[Redd]

Why any normal person would want to travel to the Dead Coast was beyond Arensis. It was desolate, lifeless and wild. It was just an uninteresting salt dump. Sure, there was little gimmicky tourist places in the habitable areas, but in the uninhabitable areas, maybe an artist or photographer might be able to find some beauty in the wild landscape, but to Arensis it was drab.
And an excellent place to set up their smugglers den.

Both Aren and Kasse ran a small smugglers den together, where they'd trade slaves to pirates for various trinkets that their clients wanted. What made a slave? Some poor hapless adventurer who happened to get too close to the den.
Clients contacted their 'ambassadors' in various cities around the country, as to what they wanted in particular, then the Smugglers negotiated a deal with the pirates; X amount of 'slaves' for the particular item.
At the moment, the gang was behind schedule so Kasse had proposed that the gang split up and search the countryside a little more thoroughly, even creeping into town if they had too. It was simple to split them up, just put those with stealth with those who had strength, and put the Alder Kuhna as a lookout.

Aren lept down from one pile of salt down onto the sand, wincing as his mechanics groaned. Kasse neatly lept down after him, with a concerned look on her face.
"Aren... are you really up to this?" Her tone was concerned but her face almost held a mocking edge to it.
Aren just growled moodily at her. His internal mechanisms weren't really up to the salty environments of the Dead Coast, unlike the newer more advanced Rabbot. And Kasse rubbed it in his face whenever she had the chance to.
Kasse noted the expression on his face and just laughed, making sure she was out of biting range- despite having rusty gears, he was still able to move at lightening speed. The Tasmanian Devil Mekkayena just ignored her, stalking across the sand moodily and raising his snout to sniff for anything, that could be handed over to Rysk and her gang.

[1,1]

[Jaykobell]

To be honest, picking salt wasn't the most profitable activity. Since the Dead Coast already had a lot of salt, selling it to this port city was meaningless. Only the tourists were interested, so they could get a 'souvenir' for their family members, or something like that. She absolutely hated it when she was sent here to pick up salt. Since that accident a few... years ago, she'd never really gotten her confidence enough to go back on a ship. All she could bear nowadays was taking a swim and fishing, and other small activities. But setting out on a boat was still too stressful for her, so she was left with those bad, uninteresting, and boring tasks. She didn't like how she'd been replaced in her little gang — which wasn't much of a gang to begin with, considering they were all scattered — now the second and not the leader. How insulting was that? So instead of taking it, Cortez just disobeyed most orders from the new leader, and did whatever she wanted instead. This often got her in trouble, but hey, whatever.

So for the past hours, she'd been busy fishing, both from the traditional method, with a fishing line and bait, and also from taking a swim underwater and catching the fish with her bare teeth. And after a few hours of fishing, she'd gotten a good amount of fish to sell. So long as she got money for the gang, really, it didn't matter what she sold. And so, with her net full of fish, off she went along the beach, pulling the net with her teeth. The salt felt no different from sand under her paws at this point, and walking on an uneven terrain didn't seem to bother her, since she was so used to it.

And it was right when she was about to go back to the city that she noticed those two pets along the shore. A Mekkayena, and a Rabbot, to be precise. Hmm, maybe the first customers she could get? The more fish she sold, the better! They were both robotic pets, so water probably wasn't their best friend. And so she skipped ahead toward Arensis and Kasse, dragging that net still. She let go and sat on it before communicating. "Hey, you guys! I've got some first-rate fish here, right here," she proposed, pointing a claw towards the net full of fish. "Interested?"

[Redd]

Kasse's ears swiveled around suddenly, focusing on a noise. "Hey, y'hear that?" She said, tweaking Aren's ear slightly.
Aren growled in annoyance and shook his head. "Course not. Not with some great lout like you pulling on my ear like that." But he did both hear something other than the shrieking of gulls and smell something, like Kuhna mingled with salt and fish.

Well, it seemed like whatever it was, was headed straight for them! Aren turned around to face the little Kuhna, she certainly was a bubbly little one, but he had never seen a Kuhna like her. Perhaps she could fetch a higher price than an ordinary pet!
"Oh, look Aren. That's something we aren't able to eat too often." Kasse said, a charming smile alighting her face. "We'd love to buy some off you. Aren over here isn't what he used to be, so we don't see fish too much at all. Thing is, we left our money in our boat. We're mighty careful around here, thieves and stuff y'know? Do you mind coming back with us so we can pay you? It's just around the corner from here."
As she spoke, she gestured around the corner, where there was a little narrow passage between two outcrops of rock, where indeed their boat was hidden.

