Early in the morning, the light of the sun is causing havok with the shadows dancing around the forest floor. This deep within the trees it's hard to believe that the world containing the forest is merely an island. The sound of water dripping as dew is shed by leaves is only obvious in the brief moments when morning song birds take a moment in between calls. The place is still and waiting with the verdent breath of leaves and flowers taking in the sun as it starts its process of warming them after a relatively cool Autumn night.
The young man, and his second, show up well before dawn, the appointed time. He shrugs out of his shirt and shorts, leaving them to one side. Peter sits down cross-legged, and simply waits for his opponent to arrive. "So uhm thank you for being my second. All you have to do is make sure that there's no funny business, yeah? You don't need to interfere unless their second does, or if I go down and I'm unresponsive. If I can't answer you, I am done and you gotta stop the fight at that point, okay?"
Iara's not much of a morningg person, preferring to stay up til the wee hours of the night. So naturally she's pretty groggy when she gets awakenned at the crack of dawn. But shifters have got to stick together, and this is for a good cause! She shows up at the appointed time and place, alongside Peter, looking tense. "Yeah, got it..Sorry you got involved in this because of me.." she sighs, "Just..Be careful out there, okay?"
The rumble of a truck had long since been heard at the parking area leading to a trail up into the forested area of the mountains. Afterwards, there had been the semi-loud shutting of heavy doors before Wren had started up the hiking path with Conni. He was being his calm and quiet self, though he'd notably offered his arm to Conni out of sheer habit, giving her a dashing grin and a nod of his head. "Nothing saying that you can't be treated like a lady on your way to beat the snot out of someone, Miss Conni." The sparkle in his eye was one of amusement, the farmer never long without his charm. He'd dressed in a pair of quite well-kept jeans that fit more than appropriately and looked like they hadn't seen a day on the farm. His boots were the ones that he'd obviously reserved for city outings, dark blue with pale gray stitching and not a single scuff. For a shirt, Wren had worn a long sleeved, oatmeal colored henley with tortoise shell buttons that were mostly fastened. His longish, blonde hair was raked back from his face and fastened into a swerve of a tail, and he'd trimmed his facial hair up nicely. All in all, the young man looked rather dashing for going hiking up to a duel. When they reached the destination, he offered both Peter and Iara a wide, welcoming smile and a nod, his bright blue eyes friendly. "Aloha, Sir, Miss. I hope you had a lovely trek up?" His voice was entirely sincere, filled with warmth.
Conni has dressed for a duel, or at least as close as she can get to being dressed up in this heat. She has her hair set in a ponytail, more for utilitarian function than looks at this point. Her blue tank top is old and worn but obviously clean, a symbol of Athena over the chest that has faded over time. Brown cargo shorts are secured in place by a brown leather belt, the shorts looking faded but looked after. Her walking boots have also seen a lot of use and look worn but comfortable. She gives Wren's arm a little squeeze with her hand as they enter the clearing, slowly and reluctantly extracting herself before reaching for her artist tube. "I try not to make a judgement ahead of events but thank you for the vote of confidence." Leaning over, she gives him a quick peck on the cheek before unscrewing the cap from her artist tube, pulling out her spear head and then assembling the lengths of her staff. The spear head has been polished to a gleaming shine and the wood of the staff has had a similar treatment, the old notched wood looking ancient but still catching the light easily.
Seeing Peter and Iara, she offers them both a nod, an eyebrow raising when she spots that Peter is undressed. "This was to be in the nude? I don't think I packed quite enough bug spray for that eventuality. Are we ready to begin?"
Peter stands slowly when the other two arrive, and looks to Iara. "It is not your fault. You were the only one willing to listen, the rest of us were hardheads. I will be alright." He wraps an arm around Iara's shoulders and gives her a squeeze. "It should not be long, she will win or I will."
The young man turns from her and offers Wren a wave. "Aloha, sir. My name is Peter. It was a nice walk, if a bit dark." He gestures to their surroundings. "It's much better in glorious colour than in the dark." Peter offers Conni a nod. "No, I don't expect you to fight in the nude. However, I shall be. I am that Tiger you tried to blast with lightning."
Peter's form begins to change, stretching, changing colours, leaving a large Siberian tiger where a man once stood. The feline offers a noisy meow, and lifts a paw, splaying its toes and explosing inches long claws.
Iara glances up the trail as Conni and her second arrive. She's quite visibly relieved to see that Jane was not called as her second. At least this guy looks to have his wits about him. "Aloha, Sir. Conni. " She doesnt seem terribly surprised by Peter's lack of clothing. In fact she's pretty used to it, and is herself, wearing little more than a scarf wrapped around her body like a little sarong dress. It's a Shifter Thing. Really. She lets Peter do the explaining, returning the hug. "Thank you. I guess you have another reason for this fight too, but..Remember, it's just a duel of honor." She reaches out to squeeze his hand before stepping back. "Good luck, I know you can do it." Iara whispers before finding some out of the way place to watch anxiously.
