Ranger who got into this business to get away from other people.
Lagakh sighed and rubbed her eyes, returning to the barracks she had set up a command post in. She'd barely slept since they arrived, just in time to protect the city from the undead siege they currently found themselves under.
She took a hefty swig of her coffee, the burning bitterness sharpening her senses.
And then she entered her command post to see Ryse lounging on a bench she had moved into the window's light, and sighed and rubbed her eyes again.
"Ryse, why aren't you defending the gates?" She said, careful not to sound accusatory.
Ryse was of the beastfolk, the cat variety, which led to certain assumptions about her behavior.
People loved the dogfolk, they were trustworthy, loyal, friendly. Not like those cats. The catfolk were solitary, sneaky, everyone knows that if you die your pet cat will eat your body, what do you think that means about the people?
This dichotomy was, of course, no more true for the people than it was the animals. Dogs behave the way dogs do and cats behave the way cats do, because they are different animals. Dogs are man's best friend, and cats are not dogs, and so a cat can never truly be your friend because if they were really your friend, they would act more like a dog.
Ryse fell more on the large breasted maid with cat ears side of the spectrum than the talking panther that will eat your children one, sporting large tufts of fur and some strange mannerisms but still having human hands to hold a bow with, and this placed her firmly into the ever popular role of the brooding ranger in most people's eyes. Capable of heroism, but only reluctantly, and only for a price.
"Oh, you know me. Didn't feel like it." Ryse hummed.
Lagakh was not most people. Ryse had surely found a thousand little spots she could hole up in and not be found until they had broken the siege, and she had instead decided to place herself directly in the path of the one person who would tell her to get back to work.
"Why didn't you feel like it, Ryse?" She asked, moving to pore over her maps. The city was walled, and there was only one gatehouse. Half their party (minus one ranger, now) was guarding it, it was the most vital part of their defense, and if Ryse didn't want to be there she had a reason.
"Too crowded for my tastes. You know I like to work alone." Ryse said, rolling onto her stomach and letting her tail swish about.
"I also know you're one of the most capable archers I've ever met, and that gate needs all the defending we can manage."
"Oh, it has it." She continued. "The wizard and barbarian are having great fun, knee deep in gore. Anything she doesn't blast he cleaves in twain, you'd be hard-pressed to find a duo more suited to turning a crowd into charred viscera."
"Don't sell yourself short, Ryse. I've seen you sink an arrow into the eye of a gryphon in flight, pry your blade between the plates of a suit of armor none of us could even dent to slay the warlord within, you-"
"Are very impressive, I know." The cat smiled, blinking at her slowly. "Against single, high-value targets. Not endless tides of dead."
There it was.
"You find it ill-suited to your talents, then?"
"I have only so many arrows, and no desire to clean corpse gunk from my fur." She shrugged.
"Would you like to help people barricade their homes?"
"Who, me? I'd steal anything not nailed down."
The orc gulped down more coffee. Ryse positively radiated smugness. Like pulling teeth with her, sometimes.
"Do you have a suggestion for what you might find worth your time?"
"Hmmmmm~"
Ryse stalked over to her, leaning over the various maps and plans with a steadying hand on Lagakh's back.
"I'm at least as capable as the paladin at healing. Have her help with the barricades and I'll replace her helping the cleric tend to wounded. She's big enough to make easy work of it, and paladins are trustworthy." She hummed.
"Unlike you?" Lagakh asked, crooking an eyebrow.
"See, you understand."
The cat slinked away, and Lagakh was entranced enough watching her leave to clink her mug off her tusk when she went to finish her coffee.
Ryse glanced back and rolled her eyes.
"Get some sleep, boss. You seem distracted."
