wandering soul (( mature, r. for shadow only.))

AOIFE (pronounced ee-fya): Irish name derived from Gaelic aoibh, meaning "beauty." In mythology, this is the name of a warrior princess.

Aoife sighed as she saddled up her mare, a gentle palamino who was just as sweet as a kitten. Right now she getting ready to go and fetch some wild berries. Only time she could find them was in the forest. Cinching the saddle tighter she glanced at the sky, by the looks of it she still had a few hours until the sun began to set, so she would be safe from accidentally breaking the curfew the guards had enlisted in the village. Only to keep them safe.

Grabbing her small basket she attacked it to saddle before taking the reigns and leading the horse out. Ever since her mother died of an unknown illness a few years ago. She was left on her own. Thankfully she knew how to take care of herself and knew how to make money by selling egg's and milk from the two milk cows she had and from the few chickens as well. Now she was hoping to expand it a little more by selling blueberry or black berry pies.

Shaking her head she stopped the horse a few feet out of the barn before turning, flipping the reign's over the horses neck and climbed up into the saddle, taking a few moments to rearrange the skirt of her dress as she settled into it. once relaxed she gave a few small clicking sounds with her tongue. " come now Sugar, we have work to do."

It didn't take to long before she was in the forest, Sugar carefully picking her way through the uneven path that she normally took. Aoife kept scanning the many bushes surrounding the area until she saw one that held ripe berries. " whoa Sugar" tugging on the reigns gently until sugar stopped, she slid out of the saddle , planting both feet firmly on the ground before taking the basket, then the reign's Gently tieing them to a low hanging branch before kneeling down and began to carefully pick the berries, humming softly to herself.

Leon Sanen was a stout but slim and extremely agile creature, more known as a Neko. Neko stayed well hidden in the forest and in general knowing if they were ever found, that would be the end of them.

Leon lived alone a good hour ride from any near village cept for one, Fellen. He made his living by spying on travelers and pick pocketing them as they rode by or by things they dropped often by the horrible road and its rough ride. He was in a large tree that was perfect for climbing but was so well crowned out in the branchers and leaves, his large leaf kilt and harness he made kept him blended in so well he was almost blended in to the surroundings. Keeping his eyes on the female and her horse, he slowly laid down on the large branch to carefully observe the female as she was picking berries.

she was nearly done with picking the berries when she suddenly had an odd sensation go over her body. Blinking in surprise she leaned back and looked around, it was weird. an eery feeling like she was being watched, but everything seemed right. The birds where still singing their song's and she could hear little animals scurrying about. if there had been danger everything would have gone silent.

Shaking her head and pushing her red hair out of her face she sighed. " just my imagination i think. " mumbled, leaning forward to pick a few more berries then covered the basket with a clothe she had brought to keep the bugs off of them. Shivering again at the odd sensation once more she stood up, wiped her hands on her apron and looked around. " Sugar i must be going nutty after all.." She turned as the horse tossed her head and stomped at the ground a little as if in agreement. Giving a gentle laugh she shook her head. " that wasn't nice deary. "

she bent to pick the basket up when a squirrel shot out of the bush , chattered at her angrily and ran up the tree, yelping in surprise she dropped the basket and her eyes followed the furry creature until he disappeared. sighing she flushed a little. frightened by a tiny creature. how amazing. she was just about to look away when she thought she spotted someone.. or something in the tree which made her heart jump again. Squinting her eyes she frowned, stepping a few steps closer. " is someone up there?"

His eyes slowly squinting as he very slowly hunkered down into the tree and tryed to blend into the branch as best he could. Tail perfectly still and his ears not moving, he was in stealth mode and was trying to be perfectly still. He knew she was staring at him and trying to figure out what he was, he was worried he may have to dash off fast to keep from being discovered and chased. Needing his claws lightly, sharpen them up so he can climb down the trees with more ease.

She frowned, not sure if she could see any movement at all, the branch was high up and she was not some animal with the best eyesight. shaking her head and turning to Sugar" i am going mad i think. first squirrels and now tree's. " sighing she picked the basket up , tied it to the horses saddle before climbing up onto it again. " time to go home" she turned Sugar around but stopped for a few more moments to look up into the tree again. she could swear she saw ears.. or maybe it was a tail?. or just her imagination, whatever she was seeing was not moving.

and if it was some jungle cat, she was sure the thing would have attacked her already. Shaking her head again and muttering something about being overly tired or catching ill. she nudged Sugar into a slow lazy walk.

