The Knights' Tournament // ENG

"Did you say something, milady?" Finn asked politely as he looked at Eira with a soft smile on his face.


Ruby smirked a little. "I'll remember that." she said, not even trying to be polite. "I'm Ruby, by the way, but most people call me Red."

"No..." she lied, and ate on.

He nodded. "I'm Uta." he knew she'd probably know who he was.
Then he 'ate' some more.

"Are you sure, milady?" he asked politely, but then chose to not push it too much and instead just started eating.

"I know who you are. Tournament champion, it's very impressive." she said and slowly stood up as some low rank knight asked for a her hand in a dance - and of course she knew she had to say yes, or else her granny would just get mad.

She ate in relative silence, after that.

Uta, as soon as he was done eating twenty minutes later, made his usual excuse with having to go to the bathroom for a bit - then went outside, found a nearby, empty alleyway - and threw up everything he'd just 'eaten'.

He ate in silence as well, though he enjoyed watching the other guests dance. In the corner of his eye he could see Oliver sitting besides Eira, pushing at her thigh to try and beg for food.

Ruby had by then redrawn herself from the dancing floor, since her feet were starting to hurt slightly. She had decided to leave the ballroom for some air. "Stupid dancing. Now my feet will hurt for days." she cursed as she walked down some rather empty and dark alleys. Luckily her night vision was rather perfect.

And she grinned, and did give him a small piece of meat.

"Goddammit... I'll never get how they can eat that stuff..." Uta muttered to himself, throwing up the last bit of 'food', then spitting out the last of the bile.

At that Finn shook his head slightly, but still smiled. Oliver on the other hand gladly ate the meat and wagged his tail, licking Eira's hand.

"You know, I think they'll find it rather rude that you're throwing up their perfect food." Ruby pointed out as she had been about to turn around the corner, and now noticed Uta. She had to keep a straight face, though the terrible stench got right to her.

... And then a piece of potato.

He stiffened, wiping away the bile before he looked at her. "Oh. Well, I've just got a really upset stomach, is all."

Oliver just looked at the potato, then pushed it onto the floor and looked back up at Eira, giving a small complaining bark - though a small bark from him was still rather loud.

"Lies." she said and crossed her arms while raising her eyebrows. "Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners? It's not kind to lie."

She sighed. "You're not getting any more of my meat."

"... No, she didn't." he sighed. "Alright, I hate that food, okay? Gives me the worst nausea ever."

Oliver whined and pushed his snout against Eira's hand.
"Oliver." Finn corrected the dog, though raising his voice and making it deeper hurt more than he would like to admit.

"You know you can just eat something else, or even bring your own food. They won't mind." she said and leaned against the wall of the nearest house.

Eira ate on.

"... They would, though." oh dammit, he was getting really hungry. He'd need some human flesh, and soon...

Finn tried to ignore the pain as he ate his meal in very small bites.

"I don't think so." she said and looked up at the sky. It was getting dark soon, and she could already see the bright shining of the moon. It was full tonight. Slowly she put up her hood, making it cover her head again.

And Eira tried to ignore Oliver.

"You don't even know my diet, so you can't say anything about that." He was starting to be able to smell her blood now, rushing underneath the soft skin... Dammit. He turned his head away from her as he felt the burn in his eyes that meant they were turning black and red without his permission.

// returning to Eira & Finn later on //

"What? How bad can it be? Are you a vegetarian, or something?" she joked with a soft laughter, while her eyes were still fixating on the moon.

"No. Quite the contrary..." he couldn't resist. Not with all the temptation throughout the day, and as much as he'd been using his speed and strength. In an instant, he was beside her, holding her fast, and then - he simply took a bite of her shoulder, his teeth tearing through skin and flesh like it was nothing at all. He swallowed, but still coughed. "W-what the... Why do you taste like dog?!" he asked, backing away and wiping some of the blood from his mouth.

