The Fall of Man RP

The large reptile walked calmly through the streets with his long tail inches away from making contact with the ground, his right clawed hand was holding a bag that was basically a cloth made of different fabrics stitched together. His grasp on the bag was tight, just tight enough it wouldn’t be snatched from his claws by an incautious desperate animal. Marrok was completely aware that it was sometimes necessary to be careful with his belongings when wandering around Lower Collinwood, the area he lived in, since it wasn’t a rare occurrence for a thief to appear from time to time. Being a saltwater crocodile was helpful in keeping most of the thieves away due his intimidating size and strength but there were always the foolish creatures that would try to steal from him when they thought he wasn’t looking. It was often extremely annoying but that was life in Lower Collinwood.

Any carnivorous animal that had a good sense of smell could tell by a simple sniff what was inside the bag he was holding, it was twelve red apples. Like any evolved creature that lived in Collinwood he was a carnivorous being that only needed meat, but he enjoyed from time to time eating some fruits as a snack when he was able to get his claws on some of them. It wasn’t frequent so his species couldn’t be considered an omnivorous type of creature but it happened. The crocodile had picked them during one of his small hunting trips in the Cerdaville woods for a random butcher that was paying him for his services, mostly to avoid having to buy the fruits in a shop or from a wandering trader.

Marrok was hoping that when he arrived home, the abandoned building he claimed as home, he would be able to rest for the time being until he had to do another hunting trip to sustain himself when he passed by a narrow alleyway lined by trash and filth and stopped by its entrance. The alleyway’s smell made him grimace, it reeked strongly of the smell of trash. For a moment he could have sworn he had smelled and heard something strange, he sniffed the air in search of something other than the rotting trash with curiosity of what could be hiding in the alleyway. Marrok wasn’t able to catch the scent of anything other than the filth that littered the narrow alleyway, at least nothing that had a scent stronger than the trash, but even with his failure at detecting any strange scent he ventured into the alleyway with curiosity fueling his mind.

After entering the unknown and narrow alleyway he was quick to spot a bipedal figure, even if they only smelled like pines he managed to realize that what he was looking at was a male hume covered by a thick cloak near a pine cone mound on fire. For a moment his slitted reptilian eyes grew in surprise and shock by the sight, especially since the human appeared to be taller than the domestic hume bred in Collinwood. “Was he captured when he was young?”, he wondered. The hume, or at least the saltwater crocodile thought he was, was tired. Marrok didn’t know if the human was starved or not so his worries about the human simply fleeing decreased due to his possible tired state but it still was present. Marrok kept his distance from the human, not wanting to intimidate the human, and crouched down as one would do near a lost child to make himself appear smaller and more friendly. Something that didn’t usually work when you are a reptile taller than ten feet. He slowly grabbed an apple from the bag he still was holding while making his claws visible at all times.

“Are you hungry?”, the crocodile asked with some worry seeping into his voice, “I have some apples if you would like some”.

Kei

As Kei placed the small box, the colors and graphics adorning it almost faded to oblivion, back into the cloak's pocket, a large yawn slipped out. The change of sleeping habits that he had been forced into, of sleeping during the day and awakening at night ,was already taking a hold of his body. Once all of this was over, he could afford some rest. Pretend that he was laying down on the soft pallet of various skins laid out over a pile of leaves which he called a bed. But he had to get through this first.

He continued to watch the flame's mesmerizing dance. Drawn into a lull by the cracking and popping of burning wood as the fire began to eat eat away at the bottom of the wall, charring it black, a voice snapped him out of his daze:


Jumping up, he locked eyes with a colossal creature that was covered in scales, with a long, pointed snout and tail that was even longer. When face to face with such a large beast his first instinct was to run, but a strong inhale of the smoke that was wafting around crushed this train of thought. No, what he needed to do right now was protect the fire. He couldn't abandon his creation. It still needed more time to grow.

He watched the animal wearily with teeth bared in warning. The reptile wasn't showing any signs of threat. Still, Kei couldn't turn his attention away from the huge fangs that jutted out of it's maw or the sharp claws that were wrapped around an object, small and red. Some sort of food? Slowly he walked forward, form as rigid as stone, until he was in close enough range. Then, without a second to lose, he latched on to the crocodile's bag and began to pull.

Marrok carefully observed the human quickly realize that he wasn’t the only living creature in the narrow alleyway, for some reason it seemed as if the human didn’t expect to encounter any of the beasts that inhabited the Lower Collinwood. His slitted pupils grew slightly with surprise and confusion upon the hume unexpectedly bared his unsharpened teeth as some sort of warning to the large reptile. For the saltwater crocodile it was quite an unique encounter, he never had seen a human bare their teeth upon encountering a carnivore creature bigger than them, actually he never had seen a human bare their teeth at all.

