Just another stray pup... [Open]

[lucifer]

The pile of rags on top of one of the big crates in the corner of the mostly empty warehouse stirred slightly and a low sigh was to be heard through the silence. Shortly after, the pile moved more and a head of messy, dark brown hair appeared from under it, dark blue eyes blinking in the dim light from under the long bangs of hair falling over them. Shaking his head slightly to get the hair out of his face, Shou yawned before slowly climbing from between the rags that had been his bed for the last few nights. Crouching on top of the crate, the boy carefully sniffed the air, only getting to his feet after he was sure that he was alone; alone not counting the rats, mice and other vermin, of course. The wolf was happy to have found the place since it proved to be quite safe to sleep in. But that was probably only because no one else wanted it.

Jumping off of the crate, Shou took a few steps before stopping and lifting his arms over his head, giving his back a good stretch and hearing a few popping sounds since it was quite stiff from sleeping on rags piled on a wooden crate. Ah well, it was softer and warmer than sleeping on the concrete outside in the streets, so he couldn´t really complain about it. Leaving the warehouse, all the while alert to any signs of the presence of another person, Shou went to the barrel near the window he had left the warehouse through. The air still smelt damp, so he knew that it had rained during the day and there would be water in the metal barrel that was missing the lid. He had to lean quite far into the barrel to reach the water, but it was clear and cool, just the thing he needed. Cupping his hands, he brought some of the water up to his face, washing it and then smoothing down his hair. It would have to do for now. He had found a nice creek in the forest two days ago and had a bath, so he was still quite clean. However, that was also the last time he´d eaten since it had been hungry enough to actually shift and go hunting for food. Though his stomach growled at the thought of food, he was no where near desperate enough to go hunting again.

Hopeful that he would find some food in the city, some leftovers or maybe a waiter at any of the restaurants would give him something, he headed towards the centre of the city. Senses alert to notice possible danger, he took back alleys to avoid people as much as possible. Once he got to the more populated part of the city and had to take some of the main streets, Shou shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans since his fingers started twitching as he got nervous. Lowering his head, he let the bangs of hair fall over his carefully trained to the ground as not to accidentally make eye contact with anyone. People usually didn´t like that from people like him… besides he didn´t want to see the resentment in their eyes. He had already been shown plenty of times that people despised street trash like him, so he didn´t want it confirmed again and again. One would think he was used to it buy now, and he was up to a point, but it sometimes still hurt. Sos it was better to avoid the eyes.

[strawberry]

Strawberry was walking with tears in her eyes and she couldn't help it. Her heart felt like it had broken in two and she had trouble breathing. Of course no one really noticed herself other then a teary eyed girl not watching where she was walking. Six hours ago she had made the mistake of her life. She had left her sister behind with a trecherous vampire. She could in truth go back but she would suffer punishment. She had escaped the torture room once but she knew that if she returned she would suffer and visit the room behind a locked door.

And that was when she remembered she still had that ungodly diamond watch on her hands. Strawberry had escaped punishment by being adorable, submissive, and above all by letting that cold vampire freak put that watch on her. She ripped it off of her arms and threw it to the ground where she began stomping on it. People watched with interest until someone realized that it had been a very expensive watch. They pushed her off of the watch making her trip and run into someone. "Take the damn watch," she cried out as she watched the person pick up the watch which was still undamanged and run off. Better for her if that watch had a tracker. And then Straw realized that she had fallen on someone. "Sorry," she muttered as she wiped the wet tears from her eyes as her stomach grumbled much to her displeasure.

Strawberry had been given the choice to eat something last night, but when that vampire offered to cook for her she turned him down. She did not want to eat his food. What she loved most was swan pellets but she could make do with a cheeseburger. But of course the two were vastly different, each enjoyable, though she preferred the pellets.

