A Bemusing Meeting (Private w/ Merlynn)

Agriculturally speaking, Springwood had no peer in the entirety of Bellmuse when it came to getting fresh goods and food, and to be honest, the city gave him a headache. Not to mention the filthy grocery stores, or the fact that he still had a fresh memory in regards to a group of Ursas ravaging his freshly purchased milk.

So instead, Cain had made the decision to hitch himself a ride to the farmers market of Springwood to pick up his next month of food. He had always preferred to have purchases made in bulk, as margin for error always seemed to be more sparse that way. This didn't discount the fact that he feel much more at ease here than he had felt walking through the large crowds back in Bellmuse, as well as how odd it was to have one-on-one interactions with the owners of each stall. He found some odd amount of comfort in it, but coated with a thin layer of bitterness, but still enough that he decided to not wear his armor here. He still kept his sword behind his waist, never too far from reach.

Cain didn't belong here, not in this market, nor this village, not even this island. He belonged at home, fighting for his people again and leading them into a golden age of peace. Instead, he was here, completely in the dark about any goings on in regards to his beloved homeland.

It was only now that he realized that he had been staring at a basket of eggs for several minutes now, completely lost in thought, only brought back to reality by the proprietors inquiry toward helping Cain find something. Cain simply took the basket and left payment, now having 3 baskets of assorted goods in each arm. Thankfully they weren't all too large, nevertheless he was thankful that his airship station was only a few blocks away from the market.

The skys where suddenly flashing with a bright aray of lights as a sudden rain came down, but it was soon followed by a loud crackling thunder that shook the buildings one very core as the air pressure warmed from the vibration. well standing in the path of the man was a rather awestruck looking female. as if frozen in place by the rain her eyes laid wide open much like she was a statue. the rain once a again increased in warmth and pounding much like small pebbles, every one cuaght in the rain was going to be soaked in a matter of moments.


The doe before cain was scarred stiff of the lighting. she was scared stiff by the roar of the thunder. in her mind every thing was blank dead to ther world but her chest showed she was alive as her heart pounded like a race car engine. all she could feel was the rain and felt like she couldn't barely move a muscle this was just her reaction to being caught out side in the beginning of a thunder storm. Merlynn was scarred stiff from the loud sound her body had frozen up right as the roar of the thunder in her mind brought memories of the nightmare that had been haunting her was there in front of her. she was daydreaming of a fear brought about by the sound of the roaring thunder, Merlynns face showed signs of fear and the rain was covering up the tears streaming from her face.

There she stood no more the 10 feet away from cain as every one else ran for cover just making jokes about how they been needing this rain for some time.

Cain simply walked ahead, plodding through the streets along the route to his ship station, ignoring the small droplets of moisture slowly beginning to thicken like a falling wave of fog as the primary front of the storm hit the village. His ears would twitch and telescope around with every clap of thunder as his instincts told him to be wary of danger at this time. Of course, he's long since learned to ignore such false warnings that his faunus anatomy occasionally poked him with.

He did take notice when a young woman, evidently not much older than him stood frozen in the center of the walk that he happened to be travelling along. Cain continued to trudge through the sidewalk which had begun to form puddles by this point. He kept his eye on her as he approached, 10 ft to 5 ft to 4 to 3. She was most curious to him, as it wasn't difficult to make note of the fear on her face. It was practically a blinking sign that simply read 'Help'.

Cain passed by her and continued to walk for about 5 feet until he stopped. He sighed and spoke without turning around.

"You should be inside, you're going to catch your death out here lady, especially dressed like that." He stood still as the rain spouted from above them, listening either for a response or some semblance of motion from this girl so that he could move on.

the lighting stuck again about mile away when it stuck merlynn snapped out of her spook and bolted to cain. her semblance was not activated but her arms latched around his left arm and her grip was strong and tight. the point was she was scared an the last image of some one she saw was Cain. the look of fear was still present on her face as she clenched feeling the rumble of the thunder making merlynn's body quiver as if it was cold after the thundering roar vanished.

Merlynn held on as tight as she could her face showing the signs of that fact she was crying out of fear. what was going though this does mind that was forcing her to tears who knows but now she was latched on to some one arm and she felt secure for now. ofcorse the sound of the rain drowned out Cains response to her earlyer before she had latched on to him. her great hearing was clouded by the sounds of tain dancing along the ground in pitter pattering sounds.

Merlynn begins to take the lead by trying to drag cain in to the nearest store to take shelter inside the warmth of the shop.

Cain visibly recoiled when her arms wrapped around his own. He grimaced a bit as he turned to her, unable to pry her off with his other arm given how full his hands were.