As she looked at him again, he moved his arm back and then gasped as she stopped instantly. Tail starting to sway around on its own now which was not a good idea. Looking at her and noticing she turned her head away from his direction, he got on all fours and spun around befor jumping and starting to climb down quickly. In his haste to move, he ended up tearing off a chunk of bark which flew down and hit the ground beside her. Hearing it hit the ground he jumped to another tree, his hard jump cause he recent tree to shake slightly and the branch to whip down then back up with a snap. Moving to the other side and pinned himself on the tree and stayed still to keep from being seen.

she gasped and froze instantly , her head moving this way and that as she looked around. " whose there?. come out now!" now she knew she was being watched, eyeing the chunk of bark on the ground next to her she licked her lip.it was broad daylight.. it shouldn't be any criminals out and about. then again it wasn't unheard of.

Licking her lower lip in nervousness she glanced around again , eyeing the two swaying tree's but once again like before she couldn't really see anything." stop this nonsense in hiding , i will not seek . " even Sugar was getting a little antzy. she was stomping her feet from side to side and tossing her head. Aoife had to work hard in keeping her under control to keep from being thrown.

Slowly, he made his descent from the tree and ended up in a completely bare section with no coverage from anything, looking over he could see her plain as day. Kneeling down as he was baring his teeth now but only cause of heavy breathing, chest heaving up and down hard at his panting. Tail swaying around side to side as he was eyeing her, normally he would never think of eyeing a human, their were disgusting to him and very unatractive but something about her had his attention, complete attention.

He slowly made his way to laying down on the branch befor grasping it and slowly spinning around to be under it befor letting his body drop down and then dropped himself to the ground under him, he went and slowly sneaked his way over to her, this time for a closer look.

she frowned, gaze jumping here and there , she could hear movement now here and there, but couldn't pinpoint the exact position's. " tis not funny!." she managed to get sugar under control as she twisted around in the saddle to try and see who ever it was., but whatever it was was definitely good at hiding..

Her green eyes where wide, not with fear, but with anticipation. unsure of what was going on . she couldn't sense danger, just uneasy. " stop this childish game of hiding, come out now!"

He waited till she stopped calling befor he moved closer and closer to her. After a minute or two, he laid on his stomach and very slowly crawled closer to her, Moving under a bush and looking up, he was able to see her clearly but made sure he was hidden, so he thought. His soft eyes slowly eyeing her and taking in her figure, she was gorgeous and to him it was much more then that, for a Neko to be interested in a human, it meant their scent had to drive the neko wild in a sexual sense, by scent and her scent was doing that with little trouble. Softly digging his claws into the dirt and gritting his teeth, he was eyeing her and her rather stout horse as well.

Aoife didn't know what was going on, she almost had Sugar under control until she started to paw and stomp at the ground again, grimacing and afraid of falling off she quickly slid out of the saddle, grabbed the reign's and slid her hand up until she touched Sugar's muzzle. " easy girl. easy.. " glancing around she bit her lip then looked back to her horse trying to get her soothed.

Sugar obviously sensed something. or some person that was making her agitated. It took her several minutes to get Sugar calmed down,twice sugar had pushed her up into a bush and now she had a few thorns and spurs to get out of her skirts. . Holding tightly onto the reign's of her horse she turned slowly , her gaze scanning every thing she could. squinting here and there . It wasn't until she spotted the wiggling tail that made her suck in a sharp breath and freeze instantly.

Looking at her and twisting his head to the side then looked over his shoulder and growled to himself as he seen his tail standing up and wriggling in joy. Making his tail slowly slither into the bush, he slowly inched his way back then once he was under cover, he took of and started to sprint from sight.

After a good sprint, he climbed a well branched tree to hide in and kept a good look out for awhile, just to see if he was tailed at all.

she blinked in surprise as the tail disappeared and then nothing, she didn't sense anything nor could she see anything. she waited for a few minutes, before shaking her head" must have been a cat.. after all i didn't hear a growling.. can't be a panther.. panther's are black "

sighed she looked to Sugar before gathering the reigns up and climbed up into the saddle once more.nudging her horse into a fast walk. and when she could go faster, she nudged her into a trot. Her mind still on the tail she had seen and wondered who or what it had been.

Once she had gotten home and unsaddled Sugar, she took her basket of berries and headed into her small cabin. Humming softly to herself as she went about to washing the berries clean.

Waits for awhile on the branch, awhile being several hours. As he waited, he looked around and knelt down befor dropping down to the ground and then started to walk to his own home, a huge cave in the wall of a cliff.

