Scalebound

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## A Peculiar Find

The sound of birds chirping in the trees could be heard above the quiet murmuring of the Crusaders who were far from happy to have been sent out on this expedition. As they whispered among themselves the opinion of discontent was common it would see, none too keen on having been sent into the wilds over the smallest shred of evidence of some sort of intelligent life out here in the untamed wilds beyond the walls. The expeditions were too dangerous even when planned out months in advance, but to have been cast out to search the jungles and plans of plans on such short notice many would have thought the higher ups were purposely trying to kill them. Perhaps they weren't completely wrong on that front?

Among them was a man who had no business being here, a young man far from the crusader sort. A sword on his hip though beyond fighting the occasional bandit he had never used it against a true threat and as he very well knew, everything beyond the walls was that threat, one that took the lives of many far more seasoned in the art of combat than himself. Even so, he'd been tasked with joining this expedition, perhaps he had been a thorn in the side of those far higher up the food chain than himself for too long. Having him eaten by monsters beyond the walls was much easier than some assassination that might get people asking questions.

He'd been tasked with reporting on the Cursaders, their efficiency, their performance, how they handled themselves. It seemed a joke to him at first and yet here he was now. The sound of a branch snapping caught his attention, making him swallow hard and nearly reach for his sword before realizing the sound was just one of the crusaders passing him by.

"Don't go getting trigger happy, friendly fire won't be tolerated, first time out here or not." A large woman spoke, the scars on her face and armor showed this was not her first time out here in this place.

He was about to apologize when she pressed a hand over his mouth, her eyes staring off into the distance as though looking for something. A voice from some distance away could be heard. A woman's voice by the sound of it, but why? How? It made no sense to him but it didn't really need to now did it?

The Cursaders nearest to him shared a glance before they began to move forward far quieter now, motioning for him to follow and to do so without making any noise.

Sitting in a glen among countless blooms and vegetation of various nature, plucking the petals of some and gathering the pollen of others was a youthful woman who sang a soft tune to herself. Her platina blonde hair shimmered in the sunlight and her red and creamy colored tail flicked happily in the air as she sang. Her language was alien to the humans as they approached, unable to comprehend what she was saying. Her eyes were concealed with a blindfold, multiple pouches on her belt, a wand and a pouch on her left which seemed to be an appropriate size to be able to contain ammunition. But where was her weapons in that case? All of it capped off with a common explorer's attire which seemed to cause her some excessive heat with how she was sweating while working.

"Sweet sounds of sublime tunes..." She softly hummed as she continued her work. Blinded by the blindfold, distracted with her work and deafened by her own song, she was completely unaware of the approaching strangers.

From the tree-line they watched the reptilian woman at work, the cursaders were silent for some time as they watched, perhaps stunned to see a living creature out here that did not take on the twisted form of a monster ready to tear them to shreds. Looking between each other, the large female crusader who had been the one to startle the young politician earlier began to raise a net gun to fire.

Without thinking, Takanashi grabbed hold of it to stop her from shooting at the woman or woman-like thing. "We can't just shoot her!" He made his discontent with the idea known much to the anger of the others.

"We don't even know what it is or does. It should be happy I'm not trying to bring it back as a corpse for them to study." The Woman cursader spoke up, pulling the weapon away from him.

"What if there are more of them? We could start a war or worse, what if shes the only one of her kind? If we hurt her or she gets killed then her race could be lost forever. The least we could do is try to talk with her." He suggested which only made the others sigh.

"Fine. But you're the one who will have to do it. I'm not risking my men if it decides to eat you." The crusader woman spoke, Taking the young man aback.

"W-well, I don't know about that-" He was interrupted as the crusader threatened to raise the net gun at the woman in the glen. "Fine, I'll do it."

Surprising all of them including the man himself, the crusaders looked to one another before they moved out of his way, motioning for him to make it quick. Though not quick, he did rise to his feet, moving forward and exiting the treeline slowly as not to frighten the woman or have her attack him.

It only took a few steps closer before he watched her ears perk, clearly having heard him. "H-hello, I'm Takanashi. Do you have a name?" He called out to her, not too loud but loud enough she would be able to hear him clearly.

The sounds of footsteps approaching put the woman on alert. She twirled her head and body swifty in the direction of the sound, crouched for a more advantageous position. As she heard the creature speak, she relaxed for but a moment until she realized she didn't understand a thing he said. The voice was masculine, but it spoke in such a foreign way. Extending her magical sense, she could feel the magical imprint he left, and it bothered her. When he did not approach further, she made the first attempt, taking one step forward, waiting to see if he reacted. He didn't seem to do anything in particular as a response. "Daes nou imos golené? *What kind of thing are you?*" She asked, continuing her approach. Steadily and softly.

Standing only ten feet away from him now, she inspected him through her senses. He appeared to be one of her ilk. But so much about him was all wrong. No tail or horns, and she could not tell with her blindfold whether he had any other traits akin to them. Carefully she removed her blindfold, untying and pocketing it, she looked upon the creature, and he was practically entirely different from herself, save for the most basic features. Even scales were absent... Could it be? "Daes wo imos baan? *What is your name?*"

The words the woman spoke her foreign entirely, he'd never been in a situation like that before. Those in the wall spoke the same language regardless of what sorts of accents they carried but nothing she said made any sense to her. It clearly came off as intelligent, there was clear meaning behind the things she was saying but none of it could be understood by him. He wondered if maybe...

