Page 257

Bold move, Meela.

129 thoughts on “Page 257

  1. Removed as dead? D:

    1. I’m hoping he means “removed from the group” D:

      1. Ah, but that sounds too easy, does it not?
        However, this new character looks too much like a good guy to be out to kill her, he looks more like a pacifist. I’ve a bet if he did intend to kill her, after an explanation from the swan or something he’d probably knock it off, maybe even join the group. Plus, he’s a deer, not a jaguar.

    2. Why would he kill her when he was protecting her just a few pages back? uhh hello folks. Did you not see that red lightening just just made? She obviously has some special skill that could get out of hand if she isn’t properly trained.

      1. He never said HE would kill her.

        1. In response to Alioki, he might have just been protecting her because he wanted to observe her and find out…well, whatever has put the bounty on her head. He stopped Visrial because he wasn’t done getting his information, perhaps. His speech right on this page sounds to me like he hadn’t foreseen how dangerous she was/is/could be.

          …But people who don’t subscribe to this thought are right, ‘removed’ doesn’t have to mean ‘killed.’

    3. He means removed from him, her magic or whatever was put into his arm when she struck him.

      1. Actually, no. Her magic was not put into his arm, it only affected/irritated it.

  2. oh my .___.
    So many emotions! I don’t know what to think .___.
    I always loved Jyaku but now… Well… That seems a bit bad…

    1. That isn’t Jyaku…is it?

      1. I don’t think that’s Jyaku. Jyaku feels more regal and taciturn.

        1. Read the conversation under few last pages, to see the prooves, that this guy is Jyaku :)

        2. yes it is Jyaku I recognized him by his awesome hair style.

        3. It’s not him. Look back at the last chapter. Jyaku has tiny bells hanging off his left antlers, this guy doesn’t. Jyaku’s ears are covered in tribal piercings, this guy has only one. And we don’t know what Jyaku’s face or hair looks like because I’m sure that it was a fur pelt attached to the mask, covering it. But they are the same kind of shifter, possibly related. Or maybe it is Jyaku and they just got lazy with the details. :P

        4. @pantherlady

          These guys never get lazy with the details, NEVER!! They always get it spot on and this is jyaku.
          1. Jyaku just took of some of his usual jewelry, characters are allowed to change clothes after all, just like many of our other characters have. Also he is still wearing one of the earrings from before, if you look back he is still wearing that blue earring that he is wearing now
          2. Both of their features are the same: same antlers, eye color, skin color, clothing style, speech style
          3. You can see some of his hair stick out in the front and back of his head dress in the previous pages and it is the same color and style as his here
          4. His motives/intrest in meela clearly points to him being jyaku because we know that he got all of his info about her from holland
          5. The artist themselves in previous convos all but confirmed that this is jyaku

          Let everyone from this point on know that this is jyaku and stop asking if it is, because its only been stated a million times now that he is. And if anyone is still not sure, don’t be lazy, and actually go back and compare for your self everything that I said and anything else you might wounder about. Thnx.

        5. Yeah, I was originally in the “it’s not him” camp, but even I can see how obviously it is Jyaku. We’ve only seen him a handful of times; we can’t even say this appearance is out of character.

        6. Come on people. It’s Jyaku…xD
          It’s so obvious. lol

  3. D: Don’t you dare to kill Meela, mister!

  4. D:…..I hope he won’t kill her. He’s too hot.

  5. A scared young girl with able use of volatile magic and a bounty on her head… as well as a recently deceased brother.
    HHHHMMMMMMMM.

  6. Woah! Anger management skills, Meela!

    1. More like panicky fear~
      YOU try keeping your cool when you are apprehended by a dangerous stranger who sends off threatening vibes and tries to grab you to take you away by force.

      1. could not have said it better my self :D

  7. Meela, something tells me you’re screwed. Something else tells me that Jyaku’s not the cuddly little deer man we wish he was.

    1. Hahaha.! As hard as he is to read, the last few pages make it pretty clear that he’s far from cuddly. XD

      Whatever his intentions, though, I can’t help but get the feeling that he has sincere reasons for doing whatever he’s been doing–even if we the readers might not agree with them.

  8. Dude, can anyone translate the word on his arm?! Is it the same writing found in Feral’s journals?
    Amazing story girls, I get more and more drug in every page.

    1. I’m glad I’m not the only person to think that is writing!

    2. Ohhh~! Now I want someone to translate it, please! :O

    3. I believe they may be runes.

    4. It sorta reminds me of Scar’s arm (From Full Metal Alchemist). Maybe similar purpose? He feels the need to….purify those with her aura?

      1. I initially misread it as ‘F U X’, but looking at it more closely it looks like ‘C U X’, possibly with more still hidden by the sleeve.