Looking out of the cave befor sighing and turning inside as he looked around and smiled, home sweet home. As he walked inside he seen his fire was about to go out befor he dashed to the fireplace and started stroking it, trying to get it to fire back up quickly*

Once she was done with the berries and had them cooking slowly , she decided to go out again and see if she could find something else she could use to cook.. She brought her small bow and arrow with her as well just in case she found a rabbit. She was used to hunting when she couldn't afford the market meat. It was part of being on her own.

Taking Sugar out again she sighed as she picked her way through the forest a second time. taking a different path, one that she sorta 'felt' , in her unusual gift. was the right way to go.

He was in his cave working on getting his fire to kick back up, it was almost dead but after he was working on it hard it ended up firing up and coming back and starting putting off good heat, but also good light from his cave.

He went into the back of his cave were their was a small crack in the roof that acted like a shower, cold as hell, but a shower none the less. Stripping down, he got into the water and started to rub down real fast.

Aoife frowned as she looked up into the sky just in time to see some of the distant smoke "huh.. didn't know i had neighbors. " frowning she followed it, picking her way carefully through another path, the thinner it got the slower she had to go to pick her way through it.

It came to a point where she actually had to leave Sugar at one of the tree's loosely tied just in case a predator came and she could get away. she was near caves now from what she could tell since her walk turned into a slight climb" hello? .. "

He thought he heard something, but figured it was the wind his tunnel has on occasion. Going back to his shower, he was scrubing down his rather thick haired back, long thick fur, but only on his body, certain areas were very short. He never took long to shower, mainly cause its bloody cold, so he started to move from the shower and started to dry off, mainly by rubbing himself with a thick fur off a bear he found dead in the forest.

stopping every once and a while she looked around, then back to where she had come, still seeing sugar in sight. which was a good thing. the horse had decided tolay down for a bit.

turning back to the path she was going she carefully climbed up again until she found herself in the opening of a cave. now she was nervous. since bear's usually habited the caves. Frowning slightly she glanced at it, then at the smoke slowly drifting from the place from some unseen opening.. bears didn't have fires.. someone must have been living in the cave.. Licking her lower lip nervously she stepped forward towards the cave opening. " is anyone in there? "

He heard something, it did not sound like wind this time that is for sure, he rubbed himself best he could be going and grabbing some clothes and put on his fur hardness and kilt befor stepping silently from the back of the cave, trying to see who was in his cave. Looking over at the fire place and thinking of how they found him, and so easily.

she wondered if she should go in.. her curiousity was getting the best of her considering she didn't know anyone who would live in a cave.. Chewing on her lower lip for a moment she sighed then picked up her skirt a little and began to step over the last few of the rocks that where in her way before she made it to the entrance.. she went slow to let her eyes adjust to the dark. even though she could see the glow of the fire. " anyone here?. " she kept her voice low. hoping that she would not spook whoever it was that was here.

Slowly sinking down to the floor, he was kneeling now by a wall and with his back pinned to it. Looking around and seeing and hearing a shadow slowly enter the cave, he was clueless as to who or what it was. Knowing it wasnt an animal, that made him relieved but he didnt know for sure who it was in this case. Then as he waited his mouth dropped slightly once he seen it was the lady he seen earlier in the forest, clueless how somebody found his cave after 10years or being by himself in the same cave.

" very strange. " mumbled to herself, reached out to slide her hand over the cave wall, as a bit of a guide as she walked in the cave. Being human her eyesight really wasn't that well in the dark, even with help from the fire light. "wonder who lives here. " she could tell someone had made it a home. just by the many items scattered about. they probably had been living here for a long time and she had no clue of it until now.

Watching as the shadow grew closer and closer, he slowly moved back into the shower room, trying to keep hidden, he knew a way to hide without being caught. Slowly backing up, he accidently knocked down a table then turned around and ran into the room befor jumping up on a ledge and laying down, hiding in its curved angle. Leaning up slightly to watch and see if the lady was going to come in this far.

she gasped and swung towards the sound of the table being knocked over, she saw a blurred of movements and then it was suddenly gone, licking her lower lip slightly she took in several breath's to calm herself and try to get her heart back under control ." you can come out.. i won't hurt you i swear it. "

squinting her eyes a little to try and see if she could see whoever it was, she stepped into the cave even more. going towards the table slowly , reaching down to pick it up and straighten it back out. but still she couldn't see anyone." i fear you have an advantage over me. whoever you are.. i cannot see very well in the dark. "