ikaia [★] START OF TIME

[aine.]

[div style="width: 430px; line-height: 1.4; text-align: justify; font-family: palatino; font-size: 11px;"][align=center]
— aine | the pitt | fae druid —

The 'no-one in, no-one out' rule in the Pitt was, to Aine, an adventure barrier.  Unacceptable.  Besides, she and her father came in, didn't they?  It seemed more like a menacing suggestion, more than anything.  Inspired by her recent herb-hunting expedition with her father, and Embry, Aine decided she could risk a day out on her own.

She did not plan on going far.  Just a little past the desert and into the lands beyond.  With a brightness in her hazel hues, the petite vixen followed the river away from the temples, sneaking away in the early hours of morning, conscious that if she's gone too terribly long her father would certainly not be happy.

The little fae hummed softly as she stepped into a vast grassland, grinning.  The ground beneath her paws was soft and flourishing beneath a happy sun, warming her back.  Luck had it her favorite creature fluttered past her, vibrant and graceful and she took chase.

From flower to flower, she hopped, ever-careful to keep the butterfly close enough to see clearly.  Her white-tipped tail flared behind her like a peppy flag as she grew ever and ever more lost, without noticing.

— I'll come back when you call me —

[ikaia]

[align=center]

⚓ IKAIA | current track ♪ | current shape: oncilla | exploring. . . engaging. . . |
It started with the boredom of sunrise.  While watching the waves turn orange made him smile, the boy possessed a restless, eager heart.  For this particular early morning, he decided only a quick adventure into the lands unclaimed could satisfy him.  He'd explore for the day then come back before nightfall, or later, if he found a safe place to rest -- the boy figured no one would go looking for him if he's gone for a day or two.

He skirted around Tanglewood's swamp as a peregrine falcon, preferring not to accidentally trespass anywhere, regardless of alliances.  As he discovered an open field to venture through, filled with flowers and plenty of tall grass, he dipped for a landing, grinning ecstatically as he shifted, landing gracefully on four paws rather than as a bird.

His spotted tail flashed against the green grass, an oncilla once again as he took to walking.  He might have began marking the area in his mind, but he spotted another small figure not far away, following a butterfly across the field.  Wasting no time, he began trotting a path towards her, wearing his typical friendly grin.

"Aloha!" She seemed nice enough, given she was around his age and chasing butterflies.  Ikaia already smelt something funny about her -- I think I know this smell... -- and wondered if she was from a group too, like him.  Should that be, she must like to explore too, since she was out here, like him.  "Hey, I'm Ikaia," he'd offer brightly.  "What's your name?'

[align=center]

( you are the dawn of a new day that's waking, a masterpiece still in the making )

[aine.]

[div style="width: 430px; line-height: 1.4; text-align: justify; font-family: palatino; font-size: 11px;"][align=center]
— aine | the pitt | fae druid —

The fae nearly jumped out of her skin.  Her hazel hues locked, somewhat wide, on the friendly boy.  He certainly snuck up on her.  She blinked as she glanced back, somber as the butterfly seemed to have disappeared.  She spun back around to the oncilla, furrowing her brow as she tasted the salt on his pelt.

"H-hi." He seemed to nice to be like that pirate who attacked the Pitt's border.  Ikaia.  "'m Aine." She took a cautious step closer, sniffing softly.  "A-are you a pirate?" The logical question.  Aine hardly wanted any trouble with the Typhoon; they seemed mad at Jervis for some reason and they scared her.  They mad da mad too.

She bit the inside of her cheek thoughtfully, beginning to realize she didn't entirely know where she'd wandered off too.  If this was Typhoon lands, she'd smell more of the ocean, surely, so she knew better than that.  If the boy was one of the pirates, why was he way out here?

Antsy, she shuffled a pair of charcoal colored paws.  No.  He seemed too friendly to mean any sort of trouble, regardless of where he came from.  Captain Goldie seemed nice too. Aine knew she walked in frightening circles, growing more and more anxious.  She barely remembered to breathe properly.  She really didn't want to be caught in the crossfire again, much less without a single soul she knew around.

— I'll come back when you call me —

[ikaia]

[align=center]

⚓ IKAIA | current track ♪ | current shape: oncilla | interacting with aine. . . |
Scared her. Given the unintentional fright, his ears flicked back sheepishly.  Ikaia's smile turned far more gentle and repentant.  As she replied with her name, plus some inquiries he took a seat in the grass, resting his tail over his paws. A pirate?  "Sure am! The best ever too, well maybe not yet... I will be eventually!"

