Field Trip

[Greets]

Greets quirks an ear backwards and flicks her tail again. :: Ask the Seamstress, I do not bite ones that do not provoke it. :: She flares her whiskers forward as they walk, scenting the air again. The world was so much more vibrant with fur. :: Mother taught me all life is precious. Taking one without need is not the way of Things. I am the intruder here and it is me who needs to tread carefully. :: Unbidden, the scent of the sea fills her nose. She grimaces, shaking her head to clear something that was not even there. Memories do not tend to respond in such a manner. :: No, the girl and I are same, but this skin is one I have worn longest. This is home. :: Greets studies Kals again, this time using all of her natural born senses as The Mother had given to her. :: Until we can share the words you want, I am called Greets the Sun. ::

[Dulcie]

Eagerness and worry, two emotions that were felt loud and clear. In fact it was still something that she was getting used to and she found herself wondering at why he was feeling both those things together. The worrying was enough to motivate her steps, choosing the quickest course through the forest path towards where her mate was walking. As she got closer she'd pick up his scent and then the scent of something else entirely. Something that elicited emotions of eagerness and worry in her! What her mate was doing beside something that smelled like a great cat was something of a concern.

She'd emerge from the brush then, her bow in hand, though lowered and clearly not posing any sort of a threat, her eyes drifting between her mate and the giant cat that stood beside him. She'd take a moment to consider what she was looking at, her head cocked to the side slightly as she considered the creature he walked with. Kacela herself would smell distinctly lupine, the wolf scents mingled with that of the forest itself. For one with a trained nose it was apparent that Kacela and Kals were a matched set, each smelling faintly of the other, as if they spent a great deal of time in one another's company.

She sniffed at the air lightly, the action more animal than human, though from her appearance she would seem to be nothing more than a huntress. Her skin dark as the deepest chocolate and her hair braided into hundreds of tiny braids that still had bits of feathers and shells woven into them. Something she had been keeping up for a little while now. Her feet are bare despite the cold weather, and her body covered with simple clothing sewn out of tanned leather.

"Ocean Walker?" She'd query curiously glancing between him and the great cat curiously.

[Suede]

He trailed after Greets, not as far as before, but still a healthy distance back. Likely not healthy enough if it really decided to pounce on him. He considered speaking to it the way she was him, but decided to speak outloud as well, more for himself than the giant cat. But it made him feel better. "Technically, I'm an outsider as well. A lot of people here are. Even if they don't admit it."

"How long have you been this way? And how long the girl, then?" Maybe she meant she just spent most of her time as the cat, but it didn't hurt to ask. And he may as well gather up as much knowledge as he could before Kacela's concern drew her right on top of them. "Greets the Sun it is. You can call me..." Ocean Walker, the wild woman of his came out of the forest then, considering the scene and saying his name. Interestingly timed, really. "Well, that. And this is my mate, Kacela. I call her something else, but she prefers it when you pick a name for her yourself."

Best to get that confusion out of the way, even as he offered the new arrival a warm, silent greeting. Then his eagerness came on again and he waved at Greets with a boyish joy. "Look Kacela, I found a girl... well, a cat! She can change shape the way you do, except. I hope wolves and cats don't fight." He hadn't really thought of that and now he was a bit worried that he may have just started a feral brawl at the edge of town and woods. He looks between the pair. "I figured since she seemed a bit like you in human form, and she can change she might be related to your people somehow." Maybe another tribe, a much paler tribe, that worshiped a cat spirit instead of a wolf one.

Another look for Greets, and yes that foresty, wild hint to his smell seemed to match up with the new arrival, and he gave her an invisible smile behind the veil. One he tried to project with thoughts and voice. "I wanted you to meet. I thought you two might have things in common."

[Greets]

:: How long have you been as you are? :: She stands, her ears continuing to swivel and scan though one always remains pointed at the Trader. Her full attention turns to Kacela as she pads nearly silently out of the trees. Greets sniffs at her, yes, yes, they do indeed share similarities. She listens to Kals as he hurriedly speaks at Kacela and once again she can’t help but think that they sound like birds when they speak so quickly. All she is able to catch is this woman belongs to him and she is wolf. She can smell lupine on Kacela. It reminds Greets of the wolf man the woman spoke to near her now den.

