Downe Acres (Ailill)

[Celestia]

(10th Day of Summer, 512 AV)

Celestia had been growing old of the 'ghost-town' city of Sunberth, all the people never came out and when they did they paid her no mind. She wanted something new, something fresh. So when she heard about a woods near by she practically jumped for joy. She had over heard someone talking about a farm and how it had lots of woodland area by it. This made her happy because she could finally run wild in her normal form without people trying to kill her. There was of course always the thought of hunters, but since it was a family owned farm she doubted many people would be going in the woods by it to hunt. She could have been deadly wrong though, and that thought scared her. She didn't want to be like her mother, a kelvic stuck in her true form out in the wild. That was how she lost her mother and how, for a while, she came to dislike humans. But then reality hit her, they didn't know she was also a human because she was only in her animal form. They couldn't of known any difference.

Celestia shook her head, trying to rid her mind of the sad thoughts of her mother. She was not walking to this wood area to think of the past. She was going there to run free, if only for a little while. She wasn't sure if she should hunt or not, knowing her natural instincts would kick in sometime and urge her to hunt if any unsuspecting creature of prey walks by. If I kill an animal, it will hopefully just be an animal and not a kelvic. Man thats the thing with this, you can't tell them apart. Its dangerous... She thought, imagining herself catching an animal and it turning out to be a kelvic. She would probably be scarred for life, or so she decided.

By around mid-afternoon she had reached the outskirts of the woods. There were no humans in sight, which was always a plus to her. And she heard no animals rustling around near by. "This seems like a pretty perfect place. Now to find a spot to shift." She muttered to herself as she headed into the woods. She didn't want to just leave all her stuff lying there, she did have some money with her. "Where to hide it, where to hide it...There!" As she was walking, she came upon a tree with its truck branching out a little, just enough for something to be put into the hollow part of the tree and still make it look normal. "Maybe I should make it bigger, or less noticeable...Hm..." She knelt down and inspected the hollow area. She looked between the tree and her bag, trying to determine what to do. "Eh I think it will be fine, at least for now." Celestia took off her bag and gently stuffed it into the hollow trunk area. She then surveyed the area before she stripped down into nothing and also stuffed her clothes in the hollow area. She then shifted into her wolf form. Instead of her black hair, she had midnight black fur. She still had her piercing yellow eyes and her elongated teeth, but she also gained claws. Now Celestia wasn't the biggest wolf, being a little smaller than most female wolves at her age but she was still pretty ferocious looking.

Not wasting a moment longer, she darted off deeper into the woods. Her fur looked strange against the green of the grass and the brown of the tree trunks but she sill felt like she belonged, like this was home. And in any of case it would have been, except she had been living in cities too long that she had forgotten the feeling of living in the wilderness. It was almost like new to her now. But slowly her sense would kick back into gear and she would know exactly what to do, that always happened. Celestia ran as fast as she could, not caring how must noise she was making or if she was disrupting the woods serene atmosphere. Right now she didn't have a care in the world.

[Ailill]

On this day Ailill had been tasked with gathering firewood for when the next wnter would come. He had gotten up and greeted hs family and ate his morning meal before heading toward the woodlands that were part of the famly homestead. The young man gathered some dried meat for a lunch and his axe then was on his way. It was somewhat long walk south through the barn and the southern pasture but he made short work of the walk. Soon he found himself at the woodline that separated the pastureland from the south woods. With him he had besides his axe and some food his good old trusty gladius; it was a well crafted and balanced sword that had been passed down through the family for generations.

Ailill made a quick survey of his surroundings and looked for many things. First he looked to see that he was safe from any large animals that could pose a threat to him and then he looked for a good tree. The tree needed to be bg but not to big and needed to look free of rot, termites, and other things that would make for bad firewood. After he looked around for a few minutes and wandered deeper into the woods he had decided he was safe and had found a good tree. He walked up to the tree and took a stance then began to swing his axe. With each swing of his axe chunks of tree flew the air as the axe slowly ate it's way through the tree.

Time passed and all was calm besides the loud nose of his axe cutting through the trees trunk. He was about halfway through the tree when he had thought that he saw something. It looked like a small black wolf, but he then he guessed it was small enough it could have been a wild dog or coyote also. As far as he could tell it was alone though and that meant it would pose little threat to him. Ailill stopped swinging his axe and took a moment to watch the creature n action. There was somthing about it as it ran about with such grace and beauty yet he could not see what it was hunting if it were at all hunting. He laid down his axe and continued to watch the canine frolic as if it had not a care in the world. This caused Ailll to think about how wonderful it would be to be a wolf.

