and the stars in their orbits shone pale through the lightof the brighter, colder moon

Nadya had started this day with thoughts only on herself, where to get her next meal, where to sleep that night, and now she found herself trailing after two young men picking up after them, one more so than the other. After she had gathered their clothes into her backpack for safe keeping her quick and easy strides followed their trail to the forest at the outskirts of town. She couldn't help the furtive glances over her shoulder, almost expecting some big bad to pop out behind her from the way Tetra was acting. What or whom he was running from, keeping them from, would remain a mystery for now. The compact cement turned to upturned rocks, turned to compact ground, to then grass and soft soil beneath her shoes. The thick foliage of the trees reached up to the late noon day sky, blocking out much of the light with its canopy to create a crisp shade beneath. Nadya followed the boys in, their antics causing her eyes to dance with held back laughter.



"No cheating in the hunt, Tetra."



Everything was a game when they were children and as such the little girl had accused the boys of cheating anytime they won, despite the advantage their age or size had lend them. Now that they were away from strangers and in a place where she could feel it would be safe to leave her things, that they would still be there upon her return, she could focused on relaxing, letting go to her animal side. She found a suitable tree and plopped down the backpack at its base before stepping away, the body of a woman, no longer a child, shed her clothing with hast, one step toeing off a converse, another step toeing off the other shoe, another step she reached behind to slide down the zipper to her dress, the fabric ghosting over her flesh as it dropped unceremoniously to the ground. All it took was a simple wish, the vision and memory of her leopard form for her body to start the change. Internal organs shifted as her bones warped, crackling like rice crispies, smooth flesh gave way to soft fur with yellow cats eyes now blinking back into the dimness. While Tetra's stark black coat blended in with the shadows and Tobias' golden hide glinted, hers was a melding with the normal gold and spots fighting to be seen beneath the black. She was smaller than the males but by no means was she meek, the muscles beneath her coat as she moved showed there was power there and wouldn't be afraid to use it. Her tail swayed lazily from side to side as she stretched out, rump in the air, front claws extending to knead and churn the soft earth. It was quite different being in this form, an onslaught of scents invading her sensitive nose along with sounds causing her ears to twitch to locate the sources. The forest here was plentiful in both small and large game, though her experience hunting on her own saw she never caught anything bigger than a rabbit, without others to help she was always too unsure to try for anything bigger.



"Unless it's a person, Tobias, you can't go killing people."



The press of Tobias' voice on her mind was an odd sensation of familiar and foreign, her attention turning to the boys at the mention of killing with only the slightest concern in her tone, though Tobias seemed as new to the concept of what was acceptable as a newborn babe she didn't feel she could hold it against him. In an attempt to shake such a gruesome topic Nadya crouched down, wriggling as her muscles coiled before an energy took over and she leaped up suddenly, tail straight in the air in excitement, large frame bounding away in one fluid movement from the shed clothes, aiming for Tetra in a classic playful pounce of attack.