Wren kept his attention on Peter entirely above the waist, no lewd staring or anything of the sort. Instead, he just nodded to Peter and smiled. "That's how it always seems to be, things look better in the light than in darkness. Especially for those of us that get to enjoy lives in glorious technicolor." Accepting the kiss on the cheek, Wren turned to look at Conni and gave her a wink. "Faith moves mountains, imagine what it can do for gorgeous women armed with spears?" He'd patted her hand, then moved over to stand to the side, somewhat equidistant between Peter and Conni. "Miss, why don't you step over here and I'll keep you company while these two see to their differences? I don't bite, and I swear it's better on the nerves to have someone you can wring if you're crawling out of your skin." He offered his arm in a very gentlemanly manner out towards Iara, bent at the elbow, without a lick of come-hither. Just a genuine, soft smile of understanding on his face.
"There you go then." Conni says, a small smile crossing her face as Peter shifts into his Tiger form. Looking to Wren, her gaze meets his for just a moment, the Nordic Blonde winking reassuringly before she turns her attention back to the Tiger in the jungle ahead of her. Taking a few deep breaths, Conni shifts all her thoughts to the impending battle. She brings her spear up in her right hand, her grip tightening hard enough on the wood for it to creak in protest. Rolling her head and shoulders, Conni works out any last kinks in her muscles as she enters the ring, her booted feet stepping light in the undergrowth of the jungle, her posture kept low but the tip of her spear held high should the Tiger pounce.
The second she feels ready, Conni charges into combat, her spear remaining pointed upwards slightly until she has gained enough ground. Coming close to the tiger, she leaps in the air and aims a nasty looking downwards thrust towards the tiger as she crosses within range. The tiger though, has other idea as slinks out of the way easily, her steel meeting nothing but air as she finally lands on her feet. Letting out a sharp exaltation in fustration, Conni whips round quickly, intent on keeping the tiger in front of her.
Wren watched, quiet now, whether Iara came up to hold onto his arm or not. His eyes took in the situation with a grave sort of steady observation.
The Siberian had dodged the Valkyrie's spear, and as she turned to face him, he lashed out with a large paw. Despite her being able to get her spear between herself and that array of claws, the Tiger was able to draw blood. With that done, the feline backs off a few steps, looking at her expectantly.
The ripping of cloth at the tigers last swipe as Conni blinking in surprise, a quick look down to her top reveals four neat claw marks that could have put a real crimp on her day if they'd gone any deeper. Focusing her will, Conni launches another attack, jumping into a foward somersault that has her stabbing downwards at the apex, the tip of her spear piercing the hindquarters of the Tiger as she passes. Landing lightly on her feet, she sweeps out one foot behind her as she comes to a halt, using the momentum to spin round to face Peter once more, the bloodied tip of her spear pointed towards him. Looking quickly from the tip of her spear to the tiger in front of her, she takes a breath and then a second, waiting to see what the next move will be.
Wren watched the battle of honor, a slight stiffening in his stance as he watched the Tiger and the Valkyrie start actually attempting to harm one another. He didn't go so far as to wince or jerk when Peter almost clawed Conni, but he did suck in a breath when the spear bloodied itself in Peter's flank, his eyes pinching at the corners.
The Tiger roars in pain as the spear pierces his side, and there's a second noise of pain when she pulls the weapon free. The feline begins to ripple and shrink down, soon leaving behind a bleeding and pained-looking Peter. With a bit of trouble breathing, he looks to the woman with the Spear. "Are you satisfied?", he asks at a near whisper.
Conni watches with some fascination as Peter shifts back to human form, looking with an appraising eye as to the mechanics more than anything else. At his question, she tilts her head to one side for a moment, blinking a few times before looking to Peter and answering him. "Do you submit and do you apologize? Or do you wish to go on, I'm well aware of how the battle lust can take you. Apologize and I will consider this matter closed and I will speak no more of it. That was the purpose of this duel after all." She keeps her voice even and mostly emotionless, just pointing out something rather than belabouring the point. What she doesn't do is ease up, she stays in her fighting stance, her spear still pointed towards Peter until she hears one way or the other.
For his part, Wren didn't offer a statement either way as to whether or not the battle should continue. Instead, he looked around to see if there was any sign of Peter's clothing, or blankets, or some sort of cloth that might be used to help stay the flow of blood from the wound in Peter's hip.
