Sal listened, curiosity written her face, as Fen told his story. He reminded her of her late father, a kind man who could make a room shake with his booming voice. He was human, and his marriage to her shifter mother was very uncommon.

By Fen's body language, she saw that he told more than he intended to. She put him in her mental file, of strangers (but he didn't seem like one, even though they had just met) that could possibly be trusted.

"Well, that must hurt." She didn't know what to say. Her brain was whirring, thinking of what she sould say. "How about you come over," No, stop now! Please! "and I'll," NO NO NO "take a look at it for you?" EMERGENCY EMERGENCY

Sal mentally kicked herself once. Then did it again for good measure. Hopping down from her branch, - Fen could attack her now, it didn't matter because she said too much - she led the way to her little forest cabin, with Fen following uncertainly behind.

(Or not. Depends on you, Simone.)

sasha gazed down at the funny looking shapeshifter. (she had never seen a jackel before) she knew that Nathir would punish her for speaking to a stranger, but she was hungry, and out of water. she shifted back to a human and slid down the tree. she didnt know if she was to pet the dog, or if that would be rude. so she ended up just looking extremely awkward.

'h-hello.' she managed to studder. she hoped she didnt look stupid. Nathir always told her that if you are weak. never show it. she just flushed that rule down a black hole. oh well, Nathir wont know. 'im lost.'

He didn't exactly know what he'd expected to happen, but Zareth was nonetheless surprised when the viper shifted into a young woman and slid down the tree to meet him, apparently unafraid of any danger involved. Or maybe desperate. Seeing the way she was stammering nervously, though, he decided on the latter. She offered no introduction, simply a quiet admission: "I'm lost."

Involuntarily, Zareth softened. He was hardly a sentimental person, but she really did look lost. Scared, even. And there were many far less compassionate shifters out here she might run into.

He shifted into his lanky human form, suddenly aware for the first time in years how savage he must appear to a city person, as shabby and unkempt as he was. How did these human conversations work again?

"Hey." His voice sounded strange to him. He cleared his throat, started again. "Where's it you're trying to go?" And as an afterthought, added, "Name's Zareth."

 Crier waved goodbye. She shifted to an owl. "Okay time to get the food!" She said. She flew above the busy cars. Dang they are fast today. A small fruit stand was there. She got to the ground and shifted back to a human. She looked the the tall man. He had dark blond hair. He looked at her. She spat. "And what do you want little kid?" he asked in a bitter voice. Who pulled his tail? If he had one... "I would like to have those red thing." Crier pointed to a bright plump red fruit. "You want the tomatoes?" He asked glaring at them. Crier nodded. He sighed. "Ten bucks." he said. He narrowed her eyebrows. Ten bucks? Bucks as male deer? "You want me to get deer?" she asked tilting her head. He growled. "No you idiot! I want ten dollars! What are you? A dumb goose!" he yelled at the girl. Crier growled. She slammed her hand at the stand. She shifted to an owl and just toke two tomatoes with her. "Hey kid you have to pay for that!" he spat. His hair was all ruffled. She just laughed. 

 She landed on the nearest tree she could find. She shifted to a human and tried to stay on the tree. She ate the juicy tomato. She dropped one. "Shot!" she sighed. She kept the other one. After she was done with it she felt like hunting for smaller birds. Her mother showed her how to hunt pigeons near the street. She shifted to an owl again. She looked around. What's that? A small bird that is black and blue was resting on a branch. Is it a shifter? No! Yes time to hunt! She foucsed on the bird. Yup. A male Steller's Jay was resting right there. She got ready making sure there are no humans near.

 She flew to the Jay and grabbed it's head. He was so noisey! He kept saying "Where is food? I need food! Why am I flying now? My head hurts! I need to sleep! I'm tired. I'm also hungry! Help help! May I eat now? Let me go please I need to sleep. I'm bored. Where are my nuts! Owl owl! Owl is here!" Chrip chrip chrip-a-dee chrip! She couldn't stand it. She dropped him to the ground. She also fell with him. She made sure that he was died. "Why am I falling? I like nuts and grass. Want some nuts? I'm hungry!" Nope he's alive. She flew away. Failed her first hunt on her own.

at that moment Sasha realised just how silly she felt. she was weak and thirsty. she was a terrible fighter and was NEVER supposed to leave her den without Nathir. she didn't know whether to trust Zareth or not, but she didn't have a choice. 'i-im s-ss-asha. my water skin is empty." she shook the pouch hastily infront of Zareth. " do you know where the closest watering hole is?' she paused. wandering is she should say more. 'and how far away is the city? my cousin went out to shop hours go and hasn't come back,' she said, hoping he didn't catch the strain and worry in her voice. 

she scratched her head. 'sorry, i'm not out and about much. i probably said everything wrong.'

Fen felt his cheeks grow red and he chuckled a bit. 'Allright' he said and he walked after Sal. 'Nice cabin' he quipped. 'Better then my sleeping places at least.' His sleeping spots where abandonend buildings or places. 'Is this your place?' The cabin reminded him of his old hut, when he was a kid and his parents where still alive. 