Ruby actually screamed, mostly because she was shocked. "Ouch! What the..?!" she yelled, jumping back and staring at Uta with hate in her eyes - which were glowing in a nice golden way, while, luckily, the wound he had just made actually fixed itself in less than seconds. "Don't you dare do that again." she hissed.

He was just staring at her with those black and red eyes. "You're... Not human either, are you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You taste more of dog than human..."

"You're not so dumb after all." she said in a very ironic and poisonous voice, not letting her eyes slip from him at any point. "And that actually hurt. You could at least be a gentleman and apologize. You have no manners at all." she sighed.

"Sorry, then." he shrugged, and wiped the last of her blood away from his mouth.

"Apology accepted." she said and smiled a little bit. "After all, it's not everyday you get bitten by some strange creature."

"I'm not strange. I'm not the one that tastes like a dog.." he huffed.

"Wolf." she corrected him, sounding a bit irritated. "It's wolf, not dog, you idiot. There is quite the difference."

"Not in the taste, I can tell you. All canines taste the same. So what... You're a werewolf or something?"

"I prefer the term shapeshifter. Werewolf sounds so... monstrous." she corrected her hood, pulling it closer around her. "At least you didn't bite a hole in this. I would've killed you if you had done that."

He grinned. "Good luck trying. I heal almost instantly."

"Sounds like a challenge. I like those, or... the wolf-part does." a small smirk.

"So... A shapeshifter? I've only heard myths, legends about you guys." he wiped the rest of the blood from his hands.

"That's because we are nothing but legends anymore, thanks to that foolish king who had us all killed. We could've been the mightiest of all species, but now the few of us who are left, are being hunted and killed, for no reason!" she spat, clearly with hatred in her voice.

"Hmm. Sounds to be much the same as us, though we weren't too many to begin with, either." he sighed. "Then again, we were feared even before that king got to the throne."

"We are only feared because of the lies he told the people." she shook her head, then shut up when some knights walked by the alley, though none of them even thought of looking to the side, so they didn't notice them.

"Well... He hasn't really told any lies about my kind, to be fair. We're everything he's said, so far..."

"All I've heard about ghouls is that they're mean and eats whoever they may find on they way." she looked over at him again. Of course she had figured out what he was - especially since she had met, and thereby learned the scent, of almost every magical creature in this realm, and his scent was unfamiliar to her.

"Hmm? So you've actually heard about us. Most don't even know we exist and think it's some scary story the king conjured up... But yeah. If we can get away with it, we do eat the humans we meet. It's the only thing we can digest."

"I know almost every creature in this realm. I hear about a lot of things also." a small smile, then she looked back towards the castle. She had chosen to ignore the whole human-eating part, since it didn't really concern her. "Maybe we should get back. Before people start thinking the wrong things, with us being gone for so long."

"They're used to be just ditching the banquets. But guess so. I just, uhm. Gotta wash up." he let the black and red recede from his eyes, finding a barrel with rainwater at the corner, and cleaning away the last blood and puke, gurgling in it, too, and spitting out the now-dirty water.

"You still stink, by the way. I don't think washing up will help you with that." she teased before she left to get back to the castle, keeping her hood on now since the moon had risen and she was afraid of what would happen if she took it off - the moonlight could still reach her through the windows after all.

"Only because of your wolf nose..." he huffed, ran a hand through his hair, and followed.

"And because of your hideous smell." she mumbled as she returned to her seat, though she wasn't allowed to sit for long before the same knight as she had danced with earlier, asked her for yet another dance. With a low groan, she politely accepted, faking a smile.

At the same time Finn and Eira had been joined by one of the knights Finn often patrolled with, and the two boys were lively talking about the results of today's tournament, while Oliver was lying on the floor at Eira's feet, scaring away most of the young and low ranked knights who dared to even try and approach her, in an attempt to getting her to dance with them - some of there were no more than 16 years old.

Uta smiled - nah, smirked was more like it - glad he didn't have to, as he simply sat down again.

Eira just busied herself petting Oliver with a big smile on her face.