Here kitty kitty.....{Tag Aalaria}

[Kaliah]

The rainforest's were the closest thing to the jungles I'd found on this continent. The damp, cloying air was thick with humidity. The floor of the rain-forest was soft, everything a verdant green. Cries and calls of birds, insects, and other animals came floating down from the canopy of trees. Slithering sounds alerted me to snakes and lizards that twisted and scuttled around tree limbs or across the ground. I caught fleeting glances of other predators, and fewer of prey as I traversed the winding path made by other rain-forest dwellers. Man did not venture this far into the deep, which set me at ease.

I padded silently over root and rock, catching few scents of other cats that had passed before. Panther and tiger, but no other leopard, and no trace of another lycan. Though part of me wished to find others like myself, I still feared losing them. Like I'd lost my pard, and later Zahara. For days, weeks, I wandered, hoping against hope that I might find another shifter, another cat, someone....like me.

A tree, taller and sturdier than the others surrounding it beckoned to me. I climbed it, my claws gouging the bark as I nimbly pulled myself up to it's largest branch and laid across it. I curled my tail tight against my body, only my left fore-paw dangling and I rested. While I lay there I wondered what I would do, what I would say if I did find another cat shifter. Would we become friends, would we be as kin,like all the jungle cats were back home? Or would we fight, battling to the bloody death? If it were the later, I chose death. As I lay thinking, I drifted into an easy, light sleep. So caught up in the web of my thoughts, when I detected the scent of another shifter, a tiger, I passed it off as fancy. However, the scent grew stronger, my ears twitched in the direction of padded paws stepping my way. Closer and closer she came, another feline, a female. My heart picked up it's pace, anxiety flooding through me. What was to come, should I meet this shifter? There was only one way to tell, and that wouldn't be until she arrived near where I hunkered in the tree. Depending on her reaction to me, I'd either have a new acquaintance, or a deadly enemy.

[Aalaria Windwalker]

The rainforest trees swayed freely in the soft breeze. There was a faint drizzle of rain, but the canopy shielded my head from the dampness. The hands of the forest, the branches, stroked my back caressingly as I passed. My body moved smoothly through the jungle, oddly nimble for a cat of my size.

I'd left the Loup Garou for the rainforest to go hunting. I'd caught the scent of a herd of okapi and I was sure I was hot on their trail. My tail swished the draping leaves out of my way as I travelled towards a large area full of Kapok trees. I admired their grandness and took a moment to look up at them, up their thick trunks.

There it was. The scent of a lycan aught my nose, tentalising me to come closer. This was a lycan like me, a big cat, perhaps a jaguar? No, not jaguar... A leopard!
I became cautious as I advanced on the new scent, clambering over a fallen log and poising myself on my hind legs. I looked about... No, nothing... Wait, there! It was difficult to see, but there was definetely something there.

"Hello?" I called out, trying to touch the lycan's mind. "I mean no harm!"

[Kaliah]

The shock of the tiger's awareness entering my mind made my hind leg slip. Knowing she saw me, I leapt down, land gracefully a few feet before her. I cocked my head, regarding her with curiousity. She had said she wouldn't harm me, but should I take her at her word? Her body language did nothing to suggest an attack, so I padded softly closer to her, sniffing. I stretched my neck, my face only inches from hers as I inhaled sharply. I circled her, memorizing her scent as I snuffled against her fur. I sat back on my haunches, facing her once more, and wrapped my tail around my front legs. Trying to open my mind and speak to her as she had me, I forced out a greeting. "Hello." I bowed my head slightly, trying again to speak to her with my mind. This was new to me, something I'd never tried, so I wasn't sure if she recieved my messages at first. Zahara had been able to mindspeak to all the jungle cats, but I had supposed it was her gift as Feline Mistress. I hadn't thought that I might be able to do it to, let alone that the gift may reside in others.

"My name is Kaliah. Who are you?" I tilted my head again, wondering where she'd come from, what other gifts she may possess along with mindspeak. I licked the top of my left paw, cleaning myself, though my eyes stayed locked on the tiger. She was the first of her kind I had met, Zahara having kept me away from the tigers in her land, saying they were vicious killers, unpredictable, and not fit for her pard. This tiger seemed far from Zahara's description. But I was still only breaking the surface of Zahara's lies, learning from Aliya that I could lead my own life, like I once had, long ago.

I twitched my tail nervously, excitment beginning to bubble within me as I sat with the tiger. Aliya was right, friends were bound to show themselves, if I were more receptive. I'd been able to overcome some of my submissive and fearful actions with Aliya's mentoring. I hadn't abased myself before the tiger, instead, I was curious about her and her kind. Was she alone here? Were there others like her? I let a smile curve my lips, a kitty cat grin on my face. We would not do battle today. "You're nothing like Zahara described." Realizing she may have no idea as to whom I refered, now that Zahara had died, I added a bit more. "Zahara was my mistress, she told me of weretigers, that you were a vicious and unruly lot. She lies." I scooted closer to her, sniffing again at her neck, sensing no threat at all from the creature. Excitement now burned in me, at finding yet another feline friend. Perhaps we were not all monsters as Zahara had claimed.

[Aalaria Windwalker]

Curiosity unfolding, I let my senses run wild. My eyes told me of the lycan before me, a wereleopard lycan. Now this was interesting. I'd never seen a wereleopard before and never imagined such splendor in them. This was a stunning creature, but maybe that was just me complimenting every lycan I saw. Still, it was true, she was beautiful.

