Blood, Bone and Pretty Clothes

It was a bright and sunny day in Dracotalon. Lateia, the priestess kirin had agreed to take a couple of foreigners with her on a hunt, to show them a bit of what their culture was like and hopefully bring them all a bit closer as a society. One of them was a human, a bipedal creature and a swell mage apparently. The other was a crystal pony. She imagined she was probably unfamiliar with hunting, so she had made an effort to explain what they would be doing as clearly as she could, without sounding condescending of course. And what they would be doing was going to hunt down some Plains Lizards, a large pest that tended to trample through crops and eat them up as well. They were like regular lizards, but instead of a scaly hide, they had furred, leathery skin to keep them warm in the cooler parts of the year. And once they had grabbed one each, they would make something from the body parts! What fun!

Lateia turns to her two companions, looking at them with her blue eyes. She herself wore gauntlets decorated with bones on her legs, keeping her clawed paws free. Her one sleeved robe was kept short enough to be out of the way, and the few piercings in her ears reflected a bit of sun. "Alright, are you both ready?" She says, pulling a small bundle of spears from her back, offering the first one to Castle, and the next to Pyro, keeping the lasr one for herself.

Castle grins, taking the spear eagerly. A crow sits on her shoulder, cawing with approval. She had, not to put too fine a point on it, been a little offended. She understood that hunting here was likely a bit different, but to be treated as though she had no knowledge of killing things seemed a bit rude. No reason to make a fuss over it though. She nods to a few of the birds in the sky, as they caw down to her a description of any creatures visible form a Birdseye view, and their relative distance to the group.

pyro took the spear with intrest and said "ready as ever madam, so these Lizards wont offer much of recistance i presume?" he asked, making some moves with the spear to get used to handling it, even spining it above him carefully as he looked over att castle "say, whats with that Crow on your shoulder? is it tamed?" he asked

Lateia grinned at Pyro and stuck the blunt wnd of her spear in the ground. "Not exactly~." She says. "These things are pretty mean. They have to be to want to mess with our crops. They're about as tall as a lion, only they've got bad attatudes. We usually send larger hunting parties to take out groups of them, but we'll be going aftet a smaller group that was tracked down to the southwest."

She nods to the two of them and turns around. "If you're both ready, let's get started!" She says excitedly, starting to run off towards the southwest.

pyro nodded and followed lateia's lead towards the lizard pack to the southwest pondering on how much of a challange they would pose "there arent any special restrictions on hunting these lizards is there?" he asked wanting to show off his abilities, though he did ogle on lateia and her features bit as she is the first kirin he has formaly met, even the dracotalon area is compleatly new to him, his exitement very clearly vissible on his face.

on thier run to the lizard pack, he would very occationaly jump and strike his spear in the air, training on the go, even spining it above his head so fast like a helicopter's blade that he would even hover along together with the group with the help of magic.

Lateia had her own spear layed over back as she led the way through the grasslands. Aftet a while of travel, she got into a low crouch as she could see a small group of the lizards. "There they are." She says, creeping up on them. Her steps were quiet and careful, avoiding anything that would make a noise. "Remember, a quick, clean kill is better."

pyro nods as he sneaked upp with lateia "so, aim on thier head i suppose?" he asked as he glanced att the group of lizards, his spear ready for the hunt

Lateia shook her head and pointed to a spot on her neck. "Right about here." She says. "That's the best spot if you can get it." She says, turning back to the group and readying her spear. "Alright... Let's go!" She says, suddenly leaping up and spreading her wings, taking off towards the group of lizards.

pyro got upp fast and tried his best to keep upp with the fast flying lateia, his spear ready to strike as he closed the distance to the Lizard Group, targeting a slightly lone one as he prepeard to jump above it to strike his spear on its neck "here it comes!"

The lizards would scatter as the pair revealed themselves suddenly, Lateia would chase down her own target while Pyro took his. However, the lizard wasn't about to give up without a fight! It reared back and roared at Pyro, charging him with sharp teeth.

pyro saw the lizzard charging towards him, and when he was close enough, he thrusts his spear into the ground and used it to propel himself into the air and took his spear with him from the ground as he was above the lizzard, aiming att its neck as he held his spear for a quick precise kill

((Switching to anthro for preference sake))

Pyro's spear would strike true, landing straight in the beasts neck and making it squeal in pain before it fell to the ground and bled out. Lateia would soon return to Pyro's side, dragging her kill behind her with some effort. "Good job!" She says, patting him on the back. "Quick and clean. You're a natural." She praises, kneeling by the kill and pulling a knife, handing it over to Pyro. "Here. We should show thanks for our bounty."

With the killing strike achived, pyro released the spear from his grip as he got off the lizzard as its life drained away, death was something he tried to keep to a very minimum with his runic abilities, oppting to only knock out his targets when ever its possible, but since he wanted to give a good first inpressesion on the kirins, he simply had to do it, for whats it worth, he was helping removing the pests of the kirins and it was, thank god, only a simple beast.

His little moment of thinking ended as lateia came over with her kill and praised him för his kill but when she gave a knife to him, he asked "how are we going to show our thanks exactly? "

Lateia smiled and explained to Pyro as easily as she could, while driving her blade deep into the chest of the lizard and began to cut it open.. "To show our thanks to the mother for this bounty, and our respect to it as well, we consume the very source of their life essence. The heart."

