CHAPTER ONE
The leaves above your head flutter and the light on the grass far below shimmers with the rays. your long olive green trench coat drags across the tree branch as you creep stealthily up on your prey. Your blue street shoes make no sound, the prey on the other hand is noisy and oblivious and they bumble about, calling out in deep, drunken voices.
"Come out, come out wherever you are, you freak!"
"You scared! You scared little bitch?"
You growl at this. You, scared? Of THEM! HAhAHA! You laugh at such an absurd thought as that! Why would you, the fierce leader of this forest, be scared of little dimwits like them? Of course...it's not REALLY a forest, it's just a section in the central park, but that doesn't change the fact that they have wandered into this feral feline's territory!
They will not last long against you! The mighty cat ruler of these trees! You climb down to the lower branches silently on all fours so you are closer. There are three idiots fumbling down your pathways.
Easy peasy.
Your eyes focus in on them, "AC slowly sneaks up upon the unfurspecting purrey." You whisper silently, "They have no idea mew will soon make them run out of mewr furrest squealing like piglets!"
"Hey get out here you whore, we're gonna teach a lesson to your homeschooled ass!" The biggest and dumbest looking one jumps up on you're park bench, the pretty black one.
"Hey dipshit, that's my favfurrite bench!" You jump down from the tree and confidently stride towards them with a glare in your eyes, "No one touches my purretty black park bench without purrmition furrom mewr's truly!"
They all turn around and start laughing at me. I cross my arms and stand in the shadow of a tree.
"Aww look at the wittle pussy cat with her wittle pussy cat hat."
"What's up with your voice you freak, doesn't you mom teach you english?"
They all cackle. You narrow your eyes. "AC's pupils become slits and she menacingly demands that the idiots standing in furront of her leave befurr they get hurt." You are losing patience with these idiots, but not enough that you can't enjoy a good roleplay while kicking these guys asses.
They cackle and hoot and slap each others backs, "You hearing this, bro? Oh my fucking god what the shit is wrong with this slut?"
"Hey little bitch, just go back to the kitchen and make me a milkshake or something."
They all high five and swing their hips. You smile grimly and start walking towards them. Sexist pigs huh? Oh you'll definately send them squealing.
"Sorry, AC only drinks the blood of furr enemies."
You roll up the sleeves of your green trench coat to reveal your black biker gloves. Your strides become long and aggressive, they take no acknowledgment of the threat however and laugh, "What're gonna do? Hiss at me?"
You run right up to him and your fist smashes into his face at full force. He stumbles back but doesn't react in time to dodge your leg swinging upwards in between his legs. He squeals and falls to the ground. You whip around to face the other two.
"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" The second comes at you with arms swinging wide.
Sloppy form.
Fucking morons don't even know how to attack. You never swing wide, always keep you're arms close by for quick attack and blocking.
You easily dodge and your fist flashes outwards and slams into his stomach, knocking the breath out of him. He leans forward, you grab his head and shove him down into your oncoming knee. He cries out in pain and falls sideways holding his face.
The last is hesitant but soon regains confidence. You fall into your Karate stance, hands close to your body and ready to strike. Feet placed firmly apart for perfect balance and sturdiness. You snatch his fist in the air and push it back, hard. Then you twist around in a tornado kick and your foot slams into his jaw. He stumbles backward and onto his ass.
You smile smugly. Fucking bastards.
A hand closes around your wrist and you don't have enough time to react before a fist crashes into your nose.
Pain burns through your face and you let out a cry. You see the others start to get back up, you have to do something. Show them that you'll fuck them up. You are not someone to be messed with.
Falling back on your Karate lessons, you twist your arm so it's straight up and the rank smelling bastard's hand is twisted around and upward. With your other hand, you grab his exposed palm and rip it off your wrist, seizing it now with both hands.
Now he is at your mercy.
He screams in pain as you twist his wrist so far it feels like it's on the verge of snapping. He kneels on the ground in front of you begging for mercy.
The other two approach. "No! Don't even think about it. Try anything else and he gets a shattered wrist." You stand firm, glaring directly at the sniveling alcoholic in front of you.
"No, don't please! We're sorry!"
"Let him go you bitch! What the fuck are you doing!?"
