Zakhar ::

It was by sight rather than sound that Zakhar realized their newest companion was among them; only because he'd been side-eying the door. A bit shorter than Zakhar, the newcomer was lithe and almost willowy, with long, oddly tinted hair. Something about him was inhuman, though Zakhar couldn’t put his finger on what, exactly. Magic and the supernatural stuff was still so far out of his wheel-house that at times he still had trouble believing everything that was happening. As for this new person, a part of him was inexplicably drawn to the guy while the more rational part of Zakhar knew he shouldn’t be. It was almost like an unnatural magnetic pull. Weary and put off, Zakhar wrinkled his nose in distaste of the feeling and took a couple of steps away so that Kuro was between them. 

The newcomer, Fernleigh, introduced himself and let them know he would be joining them. Scowling at that new bit of information, and the snobbish air he gave off, Zakhar felt Illium’s spines start to rise as well. In the few days of downtime they’d had, Zakhar’d studied the little beast and one of his realizations was that Illium was highly attuned to Zakhar’s emotions and reacted accordingly. “Easy.” He murmured, scratching Illium’s chin as he continued to eye Fernleigh. Blitz appeared unconcerned, though Creus seemed just as weary as Zakhar felt. For once, it appeared they were in agreement..

“Guess I’m next. I’m Zakhar and this little guy is Illium.” He mused, motioning with his head towards the Farxal. “Unlike Blitz, he probably will harm you.” Smirking a bit, Zakhar felt Illium lean forward a bit to get a better look before sneezing, as if Fernleigh’s scent offended him. His amusement over the fact the wolf was less aggressive than his tiny ferret-beast was shattered by Liam’s gleeful shout. “Christ!” He huffed, rubbing at his ear as he glared down towards the tiny man-child. Liam was greeting a small, grey dappled horse, apparently just as pleased as Thiago was to see the hoofed cretin. “Oh yeah, and the beast-man down there is Thiago. None of us really know what’s up with him other than he’s scared of his own shadow.” 

Deciding he’d had enough of the strange feeling, Zakhar followed after Creus and Liam. Of course, as he got close enough one of the twitchy looking stable boys approached him with a large, tle="grulla horse's" target="_blank">grulla horse’s reins held out for him to take. “Uh, I don’t wan-” Before he could explain that ‘no, he did not want the beast’ the boy all but threw the reins at him and fled. “Er,” he eye-balled the horse, who snorted and threw its head in agitation. Clearly, it was just as displeased to be near Zakhar as he was it. “Okay, Elmer, settle down.” He growled out, taking hold of its bridle instead of the reins so he’d have a bit more control. 

It was a good looking horse, tall and broad, though not heavy. Strong enough to carry him and his stuff without any problem, though obviously it wouldn’t be as fast as Creus’ or Thiago’s. Which suited Zakhar fine, considering he wasn’t the best rider. In fact, he wasn’t a fan of horses at all. They were useful, sure, but big; if they didn’t want to do something they weren’t going to do it and whoever was in their paths had better move. He’d been forced to ride before and luckily he wasn’t as hopeless on one as Kazimir, but still pretty awkward. Knowing he had no choice, however, Zakhar patted the geldings neck as he moved to the side so he could put his packs in the correct places. 

The horse sidestepped and he cursed, but remembered at the last second not to pull on the reins and tick it off. “Come on buddy, we’ve got to work together or the rest of this trip is going to suck for the both of us.” He complained quietly, running his hands along the irritated geldings muzzle. It snorted, but held still long enough for him to inelegantly climb into the saddle. “My gravestone is going to say ‘He didn’t want to ride the damned horse.’” Attempting to remember what he knew about riding, he clicked his tongue and the gelding began following after Creus’ black and white horse without any fuss. “Oh, him you like.” 

Shifting uncomfortably in the saddle, Zakhar knew he was going to be sore as all get out by the time they stopped for the night. How Thiago, with his mangled legs and tail seemed so at ease, happy even, to be riding was a mystery. Of course, before they got very far out of the gate Liam stopped them by blocking the path with his mare. Even more startling was Liam’s blatant speech. Barely stifling a laugh, because the kid had guts to flat out state that, Zakhar leaned his forearms on the saddle horn and attempted to get a look at Creus’ face. Because out of all of them it would be the stoic mage who’d likely have the biggest issue with it. Unless Fernleigh was a prudish and ‘noble’ as he sounded. 

Unable to keep from grinning wickedly at the wizards quick rebuttal, Zakhar raised an eyebrow at Liam’s unwillingness to let the subject go and leave poor Creus alone. After all, what did it really matter if the mage liked dudes or not? He obviously didn't like Liam, like that or in any other way. Creus was right about one thing, this mission was important so they could go home rather than a long, romantic getaway. 

"I promise I won't bother you if you answer, what if one of the other guys hear wants to know?"

“I assure you, I don’t care one way or the other” Zakhar deadpanned, “as long as we get this done.” At Liam’s explanation of them being able to visit one another after through portal, he gaped in obvious horror. “Please don’t ever show up in my world with your magic and monsters. You’ll throw us into freakin’ chaos and mass panic.” Lost in his thoughts about the consequences of such things, Zakhar only caught the tail end of Creus’ explanation. 

