The Campsite.

Sparkeye looks at the human. What was it Cloudbreaker had called him? "Hans...?" she says, testing the word on her tongue. "Fight tribe, many times. Good practice. Stay...sharp." She nods, and stands straight for a moment, flexing her back.
"Also fight Dwarf, when come to tribe land." She returns his gaze with interest and cocks her head slightly.
"Why? Want practice?"

Hans smirks slightly

"No, I was just interested to see how well versed in combat you were. My fighting style is very different to yours, I think. Relies mainly on surprise and being far away. I doubt we'd make very good sparring partners. No offence."

He grabs some of the deer-meat he'd taken from the cooking carcass over the fire without anyone noticing and bites off a mouthful. When finished, he continues

"I'm sure you have a fine nose. Do I smell like dog to you?"

She laughs, partly flattered, but also intrigued.
"Like dog, mrrh?"
Moving closer, her nostrils flare as she inhales.
"Many things, mrrw. Most like deer. Like drink. Like earth. Like man...not like 'dog'. Other...little things."
As she speaks, she indicates as to each word.
"Why you ask?"

"Curiosity, I spent some time having to take care of some fine hounds a while back. Nice dogs, actually. Not as vicious as I'd been led to believe. Wanted to know if the smell had lingered."

He pours himself some more mead and swigs at it.

"So, Sparkeye, is it? pleased to make your acquaintance. Hans Yksin, at your service. Now, have you ever seen a gun?"

With this, he gets an amused and slightly sadistic look in his eye, as if he's asked Beastmen this question before.

"Sparkeye, mrrh." she confirms, along with a movement somewhere between a nod and a very small bow.
Now introduced, she settles into a low crouch, and sits perched on her haunches beside him.
Her ears twitch slightly as she considers his question.
"Mrrw...not know word- 'gun'."

His grin widens slightly

"You see that tree-branch? about 60 feet away?"

He points to a non-descript branch

She follows his line of sight, identifies what he is pointing at, and nods.

Hans pulls out one of his pistols, rapidly loading it with a lead ball and fires at the tree branch, the loud crack of the gunpowder echoing across the campsite. The noise is obviously what he expected the Beastmen to react to, but the tree-branch is blown off of the tree and sent spinning into the night.

"That's what a gun does."

He puts the pistol away and drinks some more mead, clearly anticipating some form of extravagant reaction.

It is unclear if she jumped, dived, or simply vanished, but in a blink, Sparkeye is now a small distance away.
She eyes Hans with a mix of expressions, recognition among them.
"Dwarven Thunder." she spits, accusingly. "You steal?"

Hans laughs, though not mockingly

"Steal? No! I didn't need to, humans can make it too, you know. Well, sort of. It's complicated engineer stuff. I don't really understand most of the creation process myself, but I know how to use it."

The pistol now cleanly reloaded with powder and holstered, he returns to his food.

"I blew off a weak-looking branch Soars, that's what I did."

"Hrmm." she says, returning to her previous position.
She looks at the "gun", and gently prods the leather holster, with care.
Looking back up to Hans, she smirks. "Good to take from Dwarf. Not always hit tree."

Sparkeye clamps her hand on her left shoulder and rolls her arm, thinking.
Changing tack, she continues-
"You not fight- you gun...gun Dark things, mhrrm? Hunt?"

Hans nods slightly to the Lynx

"True, fighting is not my forte'. I can't say as I've ever met a Darkling that someone else hasn't killed first, usually with swords. I prefer a subtler approach."

He chuckles lightly.

"That seems odd, using such load weapons and preferring to be subtle, but it's true. These things give me the range no-one else really has, and most things with lesser intelligence tend to get scared of loud bangs coming at them as pieces of metal bury themselves in their flesh. I've no taste for the blade. Messy, and it usually involves a long and pointless fight."

He stares at the flames, taking out a journal and rubbing it lightly.

"Better my way, it's over faster, less blood, more dignified than the screaming and clash of steel and limbless corpses and blood-stained soil. They're alive, and then they're not. They don't have to go through the fear and pain any longer than they have to."

