Circle Circle Dot Dot...

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya turned around, her back against the wall, rubbing her shoulder a bit as she did so. As her assailant held out the drawing, she cautiously took it, wary of a trap.

No trap. He let her pocket the napkin, but didn't back up much as she adjusted her jacket. Judging by his face, she was a sight, and the smuggler fingered what felt like a bruise on her forehead. The minor scrapes on her face were already healing, but bruises lingered after their causes were healed.

She raised an eyebrow, her blue eyes meeting his unusual green eyes without fear. "You shouldn't let kids wander this City by themselves. I'm sorry I scared them, but... This is just very important to me."

Arya paused, scenting the air subtly. "They aren't far from here." She craned her neck, catching sight of the narrow street branching off from their dead-end alley.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Her whip-like tail waggled a little, and the pup licked Wyl's fingers happily.

So this was what it was like! Dama had told her lots of times how strange changing felt and how it sometimes hurt... and also what it was like being a vornskr. Tak herself had dreams often about running about changed, and in the past had spent whole afternoons imagining herself as a vornskr.

And now she was one!

Shaking herself out once more, she turned on her haunches to sniff at her discarded clothes. With a little whurffle, the Lupine straightened back up and gave her new friend an elated look, her tawny eyes bright.

She wanted to run, to see what it felt like. Her tail wagging again, she crouched down playfully and gave Wyl an excited yip.

[Morgan Evanar]

"I kind of got that." Morgan said, and followed behind her. Morgan didn't mention how a little tact might help her cause in the future.

He heard a small whurffle from one of the alleys. An excited yip a moment later confirmed it. Maybe they found some sort of pup. He wasn't expecting 40 pounds of fluffy silver-furred whatever it was.

"Wyl?" The boy turned around, initially comforted by Morgan's voice, then worried by the sight of Arya.

"She's not going to do anything now." he said. If she did, Morgan was going to shoot her.

[Wyl Staedtler]

Wyl laughed in delight as Tak licked his fingers, not even pausing to think about how weird that was. He ran a hand along her head, patting the soft fur that now covered his new friend. This was the coolest thing that had ever happened in the history of ever!

The boy rocked back on his heels, grinning. He growled at Tak in a passable imitation of her new form.

He was just going to suggest that they go for a walk and fool people into thinking she was his pet, when the two adults appeared. Wyl jumped; he'd been so engrossed that he hadn't heard their approach.

"Morgan!" Wyl was surprised to see the man. Boy was he glad he was here though, since Arya was too!

Without a second thought, Wyl looped his arms under Tak's front legs, and pulled her closer to him, pressing his face into the soft fluff atop her head and glaring at the smuggler with outright distrust.

"What's she want then?" Wyl didn't address Arya directly, just continued to give her stink eye. "She attacked us, Morgan, we had to run for our lives!"

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya sighed at the sight of the hefty pup and the boy. She remembered being young - 'shifting sometimes happened in times of stress, and it was difficult to figure out how to change back. Also - it was a lot more fun to remain in the new form.

The boy glared at her, and she couldn't really blame him. The man beside her was the only reason she wasn't diving on the two kids and trying to shake the truth out of them. Arya took a deep breath, trying to resist the urge. "Watch out for her tail, kid," she said instead, indicating the slightly bony, whip like tail. "There's a nasty barb on the end."

Of course, on the young the barb wasn't fully matured and would probably only cause a red scratch. Still. "I just need to talk to the girl." She crouched down on eye level with the pup, still a ways away, and could smell the distrust coming off of her, despite the limitations of her human nose.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Hugged close to Wyl, Tak looked up with a jerk as the woman and another man appeared.

A soft wine then, and the pup hunched her head down, her tail growing still.

She could smell the woman plain as day, see her in a world that had no color, and as she knelt down, Tak kept up her end of the staring contest. What did that lady want anyway? Was it that necklace? Rasmuss had it, not her. She needed to go find him, not her.

Turning back to Wyl, the little Lupine huddled closer to him before turning her yellow eyes to the woman who was still looking at her.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan was about a meter behind Arya, to the left. He folded his arms.

