Not Getting Better

Taylor looked back up to Avira, and cleared her throat once more.

"Ah...I know. They can't do too much damage to me. I just don't have good history with cats. I had a giant Vampiric Cat familiar nearly bite me in half a few months back. And the same creature gave me the scratch up of a life time over a century ago. Cats make me nervous." She explained.

Taylor gave a weak laugh.

The Fae High Courts chasing me, fighting back dragons, taking down vicious bounties, sure, I can deal....but Cats are a different thing all together." she murmured.

Well, since the cat with one eye seemed more....malcious, she decided that the other cat was the 'sweet' once, and decided to try and get over her fears.

hesitantly, she reached out to the white cat and gently rested her hand on the creature's head, fingers stroking the soft fur gently.

She looked back up at Avira.

"She is? So she's been with you for a long time as well?" Taylor asked, relaxing a touch at the feel of soft fur.

Ignis purred, arching up into the petting. She looooved being petted. Spoiled brat of a kitty.

"No." Avira said. "I ah..."

He paused, then decided, what the hell. He needed a confidant, and she was listening.

"Do you know what happened to my family, the Naissance?" he asked.

Taylor shook her head.

"No. Not really. It wasn't my business to nose around someone else's affairs unless they were my next Deader. I only really stuck to mine. I only heard that they were killed." Taylor said relaxing further as the cat responded nicely to her touch.

without thinking too much about the fact it was cat, only thinking that it was one of Gaia's creations, and it was soft, warm, and friendly, she picked up the cat and sat properly so the cat could rest in her lap.

She knew very little about Avira's family. She only knew Rumours, and she never trusted them as more often than not, they were lies that had been spun and set into the world.

Avira sighed and decided to start with the basics.

"The Naissance family," he said. "Were a family of bounty hunters. Our goal was to simply protect the innocent, like the assassino of Italy during the Renaissance. We took in everyone. Humans, werewolves, elves, fae, vampires... So long as they obeyed our family creed, they were a Naissance."

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and continuing.

"I was from the main family. We are noticeable due to our coloring...and it is what made us targets. Human hunters, under the delusion that all of our kind were evil, hunted us down and slaughtered the whole compound. To my knowledge, I am the only survivor."

Taylor nodded.

She'd heard of that before. The Assassin bit.

Taylor had heard of those rumors while she spent a bit of time in Italy, following a target there.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Avira...It must be painful for you..." She murmured.

However, she wouldn't start saying things she didn't mean just to comfort the other or give him false hope that maybe someone from his family was alive.

Taylor simply wasn't like that.

Her lip curled slightly.

"I hate it when Humans make Blanket Assumptions about something and don't research fully. The whole idea about Hunting is knowing your Target...They obviously didn't know enough." Taylor growled softly, her eyes darkening a little.

She hated it because that's what Elves did often...That was how Lycan Slavery came about, how Elves are just a comment away from war with the Fae, how Vampires and Elves are on shakey terms.

It was just something that shouldn't be done.

"It was hard, but what came after was harder." he murmured. "I came to live in an elf village. They were kind to me despite my race, and took me in. However the humans found me and destroyed the village. The few survivors scattered and I ran."

He looked out the window at Shanti, now making a necklace of brightly colored flowers.

"I found myself in India, where I met Shanti. She had a mother, father, grandmother...and an older brother. But I was their bare bha'i. Their big brother. And I failed them. The humans came again and...."

Avira took in a shuddering breath.

"Shanti was saved by an old martial artist and medicine woman. She took her in and gave her an elixir that gives her the immortal life she has now." he looked sad. "But I did not know until she found me again a few months ago. It has been almost three decades..."

Taylor frowned a little.

"So Humans have been hunting you for a long time now. Is it a particular group or something?" She asked, her fingers continuing to stroke the white cat in her arms.

However, her ears tilted back at the mention of an Elixer that granted immortality.

"Was this Woman elven, or Fae? Exliers like that tend to be rgulated heavily by the two races as it's the kind of thing that could cause wars and chaos....imagine no body dying because everyone had had the Elixer." She asked.

Something like that is deadly.

"Human." Avira replied calmly. "As is Shanti. The elixir is only privy to work on students of this particular art, something about relocation of energies...I did not quite understand when it was explained, I will admit. To anyone else however, it would simply be swill."

He noted that Ignis was nothing more than a happy pile of furry goo in Taylor's arms now.

"As for the humans, I do not know. To my knowledge I am something like a rare bird now. Passed by legend from hunter to hunter." he shrugged. "But yes. I was only a hundred when they attacked."

Taylor idly tickled Ignis' tummy as she thought.

"Well...As long as it's regulated, I have no business there...but as an Elf, if it's being given out freely, it'd be my duty to...Clean Up as it were....to maintain a healthy balance." she mumbled "Of course, I wouldn't dream of laying hands on those that it had been given to. There'd be no point. I'd only deal with the person distributing the stuff and the one creating it." she Clarified in case Avi thought she was a threat to Shanti.

She hummed thoughtfully..

"Well, the Humans shouldn't be able to get you here, but if you're experiencing trouble with them again, get in touch with me somehow. I'll come and lend a hand. I'm not an inexperienced Green Horn like some folk here....." She said, scowling as she remembered Drago, Smiling with dark satisfaction as she remembered the Anvil hitting the guy in the back.

"There is nothing to be dealt with. Shanti was the woman's only disciple at the time, and before her there were only three others, all of which are accounted for. You would have to ask Shanti for more information, I do not know it."

He brushed his hair back from his neck. So long as she did not intend to harm Shanti...

