Hunting Beasties (Private - Xald and Bey - M-GLEc(?))

Max laughed, slowly starting to stand and stretch, showing off his well toned form. "As you say. Did you pack a two person sleeping bag for ze both of us?" He said with a suggestive wink.

Natalie rolled her eyes, tossing a towel across his lap, "Only because it is cold. Would be foolish to sleep with one body heat." she muttered, rummaging through her bag for the sleeping bag.

"Is zat ze only reason? You vound me." He teased, holding the towel to his groin but making no effort to find clothes to wear while sleeping.

Natalie groaned, "Do you german men alvays think vith the vrong head?"

"Only vhen it comes to pretty Russian women." He said, winking suggestively at her once again and rolling his hips.

Natalie threw the full backpack onto his stomach, not caring that it was incredibly heavy. She rolled out the sleeping bag, stripping down to her underclothes. Her hips were wide set, though her legs were long and thin. She had a thick raised scar around her left side, dotted along the edges from stitching. Fairly recent. She unpinned her bangs, letting a thick loose curl fall over her face as she climbed into the bag, red nose and cheeks glinting in firelight. "Go to sleep." She muttered.

Max let out an ooph as the bag slammed into his midsection, huffing softly while he studied her out of the corner of his eye. After a few moments, he set the pack down, and crawled in behind her, his back to hers.

Natalie grunted a sort of acknowledgement, but for a long while all that could be heard was the sound of her breathing, and the wind howling over the snow.
Max was silent as well, save for breathing. He was looking out at the cave entrance, though his mind wandered to his meister.

It was odd in a way, how still she kept through the night. The occasional murmur between breaths clued him to her sleeping, but she was warm, and soft in the places their backs touched. And yet, she hardly moved, even while the cave floors were hard and rough to rest on.

Max found himself pressing back into her as the night went on. He had a hard time staying asleep, not because of how rough the floor was but because he was anxious. If what the school library had to say was true, they could very well be walking to their deaths. After a long enough time, he rolled over, hesitantly wrapping his arms around her.

The gesture didn't wake her, in fact he started to wonder if he was in fact sleeping next to a stone. The belief might have persisted if she didn't scoot back a little, pressing her back into his embrace.

He held her just a little tighter as she pressed back into him, lifting his head just slightly to curve around her, resting his head in her hair.

She smelled like pine needles and warm bourbon. It was somehow rough and homey all at the same time, but natural and easy. Natalie's toes curled a bit, gripping the sleeping bag, but releasing it right after.

Max hummed softly, then breathed her scent in deeply. He enjoyed the richness of it, and nestled closer to her, flacid length pressing into the small of her back.

Natalie didn't stir or move all night, and the combined body heat of the two of them kept the sleeping bag plenty warm while the air outside whistled harshly by, chapping exposed lips if they weren't buried behind something. Natalie must have been used to weather like this though, because she slept with her fingers curled into a fist covering her mouth.

Max nuzzled her gently, then felt his eyes start to close. True, he wouldn't get any sleep, but it would be best if he at least attempted to rest. He pressed himself closer to her supple yet muscular frame and sighed, once again breathing in her earthy scent.

When morning came, the crackling fire was the most prominent noise. The wind outside had stopped, and Natalie had started cooking a rabbit, and was skinning another, "You wake." she mused.

"You imply I slept..." He said softly, rolling onto his back. "I vas awake zrough ze night... I felt you move vhen you woke..." He mumbled, turning his head and looking at her. "You smell nice..."

She shrugged, "Is probably my shampoo." she slid her knife along the skin, pulling meat from bone in a most unladylike fashion.

"Or perhaps you just smell like a goddess..." He mused, looking at her with a new appreciation in his eyes.

OOC: How is she dressed?

OOC: Literally in a giant fur coat.

Natalie rolled her eyes, "We do not have goddesses in Russia. Only God and St. Mary."

OOC: Ok, but only the fur coat, or is she fully dressed again?

