[ToxicShadow]

"If you would have tried anything again, I would have picked a larger encyclopedia to bring down on your head. Better yet, I could change and sit on you, vicious kitty that you are." The Common Kuhna didn't know if she liked his concerns or not. She wasn't one for the type to have one look down on her, as if she was some sort of damsel in distress who needed to be protected. "Same goes for that perverted B2. If I hadn't forgotten my own transformation, I could have just picked him up and had it all over with." But wasn't Anthony coming with her to be kind? Complicated.

Her tails flicked in her debate, and ended with her sighing and moving on through the hole in the wall. "Either way, no use in arguing. If you want to come, I can't stop you. Keep in mind, I'll be compelled to talk if I have company." She meant she was probably going to ramble about something. And probably ask questions as well.

[Jaykobell]

Anthony blinked, giving the female Kuhna a confused expression. "Vicious... kitty?" he repeated, finding this.... compliment? Insult? to have been kind of uncalled for. But he couldn't tell what exactly Ferimia had meant; he failed to grasp the initial meaning of the words. "If you... say so," he meowed, shrugging it off. Change, transformation... if she meant a human form, then he supposed it was clearer now, but he wasn't... sure. Hm.

The Doom Kitty was almost happy that Ferimia didn't argue further. Had she continued, he would have fought back, or he would have followed her anyway, until she would have agreed for him to follow him. "I don't mind listening," he meowed, waving his tail. "Whatever... makes you happy, I guess?" He supposed this was what most people would say to put others at ease. Maybe it would be a funny thing, to be coming from him, but the Doom Kitty figured there was no need to anger the female or to... make her believe he didn't care. But it would be understandable would he blurt out something wrong; unused to all those new feelings, it wouldn't be surprising for him to say something awkward.

[47]

[ToxicShadow]

Without words, Ferimia started down a hallway, either avoiding or jumping over what ruins were left from broken beams, statues, benches and the other miscellanea that would be customarily located within a cathedral. This one may have been rundown, but all the remains of the inside were gruesomely displayed. Getting out away from work, away from studying, was something she rarely ever did. In this case, she chose to abandon work in order to deal with other matters. She needed to think.

Statues. They came to a row of huge statues, all of them smashed and eroded to a point it was all but useless to make out what they once had been carved to depict. "Some say these may have been statues of the Gods, the deities. No one knows for sure. I've been studying here for a week or so now, on my own. This particular structure is one often ignored for the eerie feeling that surrounds it. Such a shame. Because it is unusual to the rest of this world, it has been neglected. No one willing to come to its aid and help rebuild. If everyone continues to ignore it, it will fall on its own, all the stories and knowledge it holds will be lost for all eternity." Had anyone looked so deeply at this place before? Maybe...maybe not. "It's somewhat the same with living beings as well. If they are lost in themselves, or otherwise having harm inflicted upon them, if no one comes to their aid, they'll destroy themselves in the end. What they know will be lost, and they will be left not knowing a great many things. Alone, it's something that no living being was ever meant to be."

[Jaykobell]

The Doom Kitty followed with no complaints or comments. He simply went along with her steps, following along silently, his pawsteps barely present. Being a professional killer, the male had learned and practiced his silence and stealth, always ready to strike or hide in the darkest of places. Always ready, always aware, always alert. So was the Doom kitty.

His body curved, wiggled, twisted. It followed Ferimia's without cracking, without complaining, without whining. It was following, used to the many obstacles it had already went through. No, none of these were there to hurt him, indeed; but nonetheless, Anthony saw it as a good way of practicing his agility and his ability to get through multiple sorts of places. Training, in other words.

He listened to her voice, he looked at her figure, her eyes, her tails, her ears, her paws. He simply analyzed her, finding the female oddly attracting, in a way he failed to understand or explain. Was this what they meant by friendship? Was it this odd feeling, this one that was creating a drowsy mist around his heart, making it light as a feather? Maybe it was it. Maybe it wasn't it. Who knew? He didn't.