[lucifer]

Shou halted briefly and glanced up when he saw people stopping up ahead, looking at someone or something, as it seemed. There was a spark of curiosity, but he didn´t want to stay and watch to see what exactly was going on, since he didn’t want to get into trouble if it was something bad. Lowering his gaze back to the ground, the werewolf quickened his pace, hoping that the people were occupied enough with watching so they wouldn´t even notice him go by. It worked out quite fine, until someone bumped against him and he found himself on the ground moments later. Had he been looking up, he might have noticed and managed to keep his balance, but he´d been much to intent on just getting away from the small crowd that had gathered as soon as possible.

For a few more moments, he was confused, before his mind processed the whole situation. His eyes focused on the woman, who had landed on him, before they went wide as panic started to creep it´s way to the surface of his mind, pushing away any other thoughts. Body tensing, Shou closed his eyes tightly and let his head fall forward, the longer bangs of his hair falling over his eyes, to hide them from view. “I…I´m sorry…!” he stuttered quietly. Though she had already said sorry, he thought it best to just apologize too and hope for the best. He knew it was stupid on some level, to be afraid of her, but it was a kind of phobia born from experience and wouldn´t let itself be cast aside easily.

Not daring to move or look at her, Shou used his sense of smell to try and understand the current situation better, maybe find a way out of it that most preferably included him not getting hurt. He sensed the salty scent of tears which made him wonder for a moment why she was crying. But the other scent he caught was one that for a moment overrode the fear and brought the curiosity back… and made the hunger remind him that it was still very much there. The girl… she smelled like prey usually smelled, how that was possible, he couldn´t understand since humans had never smelled like prey to him, not even babies smelled like prey. But this girl, she did and it made his stomach rumble; it didn´t care if the eyes said this wasn´t prey, the smell said it was. The mere thought of eating a human being revolted Shou, so there was no danger for the girl, but it did cause quite some confusion in Shou.

[strawberry]

Strawberry picked herself up and brushed herself off though there was nothing to brush off. It was just something to do with her hands. Her face appeared a bit flushed because realization had just sunk in at to how she had created quite a crowd. She was always doing that, bringing strange attention to herself. The one time she had gotten herself separated from her twin, Raspberry, she began to suddenly scream her head off. And then of course her sister had found her but still.... The crowd was slowly departing though a few people were still waiting to see if she would put on another performance.

Being observational she had taken note at how the man stuttered. Maybe her beauty? No. Maybe, more likely she should think that the man just stuttered when he spoke. It was silly to think of her as some woman who could make men slurr. She turned to the crowd and screamed once more. "What are you looking at? It's RUDE to stare!" And then for some reason she turned back to the man who had stuttered, grabbed his hand and tried to get him to run with her. She did not want the police to come, or worse, the men with the white coats. No, worse was Samael.

"Follow me," she screamed for no reason at the man as she let loose his hand and began to run. The thought of Samael a very old vampire finding her was terrifying. He would do terrible things to her. She was only lucky that she was protected by the sun but he didn't seem the type to not have servants who could walk in the daylight. Of course she and her twin were his pets he wouldn't be sending Raspberry anytime soon to look for her. It didn't take a genius to know that she would kidnap her sister from him. "I'm sorry," Strawberry breathed out as soon as she stopped running. Why had it seemed like a good idea to run with this man? She clasped her hand over her heart and could feel the increased beat. And then she realized why she had taken his hand, he smelled sort of like her sister, only different. She found herself almost on the verge to cry again, her eyes were still puffy from where she had been crying earlier. "I'm sorry...see...you sort of reminded me of my sister, of my twin. Well... the way... never mind." The way you smell, you remind me of my sister? She could have rolled her eyes at that one! But then that meant... that this man could have been another were lion or something similar? Her twin was a were lion while she was a were swan.

[lucifer]

Even after the woman had gotten up and off of him, Shou didn´t move at first, instead sat on the ground, carefully avoiding looking at anyone and starring at the ground instead. Only when the woman yelled at the people standing around and looking curiously at what was going on did Shou get up again, since he was pretty much sure that no one was paying attention to him anymore. For which he was very thankful. Head still bowed, he glanced around nervously, looking for an opportunity to slip away unnoticed. As the crowd slowly started breaking up again, Shou wanted to use to opportunity slip past them and into some dark corner, but it seemed that the woman had different plans.

