Part One

Leah walked calmly down the white pathway. The snow crunched softly underneath her sandals as she made her way away from the Oina village. She wore a pink kimono kind of shirt, some long black pants and black sandals. Everyone had always considered her dress a little strange, considering the cold climate they all lived in. But she'd always insisted she couldn't feel the cold, and just wore what she felt like. Her eyes were a very light green-grey colour, almost white, with tinges of blue and brown in them. The Oina mask, a golden cat with silver eyes, had a kind of viel running off the back of it, hiding her hair, and going down her back and stopping about halfway down. There was an actual reason behind this, and only the Oina tribe knew of it.

Actually, this nineteen year old had quite a lot of secrets and strange qualities. First of all, as an Oina, she had never actually been able to access her lupine form. There were, however, golden wolf ears sprouting out of her head, and a canine's gold tail on her too. She always found this quite annoying, but was close enough to every other Oina, so nobody teased her about it.

She had just gone back to the village for some of her treasured items. That, and to check for any survivors. The search had come down to nil, but Leah had been able to get some small things of hers to keep with her. There wasn't anything she could actually do in the village now, anyway, with nobody around. So she'd decided to leave and go travelling, and try to forget about this day. No one had to know about the events of it.

Blinking away from her thoughts, she noticed a small flicker of colour at the edge of her vision. Turning to see what it was, she noticed a small ice-blue butterfly floating around, carefree. Deciding it was quite pretty, but also unimportant, she continued walking. A cold wind blew then, but still she ignored it, guessing it was just one of the random gales that occurred sometimes.

All of a sudden, she was on the floor. 'What the-?' She pushed herself up slightly.

"Well, that was hardly fair. I wasn't ready, you jerks," Leah grumbled loudly, then stood and turned to face the 'jerks'. Three green imps were standing about ten paces away, mocking her in their ape-like way. Leah blinked at them, and bared long, sharp teeth at them, then crouched a little lower, ready to rush at them. Though she was human, she had the habit of doing things the way a canine would.

"Look, guys. The girly's threatening us! What a joke!" One of the imps laughed to his companions. "I don't know why The Master would seek to kill all the wolf people, then leave one of 'em. Maybe it can't turn into a mutt, but it should die all the same!"

'Mutt?' That was quite enough. Leah sprang herself at the giggling demons, knocking one with her elbow with such force, it collapsed, unprepared for the attack, and disappeared. The other two, stunned by the sudden action, just stared. One of them got kicked by Leah, but still remained in the battle. Both demons leapt at the girl, but she just ducked and moved swiftly out of their way, leaving both imps to knock their heads together. Leah grinned mischievously, then ran toward a nearby wall, ready to test out a new technique shed thought of. Making sure the imps had followed and were close enough for the move to work, she sprang against the wall, then pushed off, spinning, into the two remaining demons. It knocked them away and they then disappeared like the previous one had.

Leah stood and dusted some snow off of her, then walked back to the things she'd left when the imps had challenged her. She picked up two small paintings of her parents, who had both been killed alongside the tribe earlier that day. They had told Leah to run for her life, which she did, not wanting to disobey their last requests. She had told them she loved them, they returning the statement, then she had fled from the demons wrecking the Oina village. But those thoughts weren't for now. Right now she had to get moving. Leah grabbed the second and final item she had returned for, a golden watch that the tribe leader, Samickle had given to her. They had always been good acquaintances, and he'd given her a very nice gift, seeing as shed always fretted over time. She gave a small smile in memory of those lost, then looked up and continued on her way. Where she would go, she did not yet know.

Leah flopped down against a tree. Shutting her eyes, she yawned, baring her teeth in the process. Closing her jaws quickly, she slid a hand over a tree root jutting from the ground. Keeping her eyes closed, she decided to see how much she could sense around her. She could sense the aura of the tree she was against, and many more around her. Leafless, gnarled bark, the trees were oblivious to time itself. They were all know, wise beings, frustrated at the fact that they could not speak out and share their knowledge. Pushing the trees out of her mind, she moved on to the ground, then to the flowing water around her islet, and the many more that the old trees were seated upon. She sensed a great power nearby, through the tunnel behind the powerful waterfall. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a wall blocking her path to discover what the immense force was. Sighing, she opened her eyes again. She couldn't stretch her senses through walls yet, she'd have to work on that.

Leah felt a panicked aura nearby, and stood up to see what was happening. Using her 'third eye' to find out what it was that was so stressed, she discovered a small forest boy running through the entrance of a tunnel. The tunnel looked rather old, it probably led to some ruins or something. It seemed the child was running from something. Or it did seem like it, until he picked up a long stick, then acted like he was fishing. Leah opened her eyes and tilted her head. He was still panicked, but why was he fishing now? And without anything tied to the fishing rod, too! Even she knew that wouldn't catch anything. The boy seemed to be muttering something frantically about some "Ume", and how he'd left him behind. 'Ah well, nothing to do with me,' Leah thought to herself. Turning, she decided to walk back to her tree to catch up on some sleep. She was planning to, but unfortunately for her, she couldn't carry out that plan.

She glanced down. Did her foot get caught on some root or something? Leah stiffened. The ground was grey, the air thick with evil. She looked over at the once crystal clear, deep blue water. Now it was slowly turning into a poisonous-looking purple, with tinges of black and red every now and then. 'So, this must be a curse zone. Better leave before something worse happens...'

She concentrated on getting free of her paralysis, and eventually won against it. Crouching, she sprang up, away from the main curse zone, and on to a ledge nearby. There was a cave on the ledge, connected to one of the walls, but that entrance was blocked. So she settled for just laying down behind a bush to catch up on her rest, hidden from sight from any attackers. Not likely that there would actually be anyone around now, though. With that curse zone there, there wasn't going to be any real events happening. Too tired to think now, she shut her eyes and drifted into a light sleep.