Children of Gaia: The Snow Leopard and the Raven.

[Ravenloft]

Trent Norez walked into the offices of Beckhaus Publishing, on a mission to find the author of the hot new Y.A. fantasy book series about a young woman who discovers she's a werecat. It was fresh and sexy, and wouldn't have been so troubling if it wasn't so close to the truth behind the secret world that most Children of Gaia relied upon to keep themselves safe and hidden from the world Humanity had created around them all.

So, either she knew what she was and no one had ever told her 'the rules', or she was completely clueless. From the way that she wrote, he suspected she had no idea what she really was. Even the most ignorant of changing breeds knew better than to advertize their existence to the world at large the way this girl was.

He stormed past the receptionist who tried to stop him and went down the hall, looking for the office with her name on it... What the hell was her name again anyway? He paused to take out her latest book from his inside breast pocket. He wore a nice black suit and tie, he figured if he looked the part of some high powered business type guy, no one would get in his way, but the receptionist was calling ahead to warn everyone that some guy was storming down the halls.

 

[Mairu]

Sasha was busy writing down part of her manuscript in her office and smiled a little. She was making good progress and not a lot of people disliked her writing. She always had dreams about what she wrote oddly enough and out of her dream books she had a living. Now for a little about her. Sasha was an orphan so no last name even though adopted by a nice christian family she didn't take on their last name and grew up, chatised for writing fantasy books, but she was on her own now, and she did what she wanted. Back to the present she heard commotion outside, but ignored it, her long hair falling to frame her face as she put the commotion to the edge of her mind even as it grew louder. Then a guy burst in and she looked up suprised. She then stood up putting her hair behind her ear. She was wearing a white shirt, blue jeans and sneakers as she liked to be comfortable. "May I help you?" She said as she walked around looking this man over.

 

[Ravenloft]

"Sasha? Just... Sasha... Okay." Trent muttered to himself as he put the book away and scanned the rooms for her name as he strode down the hall. A few people peeked out of their offices at him as he past, but he ignored them all. Finally, he found her door!

He burst in without knocking and stood before her, fixing his suit and tie, trying to look professional. "Yes, I represent..." He thought quickly of a way to describe himself without sounding like a nut. "A special interest group, called the Coalition of Anthropomorphic Liturature, COAL for short! And I would like to speak with you about some of the inconsistencies in your novels. Do you happen to have the time?" He looked at her with his best serious face as he continued to fix his tie.

A security guard came in. "Alright mister..." He began, ready to eject Trent from Sasha's office, reaching for his arm.

 

[Mairu]

Sasha just looked at him blinking. Then a security gaurd came in. "No, stop. I'll take care of this" With that she pushed the security guard out and then walked back to her desk sitting down and waved at the chair on his side of the desk. "Please, sit down and tell me of these "inconsistencies". Sasha chuckled a little, actually a bit angry now. It was one thing to not like her novels, another to make up a corporation just to get her to stop making them. "Oh and just a bit of advice, next time find a better name for your made up corporation. I checked with all of the ones that had anything to do related to my novels and yours, is fake. So if you have nothing better to do then waste your time just trying to get my books off the market, just cause you don't like them, then get THE HELL OUT." By now Sasha's icy temper had gotten out and the room actually almost felt cold as she talked. It always got this way. She fixed him with her magnificent glare that was as cold as her tone and unbeknownst to her, her eyes actually became like a cats, but nothing else.

 

[Ravenloft]

"Whew... Yeah, hit the bricks, Jacko..." Trent added as Sasha forced the security guard out. He was relieved that he didn't have to put the whammy on that guy, it was her he was interested in, not some random, clueless human.

"Well, for starters, no self respecting Werecat would be caught dead in leopard print leotards, even if she WAS a Leopoardess!" He began, picking the least offensive stereotype from her books, before he jumped into the real reason he was there. To warn her away from revealing their REAL secrets to humanity inadvertently, through her novels. She'd come dangerously close by describing not only the Bastet, but several other types of changing breeds in uncomfortable detail.

He paused as she gave him her icy word of advice. He had a look of surprise for only a second before a smirk crossed his lips. "COAL's new, just because you've never heard of it doesn't mean it's fake. We prefer our anonymity, you see. Most people look down on our kind, call us things like Furries, Yiffers, that sort of crap... Surly you, yourself must know how that goes? Take away the ability to change into humans and you're practically writing light bestiality porn for young girls."

Trent leaned back and hung one arm over the back of his seat, hardly affected by her sudden anger. "I never said I didn't like them... Look, relax, take a chill pill, or something... I'm not here to make you stop anything. I want to help you. Don't you ever wonder where your idea's come from? How you can write in such vivid detail about stuff that..." He lifted his hands and did finger quotes. "Doesn't even exist?" He smirked again, shaking his head.