She smiled softly as she saw protectiveness.

"No harm will befall the child from me. I have no intention of hurting her. Of that you don't have to worry. I don't make it part of my job to hurt children." She reassured.

She looked out at the girl playing just outside and seeming at ease...it was nice to see something innocent like that.

It was an increasingly rare sight.

Taylor unconsciously placed a hand against her stomach as she remembered past discussions with her old Lover.

Avira noticed her hand and quirked a brow.

"Do you have a family?" he asked softly. Perhaps it was not his place, but he had to ask.

Taylor looked up and blinked.

She looked at where her hand was and blushed a little over the bridge of her nose, thankful her scar hid a majority of it.

"Um...well.....Me and my other half had spoken about the idea....but my Mother took that away from me the day before we were to get married, and the day I was outcast from my Tribe and received three long scars on my back. She killed him in front of me while I was whipped in front of the entire Tribe." She explained sadly, tilting her head to the side a little to lean against the glass. "He was my Soulmate...for Elves, it's very important. Once we find our Soulmate, it's impossible for us to be with anyone else. For him to die....It was like tearing me in two." She murmured, sighing softly as her hand moved unconsciously to clutch at her shirt over her stomach.

The thought was appalling.

"Why would she kill him then? She was your mother. I do not understand."

He seemed honestly confused. For Avira, there was nothing more important, terrifying, or deadly as family.

Taylor was silent for a moment, closing her eyes as memories briefly flashed across her mind.

"I was in her way to Power...She found ways of getting me Outcasted....she hated me through to the Core....She wanted to destroy me because I defied her. She killed my father, she killed a close family friend, she would demean anything I did. She looked down on the fact that I was Head Huntress of my Tribe back in America. She killed him to completely sever me from the Tribe, and leave my space empty for her to take up my Father's position in the Tribe, which was high up in the Grand Council. She just added insult to injury by killing him in front of me. She made sure I was isolated as much as possible...He did the opposite and brought me out of my Shell." Taylor explained.

Her throat seemed to constrict and tighten, and her eyes burned a little as she remembered that day, but she calmed herself again.

"All for power.....It was just so Petty.....When they let me go from the frame I was strapped to while I was whipped, the first thing I did was kill her for everything she did...by that point, she was no longer my mother because she killed her daughter by Killing him." She said with venom, her eyes darkening.

That woman had taken everything from her....everything.

She would never forgive her for that.

Avira feel the hatred curling in his stomach. He sighed softly and turned away. It was not his business.

"Thank you for telling me. I cannot imagine what that would be like...My family were..everything to me. My everything." his eyes grew far away. "I almost died without them. I couldn't bare to go on."

Sometimes it was still hard...But he had Shanti now.

She sighed softly but smiled a little.

"Mine was as well. My father, the friend of my family, and my Lover were my Family. They were my everything. They're still with me, I believe. Spiritualy. Just as i'm sure your family is with you as well. Not only that, we both have new families as well. I have Moe and Zeke, my Brother and Sister. I also have the Moyashi, Kwon Jingyo, a Korean Elf as a little brother, and Jenevive, a Vampire, as a friend. They're my new family. You have one with Shanti, correct? I try to think on that, rather than the bad things with my Mother. My new Family help me a great deal." she explained with a soft chuckled, idly playing with Ignis's ear.

The Vampire next to her is much like her younger self, when she had just left the tribe, bruised, beaten, and torn in two.

She made a silent vow to help this one through what he was going through as she knew exactly what he was going through.

Avira glanced out at the grounds, at Shanti, playing with....Caterva. When had he left?

"....Yes. Shanti is my family." he murmured. "My younger sister I...should probably think on that more than what could have or has been."

He smiled slightly as Caterva allowed himself to be adorned with flowers.

Taylor smiled as the grumpy looking cat was dressed up in flowers.

"Aye, it's the Best way forwards I think. I feel that she will Help you a great deal in opening back up. Just by looking at her, I can sense she has a great confidence in you, and in herself. You'll get on fine here." Taylor chuckled.

Watching the child, she could see why Avira was protective of her...just something about her made you want to protect her from the bad things in the world.

Again, her hand clutched at her stomach.

"...Kyler..." she sighed softly.

Shanti had had that aura about her since she was a little girl. She was just the same as the little girl who had come tiptoeing into Avira's room to peer at the recovering vampire with wide eyes. Not even frightened by his strange colors and sharp teeth. Trusting him the moment he scooped her up from the riverbed when he realized it was polluted.

Avira sighed and stood. He glanced at Ignis, she seemed content in Taylor's arms, and so he did not request her back.

"If you need me for anything," he said. "I reside in Terra wing. But most often you can find me on the roof."

Taylor smiled and stood as well.

Ignis was now curled up in her arm and Taylor continued to stroke that cat's head.

"Thank you. And the same for you. My room is in the Terra wing as well, but I will be spending a lot of time in the gardens and fields. The forests are a No-Go area for me right now. *chuckle*" She said.

Going over to Avira, she carefully placed the Cat in his arms and smiled..

"Well, I never imagined the legend to be so soft spoke as you are. I was imaging a boisterous and loud person. I'm glad I'm wrong or we would have gotten off on the wrong foot." She snickered lightly, pulling a cigarette out from a packet and chewing on the butt.

Avira collected Ignis in his arms and nodded politely to Taylor. Simply knowing he was a legend was enough to make him feel embarrassed, and a soft blush was tinting his pale cheeks.

They went their separate ways, hopefully feeling a little better than before.