Finding America [Sahoni/open]

[Aiko]

Big trees, rivers, and lots of animals. This was how Sahoni had described America, the land from which he hailed. In that case, it must be a forest of some kind. Aiko had traveled through lots of forests, so the idea was that she had to find the right one, and Sahoni would be home. After the rain had stopped, and Aiko had gotten a full sleep, she had gotten this wonderful idea. In fact, she knew a forest right near by. Maybe it was America! Well, Aiko didn’t know what it was called. The girl had just told Sahoni to follow her, and she had scrambled out of the cave, excited by the prospect of maybe, just maybe, being really helpful.

The sun, which was hovering at its apex in a sky that held only faint white wisps of cloud, had dried most of the rainwater left over by the recent storm. In the shade of the trees, though, the ground was still soggy and squishy underfoot. Aiko had abandoned her clogs in favor of walking around barefoot, and she could feel, as she jogged into the forest, the ground squish between her small, already-dirty toes. Giggling, she hurried over to a puddle that had gathered beneath a thick-trunked tree and hopped in, splashing herself and soaking her pants. With the rain had gone her tears and her depression. Now her face was flushed in excitement as she skipped around between tree trunks, humming a merry though tuneless song to herself.

After a little good-natured frolicking, Aiko ran lightly over the springy, earthy forest floor to where she had left Sahoni. [pink]“Come on, come on!”[/pink] she urged him, grabbing for his hand. [pink]“This way!”[/pink] And she tried to tug him into the forest with her.

[sahoni]

Sahoni smirked slightly and giggles being jerked along. "Alright alright, I'm coming I'm coming." he giggled more
"Where you taking me?" he asked and blushed in shyness.
"I hope it has food, heehee."

[Aiko]

[pink]“You’ll see!”[/pink] and a giggle was Aiko’s reply to Sahoni’s question. The small girl was feeling giddy anyhow, and the older boy’s laughter served to make her feel even more so. Instead of saying any more on the subject of “where,” the young teen began babbling about food. [pink]“Well, I don’t know how to hunt, even though there are lots of animals where we’re going,”[/pink] she said, putting a special emphasis on the word “animals.” [pink]“I know how to gather mushrooms, though. And berries! I know what kind of berries make you sick and what kind of berries don’t, because one time I ate the ones that make you sick, and that wasn’t very fun. A little fox demon came and helped me, though. He was very nice!”[/pink]

During the time it took for Aiko to relate her story, she had tugged Sahoni into the undergrowth. It must have looked rather interesting to the little animals that scurried around, one who looked like a little girl towing a short but clearly older boy. Letting go of Sahoni’s hand, the girl skipped forward, where a winter blowdown was lying in a small space between the trees. She hopped up on it, holding her skinny arms out for balance, and turned to face the boy. [pink]“Does any of this look familiar?”[/pink] she asked earnestly. Had she found America?

[sahoni]

"Not really." he said with a sigh. "It's pretty though."
Did she say Demon?! he though in the back of his mind. He hopped up on an exposed root. whipping the hair from his eyes. "Lucky for you I can track." he giggled

[Aiko]

[pink]“Oh,”[/pink] Aiko said, dropping her arms, as she frowned. Her face was thoughtful for a moment before she said, [pink]“So I guess this isn’t America.”[/pink] No matter. She brightened almost instantly and hopped lightly off the fallen log. Her toes squished into a particularly damp spot on the soil, and she giggled at the squelching sound her feet made. She wiggled her toes, feeling the cold, waterlogged earth move beneath them, before she wandered over to Sahoni, who was standing on a root.

When she reached him, she head to crane her neck to look up at him, her warm brown eyes large. [pink]“What does that have anything to do with anything? Tracking?”[/pink] she asked him, blinking like an owl caught in the sunlight. Without waiting to be invited, Aiko clamored up onto the root next to Sahoni. The root wasn’t a level surface, and the girl was standing on a higher part than the boy, but she still had to tilt her head upwards to look him in the face.

Aiko stood up on her tip-toes to see if she could be as tall as him, but lost her balance. She swayed and fell forward, crashing into him. Quickly, she pushed herself away from him and hopped off the root. [pink]“I’m sorry!”[/pink] she squeaked, upset that her playfulness had made her behave rudely. She’d fallen right into her honored traveling companion! She hoped he wasn’t too upset with her.

