Dreary Days and [Old Friends]

[BIJOU FAYE]

To say, with any enthusiasm, that today was a wonderful day to be outdoors, you'd be surely mocking yourself. If yourself wasn't Bijou, in any case. The day was dreary, a rare day in Nevada; whose weather was usually sunny and clear. A light drizzle had set in under the grey clouds, and a fine mist was rolling in from the Desdemona Woods. There was very little reprieve from the rain, though towering trees swayed over head. Luckily, there was no wind, and the air was moist and warm; offering slight comfort. A weak sun peaked out from cracks in the seemingly unending gray sky.
The sounds of light footsteps had been completely muffed by sodden pine needles and other debris. The twenty year old trekked along a winding deer trail, unbothered by the falling sky above her. Her eyes were glazed over, staring at nothing in particular; just the path she had found herself travelling. She wore a bright and colorful dress; it grazing at mid-thigh, and the front covering what needed to be covered, but just barely. The dress was quite contrary to her surroundings, which by now had turned to grey and black; the air an eery white with fog. She wore black leather boots up to her shin, and white tights covering up her beautiful, tanned legs.
The morning had been uneventful. She had just returned to Brookshire for school, and though she had been eager to reunite with old friends, she had made it first priority to get some alone time to re-familiarize herself withthe school grounds. Thus, she found herself outside at Desdemona Woods, despite the rain and fog.
She never took the main trails marked out by the school groundskeeper. She knew her way around fairly well by now. She had her arms crossed firmly across her chest, long black hair trailing down her back. Her bright blue eyes remained unseeing on the ground before her. A snapping of twigs didn't even distract her from her thoughts, so when she was body slammed sideways, she let out a startled scream; filled with confusion, terror and shock. She landed roughly on the wet ground, the mud sloshing around her as a weight was bore down on her torso. Looking down, Bijou relaxed instantly. A lithe, but still fairly young cougar had pinned her to the forest floor.
"Mon vieil ami! Ferarri!" She spoke, aloud.
"Bijou! You should pay attention! I've been tracking you for the last mile!" The low purr of Ferarri echoed in her mind and Bijou immediately smiled.
"But you are such a strong and stealthy hunter. I would never have been able to hear you coming."
"I purposefully snapped a twig before I pounced. What were you thinking about, Mother?"

Mother wasn't a term used quite as literally as it sounded. Ferarri had gotten lost when he was just a cub. Bijou had found him, took him in and raised him for about a week. Then she managed to find his mother and return him to her. But Ferarri still considered Bijou like a mother.

"Oh nothing. Just thinking about being back here in Brookshire. I have missed you, my Son. How has everything been going?"

To anyone who wasn't an Animal Telepathic, one would hear Bijou 'meowing', purring and hissing at this young cougar that had by now removed itself from her lap and sat down beside her. It was definately an odd sight. But who would care? No one was around to hear the odd duo converse about things. Right?


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Sorry it's not the greatest first post. But eh.

She loves cars. So she named him after a Ferarri? LMAO. I'm so genius. JK

[Miss ALIBI!]

Wrong.

In fact, the dark blond stood just a few paces away, having entered the forest for reasons similar to the other girl's own. She leaned heavily upon an elegant cane made of a black wood with tigers carved into it, topped with a round, deep blue sapphire set with silver, her limp so very prominent.

"Are you sure you don't need help, Cinder, mon amie?

[/color][/i]" Colby, the sleek snow leopardess beside the gimping girl rumbled. Cinder, as she was known, shook her head determinedly. "I have to keep going, Col. I have to..." The feline pinned her small, fluffy ears and continued padding along until she heard the voices of other... cats? She stopped, her heavily muscled tail twitching.

"I hear them, too," the scarred maiden mewled quietly. Though she was no animal-speaker, she understood the feral cat beside her, telepathically connected to her in the deepest of ways. The rustling of the leaves suddenly stopped as Cinder changed the pace to that of a predator, though her bad leg was still favored, creeping ever closer. As she reached a place within earshot, she teleported herself, wrapping space around her with a slight crackle of electricity, leaving her crouched on a relatively high branch of a fir tree, surrounded by thick foliage.

Colby climbed up it from the back, bunching her hind legs beneath her and pouncing from branch to branch as she came to settle in a fork in the tree a mere foot above her mistress's head. Together they listened.

