Shiroi tightened her hold on the buffalo's neck with her gloved arms, her teeth clenched and hissing in effort, her eyes wide as she drew her arms in, closer, and closer, while the animal bucked frantically in rage and fear, but Shiroi held on, and snarled, and with one last burst of strength crushed its neck, and slid off with amazing ease as the beast crumpled to the ground.

Shiroi's arms trembled slightly from over exertion, but she steadied it as she pulled out her dagger, something she'd taken before leaving the Blades of the Red Hearts, and plunged it into the fallen beast's thick skin. With a ferocious pull she ripped herself an opening, and she grabbed the broken skin, and worked at ripping large portions of the skin off, with the help of her brutal strength and trusty dagger. Blood stained her person and attires, but she seems not to notice, nor care.

Treijan tracks its counterpart as stealthily as one can in full field armor. Blade drawn, he draws along side it while its attention is riveted by... some commotion off to the right, he can't see very well from here. No matter. A quick thrust of his sword terminates his prey's speculation, and he steps aside to avoid being crushed beneath it. As it falls, he gets a clear look at what had held its attention fatally; ...good gods, that's a messy way of going about it. He stands transfixed, much as the buffalo had before he, er, transfixed it.

Shiroi then carved out a fair sized hunk of raw meat with her dagger, and held out one hand, seeming to concentrate. Bright sparks appeared, but vanished just as quick. Releasing a heavy sigh, Shiroi then shrugged, and held up the bloody meat to her mouth, and gnawed.

Treijan frowns, faintly, at her, and at the corpse at his feet, and back over at her. "It's...ahh...it's much better cooked, I hear," he calls, and leaves his blade in his buffalo to get a better look at who this is making such a mess of themself.

Shiroi looked up at the voice, coming from a distance, and spotted a young man coming over her way. Straightening up, Shiroi gave a simple wipe at her blood-stained mouth with similiarly blood-stained hands, and smiled. "Are you offering your assistance at that?" She called.

Treijan's frown deepens slightly. "You left without a means to start a fire? Unprepared," he chides. "I have a fire going back this way, though, if you care to bring a little of that." He gestures at the most of a buffalo that she'd just been mangling.

Shiroi smirked. "Aah, my apologizes. My survival skills and knowledge are nothing compared to yours. I'm just a city brat, really." Pondering at the buffalo, she shrugged, and grabbed it by it's head, catching its neck under her right arm, and dragged the whole thing over to her new friend. "Shall we go?"

Treijan pauses a moment, making a rough estimation of the amount of meat on the buffalo against how much they were likely to eat, and decides that one should be enough. "....ahh...yeah, let's go." He heads back in the direction from which he'd approached, pausing to retrieve his sword from the other buffalo.

Shiroi nodded, being her usual agreeable self, and waited for the young man to lead.

The ruins of Kefka's Tower

Walking around in the ruins of rock, rubble and dirt, you don't find a whole lot, but some of the things you find here may prove useful... It looks like a war has been fought here. Some old warrior's equipment are are laying around this place.

Treijan surveys his campsite with evident disapproval. "Damn it twice, I /know/ I stoked that enough for how long I was out." He stirs the cooling ashes with a toe, and boots a ruined helmet aside petulantly.

Shiroi smirked. "Hey, the helmet never did anything to you," she quiped.

Treijan mumbles something about it being in his way, and draws a long breath. "Well. You can set that down, for now. I'll have this going again in a moment." He draws his blade again, and begins to concentrate on the tip of it.

Shiroi released a long sigh of relief. "Oh, good." She nodded, and released her hold on the massive, dead animal's head. Hmm, what's the boy doing? More magic, likely.

Treijan is, indeed, doing more magic. Don't you just hate that? Flames wreath the end of his blade, and he pokes it about in a vaguely purposeful manner in the remnants of the fire, until bits of it catch again. He extinguishes his blade by sticking it in the ground, near the fire, and untenses with a sigh. "There we go."

Shiroi cracked a grin. "Aah, neatness. You've created fire." Walking over to her recent kill, she sawed a leg off, more or less, with her dagger, and brought it over to the fire. Hmm. "Got anything I can put this over?"

Treijan has... let's see, what /has/ he? "Uhh... don't know. I use the sword, usually. Lean it on a rock or something. Works for me."

Shiroi nodded, and left the leg leaning near the fire to roast. "Aah... got any water you wouldn't mind sparing? I'm kinda bloody."

Treijan shuffles through the disorganization behind himself, and tosses her a canteen after a moment. "Use what you need; we're not too far from a source."

Shiroi caught the canteen, took off the lid, and took a swig of water. "Hate to impose on your further, but have you got a piece of cloth I could wipe myself clean with?"

Treijan has any number of pieces of cloth, and it can be assumed that one probably could wipe one's self clean with one if one cared to. He tosses a handful of miscellaneous rags, formerly destined to be either fire-starting material or polishing cloth.

Shiroi soaked some cloth with the water from the canteen, set to making herself presentable again. "So, may I have your name, or shall I call you My Provider?" she smirked.