[sahoni]

Sahoni yelled in shock. He flailed in desperation to keep his balance. The root was at least 9 on the other side, the rain must have washed it out. feet of the ground. if he fell from this height on his head, which he would at this trajectory, he'd surely die.
"Oh crap!" he screamed.
Time seemed to slow. It slowed to a point of an aching crawl.
No worries pup. Embrace your bloodline. a voice echoed in his head.
A blue light swirled around him and he was soon replaced by a 9'6" bipedal wolf with blue grey fur covering most of his body. his Chest, limbs (including tail and ears) and a waxing crescent moon on his head were white. His fingers and toes ended in razor sharp whit claws and his teeth like daggers.
"What the-"
The boy...thing, hit his head with a slight 'bonk' got up, looked at his hands...erm, paws, pawnds? (OOC: sorry been watch ALOT of Psych recently) and feinted... not from any injury... more of shock.
"I'm fuzzy..." he said loopily before blacking out.

[Aiko]

Aiko started with shock as Sahoni started to flail. Had she unbalanced him? She trotted over, wanting to help, when there was a flash. Blue light seared into the girl’s vision, temporarily blinding her to everything but the brilliantly blazing color. She stumbled back with a squeak, clutching her eyes and willing the color that swamped her gaze to fade. As she pulled her hands away, blinking, she began to discern shapes in front of her, though everything was still tinged a shade of blue from the aftereffects of the flash. But as colors swirled back into her sight, she saw… a dog?

A giant of a dog hulked atop the tree root where Sahoni had stood only moments before, its claws and teeth sharply defined against soft bluish fur. Aiko gaped at the canine just as the canine gaped at its paws. It was then that she realized that the dog had spoken. [pink]“Sahoni?”[/pink] Aiko wondered, stepping towards the dog. Just then, the canine wobbled and tipped over, crashing heavily to the ground. [pink]“Sahoni!”[/pink] the girl cried again, hurrying to his side in time to hear him utter his final words before he drifted off.

With a sigh and a shake of her head, Aiko wondered, [pink]“Oh, Sahoni, what happened to you?”[/pink] Rocking back on her heels, thinking, she frowned. [pink]“This was not how I wanted the quest for America to turn out. But you are Sahoni, right?”[/pink] she asked the unconscious canine. [pink]“You gotta be, it’s the only thing that makes sense. Wish you woulda told me that you were a demon or whatever, though. Not magical. Hmph!”[/pink]

After a moment of deliberating, the girl sighed and crouched by the big dog’s side. Barely realizing what she was doing, she reached over and stroked the soft fur around the base of Sahoni’s ear. [pink]“You’re awful soft, though,”[/pink] Aiko said, her lips quirking up as she smiled. Despite the strange and unexpected transformation of her latest traveling buddy, she was still in a very good mood that day. She giggled quietly to herself as she subconsciously played with Sahoni’s ears as she sat back, looking up at the forest’s canopy. The boy-dog’s ears were soft and velvety beneath the girl’s fingers, and she couldn’t help touching them.

[sahoni]

The wolf-boy yips and awoke to the human girl rubbing the white tips of ears.
He mumbled nonsensical words as his thoughts and vision came into focus.
He blinked and barked softly.
"What is going on?" he asked aloud.
He whimpered meekly, "I'm scared. I wanna go home! Why am I a wolf?" he yips. he bristled his fur in fear, making him look like a palmeranian.
"Rururu..." he said fearfully.

[Aiko]

Aiko blinked, coming out of a reverie, as Sahoni regained consciousness. She realized that she was still rubbing the velvety tips of his ears between her fingers, and, a little reluctantly, she withdrew her hand. Her light brown eyes regarded him, first with curiosity and then with pity, as the dog-boy’s uncertainty and fear became apparent. Or perhaps he was a wolf-boy. Aiko could never rightly tell the difference between the two; they were all doggies to her. Trying to be reassuring, she smiled at the wolf-boy and stroked the soft, fuzzy top of his head.

[pink]“Don’t be scared,”[/pink] she crooned softly. [pink] “There’s nothing to be scared of. See? Everything’s okay.” [/pink] There weren’t any unfriendly enemies around, or anything really to cause fear. Aiko couldn’t completely understand why Sahoni was so obviously upset. Still stroking the top of his head, she continued to murmur, [pink]“It’s okay. You’re okay. Don’t be upset.” [/pink] After a moment, she stopped patting him and stood, bending over to offer him her hand.

[pink]“Don’t know why you’re a wolf, but it’s not too much of a problem, is it?”[/pink] she said assuredly. [pink]“Demons do this kind of thing all the time, don’t they? Though you might have told me you were a demon. I thought you were a human!” [/pink] She laughed then, thinking back on the absurdity of her assumption. She should never just assume things about people!