Aren didn't need to look at Kasse to tell that she was thinking exactly the same thing either. Though, he was doubtful that the Kuhna would buy the bait. Parent these days always lecturing their kids not to talk to strangers, and especially not to follow strangers around. Well, if she refused, there was always Plan B.

[Jaykobell]

A Kuhna like no other, Cortez was mostly characterized by the bunch of accessories she was wearing, and one had to wonder how so many things could fit on a Kuhna. Diving googles around her neck; a fish line, with a little plastic fish for bait, tied around one of her tails; the pink-and-white bandana; and not to mention the other little quirks, like the tuffs of fur that stuck out at her shoulders, and the deep scar over her eye, which even seemed to break through the eye itself. And then, past that, was just the irregular colors of her fur. But despite her Kuhna-size, she was more than meets the eye, which was really the only reason why she could still do anything within the gang, and why they hadn't kicked her out or abused her yet.

And she had been right, too. Obviously, those guys didn't get to eat fish all that often. Score! Maybe she could screw them over the price a little, heeheeh. Maybe this was her lucky day. And from what she could tell, the Mekka was a male, and the Rabbot a female. Hmmm. You had to wonder how robots could get genders, but hmm. Better not dwell on it too much. "Ooh, I see, I see," she replied about them not seeing fish too often due to the Mekka. Old bugger, eh? "Hahah, I hear you. This place is really favored by pirates and stuff. So gotta get ready to swipe their face if they try to rip you off. I totally do the same thing, keeping my savings elsewhere." What a hypocrite; she was the one trying to rip them off. But they didn't need to know that, now, did they? "Oh. Yah, sure, it's cool. I'll come along." Behind that girly, but tomboyish exterior, was one major problem with Cortez: she was extremely gullible, and she had the dangerous habit of trusting people too quickly. "You lead the way then," she meowed before getting up and picking the net between her teeth again, ready to drag it along. If she didn't believe their little 'honest' story, nothing indicated it, but from the looks of it, she really did catch their bait.

[ It's an old picture, but it gets the message across. x3 ]

[Redd]

Kasse bounced forward enthusiastically, almost like a kangaroo, just without as much momentum. Kasse wasn't interested in the fish at all. She was one of those new rabbots; the ones with all the fancy upgrades and paints and her exterior was made with a kind of fiberglass like a boat, so she was free to swim whenever she so choose to.
Aren, being a Mekka wasn't so lucky. Mekkayena's were like prototypes, so they had an assortment of issues, and glitches in their systems. Plus they lived up in the mountains were factors such as water and salt weren't an issue.

As far as looks went, Aren was not your average Mekkayena either. He was quite small for a Mekkayena (he was only just slightly larger than a Tavil), but he could still deliver a powerful bite all the same. All his external mechanisms showed no signs of rust or wear, but as he moved around, if one listened hard enough, you could hear the whirring and grinding of gears and the scraping of metal plates. The sea salt had definitely gotten to Aren, but there wasn't much he could do about it. It didn't hurt him at all, it just made him rather stiff.

"Yeah~ Pirates around here are hard and tough. They like to mess with your head. I don't know how many we've had to fight off over the years. See, they've grown kinda wily. They stalk you for a while, make you feel paranoid, then they attack you the moment you let your guard down." Kasse rambled.The first part was true; the pirates did love to mess with people's head and they were tough, but the second part was referring to the smugglers. "They've picked up that we aren't to be messed with however. Well... they still go for Aren when he's alone, but generally I'm not too far off."
Aren let Kasse lead the Kuhna to the boat, hanging back a little. He swung his head around, looking around for the little Alder Kuhna who kept a look out. Once he had caught the Alder's eyes, he flashed them twice, before sauntering on. The signal was just to say that they had caught something, so the little Kuhna could mark another slave off the tally.

[Jaykobell]

Kasse, the Rabbot, seemed to be in charge of this conversation, and so Cortez just listened to the Rabbot, leaving the Mekkayena to have fun with the salt. She didn't even bother to take a look every now and then, not very concerned about him. Oh, she had Mekkas before, with their snapping jaws and their powerful bites, but she wasn't a pushover. She wasn't worried about getting attacked by this Mekka to begin with, so why worry? All she wanted here was sell fish, and it was going pretty well.