The large reptile’s facial expression remained the same as before being surprised by the mammal’s behaviour, it wasn’t hard to guess that the hume felt threatened. “Maybe it is my size? My teeth? My claws? Maybe it's everything that makes me a crocodile”, Marrok thought. The crocodile watched the mammal slowly approach him, he stood still without moving a single limb not wanting to scare the human away, latched on his bag made of many different fabrics and pulling it in an attempt to snatch it from his strong grasp. Even with the hume trying to take the bag from his clawed hands he remained unmoving like a boulder. Marrok slowly opened his hands, to avoid startling the human, releasing the bag from his hold and allowing the hume to snatch it from his claws without any more resistance.

When he had first spotted the mammal in the narrow alleyway he had immediately thought that it was just a hume following the orders of waiting in the alleyway from an uncaring owner that needed to do something without being accompanied by their domestic human. That thought was extremely unreasonable due the mammal’s behaviour, lack of scent of other carnivores and the absence of a collar in their neck. It was clear that he was facing a wild hume. It brought him many unanswered questions, one of them being what a wild human would be doing in Lower Collinwood and why. “Wouldn’t it be more logical for a hume to stay hidden in some forest if they don’t want to be captured?”, the large lizard wondered.

“Are you lost?”, Marrok said in an attempt to start a conversation.


Kei

The bag clutched firmly in his grip, he immediately retreated back to the safety of the fire. Once Kei could feel the heat, his shoulders relaxed and he looked down at his new treasure with a small smile tugging at his lips. That had been easy. But the smile morphed into a frown once he looked into the rag-tag bag and found only more of the red fruits. Brushing his disheveled hair out his face, he peered at the crocodile, obviously confused. He (Well, Kei guessed it was a 'he', judging by the pitch of it's voice. He often had trouble telling male and female animals apart, especially when it came to the birds and the reptiles) was acting way too calm for someone who just had their possessions taken away from them. What was he up to? 

Kei snorted, head held high as he took out an apple. Just as he had began to spin it around in his hand, checking for any mold, the reptile asked him a question. One that he felt he needed to answer. 

"No...not lost," he answered, voice flat and monotonous. "Know where I am...." It was clear that language wasn't one of Kei's strong points. He had no need for language because he had no one to talk to. Because of this his vocabulary and knowledge of grammar had diminished over the years, replaced with skills that were more necessary for survival. Fortunately, he had hung on to the basics. At least enough for simple communication.

He had some food (no 'thank you' necessary). He had his fire. Now he could be left alone. Still possessing an unhealthy dose of confidence, Kei chucked the apple back into the bag and and then pointed towards the direction that the strange croc had came in from. "You lost. Get out."

The large reptile chuckled softly as his slitted eyes slightly crinkled with amusement evident in his orange reptilian eyes. He attempted to give a soft smile but it would mostly pass unnoticed by most creatures due his jaws already naturally appearing to give a terrifying and threatening toothy grin with his ever present sharp teeth visible to every being that encountered him or spotted him in the streets. Marrok slowly rocked his long scaled tail from side to side in a calming and relaxed manner, it didn’t move as fast as the tail of a canine would move. “This is the first time I ever heard or saw a hume giving orders to an animal in Collinwood, especially to a fearsome crocodile”, Marrok said softly to not startle the human, “You truly are a very confident huma did you know that?”.

He got up from his crouched position with a little sigh as he looked at the only mammal in the narrow alleyway. “I'm not a rebel but I would advise you to not be so trusting towards most of the carnivores that inhabit this land, they may try to capture you the moment they spot you without a collar. Having a hume walking around Collinwood is considerate a dangerous thing since your kind may harm animals if left loose. I would capture you myself but I guess you wouldn’t be very pleased”, the saltwater crocodile said.

Marrok turned around and started to walk towards the narrow alleyway’s entrance before stopping one more time and looking at the human. “When you get captured by some animal don’t tell them about me. I don’t know if not capturing a hume when the opportunity is present is a crime”, he said while waving his clawed hands as a goodbye. The large reptile left the narrow alleyway and the human’s field of vision.


Kei

With his new bag hung on his shoulder, Kei watched as the brute lumbered off, grumpy but nevertheless compliant. A good portion of what the crocodile had said flew over his head. The rest he simply didn't want to understand. He knew where he was. He knew what he was doing here. He knew of the dangers that came with wandering into the animals' territory. Bending down, Kei scooped up a handful of ash, warm and dry, and rubbed his hands together, coating both in a dense layer. He then turned to the opposite side of the alley and pressed a palm against the stone wall. After letting up a gray handprint was revealed. All worth it.

And that's when he heard it. A loud cracking sound, like the one made when breaking a big branch off of a tree. Wasting no time he started to run, making sure not to head in the direction that he had come in from. Kei didn't look back to see the wall collapse, finally admitting defeat in it's battle against the fire.

Just as he acknowledged that everything was going according to plan Kei skidded to a halt, an ever swelling group of concerned citizens blocking his escape. The group parted, letting a coyote mounted atop a Shire horse as black as night pass through. Whipping out a blade, the canine pointed it at the human, aim focused on the neck, right where a collar should have been.