"Get off of me! What... are you..." Cain shouted and bared his teeth, his ears flattening against his head, but slowly beginning to relax over time as he slowly trailed off, only just getting a good look at her now. First, he knew this girl from the school. They had been in a small combat routine before and were pitted against one another. It seemed so far off now that he had trouble remembering every detail of that day, but he knew that this girl had been incredibly strong then.

Cain's face turned slightly red however when he noticed that she was actually crying. He was embarrassed that he hadn't noticed before now and he looked down at the ground a bit to disguise that fact. She was pulling at his arm a bit, evidently trying to take him someplace else.

He stood still for a moment, not budging before he made a grumbling sigh and resigned himself to follow her to their new destination into the store. He had more or less given up on making it to his ship in time, so this seemed like it would be at least a half decent waste of time.

Having gotten into the shops merlynn looked around the lighting strikes and thunder was muffled but merlynn still tensed up to the point her arm and leg muscles wanted her to flee but she held her ground for now. now Cains words could reach her ears, and with his words she let go. the tear where still swelling in her eyes but she was fine now. "i'm sorry... i got scared..." bowing to cain Merlynn could not notice who he was, or remember that they had a few classes together. on the other hand now they where stuck in a shop while its raining. "let me buy you some thing any thing in this store.." she was trying to apologize for dragging him in here. taking her hands and rand them down her hair to drain the water out of the half of that was long. her orbs where fixed on cain as big puppy dog eyes of regret. but that was a big difference from her eyes she once had in the class room ones of distaste. while her body was wet her body was drying fast, because of the wet-suit she wore and her high metabolism made her warmer then most..

Cain very liberally dropped his grocery bags by the entrance to the store, growing tired of carrying them for no reason. He grabs a hold of his ponytail and wrings it out himself, clearly gaining the ire of the store manager. Cain ignores it for now and shakes his kosude free of what moisture was left over. He looked out the window to see the torrential downpour coming down as he answered her statement of recompense.

"Unnecessary."

He checked his scroll to see the time. Of course.... He'd missed his ship. Sure he was annoyed, but mostly he was still embarrassed. Cain slipped he scroll back into his pocket and sighed again, taking in the awkward situation he was now stuck in. His head would rewind to her excuse of fear for dragging him in here.

Honestly, it reminded him of the way Yosuke would force him to stay with him in his room every time he heard a noise at night. Cain had usually just waited until his brother had fallen asleep before going back to his own bedroom, always assuring him. 'I'm far scarier than any monster you'll meet.'

This was different though. Yosuke was young, and this girl.... was afraid.... of a storm.

Cain finally looked at her and spoke what was on his mind. "If it hadn't been me, it would have been someone else. Maybe someone a bit less... understanding." He flipped his ponytail back behind himself, deeming it sufficiently dry by now. He stared at the ground, not having very much to say now, even that his embarrassment had passed. He filled the silence with a question which he only guessed would have a stupid answer. "But why would you be afraid of the rain?"

Merlynn thought about his words, it struck her as it unfolded in her mind what happened the fact she latched on to Cain in a sudden burst of fear. "Ahh oh my you're right, I cold have been taken and been sold as a slave... but maybe then I wouldn't be kept safe...." Then she remembered her scar on her leg and thought she would be useless as a beautiful harem girl. Shaking her head with a red hew embracing her cheeks as her mind when to a place it had not been in a long time.


But back to reality as he spoke to her being afraid of the storm. Merlynn covered her head with one of her hands as to shield her self from light. "You're wrong its not the rain.... its the noise.... the roar of thunder." This would be evident as she didn't see the lightning but the rumbling of the building made merlynn flinch. Opening her face to cain she looked afraid and slightly scared as a small whimper came from her as the roar settled to a low rumble. "It scares me."

Cain shook his head a little bit. He was starting to get frustrated, and at this point he couldn't tell if the girl was stupid or crazy. His annoyance was only apparent by the slight squint in his eyes, and the twitching of one of his wolf ears. "I... That isn't....How do you...?" Cain took a deep breath after fumbling over his words, finding that maybe pursuing this line of thought wasn't really worth his time. "... Nevermind."

By now, others were starting to funnel into the shop to seek shelter from the storm. Her next words peaked his interest a bit. "If you are training to be a warrior, then how can you have fear and still see that as a viable goal? We both go to the academy, in fact we've shared sparring classes." He looked around as he spoke, trying to get the bearings for the store. Cain didn't even know what kind of store they were in, and despite his reluctance to leave his groceries unguarded at the front, he was getting bored of just standing at the front. So, he'd start walking toward the actual retail section of the store to browse.