"That don't mean I'll hurt you though.  A pirate doesn't have to be mean," he added hastily, conscious that she seemed more nervous about the prospect than the earlier scare.  With that all cleared up, the boy hoped she wouldn't be so scared of him.  "Think of me like an adventurer-pirate.  I just like the freedom.  It's fun to explore."

"You like to that too, right? I think you do, I can tell. Would you like to explore with me, Aine? Just for today?" Double the adventurers, double the fun, in Ikaia's opinion.  "This field is really big; I'm sure there's something hidden to find!"

[align=center]

( you are the dawn of a new day that's waking, a masterpiece still in the making )

[aine.]

[align=center]
— aine | the pitt | fae druid —

Her impression of Ikaia quickly returned to good.  He seemed very nice, and extremely friendly.  She wished she was so outgoing; he made it seem easy.  Growing more comfortable, she offered him a shy, friendly smile of her own, blinking as he went on talking.

If he desired to be the best and made exploring such a common habit, then she didn't see how be wasn't the best already.  Of course, the petite druid knew little of being a pirate, and he wasn't at all like his captain.  He wouldn't, she reasoned fiercely, set her home on fire.  So not all pirates were alike in manner... That made sense... They liked freedom.  Okay.  Well, she did too.  Maybe they could get along.

She liked Ikaia enough.  Maybe they could be friends.  He was already asking if she wanted to explore with him.  As a team.  She hadn't had a friend... Or someone to be a team with since her older brother...

"M'kay," she stopped shuffling her paws, though her eyes still flickered.  What if in exploring with Ikaia, she got more lost? He's good at this; he won't get lost. She felt rather certain she could trust him on that.

"Which way should we go first?" The field was big.  Aine breathed in softly, taking a calming moment to survey her surroundings.

They stood in a little open patch of wildflowers.  A likely place for her butterfly friend to linger.  A bee buzzed her paws and she furrowed her brow.  The grass surrounding them stood well over her full height, making everywhere a mystery.  She must've gone through a good portion of it in her earlier chase, but recalled nothing immediately.

Though she felt a little small, her paws tingled with the apprehension of discovery.

[ Mobile ]

— I'll come back when you call me —

[ikaia]

[align=center]

⚓ IKAIA | current track ♪ | current shape: serval | exploring. . . |
He felt satisfied she no longer looked afraid of him; better, she seemed to look to him as their expedition leader.  Given they were just a duo, he hardly felt that necessary, but he quickly began devising a way to decide which way to go.  His deep brown eyes flashed every direction, recalling sharply he came from the southwest.

With a deciding nod, he shifted into the shape of a serval; tall with keen eyes and acute hearing.  He threw Aine a grin before perking his large ears.  Even as an oncilla, he thought he heard the sound of running water.  "This way," he exclaimed, bounding into the grass with new purpose.  A stream seemed to run down the field, too wide to jump over but deep enough for him to stand, even if he was still an oncilla.

"We can follow it." A very good find, in his opinion, because it made the map easier to mark in his mind.  "Let's go downstream, for now, at least."  He wondered if the running water fed into anything; a lake or pond or larger stream or river.  He stuck to the serval form for the time being, appreciating his new height and keener senses.  Now he could properly lead the way for Aine without being surprised by anything.

[align=center]

( you are the dawn of a new day that's waking, a masterpiece still in the making )

[aine.]

[align=center]
— aine | the pitt | fae druid —

Aine's heart most likely skipped a beat.  Having never witnessed a shapeshifter change, she certainly stood, dumbfounded for a moment as oncilla became serval.  Taller than her now.  Not that it was difficult given youth.  She sputtered softly, shaking her head in momentarily disbelief as he just smiled like he did, and went on like normal.

Could she shapeshift?  She was a druid, wasn't she?  Aine glanced at her paws, furrowing her brow.  No.  Flowers and plants sprouted at her feet sometimes, and she recalls absently cracks in the ground.  Maybe she could and she just didn't know it yet.  Then, why would she want to? 

Her hazel hues flashed at the now-serval Ikaia.  He could obviously see better now, with a higher vantage point and he clearly seemed better at hearing.  She huffed softly in awe then scrambled after him, mind buzzing with questions she began working through.