"I don't think she's interested." he mentioned to Arya. It was obvious that the critter's demeanor had changed, and not for the better. Morgan could see her muzzle twitch a little. Arya hurumphed.

"I'll talk to them. You stay put." Talking, what a novel concept.

"Fine." She said. Morgan walked around her, gave her a several meter berth before he headed toward Wyl and the creature. He paused in front of the pair, about two meters away.

"Hi Wyl, who's your new friend?" He asked.

"Tak." He responded enthusiastically as he could, given the situation. Tak yipped.

"Hi Tak, can I come closer?" Morgan asked. Whatever it was, it seemed pretty smart.

"It's Morgan, he's a friend." Wyl explained. Tak's eyes seemed to brighten some at the reassurance. Morgan moved closer, but stopped a meter short. he crouched, and slowly held out his hand, partially closed, so she could sniff it. Tak sniffed, and sneezed.

"Wyl?" Morgan asked, still crouched, and let his hand fall back to his side. He gave a quick glance over his shoulder. Arya was still there.

"Yeah?" He responded, and gave Tak a reassuring pat.

"Where did the blonde girl go?

"She changed! This is Tak." Wyl explained, as if that should explain everything. Morgan gave the creature a quizzical glance, and then noticed the empty clothes. He kept himself from saying "oh" out loud.

Morgan sat down next to Tak and Wyl. He let Tak sniff his hand again, and petted her head for a moment. He made gentle rubbing motions, and took special care behind he fuzzy ears.

"Tak, can you change back?" He asked.

[Wyl Staedtler]

Wyl let go of Tak and scooted nearer to Morgan. He was close enough to his furry friend to reach out and touch her, but had given her enough space for her transformation.

"It's really creepy, Morgan." Wyl leaned up and whispered to the man, reverence in his voice. Now that he'd seen it happen and knew what to expect, he wasn't scared.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

A whine, and the little vornskr pup tucked her small whiplike tail between her legs. How was she supposed to change back?! And especially with the lady's smell so strong... it was distracting.

Hunching down on all fours, Tak sniffed at the ground for a few moments before casting her tawny gaze up to the lady.

[Arya Ravenwing]

"How old is she?" Arya turned to the two males, but they just looked at each other, and then shrugged in unison. Great, a lotta help these guys. "Look... I..." Well it was none of their business.

"This is probably her first time. Judging by the way she's acting and how big she was and is." The smuggler sat back on her heels, holding her hand out towards the pup. She considered tucking the girl under her arm and taking off, but that wouldn't do any good. She really needed to know what the girl knew about the medallion! How did she...where did she...

Had Imperial Intelligence had their hands on her as well? Arya looked at the pup sideways, her head a little to the side with her neck open towards her. She had to be Loklorien's whelp, there could be no other. And if it wasn't, then the possibilities were just more and more interesting. "I know your mom," she said.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

The pup eased forward only a little, her neck craning out so that she could sniff at the lady's outstretched fingers.

Her words however did well to make Tak wag her tail. Just a little though. Ears perking forward, the little vornskr inched closer to the woman. She knew Dama? How? A tiny whurffle escaped her lips, and the little Lupine looked up at the lady with wide yellow eyes. How was she supposed to change back? How had she changed even in the first place?!

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya could sort of smell the confusion of the large pup as she stood up, and sighed. "Hold this," she said abruptly, shrugging out of her nerfhide jacket and dropping it on the kid's head. While he was struggling to get out from under it she stripped off her shirt and bra and unbuttoned her pants. The tall guy was probably either embarrassed or interested in her sudden strip tease, but before he could do or say anything Arya Changed.

She didn't like doing it in front of people, because it could cause spontaeneous vomiting in some, but there was nothing for it. After a few moments she was in full, jet black and sleek vornskyr form, her wicked tail moving from side to side gently as she padded towards the female pup.

Everything was colored with scents, and she sniffed the gangly pup, inspecting her from head to toe with her nose.

[Morgan Evanar]

Arya was in good shape. Morgan shut up because, while unusual, stripping naked wasn't inherently dangerous. It was, as a physically mature humaniod male, inherently distracting. He wondered why she was doing it, more than anything else. Then she changed.

