[Story]

Niola Story

Many people of various races walked by aimlessly through the underground without much of a thought for the small being who’s golden eyes looked about slightly confused, yet interested. Although it seemed slightly crowded, or at least for the cub, none seemed to even bump into the cub. Or, at least all of them were able to steer clear before doing so. None even cared that it was a leopard in the first place, but of course, who would? This was a world of many oddities, and sure enough, there would be way more odder things than a leopard wondering through an underground city.

The cubs black nose rose to the air, smelling the culture that surrounded her in excitement. ‘New world, new wonders!’ echoed her thoughts as the cub, or otherwise known as Story, looked around. Of course the cub had always known about Elysia , but it was her first official arrival alone. And besides that, she’d only been here for a short moment before traveling elsewhere. Silver paws finally began padding to who knows where simply to see where the world would take her, but before Story knew it, pale hands reached out and grabbed her. Stroking her fur was that of a child, playfully petting the leopard without even a doubt in her big blue eyes. Blond hair covered the small head, and freckles covered the young girl’s face. ‘Kitty! K-I-T-T-Y!’

A startled hiss erupted from the white fangs of the leopard as she desperately tried to escape the child’s grasp only to success in making the child cry hysterically. Tears poured from the what looked to be five year old girl as she looked at a small cut on her arm created by Story’s claws. Accidental, of course. Still, the child continued to make a fuss of the incident and before long, a quite tall women came along, swooshing at the cat with a bag before taking the young girl’s hand. ‘What did I tell you? Stay with me!’ Still, the child cried, wrapping her small arms around the women’s legs.

Okay, maybe this place wasn’t as fun as it looked to be. Scrambling to get away, and feeling quite small, the leopard found herself rather lost now. Golden eyes once full of amazement now just full of worry.

Grrrrrrrrgle.

‘Ah, no…’ Story thought at the recognizable sound of a hungry stomach.

Lost, alone, and apparently…
Huuuungry.

___________________________________________________________

>.< Code barrowed from the journals page.
I feel pretty empty without a purdy table/layout thingy,
even if it's really simple.

[Isaac]

Isaac looked around in wide-eyed wonder as he walked down the street. From the moment he'd stepped out the other side of that thingamajingy and found himself here, he'd been overwhelmed by all the new sights and sounds. There were people walking about who clearly weren't human -- some had wings and others just had... weird colours -- and he had no idea where he was.

He hadn't yet found anyone who'd stop to let him ask all the questions that were burning on his tongue, so instead of voicing them, they kept spinning around in his head.

Where was he? Where had Tomás gone? Who were all these people? Did they even speak English -- some did, because he'd heard them, but others...? Was he even still on Earth? What had that 'window' been that he'd stepped through? How could it have taken him to this place? How could this huge area be hidden like this? Was it a secret place for those who weren't normal?

Tomás had mentioned some place where it didn't matter what you were -- not much, at least -- but he'd never told Isaac how to get there, no matter how the little tiger had asked. He'd only gotten the same comment about how 'nagging boys didn't get anything' and that he'd be told later when he grew up a bit. Well, obviously Isaac had grown up enough to find out now.

Maybe he should eat some of his sandwiches soon? He'd been walking a long time now, and he was getting... not hungry, but he wanted something to munch on. No, he'd save them a little longer, he decided, patting his backpack -- awkwardly, since it was still on his back. You never knew when you might actually need that food.

He would have wandered on endlessly, if he hadn't caught sight of another kitten. It (he? she?) seemed to be as old as he was, even if Tomás had said that appearances could be misleading. But it wasn't a tiger. It was a... leopard? Was that the word? Isaac got so easily confused with all the spotted cats. Tabbies and tortoises (though it had always confused him how cats and tortoises could be relates) and leopards and jaguars and whatnot. But whatever it was, it seemed... lonely. And scared. Maybe.

Making an effort to approach the cat carefully -- he didn't want to scare it away, in case it was scared already, you know -- he crouched down on a speech-friendly distance from it.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, mentally counting to three before continuing and hoping the cat wouldn't run away before he finished. "I'm Isaac, and I'm kinda new here, so I don't know anyone. Do you want to be my friend?"

Maybe normal people didn't just out of the blue ask a stranger -- even if it happened to be a cat -- if they wanted to be their friend, but Isaac wasn't exactly normal, was he?