[sahoni]

Sahoni whimpered with an urgency.
I didn't know! I'm not a demon! W-W-What's going on? He tried to say. what came out were a mixture of barks and growls. blinking he got an idea, With a claw he scratched in to the dirt:
What's happened to me?
I'm not a demon though!
I don't even believe in them.
I'm scared.
Help!

[Aiko]

Sahoni didn’t even seem to notice that Aiko was offering him her hand. Frowning, the girl let her arm drop to dangle by her sides as she stared thoughtfully down at the wolf-boy. A little frown puckered her lips, and she narrowed her eyes in scrutiny. Sahoni was preoccupied with something, wasn’t he? She watched him scratch patterned lines in the dirt, lines that rung a little bell of familiarity in the back of the girl’s mind but had no meaning themselves. Aiko’s face loosened as she huffed out a little breath, shaking her head with good-natured exasperation.

[pink]“Come on, Sahoni-san!”[/pink] she encouraged him, bending down farther and grabbing his busy hand in both of hers. She marveled at the fur that prickled against her sensitive palms for a moment, wondering at how her hands together couldn’t totally cover the wolf-boy’s. When she realized she was staring, Aiko quickly switched her eyes to the boy’s face, smiling encouragingly. [pink]“Don’t scratch in the dirt, you’ll get dirt under your nails! Or will you?” [/pink]

Distracted, Aiko knelt by the wolf-boy’s side, tucking her knees daintily under herself, and gently turned Sahoni’s fuzzy hand over in hers. She ran a small finger along the outside of one claw, gazing at it with innocent curiosity.

[sahoni]

Sahoni Blinked and barked in acknowledged her.
I should of realized, he thought village girl, feudal era?
He sniffed her and picked her up on his shoulders.
"Ruff!" he barked wagging his tail.

[Aiko]

[ooc: As always, if I misunderstood something, just let me know. ^_^]

There was a damp, breathy snuffling, and Aiko glanced up from her preoccupation with Sahoni’s claw to see the wolf-boy sniffing her. Suddenly, she felt herself being scooped up. She gasped, then laughed at the feeling of weightlessness, because somebody else was supporting her petite, frail body. Quite suddenly, she found herself clinging to Sahoni’s shoulders without a clear idea of how she got there. The girl wobbled, but she found that Sahoni was strong enough to support her. She giggled, exhilarated, at what she saw—or rather, at what she couldn’t see. Normally, she was close enough to the ground that she could clearly see pebbles scattered around on the earth. But up here, the rocks all blurred into a mass of color.

Or maybe she was just dizzy. Dizzy or not, she felt giddy, and she couldn’t stop giggling.

When her sides started to ache, Aiko gasped out a few words. [pink]“Wow,”[/pink] she breathed. [pink]“It’s like being up in a tree, except you’re all hairy!”[/pink] She giggled again, quite breathlessly. With one small hand, the girl reached up to touch the soft place at the base of Sahoni’s ear. [pink] “This is neat!”[/pink]

[sahoni]

Sahoni's tail wagged kicking up some dirt. As he started to run a flash happened again in midauir reverting him to human. With an sharp "EP!" and explictive in English he skidded in the dirt. He used his own body to shield Aiko as he grunted and got the wind knocked out of him. ((OOC: Sorry out of practice! Will get better and more detailed))

[Aiko]

Aiko was entertaining herself with Sahoni’s ears again when the wolf-boy’s hairy body lurched beneath her. With a squeak of surprise, the girl squeezed her arms around his neck. With bouncing, shuddering steps, Aiko perceived that Sahoni was starting to jog. Fresh leaf-scented air whisked past the girl’s face and lifted her tangled hair, and she giggled. She didn’t know what the boy had seemed so upset about. This was fun stuff!

Then there was that bright flash again. Aiko squealed as her eyes were attacked by the bright light, and she ducked her head down behind the boy’s. Sahoni yelled something, followed by a jarring jerk that shook the girl all through her body. Raising her head and blinking, she first realized that Sahoni must have fallen down, and she peered around at her once-again-altered perspective. Secondly, she realized that his shoulders weren’t soft and furry anymore. They were smooth and skin-ish, like normal human shoulders. Looking back down at the boy, she saw that he was, indeed, a boy again, and not a wolf at all.

She didn’t understand any of this silliness, but boy, had it been fun! Aiko started to giggle again, still laying against Sahoni’s back, and let her cheek rest against the back of his neck. It was a moment before she realized that maybe he was hurt.

[pink]“Uh-oh! Are you okay?”[/pink] she chirruped, her voice immediately sounding appropriately concerned. She rolled off his back and into the dirt, peering at him when she paused on her side.

[ooc: That's fine.]