Nate's scoffing dismissal burned Kel's pride, and he finally raised his chin in something more like defiance as he stopped retreating, though the wariness and tension remained as he stood poised like a stag caught between flight and charging. "A long ways away from here," he said with as much quiet dignity as he could muster after almost falling in the geyserfield and letting Nate intimidate him. "There was no reason to live all piled on top of each other like that. The Forest provided, as long as we weren't greedy." Painting an overly-rosy picture, sure, but the stranger was getting under his skin and Kel felt the need to defend his home from the fanged man's derision.
The following question, though, brought a little embarrassed heat to Kel's cheeks. He didn't glance away - the other man was far too much of a mystery and potential threat for that - but his shoulders slumped a little as he tried to tally the days that had begun to blur. "I... a few weeks, maybe. I was mostly keeping to myself, out in the jungle here before... before the volcano happened." A word he knew largely from overhearing the people in town talk about it; there had been no such geological timebombs near his Forest home. "What's... what's an 'ascended'?" Humans and Fae, wielders of magic and those who could change shape without cloaks of feathers or skins, those he'd seen walking around the town in the sunlight since he'd been forced to shelter there. No one like this, though, sharp toothed and breathless and dangerous in the moonlight.
The following question, though, brought a little embarrassed heat to Kel's cheeks. He didn't glance away - the other man was far too much of a mystery and potential threat for that - but his shoulders slumped a little as he tried to tally the days that had begun to blur. "I... a few weeks, maybe. I was mostly keeping to myself, out in the jungle here before... before the volcano happened." A word he knew largely from overhearing the people in town talk about it; there had been no such geological timebombs near his Forest home. "What's... what's an 'ascended'?" Humans and Fae, wielders of magic and those who could change shape without cloaks of feathers or skins, those he'd seen walking around the town in the sunlight since he'd been forced to shelter there. No one like this, though, sharp toothed and breathless and dangerous in the moonlight.
