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It was a particularly warm evening, at least considering it being the middle of the winter season. The sun was going down, the bright fiery colours of the sunset radiating through the soft puffy clouds in the evening sky. Winter song birds called out softly in the lime light, as if wanting all that where about to hear one last song before night crept upon them and sent them to their corridors. Small animals rustled and bustled about, the noise and the busyness of the day finally coming to a close as the air grew thicker and thicker with darkness.

A young spotted girl sat up high in a tree next to a neutral colored raptor, his eyes gazing about alertly as the girl swung her feet about contently. They had just finished up a new game of Sahra?s, one she had come to find just this very day and oh how fun it was! She discovered that climbing trees wasn?t so bad after all; in fact, attempting to see how far you could jump from limb to limb was rather fascinating to her. Sahra had been doing it for most of the day, while the poor shifter, Aja, tried his very hardest to keep up with the young blood, and to shift and catch her every time she fell. And every time, like a relentless kitten Sahra climbed right back up the tree and did it again, and again, and again, until she managed to get the hang of it.

But now the day was coming to and end, and Sahra was finally feeling exhausted from her long day of play. So now it was time to laze about, and maybe go explore a cave or two, or maybe even go hunt out some more frogs in the swamp! Yes, that would prove to be a good time. The water there was very low and never got deep and the mud was ever so plentiful, the perfect place to go at this point in the day. Besides, soon Mew would be arising, and the ever lasting game of hide and seek they played from day to day in the dusk must be continued. Sahra predicted that her mother would never be able to sniff her out in the swamp! It was just too boggy and smelled horribly, but she would see for sure very soon; and watching the doors of the house that sat on the plot of land known to her as Marisolle, she awaited for the door to open.

"Ajy!" Sahra whispered softly, giggling, she was about ready to be off! And that meant either Aja would have to shift into a flying form of a sort, or something that could keep up with the young cheetah. "Mreow." She screeched out happily, wrapping her arms around the trunk of the tree, this was the part of climbing she liked! After quickly pawing some wheat coloured hair out of her face, Sahra made sure she had a firm grip on the tree, and stepped off of the branch. She slid down the tree, like a fire fighter might slip down a pole to go off on a heroic adventure.

But when she landed, to her surprise, she turned to see a young girl nearby, hugging another one of the trees? What could she possibly be doing? Behind her a snake slithered down the tree trunk; it was an albino snake, about fourteen to fifteen feet long. But of course it was only Aja, following after Sah in another on of his more common forms. He had few black markings on his face, and a few on certain areas of his long slinky body, which would normally be on his arms and legs, if he had any in the form he decided to take. Aja may be a shifter, but he does have a "normal" form. He is known as a Crested Shifter, Crested Fey, or more commonly a Crested Draygon. No not a dragon, although very dragon like. His form is serpent like, long, with razor sharp claw and teeth, and smooth hair-like scales. He somewhat resembles a feline in his head, and having retractable claws and paws that were much like a cats; he is also well known amongst his family for his panther like snarl. Silver horns somewhat like a rams, but more like a bulls, and a long snake-like tail.

The serpentine creature slithered slowly along the ground, to lazy to shift until he had to, he waited for the young girl to turn around and dart off. But something was preoccupying her? What could possibly be going on that had managed to catch her attention? Aja knew that Sahra hardly ever paid attention to her surroundings or the events going on within them when she had a new adventure in mind. She knew what she wanted to do and when, that's what made her so easy to keep an eye on, when she said something she wanted to do, she always did it, and seldom came in her way. So this must be big; from a long lanky, scaled body to a soft, long furred creature with four legs. Letting out a howl, Aja shook his head rapidly about, falling to his bottom and extending a long back leg to scratch behind one pointed ear. He was a wolf, a rather oddly coloured looking one, but still a wolf at that. This form was the first he had ever taken, the one he knew even better than his own true form, and he evidently liked it better, as well. "Aei, aren't we going to go soon?" The snow white creature asked, rising to his feet.

But the spotted girl had other things on her mind now, yep! And she wasn't about to give up and let these go until they were resolved. Sahra hid herself behind a tree, not shyly, but to observe this odd new girl and her actions. Her eyes flared, dim light reflecting of her feline eyes, ears twitching comfortable as she decided this winged creature was no threat; but merely a new friend to be made! And as the chilled breeze of the winter season made the branches sway, Sahra stepped out of her hiding spot, grinning from ear to ear. "Hai!" She spoke sweetly, revealing herself. "Who're you?"

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"Er..." Sahra couldn't help but let out a laugh, this girl, she had it all wrong, and she found it rather funny. "No spots don't hurt." She said simply, ears twitching uncomfortably, "They're part of my fur; they are natural." She nodded, eyes darting about, now again watching for her mother. But she knew it would be a short time still until Mew would come out, the sun was still up, and until it went all the way down, she wouldn't be coming out. That gave her plenty of good time to start heading off to the swamp! Yes, she would get a head start tonight, and make her mother find her the hard way. "Yeah, Karchekanon. And it's not Chees-a, it's Chee-TUH; Cheetah."

Wrapping her legs tightly around the branch, the young cheetah girl pulled her hands away from the branch, and allowed herself to fall backwards. It appeared like she was going to fall off, but, really wasn't. She gripped the tree branch with her legs, branch under her knees; she hung upside down, staring down at the growling snow white wolf. "Ajy, stop-et." She hissed, flailing one arm about. "This girl couldn't hurt a fly."

Aja winced, head tipping upward, her stared at the girl with his black pupil-less eyes and let off a large sigh. He knew well enough if Sahra didn't feel threatened by this odd creature, then he shouldn't either. She was far more cautious than he, and seemed to be very talented at evaluating people ahead of time just by watching them, so he trusted in her decision. "Fine." He grumbled, backing off towards the base of the tree.

