[kabuto_rocks]

Cairn moved through the fog near-silently, the only noise coming from the faint crunch of his footsteps on the ground. He knew he was going to have to work on that. He was going to have to work on a lot of things. That was partially the reason he was here so early, in order to better prepare himself for training that day. At first it had seemed easy-he'd been so full of confidence, so sure that killing was something he could do well. Now that confidence had faded a little. The other people he had met were already so talented, and while he wasn't the type to give up easily he did feel a little disheartened. It was not a feeling he enjoyed. If he ever wanted to be a truly talented assassin then he was going to have to nip emotions like that in the bud.

Eventually he reached what seemed like a good place to stop, somewhere not quite as shaded with a bit more space than the rest of the forest. Once there he began to stretch out self-consciously, trying to get himself in the correct mindset. To be honest, the thought of taking a life had never bothered him as much as some seemed to think it should. It was more the worry that he wouldn't be good at it, that he would slip up that plagued him. After all, killing someone was easy. It was getting close enough to someone to do it which was the real problem

{1/5, 1}

[Feint]

1

Akuyaku leapt from tree to tree like a squirrel, careful to avoid situations where she would need to flip to gain some extra altitude. She did run into some, predictably, but she couldn't forgive that for long. Her mentors back at the dojo had given her frightfully low scores for the attention she attracted making those flips, fun and graceful as they were. They were so low, in fact, that she had only narrowly avoided punishment. Her insides squirmed at the thought. Giving corporal punishment to other people was fun, but she hated having it done to herself. She couldn't understand how some people earned it deliberately to go play hookie or something equally ludicrous.

On her third flip, she decided to stop. Clearly the subject required some deeper thought. She dangled her scaled legs down to wiggle freely in midair as she rested, chin in hand, when her motion-sensitive eyes triggered on something.

It was not a thing she could see with her eyes alone, so dense was the fog, but there was clearly some motion not too far ahead, on the ground. The tree it was nearest was taller than hers, so she decided to give her idea a shot. Crunch. Well then, a crouched spring was a definite no.

Curiously she peered out from the branches, shrouded by pine needles. The fog was somewhat thinner here, so she could actually see the pretty hunter, at least from her bird's eye vantage. In a bit of fun, she flicked a throwing blade at him.

[kabuto_rocks]

Cairn was just about to go through his paces when he heard a noise. His footfall might require a little work, but his hearing had always been excellent. This sound was unusual though and he couldn't quite place it straight away. A kind of whooshing-a bird perhaps?

He realized just in time what the noise really was. Jumping quickly to the left, he ducked down his head and watched in amazement as the blade flew straight over him. It was so close he almost felt it graze his stone coat. Once it had passed his head snapped back up, furious. Who the heck had thrown that?

"Show yourself!" He demanded, eyes scanning the trees. Why did it have to be so foggy anyway? It probably wasn't the best idea to come here so early. He doubted that whoever had thrown the weapon meant him any serious harm (then again, you never could tell what with the crowd he hung out with) but his pride was wounded. It never should have taken him that long to realise what was happening, and he was angry with himself for the delay. Naturally he preferred to direct that anger at someone else

{2/5, 2}

[Feint]

2

Giggling uncontrollably, hard enough to summon tears in a creature that cried, Akuyaku seized the branch she was standing on in her front talons and did one of her favorite flips to the ground. She sat down when she had landed, to show she meant him no harm, but doing so gave her the urge to tear up undergrowth like a child--which, of course, she happily did, still giggling and snorting.

"H-hi! Goooood morniiiing!" she said in a sing-songy voice, "I nearly got youuu!" She was practically rocking, barely able to breathe. In a fit of passion, she flicked some of her shredded undergrowth into the air, squealing, "Wheeee!"

One might wonder why she was so freely making noise, but one must consider how early it really was. Most, if not closer to all, of the dojo students were back in Medicai, eating breakfast and studying anatomy before taking their skills to the stuffed dummies. Not many people were in Whisper Forest to practice their agility or assassinry at this hour--most preferred the comfort of night for that sort of thing, since very few people in the market world hunted during broad daylight anyway.

Akuyaku knew this very well, and so felt perfectly comfortable making all the noise in the world. Whether she would regret this lives to be said, but at the moment, she was content ripping up lichen and throwing it into the air.

[kabuto_rocks]

The Hunter's eyes narrowed when he saw his attacker, dropping neatly from the trees like an acrobat. Although he would never admit it, such a gesture did make him more than a bit envious. While he had been told countless times at the dojo that each student had their own individual strengths, it did look like a lot of fun to be able to leap and bound about so easily. Of course, this jealousy did nothing to ease his irritation.

"Did not!" He growled, although even he knew it was pointless to deny the fact, "What are you doing here anyway? Except for blowing our cover." He doubted that many other people would choose to go this deep into the forest so early in the morning, but you could never be too careful. Cairn had been planning to do a bit of quiet training with the intention of leaving before he ran into anyone else, but clearly that plan was now spoilt. Then again, he supposed he should see this as a good thing. At least it had told him that he needed to be more aware of his surroundings

{3/5, 3}

[Feint]

3

"Did too!" she argued back, panting and finally relaxed. A piece of the undergrowth that she had flung had landed in her eye, causing sharp pains and sucking all desire to continue being immature straight out of her being. Gingerly she patted the eye, hoping to encourage the twigs from injuring it further, but without the aid of eyelids or tears, the bitter feeling that she might have to accept the fact that she would be aching for quite a while gnawed its way in. She took the opportunity to practice her stone face, leaving the only indications that she was in pain as her hand to her eye and her sudden change in mood. "I'm here for agility practice--I need to better my leaps and noise levels, specifically. I felt it would be too difficult with the usual nighttime competition. You?" she asked, not really curious but hoping to prolong the conversation for a chance at a sparring match. Students were so much more lively (and squeaky) than a practice dummy.

[kabuto_rocks]

He'd noted her change in mood with some bemusement, not really sure if it was his comment which had caused it or something else. He suspected the latter, particularly when she put her hand to her eye. It looked like perhaps she had caught it by accident and he hesitated, unsure whether to ask if she was okay or not. In the end he decided it was probably best not too. Assassins tended to take those kind of comments as insults, and while a fight would be good for his training he would prefer it not to be a serious one.

"Same actually. My footfall isn't...great," he skirted over the comment, not wanting to appear weak himself, "Besides, it's hard to hear that kind of thing when there are a lot of other students around." He glanced at her curiously, an idea popping into his head. He wasn't entirely sure how well she'd take it but it couldn't hurt to ask right?

"Perhaps it would be beneficial if we trained together."

{4/5, 4}

[Feint]

4 (repost)

Internally, she both squealed and balked. It wasn't often that she kept company, much less on a non-hostile level, and while she would love to have someone to talk to and spar with... she really preferred a more limited scale of interaction. Having someone in her hair for the entire day sounded like a tremendous waste of time.

At that moment, the splinter dropped out of her eye in a painfully burning relief. Despite herself, she cracked a smile... Oops. Such a gesture could easily be taken for an invitation, so she was stuck now. Instead of pushing the hunter away in a last ditch effort to save her solitude, she trusted the impulse to roll with it.

"One way to find out!" she cackled, and was back up onto the high branch in no time. With a soft crunch, she sprang away, beginning a zigzag loop around the treetops to first lose the hunter, then swing in behind or beside him to attack. Nothing quite brought out the talent in people like adrenaline.