Pinkgothic played:

Noko and Tleaz

A headache throbbed all the way down the right side of his muzzle as if it sat within the bone of his skull. Breathing felt more difficult than it should be, but only for a second, as if it were a simple memory of suffocation rather than a physical restriction. He let his breath jitter shamelessly, rolling joints as if to test if all his limbs were still in place, even as the world around him sluggishly refocussed.

A raptorian muzzle glanced down at him with an unmistakable light smile, the creature's right paw firmly clasped around a decorative staff. "Hello, brother," a pleasant voice spilled from the form.

The friendly tone and face was almost enough to soothe Frederick's disorientation - were he not abruptly aware of his bound arms and ankles. 'Brother'. Right, right. "Do I know you?" he found himself asking quite automatically, a hint of wariness in his tone, although he wasn't yet willing to accuse this creature of anything.

"Seeing as you seem a stranger to this land, unlikely - but not impossible. I go by 'Tleaz', 'Lord Tleaz' to the Rahjin on this island, or simply by title for brevity," he explained, his tone one of patience born from experience. "Note that since you are the stranger on this ground, it would normally strike me as prudent that you introduce yourself first, but given your state, I believe an exception is permissible. What is your name, though?"

"...Frederick," he introduced himself, grimacing a bit at the mini-etiquette-lecture. It wasn't truly offensive, but there just seemed something subtly wrong about the entire pleasant facade presented to him, like something vaguely reminiscent of Dread's antics, if not as deeply diabolical. "Mind telling me what I'm tied up for?"

"Your appearance frightened the Rahjin," the creature commented nonchalantly.

"I... - what? We've been to a couple of islands by now and they've never been afraid of me," Frederick protested quite automatically, irked, scaled brows trying to knit across his muzzle and failing, but conveying the emotion regardless.

"Now, now - it's rude to accuse people of lying." The staff lifted and then came back down, giving a soft >tock< against the ground, Tleaz's muzzle inclining, but maintaining a general air of patience. "They're afraid of you because of your semblance to me - an understandable distress. Imagine you had come in opposition to their protector - it's certainly plainly true now that you haven't, but that was their concern. Keep in mind it was difficult for them to judge your power from afar."

...ugh. It was tempting to respond with some scathing remark simply for that tone of disregard, but as long as this raptorian wasn't malevolent, why ruin a civil mutual standing? Or rather: Why ruin a civil mutual standing if freedom was to be reacquired? "All right," Frederick began, battling down his irration. "So, then... now that we've established I'm harmless, would you mind awfully untying me?"

"I'm undecided," Tleaz remarked, minimalistically, gaze dragging across the black raptorian in some unspoken contemplation.

"...undecided? What, pray tell, would bring about a decision? Do tell. What makes this fantastically complicated decision so difficult?" Frederick narrowed his eyes slightly, losing his grip on polite discourse.

That wrung a chuckle from the Guardian. His free forepaw reached forward and ruffled through the black plumage as if to reassure. Conversely, as he spoke, it was at that point where the latent resentment in Frederick's gut knotted into nausea: "Why, because it's lonely being the only one of my kind. I know better than to squander a however uncouth gift of fate."