He looked at the statues as well. The knowledge they had, the things they knew, the centuries they had went through. Looking at it this way, the male could understand the Kuhna's point of view on the matter. But, still, the feline found nothing to be worth replying. He agreed indeed, but the Kuhna had said had already summed it up, in his mind, and therefore, there was no need to anything. Words can be used properly when spoken at the right time; but when used when the time is inappropriate, they could become harmful. With this in mind, Anthony remained silent, simple listening to Ferimia's soothing voice...

[48]

[ToxicShadow]

No words....Nothing to say... The atmosphere seemed to become heavy against her, smothering her. The Kuhna was a type that enjoyed peaceful silence, especially when there was work to be done, but this silence wasn't so peaceful to her. The place was naturally eerie, and she wasn't undergoing any physically or mentally strenuous tasks. The strain on herself was what kept her...entertained. It kept her focus away from everything else. But this wandering like this, her mind not working on something exactly, it made her more aware that the atmosphere this structure gave off wasn't a friendly one. It wasn't enough to shoo her away or make her complain. It was just...something she'd rather not pay attention to.
Plus, she was oddly aware but not, at the same time, of Anthony's eyes on her. What was he so intent about in his observations? How was she fascinating for him to watch? Eh, she wouldn't know. And she couldn't find a suitable topic to converse with, so she continued to trudge on in silence. Until...

"Eek!" The exclamation escaped her maw when she'd taken to inspecting a half-broken pedestal. She'd dragged her paws against it in the excitement of feeling the cool, rough stone against the soft pads of her forepaws when it crumbled over. It nearly landed on her, though she'd managed to dodge it for the most part. One of her tails caught under it, which was painful. She'd held in complaints about the pain, instead focusing on trying to yank it out from under the stone. She was grumbling angrily at the pedestal, now fairly well broken and crumbled further in some areas, and herself. She didn't like looking like some sort of damsel in distress, because she wasn't. The darned thing just fell! And she wasn't careful enough. She'd get her tail back just fine. Luckily, it wasn't too heavy, having been depleted in size from eroding before now and then crumbling up.

[Jaykobell]

This had, so to say, taken quite a turn of events. Remember when your parents tell you not to touch things, but to simply look at them? The Doom Kitty squinted confusingly at that thought, considering that he knew it very well, but that he had had no parents to tell him that. Oh, but wait, what was he doing here, thinking about such a trivial thing that made absolutely no sense whatsoever in the first place. There was a Kuhna with a stuck tail here.

Luckily for him, he was standing away from the pillar when it started crumbling down. Unfortunately, Ferimia hadn't been so lucky and got one of her twin tails stuck under the stone. Was this a sign or had it been clumsiness? Either way, he had come so he could help her if something bad would happen; and it had.

Without any words (for he didn't know what to say anyway), he bounced towards the stone that was onto the Kuhna's limb. Anthony put his shoulder and back against the stone and started pushing it, but stopped as he saw it wasn't going to help much. Then, he thought about trying to lift it. Could a quadruped do that? Most likely.

The Doom Kitty unsheathed his claws and rubbed his two paws together. He settled his hands under the edge of the stone and started lifting the heavy piece of rock. Hopefully he'd manage to lift it enough so Ferimia could get her tail away.

[49]

[ToxicShadow]

Pulling at it was simply all in vain. No matter how much the Kuhna pulled on her tail, it refused to budge from under the crafted stone. It wasn't very common that Ferimia would let emotions get the better of her, certainly more of a silent and keep to herself. Now, however, she was filling with a burning anger. Not at Anthony, not at the inanimate object that wouldn't move, but at herself. How pathetic was it that this would happen to her? Plenty enough for her to be very much displeased at the event. And in return to all of that, her getting upset about it made it even more worse. The cycle wouldn't end.

She was forced to watch as the Doom Kitty moved to assist her, just like she didn't want. Now she was causing trouble. It was rather hard to look like you could take care of yourself, which she could and was determined to still hold it true, when you left yourself fall into these seemingly helpless situations.