She steps away from the pair. Wolves are territorial. Though she had not found any markers saying she was in someone else’s home, this man was Kacela’s mate and she wanted no misunderstandings. She reaches another tentative softly, furry tendril of thought towards Kacela so they may all share words. :: Mothers Blessings, Kacela. :: She follows the words with a feeling of guarded greeting, like she would another strange cha’har. Her demeanor remains neutrally wary since she is unsure of the welcome she will receive from this woman.

[Dulcie]

She stood for a long moment considering the great cat, her head tilted to the side and her body stilled. It was a much longer look of inspection than would be typical of most people, but for Kacela this just seemed to be the normal way about things. She'd consider, and look and listen to Kals as he spoke. When he mentioned names she'd nod her head in agreement. ~Names are for the giver.~ She offered out through the mind speak, having felt that touch of communication in her mind from the Great Cat, and found herself curious if she communicated the same way that her people did when they were in their wolf form.

She was territorial, and for a moment Kals could feel the stir of suspicion and possession in her, but as she noted details, his distance from the Great Cat and the fact that he felt excited rather than worried or afraid leant points in the Cat's favor. That and there was her own intense curiousity about the other creature's origins. Indeed she hadn't met anyone who shifted like her in a very long time, and she might have been tempted to have shifted forms right then and there were it not for the moment of vulnerability it would leave her with. Instead she decided to sit, setting her bow aside and sitting cross legged.

~"Greetings Ko-icto."~ She pressed through their mental connection, the word that she used clearly foreign, one of her own language that there was no replacement for in another. Though in truth it shouldn't matter, she had always found Kals able to understand her mind speak as it didn't seem to require a common language ~"Ocean Walker says you can change forms like I do, and I can smell the girl on you. My people are Nahuatl. Do you know us?"~ It was the question that burned most in her mind, the possibility that there could be more like her out there somewhere.

[Greets]

Greets assumes the statuesque pose again, sitting with her long stripped tail neatly wrapped around her massive paws. She remains guarded, though a bit relieved that violence is not going to break out from the onset. She leaves the words behind, reverting instead to what is more familiar to her. She shares the image of her girl paws and a view of herself from her perspective. The acceptance that this is her as well is shared. The feeling of agreement that she does indeed have more than one form is felt. When asked if she knows of the wolf shifters people a feeling of non-agreement is felt. The concept of an unknown scent is shared. All of these concepts are shared in quick succession. They are followed by the query of what her people are. The feeling of alone-ness lessens with the knowledge that there are more similar to her in the world.

The image of a great ship on the sea replaces the words for his name - :: Ocean Walker did not tell he had purposes other than showing me out of the fur-less two legs canyons. The Mother (conveyed by an image/feeling of the land they stand on) did not say there were others. I have never seen another who walked on four and two legs. :: To one more accustomed to sharing words, the onslaught of images and feeling is likely to be a bit disconcerting.

[Suede]

Kals thought the little introduction of his had gone rather well. Not getting eaten by a giant cat. He'd also managed to get Kacela here without having her just jumping in teeth bared. It was, he thought, rather successful in terms of first meetings. When the wild woman looked at him and began to become possessive he took a few less than subtle steps away from Greets and towards Kacela to be on the safe side of things, even if the emotions were fleeting.

It didn't take long for Kacela to get to the reason he'd been so interested in Greets. The possibility of some relation to his mate's own people, even if remote. She'd been looking since before he'd met her for someone of her own kind. A cat wasn't a wolf, but it was the closest he'd certainly come across so far. He was exuding some self-satisfaction at the little event and his part, and his prior cautious for Greets had toned down some now that Kacela was here. He didn't necessarily think Greets was overtly dangerous, and she had done the pawing at the air thing he imagined was significant, but having a werewolf that was fond of him nearby just made him feel better.

