Humming - rather loudly - to yourself, you stroll down a small trail through the woods, amiably swinging your arms back and forth and pleasuring in the scented air and the freedom of being alone. It is because of your loud and distant state that you, unfortunately, miss the sounds of a predator behind you. The cracking of twigs on the ground moves swiftly through the air and vanishes, deterred by you own sounds and missing the necessity of reaching your ears.
What does reach you, a few seconds later, is a high-pitched and rather uncertain growl. Well, uncertain or not, it's enough to make you freeze. What was that? If only you had been born with eyes in the back of your head... But, since you weren't, you are forced to remain motionless and ignorant of your situation.
The growl comes again. Now able to hear it more clearly, you make an interesting observation: the growl really seems more like a whinney than a growl. Like an impersonation. How odd.
When nothing further happens, you begin to edge around. There's nothing... Oh, there! Crouched in the underbrush just behind you is an orange, striped figure positioned to pounce. Every instinct you have (and some you don't) screams the same thing: TIGER!!!!! With some effort, you resist the urge to run, but do start to unconsciously back away. As you do so, the creature follows you, stalking... Not really with the grace of a cat, though. Hmm. Backing away farther, you lure it out of the bushes; it's a Serian.
You stop, confused. Serians were grazers! Weren't they? You take another look at the equine-ish thing, who herself seems confused by the fact that you've stopped retreating. She straightens up, and in doing so discovers that she's no longer in the cover of the bushes. A look of disgusted realization dawns upon her face.
"Drat!" she exclaims. "I did it again!"
"Uh... Sorry? Unless you really were planning on attacking me. In which case, I'm rather glad you came out. And... Yeah..."
She frowns. "No, I wasn't gonna attack you! I just wanna be successful. Just once. You know, in scaring someone real bad."
"Well, you frightened me, if it helps?" After a moment, in which she doesn't respond, you introduce yourself.
Keeping her frown up, she says, "How do you live with such a weird name? People must always be mispronouncing it and stuff. Get a simpler one - like Bengal. I'm Bengal. After a tiger, y'know?"
You nod enthusiastically. "Yeah, I know! I think some even live on my planet!"
Interest sparks in Bengal's eyes, and her frown disappears. "Really? I've always wanted to meet--"
Just then, an orange shape comes flying in, green mane waving, leaping at you with a real growl. It knocks you to the ground, though thankfully it avoids landing completely on you. You're not injured; you've just gotten the wind knocked out of you. You lie on the ground, gasping unsuccessfully for air with a mind gone completely blank.
"See, that's how it's done," the shape - now identifiable as a much more feline-ish Serian than Bengal - says with a sneer.
"Vagrant!" Bengal shrieks. "You're not supposed to hurt them!"
"I didn't hurt it, I knocked it down. See, look, it's moving," Vagrant replies as you cough up non-existent air. He shakes out his shaggy fur, coated with dust and completely uncared for. "Now c'mon, before it regains its breath."
Bengal stares back and forth between you and Vagrant, gaping. After a moment, she turns and darts into the bushes, abandoning the crime scene.
With a smirk, Vagrant follows.
Bengal (click to open)
Name: Bengal
Gender: Female
Age: Adult
Altar: Forest Song
Circle: None
Special Stats: Unique (Tiger Tail)
