Catseye meets Wolf Cub

[x-wolfcub.livejournal.com]

Trying to escape in the woods, Nick is suddenly attacked by an odd, purple cat.



Ambling along a path in the woods, content and sated from a lunch of barn mice, Catseye stopped suddenly, sniffing the air. She smelled canine. Her heart leapt for a moment, thinking it might be Rahne coming to visit, but when she'd bounded forward a few steps the purple cat recognized that it wasn't Rahne's scent she was smelling. Nor was it any of the other ferals at the mansion. Was there a stray dog in their woods? The woods belonged to her and Kyle, and Dori! Stalking along much more carefully now, Catseye stayed low to the trail, hoping to sneak up on the interloper. As soon as she found him.

Nick found himself relaxing in the forest. He was very happy to be away from the X-Mansion, his head still swimming with all of the information that had been poured onto him in the first day was more than overwhelming. He had needed to get away from the craziness of the school and the judging eyes of the other students and even staff. After all he was brought in by a mad scientist. All of the activities were enough to make anyone anxious. It's just that when Nick got anxious, he needed to get away, less he would unleash a creature out of Underworld on the house. Gleason found a clearing and sat down. As he prepared to mediate, he had no idea of a certain purple-haired mutant stalking behind him.

The scent was getting stronger, and Catseye caught sight of a young man in a clearing. She wasn't sure if he was a NewBoy and a canine metamorph like Rahne or if he was an intruder, but she was going to find out. The purple housecat bounded up the nearest tree and made her way to the clearing from above, stalking silently through the branches, aided by a slight breeze that rustled the leaves and covered the sound of her movements. Once she was overtop of him, she paused to gather herself, then leapt down with a warcry. "Mrrrrrrrrrrrow!" FlyingCatDeathFromAbove!

Nick's eyes were suddenly opened wide as a cat came crashing down on him. He actually wasn't sure it was a cat at first, and instead quickly shrugged of his attacker. Remaining on all fours, Gleason began to shake violently, and his body slowly began to grow. But before his transformation was completed, he stopped to see the purple house cat hissing at him. Luckily Nick had been meditating, at was able to stop his transformation mid-phase, falling back down to his knees. "Good to see that someone isn't so afraid of me out here that they run screaming." Nick's voice came out through muffled breaths as he tried to control his emotions. He fell to his knees and extended his hand out to the cat, but quickly tipped his head to the side. "But maybe they have a point about me when I'm outside on my first day talking to stray cats."

Catseye stopped hissing when the person stopped growing and frowned at him in an un cat-like way. She shifted into girlform and kept her six-foot frame backed against a tree in case the stranger was part of a pack hiding around the woods and she wasn't smelling them. "Catseye is not a stray," she corrected with a huff. "And Catseye is not afraid." Which was a blatant lie- she was definitely nervous, and hoped he couldn't smell her fear. "Why are you in Catseye's woods?" she demanded.

Nick tripped backing away from the now transformed Catseye. He still wasn't used to the whole transforming mutants thing. It took him a few breaths to recover, but after all, who was the guy who nearly transformed into a werewolf to judge anyone? He slowly put one hand into his pocket as he nervously moved forward towards Catseye. Not really sure how to react to the purple-haired stranger, he held his other hand open in front of him in a defensive gesture. "I... uh... I just needed some time away from everyone at the crazy house for a bit." Nick quickly gestured deeper into the woods with his other hand. "I can move if this area is... um... marked?"

She frowned suspiciously at him. "You live at the BigHouse? Because you are like Catseye and are sometimes a dog the way Catseye is sometimes a cat?"

Nick couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I just moved into the... uh... Big House today." It had been a long time since someone had known about his wolf form and not run screaming or looked at him as if he were a walking science experiment. It was very refreshing. He extended his right hand out in front of him, but kept his body as far away from Catseye as possible to do his best to not spook her. "Nicholas Gleason."

Catseye knew about shaking hands from Elpis, but she wasn't entirely sure she was comfortable shaking hands with a dog metamorph. "You came to the BigHouse to go to school? Or because your powers are broken?" she inquired curiously, not shaking his hand yet.

Nick kept his hand extended, even though he felt a little awkward doing so. "Well, I guess you could say my powers are broken, but that's not really why I'm here. I don't really have anywhere else I could go." Gleason still didn't know why he was able to open up to the stranger, but he felt comfortable around her. Well, he felt more comfortable around her than most people. Maybe it was something about her being able to transform like he could.

Tentatively, Catseye shook the offered hand. She could understand not having anywhere else to go. "DogBo- Nick has no family?" she inquired, nearly slipping into her usual habit of giving him a name based on what he was, but catching herself and using his own name instead. "No human family or pack? Did they die?"