Layout by me, with help from:
« ProFantasy ¤ Kimball Stock Photos ¤ Dafont »

[Alterna]

¤ Piper's Boutique ¤ Dafont ¤ Kuschelirmel ¤ Skulldog ¤

If there was one thing good to be said about being an otter, is that you could hop into a nearby fountain if it ever got to be too hot. Which was exactly what Alterna had decided to do. She'd hung her bag on one of the fountains elaborate spouts so she could keep an eye on it while she cooled off. Alterna had chocolaty brown fur, with a cream colored belly that started from under Alterna's chin. She'd been to the Underground before, but it hadn't been the best of circumstances. It had also been a short period of time, so she only knew of a few places to go. Alterna had been floating on her back peacefully when she'd heard the hiss of some cat. Intrigued, she swam over to the edge of the fountain and peaked her head out of the side of the fountain. 'A leopard in the Underground?' ,she thought to herself. 'Ah, it must be another Therian like me!'
Brightening considerably, Alterna watched as someone walked over to the possible Therian and asked it if it'd like to be his friend. 'Perhaps they wouldn't mind if I joined in too?' ,she asked herself. Alterna was already in a good mood, so before she could stop herself, she'd squeaked out a greeting to the two and waved at them, so if they saw her they'd know she was a Thereian also.
'Ah man!' ,she began to scold herself. 'You know you're not a good conversationalist!' Oh well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad...

((Isaac, you're in human form right?))

[Isaac]

Isaac's attention was drawn from the cat when another animal came sauntering up to them, squeaking and waving. It was an odd creature. It looked a little bit like a short-legged cat, but the head looked more like that of a dog. And it was wet, the dark brown fur glistening still. Isaac's fingers were itching to reach out and pet the little animal but since the animal seemed to be more than just an animal -- were all animals special here? -- he held himself back.

"Wow," he breathed. "What kind of creature are you? I've never seen one like you before. I'm Isaac, what's your name? Err, if you can say it, of course. Tomás could talk when he was in animal shape, but I can't, so I don't know if it's something special that only a few people can do or if it's something you just learn when you grow older." Then again, this... strange animal, whatever it was, didn't seem to have his problems with staying in animal shape, so it ought to be more experienced, right? But maybe it wasn't the same kind of special creature that he himself was? Ah, things were so confusing. "Do you know what this place is? I don't, but I've only been here for a little while. I'm looking for my friend, Tomás, but so far I'm having little luck finding him. Not that I've been looking for a long time, of course."

He looked between the animals.

"Do you know each other? Or are you two as confused as I'm feeling? Do you even understand anything I'm saying?" He grinned sheepishly. "Not that it ever stopped me from talking before. Tomás says I talk far too much. So if I do, feel free to tell me. Or, you know, put a paw to my mouth or something." He kept grinning at his new friends -- of course they were his friends, they just hadn't had time to accept his friendship yet -- and waited for hopefully some sort of reply.

Layout by me, with help from:
« ProFantasy ¤ Kimball Stock Photos ¤ Dafont »

[Alterna]

¤ Piper's Boutique ¤ Dafont ¤ Kuschelirmel ¤ Skulldog ¤

Alterna smiled as much as she could in her otter form and began to transform into her human form. She hadn't really wanted to shift, but if she was going to talk to Isaac she'd had no other option. In her human form, Alterna wore blue jeans and a brown shirt. Brushing back her long brown hair, that was still wet, with her hand, Alterna turned to Isaac. "My name's Alterna." ,she replied. "The animal shape you saw me in is called a 'river otter'. I'm a Thereian and I'm guessing that this here cub is one too, since normally leopard cubs don't go prancing around cities." Smiling, Alterna hurriedly walked over to the fountain and retrieved her tattered shoulder bag. Shaking off some of the water that had gotten on it, Alterna returned to where the other two were still sitting and continued talking, her green eyes twinkling. "I had to shift to this human form since I'm not that experienced of a Thereian. I'm what you'd call animal based, meaning it's normal for me to be an otter and hard to maintain human shape. So if I change back into an otter, just know that I couldn't stay human for much longer."
Alterna found Isaac's talkative nature infectious, and couldn't resist talking some more, "I've been in the Underground before, and nothing really seems as it appears. It can get quite confusing at times." With this Alterna laughed and looked at her two companions.

[Isaac]

"Underground?" he asked her, puzzled. Cautiously he looked around to see if he could see any trains, or train stations. "What do you mean? Underground of what? Where are the trains? And what is an animal-based Theri-whatever? Therian? That's shapeshifter, right? But don't all shapeshifters have animal forms?" Yes, Tomás's education of Isaac had been very controlled, even if the boy himself didn't understand it. Half the things he should know had been postponed with the excuse that he didn't need to know that yet, and since Isaac trusted Tomás blindly, he'd never questioned it. "Otter's a fun word. Tiger's not nearly as fun. That's me, by the way. I go all cute and fuzzy and striped. But I can't be a tiger for long bef- Oh! That's what you meant. So it's the same but opposite? That's strange. I've never heard of that before. But you're also the first Therian I've met who hasn't been me or Tomás. Is it because you're a girl that you're different?"

