Grouchy Wandering (Dal)

Yun was feeling pretty good. He'd driven off a few kids who had wanted to pat the widdle kitty, about half of them crying but only one even singed, and he hadn't had anyone close important doors on him yet. It still bothered him that he couldn't open most doors, but it wasn't as if he were so unfamiliar with this form that he couldn't make it work a lot of the time. Automatic sensors, handicap push-buttons, lever-handled doors... He might look like a cat, but that hardly meant he was limited to what cats did.

He could also do some things like a cat. Like explore, and make people run away from him. Well, maybe that was more of a dragon thing. Whatever. He was both. And more. Even if he couldn't prove it very well right now. That didn't change what he was. His nature wasn't defined by his appearance, and damn right he was going to keep telling himself that.

Whatever. He was exploring, and he hadn't even found enough dust to risk setting himself on fire yet. He was still in a hallway dotted with classrooms and offices and whatnot, though he was fairly sure it wasn't a hallway he was going to have any classes in any time soon. Not much point in studying magic he couldn't use.

Maybe he should just set something on fire to distract himself. It was always so easy to pass it off as an accident.

@"Dalamadur"

Yun was kind of keeping an eye out for anyone following him, just out of basic paranoia and well-earned suspicion regarding ulterior motives, but it took him a while to notice, and then accept, that he kept seeing the same person. And that he wasn't just going in circles.

And, of course, when he decided what to do about it he couldn't find the red-cloaked stranger anymore. Well. Everyone here was a stranger. Yun wasn't particularly keen on changing that either. He just wanted to fix himself and vanish. Be free somewhere. Maybe go hunt down that idiot and see how he liked having an angry dragon stomp his idiot face.

RED CLOAK. Yun slunk into full stealthy stalking mode, letting his black fur blend into the shadows while the fire of his tail hid behind his body. He would follow the following stranger for a while. Perhaps he would get some clues, like whether it was random, he was a creeper, he could detect the curse on Yun and wanted to take advantage of it, he had been sent by the idiot...

There were a lot of really bad things this guy could be. Yun was probably going to have to set him on fire.

Any poise and calm Yun had instantly vanished, replaced by a ridge of raised fur along his spine, ears flat against his skull, and a rather impressive show of orange sparks from his tail, had he happened to want to say so himself. He had other things to say. Well, spit. Amongst an unhealthy dose of growls.

"I am not lost, am definitely not lost from a master" -spit, disgusting word - "and am not a $%^&ing familiar." Sore spot much. His reaction was also quite excessive just for some student who was regularly mistaken for a familiar, but then his background explained that pretty solidly. "And don't get any $%^&ing ideas either. I'm not interested in being anyone's $%^&ing familiar."

Yun kept a very suspicious eye on the mage. He couldn't be sure that the pleasant, polite words weren't a simple ruse, intended to get him to lower his guard and then - BAM - into a fireproofed bag went the kitty cat, to get fitted with a collar to go with his shiny curse.

He wasn't inclined to be unnecessarily rude, though, just to protect himself. He let his fur settled down and forced himself to take a deep breath. Calm. Collected. In control. Like he was about to go to work and the mage was just a mutilated near-corpse.

"Because I'm a shifter," he said, teeth still a bit set even after all his efforts to calm himself. At least his tail didn't appear to be spitting sparks anymore. "People consider me that because someone thought it would be a good idea to try to force me to be one. Now I'm stuck... and his face is probably pretty useless."

That part of the whole chaotic trauma could at least bring the ghost of a smile to his feline face. He'd mauled him pretty damn good. "I'm Yun," he grudgingly admitted. If this Orais guy didn't give him a full name, then he would return the lack of favour.

Yun would still be a fire hazard in his 'human' form, but the limitations of that shift were honestly kind of hazy. It had been so very, very long since he'd last walked on two legs... and not just fallen over because he was trying to do it in the wrong form.

He leaned back when Orais crouched in front of him, but it proved to be just for a handshake. Of sorts. He grimaced but extended a paw. The mage's next words caught his attention, though. With a mixture of suspicion and excitement, but still.

"I suppose I could consider talking with you," he allowed. "In a fully public place." Let his suspicion be open. It might keep Orais from trying anything annoying or stupid.