"Mew shouldn't have come here. What made mew think mew could efurr defeat me, in my own furrest?" You growl angrily, pain throbbing in your nose.
"We-we're sorry! We won't come here again, I promise! We'll even tell other people to stay clear, just let go of my wrist! Gah!" His face crunches up in pain as you twist it farther.
You smile bitterly down at him. "AC will have mercy on this pathetic piece of trash, on one condition."
"What, what is it I'll do anything just- AHH stop stop please!"
You grin and say in an even, powerful voice, "AC will lets the jackasses leave if they nefurr come back." He nods frantically and tries to say something but you keep talking,"But... It won't keep ofurrs furrom coming in my furrest if I let mew leave un scathed."
His face drops, he looks mortified and an ear shattering scream rips through the air as you jerk his wrist as hard as you can, causing a loud crunch. You throw him to the ground and he cowers, screaming and holding his mangled wrist.
The other two bastards help him to his feet and they scramble away, not daring to look back.
Good riddance, you scoff and gently rub your nose. It throbs and you flinch. Shit.
You were too sloppy today, you shouldn't have let him grab you. "Dammit." You scuff your shoe in the grass and plop down. You pull your knees to your chest and stare at the pale mottled camo fabric of your pants. You wiggle your feet and sigh.
What would it be like to have someone to back you up? You've never really had anyone, except occasionally your family...but they've never been the most reliable. Your mom is always off with her annoying boyfriend, some short, long winded preacher or social justice fanatic or something. You know one of his sons is named Karkat, the really pissed off looking one but is also kinda cute.
He is a bit like a distant friend...nah. Acquaintance. Distant acquaintance. Yeah.
But lately you've been avoiding your apartment altogether. Often you sleep in the park at night, not that anyone cares if you come home for breakfast the next morning.
No one even knows about your fighting, or even your past, which you don't like to think about much at all.
Not even your sister knows. You and Meulin used to be very close but lately she's just been off getting high with that stoner, juggalo weirdo, Kurly or something. But whatever. It's not like you need anyone, as you have demonstrated, you can handle yourself fucking fabulously.
This is your forest and it will stay that way!
Haha...wow you sound like a total freak... but you really do love the forest! And living in a city means there isn't any real forests to go to so you had to settle here, besides the trees here are really amazing and big! And the little brick paths look pretty in the sunlight.
You smile affectionately at the thought and run over to your favorite tree, a huge, towering oak. The branches are thick and the leaves are full, it's a perfect place to overviewing who comes into your part of the park. Especially on the off chance police show up.
Fortunately that rarely happens, as most people who come here are either unaware of your presence and pose no threat, or they're just big idiots like the guys that were just here. Looking to prove themselves against the mysterious girl that lives here and kicks people's asses easily. SO naturally they don't call in the police. Although its only a matter of time before some of them are a part of a gang...
But you won't go down easily. You are very skilled with fighting, especially with your fists and switchblades. You try to avoid to have switchblades on you however, as they pose a threat to your opponent and make them aware of the danger you pose. When all they see is a young, unarmed, freckled girl in a blue cat beanie, they immediately doubt the rumors integrity.
You jump up to a low branch and skillfully climb your way up into the higher parts, but not too high the branches won't support your little setup. In the time you have been here, you have put together somewhat of a little tree house. You're heart glows with pride whenever you see it, it is the purrfect home. Wooden planks stretch across three thick branches, wrapping halfway around the wide trunk. There is a smaller branch you had to build around in the middle of the floor, but it adds to the splendid appearance. You have a couple wooden planks in higher branches as well, to act as extra protection from the rain, even though being in the thick leafed center of the great tree usually was protection enough.
You had various items scattered around in your cozy little tree kingdom. Little trinkets you have collected and like to admire, cereal boxes, chip bags, little lanterns for reading you're stack of books such as 'Harry Potter', 'Warriors', and 'Looking for Alaska'. You have a few little stuffed animals as well as you're much adored nest of blankets and pillows. You're comfy pile is perfectly placed to be able to look right up through a gap in the foliage and up at the stars.
You sigh happily and pull yourself onto the platforms. You whip out a match and light a lantern dangling above your head. The flame is small but offers enough light for you to see with the sun going down. You are very lucky you don't live in a place with cold, snowy winters. Oh how that would be a nightmare. The days are long in summer, and you are very tired.
