"The human-shapes whispered about this."
Annie jumped and spun around, breath catching in her throat when she saw him. When she’d left she hadn’t told anyone about it– not even her closest friends. So naturally she was feeling a little awkward about meeting up with everyone again.
Well, awkward, nervous, worried– there were a lot of things she was feeling right now that she’d really rather not be. In the end, after standing there and staring at him for solid minute she finally forced herself to say something.
“H– hey.”
Kha’Zix did not bother with a response, approach the smaller being with but a pair of steps to bring his chitinous brow against he shoulder, antennae flicking and twitching furiously in and and every direction they could, not trusting the sensory deception that could arise over distance. His spike racks hovered dangerously close to the fire mage’s face as he investigated her, the tip only barely missing the end of her nose, easily capable of hewing the delicate flesh open.
A scythe raised, moving with utmost precision to maneuver the coarse, downright uncomfortable fur that dotted his body into position against Annie’s own body, probing for telling aspects that only a hyper aware super-predator–or perhaps a particularly perceptive lover–would ever have taken note of. The faintest ideas of scars the young woman accrued through her decidedly dangerous interactions with the world, be they lumbering, primordial dragonic forces that had been stumbled upon by accident or simple kitchen accidents.
Had even one been out of place, had the reek of her human magic not been so identical to what the extraplanar hunter remembered with nigh-on perfect clarity, had her response not been so entirely expected in its surprise and discomfort, she would be reduced to a deluge of gore for the imposter that she was.
Yet here she stand, in the flesh. The Reaver drew back when his investigations finally completed, and his brow adopted an uncomfortable, unnatural and uncanny crook.
“You are so unintelligent, Mah’Augi,” he said, his tone a butchered mockery of the one she had used to reprimand a similar disappearance of his own so long ago, though the words used were callous by comparison, clearly demonstrating that his linguistic aptitude had not changed since their last meeting.
“Kha, I– “ Whatever she might have said was cut off as he stepped closer to her, then started… well, doing his thing. She knew he was different. Processing information in a way she couldn’t really understand, but didn’t question. Even when he came dangerously close to slicing her nose open or rubbed up against her with the worlds most uncomfortable feeling fur.
She winced, but didn’t complain. Then he finally stopped and backed away, but before she could speak up he cut her off with his own words. She stared at him blankly, barely registering them. She’d meant what she’d said to him all that time ago, about him being completely stupid for running off like that without warning.
Then she’d gone and done the exact same thing, and she knew he was right. Even if it was merely meant as an imitation, it was right. something inside her stirred, a feeling of loss and desperation that had driven her to leave in the first place. A feeling of deep sadness.
She forced herself to smile, even though tears were welling up in her eyes.
“Yeah, I really am, aren’t I?” she said, voice wavering. Silence fell between the two for a few moments afterwards.
“I’m sorry.”
Silence was always welcome whenever it came to interacting with humans, easing the need to dissect their unnecessarily complex communication. Such was not the case as the uneasy hollow fell between them, broken by the flicking of the Reaver’s wings. An echo of pain, as if a body part had been wrenched off, radiated throughout his body, yet without any source he could locate. It didn’t help with the frustration.
The confusion took hold before the annoyance did, spurring the monster into action again, eyes shifting from green to blue to black to a swirling mixture of vibrant orange and purple, looking through spectrums that only a handful of obscure Runeterran creatures were even aware of. Kha’Zix’s eyes scanned over his friend quickly, but nothing became apparent, and the errand was dropped as quickly as it had occurred to him.
Frustration welled up and took hold next, as he reached forward and gave the young mage a harsh push with his curled wrist, eyes narrowed and fangs bared. Instincts to hunt, to kill, to consume, bubbled up and were quashed in a show of irritation, as the hunter lashed his scythe out in a flash of purple, reaching past Annie’s shoulder and burying the tip into the floor behind her, its length crackling with harsh Void energies.
With a scythe acting as a wall to bar her escape, Kha’Zix closed the distance until the two were nearly touching once more, snarling between words, “you are different than the human-shapes, better than them. Stronger, faster, smarter, yet you wail all the same. You are unharmed, there I have searched everything I know to search in your body for pain that could cause it.” Spoken in little more than a hissing whisper with spittle dripping out from between his needle-like fangs, the Reaver’s anger was clear.
“So who hurt you, human-child? Who must I toss to your feet, who must I feed to you?”
