Night's Omen

Caleb thought a moment and then said, "I do odd jobs for people."  He shrugged.  Not even his sisters understood the whole Frost Guild, paid killer thing.  He'd talked to a witcha nd sort of understood that most people weren't okay with it.  Besides he did do an oddjob for people... sort of.

"It's fun, you never know what's going to happen next..."

"Oh?" she asked, tilting her head. She finally managed to finagle a cigarette off of Paris after much begging, and turned to him after she'd lit it. She held it away from her face - the smoke still bothered her, but in this state, the actual act of it was sort of relaxing. She was drunk.

She smiled lazily at him, and then reached out to poke him in the shoulder gently. "You smell nice. Sort of like... home. I haven't been back in so long, I need to go. Maybe for a week or two in the summer I will. I miss it.. so vast. I'll go hiking. None of that Wolf Creek shit though, I'm a bit too spry for the likes of it. I don't reckon someone would want to try it much anyways, I've got friends who could knock a fellow out with their training."

Errr... now she'd have to explain herself. Or she could pass it off as drunk speech. "Ebere would smash one of those creepy Outback fellows."

"I don't think I'd want to faceof with this Ebere woman in a dark alley," Caleb said with a chuckle, "Though I'm pretty sure I could take her in the outback."   He looked at her.  All evidence pointed to her being drunk and he completely missed the "training" comment his eye briefly resting on a pretty woman in the distance.  However, the beautiful woman next to him wo happened to be drunk took his attention again.

"Is Ebere one of your Pakana friends?"  It was an arbitray question, btu it worked.  He decided now would be the time to order another drink for himself, but not necessarily his partner.  She'd probably had enough.

"Oh, yes, she's a Pakana as well - she and Skye, both - Hey, I want another, also!" she exclaimed. Oh yeah, Stella was enjoying this strange weighted/weightless feeling she was getting. She dropped her half-smoked cigarette into an ashtray nearby and tapped on the bar until Paris turned to face her.

"Okay Stella, you git one more, an' that's it. I'm not gonna listen to Lucien when he comes in here wantin' to know why a drunk hyena was wanderin' around the quarters," she warned. "Ebere'd kick my ass." She poured them both one last shot, and then went back to her business.

Stella turned back to Caleb, warm eyes bright and alive and very glassy. She smiled and lost her balance as she tilted around in her chair, planting a long leg firmly on the ground to stop herself from sliding out of it. "We should go to the zoo sometime," she suggested. "When you're sober."

"I'd love to meet other Dingo shape-shifters who weren't family!" Caleb said, takingthe shot of the probably poisonous liquid he was using to get drunk.  Catching the last but from Paris, he looked at Stella oddly. 

"First, who's Lucien?" he asked Stella. 

Then, looking at both Paris and Stella, he said lighlty, "Second, I'm not as truck as you hit and ran."  He pointed at Stella in an accusatory manner, mostly for the heck of it.  He laughed at his little joke in saying the completely wrong thing.  It was pretty stupid, but it worked for him for the moment.  Right?  Right.

He looked at Stella, "We should got to the zoo now."

"Lucien's a Cobra," she said, like that explained everything. She listened intently as he suggested they go to the zoo, and then swiveled in her chair, and hopped down, coming to stand dangerously close to Caleb. She leaned in a little, eyes closed - not for a kiss, of course - she was... smelling him. She buried her face into his neck/shoulder for a moment, and then straightened out, and laughed. It bled slightly into that characteristic hyena sound, but it faded.

"Sorry, been wantin' ta do tha' all night," she slurred. Stella was... drunk. She could walk in a mostly straight line, but as far as intelligent conversation went, she would provide more comedic relief than actual substance. She motioned for the door. "To the zoo?"

Caleb stumbles out of his seat and realized that maybe, just maybe, he was a little buzzed.  That stuff was good stuff.  He should try some more of it later.  Though, he wished she'd give him more explanation of Lucien... but did that really matter?  She was a hot hyena... woman who he'd managed to get incredibly drunk.  Now was time for fun... at a zoo.

"To the zoo!" he said taking her hand in his with one hand and pointing to the door with the other.  Then he guided Stella out of the bar, trying to make sure neither of them stumbled into the wrong person, and probably failing miserably at it.

Failing, yes, that was one way to describe it. Stella was tall enough that she nearly took out a short man by the door. "Sorry!" she blurted, turning, nearly clipping her face with the doorframe as Caleb led her outside. She moved just in time - even drunk, she still retained some semblance of self-preservation. Once outside, it was clear that Stella wasn't able to drive. The zoo wasn't too far away, and she did have a nice jacket, so the walk wouldn't be a long one.

It seemed like forever when she was drunk, though. "So, what do you want to see first?" she asked, breathing into the night air to see her breath turn to frost. She did it enough that she almost hyperventilated, which caused her to dissolve into a fit of giggles.

Caleb couldn't help but giggle a little as Stella nearly ran into the short man and then used a number of her natural abilities to not kill herself on the door.  He watched her carefully as she walked along the street to make sure she didn't trip over a crack in the sidewalk and knock herself out.  He probably wouldn't be much help, what with definately being, at least, buzzed.

"So, what do you want to see first?" she asked.

"Well, I was thinking I'd like to see hyenas first... afterall, that's what you are, right?"  Caleb asked curiously.  Then, Stella started breathing really fast. He grabbed her by the arms and said, "Hey, steady, steady..."  Looking into Stella's eyes, he said slowly, "I think you're the drunk one..."

Stella gazed back, still light-headed from her adventure with the cold air. She smiled a little, impishly, and shrugged underneath his hands. "Maybe," she slurred. "But I think I'm not the only one," she said. She leaned forward - not to kiss him, but to touch noses. An eskimo kiss, really.

"We can go see the tiger!" she exclaimed. "He's always so big and swishing his tail around and stalking things," she trailed. "And I think then the elephant." Yes, elephants were fun. She was glad the zoo was open late.

Caleb giggled and rubbed his nose against Stella's.  He was getting pretty close to shifting just for the hell of it and the sane part of him was starting to think that any idea was a good idea.  That wasn't good.

"Fine.  Tiger first, then Elephant.  After that... we go for the gorrillas.  Sound alright?"  He waited about two second for her to agree.  Then he turned and took off running, probably in the wrong direction for the tiger area. "Race ya!"  Of course alcohol and running didn't exactly work out... at all... ever.  He was on his butt in about five seconds.

Honestly, Stella was right there with him, mentally. She could almost feel her hyena laugh bubbling  up from her chest, and she covered her mouth before it could escape, pulling away from Caleb quickly. She stumbled and nearly put her head between the bars of the monkey cages, and then leaped back as they tried to fling... excrements at her. That did it. She was roaring with laughter now, and somewhere in the zoo, the hyenas awoke and began cackling, too. After a few minutes, all of the animals were making some sort of noise or another, and it sounded like they were standing in the middle of a forest on the Serengeti at sunset.

"We should go," she wheezed, wiping the tears from her eyes. She couldn't explain what had just happened, or why it was so funny, but suddenly, she wanted to run around and just be... free. No sooner than had she reached for Caleb's arm to try and direct him towards her first venue of choice did Stella drop down to the ground in her hyena form. She looked up at him, a sort of grin on her strange features, neither lupine, nor canine, nor feline. The hyena was quite something on its own, and right now, this one was happy and wanted to go explore the zoo on a more realistic brainwave.