It wouldn't be too hard to have seen the flash of white as the snow leopard darted up the base of the tree. Or the swaying of the branches as the pair took their places.

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[BIJOU FAYE]

Perhaps had the duo been so engrossed in their conversation to not notice the snow leopard dash up the tree, they would have continued conversing, unopposed ot the eavesdroppings ears just a few trees away.
But as the case was, they weren't. Though Bijou was human, being connected to animals telepathically, also seemed to enhance her own senses. Her sense of smell and hearing alone and amplified to match the lithe cat beside her. So when Ferarri stopped talking, hair raising on his neck, Bijou was already standing and facing the direction where she had seen the flash of white. Sometimes, being in an animal's head for a long time had side effects. Often she would do something that animal would do; such as snarl or bare her teeth. So it was no surprise when her lip quivered upwards and a low rumble slid from her throat.
Her dress was completely covered in mud, though she paid no mind to her appearance. Ferarri stood beside her and slunk forward a few steps, hackles risen to make himself appear bigger. Bijou sniffed, catching the faint trace of a woman and another cat. There was something else that lingered, but there was no way she could classify it. Her eyes scanned the forest floor, but spotted nothing. Eventually, the swayed branch caught her eye and she looked up to see a woman and a cat perched on a bough.

She was confused. How did that lady get up there? There was no branches short enough for a human to reach and prop herself up onto. Teleporting, maybe? Then it clicked. That third smell was, however strange it may be, had been a trace of the power when the woman had teleported into the tree. Bijou dipped her head and walked forward to touch Ferarri's shoulder.
"Calm down, my son."
The big cat hesitated, but eventually his hackles fell and he sat down, though he was still tense.

"Qui sont vous, les étrangers ? Et sont vous la menace ou l'ami ?"In her quick shift from tlaking to Ferarri, she had went immediately into her native tongue. Thinking now, as he ermind cleared, she realized the person probably didn't speak French. So she tried again."Who are you? Friend or foe?"She didn't bother to hide the commanding tone. She didn't want to appear hostile, but she wanted it obvious that she wanted and answer to her question.

[Miss ALIBI!]

Mousy blond hair hung loosely around her face, obscuring the right side, hiding the scars that marred the beauty that once showed plainly on her now gaunt, shadowed features. She tilted her head, showing a glimpse of bumpy, ugly skin before it was quickly covered.

Though Cinder's face was ruined, her voice still sang like a bell; "Je ne suis pas non plus, mais je n'apporte aucun mal." I am not either, but I bring no harm. Colby growled from above her, slinking nimbly along the bough as she hissed defensively. With a look, Cinder silenced her, though she looked disgruntled at the least. Though Cinder generally wasn't very nimble, she dropped from the high branch and landed nimbly on the moss-padded ground, her left leg taking the blunt of the force.

She winced at the pressure it put on her injured leg, and turned her head away to hide the horrible scars that covered the whole right half of her body. She closed her blind eye, as it made no difference whether it was closed or open as it didn't work either way. "I am Cinder Brokenwing." She said softly, yet strangely firmly. She knew this girl was one of her kind, the kind afflicted by powers. She could trust she wasn't a hunter.

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[BIJOU FAYE]

Ferrari only tensed further, hackles raising again when the leopard hissed towards Bijou. His own light hiss rumbled in his throat. Bijou silenced him with a slight shake of her head. She looked the girl over lightly. Of course she noticed the scars. Even in shadow, her eyes were keen and every rugged bump on the females face was obvious. But she didn't really care. And she stared for a few minutes, of course. We're not going to be fools and say that Bijou didn't notice them or care. This wasn't normal, and you stare at things out of the normal. And the only reason Bijou cared wasn't because it was disgusting of she pitied the girl, no. She was just curous. What could have happened to make the girl look like she did?

Quickly snapping out of her reverie, Bijou locked her eyes onto Cinder's one good one. So she spoke french, did she? Although it was Bijou's native tongue, she didn't want to bother with switching back to french. So she spoke in english all her words. "Greetings, Cinder. I am Bijou Faye, from Caen, France. This here is Ferrari." she had meant to imply she wanted to know who the feline with Cinder was. She could talk to her, if she had wanted to, but she didn't want to offend the snow leopard. Bijou looked over just as a small fox wandered into the clearing, drawn by the commotion. Bijou gave a sharp, chirp like sound and the fox gave what appeared to be a nod and wandered away. Bijou wasn't to be distracted from what was in front of her.
Softening her voice, not enough to appear sympathetic (Which in any case she wasn't) but to let Cinder know she had come to trust her not to cause violence. "What are you doing out here?" It was a simple question. If it were averted, Bijou wouldn't have minded, but what else was she supposed to say?

