A Long Way From Home (Xenon)

[Kitty]

Sneak, sneak, sneak .... even with paws as large as his and a frame as heavy the canine had long since mastered the art of stealth. Grass and gravel had been something to get used to .... but he felt comfortable enough with his new found skills to creep around the targeted area ... an area that reeked of something he'd never quite scented before. What .... were those? The scent would be pretty if it wasn't so strong, what was it he'd been told about the Court of Hearts in the city ....oh.... roses! That's what they were. Far stinkier then the ones in that flower shop he'd passed.

And they had a ... .guard? His ears perked a bit before swiveling back against his head. Hum, this fellow just didn't seem like the competent sort.... perhaps one of those old tricks would work on this poor fellow? It was worth a shot.

He crept closer to the gate, fished up a rock, positioned himself just right and flung the stone over the wall. As expected the stone clacked and then thudded as it settled and the guard, who looked rather young... possibly a new recruit? ... stiffened and turned his attention in the direction. After a few moments of silence he clutched his weapon and moved toward the sound and the canine seized his chance and slipped around the corner, once there he activated his speed ability and hid around another corner. This was turning into quite the fun evening ... just like back home. .... without the whole... life riding on your abilities thing. That was a downer.

He was watching the guard still, his fluffy, curled tail swaying back and forth happily. Was everyone out here that easy? If they were... .oh, ho he'd be having quite a good time.

[carcinoGeneticist]

For a little Solandrian boy, life could be somewhat uncomfortable from time to time. He had a horde of siblings, and they all loved to play. That was part of being a child, of course. But when three out of five had coats as long and thick as theirs were, vigorous wrestling really had its downside.

That downside was overheating. Feeling as if he was trapped in a sauna of his own making, Sergei roamed the Court in search of the perfect place to rest, blue tongue lolling out of his mouth as he wandered, wings spread in an attempt to dissipate some of the heat. Mama had told him that this wasn't even as bad as it was going to get, but he didn't want to get his fur chopped off! He was SOLANDRIAN! He couldn't even imagine doing something like that! Maybe he could get Betsy to fill some bags up with ice for him and then he could strap them to the back of his neck. That would help.

His wanderings took him to one of the less-frequented entrances to the Palace itself, one that butted up to part of the gardens. It was out of the sun, which was nice. The stone got cool when it was sitting in the shade. Sergei plopped his fluffy butt down just inside of the doorway, scooting into a comfortable position. Then he picked at his toes. This was pretty nice, yeah. There was a breeze coming through, working its way through at least the upper layer of his fur and helping to wick some of the discomfort away. The only problem with sitting here was that it was going to get boring, and it was going to happen quickly.

The bipedal boy picked at one of his toes, glancing around with narrowed eyes. His ears crinkled back as he crept forward, poking his little head out around the corner. Had he heard a noise?

His eyes were presented with the sight of a rather fluffy tail, wagging hypnotically in front of him. "Yer tail's really fluffy," he announced happily. "An' yer all Solandrian. Are you family?"

[Kitty]

He was just thinking about turning around and investigating the place further when a voice came to his ears and he cringed, fluffy tail stopping dead in it's track. Caught. He turned his head to look over his shoulder, making sure that his blind eye, or lack there of really, was kept out of view as he did. Wait a sec .... there were other Solandrians here? That was .... good and bad, or could potentially be.

He eyed the youth, taking in all his features and thinking them over before he said anything. His father had told him that Seth was a bad of Spades and other things that he remembered about the man before he had left and this child here .... appeared to be part bat. He was a Club ... .but .... why else would Seth have been here if he wasn't either a lover, or prisoner, of a Heart? So that made sense .... bah, what he wouldn't have given for a more detailed background on the mission.

Common was still a bit hard for him, so he spoke slowly and as clearly as his accent permitted.

In a vay ve might be.

He kept his ears perked forward as he watched the bipedal youth closely, his reaction would dictate what he said next .... if anything. Children could be dangerous too ....

