Abigail Hughes

It was exactly two days till Arlo and herself left the familiar shores of Sacrosanct to board a plane for Italy to attend that magnificent Royal wedding. Two days till she was alone in a bedroom with her brand new boyfriend. While she couldn't deny she was excited for that new city and the royal affair, Abigail also couldn't help that apprehension she felt at that notion that Arlo and herself were....well, moving beyond that simple friendship they'd had for just over a year now. It felt odd to know they were now something more and yet, the chaste young woman hadn't the slightest notion of what exactly she was supposed to do with her new boyfriend. Okay, so maybe that wasn't entirely accurate. She knew what people did with their significant other. She knew about the kisses, which made her cheeks turn an annoyingly bright shade of red at just the thought of it. She knew of the cuddling, which....well...they kinda did that...a little. And then there was the hand holding, of which Abigail had quite near mastered! But then....then there were...the other things. Just the idea of Arlo without a shirt on was enough to bring butterflies to her stomach, and not even wholly in a good way. That wasn't to say, of course, that she didn't like Arlo without a shirt on! No, wait! He was like....magnificent! It was just....she knew what came after that and...all of that stuff just made her so nervous that she ended up feeling almost queasy.

God, she was like...the world's worst girlfriend ever. She totally shouldn't have said yes. She should have just like...turned into a Panda and like...ran away....or something. That would have made her an awful friend too though, wouldn't it? A soft sigh left her lips as she pulled that dress from the depths of her closet. That long evening gown had been chosen specifically for that upcoming wedding, the green material had a way of hugging her slender physic and clinging to her hips in a more sensual fashion than anything that Abigail wore on her day to day life. It was a lovely dress. It was a beautiful dress. And yet, in spite of that, all Abigail could think of was how utterly scared she was for this whole ordeal altogether. How many times had she near talked herself out of this whole boyfriend thing? And how many more times had she talked herself back into it for the simple fact that she rather did fancy him? She wished her mother was here...she would know exactly what to say and exactly the sort of advice to give, the kind she was terrified to ask of her father. Her features contorted into a small frown as she placed that dress in her suitcase, her thoughts were decidedly somber for the usually enthusiastic girl. Maybe she should....like...spend the rest of the day out or something? She didn't have to work a shift at the cafe till later in the evening. Maybe the forest? It always had a way of settling her mind and easing her soul.

Her head bobbed in a firm confirmation of her thoughts, the girl reached over to pull that suitcase closed and onto the floor of her bed. She'd finish packing after work tonight so she was all ready to go. For now, maybe it was a good time to just....forget about it all for a bit. Slowly, the young woman pulled that t-shirt over her head, tossing it in the dirty clothes hamper. The rest of her wardrobe followed suit from jeans to socks and all the way down to her underwear, each object placed with care where it belonged before she focused on that simple act of shifting. Though the young woman had been born the creature she was, she still found that transformation awkward and painful and...well, a touch unbecoming. Unlike most of her kind, she never let anyone see her body twist and contort and snap and rearrange into that other creature. It was like...the very process of it was one she was almost ashamed of, even though the woman had eagerly accepted both halves of herself.

The russet panda that was left standing where that young redhead once was shook out its fur, the girl entirely willing to look more akin to a dog in that singular moment. A rather pleased squeak left her lips before she nudged her way out the door and bounded down those stairs to that one window she left open just enough to fit her panda nose and nudge a bit wider for her equally as small body. Ahhh, that fresh air was....delightful! It was the perfect combination of winter and spring. It was like the very sensation of the turn of the season was dancing in the air. An ecstatic sound left her lips as she hopped down those stairs of her porch, those little panda legs entirely content to waddle down the sidewalk towards that park and the forest beyond.

The better part of her early afternoon was simply spent wandering through those trees. She'd ran into a squirrel and played hide and go seek for a short amount of time. Okay, maybe she sought and the squirrel looked continually surprised when she popped up on it. But that was beside the point. She tried to dig with the rabbits but...their burrows were too small for her body. Abigail hardly minded, however, as he wiggled her small butt in the air, attempting to jump along with the frog she'd recently found beside a small pond. Mr. Froggy hardly seemed equally fond of her antics, however, as he jumped into the water, leaving the young woman almost pouting in his absence. A soft huff left her lips as she turned, determined to find a new friend only for something small to land on her nose. Her eyes widened as the butterfly's wings flexed too and fro. Wasn't it too early for butterflies to be out? Wasn't it still too cold for them? What was this one doing here?! She hardly had a chance to ask it, however, before it fluttered off, Abigail quite eagerly determined to follow suit. Her small panda legs rushed to keep up with it's too and fro fluttering, the girl darting after it only to pause when it too stopped. Her steps became slower as it's flight pattern too seemed to follow small movements here and there and back again. Her gaze was so steadfastly focused upon the thing that she hardly noticed at all when she stepped out of that forest and into the clearing.

Abigail was, in some regards, aware of the warm sun streaming down in that little place. It seemed to heat her fur and warm her soul in a way she quite near liked and yet, that contentment only saw the girl more focused on her new winged friend than anything else. She followed it up a rock and then....oh. Well, this was a squishy rock. It moved. The rock moved. Wait. This wasn't a rock. THIS WASN'T A ROCK. Her little legs scrambled as she realized exactly what she had quite near climbed onto and yet, moving in a hurry was never quite Abigail's forte. The result was a tripping ball of fluff skidding off of that place from the lion's side to his stomach, large paws, and smack onto the ground. Ow. She shook her head in an effort to chase away that biting sensation from her fall and yet, all the girl noticed was that fleeting form of her butterfly disappearing from the other side of the clearing and into the forest. She'd lost it. Darn it.