NIKI
This deep out in the woods, Niki is confident that he's unlikely to be interrupted, but of course that doesn't take into account the possibility that someone might be looking for him and that the Greatwood might magically make it happen. Regardless, his concentration is such that he wouldn't have sensed Sunjata coming even if he'd been clomping through the undergrowth with bells on his boots, and as he sneaks out into the open the necromancer is just getting to grips with his new bear companion.
He's got it moving more or less naturally now - as naturally as a corpse with only bone and shreds of flesh can move in any case - and it has walked in a slow pass around him when his name hits the air. The spell breaks with all the dry finality of a twig snapping; the bear collapses in on itself immediately, at the same time as Niki almost jumps out of his skin, and he's panting from both the surprise and the exertion as he flinches around to face the source of the call.
Which is when he spots Sunjata, of course, and he has to keep his breath from skipping in his throat as his gaze lands on Frey's Favourite Sex Symbol. "Sunjata," he breathes, looking dizzy now, and it's only half because of the Flood. "Gods, sorry, I was not..." Expecting company, expecting my magic to work, prepared to see you - take your pick, Jata.
He's got it moving more or less naturally now - as naturally as a corpse with only bone and shreds of flesh can move in any case - and it has walked in a slow pass around him when his name hits the air. The spell breaks with all the dry finality of a twig snapping; the bear collapses in on itself immediately, at the same time as Niki almost jumps out of his skin, and he's panting from both the surprise and the exertion as he flinches around to face the source of the call.
Which is when he spots Sunjata, of course, and he has to keep his breath from skipping in his throat as his gaze lands on Frey's Favourite Sex Symbol. "Sunjata," he breathes, looking dizzy now, and it's only half because of the Flood. "Gods, sorry, I was not..." Expecting company, expecting my magic to work, prepared to see you - take your pick, Jata.
stay your pretty eyes on course
keep the memories of who i was before
keep the memories of who i was before