Kals doesn't seem horribly impacted by the images and discussion flying about, while it wasn't his native form of speaking, he'd been doing it quite often with Kacela, and had his own practice with the Skill to rely on. He even uses it to reply. ~It wasn't my initial intention, I was just going to show you the woods, but you changed and it was an opportunity I didn't think should be missed.~ Afterall, Kacela was a bit lonely as the only one of her kind.

[Dulcie]

She audibly sighed as she felt those images come to her minds eye. To an outsider she would look as if she were utterly distracted, but the truth was that she was "listening" very closely. She was very familiar with this means of communication, the images and the impressions of feelings and she began to communicate more readily with the great cat. She'd project a few short images of her own, many people that looked like here, there and then suddenly gone. A hint of an image of a vampire and the feeling of fear and once again aloneness as both the vampire and the people were gone from her images.

~I had thought I was all alone. The NightWalkers killed all of my people, but you are so much like us. It is good to talk like this.~ She smiled then, glancing back at Kals, obviously pleased that he had decided to bring her here.

~My people have a Great Mother and a Great Father too. We give them thanks, but it is the animal spirits that guide our way. I'm guided by the wolf.~ She would let the cat see the image of her other self then, a giant wolf that was nearly the size of a grizzly bear, similar in it's coloring as well.

[Greets]

Greets stands and pads over to Kacela. She tilts her head down and reaches forward to touch her forehead to the sitting woman’s in a gesture uniquely feline.

~The feeling of soft, safe mother is shared which progresses to the first things a cub with newly opened eyes sees - the rusty orange coat of the soft, safe mother and black bars. This is replaced by images and feelings of fear as soft, safe mother is taken and the cold, heavy **Hated** collar is roughly placed around her neck. Unhappy kitten cries fall on deaf ears as the only safe she has known is harshly pulled and prodded away. The copper scent of blood tints the air. Cold and alone. Hungry too. Refusal to eat the foul smelling garbage HE offers. The pain of her first beating and then dejection as, starving, she finally eats what he leaves in the cage for her. Always hungry, always alone. Leering and sometimes frightened faces staring at her from above. HIM laughing, the sounds he makes harsh like broken glass. The feel of the iron collar biting into her neck, the bars of the cage beneath her paws and the bruises they left when the seas turned rough, the closed up stench of the hold, the rancid, rotting meat HE tried to give her, the gawking sailors who amused themselves “teasing” her as she lied weak, tired, hungry and in pain in the too small cage. Rage, screams, pain, the hot taste of copper blood. Claws rending, teeth tearing. Finality. Now cold. Air cold enough to still be cold once breathed inside, cold hard ground. The smells of wolf. Pain still, neck and shoulder. Warmth and the smell of hay and horses, fear and great pain, pain all over. Welcome for an end to this. An image of Gloria, and then Blake. The flash of a sword blade and blackness. Healing pain, not just pain for pains sake. Janessa. Her own human paws seen from her perspective.~

Greets chuffs, still touching Kacela and in no way threatening. ::What is done is done and cannot be undone. I do not like remembering. I know only that before I came here, I was ~the image of her own rusty red coat~ Now I am here I am more. Most do not talk like this. They use words I do not know. I learned the ~the sounds of the harsh broken glass language~ sounds HE made. I used them to undo him. Here, only few know those sounds and just so I am starting over. A cub again, learning to walk and understand. But Mother said I should be here. ::

She steps back a few steps and sits again. Her large amber eyes watch Kacela. She seems to have forgotten that the Trader is listening as well ~The image of the new day’s light breathing color and warmth to a young cats coat is shared.~ :: I am Greets the Sun. You are the first I have truly spoken to in a very long time. ::

[Suede]

Kals didn't catch al the imagery that may have been passed on through the contact, but he'd get a large portion of it from Kacela unless she held it back from him, but he didn't speak of it. The trader had the sense to remain out of the way for a few moments, finding himself a tree to lean himself back against while the pair got to know each other. Kacela's glance and approval just further fueling his pride.