    5. I thought the same thing!

      Unfortunately–despite reading the translation of the text–I never fully mastered the runic cipher used in the journal, so I can’t read them either (well, assuming these scars are even supposed to be runes in the first place, anyway).

  9. I dont think that Jyaku… i hope not. But damn this is exciting! why cant it be friday already! D: (know what i mean xD)

    1. T.=.T this dwagie feels the same, why… WHHYYYYY

  10. Nononooo dont hurt meela pls T_T

  11. REMOVED?!? HEY! JERKFACE! MEELA IS NOT A ZIT!!! YOU CAN’T JUST ‘REMOVE’ HER!!!!! D:<

  12. a bit of a side note, when i click the “read the latest page” it redirects me to main page oO

  13. muwahhhhhhh! “zit”… guess i’m juvenile :) ….

    anyway… i don’t think it’s ‘J’… sense ‘J’ has been following them long enough to use this same “aura read”any time he wanted (unless it’s a distance thing)… so, in that case this could be ‘J’… just hoping not.

    With this “reveal” i sincerely hope meela even makes it to her 13th birthday… like another poster already stated Meela’s probably screwed.
    although with the old guy ‘in the cabin that didn’t kill his wife’ shows some people are willing to help & protect her even if they know what she is.

    Could Meela’s heritage be some kind of royalty?? like they were destined to rule with this special power & judge right + wrong but were overthrown/hunted?
    now everyone’s trying to kill off the line so they can be free to be greedy/uncareing jerks?

    1. *or @least segregate themselves to the point where they only care about their own clan, not the greater good?

      what are the letters on this guy’s arm that meela intentionally/unintentionally put there?

      luni…i don’t have that problem…. maybe clear your history/catche?

      1. *still wondering about those letters.

        isn’t it a little disturbing that the dear guy talks to himself? There could people around that only he knows about…? ::goes into ninja mode::

      2. The letters on his arm are scars with a purpose.

        1. Is it in that old language? If so I still have your alphabet ;)

        2. Lol, it’s a different language than before.

    2. It may be as simple as, she has a bounty on her head because her Father did and therefore her mother did for not killing him. Or it could be as complex as a special power… but I don’t know about her being that level of royalty. Maybe just leaders of the pack.

      1. He says “this is a volatile mixture” there, most likely in relation to her magic her Meela herself (and why bring her erratic magic up earlier if it wasn’t going to be plot relevant?) It seems to me it’s a darker secret than just being unfairly hunted because her dad had the bounty or she’s royalty.

        1. *or*. I wish this had an edit button…

    3. It probably has more to do with what her father did and why there was a bounty on his head.

  14. Eat it!!

    Meela just escaped like a sir.

  15. Wow, Meela definitely has grown… previously she probably would have just screamed for Feral. I seriously hope she goes back to them and doesn’t just run. I want to see the interactions between Meela, Feral, and Holland after this encounter…
    Still think it’s Jyaku…

    1. It’d be so funny if Jyaku chases after her and runs into Holland again. “Hey, how’s it going buddy? Meela, come over here and meet–“

    2. I don’t know – Meela’s always had a pretty strong streak of “Stab first, stab questions later” in her character. If there’s any changes, it’s that After she stabs, she tucks tail and runs now instead of sticking around to be mortally wounded. Heh heh.

      1. To be fair, she *was* running away when she was mortally wounded. ^^; But, yeah, I think this is a pretty solid part of her character–her impulsiveness. Especially when she’s also running on adrenaline and has very real reasons to be afraid. Fortunately, unlike Visrial, Jyaku is pretty level-headed.

  16. Also, I love Meela’s boots in the 5th panel!

    1. Yea they are cool. They do seem a little unpractical though for the lifestyle she lives.

      1. Well… That depends on your point of view. A completely flat sole actually has NO traction whatsoever when your boots are solid leather, even the soles. (Trust me, I’ve done my share of slipping and sliding wearing that style of boots on just fallen leaves, much less anything wet.) A heel would give her a little bit more grip. Also, if you are doing any kind of riding (we haven’t seen any so far, but I’m offering it here), you want a little bit of a heel.

        1. Huh. That’s a good point. I also notice now that it’s a square heel, too, which is better for balance than stiletto. Might just need a bit of getting used to.

  17. Oh my, not really the direction I was expecting… what are you up to dude-who-may-or-may-not-be-Jyaku? (Although, I do think it’s Jyaku, for the record.)

  18. I keeps getting progressively harder to wait the full week for new pages X3 Brava girls

  19. Meela has heels ^^ XD

    Am I the only one not surprised by this, or infuriated with cuddly deer-man? XP

    1. Nope, I’m actually still waiting to see what the deer guy means by ‘removed’. In other words, you’re not the only one :)

  20. Did no one else notice that the deer man did *not* reach for Meela? Last panel of yesterday’s comic shows them farther apart. First 2 panels only shows Meela and the 3rd shows him stepping back to avoid her dagger. He never actually reached out for her. I think Meela just plain got scared since he knows she has a bounty on her and reacted. If he really wanted to overpower her, I think he would have (he already drug her behind the stalls). He never moved toward her.

