Rules Schmules

Kyrii

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Katarina had never been one to follow the rules, which was why she found herself standing at the edge of the apparently-forbidden forest. One thing that the school made very clear was that nobody was to enter the forbidden forest. That's why it was called the "forbidden forest" in the first place. It was forbidden. Duh. That was why she came here. To break the rules.

Her boots crunched in the leaves as she stalked along the edge of the thicket. Dressed in (rather short) jean shorts and a camo crop-top, her sleek black tail swished and her ears flicked around to pick up distant sounds as she paced back and forth, searching the trees for signs of movement. There were supposed to be monsters in there. She'd never seen any, though. They must live deeper in. Kat had only dared to venture along the edges of the densely wooded area. Today, she would go deeper, to see just what was lurking in those shadows.

Feeling a surge of adrenaline, Kat couldn't keep herself from smiling wickedly as she took a few steps into the forest. It was darker here, but her feline-powered eyes adjusted easily to the low lighting. She looked up, observing how the trees knit together to form a thick barrier of leaves and moss that kept out the sun from this area. It may have been in the middle of the day, but out here, it looked like night was falling. She moved deeper in, her heart pounding with the thrill of doing something she wasn't supposed to do. Her bright blue eyes glowed faintly as they took in whatever light was available to help her peer through the darkening woods.

Tags;; @Romi
 

Romi

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Technically speaking, the forbidden forest wasn't illegal to enter. It was just forbidden. It was the sort of thing where if you were caught there without a reason, you'd be escorted right on out, and if you were a student, you'd be looking at a lot of detention. While vandalism of the forest itself was a concern, student safety was far more important. The forest was dangerous, filled with things not sentient enough to be considered citizens of the island, but still worthy of continued existence.

Well, according to the island. If Zveris had any say, he'd have cleared out the forest of anything truly dangerous a long time ago.

Zveris wasn't all that far behind Katarina, patrolling the edge of where the forest bordered the school's land. It was an easy enough shift--make sure no kids had gone in--and one well suited to his own particular talents. His senses easily matched that of a wolf, and while that wouldn't get him far in the mess of smells in the city, this close to the woods it was easier to handle.

Easier to pick up something that didn't fit, the smell of a person--a cat?--no, a person--heading into the woods.

Zveris let out an involuntarily growl and started to follow the trail, heading into the woods hot on the trail of the idiot student who'd decided to go sneaking around.

 

Kyrii

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Kat's sensitive ears picked up a growl from somewhere...she flattened herself against a nearby tree, but the sound didn't happen again. She could hear footsteps coming from the same direction. A monster? Or one of the school's staff, coming after her after she'd slipped beyond the boundaries of where she should have been? Probably the latter. Monsters weren't real...right? Eh. Since she'd come to this island, she'd started to believe that just about anything was real at this point. Kat wondered briefly if that was the real reason as to why students weren't supposed to wander in here. Or maybe...they were just being joy-killers.

She weaved through the trees quietly until she found one with relatively low and sturdy branches. Kat jumped a little and caught the lowest branch with her hands, pulling herself up with acrobatic ease. She wanted to see how far in she'd gotten. Kat climbed with all the agility of her feline counterpart, her tail providing extra balance for the act. The further up she went, the thinner the branches got...she still hadn't broken through the canopy, though.

The tree creaked a little under her weight. It would hold. She kept going. She was reaching for the next branch when the one under her feet snapped. Kat shrieked involuntarily from surprise and grabbed wildly at something - anything - to try to break her fall as she plummeted from the tree towards the ground.​
 

Romi

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Students, as far as Zveris was concerned, were idiots. Not all of them were children--some were legal adults--but they were all children in his eyes, far younger then him almost exclusively. They did foolish things and followed foolish paths, whether literally or metaphorically, and the deeper Zveris got into the woods, the more convinced he became that he was following a student.

A student and a cat, if his nose was right. Or a student who was a cat.

Zveris was perilously close to caught up--the smell strong in his nostrils--when there was a sudden scream.

Fantastic.