He wasn't as comfortable using purely images to speak as the pair was, but Kacela often spoke to him that way, and so he shifted over his line of thoughts to match the pair when Greets introduced herself a second time. ~You're the first she's found to speak to in a very long time, too. It's a pleasure to meet you.~ He offers another wave from where he's perched, mulling over the images floating about. ~How long have you been here?~

[Dulcie]

At the image of the collar she'd growl slightly, the sound seeming much more wolf like than human. It was clear from her feelings that she was not growling at Greets, but rather at the people that had tried to bind her. She offered the beast a feeling of empathy and she'd show her an image of herself, dressed in human finery with a silver necklace about her neck, very much like a collar. Next she'd see an image of the silver burning her skin and trapping the wolf from being able to come out. Then there was Kals there, rescuing her, breaking the silver away. When she was finished she'd show Greets a last image of Glenn Burnie with a deep sense of danger.

~Be very careful of this human. He does not like our kind.~ And surely Greets could feel that Glenn was involved in the silver necklace.

~My people believe that names belong to the giver, but your name is a very good one, I shall use it. It is a pleasure to meet you Greets the Sun. You may call me Kacela until you choose a name for me.~

[Greets]

A mental nod ~The pale metal hurts – a lot. I am glad to meet you, and your mate.~ her mental attention alters to now actively include Kals. ~Soon. Not even a turning of the moon has occurred in my time here. I would learn the sounds people use here. Can you help?~

The large feline sighs. ~This place is not *home*. I do not yet have a home. :: The sense of soft, warm, safe mother tinged with sadness now :: I did not learn what I should have from :: soft, warm, safe mother :: I am ill prepared to survive here. I have never seen ground so cold and hard or the not water that falls from the sky. Water that makes teeth ache.~ Greets looks at the pair as if appraising them. ~You know what to do here. What can be hunted. What to avoid. Show me what :: soft, warm, safe mother :: could not.~

[Suede]

Kals doesn't growl. Not usually, anyways. This wasn't one of those times, though he did frown behind his veil. She had probably been taken by slavers, maybe by animal traders, depending on the situation. He had a hard time sorting out all the images passing about since they weren't truly directed towards him, but he understood enough of the situation.

She asked him about learning to speak and he nodded to her. ~I've managed to help Kacela. I'm no teacher, and she figured out a lot of it on her own. We can both help you figure it out if you want.~ It didn't seem so hard when he'd helped the wild woman, it was mostly explaining words and grammar to her whenever she didn't understand something. This would just be a lot of explaining.

He frowned down at the snow, then up at the sky when she mentions it falling down on her. ~It's winter, a cold season. It'll start getting warmer here soon. We can teach you about the area if she wants to. Hunting, locals... how to make a fire so you can warm water if you want.~ Maybe provide her with some coin so she can buy hot food, too. Probably, and no vegetables, going off his experiences.

[Dulcie]

She'd nod her head visibly at her request. ~We will help you. Ocean Walker is a good teacher, he has taught me many words, and has been very patient. I can help you understand the words a little better I think. At least the ones I understand. I'm not always good at getting my point across, but I manage mostly.~

She'd take some time to project her some images then. The sorts of wildlife that lived in the forest and that they were allowed to hunt. She also showed her images of the livestock kept behind fences, giving her the feeling that they were forbidden. She also gave her the feeling of her own duty, that of protecting the humans.

~They will understand you better in your two leg form. They are afraid of beasts.~

[Greets]

Greets makes a face. ~They get to wear the shape they are most comfortable in, the shape they are born in and we cannot? :: A wave of extreme dissatisfaction :: I need someone to show me *how* to hunt. :: soft, warm, safe mother :: was taken. I was not let out of the metal cave until I let myself out. I am as a cub, smaller than I should be, weak.~ She stand and looks imposing for a moment before settling back into neutral body language. ~I have the year but I do not have the knowing. I was lucky I caught the Long Ear :: A quick image of a starving rabbit :: in the days before :: an image of Gloria’s face. :: found me. I am incomplete.~

The gruesome music begins again as her bones and muscles reorder themselves once more. At its finale, the slim, pale girl with rusty red/orange hair and amber eyes stands nude, again. “Please and thank you.” She states in her thick accent. Yes, modesty is NOT her strong point.