Looking for Work

"Ironically, my name is Asher." He brushed his blonde bangs aside and returned th question. "What is your name?"

"I already told you. My name's Shuri." She smirked. "Deaf?" She tapped one of her ears.

Asher apologized. "Sorry, and not quite. I actually do have poor hearing though, most of us nagas do." A cold wind blew and he shivered, grasping Shuri tightly for a moment with his tail. "A...ah.." The albino recollected himself and stood. "If you want to keep talking to me, we'll have to do it inside. I can't stay out here."

"I was joking." She smiled, and nodded. "You're cold blooded, I'm guessing? But yeah, let's go inside." She stood up next to him, putting her hands in her pockets. He seemed nicer than anyone so far and it wasn't a bad conversation, so why not keep it going?

"Mm, I knew you were." He slithered up the steps, occasionally using one hand to push him up the steps even more. "I'm partially cold blooded. It's uh... think of it that my innards are warmish and the rest of cool." As they continued up the steps he occasionally peeked in doorways, looking for the correct floor. Like Shuri, he was new to Majeh as well.

"Ah, okay." She followed closely behind Asher, gazing off around Majeh. "Man, this place is really unique to where I've been." She sighed.

He could only agree. "Helps that the land itself is a living, breathing, and thinking creature." Asher himself was a bit cautious of that tale, but he wasn't going to joss it off the bat.

"Really? D*mn. That's interesting.." She kept following him, quickly running out of things to say.

Asher nodded again and found the right room. He waved for her to follow and slithered onto a lavish pile of pillows and animal furs that a few other nagas were laying across.

Shuri walked in, then sat next to Asher. "I've never been around nagas..." She squirmed slightly. She was somewhat afraid of snakes, but she wouldn't tell him that.

Most of the cold blooded group chuckled lightly. "Our kind usually isn't in this region around this part of the year." A cream and orange naga with chimed and rolled over, revealing his human half. "Yo, Asher, I take the shop was closed?" The orange creamsicle asked and opened his equally blood colored eyes to the albino who nodded.

"Well, that, and I've never seen a naga before now." Shuri looked at the other naga and said nothing, just studing him, then moving on to the rest of the nagas. She studied the paterns on their tails, and then looked back at Asher's tail. She studied it from the tip of the tail up to where the scales met human flesh and stopped, looking back down at his tail, still studying the patterns.

A black and white marbled female laughed. "That's probably why. We aren't very common either." By now most of the group was studying Shuri just as she studied them, she hadn't seen a naga before and they were still always amazed how those with legs could stand without falling over.

"Huh.." she trailed off, lightly tracing the patterns on Asher's tail on the floor with her finger, without taker her eyes off him. She hardly noticed the stares. People would sometimes stare at her for her hair, or when she was bruised from a fight. Or from traveling for too long. People noticed when she traveled for too long at one time. She had no idea why though. She just kept focusing on the patterns and tracing them with her finger, her emerald eyes focusing right on the patterns, her left one still concealed by the veil of blue hair. As usual, her hair was everywhere, and quite discombobulated, that lone curl sticking up in the air.

Asher leaned back against a bear pelt in the pile. The rough black fur fluffed around his limbs as he watched what Shuri was tracing in the dust. Swirls and squiggly circles.... His thoughts were inturrupteed by the white and orange naga again. "So how do you know where Lewpool is goin now?" Asher shook his head in response to Amorn. "No, last I heard was maybe a realm in the 400s."

Shuri wasn't paying attention anymore, just completely focused on the pattern. She had to have something to keep her mind busy, if she didn't, she knew exactly what she would end up doing, or rather, what her mind would do to her. It's one of those days again where she NEEDS to stay busy with something.

The nagas continued to enjoy the warmth of the fire. Someone's tail was begining to creep up on Shuri, seeking the extra warmth that the warm blood was giving.

It wasn't working. Her mind started to wander. The area over her left eye started to hurt. A lot. She started to press down her finger harder and harder, her face getting sharper, pained, and more scared. She eventually ended up pressing down so hard her finger didn't even move anymore, it was just stuck in place. She was almost shaking. Internally, she was mortified by her memories.

Piran's tail wrapped around Shuri's leg and many in the room drew closer as she shook. It confused them, emotions in nagas... they were diluted. Weaker and easier to control. Cold. Asher drew the closest and asked what was wrong, but he didn't actuallt touch Shuri.

Shuri heard something.. Dull. Not actual words. Just a buzz. She felt a dull pressure around her leg. The area over her left eye felt like it was on fire. She stood up, stumbling outside, tripping as she pulled her leg away from whatever that pressure was. Gray flakes were everywhere and she didn't know why. This sent her into a panic, ontop of her already mortified state. She stumbled up what she thought were stairs. She wasn't sure. She ended up falling over she didn't know what. She curled up into a ball, her head between her legs, ready to scream. Her eye seemed clouded and her hair shifted to reveal a huge scar running over her eyelid and a little below, and a white orb with just the same green that the iris was for her other eye where her iris and pupil would be but it was just that solid green, where her left eye should have been. She started shaking even worse. If she was actually coherent, this is what she would call one of her "mental episodes."

The nagas laid where they were, completely shocked. They had seen weird, disturbing, and freaky things before, but that was ...unique. Asher got up and slowly began to follow here Shuri bolted, taking the bear pelt with him to use as a blanket.

Shuri was shaking, about to cry, rocking side to side slightly. The ash started to fall on top of her but she didn't notice.

Asher found Shuri and wrapped the pelt around her, saying nothing. He merely coiled his body around, staring at the blackened, starless sky.

She went on this for a few more minutes, dully aware of the naga and the pelt. She slowly stopped shaking and regained her scences. She sat up and looked at Asher. She took the pelt off her and laid it acrost her lap. "I ran out, didn't I..."

Asher nodded, still staring intently at the sky. Three lone red lights flew across the sky, holding Asher's attention. "Like a bat out of hell."

".. You cold?" Shuri looked at Asher. She wanted to apologize, but for what? She didn't know what to tell him.

Asher nodded. "A little, it's a bit warmer right now." He continued to stare at the dots which quickly grew much larger. A loud roaring split the sky as three fighter jets screamed by above the city. They were marked with the Majehn seal, the black blood eel.

Shuri dropped the pelt on him, somewhat gently, turning to look at the jets. She put her hands over her ears as they went by and waited for them to be gone before she asked, "What were those for?" She took her hands away and looked back at the naga.

"War." Asher pulled the pelt across his shoulders. Houses lit up as people came out of the houses to look at the jets. A whole nother group screeched across the sky, flying just above the rooftops. They mixed into one group before splitting into two, one went west to Coria, the other group circled aroun the capital. "Our neighbors, Coria, was tricked into protecting us by our queen, they don't like us much but are in a civil war and war with Holy Empire and Lighthollow. They keep trying to invade Majeh while they're at it." He explained and sat up. "We should go inside, quickly. I don't like seeing the explosions on the horizon."

She quickly nodded, standing up. "I don't wanna watch any part of it. I've seen too much killing already." She hated this kind of thing.