    Great job with the story – I can’t wait to see where this goes!

    1. oh – and Meela lunged toward him in the 3rd panel. I think she just got scared & reacted.

  21. If Jyaku could be on the lyrians side, I think Holland might be too! ;A;
    /cries

  22. Meela is a little badass!

    1. I somewhat giggled when I read that XD

  23. I actually think that Jyaku means by something else when he says “removed.” It is as if he is thinking about what sort of class or type she could possibly be. I don’t think he means as in she must die or be removed from the group.

  24. Run, Meela! Run to Feral! He’s also a weird mixture of…something, probably demon, not 100% sure, you might be demon too. So yeah, run to Feral! Weird mixtures gotta stick together!

  25. Hmmm… the energy from Feral when his red eye takes over is also red. Is it some kind of demonic energy? Does Meela have a curse on her, or is she part demon somehow?

  26. Am ! the only one who is slightly annoyed that little Meela is wearing heels?

    1. Nope, me too. Those heels seems a bit unnecessary for me, but I’m not complaining XD

      1. I tell myself Piper had a hand in this outfit.

  27. Run Meela! Run away in your fabulous boots!

  28. Noooo! Why does it end here?! Please update soon! Hey, those symbols on the deer guy’s arm look strange. They remind me of Feral’s writing when he was introducing himself to Meela… Where do you get all of these symbol ideas??? O___O

  29. Nrrrgh… Why does Meela have a bounty on her head? What will happen next?? *Waits impatiently for next page*

  30. if this were a movie it would be a good movie

  31. Whoo! He’s obviously got a more involved past than just hanging around with Holland. I wonder if the prince knows he’s hanging around with a (I think) demon hunter.

    When Jyaku says “mixture,” I’m thinking he means “half-breed,” personally. And by “removed” I do think he means “kill.” Did anyone else notice the bead of sweat on his face?

    1. Ha, lol when you said demon hunter i emediatly thought of the band. Any one else here think the same?

    2. Agreed on both counts–the “removed” seems to be pretty unambiguous to me considering the role of bounty hunters and the like in the story, and hey–it’s not exactly as if death and killing are taboo subjects in Strays. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, so to speak. XD

      Still, though…when you take his shifty relationship with Jyaku into account, now I REALLY have to wonder what kind of game Holland is playing, where his allegiances lie, and what his motives are. If it turns out that he is indeed playing for the “Kill Meela” team as much as (or even more so) than the “Protect Meela” team, that would be pretty brutal–though I also think that the friendship he’s come to form with her over time would ultimately prevent him from actually doing so. =)

  32. Run Meela! Get to Feral!!!!!!

  33. I know Meela is a wolf… but.. He said that she can’t run from what she is, but what does that mean?

    1. I believe that he might mean something along the lines of, you can’t run from who you are, as in you can’t change your past or history. If that makes any sense. I’m trying to say that you can’t run away from your past, and you can’t change what has already happened. So in Meela’s case, she can’t change who her parents where, or what happened in her childhood, or anything as such. You can’t run away or hide from your past entirely because at some point it’ll catch up to you, it’ll find you.

  34. Hey~ Just a note to you wonderful artists, but the link to the ‘Latest Page’ leads to the homepage instead, unless my computer is acting up, or you fixed it in the thirty seconds it took to post this. ^^’ I just wanted you guys to know!

    1. Oh, nevermind. It was just my computer after all! Lovely page btw!

  35. thelightedDarkness

    //gasp

    You better not kill her you evil man, you! D:<

    So what if her mum was a bounty hunter and her dad was weird and her family has some dark magic or whatever it is!? She's just a little girl!! Go to Feral, Meela! D:

    1. thelightedDarkness

      Because Holland must be a double-crosser! He is in with Jyaku, so… Is he going to do something ‘bad’? Like give intell on Meela?

  36. 0_0 So-many-questions. This comic just gets better and better. I can’t wait for the next update!

  37. So…if it wasn’t Jyaku, wouldn’t the authors add him into the Characters list since he seems to be playing a rather…large role?

  38. Am I the only one who feels like Meela has some how shrunk throughout the comic, I feel like she is a lot smaller in comparison with adults, especially for her age. At the beginning of the comic i feel she was more, idk, proportional?

    1. I have always tried to keep her about chest-high in relation to most adults. If that varies, it’s not intentional.

      1. Nvrm, it was just me, I looked at past pages and she is still the same height, don’t know why I thought that. Maybe she just seems younger to me and my brain made the connection that younger = smaller or something, idk.