[carcinoGeneticist]

Even as young as the boy was, something in Sergei recognized that no, this man wasn't family. Not immediate family, at least. He was a Canine, but not a Coyote. There was no bat in him at all, either. At that realization, the boy seemed to become ever so slightly more wary, shifting his wings and then taking a single step back into the doorway.

There was no real reason to be nervous, but Sergei was a Club in the Court of Hearts, and even if the man in front of him was a black suit as well, he was still wary of anyone who wasn't immediately recognizable as family. All the same, something in him was curious. He'd never met a Solandrian who he wasn't directly related to. He hadn't ever really seen someone sneaking around the palace like that before, either, and the man was a Spade... What was he doing here?

The little hybrid stared at the other man, his gaze level and calm. His ear twitched at the sound of the heavily-accented common. Then, a wide smile spread across his face.

"<I can talk Solandrian, too. My mom wanted to teach us. For daddy.>" Slowly, the child started to walk forward, his expression almost hopeful. "<What do you mean by that? I don't know of any might-be family. Did you know daddy?>"

If he did... that would make things interesting. He'd never met his father, but sometimes, he could remember him in ways that his other siblings couldn't. Maybe this man knew why.

[Kitty]

When the mixed boy tensed up a bit, so did he. His ears shifted a bit, his tail curled closer to his body and his muscles tensed ever so slightly. Really all the kid had to do was scream and he'd be in a heap of trouble ... although this one didn't really look like a screamer. Hell, he'd been wrong about that one before .... assumptions were bad, very bad. Apparently this one's parents had done a good job explaining stranger danger, as they should of course.

However, there was a hint of curiosity that kept him in his spot, a feeling that was mutual it seemed, the boy's question cemented that thought and he relaxed a tiny bit. His little blue claws, however, were twitching a bit. This totally wasn't his style.

<That is good, you seem to have a very sensible family then. And .... that's why I've come here ... Where is ... Seth?>.

Well, he might as well jump straight to the point ... if he could just meet the bat everything would be fine and he could truly relax. His father wouldn't send him to find someone he himself didn't trust .... this just had to be the right place to find him, just had to be.

[carcinoGeneticist]

Yes, this interaction was quickly becoming even more interesting to the young boy. It wasn't quite the same as playing with his siblings, no... There was something different about it, something that gripped his attention and held it fast. Sergei felt much the same whenever his mother set him down for lessons. Information... It held a certain appeal, and his eyes glittered brightly as moved a little closer to the much bigger canine. There was something odd about them, something deeper than might have been expected of a child... His gaze was older, somehow, more observant.

As the older man was speaking, Sergei was observing. The man had a certain gruffness about him, and a big scar across his face. The boy's eyes went round, and he leaned in a little bit closer, pointed nose twitching as he did. "<Did that hurt? Your scar. I don't have any scars, but she did. Across her face, like yours, except higher up. It hurt her when she got hers. A lot. She wanted to cry.>" He reached up his hand, drawing a line from one eyebrow and down across his muzzle.

Sergei didn't have a clear inclination of when it was appropriate to talk about the flashes that sometimes came to him. They were the same as when he thought about what had happened earlier in the day, like what he'd had for breakfast, but they were... different, somehow. Like they had been seen by the eyes of another. The feelings that went with them, too, those were strange. And he knew the Seth that the Canine was asking about. He knew about him from the stories that his mother told him... But more than that, he knew of them from the her memories.

"<He's a big ol' Solandrian like you and me except he's all Bat. I'm only a little bit Bat, but we have the same nose.>" The boy felt a pang of sorrow, and when he looked up at the Akita, that sorrow was plain in his gaze. His mouth twitched slightly. "<He's dead. Mommy said he died when we were born. I still remember him, sometimes. Did you want to see him? I'm his son.>"

[Kitty]

This child just got more and more interesting. That gaze ... he'd been told about something similar to it. The intensity behind it didn't bother him, it intrigued him. That was potential right there ... and he'd previously been under the impression that those born on the outside would lack it entirely. He didn't know anythign about visions or whatever .... but he was becoming convinced that this little mix, with the proper sort of 'lessons', could be quite the little spy himself. Had his parents thought of that as well? One of his ears twitched lightly.