None the less, as the male feline lifted the pillar, merely an inch or two from the ground it crumbled onto, her tail pulled loose. She tumbled back onto her rear, quick to hold the damaged limb in her forepaws. It stung, she blew on it as if to blow the pain away. It helped. Sorta. With inspection, she found the tail tip pretty much smashed. Luckily enough, bone didn't get too far in the part that caught. Mostly just flesh and muscle. Gross. Under the blue and red fur, her skin had turned a blackish blue. Ow. Not careful, and it hurt worse. Such a great annoyance this would be.

"Note to self...don't get ahead of yourself too much here." She mumbled to herself. She wasn't willing to look at Anthony, still upset that he had to come to her rescue.

[Jaykobell]

Lifting the stone had worked. Even though he wasn't able to completely lift it from the ground, he had managed to lift it high enough for Ferimia to be able to get her tail away from the tight space it was stuck in. Once the Kuhna was out of danger, Anthony dropped the stone, his arms starting to ache already.

He could see (very well) that Ferimia seemed to be upset about what had just happened. He supposed he couldn't blame her. From what he knew, she was a strong and independent female Kuhna who could take care of herself very well, without any problems. Getting help from someone -- especially from a male -- had probably brought up a bad scar. Now, what should he do? He wasn't sure...

Finally, he walked over to her, hesitant. "Ehm..." He paused and rubbed his arm. "Would you prefer going back to your base?" he proposed. "You have a first aid kit back there, right...?"

[50 -- lvl]

[ToxicShadow]

"I don't need it." She insisted after some time of hesitance to speak. What....was wrong with her? She couldn't figure it out. Never before had she been so...what? Moody? She wasn't so used to being around others, admittedly. Most of her time was spent by herself, wrapped up in her own work. There were others that worked with her, yes, but they often had much of the same ideals in regards to how things were done. They kept to themselves just as much as she, unless they had to discuss plans for something. Come to think of it, even as a mother, she was ignorant of her own child because of that. They weren't very close, both doing what they wished. "It wouldn't help now, anyway. No open wound." First aid kits couldn't helped with something that was squashed.

Ferimia shook her head after that and their was something she had to ask, "What are we doing?" Her gaze came to perfectly stare back at Anthony. She'd met a killer, got attacked by another killer, saved and was saved by the first one, twice now, and what? Here they were talking a walk. She had work to do and he...sort of had a life to figure out. Weren't they both interfering with each other's needs? As intelligent as she was, she couldn't figure out what reason they had for...sticking together. But...didn't she? Did she like him? Even if she knew of normal emotions better, it didn't mean she could recognize her own so clearly. The concept of love was obviously something she ignored in herself, so caught up in her dedication to every thing else.

[Jaykobell]

True enough, the first aid kit wouldn't help much in this situation. How useless was he right now? He just now realized how stupid it had been to propose using a first aid kit when Ferimia wasn't suffering from any scratches or bleeding injuries. Her tail was squashed... what was he supposed to do now? He wasn't a doctor, nor a surgeon, nor... anyone related to medicine, for that matter. What was he supposed to do? Argh... first, he should stop asking himself the very same question repeatedly. He should... start thinking about something useful, for one. "I... guess so," he replied about the first aid kit, rubbing his head with a paw. He looked so stupid.

"What are we doing?" he echoed, blinking as their eyes met. They were taking a walk, right? They were just discussing as friends, right? ... Friends? Now that was amusing... friends. "We're... We're..." He couldn't find anything that would describe the situation correctly. He swallowed. "We're... talking? And... getting to know each other better?" Wow. That sounded so... friendly. So unusual. "I mean, okay, the introduction was sort of... sudden," he continued, "but I guess things turned around a bit... And then we sort of got along, helping each out somewhat." He didn't really know what to say. That was... awkward.