"I don't understand you, but maybe I could? Or maybe we could?" He asked, reaching out to offer his hand to the woman in front of him. "Touch my hand, even if its just the tips of your fingers. That'll do." He offered her again in case she was uncomfortable getting too close.

The woman tilted her head a bit as she observed his hand and then back to the man. Could it be... Does he know the gesture? In that case it can't be anything wrong, can it? "Dumé. *Sure.*" She whispered as she reached a hand forward, touching his fingers with hers. But rather than just leave them touching, she hooked her fingers with his in a somewhat odd grip. She smiled softly until she realized that he did not return the gesture. At least, not right away. Figuring something was wrong, she lept back and reached for her pocket as she hissed in her tongue, but now comprehensible to Takanashi: "What are you?!"

As she opened the button that kept the pouch closed, she then heard a click and a whoosh before she was entangled in a net and crashed to the ground, some of the pouch's contents spilled out. She screamed in surprise and shock and tried to get out of her confinements, but to no avail. "What are you doing? Get me out!" She shouted as she struggled all the same.

Takanashi stumbled back in a moment of shock, not registering in his head that he had understood the words that had come from her mouth as everything seemed to happen in a blur in front of him. As the crusaders exited the treeline to grab hold of the net containing the woman he shook himself from his stooper. "What are you doing?!"

The large crusader woman adorned in armor looked back at him with an expression that could only be described as bewildered disappointment. "Are you blind and deaf, boy? It was about to attack you. You're lucky we stepped in at all, I don't feel like explaining how you managed to get ripped to pieces flirting with the wildlife when I get back home so don't think I did you any favors." She responded, picking up the net with ease and throwing it along with the woman over her shoulders. In doing so several cards fell from the net onto the ground unnoticed by the crusaders who were thrilled with the catch they had made. Talks of large sums of money that would be given to them for such a find were lively.

Takanashi kneeled down to pick up the cards, ones with strange drawings on them like those of a fortune teller. He realized those might have been what were in the pouch she had opened. But if so why had she hissed at him? What had made her angry? The feeling of her fingers hooking his own still lingered, the shock when she had done so made it clear she had wanted something from him. That was when he realized that he could hear her yelling, not just hear her but understand her as she screamed to be let go. It seemed his magic had indeed taken effect when they'd touched. He only hadn't had the time to take advantage of that. She was unlikely to trust him now.

Having made their way back to camp Takanashi had avoided the side of the camp where they were keeping the girl, unable to face her right now after what had happened. Instead he had tried to pass the time with reading and making his reports, it wasn't until the sun had gone down was he disturbed from his work and the girl thrust back into his mind as the same woman from before entered his tent with a plate of food.

"I want you to try to feed it, the lizard thing we caught earlier. After it stopped yelling and screaming it wouldn't even acknowledge us. It won't eat anything either. I don't wanna bring the thing back half dead. You tried making peace with it earlier, might as well try again, right?" She reasoned with him, Takanashi seeming unsure about the idea.

Not wanting her to go without, he ultimately decided that he would give it a try though he made no promises that he would be able to do anything after what they'd done earlier.

Walking across the camp he came to the cage-like cell they had imprisoned the lizard-like woman in, his stomach turned as he approached, not wanting to see her like this and wishing it could have gone differently. Reaching the "door" of the cell he knelt down to the ground, seeing the woman with hands bound and most of her possessions taken from her. Left with only the clothes on her back.

"Hey, you understand me now, right?"

The woman sat in there and was fuming. She was generally not an angry kind of person, but this was beyond aggravating. They had tried to offer her food before, but she didn't trust it. There could be all manner of things wrong with it. It could be drugged. Spoiled. Could even be outright poisoned. There was nothing about this that she felt comfortable with. The iron bars made the cage absolutely horrible to rest in. She had been so angry at one point that she had begun bashing her head against the iron to try and come to grips with some sort of plan. She had merely been told to stop it. When she didn't, they had pointed a spear against her throat.

She understood them now. That was the worst thing. One would think it would be a terrible fate to be in this kind of position and hear people about oneself but not knowing what they said. Alas, in this case, knowing was so much worse. They were talking about bringing her back to 'The Wall' and hand her over to some manner of scientists. She knew scientists. She knew what they liked to do with new finds.

When she heard a pair of feet approaching her, she didn't move. She felt defeated in a way that she had never known before. Not even the tragedy felt this awful. She wanted out, but it wouldn't happen. When a voice spoke up, she recognized the tone in an instant. Looking up from her crossed arms just mere increments, she looked at the man from the corner of her eyes. It took a while, but she eventually nodded to his question before lowering her head to rest against her crossed arms again.

"I see, that's good. My name is Takanashi, I'm a human from a place not far from here. We live behind these massive walls to keep us safe from things outside. You were attacked by the others because they thought you were about to hurt me. Were you? I found these on the ground." He asked her, pulling out her cards from his pocket and holding them up for her to see. "What did you plan to do with these?" He asked, wanting to set things straight before he tried anything else with her.