Leto was creeping slowly through the bushes on the edge of safety. Her furs were not fitting right anymore. They were tight around her chest and made it difficult to breath. She did not understand why her chest had grown the first time and she didn't know why it seemed to grow again. At least, she didn't understand why it grew faster then her other areas. She had found a lot of food lately and she had not let any of it go to waste. A good food supply meant that she would fill out a little. Unfortunately, she had thrown her old furs, the ones from the last time food had been this plentiful, at an attacking bird to serve as a distraction and now, she only had her smaller furs.

New furs meant that she needed to go into the human town and she needed to pretend to be a human instead of a panther. She did not like walking on two feet with her back straight. She did not like the way some of the humans looked at her. Unfortunately for her, Leto looked more like a human and suffered from their inability to grow real fur. Instead, she had to find some. Occasionally, she could find a big enough leaf to be suitable but usually, she had to go into human territory to do it.

And it always scared her.

Humans were unpredictable and sneaky. Once you thought you knew what they were going to do, they did the exact opposite. It wasn't like when you were fighting a snake, they attacked for food or because they felt like they were in danger. Humans attacked whenever they wanted and sometimes, they seemed to enjoy it. They had attacked the only male who had ever been nice to her and they were shouting and yelling like they had won a fight for mating rights. This Leto just couldn't understand.

She was hoping that she would be able to see the furs from the bushes but she couldn't. She didn't see anyone and snuck into their territory, keeping her head down and sniffing the air. Her lips contorted into a grimace as a small, frustrated panther growl came from her lips. She did not like this but she had to do it. Cautiously, she stepped out of the bush and found one of their paths that they always used. If she kept her head down and kept looking around, she would be able to find something soon. She hoped.

It would have been so easy if it hadn't been for the human pup who came up to her and tugged on her ragged furs. Leto jumped, a frightened bird squawk coming from her before she took a more comfortable position with her front paws on the ground. Leto hissed at the pup, causing the girl to cry out in terror and run away. Leto thought that was a good idea but then people were watching. Her back arched before she returned to the normal human stance.

This was not going to be good.

West had taken his time in getting here. It had been an unpleasant journey, and he wasn't sure how he was going to fit in in a place dominated by genes he simply couldn't immitate. Still, he'd held course across the Realms, and while his bones were growing weary of travelling, his mind raced with possibilities. He'd grown quite accustomed to taking on a new persona as if it were no great hassle, and his inner yearnings had begun to break forth from hibernation. Oh yes, West Sterling was ready for a new lease of life. He was ready to be what he should always have been - free.

It wasn't long before his eyes were drawn to movement in the bushes that ran alongside the path. He looked further down the dusty river he walked on, and his nostrils flared with a familiar scent. Bristling, West took in the pale Jewel, and the familiar caste. How ironic, he thought, for a wayward priest to meet one of his own so soon. With a dark smile, West silently glided forth and waited for the Priestess to emerge. Something, however, felt different to other Priestesses he'd met. This one seemed almost feral. He was about to shrug off the feeling for a first encounter with a Dea al Mon native, when he paused once more, his curiosity piqued. Perhaps he could win over a local before he even reached his destination. Yes, that would be very good for his first impression, being flanked by a resident. He smirked and waited.

West couldn't be sure what surprised him first. The fact it was a child, or the fact it was almost feline. He felt the irritation in the youngster before her eyes passed over him, and West was certain she didn't enjoy seeing people anymore than they enjoyed seeing her. He watched as she straightened her back with effort, and tried to stand normally. He cocked his head as the child's eyes roamed over the few people in the area. He watched as people shook their heads and shuffled away. He stiffened as a woman yelled a curse in the child's direction. He moved forward, seeing the child's hiss, and turned to the onlookers. He disliked the disgust in their faces, and he was to look after his own.