[51]

[ToxicShadow]

It wasn't meant to make Anthony feel stupid, her objection at the use for the first aid kit. Nor was her next question's purpose to make him feel awkward. Was it unusual that she wanted to know? Ferimia didn't think so. She wanted information, someone's opinion, so she asked for that. Much easier then not asking and waiting around for it to be answered. Holding the belief that the Doom Kitty would say, it just made it all that much easier.

As she awaited the answer, the Common Kuhna licked at her tail, soothing it that way as best she could. It was luck, that the tip hadn't fallen off. She heard of cases in which that happened, if a Kuhna got their tail jammed in a door or something of the same like. Ears flicked, showing that she was still listening even as she was tending her injury.

Barely able to wait as she did, she laughed at the end, quickly leaning backward onto her back feet, standing, with a front paw over her mouth from her outburst. Her small frame shook as she made the attempt to choke down her chuckling. It wasn't what he said that was funny, it was...everything. Once she got herself composed, she asked for her outburst to be excused. "Sorry. It's all just...ironic." She'd lowered back to fours suddenly, and started walking circles around the male, keeping eye contact as best she could as she did. Her eyes held hints of curiosity, yet warm nature. No, she wasn't about to attack him.
"You came here, not remembering who you are. Through the onslaught from that B2, you remember. And yet, here we are. So simply. You didn't want me to venture here myself, with reason, it seems." For she'd still be stuck, had it not been for him. "But don't you have better things to do? You can't very well think you're going to protect me, when you have other things to do." What point was she making? "See, I don't really know myself." Her tails flicked, and she came to a stop directly in front of him. "I prefer keeping to myself, yet am compelled to stay. Not here, but in your company."

[Jaykobell]

At the mention of 'better things to do,' his mind drew a big wide blank. Something to do... did he have anything important to do? At first, he thought about going after that Rabbot to give it a piece of his mind; and a piece of his claws. But then he figured it wasn't worth the bother. If he would need to go after the B2, then time would tell him when to go. But right now, he knew there was nothing important that he needed to do. Not now. Maybe he did have something to do; but whenever he'd look at the Common Kuhna in front of him, his mind drew another blank. No, he had nothing better to do... than stay with Ferimia and make sure she was safe. As for the outburst of laughter, he didn't mind it so much. "No... I don't have anything to do," Anthony meowed, his eyes blinking slowly as he thought about this more. With what he was going to say next, he was well-aware he was going to shoot a bullet in his paw. "Ferimia... Earlier, while I was dreaming..." He didn't know if she still remembered that dream. Still, he'd continue on. "I refused to say anything about it because I imagined you'd get upset or insecure. When I asked what dreams were about? It's because I had just dreamed of... something... No, not something... someone," he continued, his voice getting more and more hesitant to come out of his mouth. "I refused to tell because... because..." He swallowed uncomfortably. It seemed so easy, and yet it was so hard. "I dreamed about you," he finally blurted out, blinking his eyes. "You were in that dream. You were the only one in it. The sky was blue, white clouds drifting over it... The sun was shining... your pelt was as white as snow, your stripes were shining from the sunlight... You were smiling, as well... And you had your glasses..." A pause. "I'm not sure if it was a dream or not... But I know that, if it wasn't a dream, that it was an image of you that my mind created. Now that we seem to be... able to get along, I thought it'd be the time to tell you." Had it been her last comment that made him think about that old issue again? He was one to keep to himself as well, yes, but she felt like a reliable source, someone you can trust and rely on. Thus, he wasn't against the idea of telling her things. It even made him feel... free.

[52]

[ToxicShadow]

The Kuhna's ears flicked and became erect, pointing at Anthony when he brought up the topic of his dream and, for one of the very few times, directly addressing her as he spoke. She remembered when he brought up dreaming, wanting to know what dreams were, perhaps what they meant, and avoiding the question of why he wanted to know when she had asked. At the time, she provided the answer for him, but remained curious as to why he wanted to know. Now, she sat back and listened attentively, very much interested and curious as to what he was going to say. Something told her that it just might be important.

