That Deep Thrum ||OPEN||

[Deleted]

The cliffs were dangerous, after all she was built for dense forest, not the mountains, but she had to get a way, just for a little while. Her black pelt rolled and shifted over her muscles as she carefully picked her way through the dense, rocky terrain. A single misstep could send her hurling to her doom. It was best not to dwell on those thoughts, she wryly reminded herself and she crouched down, trying to avoid being swept away by the huge gust of wind that caught at her. She blinked her grey green eyes, glancing around for a safe spot as the wind tore at her pelt.

It took a few minutes for her to find a safe place to settle down safely without fear of being swept off by the ever present wind. She curled in on herself, her tail brushing gently against her neck. She plopped her big, black head down on her front paws with a huge sigh. It was nice, sitting out here by herself without anyone bothering her. She was happy with her place in the Carna, well as happy as she could ever be in this godforsaken place, but people got on her nerves and she needed time away from everyone, even for an hour or so.

She yawned, widely, and allowed her eyes to drift closed. She enjoyed times like this, times when she was just the jaguar. Of course, she was out of place in the mountainous terrain, but she wasn't as out of place as when she was Harlequin St. Claire, the half Cherokee girl with the French name that the other kids ignored. Here, she fit in, somewhat, and was able to do something right. She opened one grey green eye and lazily watched a mouse scamper by her big paw. She contemplated scoping the thing up and ending it with a bite, but allowed it to scamper off.

She could feel the sun beaming down onto her black pelt as she sighed heavily. A few moments later she was content enough for the low thrum to start in her chest. She purred heavily with each exhaled breath.

[zackthorne]

zack.

Small canine paws padded freely over the hard ground. A pointed, agile nose poised at the air, scenting, testing. The cold bite of strong wind seemed to want to blow him over, but only ruffled his midnight-dark fur. Sharp yellow eyes sought over his surroundings. Cliffs towered around him as he made his way forward, and he felt desperate to get away from this overbearing wind. It was too strong for his liking - much too strong. So, with this, he wandered closer to the faces of the cliffs, trying to make them act as a windbreaker. But it was just his luck that the wind was blowing the opposite direction, he supposed.

It wasn't often that Zack Thorne made his way out of the center of CarnaRing territory, he preferred to feel somewhat safe. Although this place wasn't a brilliant place to feel safe, he grunted as he thought this, stepping up onto a higher platform of rock. The cold grey of the surface of them made him feel even colder, a chill creeping down his spine. With a quick shake of his head, feeling his pointed ears move with him, the black fox made his way further into the unknown.

He finally saw a dip in the rock that he could use as a shelter, and, with a new hope blazing in his mind, set his pace even faster, so that he was running against the strong wind. When he arrived there though, he realised that there was a slight detail he had failed to take into account when he had saw this dip in the rock from a distance. This place appeared to already be taken, by a large black jaguar. He considered turning around straight away and running before he was made into dinner, but then realised that this was a shifter as he caught the scent of his own Ring on the ever strengthening wind.

This seemed to be the only place in sight where the wind didn't reach. Zack was so tired from wandering aimlessly in his fox form that he needed to rest, and didn't fancy walking much longer without lying down for a while. The wind was also battering him, and he was cold to the core. Would this fellow Carna mind if he took refuge in the dip? He didn't have to lie near her, he thought, as he crept nearer to the dip. Deciding that he couldn't walk any further, he settled himself right on the edge of the dip, not too near the jaguar shifter but so he was out of the way of the wind.

Watching the jaguar with amber-yellow eyes somewhat warily, the fox lay down, tail curling around his body so much that he could see the white tip on it. He hoped the other shifter wouldn't mind him being here, it was just to get out of the wind, after all.

[Deleted]

She knew she wasn't alone anymore, yet she continued to purr. One grey green eye stilted as she watched the fox shifter. He was from her ring, she could tell that from his scent. Of course, she shouldn't be surprised that someone else of her ring had ventured out to the cliffs. It was their territory after all. Maybe it was easier for him to move through the cliffs since he was smaller then her. Of course, he was going to be taller then her when he wasn't in his fox form. For such a small girl, she shifted into a big cat.

A harsh, coughing sound, that counted as the jaguar's laughter, came from Harlequin's throat as she opened one eye fully, watching the small shifter as she pulled her body in on itself some more. "I'm not going to eat you," she said wryly, her voice harsh and guttural as she spoke Shiftertounge. She lifted her black head and yawned widely, her jaws stretching, as she pulled her feet closer to her body, giving the fox more room in her dip in the rock. She was tempted to shift back, after all then there would be plenty of room, she was a good six and a half to seven feet long like this, but if the jaguar wasn't built for the mountains, then Harlequin St. Claire certainly wasn't.

Her long black tail flicked back and forth as she watched the other shifter intensely. It wasn't all that often that she ran into other Carna shifters when she explored the cliffs. Oh sure, sometimes she'd catch sight of the birds as they did aerial sweeps, but most of the time she had the cliffs to herself. "You can come in a littler farther out of the wind. Unless, of course, you're a flying fox and the wind doesn't bother you." Another round of the coughing laughter left her as she watched the fox, waiting for him to a make a move, one way or another.

She wouldn't kick him out or attack him if he moved farther into the dip, but if he left, well, she wouldn't feel the need to try and stop him. Ok, maybe she would, she thought, her tail trashing even more at her internal dialog, but she'd only watch to make sure he got down ok. She wouldn't heave herself up from her safe spot, not unless she really had to. No, if he left then she would go back to soaking in the sun and enjoying her solitude.