One Afternoon. . . (Open to all!)

[Anonymous]

((First IC post here, lawl. *braces self*))

Sometimes Ti'ael would watch the new arrivals and wonder what they were hiding from, who they were before. Other times he studied their physical features, taking note of anything that struck him as beautiful. Presently the elf (or so he looked at the time) watched one woman in particular enter the temple, and silently envied her slender, slightly up-turned nose.

He flared his nostrils and, in a moment, his own nose melted and shifted itself to match the woman's. Surely she wouldn't notice, what with already being in the temple by now and everything. Ti'ael gently ran his manicured fingertips over the bridge of his new nose, smiling in self-satisfaction. It would do for now.

Contented, Ti'ael settled himself on a floating stone slab that served as a bench and carefully smoothed out creases in his delicate purple robes.

[Anonymous]

LadyHitchhiker, the shapeshifter has appeared outside of the temple.  It seemed like a peaceful place to perhaps meet new people, and maybe find somewhere she can be useful.  Today she is in the form of a silver tabby house cat with big blue eyes.  The pedestrians seem to ignore her.

She sees an interesting looking individual on one of the magic slabs, and thinks perhaps she can find a bite to eat.  It is hard to find food around here some days.  

Arching her back, she leaps up to sit next to this creature.  She admires the purple robes, and refuses to sharpen her claws on them.  

In greeting, she rubs her face on the man's hand, and utters a cooing noise.

There is a loud bang from behind the church.  Her tail bushes out, and her eyes wide, she wonders what could possibly be going on.

[Anonymous]

"Well, hello there, little kitty..." Ti'ael half-smirked, scratching the feline behind the ears. He always found cats to be calming, and even now he found himself slipping into a peaceful state only half-connected with reality.

It made the bang that much more startling.

He uttered a cry of alarm, nearly falling off the slab. Luckily for his own dignity he caught himself at the last moment and cleared his throat, making sure no passers-by saw him. Luckily, they had their attention on the temple at the time- either wondering what the noise was or brushing it off as some novice's spell gone wrong.

Ti'ael found his own curiousity piqued, and stood up, glancing back down at the cat. "Right then. Come on, kitty."

[Anonymous]

'Let's hope that curiosity doesn't really kill the cat,' thinks the LadyHitchhiker to herself.  But, it is better to be in a group than to face adversity by oneself, and she really does want to be able to help, so she follows the nice man, to find out what has happened.  She is still scared and wants to run, but who knows.. if she follows this man enough she may be able to find even some more friends!

Around the corner, she sees who she must assume is the priestess of the temple.  She is slammed up against the marble wall by a vicious looking beast completely unfamiliar to her.

Her body tingles, wanting to change form to something much more massive, but she must wait and see what is going on.

[Anonymous]

OOC: My first IC post too.  :?

Faren woke up from a deep slumber. Trying to recall the strange images that flitted through his mind as he woke up. Quickly standing up he started to walk for a short while to shake the stiffness from his body. He started to walk towards the Temple, loving the crisp smells and noises of the woodlands. He started to remember part of the dream and realised it was the old one. The time he escaped from home plagued his dreams as if it has some untold message to pass on.

As he contemplated any hidden meaning in the dream he suddenly heard a loud, exhoing bang which woke him from his memories. Crouching down low, he edged along to see what it was that had made the noise. It sounded as if it was something huge, something he would not wish to fight in fair combat. Probably just a stupid brawler crashing into the Temple he thought, not believing himself for a second. As he got closer he heard some low, guttural sounds coming from the back of the temple.

As he rounded the corner of the Temple he saw a massive creature, covered in fur and making inhuman noises at a frightened woman. This woman looked to be the priestess of the Temple, but Faren wasn't concentrating on that, he was just staring at her face. She had long, flowing auburn hair with blue eyes showing an inexplicable terror as she stared at her foe. Knowing that he could not leave such a beautiful lady left to die he slowly walked behind the creature, who took no notice of him. He passed a man and a cat but they were too busy watching the priestess to bother to look at him. Standing just out of reach of the creature he tried to speak to it using a complex series of whines and grunts.

"Stop, leave the woman be she has done you no harm." The beast turned his head to stare at the Elf. It looked at the Elf for a few seconds in bemusement and then took a step forward ready to strike him. Faren, seeing that the creature was going to attack him, quickly drew his father's dagger and slashed it across the air. Faren was ready to do battle, though he didn't think he'd stand much of a chance unless that man he saw helped him.

[Anonymous]

Using her logopathy, the LadyHitchhiker suddenly translates in her head what the beast is saying into a strangely feminine voice.

"Help me, help me find my baby... help me!"  

So the creature had come here to the temple, seeking help to find her child?  Or perhaps some inanimate object it called baby?

"STOP!" LadyHitchhiker pronounces, changing into the form of a cat lady, long black hair, short pointed black ears, with furry paw hands/feet and a big bushy almost raccoon like tail.  She announces this to Faren, and she then again announces it into this creature's language.

Twitching her tail, her hackles raised, eyes big and green in this form she runs between the knife-wielding man and the she-beast, determined to help.

The priestess raises her hands and forms a bubble around herself and the temple, to prevent any more damage.