In response to his question he turned a bit to offer up his left side a bit more, and tilted his head just enough to show the lack of a right eye, just so he'd understand a little better.

<Not at the time, no. Although it was the last to heal. Just breathing had a tendency to open it up again.>

Not to mention is had been ridiculously itchy and the easiest to reach with his claws. Not that he'd been conscious much at the beginning. He'd been rather lucky to survive that encounter, and his wounds were simply a visual display of the weigh on his heart. That was all wrong, every last bit of that operation ...

However, the biped pulled his attention back to the present and his ears pricked forward hopefully. Until of course he caught the sorrow in his gaze, that was never a good thing. Well, damn .... that .... really did put a rather large kink in his plans, didn't it?

<I was supposed to find him...>

Now .... what was he going to do now?

[carcinoGeneticist]

Red eyes widened again as the man turned his head in such a way as to show of his other eye... Rather, his lack of an eye. Sergei was obviously quite impressed by the sight, and when he settled back onto his haunches, there was an impressed glimmer in his eyes. There were other memories, too. Memories of the dead and dying, returning to life without that piece of themselves... A light shiver went up the hybrid's spine.

"Wow." He said with a breath, a quick and almost excited exhale. Then he remembered to slip back into the language that this strange man seemed to be much more comfortable with. "<You should get an eyepatch. Then you can pretend to be a pirate. Sometimes, we all play pirate games, especially when Miss Zuberi was still here. I wore the eyepatch once.>" As intelligent as that glimmer in Sergei's eye might have been, he was still a four-year-old boy, and that could make his mind... flighty, to say the very least.

After a moment, the bipedal hybrid sat down, fingers closing around his toes and holding tight. Behind him, his tail twitched absently, and he continued to stare up at the older Solandrian. "<Sorry. I could try and tell you about him, if you want? I know some things. Why did you need to find him, anyway?>" The tail started to twitch a little faster at that, and then the boy's lips curled back in another wide - if not oddly tusky - smile. "<I'm Sergei.>"

[Kitty]

Pirates? He tilted his head to the side in a purely canine display of curiosity.

<Pirates? What is a pirate?>

He kept his attention, and one ear, on Sergei whilst his other shifted and scanned. He was becoming more and more confident that the kid himself posed no threat, but he was also aware of the fact that his appearance didn't exactly match that of a friendly strangers. Especially not in a place that seemed as important as this one ... places with guards always had something to hide ... that's why guards were there.

Uncertainty crossed his expression briefly, what was a logical explanation to explain why he was here and what he wanted with a dead man? Well, there was a good possibility the kid didn't even have a firm grasp on logic yet so, what the hell ... might as well go with his actual story.

<My father sent me to find him. They were close back home ... said he'd be able to help me figure this society out.>

but, apparently .... he had really bad timing and had missed the boat on that one.

<Jerome.>

[carcinoGeneticist]

This big, scruffly, very pirate-like person... Didn't know what pirates were? Now that Sergei considered it, he supposed that there wasn't any water up in the Glacier, but still! Couldn't they have ice pirates or something instead?

"<Pirates are a bunch of big manly men,>" the boy explained patiently, his tail swaying happily behind him. It was a nice change, getting to explain something to someone instead of asking all sorts of questions, which was what he normally had to do. One hand absently picked at his other arm, tugging at the thick fur. "<They've got peg legs an' hooks on their hands an' eyepatches an' they like to get booty. You'd be a good pirate, I bet. Do you like booty?>"

It didn't take long, however, for the subject of conversation to veer from pirates to the hybrid's father. Sergei's ears flipped back, and he glanced down at the ground. Some part of him knew he should feel badly. This stranger had traveled a long way to find Seth, without even knowing that the Bat was now long-dead. "<My mamma's still here,>" Sergei said a little guiltily, scratching his chin and thinking. He knew a lot of things, didn't he? He had lessons, like his siblings, and he had the memory-dreams, too... "<Maybe.. maybe I can do that, too?>"