by Mistress Guendolen » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:54 pm
It was pretty late at night.* Gymnastic practice had run a lot later than planned.... Cassia hitched her bag higher up on her shoulder, picking up in a bit of a run. She knew her parents would be mad at her being so late, but well, she couldn't help but find this to be a bit of an adventure. She didn't typically get nighttime walks. And it had been a good practice, overall. She was looking forward to the meet they were training for. It was no championship level gathering, to be sure, but it would be fun all the same. New people to meet and compete with....
A rustling broke through her contemplation. There was something in the shrubbery.... Cassia trailed to a halt, looking around. "Who's there?" she called out. No one was visible. But again, another rustle. This time it registered as low to the ground. And just briefly, she thought she saw a flicker of red....
"Did someone's pet get out?" Now feeling quite curious, Cassia went over to the bushes, crouching down to peer between the branches. And there, she saw a small animal. Pointed ears.... A bushy tail, tipped in white.... Not a pet at all. But a fox. The little creature looked at her, ears quivering. Oddly, it didn't look the least bit afraid. In fact, she would swear that, just for a second, it winked at her....
Then in a flicker of movement, it was away. But it paused just for a second in the adjacent yard and looked back at her over its shoulder, as though asking her to follow it....
Well, Cassia was never one to back down from a challenge. She was already late, so what difference did this brief interlude make? She couldn't precisely crawl through the shrubbery, but she easily vaulted the nearby fence, and with that, set out behind the little creature.
The fox led her across the yard and into an alley beyond. And from there, it was through a maze of back streets and one-way lanes, behind buildings and even across rooftops, all on a journey whose destination she didn't know, but was increasingly more curious of. Finally, the fox stopped. They were in a scrubby little garden behind a house she didn't recognize; but then again, it was dark, wasn't it? The creature was digging around the base of a tree with it's little paws. In the light of a lone street lamp, something shimmered faintly. The fox looked up at her, almost-winked again... and vanished.
Cassia blinked. Surely foxes didn't vanish, at least not outside mythology. It must've crawling into a whole, maybe at the base of this tree. She knelt down to look. In the process, her hand closed over the object the fox had dug up, a silver pendant shaped like an inverted teardrop, set with a red stone. It was only a second for the design to register in her mind before everything shifted... and changed.
Darkness wrapped around like a cloak. Silence, muffling the world, as though awaiting a birth.... Music filled the air, and a spicy scent tickled her nose. Guitars, violins, maybe a saxaphone or some other insturment not able to be identified, and an explosion of colored light; flashes of red, white, silver and gold, swirling in bubbles and streams, wrapping around her like ribbons made of pure light, essence forming and changing, like a sword being wrought from raw iron....
She felt her spine extend and a tail emerge, her ears shift to the top of her head, growing long and pointed; it was like the most natural thing in the world, this was who she was born to be, this was her true birth, the rest of life had been an interlude, before this....
"Wha?..." Cassia opened her eyes, blinking blearily. She was still under the tree. "Wait a minute... what?.... Did I fall asleep? After following that crazy fox...." It was strange. She should feel stiff and bleary after an unplanned nap, but instead she felt... renewed. Energized. Like she had been filled with light and pure energy.... Cassia jumped to her feet, stretching. She rolled her shoulders, tail swishing against the back of her legs.
Wait. Tail?...
She couldn't help it. She reached around behind her, not knowing what to expect- and found fur. Lots of bushy fur. It was only then that she realized she was dressed entirely differently.... The outfit might be cool under other circumstances, but well, she was rather less inclined to appreciate fashions at this moment. Instead, she frantically got into her bag and pulled out a mirror. Reflected there she saw two distinctly foxlike ears peeking up out of her hair, and the silver medallion hanging from the choker now surrounding her neck....
Cassia gaped. And then, she hollered to no one in particular, "I'm a bloody fox girl!"
*OOC: The first post listed the time as 11:00 P.M., so I'm setting mine at the same time frame to allow for ease of meeting.
Adding to the magical kitten girl army...one huggle at a time mraa