He drew an arm up into a claw and hissed at the youngsters, feral enough to scurry them along. The older members of the crowds tutted and muttered, but West held their eyes a moment longer than they could stand, and slowly, each one of them turned and walked away. He looked down at the child and smiled softly, his eyes taking in her small child-like features, and also, those of a growing woman. She was certainly a little odd, but West had met many odd folk, and he was willing to give the little one the benefit of the doubt.

He crouched down slowly, and huffed out his cheeks, unsure of what to say. His memories of Little Terreille raising the hackles deep within. He growled playfully at the child, and he laughed softly. "Hello, little one," he spoke slowly, "my name is West."

Leto's hackles were rising as more and more people seemed to look at her. She didn't know why they were so interested in her. She wanted to hide back in the bushes and go back to the animals that she could trust. She knew how the animals worked. Humans were dangerous and she knew that the looks they were giving her was a very dangerous one. It meant danger and pain. It meant they were going to go against her. A soft sound escaped her throat like the rustling of the wind, trying to find her calm so that she could think clearly.

Then there was one of the human males coming to her and speaking her way. She tilted her head in confusion, wondering why he was referring to the safety of the den in such a mean way. Why was he even standing there? Why did everyone react to him, even if it was slow? Leto was very confused by him and found her knees bending, waiting for a signal to flee from this vacinity. She could wait a little bit for new furs but only if she could get herself to safety first.

When the man bared his teeth at her, her front paws went back to the ground. She hated when humans bared their teeth. But she was always confused because there never seemed to be anger or worry in their eyes when they did it. Humans didn't make sense. They shouldn't be that way. Why did they bare their teeth if they weren't angry? So Leto bared her teeth back, her lips pulling sharply up to her gums in more of a grimace then a smile. He was lucky though, she didn't growl.

He growled at her again and she jumped back a little. Growls were angry signals and she had done nothing to provoke him. She understood the laughter those as being a purr from her panther mother. They were pleasant sounds but he had just bared his teeth and growled. She couldn't help the almost silent growl that began rolling through her throat.

His words were pleasant, an introduction of sorts. She understood that but she wasn't sure which was the one he was called. Her eyes searched him. He wasn't trying to be mean? He was just too stupid to realize that he was not saying or doing the right things. She crept a little closer to him, sniffing him a little from a distance. There was something very familiar in his scent. It felt like he was the same as her but surely, she was wrong.

Leto inched a little bit closer, putting her head closer to his shoulder and inhaling deeply. He didn't smell bad but he was still a human and couldn't be trusted but Leto needed to know why he smelled like her. She sniffed his neck, huffing out a little before sniffing down his chest until her nose was in his crotch. She huffed out air again as she straightened up. She shook her head, annoyed that she couldn't identify why he smelled like she felt. It was odd.

She tilted her head at him and sat on her haunches. She wasn't sure what to make of him. He growled and spoke in human grunts. He bared his teeth without being angry. "Leto" She said in a very birdlike voice. She wasn't exactly sure what her own voice sounded like anymore. She was much better at sounding like the animals of the forest then sounding like a human. She had to be an animal.

If only she could grow her own furs.

West smirked when the youngster bared her teeth at him. It was sort of endearing, though a little unsettling at the same time. He'd never encountered a child with an identity problem before, and he was curious what had made her this way. His hackles rose as he wondered where the child's parents were, and what part they played in all this. They certainly needed an education if they were unaware she ran around like this.

When he spoke, he watched how she studied him, and for a moment, he felt more like the creature being observed, and he felt a boundary between them that he couldn't seem to bridge. He could communicate with people, and animals, and have no issue at all, but a human who thought themselves an animal, with no clear level of communication? The thought of a child so feral and inhuman scared the shit out of even him.

He tensed ever so slightly, trying desperately to maintain a level of calm, as she leaned forward and sniffed at him. His eyes glanced briefly to his surroundings, to be sure there was no-one to see him in this strange encounter. Nobody that could suddenly yell something vehement about his not-so-virtuous liking for children. Bull or not, West was still haunted by the false words of so many. As the child moved forward, West's heart beat a little faster, and it was a strain not to push the child away and run for the hills.