Pyro looked a bit green as he saw her cut open the lizzard with the knife, feeling light headed as he saw the insides, but as lateia said that to thank thier mother and respect to the hunt was to eat the heart of the lizzard, that made him feel slightly sick and worse "d-do i have to eat it too. ..?" He asked with a hint of fear and a hint of disgust

Lateia was about to respond that, of course Pyro shpuld eat the heart! But, upon seeing his reaction to the idea, and recalling that he wasn't a kirin, she decided that maybe it would be fine if he didn't. "Heheh, don't worry. You don't have to." She says. Maybe she would wait until she was back home to do hers as well. "Let's head back, then I can show you what we do with the rest of it." She says, picking up her kill with strong arms and slinging it over her shoulders.

pyro nodded with a sigh of relief "ok then, im right behind you" he said and, while not being to strong normaly, he used a strenght boster rune to pick upp his kill in a similar manner like lateia as they are carrying thier bounty back to dracotalon "im sorry i wasint realy willing to eat the lizzard's heart, im not realy used to seeing the insides of the dead or living things"

Lateia patted Pyro's shoulder, or at least attempted to, with the beast on his back. "It's alright. That's more of a kirin thing anyway." She says. While they walk back, she keeps lighthearted conversation, just talking about stuff as they made their way back to the city.

They would walk past the large iron gates, guarded at all times by at least two well armed kirin. The city was largely made of intricate stone and metal, little wood would be found in the workings of their architecture. The streets would also be surprisingly crowded, with kirin both working and buying from the many shops and vendors. "Here we are." Lateia states, leading the way into an extravagant temple.

She walked through the metal doors, designed with dragons and intricate patterns in gold and steel. The inside was lined with fanciful curtains and tapestries, all depicting flame or draconic images. The floor was a fine stone, layed with skill. She led Pyro to a room that smelled of iron and blood, a butcher room where a kirin was just finishing up with some bones. Lateia set her animal on the table and had a quick exchange with the male, after which he gladly got to work, grabbing a knife of his own and cutting the animal open down the belly without a second thought, letting the entrails spill out onto the table.

Pyro was in awe as he saw the city of dracotalon as he and lateia where approaching the gate to the city and he Eyed the armored guards and thier armaments with intrests and as they enterd the city, he looked around in amazement att the kirins and thier buildings as he follwed lateia "this is amazing! " he exclamed as they reached the extravagant temple of the city

once in the temple, he looked around att the ornaments and tapestries as he follwed lateia while carrying his kill to a room with a smell that he found alarmingly familiar and as he understod it was a butcher room, he grew slightly green as he smelled the life liquid so clearly and as lateia give her kill to the other kirin there, and when he saw the male kirin cut open the lizzard and its insides spill out, he immidetly became nauseous and said " Oh god no.....*hurk!*" felling ill as he saw that and laid down his kill and stumbled out to the middle of the temple before he fell on his back as a red gem rune with a fire icon on it clatterd out of him.

Lateia giggled as Pyro ran out of the room, staying behind herself while the butcher skinned the animals and pulled the meat from the bones. After a good while, Lateia would meet Pyro outside of the room, carrying two large pelts and a sack of bones. All of which would be used in one way or another. She pats him on the shoulder. "Hey, your ready for the next part?" She asks, hefting up the sack of bones and offering them to Pyro to carry.

Pyro was resting on a seat after he got upp from the floor and picked upp his fire rune and used it lightly, a light ember engufed his other hand as he calmed himself down by watching the Little flame dancing around his hand.

When he felt better he then snuffed out the flame on his hand and put the rune away in his rune pouch hanging on his side as he saw lateia come over to him, carrying a sack of bones and 2 large pelts and responded "huh? oh yea, im ready, what will we do now?" he asked as he took the sack of bones, just glad that the bones are Clean now, untill he asked lateia "do you have a family here?"

Lateia led the way down the hall, throwing the pelts over her shoulder. "Now I get to show you what we do with this stuff!" She says giddily. "All of it gets used for something. The meat for eating, the entrails for medicine and other things, the bones for weapons and some jewelry, and the pelts for clothing!"

She looks at him curiously at Pyro when she asks about her family. "I've got four young fillies and a colt. All of them born at the same time. Oh, I love them dearly~."

pyro was quite intruiged that they used everything of what they hunted and not waste anything, though he wonderd how they made weapons out of bone and said "what weapons do you actualy make from lizzard bone? and it sounds like you got quite the family, but where are we going if you dont mind me asking?"

"Mostly we make spears and some tools with the bones, but a lot of it goes to jewelry as well." Lateia explains, turning a corner. "Quite the family... Yes, though they can be quite the handful." She giggles and thinks fondly of her fledglings, hoping they aren't causing too much trouble at home. "And right now we're headed to see the temple's tailor. We're lucky to have her. She's very skilled. She leads him through a much nicer set of doors, this room being much less vomit inducing, with pretty curtains and stylish spools of thread and rolls of silk, leather and other cloths. Aside from that were pieces of gold and silver, intricately designed with gemstones sitting aside just waiting to be placed.

While lateia explained the stuff they used the lizzard bones for and her quite big family of five Children, pyro was looking around in the coridor while folowing her to Another Place in the temple and as lateia said that they where going to the tailor of the temple, he ponderd if the tailor worked only on ceremonial clothing or if she could do casual clothing aswell with how skilled lateia says the tailor is.

As they enterd the tailoring room, he was glad that it was much nicer here than in the butchery, eyeing on all the pretty curtains and stylish spools of thread and rolls of silk, leather and other cloths laying around inside the room "this certanly looks much nicer here", though his intrests Went for a moment to the silver and gold pieces with the gemstones laying nearby, "must be hard getting all this material to do all of this fancy clothing".