The wolf flinched as his hand was grabbed and starred down at the hand holding it while the woman was pulling at it, trying to get him to move. Overwhelmed with everything that had happened so far in such a short time, he didn’t even consider trying to break free of the hold, though with his with his shifter strength, it would hardly have been a problem. When she told him to follow her, instincts kicked in and years and years of following orders, and before his mind actually processed the whole thing, he was already running after her and away from the people. His mind was quite confused about what was actually going on and the fear still lingered, so even when he got to halfway understand things, he decided better to just obey her and hope for the best.

When she stopped, so did Shou, carefully just out of reach, though she didn´t appear threatening at all at the moment. Still, better careful than sorry. Glancing up at her, Shou briefly studied her face before quickly looking back at the ground. “I´m sorry I was in your way…” he spoke softly in an apologetic tone. He wasn´t stuttering because that only happened when he was frightened enough and by now he had gathered himself a little bit. He was panting slightly from the run; even though he was used to running, the hunger was taking it´s tool on his body, lowering his endurance quite a bit.

Shou´s hands were at his sides as he listened to the woman, his fingers twitching slightly since he still felt very much nervous and unsure about everything that was going on. He just nodded when she said that he reminded her of her sister. He wouldn´t even dream of objecting or questioning how he could remind her of her sister even though in his opinion he didn´t exactly much resemble a woman. But that were just thoughts that would be kept in his mind since he didn´t want to upset her. Like always, he would just do his best to please and not give her any reason at all to hurt him.

[strawberry]

Strawberry couldn't help but have a frown on her face as she examined the man over. God, he really reminded her of her sister. That brought shivers to her arms and made her shake which was odd because it was a warm day. The man was obviously submissive. So was she, so had she been. "You're not a were rabbit are you?" Though of course her sister was a were lion, submissive, and Strawberry, were swan, was now dominant?

Maybe she had never been as submissive as she though. She had always been the one to protect her sister because she was born first. Also weighing over her shoulder and heart was the problem that their whole situation was her fault. If Strawberry had never snuck outside and tried to pet a swan she never would have been bitten. And if Strawberry had never been attacked then her sister never would have been looking for that swan too and then found herself a lion.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I never probably never... never should have said that." Even though she wasn't submissive in personality then she was at least in words, sort of. She wasn't sure how to behave one way or the other. All she knew was that she felt sick, sick without her sister.

[lucifer]

Quite surprised by the question, Shou looked up to give her a confused look. “Wha…?” was all he got out at the first moment. Were-rabbit? So she knew about were-animals. But would it really be good to admit that he was one of them? What if she despised were-animals and it was all just a trick to get him to admit it? Shaking his head, Shou sighed. He was slowly starting to get paranoid, as it seemed and that just wouldn´t do. He was cautious and nervous enough as it was. “No… I´m a… a were-wolf,” he finally answered, still speaking in a carefully soft, quiet voice like he usually did. He did have quite a strong voice, but usually chose to speak very softly in an attempt sound as polite and submissive as possible and avoid people getting angry at him. As he told her what he was, he glanced to the side, quite ashamed since he was far from liking being what he was.

But her knowing about were-animals made him curious. Was she one of them? That would certainly explain why she didn´t really smell human. Though she smelled different from wolves and he hadn´t met many other shifters so far so he wasn´t even sure which other actually existed. Did were-rabbits really exist or was she just ridiculing him for being so shy and frightful? He wasn´t exactly sure about it.

“It´s all right…” Shou said as the woman apologized. Though he was considering if she could really be called a woman. She seemed to be about his age, though is she was a were-animal, he couldn’t be sure of her real age. “Do you… want me to uh… get lost and… leave you alone?” he asked carefully, risking another glance up at her face, though not meeting her eyes in the process. Eyes sometimes gave more information away than he wanted to have about what people actually thought about him. His hands went back to his pockets, so the nervous twitching of the fingers wouldn´t be quite so obvious. He was talking to her, yes, but still his senses were alert since on some subconscious level she still frightened him.