He was half tempted to show her a mirror right then and there, let her see how crazy her eyes were at that moment.

 

[Mairu]

Sasha just got more angry as he insulted her book and she growled a little. Yeah she growled, but it was normal, sometimes people just growl. She didn't like this guy one bit though and was fucking ticked off at his insult. Then she laughed. "To not be heard of even if you aren't fake means 1 or both of 2 things. 1. you aren't important, or 2. you are so small you aren't noticed. Now like I said before and let me make it clear," She stood up now and pointed to the door. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY OFFICE!" She was now seething with anger, having half a notion to shred him to pieces. That suprised her. "Also, I get my fantasy worlds from my dreams thank you very much." She spat that out, her eyes practically glowing, going from their normal blue to a startling gold.

 

[Ravenloft]

"Geez, you really don't know, do you?" Trent was more shocked that she had no idea what she was than by her sudden and violent temper. He knew he could bolt out of there and into the umbra when and if the going got tough. "Maybe we like it that way..." He retorted at her insinuation that his 'organization' was unimportant or simply beneath notice.

Trent remained as cool as ever even when she shouted for him to leave. He was used to this sort of thing. "You know, you're pretty when you're angry." He said with a wide grin. "Alright, alright, I'm going. Relax, would ya? I can tell when my helps not wanted..." He reached into his suit and took out a card. "Here, if you ever feel like getting some more material for your books, come here." All that was on it was DV8 on the front and a physical address and web site on the back.

He got up, fixed his suit again and went to the door. "Dreams, right... Must be some pretty vivid ones..." He replied as he left. He knew he'd see her at the Deviant some day soon, no Bastet could resist the allure of curiosity.

 

[Mairu]

She got a confused look on her face when he said she really didn't know did she. She thought in her mind, what the hell? Then chatised herself, bad kitty like person no curiosity. Her inside person whimpered, but on the outside she was as composed and angry as ever, as he pulled out a card, but she just kept looking at him. She just growled at his comment about her dreams but knew he was right. They even seemed real at times. After he had left and her curiosity got the better of her, she looked at the card, sitting down now. "DV8 huh?"

A few days later she found herself talking to the bouncer and showing him the card. Why was she doing this again? Oh right hwr never satisfied curiosity. After the bouncer guy let her through she walked in and looked around, wondering if that dumb idiot of a guy who had come in would even be here as she sat at the bar, thinking of her latest dream. That had been the freakiest and weirdest one, cause when she woke up, she found herself exactly at the same spot where her dream ended, and she had been naked. She was still freaked out as it had just been last night.

 

[Ravenloft]

Trent was there, partying and having a great time as Eddie Payne and the band's new female singer performed. They were the hottest new thing and all the rage at the moment! After their set he got off the dance floor and made his way through the crowd to the bar. And what do ya know, there she was, that author he'd tried to help out a few days before! He went right over and sat next to her, facing out toward the dance floor. "Come here often?" He asked her casually, ordering a beer.

 

[Mairu]

Sasha listened as the band played, noticing they were a little different. That little voice inside her intervened, kindred, it sayed, they are vampires known as kindred. Sasha shook her head weirded out by this. Then the idiot guy came up to her. "No, but you left a card and with my never satisfied curiosity, I couldn't help it. Sasha was feeling weird again. After meeting that guy things had been changing. It was like seeing him had snapped something awake and not just the little voice in her head was saying things, at time she was saying things out loud and this time something slipped. "Raven." After saying it while looking at it Sasha's eyes widened and she scrambled off. "I'm so sorry, i've not been getting sleep and have been saying weird things, I should go."

With that Sasha ran out, with her best attribute, speed at her side, but something was different, suddenly whe was in a park and in a tree, as a leopard. She whimpered. She was dreaming right, but this time it felt more real then ever and she cried out, but was horrified at how she sounded. She fell out of the tree, but of course landed on all fours and she started panicking. No one was around, but someone could come in at anytime and she didn't know what to do and let out another cry, whimpering at her voice.

 

[Ravenloft]

"Hah! Knew you couldn't resist checking it out." He smiled a self-satisfied smile and blew on his finger nails, rubbing them against his shirt to a nice shiny polish. Trent was mildly surprised when she seemed to recognize his inner beast with one glance. "Nevermore." He whispered back as she scrambled away, making for the door, giving some lame excuse for going. "Hey now... Don't go!" He called out, chasing after her. "You came this far, might as well learn what you came here to learn."

But she bolted out the door. "Damn it!" Trent spat out as he continued to give chase. He ducked into an alley way to change into Corvid form and took to wing to follow her. Even in the dark he could track her from above, with ease. She had changed into full Leopard form in her panic, thankfully it was late at night and only a hand full of people saw her racing through the streets.