Isaac honestly didn't mean any offense, nor was there anything other than curiosity in his eyes as he looked at Alterna. Maybe it was a bit rude to pay her more attention than he paid to the leopard, but when Isaac got curious about something, he got... easily distracted.

Layout by me, with help from:
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[Story]

Story

ooc.l

Sorry for the disappearance.
Bad post, I hope you don't mind. >.>

ic.l

Grumbling at her own self for the fact that she was scared of the little girl, the animal therian slowly prodded her way through the creature packed crowds, until that of a boy appeared. His face seemed slightly curious, but what made him so different from the rest of the crowd? Well, for one, he was heading towards Story. Hoping this person wasn't like that of the little girl, the leopard let loose that of a small hiss from the white of her fangs. Maybe he didn't hear her? That could be easily understood, though, for not even she hear herself from the noise of the crowds. Besides, her hiss was a soft whisper, not really meant to be a roar.

Why didn't she run? Story didn't really know. She just felt like she belonged here, talking to him. The, from what she could tell, human-looking creature thingy, was different from the crowed. Therian? No, course not. His voice was maybe misheard through the ears of the leopard, but it seemed like he was asking her something? OH, wait! English! Yes, yes. Maybe he didn't speak through thoughts?

Maybe it was the smell of food in the boy's backpack that distracted the leopard enough for her to completely forget of the boys question, but before she actually remembered too, there was another therian. Bounding up to the two came that of a small creature the leopard regonized as an otter. Specifically, maybe a river otter? Story, unsure of how to react to the two really, finally managed to drift away after hearing a few words of they're conversation. Food... Food... Must find food.echoed her thoughts as the managed to drift away. Eventually, her growling stomach caught her and the thoughts of the boy's backpack reappeared in her mind. Steal it? No... That's probably not a good idea. Maybe... Maybe he can help me out before I starve to death.

Before long the leopard had managed to reappear. White paws slowly walked towards them, who appeared to still be enjoying a conversation between each other. But before coming any closer, Story stopped. Was it a good idea? She didn't know them! Still... They were friendly enough. And one had food.

Credits

. Aethereality . dafont.com .

[Alterna]

¤ Piper's Boutique ¤ Dafont ¤ Kuschelirmel ¤ Skulldog ¤

Alterna laughed at Isaac and shook her head, "No, you aren't animal-based if you're a girl. It depends on what your parents were. Both of mine were animal-based, so that means I'm animal-based too." She explained, "Also, when I say Underground I don't mean literally underground. This place is called the Underground, which is the same as saying 'downtown'. "
Continuing to smile, Alterna looked down at her tattered shoulder bag which was an aqua color. They should really make waterproof bags, she thought to herself. Opening up a flap she checked their contents to make sure they hadn't been ruined by the water. Looking at her money she realized she was slightly hungry, but Alterna had brought some clams with her and her favorite type of fish, Perch, in a sealed bag. They were raw since she only ate when she was in otter form.
Looking up, Alterna saw the leopard cub come closer. "Hey! You're a Thereian too, right? You'll have to change into your human shape if you want to talk to us, though." She knew that this cub wasn't very experienced, since better shapeshifters were usually seen with an adult form. Brushing back her hair again, Alterna glanced back and forth between the cub and Isaac. Not wanting to seem like she had forgotten either.

[Isaac]

"Oh," Isaac said simply, taken aback a little by Alterna's explanation. "I don't know what my parents are," he then continued. "They were always too busy with themselves to tell me anything, but if your parents have to be what you are, then I suppose they're tigers too."

He looked to the leopard, being alerted to its presence again by a rather distinct sound from its belly, and found it staring at him -- or maybe more accurately at his backpack.

"You hungry?" he asked with a smile. "I only have sandwiches, but would you like some?" As he slid his backpack off and put it in his lap, he looked to Alterna. "What about you? Would you like some too?"
He wouldn't give away all his food, that was stupid, but it was very rude not to share with your friends.

Digging around a little, he found one sandwich with ham and figured that it would probably be what the leopard would like most of what he had. So he unwrapped it and held it out to the cat, while babbling on.