He closed his eyes tight and forced himself with all his willpower not to move as the child continued her investigation of his scent, not at all unlike a dog would. His balls constricted and threatened never to return when she moved her nose closer, and the seconds it took her to sit back felt like several lifetimes. Relieved, he opened his eyes and smiled at her puzzled face. "Something unpleasant?" He chuckled, though the sound came out more like a raspy purr. He hadn't realised quite how dry his mouth had become.

West's attention was gripped when she opened her mouth and produced a strange, strangled sound. It sounded like "Leto", but he couldn't be sure. He watched her watching him, both as puzzled as one another by the peculiar exchange. "Leto?" he repeated, in a more human manner. He pointed to her slowly, "Leto." He pointed back to himself. "West." He smiled, not showing his teeth this time, but licking his lips slightly. He'd heard somewhere that it put dogs at ease, and while he wasn't certain exactly what animal this child 'was', any help was better than none.

He eyed the clothes she adorned herself in, or rather, furs. They were a little on the tight side, and his darker mind crept in wondering if it was for the benefit of any male she might encounter. He snorted and pushed the thought away. Se was on the cusp of becoming a woman, or at least, adult whatever she believed herself to be, but nowhere near close enough for his interest. He wondered how to ask her questions, how to find out where she was going. "Town?" he ventured, his own eyebrow raised at the hideous comedy of the scene.

He sighed, lowering his head. As he glanced at her, the smae quizzical look on her face, he wondered what she was so puzzled about. The way she had sniffed at him so meticulously... "You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you, Leto?" He rubbed his face and looked down the road. He needed to get his business done, introduce himself to a few people, and yet, he couldn't abandon the girl. Not after seeing how the people reacted to her.

"I am a Priest, do you --" he stopped, and sighed. She probably had no idea of castes and the like. He pointed to her again. "Leto, Priestess. West, Priest." He laughed, a high, uneasy sound. Would she interpret that as him trying to initiate a partnership? No, she could barely pronounce her name, she'd not understand that. He looked around, as if lost, and wandered in a circle, trying to act out the idea. "Dark Altar?" He shook his head. Why hadn't he just carried on walking?

This male human was confusing to Leto. Of course, all humans were confusing but this one wasn't being normal. Having always depended more on smell then look, Leto hadn't even begun to notice what the male looked like. It was that familiar scent that she couldn't get past. She had the vaguest memories of her human parents. They had had a very sweet and warm honey scent to them but this male didn't have that to him. He didn't have the natural scent of the panthers and yet, he still pulled at a memory of her's. It made her crinkle up her face as she waited for it to come to her and he spoke again. She still didn't understand him and she wasn't horribly worried about it. Besides, he now sounded funny, like he was trying to imitate a panther in heat.

She watched his hands move and listened to the words that came out of his mouth. Leto had not heard her name spoken in over a decade and she thought it sounded nice and gave him an approving nod. Again she said her name, her voice a cross now between a bird and a human. Then she moved her lips and tongue as if she were saying his name. She said it quietly, her voice imitating West's inflections only an octave higher then his. She knew how to move her voice around to mimic those of animals and so mimicking the simple human voice was not hard at all. "West." She said one more time, this time at a confident level and smiled. Humans were so easy to be.

Then he, West, said another word and she had no idea what it meant. She did however look at him seriously for the first time. Having always been showed how to use her nose over everything else, Leto had been first wrapped up in his scent and it had been so perplexing that she had not given him a good look. Now though, as he made sounds she didn't understand, she looked at him carefully. He looked as strange as he sounded. His hair and eyes were dark, much closer to the panther's fur then Leto's was. His furs were neat, not like Leto's at all. They looked constricting though and she wondered if he felt like he was being strangled in them. She was sure that she would.