My nose told me her scent, a mixture of history and identity. I snuffled her speckled fur slightly, as she did to me. I allowed her; after all, if this was to be a new friend, I didn't want to get off on the wrong paw.

I could feel the strain in her side of the mindspeak. It was obvious she didn't do it often, or perhaps never before. I didn't do it often myself, except with the Loup Garou. It was them who'd awakened my mindspeak and allowed me the gift of what some would call telepathy.

I tossed my head slightly, the amulet around my neck chinking slightly. It was the one that Arwen had given to me, and I always wore it. It had become a part of me, like some kind of second soul.

"I am Aalaria," I replied to Kaliah, "and a fine name Kaliah is, too." I listened to her tale about this person called 'Zahara', then replied again. "I do not see myself as a viscious brute, but it's not my call. I think you are wise to deny that rumour. Though I'm sure this Zahara tells some truth, maybe from experience, you must not stereotype us. We all have a different voice. I think you are wise to believe that that is a lie, as I am sure there are much more weretigers like me, but equally there are weretigers like Zahara describes. However, the genes tell us to always be sure that there is no threat and don't attack if unnecessary." I bowed my head slightly. "I have no reason to attack."

[Kaliah]

Aalaria's tiger form was much bigger than I, and I felt somehow like a kit again. Perhaps her excitement was rubbing off on me. I shook my head. "Since leaving her, I have found that more and more of what she told me are lies. Whether it was to keep me under her paw or not, I am unsure." It would make sense that the weretigers were no different than I was, save perhaps for their feline forms. "Is that not the basic premise for all of us?" I let laughter fill my voice.

Laying down beneath a banyan, I extended my front paws before me in a demure manner as I gazed up at the massive tiger, Aalaria. "May I ask you how you came to learn the mindspeak? I am most curious, as I've only met one other, that being Zahara, who could do this." I licked my lips, then curled one paw and rested my chin upon it. It was cool on the rainforest floor, and I felt at home here. In some strange way, I was also quite comfortable with this tigress. I had a moment of kittenish joy while I pictured us running through the rainforest, playing tag, chasing our tails, batting at rays of sunlight breaking through the canopy.

A beetle waddled across my outstretched paw and I snapped at it, catching a leg between my teeth as it scurried off. I let got before it ripped from his body, I hadn't meant to harm him after all. I batted the ground after him, watching as he scuttled faster to get away from the big cat who might eat him. I wasn't in the practice of eating bugs, and didn't intend to start doing so now. Not when there was plenty of food to hunt. The thought of hunting brought on another burst of excitement. Aalaria and I could hunt together, here in this wild rainforest that so resembled my jungle home. "Would you like to play? Hunt perhaps?" I hadn't taken the initiative to ask someone to hunt or play in ages, and it felt good. Aliya had broken me out of the shell Zahara had trained me to live in. The rest was up to me.

[Aalaria Windwalker]

I listened carefully to what Kaliah had to say about Zahara. I nodded, a smile upon my lips. "I agree," I said.

I wandered over to a large tree and lay down beneath it, but even that didn't shield me from the humidity of the rainforest. My tongue lolled out of my mouth as a panted heavily. My nose twitched as the scent of a large flower took my fancy. As I looked at its beautiful petals, I listened to Kaliah. My head turned back to her, tail flicking slowly and contentedly.
"I spent time with a group of lycans called the Loup Garou," I explained, "they were experts in communication via the mind. I guess they kind awakened the ability that had always been dormant in me."

I watched as the beetle scuttled along over Kaliah. I smiled slightly when she accidentally hurt it. Not because I found it funny, but more content with having someone like me around. "I would love to!" I smiled; I couldn't bare staying still in the humidity any longer.

[Kaliah]

My eyes widened. I'd heard of the Loup Garou only once before, in passing. What Aalaria said was much more than I'd supposed. "They are a magickal breed, I suppose..." Thinking more on it, weren't we all in a sense magickal? I grinned, baring fangs and teeth, but Aalaria could easily tell the difference between a scowl and a grin. "First, let's find water, I'm parched." We were both panting. I stood on all fours and stretched languidly, swishing my tail back and forth. I padded to Aalaria and rubbed my cheek along hers, mingling our scents. I felt relieved to be around another big cat, like I'd felt around Aliyah. Thankfully, both were friendly to me, and that went a long way to helping me get over the brainwashing from Zahara.

After Aalaria rose we wound our way through the trees and plantlife toward the sound of running water. Though it was somewhat cool in the shade, the rainforests were muggy, the air thick with humidity. Birds sang, hidden among the dense canopy above us, feeling safe from our jaws by being at such a height. We found the stream, a glittering oasis where the sun shone on flowers I'd never seen before. "It's so beautiful here. It reminds me of my home in the jungle, years ago." I sighed contentedly before lapping up the cool water.

Once we were refreshed, it was time to hunt. Both of our noses worked overtime trying to scent prey. It didn't take long, in fact, it would seem that they prey found us! A herd of capybara, a strange looking mammal often found in or near water, came tromping down the stream. My eyes glittered with a predatory gleem, and a glance at Aalaria confirmed she too was in predator mode. The capybara hadn't spotted us quite yet, but they would soon, and then they'd scatter, running in fear and confusion. I crouched low with my front end, my hind end raised, tail barely twitching as I kept my sight trained on the capybara. "Mmmm, delivery." I snickered at Aalaria as our feast moved ever closer.