Huh. Fen hadn't attacked her yet. 

Sal grinned. 'Yeah, was my parents' first though, After they - she paused, not wanting to use the word died - moved out, I patched it up a bit. Haven't done much of a good job, eh?' She pointed to a makeshift bed, with a cover of woven grass. 'Here, lie down. I'll see what I can do.'

Zareth paused and thought the situation over. There was a stream about an hour's walk away. He still hadn't eaten much today other than some beetles he'd found under a rotting log (which weren't bad fare for a jackal, honestly), and he'd hoped to dedicate some time to hunting. Plus, he wasn't sure he liked the idea of traveling with a highly-venemous companion. 

She's lost, he reminded himself. She's alone, she's clearly scared, she's out of water, and she probably wouldn't last long by herself. He groaned inwardly. Why did he have to be so decent? 

"There's a stream about an hour away," he said. "Water's pretty clean. The city's almost a day away. You might make it before nightfall if you can run fast and don't hit any trouble." Hesitating, he finally went on, "I can take you there. You wouldn't need to stop for water, not with it raining like this."

Sasha was rather confused. her cousin always told her that strangers were dangerous and monsterous. why was Zareth being so kind? she gave her head a little shake. what did it matter? she was proving Nathir wrong. she had no idea if Zareth was lying or not. she decided to just go with the flow. 'wow, your right. its raining cats and dogs out here!' she exclaimed. she quickly tied her water skin around her waist. she took out her medicine horn. she cursed. 'im out of earth blood, this will only be a sec.' she told Zareth. she looked at the ground around her feet. the earth was swampy with rain. not what she was looking for. she scanned the horizon for dry earth. she spotted a small cave just a minute's run away. before Zareth could say anything she raced towards the cave.

Zareth watched in bewilderment as Sasha suddenly darted toward a little rocky alcove a short distance away, after saying something about "earth blood." He really hoped she didn't turn out to be a cultist; he'd had a few bad run-ins with them and quickly learned to either give them a wide berth or kill on sight. 

He also hoped she wasn't going to try to collect rainwater with her water skin. He hadn't meant that at all. Obviously that would take forever; what he'd really meant was that she wouldn't need to worry about dehydrating if she was soaked. No point trying to explain that now, anyway. 

Cautiously, he followed he toward the cave, but stopped several feet away to watch. If there was any sort of "dark magic" or whatever going on, he wanted nothing to do with it.

when Sasha finally stopped at the cave, she looked around for Zareth. she spotted him a small distance away looking cautious. this baffled her even more. maybe he doesn't like caves. she grabbed a jar from her medicine horn and scooped up some dry earth. she shook it into loose bits before storing it back into the horn. she tied that around her waist too. sasha then scanned the place for nettles. she spotted a clump of them on the left side of the cave. she grabbed them by the necks and quickly unrooted them. she stored that inside her medicine horn too. she then removed a compass from around her neck and marched up to Zareth. 'which way to the water?' she asked. as she stepped out from the dryness of the cave she felt much better. the drizzle didn't bother her. 'im hungry.'

'You've done an awesome job' Fen exclaimed 'Better then i could've done it , anyhow' he smiled at her and walked towards the bet.  He tried to pull up his sleeve, but noticing that didn't go as planned, his sleeves where a bit to tight, he pulled off his shirt. He whinched when he made a wrong movement with his arm.
The chill in the air gave him goosebumps. 'Do you know first aid? I dont, not really anyway' 

Zareth was now more puzzled than ever. Not only could he be dealing with a potential cultist, she also couldn't seem to decide whether what she needed most was food or water. And her suddenly perkiness, when just a moment before she had been nervous and anxious, unsetttled him. He was beginning to consider whether he really should just leave her to fend for herself. Get out of this mess while he still could. 

He decided to compromise by postponing the decision. Help her now. But never let down his guard. He'd killed before; he wasn't afraid to do so again, if it came to that. 

"Which is it, water or food?" he asked. "Water's this way. Food...well, that depends on what you eat."

Sal winced at Fen's broken arm. It was nasty, but treatable. "Sure, I know first aid." She replied. She took out a book. It was damaged by water and torn at the edges, but was a reliable guide to treating injuries. She had found it at the edge of the forest years ago. Who would want to throw away a book like that? she wondered.

As she worked, she talked to break the silence. "So anyway, how'd you get into this scrape? There aren't many aggresive shifters around here, as far as I know, so I assume that this happened in another place." She hoped she wasn't acting too agressive.

'Well i was out of town and met with an nasty shifter and as i shifted and ran,i got stuck in a bear trap. Do you know them? They're nasty and close real hard, real quick' He shuddered as he thought about that experience. 'A nice man got me out, but couldn't help with my paw and i was too afraid to shift to human and i didn't want to go the the hospital. I hate these places. And thus it didn't heal properly'  Fen sighed a bit and licked his lips, wich had gone dry because of his talking. He chuclked at himself. 'Thank you for all this' He said. 'I appreciate it. Most would've just ingored the arm'  he mumbled.