"I just picked what was in the fridge when I made my sandwiches, so some of them might be a little strange, but this is only ham and butter, so maybe you'll like this best? If not, you can try to find something else that you'd like better, of course. Hey, Alterna?" he then said, abruptly switching who he was talking to. "You said this was like downtown, but... really, where am I? I've never seen a place like this before, not that I've been around a lot, and it doesn't look like any normal place. Not that it has to be normal to be good, but still. And people look really strange; why do they do that? Why do people have strange hair colors and wings and all those other things?"

Alterna, Isaac had decided, was a very smart girl. Since she knew more than Isaac about shifters, she also had to know more about everything, right? Isaac's logic said so.

Layout by me, with help from:
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[Story]

Story

It didn’t seem long before they, the two therians, noticed her reappearance. Tail curling up, ears perked forward, she listened to the female therian speak of her changing into her human form. A form she normally liked to save energy to stay in. Human form? Now? Unsure if she should change right here right now, the small feline therian shook her head no to changing. She wanted to save the energy for later. But whether they noticed her small shake was still quite questionable as the subject took to change rather quickly. Specially after the growls of her stomach.

Huuuungry…

Stupid stomach. Why now? She thought after it’s long growl. Isaac seemed to hear the noise, and noticed her staring at his backpack rather quickly. As if in a distant world, the small cub hadn’t noticed that the other feline therian had asked her something, but when his fingers managed to dig around in his backpack, her thoughts were brought back to the presence.

Suddenly, it had been thrust in front of her. Food… A sandwich in particular, but still food. Story’s nostrils picked up the sweet scents of the food and her mouth watered. Accept it? The cub wasn’t as slow as she might have seemed. He was still a complete stranger to her! But… Foood… So small exotic cat paws slowly came towards the sandwich and gently took the food from his hands in acceptance, hoping it tasted quite good.

Suddenly, thoughts of running of with the food occurred to Story. Should she eat it elsewhere and abandon these people? Still, they were friendly enough towards her. So in thanks, she sat down with what seemed to be a friendly smile placed upon her face as thanks before she began to chew into what turned out to be quite good sandwich.

Credits

. Aethereality . dafont.com .

[Alterna]

¤ Piper's Boutique ¤ Dafont ¤ Kuschelirmel ¤ Skulldog ¤

Alterna noticed the small shake of the feline's head and Alterna shrugged her shoulder in response. Turning back to Isaac, she couldn't help but smile at all his questions. "Oh, I don't need any food. I'm not that hungry and I brought some with me anyway. "

Waiting until Isaac had finished his streak of questions and then realized that perhaps Isaac had never been to Elysia before. It was possible that he had accidentally stepped into a portal from Earth to Elysia. "Ah, I see you've never been to Elysia before. Were you raised on a planet called Earth? 'Cuz if you are then I'd better start explaining." Alterna was slightly intrigued now. She'd never been to Earth and hadn't yet met anyone from there. Alterna's eyes brightened at the possibility of Isaac being from Earth. Then she felt her right arm prickle and Alterna sighed. Time to turn back into an otter. She really wanted to talk with Isaac some more, but that would have to wait until later.

"I'll have to change back into an otter soon so I'll give you a quick summary. People with feathery wings are Anyeli's. People with bat wings are Zanaryans, don't say anything about the way they smell. People who are exceptionally pretty are Nymphs. People who look normal are usually humanoid dragons. The people with weird hair color... well," Alterna shrugged. "They just have weird hair. Oh, and don't pet any animal you see."

With this Alterna began to transform back into an otter, which to her was a lot easier than turning into a person. Laying down, Alterna watched the leopard cub eat the sandwich.

[Isaac]

Elysia? Was that what this place was called? Isaac filed the name into his memory. It was always good to know where you were. Especially if it was a weird place like this.

He was just about to ask further, when Alterna started talking a bit faster, saying she'd have to turn back soon. Isaac tried not to pout, and instead focused on what she was telling him. Anyeli, Zanarians, nymphs and and... dragon people. Right. Wait. He blinked.

"Waitaminute, you're pretty, does that mean you're one of those nymph people? But you're like me, right? You confuse me. And I know you can't answer right now, so maybe that's a good idea." He laughed a little at himself and scratched his head. Maybe he should explain a little about himself? "Yeah, I'm from Earth. To be more spec- spe... ergh, detailed, from North Hudson. In New York. I lived there together with Tomás, but then he had to leave, and he said he'd be back in a couple of days, but when it'd been three weeks, I got tired of waiting so I followed him. And there was this weird thing where his trail ended and when I stepped through it, I was here. So I guess Tomás is here somewhere too, and now I just have to find him." The last was said with a huge grin on his face, and he looked to both animals.