Trent found her in Central Park, hiding up in a tree, until she fell out of it that is. He landed and hid in the tree's changing back to his human form and hopped down to confront her again. "Why'd you run away? Don't you know what you are? You must realize by now that your 'dreams' are real... I mean, come on, look at yourself! You can't deny this, right here, right now, you're more than just Sasha, the hot new young adult novelist. You're a child of Gaia and a daughter of Seline! None of the stuff you've been writing about is in your head! Its real, very, very real. Welcome to the world of darkness, m'lady, it's been waiting for you."

 

[Mairu]

Sasha jumped back as idiot guy, what actually was his name again, landed in front of her. Sasha shook her head as he talked and then whined shaking her head frantically. She whimpered and as panic turned into being frightened she shifted into a partial form and looked at her hands, fur over them and claws were her nails used to be and she cried. "I can't be. This is not happening. this can't be happening!" She made a mewling sound at that point and realized she was naked and huddled herself into a makeshift ball. She just couldn't be. This was just a dream. She had very vivid dreams, but what he said couldn't be true. A child of Goddesses? She was a fucking orphan for crying out loud! "Y-you're lying, this is just a dream." Sasha started panicking again and changing, but took deep breaths bringing herself back into partial. She then noticed she couldn't get back to her full human and would need this guy's help. She found she didn't really want to speak like a human either as she looked at him, with frightened eyes and meowed for help.

 

[Ravenloft]

"Oy, you really had no idea, did you?" Trent shook his head as Sasha panicked and tried to deny what she was even while she saw the proof of it with her own eyes. He heard people coming, probably the police responding to reports of a wild animal running free in the streets. "I don't have time to lie, come with me if you want to stay out of the zoo..." He whispered to her as he crouched by her side, running a light hand along her flank to try and sooth her as he reached out with his free hand and clawed at the empty air.

The strangest thing happened, the air split open, like it was made of tissue paper, creating what looked like a tear in the fabric of reality. "Taking you to the umbra, got to get out of here before we get spotted!" He tried to pick her up, but he wasn't quite strong enough in his human form, so he shifted, sprouting feathers, a beak and talons for fingers and toes. He gave picking her up another try and did so with greater ease. "Up we go!" He ran through the opening in space and flapped his wings, trying to take off.

 

[Mairu]

Sasha cat ears flicked a little and she heard the sirens so she held onto him with her furry arms kind of liking how his arms felt. Then she watched as he tore the air open and she just blinked, then her mouth dropped open as he changed and then picked her up running through the opening.

When they were through, she looked around in shock before he tried to take off, at that moment she just clung to him. She did not especially like heights. At least when she wasn't training her body. Another great thing. She was flexible and light on her feet. She could jump snd look like she was floating in the air, landing quite softly. She was good at self-defense because of it. She thought about this as she clung to him, face pressed against him.

 

[Ravenloft]

Trent called over his shoulder to her in mid flight. "I'm going to take you to my little perch, we can talk there. I am sure you have like a million questions, Sasha." He said as he pumped his wings hard and flew through the strange and darkly altered reality of the umbral side of New York City.

Giant spider like beings could be seen crawling along the outside of skyscrapers, weaving the steel and glass into new and oddly beautiful patterns that simply could not exist in the real world that they knew.

He must have been almost a thousand feet in the air when he landed on top of a building and set Sasha down on her feet. "We should stay on this side of the veil for a while, much more private here." He turned and shifted back to his human form and looked her over. "Probably should get you some spirt-bound clothing though... Heheh! Not that I'm complaining, mind you, you look great in your birthday suit!"

"So... Questions? Got any?" He rubbed the back of his neck, he was never that great at this part, laying out the world of the supernatural to noobs. It was much easier to take their questions as they came.

 

[Mairu]

"I have one very odd question. That may come as a suprise. Do you see a little tiny blue transparent creature right beside me, right there?" Sasha suprisingly knew of one that seemed to follow her everywhere and she pointed at it. It had put missing pieces in place about her fantasy world, that and the little cat voice in her mind. She never knew what they were saying was actually real and that they were real as well. She knew that the spider things were weavers. He was a wereraven and she was a bastet werecat, specifically a snow leopard and that this was called the umbra and the transparent thing was a water elemental spirit. When he said about clothes she blushed and hugged her knees to her chest, still mostly like a cat, even having wiskers.

 

[Ravenloft]

"Of course I see it, it's your guardian. Don't know what you did to win it's favor, but it's yours." He watched Sasha grow modest and sink to the ground, trying to hide her nakedness behind her knees. "Oh, don't be so modest, you are beautiful! Come on, get up! I've got some cloths inside you can use until we can go get you some of yours." He offered her a hand, adding. "Unless you like being naked..." He teased.

