The Flower Girl and the Wolf
Chapter 1: The Stranger from the Woods
It was night in Midgar and a dark, hooded figure jumped over seceral roofs. This town was weird, it had a gigantic plate and people lived above and below it. Cloud decided to hide below the plate and somewhere in the middle of these...slums, he stopped. He was on the roof of an old church. He pulled the hood of his cloak off, revealing a pair of wolf ears twitching at every sound. He smelled the air, but except for the bad smell of the town, there was no hint that anyone followed him. Nodding to himself, he turned to get going, but suddenly the wooden plates he stood on broke and he fell into the church, getting knocked out by the impact.
"Mom, I'm off!" Called Aerith cheerfully, pulling on her little red jacket over her pink dress and bouncing down the stairs. Despite her twenty-one years of age, she was still being as cheerful and bouncy as a child.
"Where are you going, sweetheart?" Asked her mother Elmyra, stopping her daughter before she could leave the house.
"The church. Someone has to take care of the flowers." She said, smiling happily at her mother. Elmyra smiled back and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"Be careful, Aerith." Said girl rolled her eyes playfully. Elmyra told her this everytime she left the house. Yes, she knew the Slums could be dangerous, but Aerith could take care of herself just fine.
"Always. See you later, mom."
Aerith walked happily through the streets of Midgar. Her braid that was fixed with pink ribbon swung back and forth with each step. Aerith kept looking around to see if there's anything dangerous nearby, but there was nothing. It was very early and there weren't many people outside yet.
The girl looked up at the upper plate that prevented everyone living below it, to see the sky. But Aerith didn't really care not to see the sky. She was...kinda afraid of it.
Just a few minutes later she arrived at the church of Sector 5 and entered it. It was very old, no one bothered to take care of the building, so now it was just rotting away. If it wasn't for Aerith of course. She took care of this place and even grew a flower bed in the middle, where the altar once has been.
But something was different today. As she came closer to her flowers she saw someone lying in them. She tilted her head at the unconscious man lying on her poor flowers, before looking up. There's a hole that wasn't there yesterday. He must've fallen down. Did he come from the uper town, or did he just walk on the roof?
The boy was had spikey, blond hair and he only wore black. A coat, a wollen shirt with only one sleeve -which was a different kind of fabric she noticed, and pants. Oh and a wolf necklace. After taking a closer look she noticed him having animal ears. And a fluffy tail, too! She wasn't an animal expert but it looked like they're from a wolf. Was he cosplaying? Tilting her head again, she knelled down and poked one of his fluffy ears and to her surprised it wiggled with every touch. As if it was real...
Then the man began to stir and groan quietly, snapping Aerith out of her thoughts. "H-hey, can you hear me?" Aerith waited for a reply, but none came. "Hellooo~!" She called and watched him stirring awake. "Hellloooo~!" Aerith called again and now his eyes fluttered open.
Aerith couldn't help but stare at his bright, sapphire blue eyes for a while. Was this how the sky looked like? If so then it wasn't scary at all. "Yay!" She exclaimed, when he looked back at her and sat up. He was staring at her, too, kinda like as if he never saw a human being before.
Cloud stared at the girl, not quite sure what to think. Was he dead? Was she an angel? Her eyes sparkled and shined and looked define on their own. And then there was her face and hair and dress and everything about her. No that wasn't an angel, she was a goddess.
"Are you okay?" She asked and her voice...Her voice sounded so...sweet. No, she couldn't be a normal human being...But then his eyes widened. No, she smelled like a human. He immediately reached up for his hood, but it wasn't there. She could definitely see his ears. And he knew they moved, too. Way to hide his identity...He had to get out of here.
"Hey." Her voice caught his attention immediately. "Do you understand me?" Cloud just nodded hesitantly. "Are you okay?" She asked again and Cloud answered with another nod. "So...what are you?" He looked away, having no idea how to answer this. Well, actually he did, but he couldn't get any words out of his mouth. "Can you talk?" She really had lots if questions. But he'd probably be just like that when he saw a weird creature. He nodded again.
She smiled at him then. It was...so radiant. So beautiful...He opened his mouth to talk, but was stopped by her voice. "Are these tiny fangs?" She asked amused and even though these are not the worst things she saw on him, he quickly covered his mouth and avoided her gaze.
Then, just a second later, he felt something tickling his ear. It wiggled on its own and the girl began to giggle. He glanced at her and saw that she was the one tickling his ear. It would be so much more annyoing if she wouldn't have such a beautiful, angelic voice..."So, these are real? Can you tell me something about yourself?"
Well, it was too late now, anyway, right? "I'm a wolf." He answered, looking away again. The girl hummed and he could practically feel her stare on him. It was kinda embarrassing...
"Well, except for your fluffy tail and ears you look like a normal guy to me." She said thoughtfully.
It was forbidden to reveal the identity to humans, but it was way to late for that. "It's because...This is a disguise. I uhm...can transform into a real wolf."
"Wow...Can you show me?" This question really surprised him.
"What?" He asked shocked leaning away from her. What kind of girl was this? Normal people would be afraid of him, but she was actually curious!
"Can you show me? I'd really like to see it." She asked again, looking at him hopefully with her sparkling green eyes.
"No." He answered, again trying to get away from her gaze.
"Why not?" She sounded so disappointed. So sad. This shouldn't have an impact on him!