"Hahah, they sure are," Cortez replied about the pirates, giving a grin through the net she was holding. "Some of 'em are pretty reckless, though, and they're easy to send flying. They just go back to their mom to cry." Cortez did like this 'wimpy' appearance of hers. People were always mislead, always thinking that she was only a little damsel in distress, or an easy female prey. Many had learned, rather forcefully, that looks can be deceiving. "S'better to be honest pirates," she meowed as she followed Kasse to their boat. "You still get the reputation, but you're not as bad, so people are cool." Well, sure, sometimes they screwed the rules a little and they tried to screw people over, but. They'd dropped the whole hostage and capturing and stuff a long time ago. It wasn't really worth it anymore. "So what's your deal, hmm? Pirates? Unless you guys are fishermen or something like that. To have a boat and stuff, y'know?" Unless they lived on one of those tiny little boats some people had.

[Redd]

Kasse listened to the little Kuhna's babble with a practiced smile on her face. Her life seemed pretty interesting; how could this Kuhna, who had just before been paddling around in the sea fishing ended up in a gang of... honest pirates? It seemed unlikely, but Kasse knew not to trust people on simple appearances. You had to listen to them talking to get an idea of who they really were.

Honest pirate eh? Kasse had heard talk around the pirate port on the Sa'fir Coast about these 'New Age' pirates. Most found it hard to believe that one could roam around the seas and actually live while following a code, while others reckoned they were a push over. Then there were those who swore that these new guys were just as tough as your average pirate, they just governed themselves differently and therefore had a better success rate that other pirates.

By now, Kasse had led the Kuhna around to their boat, which was cleverly hidden from theives between two rocks. As she reached the boat, she turned and nodded to Aren. If Cortez hadn't noticed anything odd by now, she certainly was in for a ride. Kasse leant over the boat, in search for something, while Aren paced towards the Kuhna, his hackles raised and his fangs bared in an evil snarl.
"Pirates?" The Mekkayena answered. "No. We work with 'em. We're smugglers. We trade with the pirates to please our clients, and it just so happens that our pirates are into the whole 'slaving trade'."

The plan was that while the Kuhna was occupied with the bigger threat, the Mekkayena, Kasse would fish out a hessian bag and pop it over the Kuhna's head. Well that was the general idea anyway.

[Jaykobell]

Cortez just kept on rambling, really, through that net she was carrying. Save for a few shady figures hanging around (some of which she knew, even), there was nothing strange about this whole outing. She was just off to get some cash for her hard work. This Rabbot was nice enough, right? So why be suspicious, right? Cortez was gullible enough to notice nothing out of the ordinary, and it was hard to believe Cortez could be a member of a group of pirates. So gullible, naive, and bubbly, who would think someone like that to be with a gang of tough, macho pirates? But indeed, there can always be more than meets the eye...

Cortez's eyes widened when she saw that boat. "Dang!" She let go of her net, bouncing a few steps ahead to get a look at the boat. "It's been, like, forever since I've seen a real boat, so nice like this," she meowed as she stared at it with a big grin on her face, nostalgic memories welling up inside her. If only she could work up the courage and the guts to get onto a boat again. It wasn't even the seasickness that got to her; it was just this fear of another accident, of similar nature, happening again. She sighed quietly, just experiencing the nostalgy while Kasse went off a little ways away, most likely to get the money for those fish.

And suddenly, she heard that Mekka behind her. More like, she heard the subtle sounds of whirring and clicking, and she turned around to see that black Mekka — whose name she couldn't remember, pfft — behind her, his hackles raised and his teeth shimmering at her. He was obviously positioned to attack her. "Smugglers? You guys are, like, so not in," she meowed, flicking a paw at him. "I mean, anyone can smuggle just fine, so why just stick to that?" Despite that look of surprise when she'd first noticed Aren, now she seemed just fine, talking to him as if he were some kind of delinquent, and she was a bossy neighbor scolding him for stepping on her lawn. "But y'know, if you want to smuggle me or whatever, then you better make me," she warned, raising her own hackles and starting to circle the Mekka; or at least, she stayed on the move. Her claws were sheathed, but that probably wouldn't be the case for long, if they intended on kidnapping her. Or Kuhnapping? Hmm. "Think you can take on a defenseless little Kuhna, Mekka? ... What's your name again?"

