The Newest Tenant

[Shaiel]

OOC: Making this invite only for the moment, sorries. And excuse the upcoming crappiness, it's late, she just made me. *points vaguely*

IC: The moon was well past its zenith, its faint luminesence already well on the wane. The late hour was in no way corellated with a lack of activity, however. Some took shelter under night's blanket, going to sleep with the sun, but it was during the night that others came alive. Quiet though it seemed, the night was teeming with action, provided you knew where to look. Much of the nightly goings-on were merely routine, but there was always an exception to the rule.

This night, that exception came in the silver-furred form of a graceful canine, making its padded way across the grass toward its destination, the wolfen head lowered against the insistent wind.

The Lycan's pace began to slow as she ran, but not because of any accumulating weariness. She had always loved to run, was better at it than was the norm for her kind, and could have kept going for much longer. It was the land around her that initiated the change in her velocity, for the grassland that she had been making her way through was fast giving way to forest. The trees that had appeared only occasionally at first were more far more common now, growing taller and more tightly packed, until finally the sky had all but disappeared under a shadowed, leafy canvas.

The sights and sounds that surrounded her now were indeed familiar to the Lycan Shaiel, if only vaguely. She had been through here once before, some time ago, though that time, she hadn't really come to stay. This time, though... who could say? She was more or less a nomad by nature, but this massive woodland could no doubt keep her attention for quite some time.

She slowed to an easy walk, now that she was fully in, but she had no intentions of stopping for a while yet. She would rather find a comfortable niche to settle in before she curled up for the night, and that could only be done with a little more exploring.

[Carmen]

Oh, but the she-wolf wasn't alone. No doubt she had already picked up the scent of the girl who had so easily slipped in and out of the forest like it was her home. But she treated it nothing like that. Far from it. Run-ins with the Demoness, saving her life. A human… saving a Demon's life. It didn't sound at all right. Then there was the Vampiress. And the other such creatures of the forest.

None of them had done too much damage to her, or rejected her from their home with force that had been shown towards others of her species and age. Nothing had forced her to leave once, nothing had shown her great fear or regret that ached at her bones for her to leave the fortress of the forest. In all truth the girl loved it there. A haven, maybe. A home, no. An escape…

…this time, yes.

Tears streaming down her porcelain-like cheeks were accompanied by strands of whipping blue hair, strangling her sapphire view of the spindly trees that wove and strung themselves around her. If only that night hadn't existed. If only she had moved under the body of Forgoil. If only. If only. If only. Too many of them followed the yellow and black-cloaked girl wherever she went.

And time was nearing her birthday, too.

Her thudding feet and throbbing ears failed to notify the almost blinded girl that there was a low branch in front of her, ready to sweep her off her feet. And that's just what it had done. She collided with it in mid-leap, crashing her stomach into the thick wood. Within just a flicker of a second, the girl was on the ground, clutching at her stomach.

[Shaiel]

Shaiel had indeed caught the faint scent that said quite clearly that she was not alone. Her nose twitched slightly at the message, but other than that, at first she ignored it. From her brief visit to this place before, she was sure that allowing humans free run of the Forest wasn't regular practice, but she wasn't about to spend her first night here terrorizing some unfortunate from the magic school that she knew was located nearby. Quiet nearly to the point of being unasserted, she wasn't one to play the terrorizing at the best of times. She was content to let intruders go on their merry way and stumble across whatever of the numerous dangers they might find in here. But while it was easy enough to ignore what her nose was telling her, it was much harder to simply tune out the sudden message caught by her sensitive ears.

A sudden dull crash and the snap of a branch shattered the night's tentative still. Shaiel's ears flattened against her head, and automatically she turned towards the sound. Moving somewhat stiff-legged with caution--this was not her home, after all--she made her way easily through the trees and the shadows to the source of the noise. Blue eyes pierced the night as easily as most humans could see at high noon, and she quickly discerned that source to be a girl wrapped in a cloak of yellow and black, blue hair spilling out over her shoulders. The girl was on the ground, both hands clutching at an obviously tender stomach, tears running watery tracks down her cheeks.

Within a moment, the silver-furred wolf was gone. In its place stood a tall young woman, creamy skinned with red-gold hair that fell straight down to cup her chin. The blue eyes, though, remained the same.

Somewhat concerned, Shaiel approached the girl, moving through the darkness with ease even in her human form to stop and go into a crouch a few feet away. She eyed the blue-haired girl intently. "Are... are you quite alright?" she asked after a moment. In the face of the girl's tears, how inane that query sounded! But the words were out now, and she supposed they'd do as well as any.

[Carmen]

If anything could have welcomed her, the girl was almost glad that it was another like herself. Or, so she assumed. Her eyes, filled to the brim with tears, stared at equal height toward the red-head, composing a very brilliant show of colour between herself and the girl. Though she only looked a few years older, Carmen assumed she held the knowledge far beyond her years. That was the way it appeared.

One would have that knowledge if they were so relaxed in the forest. Carmen, although she had been in the forbidden forest before, still held its inhabitants as dangerous, and so kept her respect at the highest level for all. Thus the reason why she didn't hold the stare with the red-headed girl. Sniffling a little, the girl hiccoughed a sob and stared at the ground.

"I d-don't kn-know," she stammered, still clutching at her stomach in an attempt to suppress the pain.

[Shaiel]

A moment of awkward silence followed that pronouncement, and the expression that twisted the Lycan's face was one comprised of both confusion and concern. She wasn't quite sure how she'd expected to be greeted her first night here in the Forest, but this definitely hadn't been it. And now, confronted with this scenario, she found that she hadn't the slightest idea how to deal with it.

Just standing there gazing at the weeping girl in bewilderment wasn't going to do it, she realized, and, somewhat embarassed, she finally managed to galvanize herself into action. One hand came up to tuck an dangling strand of red-gold hair behind her ear, and then she extended the same hand out to the blue-haired girl in a tentative offer of assistance. "What can I... I mean... can I help at all?"

She felt so awkward. No, this wasn't at all how she'd planned to spend her first night in the Forest.

[Carmen]

Again, a hiccough shattered all thoughts that the girl held, echoing in the night of the forest's sheltering trees. How could she let her feelings get the better of her? And of everything else... Something had to be done. But what? How could she do anything? How could the red-haired girl help her?

Who knew.

"Can you h-help?" she stuttered through gasps and sniffles, wrapping her arms around her tighter in another sign of protection from the outside.

(ooc: muse DIED!)