Sirya vs. Long Shin

[CaptainL]

It was midday in the forest, the high sun's light creating webs of shadows from the branches and canopies on the lead-strewn ground. At this time, all was still, save for the occasional chirping of a bird. But there was a reason for that. If there had been any more commotion, it would soon become apparent - as it would disturb the tripwire that had been strewn subtly between two tree trunks, rigged up to a branch that held a weight hidden among the canopy. Should anything pass by, the weight would be dropped, alerting the trap's creator.

And that creator happened to be a young woman by the name of Sirya, who at this time was fast asleep in the branches of another tree. As she snored softly to herself, her arms folded over her stomach, the girl was waiting on any prey to pass by before she would expend more energy than she needed in going after it. For now, she was content to lay back, letting the sun's rays warm her, and stay out of any undue attention.

Spoiler

[Mkmd13]

Being the lover of knowledge that he was, Long began his journey on an alien planet that was far away from his own. Things looked relatively the same, but there were stark differences in the air that indicated that he was in a very foreign land. "Well, no one ever learned anything by just sitting around." He would say to himself as he stepped foot into the vast forest. Taking his journal out, he began to write down the differences in wildlife and floral plants on this planet. "Interesting... Very interesting." Long would push his glasses back up to the top of his nose as he squatted down to take a closer look at a beautiful blue flower. Marking this down, he would stand back up and proceed further in.

The sunlight still burned through the day and and hour or two passed by before he took a seat on a rock to rest his legs. The soft chirping of birds calmed his senses and he breathed out a heavy sigh. "Nothing like the sound of nature to cure any ailment." Feeling satisfied with his rest, he continued on. Taking a couple of steps forward, he felt his right leg hit something on the ground. Looking down, he thought he accidentally tripped over a vine, but it was a wire of some sorts. Confused, he looked up and saw something start to fall! His instincts kicked in and he swiftly dodged out of the way of the trap!

Spoiler

[CaptainL]

The entrance of a strange man into her territory went unnoticed to the still-slumbering Sirya, who dozed away in the branches above. A faint snore would come down from the canopy, but between how high she was and the natural sounds of the forest as the leaves rustled in the breeze, it would be little noticed from the forest floor - or at least, it would be hard to discern from the sound of any other animal.

What didn't sound normal in such a place, however, was the noise of a rope dropping, followed by a large rock striking the ground. Long would find himself able to dodge out of the way of such a trap before it fell on him - but that wouldn't make much difference in the grand scheme of things. Sirya's trap wasn't rigged to kill, but rather to alert her to the presence of an intruder. Instantly the girl was roused, jolting up in place as she began to collect her things. The time to defend herself was now. And an intruder usually meant someone carrying riches she could rob, at that, so she couldn't complain. When she lived on her own, the chance to steal a few valuables could put off the need for her to do her own hunting later.

She didn't take the moment to check who, or what, she was dealing with. Sirya was already in action, as she drew her bow from her side and fired a few arrows down at the ground, for intimidation as much as it was to actually aim at hitting anything. "HEY! Who's in my woods?!" she snapped down from the trees.

[Mkmd13]

The near miss of the boulder was enough to get Long's heart rate going. He swallowed a bit before getting back up and assessing the situation. "Most curious... A trap out here?" He would then start to look around to see if he alerted anyone of his presence. Suddenly, sounds of arrows started to pierce the air around him. Long jumped backwards as the arrows hit the ground a few feet from where he once was standing. He then heard a voice call from the canopy above. He looked up and saw a dashing young girl up in the trees with her bow drawn towards him. "Oh, are you the one who made this trap?" He would ask in a calm demeanor.

The beasts in this forest are quite cleaver. They know how to make traps and by the looks of things, bows and arrows. He would have to note this down later that the intelligence of this world maybe higher than he first expected. "I'm sorry to intrude Miss. My name is Long Shin and I'm from the planet Earth." He would try to introduce himself to her. It sounded like she knew English so he was hoping she would at least understand him.

[CaptainL]

None of Sirya's arrows hit her mark, the points all embedding themselves in the earth. It seemed that the strange man confronting her from below was quite agile if he could react so quickly. Sirya grumbled a little at the sight, disappointed in her results, but it didn't matter too much. After all, what she was really trying to do was to make her presence known, and that was something she'd certainly succeeded at.

Hearing the man's words, Sirya straightened herself, using expert balance to perch herself on the branch. Even if she was hardly very tall, she had the high ground, and she was doing her best to remain imposing, keeping her head low to display the panther-head hood she wore atop it and holding the bow out in front of her. This traveler was indeed strange - he wasn't even going to attack her? He would be this nice when she had issued a threat? He clearly was from far away, as Sirya didn't recognize this "planet Earth" of which he spoke. But for the purposes of convenience, she could understand his words well enough. Sirya's response would be a good deal less charitable.

"Whaddaya want?" the girl barked. "You got anything good on you? Any money or food? C'mon, hands up! I wanna see!" She wouldn't pass up this opportunity to take whatever might be of use to her.