All of a sudden, West was adding words to her name. She tilted her head again, as if he had begun growing horns out of his head. She was not Leto Priestess although the word somehow connected to the scent she had gotten from him. He laughed, obviously uncomfortable and it made Leto slink back a little. She wasn't sure what that meant. Was it dangerous and if it was, who was it dangerous for?

She had once been told by her panther mother that humans could get sick and part of their minds played in the Dark, sacred areas of the forest. As west started moving around and gesturing wildly, she was sure he had this sickness. She had never seen another human do that before. Maybe it was because of his hair that he did this. She wasn't sure what to do and so her lips twitched and she looked around a little.

Finally, she decided that maybe she could get some furs today after all. Enough people had begun to leave her alone and stop watching her. She didn't want to leave this sick male alone though. She stood up straight again and took a few steps closer to him. In some ways, Leto hoped he would come with her because people seemed to leave him alone and she liked that. She put her hands on his shirt and made a quick, light grunting sound then looked down the street towards the town. She should be able to find something in the first few houses. She just wouldn't touch his hair.

Instead, she grabbed his arm and pulled him down the street with another grunt as if to say "Let's go!" She could only hope he would come with. Otherwise, she was going to go back to doing it alone and then they may start looking at her again.

West was about to give up and move on whrn she slinked away from him and it both irked and shamed him. He didn't want her to be afraid, he wanted her to understand, or at least him understand her. He wanted to be sue she was safe, and he couldn't do that while she was trying to find an escape route. He sighed heavily. He'd thought trying to act out being lost would work, but all he saw was a smirk? He sighed once more, and lowered himself to her level, trying to appear less intimidating.

She seemed to look around a little, and West hoped she wasn't going to make a run for it. He didn't know what to say so he waited, pawing at the ground as her curious eyes stayed on him. It was a little creepy, in a way, and West felt like a goldfish in a bowl, being observed by the sneaky cat. It was then that she moved forward, quickly, and startled him. She put her tiny, dirty hands on his chest and grunted. It seemed she wanted him to follow her to town. Maybe he'd found a use for himself after all.

"He hummed to himself as she forcibly dragged him down the street, more as a distraction than anything, but his eyes were cold whenever they fell upon someone with a reproachful stare, and people were quick to turn away. He managed to loosen her pincer-grip on his previously crisp shirt, and continued along the path, oblivious, as he patted out the wrinkles. He tutted and turned back to her, "You might be an --"

He stopped, dead, noticing she was nowhere around. "Leto?" He said, quietly. There were a number of houses around, and he didn't want to call attention to the young girl.

"Leto?" He hisses this time, concern creeping into his voice. Where could she have gone? And why? He started retracing his steps when movement caught his eye toward the opposite side of the path. He spun around and probed and felt the hint of Yellow hiding in shrubbery. He would have walked over but the peculiar grunts and such along with the movement of the bush put him off, so he stayed a safe distance away but craned his neck trying to see.

"Leto?" He hissed, once more. The bush stopped grunting and chuffing. A small, muddy face popped up over the top of the bush, befoer the young thing jumped out on all fours, effectively giving him a twril of her new attire. She'd found some fur, which didn't exactly cover up the important bits, but left a little more to the imagination than the last set. "I don't even want to know where you got them from, do I?" he mumbled, glancing at the house behind them. "Now, you've got yours, what about me?" He rubed his face, wondering if she could see things that he sent to her. He wanted to know who cared for her, but as he didn't know what her mother looked like, he couldn't show her that.

He figured trying to show her home would alarm her, and he settled for heading into the woodland that flanked the houses on the street. He sent her an image of where he was going, with him stood by it. He showed her drawing a pawprint in the dirt by the door of the inn he'd be staying at, and with a heavy heart, he turned away.

"You can find me if you want to, Priestess, but if not, it was a pleasure." He smiled, and bowed, a curious thought of her coming along with him crossing his mind. Too late he realised he'd sent the image to her, and with a sad sigh and a wry smile, he walked out of the trees and back onto the path.