Letting go of Catseye's hand, Nick let his eyes fall down to the ground. "Yes, they did. My parents were killed about a month ago." His voice was shaky and unsteady at best. It was once again time for Nick to run away from his emotions as he was still afraid of his own abilities to control them. When he raised his eyes, he let one eyebrow prop up in confusion, quickly trying to back away from the topic. "Wait a second, did you just call me Dog Boy?"

"It is veryverysad when family dies," Catseye said by way of commiseration, though she was by nature very realistic and practical when it came to death, having lost a great many of the fellows who used to live in the alleys with her. "Yes Catseye was going to call Nick DogBoy because Nick is a DogBoy because Catseye was a cat forever until three winters ago and Catseye thinks it is easier to call humans what they look like or what they do, but Catseye understands it is sometimes not very nice and that sometimes it is nicer to call someone by the name they had all their life because it is special."

Nick let himself smile, the first real smile he'd had in a long time. "Thanks." He slowly turned towards Catseye, his hands placed in his pockets, another of his nervous idiosyncrasies. "You know my sister used to call me Wolfie. I really hated it so much back then." Laughing to himself, he his attention fell towards the ground. "But now I actually kind of miss it." Nick let his attention get sidetracked for a while before returning his attention back towards Catseye. "You know what, I'd actually prefer Dog Boy." A smile again slowly began to creep across his face.

"Is Nick a wolf or a dog?" Catseye asked, smiling at the fact that he didn't seem very dangerous at all now.

"Well I was actually told that I'm more of a 'creature with lupine features.'" He did his best to imitate Dr. Essex's accent with his speech. "I think that was his way of saying that I look like the bad guy from the three little pigs." Nick let out a laugh, but the quickly put his hands back up in a defensive position, trying not to offend one of the only people willing to talk to him. "But I can assure you our similarities end there."

The catgirl cocked her head. "Catseye does not think Nick is a creature, Catseye thinks Nick is a mutant, just like everyone else here! And Catseye does not know the wolf from the three little pigs. Does Nick like to play Chase when he is a lupine?" She wasn't entirely sure what that was, but it sounded like a canine, and she knew that was a dog.

Again, Nick couldn't help but laugh. He was still in shock that he had found someone willing to talk to him, little own someone who he actually felt comfortable around. "I don't know, not a lot of people have seen me in my wolf form." Slowly he peeled his eyes away from the ground, meeting the gaze of Catseye next to him, he decided that he could tempt fate. A smile spread across his face as he forced out the words "would you like to see?"

The catgirl nodded. "Catseye would like to play Chase with the wolf. Catseye needs to run after toomanymousies for lunch. If Nick is going to be a wolf Catseye is going to be BigCat but then after the Chase game Catseye will have to eat lots of pastrami because BigCat makes Catseye very hungry. Does Nick have to eat a lot after being a wolf?"

Gleason's smile grew even bigger at this question, finally finding someone who understood. "You have no idea..." Taking a few steps back, Nick held up his hands, trying to ensure space between himself and the purple-haired girl. "You might want to keep your distance for a second..." As soon as he was done saying the words Nick’s body began to shake violently. As one shake shimmied all the way down his spine, he fell down onto all fours. As soon as he did so, he began growing in size, his body nearly doubling in muscle mass while at the same time his skin began to sprout matted brown fur. As the bottoms of his pants and sleeves of his shirt began to rip, Nick’s face began to change as well, his ear’s becoming long and pointed and his mouth shooting out into a long snout. Regaining his footing, Nick used his long clawed fingers to push back up onto his hind legs. A wide smirk peeled back over his snout to reveal a pair of fangs that glistened in the light of the woods. Nick had to fight his initial reaction to flee into the woods behind him, but quickly regained his senses about him, turing his muzzle towards his new friend. He fought against his split mind. While one wanted nothing more than to run and hunt, the other wanted to make sure Catseye was ok. Gleason’s voice returned, but instead came out as more of a low growl than a voice. “Not too scary is it?”

Used to Rahne, Catseye shook her head. "Catseye is not scared." She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to shift into BigCat right now, though. Nick might still be too new for BigCat to sense that he was a fellow student and not a threat. She didn't trust her larger, more animalistic form not to try and attack him. Instead, she shifted into regular catform, where she had better speed, agility, and heightened senses but all of her human mental faculties as well. Bounding over to Nick, she swatted him on the tail to indicate that he was 'it' and took off like a shot through the woods, daring him to chase after her.

The wolf charged forward, still on all four legs. He made a full circle in the clearing to build up as much speed as possible before turning and leaning full tilt into the forest. The scenery flew by his head, but he could still make out the details as if watching the whole chase scene through a high-definition lens. In his human form, the game of chase would have been a land slide, but with his heightened sight he was able to scan the foliage for any sign of purple. Gleason allowed for himself to slowly give into his instincts, enjoying the hunt.