Incorrectly assuming that the student was being attacked, Zveris shot forward, his head snapping up at the danger coming from above. Not danger--just someone falling--but he had only a few fractions of a second to figure things out, throwing his arms out to catch the figure on sheer instinct.

 

Kyrii

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Kat twisted in the air, catching limbs with her hands to slow her fall, but finding that she was unable to cling to any of them for long enough to stop gravity from pulling her downwards. She saw someone appear below her and shifted to land into their outstretched arms, managing to catch a low branch and swing down in a more controlled fashion.

"Oof," she huffed as she landed in the redheaded male's arms. She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "Good catch," she offered. If he hadn't been around, she'd have had a pretty hard landing. She looked at the clothes he was wearing and sighed, "Ah, shit. You're one of the staff, aren't you?"
 

Romi

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A cat. No. Despite what his nose said (which was a whole lot of 'it's a cat!') the person in his arms wasn't a cat. They were just some kind of cat-person. A cat person who made his nose twitch, the scent of cat strong.

"Aren't cats supposed to land on their feet?" Zveris said, effectively dumping the girl out of his arms. If she was fast, she could certainly land on her feet, but if she was expecting him to hold her, she was going to end up on her ass.

"Yes, and you're in the forbidden forest."

 

Kyrii

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Kat hopped down to her feet as the male's arms dropped away from her body, her tail flicking in the air as she found her balance on the rough ground. She groaned quietly with annoyance at the fact that he was pointing out her breaking of the school's rules. She held out her wrists in mock drama, "Go ahead, cuff me and take me in, copper," she told him with a forlorn look of defeat, dripping with sarcasm.

"You know, not being able to come in here is a dumb rule," she told him, raising an eyebrow. "I haven't seen anything dangerous in here, aside from a few bunny rabbits, and last time I checked those are pretty much harmless." She huffed again, not really caring if she got in trouble at this point. This wasn't the first time she'd been in places she wasn't supposed to go, but this was the first time she'd actually been caught. She doubted that the consequences would be terribly severe.​
 

Romi

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Zveris gave the girl a look of pure annoyance as she held out her wrists, annoyed by bother her attitude and her stupidity.

"The forest is littered with monsters. The deeper you go, the more dangerous it gets. In many cases, you wouldn't even see them. You'd simply die, oblivious to the danger you were in. It's happened before, and the only reason you don't hear about it more is because the forbidden forest is off limits."

Zveris's tone was stern, to say the least. This was one of those situations he didn't like compromising over, because the rule was there for a very good reason. People would die without it.

 

Kyrii

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Kat returned her arms to her sides and sighed, deciding to just submit before she got herself into more trouble. "Got it. Sorry. I'm curious by nature, though I suppose that's my only excuse and it's not really a very good one," she said, offering a helpless shrug.

The underbrush rustled nearby and Kat's ears twitched. She turned her head to see a pair of big yellow eyes staring back at her from the darkness between a tree and a bush. Her immediate reaction was to flex her knees, getting lower to the ground and preparing to either attack or bolt. She hissed quietly, her tail swishing in anticipation. "I don't think we're alone anymore," she muttered, scenting the air. She didn't recognize the smell, but it was...something not good."​
 

Romi

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It wasn't a very good answer, and Zveris's grunt of annoyance no doubt made it clear just how he felt about her excuse. He wasn't big on lectures--didn't really see the point--so he was perfectly happy to march her right back to the school... until something moved nearby.

The smell was wrong--earthy and natural--and not an animal, and Zveris immediately recognized the signs. This was one of those situations were explanations were secondary to ensuring a student didn't end up seriously injured or killed, so Zveris didn't stop to catch her up. Instead, he lunged forward, tossing Kat over his shoulder and charging in the other direction, back towards the school.

The sound was brief behind them, something lashing out to reach them, but Zveris was fast, covering ground in record time as he zipped along, entirely unhindered by Kat's light weight.

They were very nearly out of the forest when Zveris screeched to a halt, dumping Kat to the ground with no warning.

"That was chokevine."

 
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