Zakhar stiffened a bit as the werewolf grabbed at Thiago’s outstretched arm, sniffing the beastman curiously. Thiago himself had paled dramatically, but didn’t wrench the limb away as if worried he’d offend Aaron into doing something dramatic – like tear the arm off. Which, werewolf, so who knew? Even a less irritated one still had the ability to get...irritated. Zakhar watched as Thiago’s feline tail twitched wearily, lips drawn back slightly as if he was fighting off a fearful hiss. From their few interactions it was obvious Thiago didn’t like being touched, which from the scarring and bruises the human couldn’t exactly blame him.

Then Aaron turned towards them, stuffing the bread happily into his mouth. Amused by the antics, Zakhar leaned forward on the saddle to take in the newcomer more fully, wagging tail and all. Then Creus began speaking, as droll and sarcastic as ever.

Flicking his gaze from Creus, to Liam, then back to Aaron as the mage made his ‘grand’ speech on how they were all likely to die, Zakhar couldn’t help but think the entire enterprise was doomed to fail. And only partially from the storm. In all likelihood, their lack of cohesion would be their downfall. The pessimistic thought made him miss his world, his brothers, all the harder. Most of the time they didn’t even need to talk to know what needed to be done – they just moved in sync like a well oiled machine. This group of misfits were going to work as well together as cats and dogs. Which, considering Aaron and Thiago, was an apt analogy.

“Very inspiring there, Creus.” Zakhar muttered sarcastically, throwing the wizard a scowl. “Way to remind the rest of us as well how utterly fu- b’lyad!” Something massive and winged whipped overhead, sending dirt and leaves raining down and forcing the trees to dangerously sway around them. Zakhar’s gelding gave a panicked whinny and attempted to dance to the side in agitation, the human clinging inelegantly. “I hate that serpent, so much.” Zakhar hissed, forcing his horse to calm. He also hated the gelding, but that was besides the point.

The quetza-whatever continued on ahead of them as if it had not even seen them, serpentine body all but writhing through the air as it’s feathered wings beat furiously. Continuing to curse in his mother tongue, Zakhar picked twigs from his hair and plucked a leaf from Illium’s quills. “If you decide to join us, hopefully you can control your beastie better then we can.” So far, it seemed the werewolf’s own monster was better behaved then Creus’ dragon or Zakhar’s serpent. It appeared not to have its own agenda – at least not yet.

Realizing he’d not given his name yet, Zakhar nudged his horse forward again from where it had skittered to the side and huffed down at the gelding. “Chose to stay or chose to go, doesn’t really matter. Though, we are down on manpower now, and frankly could use you.” He told Aaron seriously. “If you do chose to stay, I’m Zakhar. This little guy is Illium.” He added, stroking the farxal’s little head where it sat curled around his shoulders. Looking towards the only other one not to introduce themselves, Zakhar motioned for him to say something.

Thiago squirmed, eerie golden eyes wide. “I am Thiago.” Head tilting to the side a bit, the beastman observed each of them for a moment before slumping. “Much of what Creus said is correct. This will be dangerous, exceedingly. But if you do want to get home it would be wise to join us. We all have our reasons for wanting the storm stopped and are willing to fight for it.” After a moment, Thiago’s nose scrunched a bit. “Though, I am unsure what you will do about a horse.”

“Not it.” Zakhar grumped.

OoC: It's okay.~ I know a lot of rp's don't use an order. :3

‘So much, so much is happening. There’s no trust, this isn’t a pack. They’re all forced here. So many names. So many opinions and altercations about everything. Almost no one agrees. They need help. They think I’m useful. But there’s no trust.’

Aaron stood for a while, he placed one of his hands on his hip with the other holding his chin. He stopped his apparent thought process and looked at Creus intensely, his ex
pression had changed so drastically. His brow furrowed, nose scrunched, and irises dilated as he walked forward with every muscle tensed, his body suddenly became rippling with intensity. He circled slowly with a slight hunch, his tail and ears bristled slightly & lowered. Around the second time he circled he stopped. He placed his fist in the ground and brought down one of his knees. “I’m sorry if I upset you for any reason, I don’t know why you’re irritated...,” he paused before coming up from the ground,”but, if it’s my strength you need I promise to be of immense support and usage. As far as supplies, rationing, and a horse, I don’t need to eat for 2 weeks or longer, and I can keep up with these horses pretty well.”. He said before looking up with a slight grin before walking over to Zakhar and Thiago.

 “Hi again!”, he greeted, he walked beside them (rather their horses),”I remember you saying you don’t have food, I’m a great hunter so if y’all need any I’d be happy to help.” He then diverted his attention to the knight man, who apparently wasn’t the leader,’He’s seems super nice, in comparison to Creus at least.’, he thought. He swayed his tail slightly as he began tying up his hair with leather twine.”So,”, he turned to Zakhar,”What was your world like?”, he asked in an attempt to make friendly banter,”No need to answer though, just curious.” He began wagging his tail in anticipation, hearing about other worlds and meeting so many people from different places was getting him really excited. Fotiá followed quickly, all three heads complaining to Aaron,”You’re gonna be a real hassle to these people if you make friends. You never know who might take advantage.” He ignored her and continued wagging his tail.

(If it wasn’t my turn I apologize and I’ll erase everything. Thanks for forgiving me Alcarie :3)