"No, no, don't bug Aja, he doesn't like strangers much at all-" She glanced down at the wolf for a moment, "and he hates being called a 'doggie,' too, ya know." She shrugged, not really caring; she knew that Aja had always been bothered by any sort of nickname, especially what she called him. But what stumped her is why he went by Aja and not by his full name? And he hated nicknames so much, but went by Aja, anyways? How complicated. "Now I am going off to the swamp." Sah said with a violent nod. She grabbed hold of the branch with both hands, and quickly slipped her legs off from about it. She flipped around, and dropped to the ground. Of course landing on both feet, she darted to Aja's side, and tugged at his long puffy fur. "Come on!" She whined, turning back to the girl. "You can come, too, if you can keep up. But that's a lot to say, since Ajy can barely keep up. He's so slow!" After letting off a small laugh, Sahra speed off, leaving them both behind.

But it didn't take the wolf long to get to his feet, and was soon off after the spotted blur.

The wind was blowing, whipping around from every side; it seemed to be all that Sahra could manage to think about as her legs carried her onward. Her hair had become a whirlwind, curving and twisting around as if it were alive. Just like Medusa! Sahra remembered Yin talking about a lady with snakes for hair once when she had finished reading one of her many books. "Whoops!" A spotted form tumbled head over heels onto the trunk of a tree; she began to squirm, attempting to find her way to her feet. She hadn't been paying attention to where she was going, so ran into a large overgrown willow tree. "Arg." She mumbled helplessly under her breath.

Aja pawed his way through the thick woodlands, weaving his large body around trees and through bushes and piles of brush. But it didn't take him long to catch up to the cheetah girl, but he didn't seem to take notice of her right away. That is until he nearly ran over her! "What?" He grunted, head dropping downward to peer at the ground, "Sah? Hm. Are you alright?" With his teeth he snapped hold of the back of her shirt and pulled her up.

Sahra struggled out of his grasp, hissing, she stumbled a few steps towards the way of the swamp, feeling an intense need to snarl at Aja. But she didn't know why exactly, just instinct; female cheetahs are loners. But while even having the built in instinct in tack, it wasn't her true nature, it just made her edgy, at least when it came to things like this. But those matters were for another day. Sah shrugged off the incident, knowing that Ajy would understand; she was again on her way. And before she knew it, she was standing at the swamps edge, staring into the wondrous mud, eyes gleaming as cat tails came into her view.

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Sahra was not at all intimidated by the feeling of mud all around her, she actually loved it! Even on a nice day such as this, when the water was still a bit on the frosty side the cooling sensation that arose from being covered form head to toe in mud was favorable, and the possible chilly feelings where buried deep with in her mind. She didn't care what the temperature was, it didn't change how much fun it was! And she would soon turn it into more fun. Plopping down into the mud, Sahra rolled around until her entire body, hair, face, and all was filthy and nearly stained black. "Wah-ha-ha!" She yipped out happily, slinking along a tree root. "She'll never be able to see me now."

Leaning forward a bit, Sahra reached up to attempt to grab at a low branch, but it was no good, the branch was much further than an arm length away. But she'd solve that, oh yes! Crouching down, she was like a spring building up force, and spring she did, nearly missing the branch just above her head. She dug her nails into the bark of the tree, hoping that she hadn't hurt it, she tried desperately to pull herself upward, and after all, she didn't want to fall!

She hadn't even made it a foot off of the ground when she let go, purposely, yes, because she decided at the last minute that up in the tree was not a good hiding place! And because of her last minute decision, Sahra fell backward, landing on her behind with a semi-loud thump. "Ack, that'll hurt tomorrow." She giggled, twisting around, bright green eyes looking about, she was oddly alert, but only because she didn't want to get caught!

"Huh?" She gave her attention once to the bird, although her eyes stayed glued to their surroundings, she was now actually listening to what this odd winged creature was saying. "Uh, yeah, I can climb! Can't you?" She asked oddly, finally turning to look at the bird. Sahra just couldn't imagine someone not being able to climb; she just couldn't imagine someone missing the thrill, and all of the fun! "Well if you can't then you should try!" She blurted out, jumping to her feet speedily, "It's a lot of fun!" Indeed it was, it let you see things you couldn't normally see from the ground! And being as short as she was, even though she hated admitting it, Sahra really couldn't see much beyond what was a few feet in front of her. Curse her shortness!

"Yeah, sort of, but if my mum where going to come I think she would have came by now. Maybe she's busy or something? I don't know." She paused, realizing that for once in her life she was actually rambling on, the cheetah didn't normally talk this much, and especially to someone she didn't know all that well! But for some reason, it felt natural; there was something about this little person that had clung to her in the muck that made her feel extensively at ease. What was it? She wasn't sure, but she liked it! She would have to take a mental note that this was someone she could really talk to about things in the future, it might come in handy. Why? She didn't know, it just always seemed good to plan ahead, even for odd little things such as these.

"But I think we should go do something else! Like, like...hmm..." She had to stop and think; bringing one hand up and folding it behind her neck, she used her other hand to fiddle with the side of her red t-shirt. "I know! Let's go to the climbing rocks, those are lots of fun! Maybe we can find some of the shiny crystals up there...or that weird white thing I saw the other day. Yeah, come to think of it, I want to know what that was!" So it was decided, they, or at least she, would head up to the mountainside! Yes, this would surely prove to be fun!

"Come on...er...Gabby, right? Hm, no, no, not convenient. I need something different...I know! I'll call you G-Bird from now on, yep, that's it." She nodded, ever so sure of herself, she grinned, feeling quite content with herself, at least for the time being, she scurried along, making sure to pace herself so the girl could keep up.