Treijan grins, faintly. "Treijan, if you /must/ know. And, if you must, I think it's only fair that I know yours."

Shiroi nods. "Fair enough, Treijan. People call me Shiroi."

Treijan nods, likewise, and peers over at the roasting meat. "So... if you're an urbanite, what are you doing dismembering buffalo on the plains?"

Shiroi cocked her head in an mocking attempt to look innocent. "I read too much romantic novels and decided to escape reality and start living out an advanture?"

Treijan keeps his expression neutral. Bah, why does he get all the wierd ones. "So," he begins again, "what about your experiences so far was unreal?"

Shiroi'hmm'ed. "Well, that depends on how you define 'unreal'."

Treijan shrugs elaborately. "I don't, really. Unreality is something that happens to other people."

Shiroi whistled. "Touche." With a last touch on her boots she's clean once more. "So, what are /you/ doing out here? Surely not just to rescue romantic city runts lik rescue romantic city runts like me?"

Treijan makes a face. "Oh, but of course! I lie in waiting for days on end for people like you to wander by. It, ahh, seems I just haven't been able to stir myself to go home," he continues more seriously. "The more I stayed out here, the less I felt like going back."

Shiroi raised an eyebrow. "No family?"

Treijan shakes his head, sadly. "Dead in the occupation."

Shiroi winced. "Oo, ouch. So it's just you, huh?"

Treijan nods, just as sadly. "More or less. I haven't even seen or heard from most of my friends since the invasion."

Shiroi raised an eyebrow, again. "Invasion?"

Treijan nods again. "Invasion. Of Tzen. By Nikeah. Some months ago... I dunno, maybe a year, even."

Shiroi nodded in a way that seems to say 'oh, but of course!" "Aah, you used to live in this Tzen?"

Treijan nods. "Lovely town. Still is, actually. Since they would seem to be here to stay, they've been going out of their way not to wreck the place /too/ much. I might have stayed there, even, but... ...meh, I don't know. They bother me."

Shiroi pondered that for a moment, staring at Treijan. "So, how old are you?" she asked.

Treijan hold up both hands, spread, then closes one. "Fifteen, give or take."

Shiroi whistled again. "Hmm, well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

Treijan frowns. "What's that supposed to mean? You can't be much older, I should think."

Shiroi shrugged. "Oh, no, just someone as wood wise and independent as yourself. Most people I know your age couldn't quite do that."

Treijan shrugs dismissively. "I'm sure there's plenty of stuff most of your friends can do that I can't."

Treijan has not forgotten about the meat, no he hasn't. It might be a trifle tough, now, but it is, on the other hand, quite nicely smoked, which is about as much seasoning as one can get out here. He offers it to Shiroi first, since it was her buffalo in the first place.

Shiroi . o O (whoever said anything about friends?) But the meat is done, oh yay, and she carves out a piece with her dagger, and chews from that. "Ow, hot."

Treijan winces. "Watch it. I /did/ just pull it off the fire, y'know." He carves off his own piece with a small knife, and eats a bit more circumspectly.

Shiroi took up the canteen again and took another swig of water to cool her burnt tongue. "Ah, yes, I'm careless like that." She chewed thoughtfully. "So, how long have you been out here?"

Treijan shrugs, elaborately. "I survive. There's food, and water, and a reasonable approximation of shelter. I might head for a city sometime, except I can't honestly think of a reason to."

Shiroi nods. "Aaah... got no specific reason to want to go anywhere, huh?" And she carved out another piece of the leg, and laid down on her back, staring at the top of the ruin that they're taking shelter under....

Treijan nods, slowly. "That does, rather neatly, sum it up." The overhang under which they've taken refuge was probably a floor in its previous incarnation. Its surface bears an interestingly organic tile-pattern.

Shiroi poped the meat inside her mouth, and chewed, and swallowed. "Hmm, neither do I." She said, still staring up at the top.

Treijan sighs, quietly. "You, ah, left of your own accord, I hope?"

Shiroi stretched, still laid back on the ground. "Left where?"

Treijan blinks. "Well, I assume you came here from somewhere."

Shiroi nodded. "Well, that. Yeah, sure. No one made me go, but I thought 'what the hell... might as well look around while I'm here.'"

Treijan nods. "You, uh, aren't looking for anything in particular around here?"

Shiroi looked at her hands, as if making sure that all the fingers are still attached. "Well, I haven't lost anything. So I guess I wouldn't be looking for them."

Treijan shakes his head. "No, I mean, scenery, like. Although this is more or less /the/ landmark in these parts."

Shiroi shrugged. "Well, that... Not really. Just... walking around. Wandering aimlessly, as I have done all my life."

Treijan nods. "That sounds like a strangely attractive plan, right now."

Shiroi closed her eyes, and started humming an intro to a song. "Bat your eyes girl, be o-therworldly, count your blessings, seduce a stran-ger. What's so wrong with, be-ing happy? Ku-dos to those who, see through sickness, yeah.... over an' over an' over an' oo-ooo-o-o..."