"You'll be afraid." He took the lamest excuse ever. This girl should be aftaid of him, but for some reason he didn't want to scare her.
"Don't worry." She said and Cloud made the same mistake again and looked at her radiant smile. "Wolves are one of my favorite animals! I won't be afraid of you."
To be honest, he had no idea if she was brave or extremely naive..."Still no."
"You're no fun..." She mumbled, pouting like a little girl. "By the way...do you mind getting out of the flowerbed?"
His question confused him for a second, that is until he looked down and realized for the first time that he was sitting in the middle of many pretty flowers. "Oh..." He quickly stood up and jumped out of the flower bed. "Sorry."
The girl smiled, despite him crushing her flowers. "It's okay. They can handle it." So that's why it smelled so good. And he thought it was only her that smelled so amazingly flowery.
"Why...why are you not afraid of me?" He asked then, thinking that her lack of fear weird. Every other human hated and feared them, so why not her?"
"Why would I? You're a really nice guy. Wolf."
"People call us 'monsters'." He said, frowning.
"I don't think you're one. As I said, you're really nice. Say, do you have a name?"
The blonde was clearly hesitant, but then again he never met a human like her before. She looked very trustworthy. "Cloud."
The girl hummed, her smile never faded. "Cloud, huh." His ears twitched when she said his name and couldn't help but like how it sounded with her voice. "I'm Aerith. Nice to meet you." Cloud smiled back, slightly. Could anyone not smile in her presence? "Cloud. Please show me how you look as a wolf."
She looked at him like a wolf pup and he felt himself crumble under that gaze. "Okay..." He said, looking away from her. She was surely smiling brightly right now. Looking around, he found a back door. "Wait here." He left her standing there and went to the separate room. Then he undressed himself, since he still needed these 'borrowed' clothes and couldn't afford to rip them apart. As soon as he shed all clothes, he transformed into his wolf form.
He had a golden like fur color and his hair style was still there. His head and neck was all spikey. And to top it all off, he got the white spots from his father. A big part of his eight ear was white, his feet were white he had a big white spot on his left eye and the complete underside of his muzzle belly and all the way to thw tip of his tail were white. He was probably the most bright colored wolf on this planet. Well, except for the ones who were completely white or silver-ish. After stretching his legs and ruffling his fur with his paws, he hesitantly walked back to Aerith.
He still expected her to be afraid as soon as she saw him, but instead she looked at him in wonder. Not just because he was an actual wolf, but also because he was much bigger than a normal one. He was big enough to carry her on his back. "Wow." Cloud made sure to have a safe distance between them and sat down, just watching her reaction. To his surprise, she approached him and reached out, gently touching his head. "You're fur is so fluffy..." She said more to herself, as she petted him gently, running her fingers through his fur. Aerith traced the white spots on his eye and ear and if he'd be a human he'd surely blush. Actually he still felt quite warm already.
He scooched in, unconsciously, really enjoying the way she petted him. But then She surprised him by coming even closer and burrying her face in his shoulder. "W-what are you doing?" He asked, but it sounded more like a barking to her ears. Sadly, his kind couldn't speak with humans. There was a different, intelligent species that spoke the human tongue, though. They were close allies.
Aerith kept snuggling him and Cloud tried to ignore her sweet, flowery scent. It was more intense with his wolf form and it wrapped him into a sweet, warm bubble that he didn't want to get out of. But he had to. He won't stay in this weird, stinky place. All he wanted was to see the world and had to go back eventually. With that in mind, he backed away from her and disappeared into the back room again. Even if everything in him told him to stay like that with her forever. Before he could change his mind and go back to her, he transformed back and dressed himself again. When he went back to the girl, he saw her pouring.
"Why did you change back?" She asked sad, disappointed. It was almost enough to go back there and change back. Almost.
But he didn't have an answer to her question. While trying to calm his racing heart, he approached her again and sat down on the ground. "I don't understand you...You should be afraid of me. Every normal human being would be afraid and run away from me."
But Aerith ignored him obviously, as she was more occupied at poking his ear and tail. "Are you listening?" He asked her frustrated. She didn't bother looking at him and kept poking his tail.
"I hear you. I just don't care." Her honesty was really...something else. "'Oh my gosh, whatever should I do'? Is that what you want to hear?" Cloud just stared at her blankly.
"Every other wolf would've killed you instantly..."
"But you didn't."
"Yeah, but..." There was no use talking with her. She was just a crazy and insane person. "Can you show me the way out of this town?"
Now this got her attention. "You wanna go already?"
Cloud nodded. "This isn't really...the best smelling place I've ever been to..."
"You're right. It's the Mako. I think I got used to the smell...I've been living here since I remember." Silently Cloud wondered why anyone would want to live in this place. He had no idea how people lived above the plate, but down here...It must be like living in hell. "Hey, how about you stay here overnight? I can offer you a place to sleep."
Cloud took a moment to think. It wouldn't hurt staying here for the night. Until then he could probably talk with Aerith more. "Okay."
Aerith beamed at his answer. Her smile was blinding him. "Great! You can stay at my place. My mother's there, too, but don't worry! I know she'll love you!"
At the mention of her mother, he was nervous. "Are you sure she won't mind? And what about..."
"Don't worry! She's very good at keeping secrets, you know. Even if she kicks you out, you can still stay here. But it's worth a try, right?" She was very optimistic...But it was infectious.
"Right." After pulling the hood of his coat over his head, she followed Aerith out of the church and to her place.