[Jaden Wolf]

Saryn | Kane

He peered into the sewer from his perch at the entrance point. He'd like to say that he was doing some preliminary observation, but in truth he was pointedly ignoring the strange cat attempting to make itself comfortable in his scarf. More than once he'd had to grab at the fabric so the shifting weight didn't strangle him. Sure, he could've shooed the cat off or some such, but had already wasted an hour attempting to do so. Somehow it didn't seem right to kill it over such a trivial matter as attachment.

In the end then, Saryn had resigned himself to tolerating the cat's presence. He simply waited until it had finally settled itself to its satisfaction before slipping quietly into the gloomy murk.

As soon as the full stench of the place hit his nostrils, he slapped his filter mask on. He'd been told the fumes were safe enough without a mask, though really, he had enough poison resistance that it hardly mattered anyway. In the end though, why should he deal with the smell when he always has a perfectly good filtration system on hand?

[Jaden Wolf]

The cat seemed to agree, as a shift of weight and soft snuffling noise told Saryn that it had stuffed its nose into the fabric of the scarf in lieu of a mask. Were he the emotional type, he might have thought it cute or perhaps had more sympathy for the little thing. Alas, he wasn't, so he just adjusted the scarf on his throat again and proceeded through the sewer.

He wasn't too concerned about the fact he was walking through an actual sewer. Though Saryn's training might not have been intended for this particular scenario, he had been trained to handle...other settings that most would balk at. Light and steady on his feet, he hardly spared a thought for what he may be walking on except to avoid winding up in the water. (If you could call that stuff water).

[Jaden Wolf]

To anyone else, it would seem as though Saryn was fixated on finding the tunnel his employer had mentioned. In reality, though his eyes were on the walls, he was paying very little attention to them. His focus was instead on the fact he was clearly being followed. He was not the only one to notice, he thought distantly, as he felt the cat stiffening up at his neck.

The cat let out a loud hiss just half a second before Saryn's own instincts detected the danger. He whirled smoothly, stepping aside with little effort as the creature launched itself toward him. His subconscious assessed the threat as he looked over the monster. It was large and intimidating, to be sure, but that monstrosity of a mouth was doubtlessly the most dangerous aspect of it.

[Jaden Wolf]

It was only once his conscious mind had caught up that Saryn noticed the thread the creature was tangled in. Were he accustomed to such a feeling, he might've pitied the thing, but instead he only thought it was a pity it could still move. He stepped back casually, unconcerned, as it attempted to lunge again. It was clearly frustrated by his elusive nature, becoming more aggressive with each lunge.

Though, it was possible that the cat's taunting meows might also have something to do with that.

Saryn didn't even entertain the thought of silencing the cat. It simply didn't seem worth any effort to bother. Instead, he thought about his mission and whether this creature was going to get in the way.

[Jaden Wolf]

While it was true that the creature was far too slow to catch Saryn (possibly due to all the thread), it was still preventing Saryn from moving forward. The sewer tunnel was just too narrow for him to do anything more than dodge.

Therefore, the simplest solution was just to kill it.

It was a testament to his training how quickly everything happened from the moment he made the decision. With one hand, he pressed the mewling, hissing cat's head back down into its scarf perch. It wasn't a compassion thing, he just didn't want the creature throwing him off balance. The other hand fished out a long dagger from a hidden pocket. In the blink of an eye, the creature was no more than a heap on the concrete.

Now, back to the mission.

[Jaden Wolf]

[Part 2]

It took no effort, of course, to actually find the tunnel he was looking for. The only reason it took so long to get there was because he'd had to stop the stupid cat from attempting to eat the lizard-thing corpse.

Or whatever had been doing.

Honestly, Saryn wasn't entirely convinced it was the corpse the cat had been trying to eat. The cat had picked its way across the sewer floor, not appearing to care much about what it was stepping in other than to flick excess liquid off its paws. After inadvisably climbing onto the body, the creature looked to be...well, eating. The angle was not quite right for biting into flesh, but Saryn had no other explanation for the behaviour.

[Jaden Wolf]

Honestly though, Saryn just didn't want to spend time thinking about it, so he hurried and snatched up the feline. It had put up a fight for the better part of an hour before they'd left the corpse far enough behind for the cat to give up.

Not that it stopped sulking, of course, being rather standoffish for the next hour or two as well. Once or twice it even seemed to be considering fighting him again, but Saryn did his best to ignore the glares he felt had to be a provocation. He wasn't sure why he bothered with the creature, but it was surely far beneath him to pick a fight with a cat.

[Jaden Wolf]

He did eventually make it to the tunnel though, in spite of the cat's distracting paw-swats it seemed to have resorted to in lieu of revenge.

If anyone asked though, it was the paw-swatting that made him walk so stupidly into the trap. If his elders and senseis ever got wind of this, they would surely be ashamed. The only thing he did succeed at was acting completely unsurprised at the Hydrolisks' appearance. It was just good tactics not to let the enemy know they had caught you off-guard.

What exactly the two creatures were talking to each other about, Saryn didn't know. At best, he assumed they were debating using him as a hostage or robbing him. Neither would do them much good of course, but they didn't know that.

[Jaden Wolf]

He did not enlighten them. Instead Saryn just waited silently for them to shut up and get on with whatever they were going to do. When the argument did not seem to be forthcoming with a decision, he decided to make it for them. What were two more corpses in the wake of his job?

Evidently, they'd read him far more easily than he'd expected of seemingly...simple creatures, and spooked as he approached. He'd heard the sound the boulder made before it registered that the one Hydrolisk had released it.

His muscles tensed, only to twitch when the cat yowled in alarm, right next to his ear.

[Jaden Wolf]

Truthfully, he had forgotten the cat was even [/i]there[/i]. His shock, though brief, still cost him precious seconds. No longer did he have time to evade to the side. Immediately after realizing that, he spun on his heel and raced away from it.

He could absolutely outpace the rock, so long as he didn't reach a dead end. Behind him, one of the Hydrolisks had shouted a warning. Saryn couldn't help but think that those two made terrible criminals.

Claws sank into his shoulder as the cat made unhappy growls and chirps in his ear. Honestly, he had half a mind to just whip the thing off him and chuck it behind him into the boulder's path. Sadly (for him), he did not.