[b]Jonathan - Hunter [/b]

He looked up as the king entered the room, his bulk moving over the floor ponderously, many chins showing underneath his own. The man had once been one of considerable muscle, he could tell. Stories had been told, but the way that the fat was draped across his frame told of once a mighty and stoic fighter, maybe even with such fanciful notions as honor and love in his mind as he rode out to combat what he saw as evil. But, as always, power, riches and comforts came at a price. Thankfully, the price had been his health and not the corruption of his soul, which Jonathan would have found considerably more likely, given the circumstances. He wasn't here to recover any bloody cup, despite what they might have thought. He had heard of it in the soft night whispers of his mother during his time alone in the forest, how great it was, how deep was its meaning. He was almost happy that she held it now. He knew that his mother would never take him back, not with his power so deeply... marred. He was here to show them the paths of the darkness, how to beat it, how to fight fire with fire, as the analogy went.

His eyes flickered lightly on the young woman as she spoke to the king. Her easy manner with the king and the way that he greeted her told him that she was more than just any other hunter. It was a bad thing, he thought. Rich people had a tendency to think that they were somehow better than their fellow man, and thus had little or nothing to learn from them. She was a warrior, not a hunter. She had no knowledge of the shadows, and wouldn't learn what he had to teach. If he had money on it, he would bet that she would be among the first to fall, either killed or, as she proposed, fallen to the pleasures of the Shade, pleasures that he was only too familiar with.

Hearing her question was irritating enough, but the kings answer drew a low, deep growl from his throat. He stood at his full height, covering his body entirely except his face, whose mask was lifted to show his sickly-pale skin, and his icy blue eyes," What does my lord the king know of darkness?" His voice boomed through the chamber, demanding attention," Or you... Evangelina, was it? What do any of you know of the tantalizing pleasures of its presence? What do you know, my king, of how we will be tested? Have you been tested as we will?" He stepped forward, keeping his face in the shadows," Have you, young princess? What do you know of the dangers we face? We do not fight the decadent and dying creatures that The Mother spawns, the mindless beasts that are all too easy to cut down. We fight her children. Her finest. Those most powerful as imbued by the power the Shade.The cream of the proverbial crop, as it were, and that, my friends, is not something you are prepared to face, or my eyes greatly deceive me," He moved back into his corner again, having said his piece and content to leave them to think on his words as he sipped his cup of mead.