[strawberry]

Strawberry sort of chuckled. She wasn't laughing at him of course she was sort of laughing at herself. Were rabbit was the stupidest thing she had ever heard of while it could still be possible, hell, she was a swan. "Were... were wolf" she sort of repeated as if she were in doubt about his claim. He smelt like a were animal to her though she couldn't put herself on what 'flavor' he was. She had only met a fellow swan like herself and lion, others like her sister before. And who was she to judge?

"Well um... you can stay if you promise you won't try and eat me." Strawberry had no control whatsoever when she turned but the moon held her tidings. Every full moon her sister tried to take a bite out of her. Strawberry would have to fly around and land in a tree and fly from tree to tree to escape the claws of her sister. She had several narrow misses but thankfully no scars to prove it. Of course that wasn't to say that swans were weak, when she was younger a lion nearly mauled her sister to death. Strawberry had enough courage and strength to stop the lion by trying to maul out its eyes, saving her sister's life.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she claimed again, embarrassed. Her claim could have been remarked as a bit sexual. That was really the next to last thing on her mind. "I'm a ... I'm a swan so my sister tries to eat me sometimes...." Strawberry slapped her face. Here she was talking to another stranger when this man if right in the head would alert the authorities. She would be deemed insane and stuck in a white lab coat.

[lucifer]

“Yes…” Shou confirmed when she repeated that he was a were-wolf, almost visibly shrinking into himself and trying to make himself look smaller. If he was in his wolf form, his ears would be flat on his head and his tail drawn between his legs. After all, she didn´t repeat it like it was something good; much less enthusiastically. Starring hard at the ground, Shou felt the urge to apologize for being what he was. Even if he couldn´t do anything about it, maybe it would be the safest way to go.

But she didn´t get to do it, since she told him he could stay if he wouldn´t try to eat her. “I don´t eat people…” he said, speaking in the same soft fashion as before. He wasn´t even really used to speak any other way anymore. Though she did smell like prey, he wouldn´t eat her. It was just all wrong, even thinking about eating a person. He probably wouldn´t even be able to eat an animal if he had known it before, much less a person he had spoken to. He´d rather starve than do something like that.

It had actually been unnecessary to further explain what she had meant, since it hadn´t even occurred to Shou that it could have any other meaning than the literal. “I shift at will… so don´t worry.” The full moon forced him to shift, like all other shifters, of course, but other than that, he could do it whenever he wanted and also prevent it from happening. Besides he didn´t like to do it anyway, unless it really had to be. “Swan…? I´ve never met one before… not a were,” Shou said carefully, a bit in wonder, since he hadn´t even known that such a thing existed. But that certainly explained why she smelt like prey.

Slowly Shou was getting his fear of her under control, since she really seemed to mean no harm. Though the nervousness still lingered, but calmed a bit also. He had considered going but at the same it was quite some time since he had last had company… and it was kind of nice to have some social interaction again.

[strawberry]

Strawberry for the first time in a few hours found herself smiling. "And I've never met a were wolf before." Were wolf's seemed to be in all the legends and passed off as supersticion. You never heard anything about were lions or were swans. She knew she should be nervous but she felt safer in the presence of a 'fellow' were. There was just something that let her trust in were's more than vampires. Or perhaps it was due to the fact that she had only found out about the existence of vampires a few days ago when one took in her and her sister.

"Shifting at will?" Strawberry mused to herself. She only knew two other people who could do that and one of those people was not herself. It had always amazed her how her sister could shift at will. It wasn't as if she was jealous, it would just really, really come in handy sometimes. Her sister could run lightening fast as a wolf and if Strawberry could turn herself into a swan anytime she pleased then she could fly away from harm and danger.

She crossed her arms together, debating upon an idea. This wolf seemed as submissive as they came, even more so then herself. She sighed tossing out her idea. It had been on the tip of her tongue to ask if the man ate vampires. But maybe he liked them, preferred their cold company to were's. She held her breath before she started crying again. Even though it would have been a stupid idea and never bound to work it had given her a sliver of hope at least for a moment. Her sister was still in the clutches of a vampire.