Right, food. He dug up a sandwich and checked it. Macaroni and cheese. What, strange things to have in a sandwich? Maybe, but it would have been a shame to waste the leftovers by leaving them. So for a few minutes there was silence as he ate -- or maybe inhaled would be a better word, since he barely breathed between swallows and therefore had to pause now and then to actually breathe -- his sandwich.

"You know," he pointed out after swallowing the last piece and brushing his hands on his legs to get rid of the crumbs from both, "This would be a lot easier if I could understand otter and... leopard?" He glanced questioningly at the cat, as if asking confirmation on what it was. He wasn't even sure if it was a boy cat or a girl cat yet, and he thought it would be kinda rude to go looking to see if it had balls or not. "Because then we could talk a lot more without you two having to be human. I'm guessing you're also animal-based, or whatever it was called? I mean, since you're still in animal shape. I mean, if you are a shifter. Maybe you're not? I hope it's not rude to assume that you are?"

Scrunching the plastic wrap that had been around the sandwiches, he looked around a little to see if he could find a trashcan nearby, but then just shrugged and shoved the ball into his pocket. He'd throw it away later.

Layout by me, with help from:
« ProFantasy ¤ Kimball Stock Photos ¤ Dafont »

[Story]

Story

The feeling of being disabled came to mind as there wasn’t a way of communication with these two other beings. Her meows couldn’t be translated into words that they might understand, and although Story wasn’t quite comfortable in changing in front of them, the feeling of not being able to communicate her opinions, ideas or feelings to them seemed worst. Still, she did nothing. Her ears perked forward while listening to they’re conversation. Earth? It was a planet that was far from they’re own, but one they all very much knew. Although Story knew all the stories, she had yet to see if they were even true. No, as far as her travels seemed to be, they never went as far as that.

Still listening, Story heard they’re conversation of the beasts here, all of which she knew about. Angels, vampires, nymphs… Beings from all sorts. All looks, all creatures. But the otters explanation was interrupted when she changed back into a otter, causing the therian to look on in surprise. That was quite short… Or had it been longer than it seemed? Usually Story was able to keep human form for about thirty minutes.

Maybe it was the awkward silence that finally angered the therian. Or maybe the feeling of being mute and not being able to express her opinions, but the therian, seemingly out of nowhere, and as if at the perfect moment. Isaac's voice continued on about talking to the otter and leopard, but his words were but a mere whisper as the sudden cold distracted the leopard. Bones cracked, and fur fell flat on the ground. Pain crunched within the therian's body as it changed, causing her legs, once curved for the ground, straightened into human legs. Pale skin rippled from beneath the remaining fur, which eventually fell from Story's thin, slender body.
Fur once covered her skin, but now it was so bare except for the cloths covering her now human-like skin. Cold touched her body giving her a great shiver that she couldn't help. And yet… The therian liked it. Her eyes could now see colors, no matter how odd they seemed to look. Still, the energy it just consumed caused her to pant for a lengthy amount of time.

One small pale hand reached over to her brunette hair, pulling it behind her ears and thought searching for words with tired lips. "Easier? Maybe you don’t speak Therian. Or... Okay, only specific breeds of therian can speak that specific language..." Cat like eyes, still pointed in slits like that of a cat, focused on the boy and a playful smile bounced against her pink lips. Beautiful, but maybe in a feline sort of way. "My name is Niola Story, but I go by Story. I’m an animal based therian." Story tried to seem pretty friendly.

Credits

. Aethereality . dafont.com .

[Alterna]

¤ Piper's Boutique ¤ Dafont ¤ Kuschelirmel ¤ Skulldog ¤

Alterna would've blushed at the "you're pretty" comment if she'd still been human, but Alterna's otter form couldn't blush. When Isaac took out his sandwich, Alterna went into her bag and found her Perch fish. Taking it out of her bag, Alterna began to chew on it, her teeth piercing it. Fish heads weren't very good, they had no meat, so Alterna left that part alone. Alterna easily chewed through the fish, preferring not to eat the spine. After she was done eating, Alterna deposited the fish head back into her bag.

Listening to the rest of Isaac's talking, Alterna wondered how it would be rude to think the leopard was a Therian. If it was a normal leopard it really wouldn't have cared, would it? Alterna mulled it over when she saw the leopard Therian take human form. Alterna smiled inside her head thinking, we're taking turns now aren't we. So now it was her turn to sit and listen. That was okay with Alterna, talking eventually got quite tiring.