[ I'm expecting them to brawl for a bit.. xD I thought about bringing in a friend of Cortez. o Do Would you be okay with that? ]

[Redd]

Kasse dropped the hessian bag back in the small five man boat and glanced interested. She almost bit back a retort. She wouldn't join in their little brawl unless the little feline made a break for it, and she was pretty sure Aren would find her comment just as insulting.

"You think you're funny, don't you cat?" Arensis growled. "I'm not gonna tell you why you're wrong. I promise later, you'll get the full tour later."
He took a step towards the Kuhna, his diminutive size prevented him from completely towering over her but he was slightly taller; that accounted for something, right?
Aren, by nature was lazy and if he could intimidate and bully Cortez into backing down, then he'd try that first. If that didn't work he'd happily resort to attacking and throwing his weight around a little bit.
"I'll take on anyone, defenseless or not." Aren laughed. "The name's Aren, but that won't matter when you're halfway across the Ree'ne Sea."

To be honest, he didn't want to mar the Kuhna too much. Rysk would flay him alive if any of the 'goods' were damaged or needed patching up when they got to the Sa'fir. Although, he didn't think the heartless pirate would be too bothered with the state of the Kuhna. It didn't look like a common coloration at all.
He also wasn't too pleased he had to be dealing with that particular pirate. She'd nominated herself for the job and had threatened and bullied the smugglers into paying her. If anything, he'd rather use trickery or sabotage to wrestle what their client wanted off her but he didn't have the men to do it. It was a rather messy job all in all.

(Yah~ That's fine by me =3 )

[Jaykobell]

Kasse had left Cortez's mind completely. The Rabbot didn't matter anymore; Aren was the one here at the moment, and he was the one she had to focus on. From the looks of it, Kasse was also with that Mekka, so the Rabbot was also a smuggler, involved in this whole trick. If the Rabbot came back, Cortez would have to brawl with both pets. Hopefully, things wouldn't get that bad; or at least, she would have Aren weakened by then. She was pretty confident about beating that Mekkayena, to begin with.

She snorted when he called her 'funny'. But she didn't find the 'cat' name-calling very amusing, and she snorted angrily. "Cat? And you think you're funny, maybe?" Her claws unsheathed as she kept her eyes on Arensis. "I'm far from being wrong. I'll show you just who you've meddled with." Her fur started to bristle, fluffing up and giving Cortez some bulk. She took a step forward when Aren did so, her dark blue eyes string deep into Aren's. "And I'll take anyone on, too; bastard or wimp," she replied to his comment, her tails flicking irritably. Back in the days, pirates respected each other. They were all thieves, they were all as illegal as the others; no one was better, no one was worse. Now, with the new cliques and the new methods, many pirates thought they could just do whatever they wanted. Humph! So many had forgotten the old code, really.

But from the looks of it, she wasn't about to back down from this challenge. With teeth and claws bared, and her fur bristling, she was ready to counterattack.

[Redd]

Aren took a step back and settled on his rump. So the little bugger was going to fight him, she'd made that clear by her actions. He wasn't going to be able to bully her into coming along submissively. So, he'd wait til she came at him, so he'd get a  chance to assess her skill.
His mismatched orange eyes bored into Cortez's, matching her glare. So he had the fish; now to reel her in.
"I guess you'll have to show me that you are worth actually fighting then." He spat, rising again and stepping to one side, as if to circle her.

Kasse had long gone; she didn't want to be in the middle when the brawl started up, so she had made her way around the arguing pair and back at the opening between the two rocks and watched the proceedings with great curiosity. They'd had plenty of fighters, but they'd got most of them. Would this be one of the few that got away?

Aren, suddenly growing bored threw away his previous strategy and charged at the Kuhna, not unlike a bull. He was built heavily, and if he managed to hit the Kuhna he'd do some damage. The Kuhna was equipped with sharp teeth, claws and a lithe body, whilst Aren was only gifted with brute strength, endurance and sharp teeth.
He really did hope that he didn't have to get Kasse in to help.

[Jaykobell]

This wasn't the first time Cortez had gotten into a fight. Some of them had left scars, some hadn't. Some had beaten her, some hadn't. Her small body usually allowed her to escape damage; on the other hand, a few hits were enough to really knock the air out of her, and too many could knock her out. But she knew this was one brawl she couldn't afford to lose; because who knows what would happen to her if she got knocked out by this Mekkayena.

