never ridden on the back of anything ever. 
And that camel whose spine he snapped when he sat on it ain't count for nothin'.