Morgan watched in fascination as her body quickly transitioned from bipedal human (?) to furry quadruped. She was covered in black fur that matched her hair. Arya-beast was sniffing Tak. He stood slowly as Wyl pulled the jacket off his head.

"Hey!" Wyl exclaimed. Morgan waved a hand in front of his face and shusshed him. Normally Wyl would say something defiant, but it was Morgan, and he sounded serious. Morgan realized then that if Arya was going to harm the pup, there was nothing he could do besides extract revenge. The ball really was in her court.

[Wyl Staedtler]

"What is she --" Was all Wyl managed to get out before his world went dark. With a startled squeak he began to wrestle with the jacket - which felt suspiciously like it was being held on by a large hand. Eventually the pressure eased and he yanked it off, brushing his hair up to stand in all directions.

He offered Morgan a narrowed look but kept quiet; he trusted the man wouldn't let things get out of control. Still, Wyl had watched enough Creatures of the Galaxy to be more than a little uneasy. What if Arya tried to eat Tak? Sometimes animals did that with strange young. It was so that they could assert their dominance and establish control over the territory.

Dropping back down to his knees, Wyl shifted his weight forward so that he could tackle Arya, should the need arise.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Standing rooted, Tak radiated nervousness as she felt the larger vornskr's nose travel over her. The smell was more than overpowering now, but she found herself becoming used to it. It wasn't unpleasant, just... different. She'd seen Dama change before, and unlike the shock white fur she was used to, this woman was all black.

Tentatively overcoming her initial shock, the vornskr pup turned her head to sniff at Arya, their noses touching.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya wurffled, pink tongue licking Tak's face affectionately. The musky odor of the pup was almost intoxicating, and she bowled her over with her muzzle. She nipped playfully at Tak's fur, not anywhere close to hurting her, and then leapt away, looking back over her shoulder at the pup.

The one hundred and thirty or so pounds of black vornskyr pounced back towards the puppy, and then away, inviting Tak to play.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

What was this?! Not expecting an invitation to play, Tak stood rooted for only a moment longer before bursting after Arya. She yipped eagerly, jaws open to playfully bare her tiny pointed teeth at the bigger vornskr. She crouched, then rolled a few times as Arya nuzzled at her again before coming up to tug at a black ear.

Any fears she'd had vanished in the blink of an eye, and the little Lupine found herself crawling up, over, and all around Arya's much bigger form.

[Arya Ravenwing]

In the Lupine form it was difficult to remember things that human Arya had been so concerned about. In the sudden joy of play, Arya let the pup nip and climb over her, rolling a bit from side to side and gently catching a leg or tail between her jaws. After so long alone with just the memories of her mother's final days of raving lunacy, it was incredible to be with another of her own kind.

Loklorien had never shared a moment like this with Arya, but the black vornskyr was nearly beside herself with happiness as she romped with the woman's pup. After a few minutes the smell of the two humans watching them snapped her out of it, and Arya sat up, looking at Morgan with an alert expression, ears pricked forward. He returned the look, a strong stare that was challenging to her obvious authority in the situation.

In her current form it was difficult to overcome the force of Instinct. Arya's lips peeled back from her teeth and gums in a silent snarl.

The pup scrambled over her back again, and rolled to the ground, pawing at her and trying to get her to move, to pounce and resume playing. Arya nuzzled Tak, licking her face and one ear, but kept one golden eye on the pair of humans, just in case they tried anything funny.

[Morgan Evanar]

"Shouldn't we do something?" Wyl asked. Morgan shook his head. He let himself rock from his feet onto his butt, and sat, feet forward. Wyl would not ease his guard.

"Fact of the matter is, it's in her hands right now. We just have to wait." Morgan said. He could still reach the blaster, but more importantly, he could teleport if he absolutely had to. Morgan let his wrists rest on his knees.

"I don't think she's going to do anything." He added. Wyl looked unconvinced.

"Trust Tak." Morgan added. Wyl looked at the pup as she circled and nipped at Arya. She let loose a joyful puppy bark and barreled into the much larger beast.