She was ready to start fighting, she was ready to dodge any attack Aran was going to throw at her... Only to see the Mekka sit on his butt. Cortez made a face at him, wondering what the heck he was doing now. Was he just giving up? Or was he trying to trick her? It was hard to tell. Cortez stood as she was, claws unsheathed and tense, but she refused to sit down and lower her guard. And indeed, he wasn't just giving up; she had to prove she was worth fighting? Cortez frowned, lips curling into a snarl. "I should be asking this of you," she snarled at him, her fur starting to bristle again.

But maybe she'd said one word too many, or maybe she'd miscalculated the whole thing; for while she was busy replying to Aran, the Mekkayena had already started charging at her. Blinking, Cortez gasped and gritted her teeth, thinking quickly about what to do now. Dodging is no good; dash ahead, cling to his face. Taking a few steps back, Cortez crouched and ran forward, going to meet Aran face-to-face; calculating this as quickly and as accurately as she could, she bounced, hoping she'd be able to cling to his face and bite him, as well as sink her claws into his flesh. Mekkas had metal bits and pieces; but not their whole body was made of those... as far as Cortez knew.

[Redd]

Aren had plenty of experience fighting, but he didn't usually target others who had experience, or if he did he made sure that they were the easy kind to take down- Normally, they were similar size or larger than him and of the four, six or two legged and no wings variety. This Kuhna was not what he was used to, that's for sure.
Normally, with her kind he'd just intimidate and bully them.

As Aren saw the Kuhna leap at him, he dug his paws into the ground and attempted a skidding halt. Unfortunately the Kuhna hit his face, and unfortunately he was partly made of flesh so when she landed on his face, it hurt.

Arensis glared angrily at the Kuhna for a split second then attempted to dislodge the Kuhna by shaking his head from side to side violently. With any luck, she'd be thrown off and she'd fly into a rock. If luck wasn't looking down on him, she'd hang on and scratch something important off.

[Jaykobell]

[[ I'VE BEEN MISSPELLING HIS NAME ALL THIS TIME. I'm sorry Krypto I love youuuuu. ]]

Had Cortez known Aren was going to try to stop, she would've done the same. Unfortunately, running at full speed as they were, Cortez didn't have enough time to try to stop as well, causing her to keep to her plan. Luckily for her, with Aren stopping in his charge, this allowed her to crash straight into his face (even knocking the wind out of her for a moment), claws and teeth sinking into his flesh as soon as she'd gotten her breath back. She tried to hang on and to focus on bitting him and scratching him with her hind paws, while her forepaws did their best to keep her hanging onto the Mekkayena.

She had barely enough time to start scratching him, that Aren had started to counterattack: by shaking his head violently. Cortez quickly lost her grip on the Mekka, her claws barely hanging on. Eventually, the shake got the better of her, and Cortez was sent flying; literally. Almost sick from being shaken left and right and center, Cortez was too slow to orient herself properly. Whoever said cats always landed back on their paws... Well, unfortunately for Cortez, the myth failed her this time. After being sent flying, Cortez landed on a rock nearby, her side taking the hit. She gasped, feeling her chest tightening from getting the breath knocked out of it, before falling back on the sand. It felt like her side was on fire, pain scorching it like a wild forest fire.  She gritted her teeth, moaning quietly to herself. Her ribs weren't broken, she could tell; it was extremely painful, but nothing compared to the pain of broken bones, which she had had before.

She coughed before turning around and facing Aren again, teeth gritted. "Well...?" she asked, wondering why he wasn't trying to attack more. "We're not done..." Perhaps so, but one could clearly see the injury had left her dizzy slightly. Ugh. Lesson learned: don't hang on when something is trying to shake you off...

[Redd]

(Pfft. It's fine. I didn't even notice so. Homg... I'm sorry about the late reply~<33333 And sorry for the failpost. They're all I can pull out at the moment.))

Aren panted a sigh of relief when the Kuhna was flung off his face, but quickly realised that she had caused some serious damage to his poor face. Blood (or was it the grey fluid) was trickling down and irritating his eyes, blurring his vision slightly.

"Gah...I'm not done until you're right were we want you. In the hold of a slave ship." He growled, shaking his head again in an attempt to get the blood out of his eyes. Good... That's red... not grey. Otherwise I'd be in serious trouble.

Aren stood there and gave a few sharp, short pants before rushing at the Kuhna again, jaws agape and aiming to close over her tails.
Kasse picked up a net similar to a butterfly net, but much larger and carefully started to creep towards the fight. Seriously, this had gone on far too long and they needed all the time they could get.