Changing Steps

by **Azael** on June 22nd, 2014, 4:05 am

5th day of Summer, 514

Azael woke up rather early that morning, he climbed out of his tent and folded it up before putting it in his bag. He was rather tired, but he couldn't let himself get caught unaware. The creatures within the forest were probably looking for a meal around this time of day. Azael was probably not the only one that thought getting out the forest quicker would be for the best. Azael stretched and took a sip from his water skin before putting it back in his backpack it had been a day since he had gotten lost in the forest and he had literally no more time to waste, luckily he had managed to avoid running into any truly dangerous creatures.

Azael's face broke out into a grin, he put on his backpack and began to walk through the forest of death; no one would be able to guess who would be the one to come out on top. [color=green]"Fetch you forest! I'll come out on top! I'm Azael the greatest thing to ever grace your land!"[\color] Azael shouted at more or less nothing, scuffling in the bush next to him brought him on edge. His paranoia had him even wear his gauntlets in his sleep so Azael got into a stance rather quickly. As basic as it was it would certainly help him out more than being still.

His left arm was brought out in front of his face while his right arm was guarding his chest. His legs were spread apart and his knees were bent ever so slightly. The noise from the bush was coming closer putting Azael on edge. What hopped out was a rather small snake, nothing for Azael to be truly worried about, but even then he didn’t feel like sticking around, so he carefully moved away from the snake prepared to leave within a moments notice. He had a day’s worth of travelling to do, and he needed to do it fast too. He left the clearing he was at and went back into the forest, the canopy was filed with sounds while the bottom of the trees were considerably darker.

Azael felt droplets of water fall onto his head, those few drops of water turned into a heavy down-pour. Azael ran for cover, he wasn’t one to like rain, sure there was enough cover above him at the moment, but not enough to shield him from the rain. He took off his trousers and everything underneath along with his gauntlets and packed them away, faster travel was needed. He put his bag back onto his back, and began the slow transformation into his only known morphing model. Slowly Azael’s body stretched, bones moved, skin grew fur, his teeth grew and after a minute he was in the form of a tiger. Azael was a good deal smaller than your usual adult tiger, a little above half-the size and weight. His back was still strapped to his back, thanks to the small change in size, although it would be a little awkward to move for now. He’d be fine though, he was the greatest Azael around.

by **Azael** on June 22nd, 2014, 11:02 pm

Azael looked around the forest, it was weird to look through the eyes of an animal. Plus not being able to talk was something that he’d have to fix soon enough. He began to walk once again, walking as a tiger was something that he had gotten used to during the last fe times he was in this form. Learning this one was rather difficult as tigers weren’t native nor seen wild on Black-Rock. It seemed like he was lucky to see a man come to the island with his own pet tiger that Azael immediately wanted to transform into.

He took in a deep breath and began to walk faster, the body was made for moving quietly, but he had to make sure not to trip or step on anything loud. He had the luck of not running into anything dangerous, but then again he had to get something to eat very soon. He began to sniff the air, his nose was nowhere near the smell of a tiger, being the same as that as a human. He soon gave up seeing as what he was doing was truly pointless. This place is really annoying, I gotta find some place fun soon, or try hunt! I gotta do that, yep yep, just thinking to myself Azael’s mind was a rather difficult place to grasp. He heard rustling in the bushes next to him, which caused him to immediately break out into a run.

I gotta stop doing this! Why am I even running?! He stopped and turned around to see a weird jack-rabbit looking animal. It lacked the ears, actually it didn’t look all too much like a jack-rabbit that Azael thought about it. The animal seemed to be rather edible though, maybe this was his calling, to allow himself to finally hunt! He began to slowly creep up onto the animal, it was only sticking its head out of the bush and was slowly walking up, it sniffed the air before turning to Azael, and then broke out into a run. Azael followed as fast as he could, he jumped through the bush and into the small gaps between the trees. The animal was faster than he was, and also rather skittish. It zipped past the trees and shrubbery in the area before disappearing completely, or appearing to have done so. Azael stopped as he was out of breath, he looked around the area, that chase might have caught the eye of other predators. He jogged his way out of the area, he was like the least tiger like tiger at the moment, he’d have to fix that soon.

by **Azael** on June 24th, 2014, 10:06 pm

After a few minutes he had managed to make his way out from the area of shrubbery that he had been lead into by that weird piece of prey. He was getting hungry, and the food within his bag was specifically for emergency cases, he’d be able to get more food himself. He shook his head, he knew how to do this. He began to move through the forest, making sure to stay in the shadows, he had his ears open just in case he needed to watch out for possible threats or even potential food.

Azael was still a little tired from the chase earlier, animals sure as hell had it hard. Staying in the shadows certainly helped with his coloration, being smaller than your average tiger did have it’s perks at times. Running through the thick forest was a lot easier, and he still had a good bit of strength. His bag was making things a little awkward, as it was a little difficult to move, and the things inside were making noise, he’d have to dump it somewhere as it was also weighing him down, but it had to be somewhat memorable. Azael looked around the area, somewhere memorable would work. A river or stream of some sort had to be nearby, that would increase his chances of survival and keep a steady income of prey. But it had to be well away from insects and possible predators, that seemed like a rather hard task if he had to be honest.