      2. I’m just 13 and a half, but I’m getting to be as tall as my mum and she is pretty tall. I come up to my dad’s shoulders even when he isn’t hunching.

  39. did she give him those scars or were they already there?

    1. They were already there.

      1. Offtopic*

        Fluffy dragon! pets algy’s icon*

      2. Oh, good, I was wondering about that!

  40. <:O !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  41. itsjustaplateofbeans

    Need…more…

    Love this…whatever you call it! Greatly written! When will the next chapter/pages be out?

    1. It’s mostly weekly. Pretty much every friday.

  42. >ww<
    MEELA!! RUN FOR IT!! Go get Feral to kick that guy's butt!

  43. magic dagger? artistic license? something to do with the spooky vision used in th last page? meela got some kind of offensive power?

  44. I don’t think the marks on his arm have always been there, I think it was more of a painful reaction to her magic hitting it as he tried to block it. It’s like he was able to read it after it happened. Like his own magic interpreted what she threw up at him in a panic and it hurt him.

    I will be under the impression that Jyaku is on her side until shown otherwise. He has only ever tried to help her and even she knew she had to leave the group because of what she was, she may be lingering due to sentimentality, but it’s probably dangerous for the others for her to stay.

  45. again, the red lightning. interesting…..

  46. Perhaps, my precious.. red lightning could turn out to be potentially deadly…

  47. I think that Meela is a half breed (sounds like a harsh term, sorry)? Like, half lyrian and half lupian?
    I think her mother was part Lyrian (blue eyes?) and the magic was passed to Meela? And I guess the scars on j’s wrist are runes that allow him to sense types of magic, like the red aura around Meela. Note how they glow red around the edges.

    1. Lupians and Lyrians cannot interbreed. Meela’s mother is a pure Lupian with the rarity of blue eyes.

    2. Sorry; it says in the FAQ that Lupians can only breed with other Lupians (and demons.) Her parentage is probably important, but it’s probably not Lyrians specifically.

  48. Er, sorry, there was no comment there when I posted…

  49. On his arm it looks like the japanese katakana characters コ ko) ム mu) メ me) although the ko コ) is faced the other way… XD

  50. WOW, this is so magniiificent *W* I wanna more!!! And I’m so curious about what’ll happen . . . Love Meela ‘n all the others <3 Always reading.

  51. *Siinnnkkk* I shall destroy you, deer-guy.

  52. Man I’ve missed this comic. I have to go on a different computer because for whatever reason when I try to go to Strays with my laptop it says SITE TEMPORARILY DOWN. It’s been like that for a few weeks. I look forward to more! <3

    1. Okay, check that, I can’t go to the home page, but I can go to the archives.

      1. Have you tried clearing your cache? that might help.

  53. Hmm… “removed”
    I have never had a bad feeling about Jyaku… Jyacku…. Imma call him J-Ku. Nor do i believe his intentions are to harm Meela. I think he has his priorities and im sure meela’s not one of them besides “removing her”. He has always been very suspicious/ untrusting of her (fallowing them around, making Holland be his info boy, this right now), and only now has he confirmed that his suspicions were justified. Why exactly he is so eager to “remove” her, i don’t know. Although i suspect it has something to do with Feral and her tagging along with him being what she is (whatever that may be). Kill her or intentionally physically hurt her, no. Get her away from Feral, more than likely yes. I can see him threaten or emotionally hurt her to so though o.o.

    I still dont hate him even if that is the case… i just think he has his reasons.

  54. Just a thought, but is he able to read the future/calculate chance, such as in the weird markings on his skin? Volatile mixture meaning if she keeps up she will tip the future balance towards not so good things? Would be interesting, just figured I’d put it out there. Amazing work as always!

    1. you sir/madame have took the words right out of my mouth, i was just thinking the same thing as well,, man this jyku character is starting creep me out now

      1. Madame, and I’m relieved to see I’m not alone in my speculations :) So much thought and depth to this comic, I love it!

  55. If you click the “Read the latest page” image, is it supposed to bring you back to the main page, and not to the latest comic page itself? At least I have to click the text link below the image to actually see the page. I always click on the image a few times before realizing it doesn’t work and then try the text link instead. (Sorry my English, I’m not a native speaker!)

  56. Oh, darnit. And I liked him.

    1. And you don’t anymore? D:

  57. Uh-oh… Looks like bad news for Meela. Hopefully whatever’s volatile in her can be settled down somehow.

  58. Why can she make that evil redness? Is it because of the poison…?

  59. Hm, that Red Lightning Looks very Simaler to The magic Feral used on page 194.

  60. i want his antlers!!

  61. Aguh! Go ‘way deer man!

Leave a Reply to Dendva Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*