You don't quite feel like going to sleep yet though. So you make your way to your books and grab one of your favorites, Warriors. You are on book five currently, you are rereading them. They are possibly you're prized possessions. You don't own many and will need to start visiting the library soon enough.
You twirl and plop into your sea of fuzzy blankets and pillows, you snuggle into their warmth and look down at your book. Stories of wild cats hunting through the forests together swim through your head and you're eyes drift closed as the flames light drifts away...
You thought you'd never be like the great warrior cats that are so close to one another, you don't even feel that close to your family. But hey, a girl can dream right? And to you're unknowing mind you do meet someone. Someone you'll quickly throw your trust to, someone who will protect you when you cannot.
You first see her parading down your brick path in a bright red dragon hooded cape singing loudly to herself. She wasn't a very good singer, but neither were you. You never liked your voice very much, way too high pitched and innocent sounding.
You set your book aside gently (you had fallen asleep while reading it), and started to make your way to the edge of the planks and down closer to investigate.
You hear the girl clang into something and curse, followed by a loud clusterfuck of clanging that made you wince and glare. You moved smoothly down the three and into the lower branches where you perched and peered out at the noisy girl.
"Take that!," She clangs a red cane one last time, "How rude of you to assault a blind girl while she is out on a stroll, GC spats. She says she should flay you a bit more and burn you right up into a nice crispy meal, what a crime to trip me because I cannot see you!" She struts away from the bench and whips back around to face it, her stuffed dragon snout hood bounces on her head.
"GC growls menacingly, how brave or foolish of you to dare get in the way of this mighty dragon, do not you know of my ferocity?"
Now this, perked your interest. This odd girl, seemingly blind, liked to roleplay! You've never met anyway in your personal life that enjoyed live action role playing, she looked like a pretty cool person too.
She was very pretty, under the hood her dark hair curled upwards at the tips, you noticed in the sunlight it looked almost reddish. Your own hair looked to be a dark copper color, almost the same length as the dragon girl too.
You bounded out of the tree and took a few steps forward. The girl turned her head in your direction, her eyes stared right at you but seemed to be looking through you. It kind of creeped you out but at the same time it was cool.
"GC's eyes may be unseeing but her senses are strong, you cannot escape the dark gaze of this great beast."
You grin and come closer, "AC bows her great feline head in respurrect, she means to pose no danger but is mewrely curious if she may inquire why this mighty dragon has ventpurred into her furrest."
The girl, GC's, distant eyes seem to light and and she turns to face you as she bows her head in return, "GC acknowledges AC's intent and returns the gesture of respect. She says she is in this forest to hunt and did not know it was hers."
"AC nods and says it is alright, as long as she keeps in mind who owns these trees. She also warns it is sometimes unsafe here beclaws AC is known for her great skill and power and is often challenged."
The girl's face twists up, she looks like she thought of something important, "GC politely asks the mighty ruler of this forest if she could possibly be the rumored girl that lives here and leaves wounds on those who dare enter without permission?"
Oh.
So she's heard of you then. Well no matter, she doesn't seem the type to pick fights anyway, you hope you don't scare her off though.
"Yeah, I'm that purrson. I don't normally let people come into the furrest often but mew seem to have better intent than most that have strayed."
The girl notices you have broke the roleplay speak and she goes with it as well. "Hmm...well I'd hope you won't attack me, I am blind but that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm weak. Though I don't think you attack random people right after having a nice roleplay do you?" She grinned widely and leaned on her cane.
You smile thoughtfully, "Hmm, no. Mew are right, I only attack the ones who come fur a fight. Though I don't appurrove of many strangers wandering in."
The girl looked thoughtful for a moment, "Well then we won't be strangers." She walked right up to me with confidence, "I'm Terezi." She grinned a big toothy grin and stuck out her hand from under her red cape.
You looked at it and back at her expectant smile. You were unsure whether or not to accept this offering of mutual... you don't even know, trust? Friendship? But as odd things normally occur in everyday life and choices, you grasped her hand and shook it.
"Nice to meet mew, Terezi. My name is Nepeta."