"I'm sorry if I'm out of line but..." Strawberry stopped there. She wiped away her dry puffy eyes before she could start crying. It would have been overly rude to ask if the man had any were friends. What would she do? Assemble an army of were creatures to fight against a vampire to save her sister, her twin, her friend? "Raspberry" Strawberry whined and the waterworks almost began.

[lucifer]

“You were lucky I guess. We´re quite common, I think,” Shou quietly said as she told him that she´d never met a were-wolf before. He´d met a few, unfortunately for him actually since they tended to disapprove of someone like him being one of them. They considered him unworthy since he was such a fearful, shy and submissive person; not at all what you´d expect from someone who possesses the powers and strength common to were-wolves. Hell, he could even control when he shifted and shift any part of his body that he wanted to; but he never used any of that when he had to defend himself from anyone.

Shou nodded slightly as she repeated the shifting at will part. “It´s good since I don´t uncontrollably shift when I experience intense emotions…” Some shifters unwillingly changed in the worst situations sometimes when they got too angry or frightened and could cause quite some harm if their beast got out of hand. He was glad that he could avoid that. He would hate himself if he ever lost control and hurt someone. Hate being a were-wolf even more than he already did.

When the woman started to cry again, Shou´s eyes went wide again and he stared at her now, not knowing what he should do. He´d seen people cry before on the street or on TV, but he had no experience in dealing with it and thus had no idea what would be a good thing to do and what not. Drawing his bottom lip between his teeth, he nervously chewed on it while glancing at the ground and back at the woman, trying to think of something to do. “D… don´t cry… please,” he said in that soft voice he used most of the time, lowering his head again and carefully glancing up at her through the bangs of dark brown hair.

Usually when people cried other people hugged them, but Show wasn´t exactly sure if the woman wanted him touching her. Not because she could be assuming that he had any ulterior motives, but simply because people usually didn´t like street trash, as they liked to call him, touching them. Unsure of what to do, the wolf slowly moved a step and then another closer to her. Hesitantly he opened his arms, offering her a shoulder to cry on; leaving her the choice to accept or tell him to get the hell away from her. The uneasy feeling of deep rooted fear that was always present when he was near women was still there, but at the moment she seemed so helpless and vulnerable, that it didn´t flare up even when he stepped closer to her.

[strawberry]

Strawberry shook her head and backed away from the were wolf. It wasn't that she didn't want him touching her it was just that she was embarrassed. "I'm sorry, what must you think of me?" She wiped her eyes and realized that she had been crying, softly. "I'm fine, I'm fine" she muttered as she shook her hair behind her ears. In all reality, was she fine? Physically, yes, she was fine, but mentally and emotionally she wasn't.

It was then that she really looked at him, still a bit shaky from thinking of her sister. She couldn't really see his face from though his bangs and thought that it was more of the fact that he couldn't afford a hair cut then because of a fashion statement. While his clothes seemed like that someone a homeless person would wear hers were of some designer tag, courtesy of a shopping trip. She stepped forwards towards the man, teenager, boy? "I probably shouldn't be bothering you with my problems when you've got your own." As she said it she moved her fingers to push his hair back so that she could see his eyes.

"You have nice eyes," she commented on. She let her hands fall back to her sides as she stood still. His eyes reminded her of her sister, it wasn't just the shape of the eye but something else. It was everything that his eyes seemed to express, fear, loneliness. It made her think more and more of her sister. What the hell was that bastard vampire doing to her sister because she left? Strawberry honked once and then turned into a swan.

[lucifer]

Shou nodded slightly and let his arms slowly fall back to his sides, backing away again, shrinking back into himself as he did most of the time. “Okay…” he said as she told him that she was fine. She looked far from fine, but he wasn´t about to argue since objecting to what people said usually lead to them getting angry and people being angry at him never ended good. If she said she was fine, he´d just agree.

