Artan chuckled, "Ha, I am evil. I'm drilling ink into your skin and making you laugh! Torture! Pure torture." He had to think about her question, though not for long. Nobody had ever asked him that question before - mostly because he never told anyone about Petit after he'd left the island.
"Shit, well... I guess that had to be when she came home from the trials over at the Assassin's guild and she was really sick. Someone had poisoned her. I was worried sick about her, even though I knew she'd pull through. Her boyfriend at the time was by her side constantly and I started to realize that I was starting to hate his guts that he was always by her side when I felt I should be there in his place. Like I said, I respect Caleb, though. He's got more heart than brains, though, always treated her like something you're supposed to put on a pedestal instead of a real girl, you know what I'm saying? He revered her, and I just wanted to be close to her and get to know who she was, what made her tick." He sighed. "I figured if I could do that, maybe I could be able to open up to someone, myself. I admire the shit out of her, don't get me wrong. I just... I don't see her or anyone else as someone to idolize." He had a faraway look as he continued to get the color laid into the wings and body of the creature.
"I didn't tell her about it for years, though. She got married to Caleb, and I kept my damn mouth shut. When I finally did tell her... well, I guess it was stupid of me to even think about it then. I dunno. Then again, she probably figured it out a long while before. You see... When I told you I don't have any powers, that's not completely true. I kinda happened to get a tattoo from a gypsy lady who had a thing for me. It's um. It's complicated. I can die, but not from any outside causes. I'm immune to poison, can't die from blood loss, can't die from electrocution or suffocation. Stuff like that. It was a pretty big secret back then, I didn't tell anyone about it. So I told you that to tell this."
He leaned back and looked at the color so far and decided there was one spot that needed more blending, so he worked on that before going further up the wing.
"See, back when I was about 23 and she was 19, we got this job we decided to do together. Standard "cursed item" grab deal, high security precautions, and then we upped the ante by deciding to make it a bet. Whoever got the knife - I think it was a knife, I don't even remember now - first, won and had to buy the other's breakfast. So we get in, and she gets poisoned - y'know? I just realized that happens a lot to her - and she gets sluggish and stops responding. Sure, she got the knife first, but I had to get her out of there. I'm not leaving my best friend behind, y'know what I'm sayin'? So I drag her skinny scrawny ass out of the house and I tell her to take cover, since they released the dogs. These things are ferocious, big ol' fuckin' dogs, too. I got her over the electric fence, then I had to jump it, myself."
He paused to dab away the excess ink and blood yet again before continuing.
"So I did. Now this is an electric fence that could kill a person if they touched it. Fuck if I know what the hell amount of volts run through it, but the chances of my living through it were none. At all. But I did. She saw me electrocute my own dumb ass as I jumped over the fence, and I laid there for a good long while, trying to get that "just run over by a stampede of horses" feeling, feeling like my body was going to just about explode. I shook it off after a couple minutes, but she kept just eying me. Finally she brought it up that I saved her ass, and I nodded. Then she asked me how and I didn't tell her. Not... at least until we got back home. But whatever. She's quick, she probably put two and two together. It wasn't the first time I saved her ass without caring about my own. It was just the one that counted."