Her posture was straight and perfect as she sat down to listen, both of her tails, damaged or not, laid over her forepaws. Quite composed. Perhaps her sudden change was an unusual one, but he appeared to be having a small bit of difficulty with whatever he was getting at, so...she wanted him to know she really was paying attention and giving him full consideration. Without her realizing it, she tilted her head slightly to one side, by the time he was making the correction: "something... No, not something... someone," She didn't even realize...

Ferimia was indeed taken aback, pulling her head back with a startled, confused and almost questioning look. Out of everything, she hadn't expected to hear him say...that. After blinking a few times, her expression went away from the startled look, and her mind had her considering quite a few things, silently. It was almost ironic, is dream...image, whatever it was; a daydream, most likely. But her fur wasn't white any more, but dulled down from the blood stains, one of her tails thinned out after fur was ripped out when she had tried to tug it free. The skin there was an ugly black and blue shade, showing gray through the white fur. She didn't even have her glasses anymore, as they had gotten broken. She was in quite a pitiful state, wasn't she? She found herself looking down, hoping that it only looked like she was thinking, instead of being embarrassed. Why the heck was she embarrassed? That just wasn't her ways!
Some part of the Kuhna was thankful about what he said, that he was sharing things with her, but another was fretting over that silly girl-ish-ness of a male having been daydreaming about her. Gah! Since when was she even...girlie? Girl-ish whims weren't her things either.

"Er...Th-thanks for telling me...the truth." But did it mean anything? Maybe she retained intelligence of just about everything else, but she was ignorant of things like this, when coming to her own self. "Finally, yanno." She looked up with only her eyes and smiled a bit, to reassure him that speaking wasn't so bad. "It's just a little sad, I'm nothing like you imagined." Referring to how she looked. The writer was rather geeky, even, too. The glasses, the bookworm habits. Heh. Self esteem issues on that subject, maybe.

[Jaykobell]

Anthony tilted his head. Well, she had stammered just now, but she hadn't ran away or anything of the like... so he figured he hadn't said anything stupid or scary, in the end. That fact made him relax big time.

He brought a paw to his chin, and his thin whiskers twitched slightly. "Well... I guess," he meowed back to her, stretching his neck forward a little. "Sure, you're a bit covered in blood, your glasses are broken, your tails are damaged..." He paused for a little while and just stared in Ferimia's eyes, saying nothing else. "But still. Watch this pelt, get your tails back in shape... And get a brand new pair of glasses, and you'd be just as..." He stopped there again, looking up with an eye half-closed, the Doom Kitty now deep in thoughts. He hesitated, and then replied, "... Beautiful? I guess that's the word I wanted...", nodding. "As for telling the truth... I'm just... not used to being open to others." His tail flickered about nervously. "I don't socialize with a lot of people..."

[53]

[ToxicShadow]

Ferimia's head rose up from its gaze on the floor, continuing to listen...Her tails, now, freely flicked about. "Of course not." She laughed a little, lightly, instead of lingering on other things or complaining. "It's more then a little obvious that you aren't social..." He didn't even have to say it. The experiences they had thus far was enough given information on that subject.

Yet, again, however, when back tracking over his words in order to continue her response, she got that little unsettling feeling again. Like her body wanted her to blush, but she just wouldn't listen to it.

Anthony wasn't very social and, neither was she, in all reality. Better than he was, it seemed, but still not that great. Any geeky, bookworm type person who locked themselves up away from the world...yea, did you really think they'd be good in awkward positions, just by nature? You could very well know what was the best way to act, but it didn't mean that you always could.
"Er...yea...thank you....I guess." She made a funny face, trying to comprehend someone even thinking her to be beautiful. It was a little difficult not to laugh again. Maybe being around people with a more noticeable beauty subconsciously affected her? Either way, she suddenly moved forward and licked the Doom Kitty's cheek gently, to further thank him, for helping her, the compliment, and deciding to let her know what he was thinking. "All I can be is thankful that you're willing to actually speak to me, all things considered."