As she reached out to push back his hair, Shou flinched and tensed, thinking he had managed to enrage her anyway. But when no pain came, he relaxed slightly, though he was still very cautious and didn´t move a muscle. “Thanks…?” he said, since he wasn´t sure how to take a compliment, since he was much more used to insults. He was looking at her face, but not looking her directly in the eyes, rather carefully keeping his gaze slightly lower than her eyes were. She had spoken of problems… yes he did have his own problems but they seemed at the moment to be lesser than her, after all, he wasn´t the one crying.

Shou practically jumped back as she started to change. He´d seen very few were´s shift and never a swan and it all still freaked him out a bit, even though he also did it. Starring at the swan, he nervously glanced around to see if anyone had been near enough to notice, before carefully stepping closer to the swan gain. “Don´t attack me… I won´t eat you,” he said softly before crouching down and gathering up the clothes the woman had been wearing before. “Otherwise you won´t have anything to wear when you change back,” he explained to her, looking at the shiny, little eyes. It was much easier to look into the eyes of animals than it was to look into the eyes of humans; for him at least. “Uh… I… I don´t know what to call you…” he said slowly while folding the clothes carefully. They hadn´t actually gotten around to introducing and the only name he had heard from her was Raspberry, but he assumed that that was the name of her sister. “I´m Shou…”

[It´s fine. And I know the problem, since I sometimes don´t know what to write either -laughs-]

[strawberry]

Strawberry raised her white swan neck and tried to look positively baffled. She wasn't a vicious swan. What was she going to do to him? Peck him to death with her orange beak? She tried to grin but she was sure that no matter what she did, she still looked like a swan. Her sister could portray human emotions but not Strawberry, but that was most likely because all she had was a beak and not a mouth which could grin and smile, and bear sharp teeth.

She gave Shou a large swan honk. How the hell was she supposed to communicate with him? She wished she could tell him not to think of any stupid ideas like pecking at a vojou board, or whatever they were called. Was it one blink for yes and two for no? Damn it! She never had to communicate with anyone in her swan form before. And true, when she did communicate with her sister it was more along the lines of 'don't eat me'.

"Honk. Honk!" Strawberry said as she flapped her large white wings and lifted herself off of the ground. She fell to the ground harshly, she hadn't been able to hover herself for a short period of time. She could if she willed fly a far distance but she couldn't do a short distance flight. She waddled, or walked however swans walked and hopped onto Shou's shoe. She had no choice but to follow him wherever he went.

That brought another honk from Strawberry, she was trying to laugh. The scene would look like Shou was her mother and she was like a baby duckling or something? It would be pretty strange, drawing attention from all sorts. However, she hoped it didn't draw attention of a certain vampire. She had to get someplace before dark and hide.

[lucifer]

Shou stood up again and started seriously considering how they could communicate. He knew that she could understand what he said, since he also understood people when he was in his animal form. But for him to understand what she would try to tell him would present a bit more of a problem. “Uh… can you just… you know nod for yes and shake your head for no? And honk when you want to tell me something and I´ll do my best to… well guess what you want to tell me…” he said after a few moments of silence, looking down at her and scratching the back of his neck a bit embarrassed, since he couldn´t think of any more effective way to communicate.

He watched her lift herself up in the air and winced slightly as she fell back down almost abruptly. At least she wouldn´t fly away and leave him wandering around, trying to find her to return her clothes. Shou gave the faintest hint of a smile when she hopped onto his shoe, since it was kind of cute. Besides now that she was a swan, he wasn´t afraid of her, even when she was this close. “So… where are we heading to…?” he asked, looking up from looking at her and instead looking around. He had no idea where she wanted to go or where she had been headed to before she´d bumped into him. “Just… point your beak in the direction…?” he suggested, still in the same soft voice he had used the whole time. “Or your wing… what you find easier.”

Shou wasn´t showing it, since she probably already hat enough on her mind, but he was quite worried, since walking around with her would almost certainly draw the attention of many people on him and that was something he usually avoided at all cost. As long as no one gave him a hard time, it would be all right; but that was something he could just hope for. And just leaving her to figure out what to do on her own somehow didn´t seem right. So he would just have to try his best not to get too nervous.