[Miss ALIBI!]

The scarred girl shrugged- her left shoulder moving, her right staying still at her side. The only time that that arm ever moved was when it twitched painfully, since it was shot to hell from the Incident. Luckily, that part of her body was hidden beneath black leather pants and a long-sleeved black sweater, along with a leather glove to conceal the twisted, uselessly torn tendons that bulged around her knuckles, fingers and wrists. Knee-high boots kept her feet covered.

Colby." She replied, gesturing with the cane in her left hand to the snowy she-cat that still lingered in the fir tree. She was, however, beginning to pace, examining the best ways down. She decided if her marred friend could leap down, she could as well. Landing with a grunt beside her, she stood with her chin and tail raised, asserting her dominance over Ferrari, warning him to not make any move toward her mistress. She was, reasonably, very protective of the girl who'd saved her life after nearly falling from a cliff while hunting Markhor in the Himalayan mountains in Asia.

Nearly bristling with indignation, she huffed. "It would be wise for you to never threaten my human, cub-" "Colby! Tais toi! Enough. Fighting is unnecessary." Cinder muttered under her breath. "Paranoid little hen..." She returned her gaze to the questioning one of Bijou, her eye a calm, indifferent facade. "I suspect I am here for reasons similar to your own." As if the episode with the snow leopard hadn't even occurred. Colby had sat down and licked a paw, feigning an injured pride.


Tais toi! = Shut up!

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[BIJOU FAYE]

Bijou sniffed lightly, watching Colby with a keen wariness as Colby spoke to Ferrari. Ferrari, though smart, often didn't take any bashes to his pride. And threats weren't taken well, in any case. Bijou just trusted Ferrari enough that he wouldn't threaten the older cat. Instead, Ferrari huffed in indignation and rolled his eyes.
"I wouldn't bother with your human, Colby. So long as you don't threaten mine."
Content with Ferrari's answer, Bijou turned her gaze back to Cinder's face. The rain picked up, now starting to down in torrents. Bijou loked up at the patch of sky she could see from between the swaying treetops and her face was beautifully illuminated as a strike of lightning scored the gray sky. Smiling lightly, Bijou looked back down to Colby and Cinder.
"Hm. Agreed. Violence is never necessary. She walked closer to Cinder, trusting her despite just meeting her. Perhaps it was that Bijou could trust too easily. Or maybe she could tell people's personality. Cinder didn't seem like a bad person at all.
"You are a student at Brookshire, I'm assuming?" IT was a fair assumption. Not all normal people walked around with big cats at their side. Thinking this, Bijou looked at Ferrari and motioned him to sit by her side. As he did so, she rested a palm on his head and stroked tenderly.
"Je vous ai manqués tellement, mon Fils" she whispered just loud enough for Ferrari to hear.
Ferrari purred softly, though his eyes were locked onto Colby, still prepared for if she were to attack Bijou. Bijou turned back to Cinder once again and smiled.
"Truthfully I am out here for a little alone time, and it brings back fond memories," she gestured to the forest around them,"It's been awhile since I've been here last. Is this your first year?" She didn't remember seeing Cinder or Colby around before. And they were a duo she would have remembered.

[Miss ALIBI!]

As the older woman stepped nearer, Cinder automatically took a step back. "Stay away from me," she said, her voice amplified by some kind of power. The space around her crackled with electricity, and she closed her working eye, trying to calm herself. It wasn't anger or fury that triggered her defensiveness, but fear. She wasn't a social person, and she didn't want to be near to anyone, physically or emotionally.

Colby growled, not at Ferrari or Bijou but at Cinder nervously. The scarred girl placed a hand on her familiar's head, much like the other female had done to her cat. She reopened her eye and glared coldly at the brunette. "Je suis désolé," she wasn't apologizing because she wanted to, but because she felt obligated to. "Just don't come near me."

"Yes, she is a student at what you call Brookshire and this is her first season there." Colby replied instead, seeing as Cinder wasn't keen on speaking very much more.

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