He knew full well that it was unwise to approach a wild animal but if things turned to the worse he had his sword. Alill went against his better judgement and pulled out a piece of dried meat and made the best howling sound that he could. If his idea worked and he had caught the attention of the wolf he would break off a piece of meat and toss it towards the wolf, though he would be careful to look for signs of impending attack from the animal.

[Celestia]

After running for quite some time, Celestia was sure there were no rabbits or deer or anything of the sorts in this woods. She hadn't stumbled upon any and she hadn't smelt any, either. This may be a very deserted woods... Great choice... She thought, a growl erupting from her throat. She was a little annoyed, and hungry, so not finding any animals in this woods was quite agitating. Not long after she had concluded that this woods was empty, the scent of a human wafted through the woods and the faint sound of something hitting a tree hit her ears. In the near distance, a human near a chopped up tree came into her view. As she neared, Celestia could tell it was a boy, and that he was holding an axe.

The boy seemed to have noticed her too because he started watching her. It unnerved her a little but she felt no threat from him. She was about to run off when the smell of meat hit her nose. She turned towards the boy, who by now had started making a noise that sounded a lot like howling. Her ears perked up, both from the noise and the smell of meat. Her eyes gazed at the piece of meat in the boys hand. Her instincts were telling her to rush forward for the meat, but the small human part of her reasoned that rushing toward him may seem threatening. And with the fact that he had both an axe and sword at his disposal, she didn't want to fight him. So Celestia just stood there, her gaze focused on the boy. She wondered what he would do with the meat. She hoped he wasn't going to eat it right in front of her, that would just be cruel. Especially since she hadn't eaten anything today. Her stance, with her ears perked up and her tail down, wasn't one that was a sign of aggression but of alertness.

[Ailill]

It was true that she could in no way tell that hurting her was the most distant thought from his mind, yet from the way she was moving he thought the canine to be maybe not friendly but not hostel. It was as if she were watching him watch her, a silly thing if ever there was one. It was clear that between both the meat and hs howling that he had gotten the majestic animal's attention.

He saw her ears perk up and could only guess which of his actions could have caused the reaction, but cared lttle as to the cause. He was only happy that it had worked because he could now watch her longer as she had paused. By this time he had already put down his axe and tossed a piece of meat. Yet the wolf seemed to be cautious toward him and the food he offered, but as he tried to put himself in her mind it made sense. He would not take food from random people in the area as there were many nut cases near Sunberth.

Ailill broke off another chunk of meat and squated down to her level as he knew a little about animals. The reason for this action was to show her that they were on the same level, that he was not above her. Once in position he would then toss the second chunk of meat just a little closer than the first and make a few more canine sounds to encourage her to eat. Then Ailill would take the remaining meat and take a small bite before holding it out to the wolf. He could feel her gaze burning into him and spoke to her, "It's okay I won't hurt you. It just ain't everyday you see a pretty thng like you."

[Celestia]

Celestia eyed the piece of meat that laid close to her. She was hungry, but she didn't trust this man or his food. He was a random person, who knows what he could have done to that meat. He could have poisoned it for all she knew. Her instincts were starting to contradict her reasoning, her mind telling her not to eat any of the food he gave her but her stomach and body just itched to take a bite of the meat, it did smell juicy and delicious. Resist, just for now. She thought, trying not to go over and eat the meat.

She watched as he broke off some more meat and squated down, being at her level now. She knew of this trick, having heard of it. Celestia narrowed her eyes ever so slightly as he threw the meat, closer than the last one. She hesitantly walked over to the meat, not sure if she should really trust the man. Her stomach growled just then, which made her wrinkle her nose. She hated when her stomach growled. Even though it was past her better judgment, Celestia bent down and ate the meat. It tasted like heaven to her. That's good meat, gotta say if its poisonous it was kinda worth it... She looked back over at the man just in time to see him take a bite out of the meat then hold it out to her. She slowly crept over to his outstretched hand that held the meat. Once she got there, she looked up at him as he spoke. Well that's for sure, there seem to be not many animals in here at all. Celestia bit into the meat, making sure not to get his fingers, and ate the meat, savoring the delicious taste. She stayed there and watched him, curious as to what he would do next.