Max rolled onto his side and smiled at her, the expression much less lecherous than any he had given her last night. "Zat does not mean you can't smell like vone..."

OOC: She's fully clothed

Natalie rolled her eyes, "Please stop." she said cooly, and distantly. It was clipped, and icy, teetering on the edge of a very real and valid threat.

"As you wish..." He said softly, slipping out of the sleeping bag and setting about clothing himself. While he kept his pants and lower clothing much the same, save the addition of long underwear, instead of his usual button up he instead put on a thick wool t-shirt, then a longer sleeved shirt, and finally his leather jacket, pulling the black material tight around himself. "Ze storm vill have ruined any conventional tracks... Zis hunt vill not be as easy as I hoped."

Natalie nodded, "I thought about baiting eet. See if we can bring eet out. Tracks are useless."

"How vould ve bait it? Do you have a spare human carcass lying around?" He asked with a brow raised, taking a moment to glance out the cave for any sign of trouble.

"No," she spoke slowly, carefully working her knife between each of the vertebrae of the rabbit, "But I was going to make one."

Max furrowed his brow, looking at his meister. "Vhat, exactly, do you mean by zat?"

She held up the rabbits, "I take blood, and the guts, and I make me look like dead person. You hide in tree, shoot when it gets close."

"Zat... No. You vill not make yourself bait. Ve will find another body, perhaps of a bear or deer." He said firmly, turning on her and crossing his arms to show his resolve.

"I have better idea."
Thundered a voice which sounded like snow tumbling down a mountain, and the figure who spoke more or less resembled one too. Nikolay had a face which looked like stone when he was happy, and stone which had been blown apart by dynamite at the worst, all hard planes and angles with black bushy hair from his brows and face.
"How about we go into cave and kill monster like honest men, vith fists." He said, holding up a hand roughly the size of a ham to demonstrate.
His testosterone fueled bravado was broken though when his fearsome gaze settled on Natalie. "Ah, my little Kotehok!" He bellowed, face crumpling inwards as he bull-rushed her into a rough embrace.

Natalie grinned and laughed, embracing the giant man in kind, "Uncle Nikolai!!" She called, looking like a child in his arms, even though she was considered fairly tall among her classmates.

Max looked between the two and raised a brow before clearing his throat. "Apologies sir, but ze creature is not in ze cave. Zis is vhere we took shelter from last night's storm. Ve have no idea vhere the beast is."

Nikolay shifted a once again steely gaze to Max, with a massively loud harumph, and much blowing of his mustache outwards in consternation. Thick brows drew downwards like hoods. "I can find creature anyvay." He said with a monstrous clap, accompanied by a whistle " It just so happens I have tracker." With that something even bigger than Nikolay exploded from the underbrush, all matted brown fur and muscle. Ragnar the bear was thrice the size of the largest polar bear, and 10 times as fierce. "Ragnar can find creature." he said with a pleased nod. He walked to the huge creature and hugged it like his niece, though even his massive arms strained to get around the bears' neck. For it's part, Ragnar drooled down Nikolay's back affectionately, while still managing to look like murder incarnate.

Natalie grinned, "Zee bear will find it. Max, meet Ragnar the bear. And my Uncle Nikolai. Also likely a bear." she teased.

"Ve'll see if zis pans out..." He mumbled, pulling his leather jacket and then watching the large Russian, focusing more on him than on the bear.

Nikolay crossed his arms about his chest and nodded to Ragnar, who began sniffing about zealously before raising his shaggy head and bellowing, heading off into the trees, knocking over shrubs and small animals as he went, clearing a path for the Shibusen.
Nikolay put a finger to the side of his nose and looked at the smaller people ominously "You follow. The bear knows the way."

Natalie didn't even hesitate, pulling the hat over her head, and shoving her hands in her pockets, "Do you have any vodka?"

Max shrugged his shoulders and left the three of them on their own, stepping out of the cave and pulling a small carton of cigarettes from his jacket. He huffed, breath misting in front of his face, aand pulled his lighter out, lighting the cigarette and taking a long draw from it.