He continues staring at the flames, one hand holding his book and rubbing it with his thumb while his other rests on the grip of his pistol.

"Quick, clean, kill. Make good hunt."
She reaches over the fire, and with a small antler handled knife, cuts herself a piece and takes a bite.
"Also make good food." she grins.
"So, why you-" she waves at his companions, "-be here? Make book?"
Her eyes flicker to the item in his hands, with a curious glance.

"What? Oh! No, not really..."

He stows it away hastily

"I tend to catch things before the others do, with my eyes I mean. That and I'm really good with these."

He indicates his weapons

"We haven't yet needed my... other skills. Nor do I expect we'll need them, given a setting like this. I keep asking for Urban missions and they keep bloody turning me down..."

He trails of slightly, grumbling.

Clearly books were very important things, as the last person she'd met with one, indeed, how she even knew what one was, had acted similarly with that one too. "Mmm...one before. Had book. He travel, see much...tell to me, all in book." she trails off, remembering. That stranger had been much of an inspiration to her curiousity, and in a way was responsible for her being here now. Then a thought struck her- "Rhww. Not tell about Ur'bann. Where this is, mrhhm?"

"Urban, basically a city environment. You have seen Human or Dwarven cities, yes? Urban pertains to or designates a city or town. Not that they ever let me work in any."

He grumbles about the disparity of locks in the woods and how on earth the upper ranks thought that his knack with locks and guns translated to wooden environments and how they had Lief for that and- well it trails off there.

"See-tee." she echoes, testing the word. "Mhrrm...no...maybe see draw of this- in book? Many doors, yes?"
You get the feeling she's trying not to seem unknowledgable, but at the same time is deeply curious.
"Not go to Dwarven lands. Bad. Rrhh." she says, pulling a face. "Human city, good, maybe? No Elf city?"

He nods slightly

"Many doors in cities. Many people, too. Many different buildings and people. I know not of Elven cities, but from what I can discern I think they all live in trees. Human cites are good, yes, but some don't take kindly to Beastmen."

Sparkeye makes a strange whispery coughing sound. "Not kind?" You guess from her tone that this is laughter.
Then she sighs. "Some furred ones not kind too." She nods in an attempted sagely fashion.
"We not live many together. Or same place always. Bad for hunting."
Motioning her approval and thanks to Sharphowl and the Wolfkin tending the fire, she takes another small cut from the deer, and offers some to Hans. "Like to see Elf land someday. Maybe find out if all in trees."

He nods in agreement

"I agree, seeing whether or not using a tree as an actual house works or not would be worth a trip to Dar'Revann. The majority of Bestmen I've met are at least civil, if a bit... aggressive for my taste. Lots of needless shouting. Personal space invading. They were innately... annoying."

He rubs his brow slightly, as if the memory itself is giving him a headache.

"Still, maybe that's just a Wolf Tribe thing. You don't seem that bad and neither did the Bear Tribe one that helped that old grey wolf..."

"Met Bear? Live long. Very wise. Good stories. Much respect."
She leans closer to him, and lowers her voice. "Think Wolf need be loud- to each other. Prove strength. Forget not all same."
"But, loud is brave. Tell many stories. Lynx like stories of brave, but also clever." she winks.
Sparkeye straightens her back, and looks Hans in the eyes, with a mock Elder's tone.
"Much noise not catch prey. Loud hunter not eat."
You get the impression that it's a lesson to be learnt, something she's been told many times.

Hans smiles at the clear quoting tone her voice takes, obviously understanding what it felt like to have something repeated at him constantly.

"Well, clever is important of course. As is stealth. But if you're faster than your prey, and you can kill it before it can kill you, doesn't it make more sense to end it quickly and not take too much time stealing around? My guns are very loud, but they act very quickly. Drop most things like rocks."

He cricks his neck, clearly stiff from being out in the cold at night, but it doesn't seem to bother him.

"I think I prefer clever to strong though. If you're strong and stupid, then the clever people can just outsmart you and make you a fool. Maybe even turn you against yourself."

He seems to be recalling something, but it doesn't appear to bother him.