 

[Mairu]

"I see. Well now I know." Sasha blushed at what he said and stayed put until he offered her a hand. "For your information I am bot beautiful, there are so may girls prettier than me. Like the ones on magazines." She said this as he took her inside covering her breasts with one arm.

 

[Ravenloft]

Trent took a chance and touched Sasha's blushed cheek lightly with the back of his hand. He was a sucker for a pretty face and with those rosy cheeks of hers, she looked gorgeous. Trent just clucked his tongue at her in distance that she wasn't beautiful, citing all those fake glam magazines. "You do realize those pictures are all fake, right? You're a real woman and the only thing you need to learn to become the most beautiful girl in the world it's to be comfortable in your own skin." He said this as he took her to his apartment and lead her in front of a mirror. "Now look..." He stood behind her and gently drew her arm away from her breasts. "He watched her eyes in the mirror and tried to show her what he saw in her.

 

[Mairu]

Sasha quivered as he touched her cheek with the back of his hand. It only served to arouse her and she didn't object to it. She also couldn't object to the magazines being fake. "It still doesn't mean i'm pretty." She was then led to a mirror and blushed more as he took her arm from her breasts and as she saw him behind her she grew more aroused and a tiny mewl of want escaped her and she gasped then looked guiltily at him in the mirror while also trying to look for a place to hide, not wanting to think about how she wanted his fingers in her all of a sudden. What was wrong with her? It was like her arousal had been magnified greatly.

 

[Ravenloft]

"Oh, tut, tut, what you need is some self confidence. See, from where I'm standing, you look like a work of art." Trent replied as he looked her over, noticing the tiny mewling sound she made. He slipped a hand around her and touched the flat of her belly, admiring her nakedness. "Any man would be lucky to have a woman as attractive as you. I mean, just look, you have a pretty face, with almond shaped eyes and a cute, button nose, your lips are full and look very kissable."

He presented each point to her with a gentle touch of his finger tips. "Your neck is slender and your hair is long." He ran the back of his hand along her neck and toyed with a lock of her hair. "Shall I go on?" He asked, one hand on her belly, the other resting on her shoulder, lightly. His eyes smoldered with desire for her.

 

[Mairu]

Sasha almost scoffed as he said she was a work of art not really believing it, but did listen to him. Her breathing got heavier as he went on to point out several things about her, actually making her sound pretty. He also had a hand placed on her belly which made her even more aroused and seemingly her mind started to slip, her body wanting to take over. Her tail even flicked under his face as he asked about going on, like it was saying catch me if you can and at that point her mind was out the door. "Just don't stop touching me, please." With that she made another mewling sound and her tail went and made itself even more noticable. Flicking all around and thumping on his shoulder.

 

[Ravenloft]

Trent smirked hotly at Sasha in the mirror as her tail came up and tickled his chin. "You've got some great natural allure, that's for sure, kitty." He teased, puffing a breath at her tail to keep it at bay. He was tempted to catch it, but he knew that's just what she wanted him to do. Something changed in her voice as she asked him to keep touching her. "Excited, I see..." He whispered in her ear, a little surprised by how quickly she'd changed. "I thought you disliked me..." He couldn't help but tease her, it was in his nature after all.

He watched her eyes in the mirror as he slowly strummed his long fingers across the top of her right breast, then her left. "Oh, but look at these... It's been a long time since I have seen such a nice pair of breasts. I see that the Mother Goddess has definitely blessed you with a magnificent pair. May I caress them?" He asked for permission, leaning in close, resting his head on her shoulder from behind. His hand on her belly pulling her back against his body a little more tightly. His eyes danced with mischief as he playfully strummed his finger tips across the tops of her breasts again.

 

[Mairu]

Sasha was entranced as she watched what was happening in the mirror. Her tail was un happy though and wacked itself across him, before sagging low, going almost lifeless. As he said about her bei g excited she mewled a little, as if to confirm what he said. She was getting whiny though, her body was tired of his teasing and was about to just push him down and take him wether he liked it or not.

He then let his fingers thrum across the top of her breasts and she was getting more and more aggrivated at the teasing touches. "Just caress them! Do it before I lose it!" Her voice was very stressed her body vibrating at how much she was holding back.

 

[Ravenloft]

"My, my, you are quite impatient, aren't you?" He teased her, but relented and covered her rather beautiful breasts with his hands, squeezing them appreciatively. "I've never known a woman who insisted I grope her, at least not until the third date, that is." He seemed to test their weight, then gently pinched and tugged on her right nipple.

"Now, lets see just how responsive these beauties are..." He purred in her ear. He knew he was flirting with danger, stringing her along, only doing just enough to keep her from exploding. His hand moved up and down along her stomach, creeping closer and closer to the tidy little thatch of her silky smooth pubic hair.