[Mkmd13]

Long watched as the girl above him straightened herself out, but kept the bow pointed towards his direction. From the looks of it, she wasn't much of the trusting type... He could though get a better look at her and it appears that she was a hunter of some sort. Wearing a pelt of a panther on her body is what put him towards that conclusion. If she was strong enough to take down a ferocious beast like that, maybe Long was in for something more than he originally thought. She then spoke to him in a very gruff tone.

Long wasn't expecting this expedition to go on any longer than a day or two so he only packed lightly. A few snacks to tie him over and only a bit of cash on him since he figured that money from Earth had no value on this planet. "I'm sorry, I only have a little bit of food on me, but I'm going to need this for my journey." He would tell her. He did put his hands up though at her request to show that he didn't have any weapons on his body. If she kept up this threatening manner though and wouldn't leave him alone, he would have no choice but to subdue her to escape.

[CaptainL]

Even the display of Long's lack of weapons meant little to Sirya. She had been taught for as long as she could remember that the only thing that came between life and death in the unforgiving wilds was a strong arm and the point of a blade, and she wasn't one to respect the mercies and honor codes of the settled warrior castes. If anything, it just made her chuckle a little to herself. If he really was unarmed, it was going to be even easier to take the supplies from him by force.

And when he said that he would need the food for his journey, that was the last mistake. "Not any more ya won't," Sirya said with a devious grin. At that, she whipped out a spear from around her back, clutching it in both hands as she held it defensively before her. Then, without giving Long any moment to react, Sirya hopped down from the branches, going to land in a fighting stance on the ground below.

[Mkmd13]

She was making it clear to him that there was going to be no way of talking her out of this. Long watched as she produced a spear from behind her and jumped down to the ground. Her athleticism was pretty immaculate to be able to jump down from that height and land right into a fighting stance. Seeing as violence was the only way to calm her down, Long sighed and decided to show her just what she is up against, "I'm sorry it has to come to this, but please, don't take this personally." A slight wind would start to blow and his clothing moved in time with the breeze. Stepping forward a bit, Long would begin his transformation.

"Hooowwwwwaaaahhhhhh!" Long would cry out before throwing both hands into the air and stomping his right foot into the ground. A dazzling bright light surrounded his body and when the light subsided, Sirya would be able to see Long in his beast form now. Long's voice changed as well as his appearance to now of a lower, gruffer sound, "I hope I didn't take you by surprise now." Long then shifted into his fighting stance and started to circle around Sirya.

Spoiler

[CaptainL]

As she came to a halt on the ground before Long, Sirya narrowed her eyes, standing with the spear pointed towards him with a firm and unchanging expression that would make it clear, so she hoped, that she wasn't willing to budge. Long seemed to be less than pleased about it, but Sirya didn't care. She was willing to take his valuables from him, whether he liked it or not. She didn't even find the wind anything out of the ordinary; such changes in the weather were hardly unusual out in the wilderness, after all. All Sirya was waiting for was the chance to strike at him. She had to wonder why he seemed so willing to stand there, where she could easily step in and impale him then and there. Sirya started to chuckle at the thought. This guy had to be really stupid to let this happen...

That was, until he suddenly let loose a cry and stomped the ground, causing Sirya to yelp as she jumped back from him with the bright light enveloping his body. She had never seen anything like this before, and she didn't know what was even happening! And then the light cleared, and she was standing right in front of a strange creature, looking like an upright panther with stripes, but still wearing the mysterious tresspasser's clothes. Needless to say, Sirya was even more confused. "WHAT THE-!?" she exclaimed, her eyes going wide in shock.

However, there was no time to be this surprised when a fight was afoot. Sirya was quick to recenter herself as Long began to circle her, narrowing her eyes and lowering back into her stance as her hands gripped the spear tighter. "Nngh...whatever!" she said. "I don't know how ya did that...but I'm gonna take ya down either way!" Strafing in tune with the tiger-man, their footsteps tracing a circle in the ground, Sirya opened the offense by throwing a few jabs of her spear in Long's direction.

[Mkmd13]

After Long's transformation, the panther girl before him would let out a shriek and he knew it caught her off guard a bit. It was to be expected though. It's not every day you see a human transform into a beast. I guess things like that don't happen on their planet either. "Oh well, so much for the thought of actually fitting in." Long would say to himself in his mind. He hated the fact that he can do this simply because he felt like an outcast. He secretly hoped that she wouldn't of been surprised by this at all and she told him that everyone on this planet could do that. Such was not the case though.

Getting back to the task at hand though, Long cleared his mind and focused his eyes on Sirya. "Such a beautiful girl like yourself having this kind of temperament... It's a shame really." It appears that she was adamant to take him down as she started to thrust her spear point at his direction. Being in his tiger form made him a bigger target for Sirya to aim at, but his speed increased as well, making it easier to dodge the oncoming attacks. Although, one of the spear jabs did his it fur as visible strands of hair came flying off the tip of the spear and into the wind. "Not bad! You can keep up with me." He would praise her.

After seeing what she could do, Long waited for an opening when she retreated the spear back to her body. Once she did, Long stepped forward and tried to hit Sirya with a roundhouse kick to the face with the heel of his right paw.