By now, a crowd of spectators has formed and are talking gently to themselves about the goings-on.

The LadyHitchhiker ignores the crowd, and continues to try to mediate.  Apparently this beast has been sent into a crazed state, desperate to find what she is missing.  "Look, everyone, we can all help each other.  Who or what are you missing?"  Asked the LadyHitchhiker to everyone's confusion and amazement.  "I want to help you, but you have to stop scaring everyone.  You're a big strong creature and we can't help you if you hurt us."

The beast's body seems to sag as the desperation seeks even more into its facade.

[Anonymous]

OOC: Are we looking for a female healer to play the priestess or will she be a NPC?

Hearing the commanding tone Faren looked over to see the cat changing its shape into a more human-like build, but with hair all over her body and a big, bushy tail. Faren dropped his jaw in astonishment how did she change from being a cat into being a half-cat, half-woman. Knowing that the creature would not attack him now that they had found out his purpose, he sheathed his father's dagger into the scabbard on his left. Thinking why he didn't bother to translate the creature's words in the first place, scolding himself he wondered what sort of a creature it really was.

Then he heard the strange woman talk again, asking the behemoth of a creature what it needs to find. As the beast let out a series of low and long cracked, growls he quickly interpreted them as "I'll stop as long as you help me find my baby." Faren quickly moved further toward the cat-lady, eager to be a paer of a scene. He began to say something, but before he did so, he winked at the priestess hoping she hadn't taken the vow of chastity.

"Brave beats, I shall help you if you stop desecrating our holy place and our wonderful people," Faren said in low, guttural sounds but then repeated them for the crowd. He saw the priestess smile admiringly at his daring and courage, exactly what he wanted.

"Who else will aid me on this journey?" he asked, attempting to take the leadership of this struggle from the cat-woman's hands.

[hikaru.dream]

((OoC: Also a first  :P ))

Hikaru walked, or more like skipped down the path in a somewhat cheerful mood.
She liked this place called La'marri. It was so different from where she lived and being so it at times unsettled her, but she liked it all the same.
The people were interesting, in both looks and nature, there was a lot of nature, and she didn't have to battle monsters at every corner, which was something she had been doing lately.

She had been headed toward the temple, where she had befriended the priestess' there, when she heard a bang. She arrived at the scene to see a small crowd, and carefully made her way through it.
I'll stop as long as you help me find my baby.
So that was what all the fuss was about.

And there was this elf trying to get the priestess's attention, a cat lady, and another elf.
Hikaru slipped toward the priestess, not caring if anyone noticed her or not.
"Are you Ok?" She whispered softly to the priestess. "You knew, didn't you? That she lost her child."
The priestess took her eyes away from the elf, and turned them to the short girl but said nothing. "I suppose it would have hurt itself if you had bound it, and that is against your vows." There was a slight silence between the two.
"I'm sorry."Hikaru said finally."I'm in a perhaps mean mood."
The auburn haired lady shook her head and returned her eyes to the elf.
Ah man. I guess that's the lucky thing of being pretty, Hikaru mentally snorted to herself.

"Who else will aid me on this journey?" The elf announced.
Hikaru thought many things about this one sentence and thankfully did not say them out loud.
She ran possibilities through her mind. It would probably be fastest to just call Taiga and have him find the lost child, but the elf seemed to want to do it this way and he couldn't know of Taiga anyway.

Trembling a little, she approached the beast. It was many times bigger than she was and it was still in a panic. Carefully she placed her hand on it's shoulder blade and nearly screamed.
She had forgotten that she had what she sometimes called the 'sharing feeling switch' on and panic mixed with anger, despair, desperation came flowing into her. She quickly shut it out and sent waves of calmness back through her hand. It didn't work out as nicely as she had wanted but hte beast's state was much better than before.

Hikaru backed away from it, only to be pushed forward again in another direction.
"I cannot leave the grounds of this temple. She will go." Hikaru turned to see the priestess smiling prettily at the elf.

Oh man.

[Anonymous]

LadyHitchhiker smiled a toothy feline smile.  "I will do what I can to help!  But first you must tell us, beast, what is your name?  What is your baby's name?  And who do you suspect of taking your baby?"

"I am Lithorra, and I seek my child K'gerren."  The creature intoned.

LadyHitchhiker translated this message to the group.  

"And what else can you tell us about this disappearance?"

"He was stolen by an unnatural looking creature.  Metallic and imposing, but with no face.  He stole him in the night from the woods we live in.  They took my bondmate last year, and he has not returned.  I can only figure out that the worst has happened, but I must try and save my boy!"

LadyHitchhiker translated to the sympathetic crowd.

"I am new to this area, and have not heard of these creatures you speak of.  Does anyone else know of this menace and what their motivation could possibly be?"

[hikaru.dream]

She just barely kept herself from staring at the cat lady.

Hikaru stood up and rubbed her elbow where it had hit the ground rather hard.

"What does he look like? What does he like? How big is he?"She asked aloud. She could understand what the beast was saying, but she was not as good as translating as the other.
Perhaps she was asking too much but...

"Where do you suspect the metal thing living? What else do you know about it? ....You're coming with us, no?"
Definately too many questions.