Peter struggles to stand up, and takes a few steps towards his clothing, which is hanging from a branch off to one side. "I apologize." Quick, and sincere. "But would you also do the same? For you seem to think that I am the cause of your troubles. The tone your friend took made it sound like you knew what I was, and in my mind, that was a threat. Which is where one of the misunderstandings of the other night lays." The young man hugs a tree, and presses his tshirt to his leg.
"I said nothing of the sort!" Seemingly mollified at the apology, Conni stiffens as she continues to listen to Peter. "Until this morning, I did not know you were the tiger. I have nothing to apologize for." Taking a few deep breaths, Conni finally stands upright, sticking the base of her staff in the ground next to her. "You wronged me, yes? We had this duel. I won. The matter is closed, it was the purpose of the duel. What you say now negates the purpose of the duel. You want the winner to admit fault, do you understand?" Idly thumbing at the tears in her top, Conni looks to those assembled and then back to Peter. "You are not Accorded so perhaps you do not understand. If this duel was over whether the sky was blue or pink, you would go on for this moment and tell everyone, on your honor that the sky was pink. You get to make no requests, none. I ask that in future you keep your mouth shut when it comes to others of the supernatural community. With that and your apology, we are done here." Easing the grip on her spear, Conni looks over to Iara and Wren. "Iara, did the two of you walk here? If you did, Peter will need help. Wren, if you do not mind, we could give them both a lift back to town?" She looks back to Peter now, "I consider this matter closed. On my honor, you will not be harmed on the way back to town. You and your friend Iara will both be safe."
Wren nodded and smiled to Conni, then looked to Peter, watching him apply pressure to the wound. "I'd have it no other way, really. Unless you have an objection I'll even carry you down, young man. There's no need to make the injury worse, not when you have someone that can help you keep it still while getting you off the mountain. And a ride to a hospital is a far cry better than a walk to an ambulance, which you might end up needing if you don't have a closer ride." He looked at Conni for a moment, then to Iara, nodding to her. "So what'll it be? Down with help? Or at the very least a ride to someone that can stitch that up for you and keep you from getting a wicked infection?"
"Fine.", Peter says, standing up a bit to wiggle into his shorts. "I don't want you to admit fault then. Am I to ask you to duel then if I feel wronged by you? Is that how it works?" He shrugs and presses his bloodied shirt to his leg. "Just stop doing your thing in front of a crowd and cameras, yeah? At least when I do it, I don't get pissy with people who point it out." The young man squints and shakes his head. "I don't need your protection, though thank you, I do appreciate that you have offered such." Peter glances to Wren and shakes his head. "Ain't no way in hell anyone's carrying me anywhere. I do appreciate the sentiment, but while I am able to go on my own power, I'm doing so. What I would not mind, if you were feeling generous, is perhaps the name and address of that person you mentioned? And maybe an introduction?" He grins at the other man. "I'm new in town." Peter leans a little on Iara, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
Conni's mouth drops open as she listens to Peter, her grip on her spear tightening enough to make her knuckles bone white. "I was being kind today. You are not accorded and are thus not protected by the rules. Regardless of whether I changed in front of people or not, you threatened to take footage to the Police. Are we really going to argue about this now when I told you I considered the matter closed, are you going back on your honor? If so, let go of the woman and get back in the ring. You clearly do not consider me to be a Victor and you do *not* get to change the circumstances that brought about this duel after the fact. You are insulting me." Conni's voice is rising as she says this until she is almost shouting at the end. "Do you understand?"
Wren looked at Peter and shook his head slightly, once. "Alright, no ride down the mountain. I can give you the address of where to go if you want, do you two have a car? It's a good long stretch of leg to get to where you'd need to go if you just want a patch job from someone I know can do it. If you want an actual hospital, though, you've got one only two miles thataway." Wren motioned towards Kailua. However, his moving arm to demonstrate direction soon came back to his face where he rubbed at his forehead with the inner curve of his thumb. "If you're gonna go and commit to a duel, young man, you do need to understand the rules. There's no indignation from the loser, or the duel isn't over. That's just how it is. No matter if you're dealing with old honor or modern Accords, that acceptance is what you give when you enter the duel itself. The acceptance that it ends the entirety of the feud between you, and you accept the wrong stance if someone else wins over you. Just like she'd have had to accept the wrong if you'd won. There's no real gray area there. It just is. That's why fighting to solve differences doesn't always come out with a pleasing result, cause you really only figure out who had a stronger fist that day. Or claw. Or weapon." Wren stepped back a bit towards the trail, watching the two of them. "Are we done here today, you two?"
Peter looks to Conni and nods to her. "Yes, I do consider you the victor. I understand completely, you don't have to yell." He shakes his head. "Look, I am sorry. I was being sincere when I apologized." The young man runs a hand through his hair. "The matter between us is closed."