Question one.  "C-can you turn in to anything?"  Question two.  "W-what's it feel like to change?"

She halted as her paws splashed into water, not paying attention to where she was walking.  A startled squeak escaped her maw before she huffed, sheepish.  Glancing down, she blinked, then narrowed her eyes.  "The rocks in 'ere look really smooth."

— I'll come back when you call me —

[ikaia]

[align=center]

⚓ IKAIA | current track ♪ | current shape: serval | explaining . . . exploring. . . |
Aine's renewed surprise threw him off-guard.  It brought to mind the first time he'd managed to shift, purely on accident. The serval grinned again, unbothered by the need to explain.  Indeed, she seemed to finally break out some questions, much to his amusement.  "Well not anything, I don't think, but most things."

Ikaia wanted to shift into something amazing like a dragon, but the form evaded him.  "I have to think and feel the change.  Some shapes just don't happen." Like attempting to catch sand.  "I like turning into a bird when I have to travel far, and when I swim I become an otter," he went on jovially.  The change became so natural to him, he barely remembered time before he could shift.

The sound of Aine's squeak was enough to make him jump a foot in the air, turning around sharply in concern.  His whiskers twitched as he realized what happened.  She'd wandered into the water on accident, but it seemed discovery came from it.  Immediately curious, he crept closer to the stream with an inspecting gaze.

"You're right."  Cool.  "We should collect a few!  I don't know how we'd carry them far though -- we could find a place to hide them for later.  Like buried treasure." Now they had a mission.

[align=center]

( you are the dawn of a new day that's waking, a masterpiece still in the making )

[aine.]

[align=center]
— aine | the pitt | fae druid —

The answer seemed to satisfy her, for the most part.  She imagines for a moment, changing into something else.  A bird, with feathers not fur.  A rabbit, small and fast.  A butterfly, light as air and a myriad of colors.  The thought makes her feel lighter, but she remains as she was.  A small red fox.

Beneath her little black paws, the stream ran over their new discovery.  She happily began examining the stones closer, grinning at Ikaia’s idea.  Their own buried treasure!  "Good idea!" Which stone...?

Aine hummed triumphantly when she found a particularly round stone, smooth and pale gray as the moon.  Gently, she rolled it out of the stream, so it sat on the damp grass beside the water.  "We’ll ‘ave to find a place we’ll remember," she pointed out thoughtfully.  A place with a decent landmark.

"Maybe a tree somewhere..."

— I'll come back when you call me —

[ikaia]

[align=center]

⚓ IKAIA | current track ♪ | current shape: fluctuating | scouting. . . |
A landmark was a good idea, especially since neither of them lived here.  "Good idea! I'll look for something, hold on." The serval let his body morph and change, trading fur for feathers once again.  The now peregrine falcon spread out his wings, taking off into the sky.  Now with a literally bird's eye view, the boy sought out something more unique than tall grass.

A lone tree certainly appealed to him as his sharp eyes scanned everything within view.  Determined not to come back without the answer, he flew further downstream while ascending ever slightly higher.  The stream remained shallow but seemed to spread wider through the field, a fact he stored in mind.  A few moments later and he spotted exactly what he was looking for.  A lone tree!

A willow tree, to be more exact, hanging over a larger body of water the stream seemed to feed into.  A shallow lake, or simply a pond.  Thrilled, the bird sped back upstream, dipping down where he shifted into a serval once more, touching the grass on four paws.

"There's a lake... Pond?  With a willow tree further down stream," he exclaimed breathlessly.  "We can store our rocks by it's roots." So I need a rock too, since Aine seemed to have found hers.

Keenly, he locked his eyes back to the stream.  His spotted fur quickly grew soaked, sticking to his lithe form as he trotted around within the water.  A silver-colored stone caught his eye eventually, smooth on one side while more rough on the other.  "Got it!" He grinned, pushing the rock towards Aine's.

Now, pushing two rocks sounded rather dull and tedious.  Ikaia's shorter tail flicked unhappily.  "I'll turn back into a bird so I can carry them easier," he decided, nodding matter-a-factly.  "Just follow me."  Plan in motion, he returned to his falcon form, locking his talons around both rocks before giving his wings an experimental flap. Yeah, okay.

"Alright!" He relished the feeling of wind through his feathers, flying only a few feet above the grass so Aine could keep an eye on his path.  "This way, down the stream."

[align=center]

( you are the dawn of a new day that's waking, a masterpiece still in the making )