Azael slowly jogged through the jungle, keeping close to the trees and underneath the shadows, he was hot, it was raining hard and the ground was becoming slippery. He was sure that his bag was thoroughly soaked at this point, living outside was harsh, but he still felt that excitement of trying something new. This is pretty hard, I’m pretty awesome, we mesh together. Now where can I find a place for this bag, I can’t really smell anything other than wet plants and poo. He thought to himself, animals were saved from having to listen to his stories which was certainly a plus on their part.

by **Azael** on June 30th, 2014, 2:36 am

Azael searched around for a place to put his bag, a place that rain couldn’t get to was what he was looking for, but sadly this being a jungle it’d be hard to come by. Azael slowly jogged around the area looking for a place to put his bag, and hopefully a place to camp. He looked underneath a tree, but found only a number of eggs. He was definitely leaving that alone, he didn’t know what type of eggs they were, or even if they were edible. Chances are the mother was still around, so he quickly jogged away from that area, he was a little tired and the bag was on rather awkwardly.

Azael took in a deep breath a bag on his back was giving him away, he looked around the area and only shrubbery along with trees could be seen. Things were hard to find, food was just as hard to come by. Survival of the fittest was really going on well here, but Azael would not lose, he was in the form of a hunter, killing animals like this should be normal, easy even. He took in another deep breath and broke out into a run, holding this form for too long would hold some really bad side-effects he wasn’t looking forward to finding out about. He looked around as he ran, and stopped as he saw a good place. An area near a large rock, he circled the rock and couldn’t find any animals around it, nor insects. This could change quite easily at night, but for now he’d trust his instincts. He placed his back down there, the rock was rather easy to see even from a distance.

The rock which was sort of dome shaped was pretty good for all sorts of thing, but right now...Azael was using it for cover; from the elements to protection from hopefully any predators that were looking to eat some tiny tiger or human meat. Once he made sure his bag was safe from the rain, he set out once more. To get himself some food, and then get something to make a fire with.

by **Azael** on January 3rd, 2015, 8:17 pm

Azael scoured around the area he had placed his bag; the trees were making it hard to get a good look around, and the rain was making hard to hear anything. His attempt to sniff out something just showed him that his senses were hardly better than that of a human. The smell of dirt and poo was trailed along the ground, at least it wasn’t fresh poo; that’d be frustrating to deal with. He caught sight of some shaking in some bushes in front of him. He slowed his walking pace, and then finally stopped. He had been covered in rain, his fur was soaking and he was quite frankly hungry. He didn’t have to worry about any real water trouble here, but food was his main concern. He took in a deep breath and held it.

What came out of the bush surprised him, it was a reptile of some sort, it was brightly colored, so bright that Azael found himself actually holding himself back from retching. It had weirdly long claws and a black splotch on the back of its head. It had a number of red splotches around its face and a single yellow dot underneath its red eye. It was a little under a foot long and wasn’t tall by any means. But Azael knew that this thing would make good prey, he just had to prepare it right, well practice does make perfect. He stood still waiting for the creature to come closer, the thing began to smell the air.

Azael tensed up, this thing might find him out…Unknowingly being aided by the heavy rain washing away the majority of his scent, Azael continued to watch the thing walking around. Just one more step....It had to come just a little closer. That step occurred, and Azael’s body reacted accordingly. The strong leg muscles of the tiger kicked off the ground with strength that a human would find hard to copy. His head held low to the ground to pick the creature off and his claws poised for attack. The creature wasn’t stupid however, it began to run in the opposite direction once it had noticed Azael. The chase was well and truly on, he began to spring with all of his strength, the animal was far slower than he was, he could tell with the rapidly shortening distance between the two. He was just a leap away, so that leap was what he took, the animal turned to the right; away from Azael’s grasp.

He wasn’t planning to let it get away, he slid for a second on the wet ground, but quickly turned to continue the chase. It wasn’t getting away was the only thought on his mind, truly at this minute he was thinking like a predator; a tiger. His steps kicked up mud, and the forest wildlife found themselves disturbed. But that mattered not. He closed the gap once more, this time he wasn’t leaping. The gap became tiny, the creature quickly turned to scratch at Azael, but all its claws impacted were the even larger claws poised to kill it. Its fate was decided the second Azaels paws felt bones being crushed. He lifted his paw, and saw the creature squirming, he lifted it using his mouth and bit into its throat ending its life.

Azael then made his way back to his camp, if it could be called that. He walked toward the large rock and saw that the bag was still there, and the animal was still in his mouth. He smirked before laying the lizard down to morph back into his human form. It was a slow transformation, not at all painful if he had to be honest. His bones shifted, first with his spin, becoming straighter, the connection with his pelvis morphed, the length of his legs increased, the bones themselves began to move again. His tail first lost its fur before receding back into his body, his arms became arms again, the shape of skull and the length of his teeth shortened and became more blunt. His eyes shifted from feline to human, and in a few seconds his shift back into a human was done, and then he was hit by a great bit of heat by his legs.

”Argh!” His shout was louder than it should have been, his legs were burning up, he grabbed it and felt fur between his fingers. A simple hunting trip became painful, he had pushed himself too far, morphing for that length wasn’t something he should have gotten used to, he hadn’t done it before, but when your mind is occupied by something else, he forgot his limits. His leg was stuck in the form of a tigers, he knew he could fix it, but that would come after he managed to fight through the pain....

The End

by **Traverse** on February 7th, 2015, 7:21 pm

Azael

Skill	XP Earned
Hunting	1 XP
Land Navigation	2 XP
Observation	3 XP
Morphing	1 XP
Running	3 XP
Stealth	2 XP
Wilderness Survival	1 XP

•	Lores Earned
•	The difficulty of hearing and finding prey in the rain
•	Finding dry spots in a rainy jungle
•	Utilizing Tiger form to kill prey
•	Morphing Overgiving: If you hold a form too long, you cannot always change back