He looks to Wren and nods. "I get it. But I guess I am going about things a bit wrongly. We all got off on the wrong foot. So, uhm. Lead on? I will walk down, but perhaps you might drop me off at that person's place?" Peter looks to Conni. "If that matter is closed, then may we speak about that evening of the strange green lightning? Since we will have time and privacy? And uh, it helps us both."
Conni relaxes the grip on her spear to the accompaniment of much creaking from the wood and her knuckles. Closing her eyes, she takes three deep breaths and then opens them again, looking to Wren and smiling for the first time in what feels like an age. "Yes, we are done. A walk to the truck and then a lift I think? All is good." Letting out a long sigh, Conni spends a few moments cleaning the blade of her spear on the grass before taking out a cloth from her tube and giving the blade a quick buff before finally disassembling the spear and putting it away. Slinging her tube back over her shoulder, she heads over to Wren and leans against him as they get ready for their trek back to the truck. Looking over to Peter, she eye's his leg for a moment before looking back to the trail. "Please reconsider Wren's offer, or hell, we could make a chair or something for you. You risk tearing the wound open and well, that would be bad." Conni looks to Iara now, Ice Blue eyes regarding the other woman and imploring for help. "As for the green magic? I've not investigated it as of yet. I do know it was black magic but I think that much is obvious. I was going to look into things though, as it threatens a place I know call home."
Iara spent most of the fight watching wordlessly, speaking only sparsely to Wren, mostly about how pointless this fight is. It seems that tensions had continued to rise high even after the victory, but Iara's more concerned about Peter's injuries, hurrying to his side once it stops, propping one of his arms over her shoulder for support. "Peter! Can you walk?" she nods at Wren, glad at least that he's being reasonable. "THanks, i'm sure we'll manage."
Iara looks to Conni thoughtfully, "Yes, it seemed to be some sort of dark magic, but I was concerned about the origins. Specifically any sort of runes or writing on the floor where the ritual took place, before we arrived. Since you and your friend had flown there first and disrupted the ritual, I figured you might have got a better look at it.." She nods again at her warning, "I apologize, I am also new here. I didnt mean to be so liberal, I just wanted to get to the bottom of this and help Aurelie."
"Honor's never pointless, Miss. It all just depends on how deeply someone takes offense. Having honor is what sets people apart from the more terrible things that go bump in the night." Wren smiled slightly to Iara, nothing but a gentle curve of lips. When Conni came over to him and leaned against him, Wren surruptitiously hooked his elbow, offering his arm as he reached down with his other hand and lifted the back of her own to his lips for an ever so gentle kiss, then placed her hand onto his arm. "It seems both of you have your escorts. If we can manage to get oursleves down the trail without the wild boars coming to take us for a merry ride I do believe I can get us to somewhere safe to get Mister Peter's leg stitched up. And I'm Wren Atworth, sorry if I was unforgivably preoccupied earlier, enough so that my manners almost fled me completely." A warm, charming smile spread across Wren's face as he tucked Conni's arm in closer to his side and nodded towards the trail down. "Shall we, then?"
Peter grits his teeth and glances to Conni a moment. "I will manage.", he says evenly. "I will accept a ride somewhere once we get to the vehicle. But I walked up here. I'm walking down from here." He looks to Iara and nods. "I'll be alright. I can walk." The young man tilts his head and laughs. "Oh gosh, that would be some karma if the boars got me."
"There is a chance that I might recognise some of the writings, that much is true. If the site hasn't been cleaned up yet, I'll go and take a look once I've spoken to Auri." Conni hooks her arm through Wren's and lets out a happy sigh when he kisses her hand. "Fitting a boar in the back of the truck would be tricky but not impossible?" Conni grins as she says this, eyeing Wren for a moment and wriggling her eyebrows. "I did mention that I'd bring lunch next time?"
Iara nods. "Thank you, Wren. My name is Iara, and I guess I'm a bit of a pacifist, so..It's a whole new world to me, honor and all that. And we would appreciate a ride to your farm. I'm sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances." Looking to Conni, she nods again, "Thank you for your help, Conni, I did manage to make a quick sketch of unusual markings I saw, before police arrived, although it it incomplete." Finally, she smiles faintly to Peter, "You really are a trouble magnet. Let's go get you fixed up."
"I have to admire your verve, Conni. And if you elect to catch us an entire pig for lunch, I have no doubt in my mind that the farmhands will praise your name even more than they do already. Having a lovely woman such as yourself come to the farm only brightens the place up like the touch of the sun, but is so much gentler on the skin." Wren grinned to Conni and then looked over at Iara with that grin still on his lips. "There's nothing wrong with meeting, as long as you've met. That's why we all live in the world together, Miss Iara." And with that, Wren led them down the mountain to the truck.
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