Tiger, Tiger; Burning Bright }{ tag;; Alice

[Artemis Havelock]

Artemis sighed, wandering around the forest. Her landlady had encouraged her to go see more of Britain, the country she was currently "on an extended visit" in. Perhaps the elderly woman (who seemed like a relic from the Victorian era, as far as Artemis was concerned) could sense her loneliness. The woman had gone so far as to gently encourage Arty to leave the house for something other than work or grocery shopping with countless pamphlets and brochures, which reeked of the tourist trade. Upon receiving the brightly colored documents rent with photographs, the Georgia peach had thanked the woman kindly, and then inwardly groaned.

She echoed that groan again, although out loud. The bus ride had been a long one, about an hour and a half; and so she needed to stretch her legs. Still, the forest surrounding her was beautiful. Although the American kept to the trail of the park, it was mighty tempting to wander off the beaten path. However, common sense told her better, despite the fact that she rarely listened to it. At least no one would give her a funny look, although they'd probably realize that she was a tourist once she started speaking. Despite her British heritage, Arty felt completely out of place in her "home" country.

The girl began humming to herself, a nervous habit that she rarely noticed. Oddly enough, she was humming a general bluegrass tune, as though rebelling against the lack of country music here. However, despite her homesickness, Arty had to admit that the British countryside was breathtaking. Hopefully she wouldn't run into a cow or something, as she had heard that some of the farmers were allowed to turn their livestock out into the forest. As she strode about and admired the scenery, the unwitting elemental couldn't help feeling that she was somehow being watched.

This continued on for some time, until the redhead lost her patience. Turning to glance over her shoulder, she called out calmly, with a hint of an American Southern drawl, "Alright, who's there?" If she didn't receive a reply, she'd feel rather foolish. However, some sort of instinct was telling her that there was definitely some sort of other presence there.

[cyddles]

Alice had been following the newcomer's tracks but dove off the path to the safety of the trees. She still watched however with her catlike eyes with fascination. She had become a people watcher among the forest and rarely caught her food among humans surprisingly. She preferred rodents and edible herbs. Leaves embedded her hair from her recent nap with the forest's blanket. She walked undetected, or so she thought, many feet away from the stranger and mimicked her moves for fun. In truth, she was a playful creature with the occasional boredom that came with living alone.

The human stopped and so did she. Alice had no knowledge of this human's abilities, if she had any. When the woman spoke, her voice carried a biazarre accent and left Alice curious to her origin. But the werecat's mouth dipped down at its corners slightly at this human's intuition. She was not an average human to be able to detect Alice's presence, or maybe she was just jumping to conclusions and it was a lucky guess.

Should she allow the human to pursue her initial instinct and explore the woods? Her woods? Alice decided she deserved a little entertainment along with protecting the creatures here and developed an illusion in her mind. She had transformed into her orange and white striped tiger form by then but the illusion she created enhanced her eyes with a hypnotizing shimmer of many swirling colors.

She stalked forward past the trees, slowly to add to this dramatic moment, and came into the human's view. Her form appeared from a great distance but enough so the stranger could see her. She halted by the patch of trees that touched the path and growled once.

[Artemis Havelock]

As the sounds of the padding of feet and the crunch of leaves grew closer, Artemis couldn't believe what she saw. As far as she knew there weren't any zoos around the area, and she hadn't heard about any escaped tigers. However, it was possible that the bus driver hadn't been on the correct radio station. Still, it seemed as though news of an escaped tiger would have been broadcast across all of the news networks. However, this particular train of thought halted once Arty caught a glimpse of the tiger's eyes. Instead of a normal green-gold feline hue, there was a myriad of shimmering colors contained within the large cat's irises instead. That was no ordinary tiger, Arty'd eat her hat if it was.

The elemental tilted her head slightly and murmured softly, mainly to herself. "Well, don't that beat at all. Not somethin' ya see everyday." Although the tiger was certainly very surprising, panicking and screaming would not be the best way to act. Panicking simply made one's reasoning sloppy. And, if the Georgia peach's suspicions about the ordinariness of that tiger proved correct, she'd be making a damn fool of herself by screaming and running around. Instead, the girl simply crossed her arms over her chest and stood her ground. If the "tiger" decided to charge her, the elemental could simply teleport to safety.

The elemental grew tired of waiting, as she was not entirely patient. Raising an eyebrow, she addressed the creature directly, "Havin' a go at me, are ya?" As silly as it felt talking to the tiger, the American did it anyway. She wondered if the creature was an illusion, or someone. As one of her parents' elemental friends had so kindly explained her heritage to her; the existence of werecritters, vampyres, and dhampyres along with the existence of supernatural powers, was not foreign to her. Although it was, in her own words, "hella weird."

Her attention turned back to the tiger, the elemental waited for a reaction of some sort.