Chapter 7- Run

~Damonna's Notes- OKAY!  AND THIS IS WHERE THE STORY GETS ITS RATING FROM!  Hmm…Nudity.  Yeah.  This chapter's full of naked people.  Nothing happens, but if naked people offend you, turn around, oh-faint-of-heart.~

*Sirius*

Running.  Twilight.  Trees.  Leaves.  Dirt.  Fox.  Dirt.  Trees.  Leaves.  Twilight.  Running.

I panted for air as my tongue rolled out of my jaws.  My short claws dug into the wet earth below me.

I was running.

Not knowing where to, not caring.  I just followed the black fox. 

Hmmm.  A vixen.  I liked to sound of the word.  Soon, I would catch her, and then I would…

STOP!

I skidded to a stop just in time to avoid hitting my head on a low branch.  I could hear her barking softly, and then darting away.

Damn it.  I howled in the dying light and then settled back on my haunches to launch off again.  This was getting tricky.  But I knew that any moment now she'd loose her cover and we'd break into open forest.  It was only a matter of time.

THERE!  I spotted a break in the underbrush and heard the vixen clamor into the clearing.  I could hear her heart race, her paws picking up their tempo, her breath making clouds in the air.

I howled and raced on.

I smelled it.  Something…else…Slightly like a horse.  Centaurs?  At this time of the evening?  It smelled a little human, but it wasn't right.  Smelled like…

Stag!  Prongs raced in and gently knocked me off course.  I slipped, my paws wet with muck, and I tumbled to the ground.

I slowly shifted back.  "What the hell are you doing?!"

James did the same.  "I could ask you the same thing."

"I.."  But I stopped and jumped behind a tree.  Blushing, I gazed at the girl that had just entered the forest.

Lily.  She carried a pair of robes for James, and he quickly covered himself, kissing her on the cheek and smiling devilishly at me.

"Hi Sirius!"  She called.  I waved nervously back.  Oh, what I wouldn't gave to not be naked and stuck behind a tree, hiding myself from my best friend's girlfriend.

"That's not fair!"  I screeched.  "We haven't learned how to shift clothes yet!"

James shrugged.  "You never cared before."

"Yeah, but no girls were around before!"  I peeked out and pointed a finger accusingly at James.  "I thought we agreed about girls!"

"We did."  And he grinned. 

"So why are you…"  I stopped mid sentence as I gazed over James's shoulder at a tree.  Not just any tree.  I could see Damonna's face peeking out from behind that tree.

"Why am I what?"

"Why are you breaking your promise?"  Damonna was making faces at me,  and I had to struggle to look angry at James.

"Because you broke it, too."

I looked at James.  "Huh?"

"Sirius.  You think I don't know you that well?"

Damonna was teasing me, slowly inching out from behind the tree.  But just before I could see anything, she'd dart back and stick her tongue out at me.

"What?"

"You were running."

"So.  I do that a lot."

"You were chasing something.  My guess is you were chasing someone.  Rabbits never took you that long to catch."

Lily made a face and looked at James.  He looked around uncomfortably.  "Well, I've been known to snack on the foliage."

She shook her head.

"So, what if I was chasing someone?"

"Then you have a girl hiding out here somewhere.  I caught something canine, so you'd better cough up the wolf you've been hiding out here!"  The last part he said quite loudly, while puffing out his chest.

That's when I couldn't take it anymore.  Damonna's faces, his clams.  I exploded. 

"HAH!"  I collapsed in laughter.  "Shows how much you know!"

Lily guiltily snickered.

And that's when I felt it. 

Something cold and wet was pressed against my leg.  I turned slowly to see a red and black fox grinning at me.

"EEK!"  I screeched like a little girl.  And then I ran.

Lily covered her face in huddled closer to James, he wrapped his arm around her and she covered her face in his chest. 

James was laughing like a lunatic, but all I heard was the soft barking of a vixen stealing into the night.

*Audia*

I stopped writing when I heard the scream. I dropped my diary mid-story, and reached for it as it fell. I managed to slip from the branch, and in a second found myself clinging to another. I quickly thanked my fate that I hadn't been sitting in a pine tree, and regained my balance on the branch. I glanced around, saw my diary on the forest floor, and reached upward to another branch to grab the cloak.

I put it around my shoulders, thought of an owl, and found myself suddenly smaller. Grinning inwardly, I took off, and then gliding upward, flew through the forest in the sound of the scream.

I reached a clearing, and my eyes caught on a couple kissing. Lily and James, my human brain yelled, and I blushed to myself. Whoops, I thought, and perched on a branch a bit away, my eyes focusing on the clearing.

At first I saw nothing, a few ants, a grasshopper, leaves, trees, broken branches – my eyes did a double-take. Broken branches? I gently took off again, going in the direction whomever had broken those branches took. I was getting used to the owl form, and it was becoming my favorite. I trained my sense of smell at its highest, and smelt of a canine, a human, and a horse. I followed the scent of the human and canine, and soon heard splashing, and shouting. My eyes fell upon a miniature waterfall, a boy, and a fox, all in a clearing.

I grinned to myself, and perched on a branch to watch.

"Damonna, turn around," Sirius called to the fox, but she didn't move. She just sat there, her lips curled into what appeared to be a smile. Sirius, from his spot in the stream, splashed water at her, and she jumped to the bank of the water, and began to walk in.

"What're you doing?" Sirius called, and he began to back up. "Go away." He swam to a rock beside the falling water, and clung to it.

The fox barked and jumped full into the water, and began to swim to Sirius. Sirius splashed at it, and began to swim backwards to find another hiding spot.

I watched as the fox began to shift back into human form, and Damonna appeared, treading water. She grinned, and clutched a rock nearby. "Sirius," she called, her voice flirty and melodious. Sirius turned, saw Damonna, and his jaw dropped. I decided I had seen enough, not wanting to interrupt if things got romantic, and took off from the branch.

"Audia?" I heard my name, and sheepishly stopped, hovering in the air. I thought of a sparrow, and felt my body grow lighter, and then I lowered myself to the ground.

I shrugged off the cloak, and looked around. I was sitting on the forest floor, and my vision was blurred slightly. Aftereffects, maybe.

"I was just leaving," I said, my face flushing. "I don't want to interrupt – " I stood up and glanced sheepishly back up at Damonna, and found her gone. I glanced around for Sirius, but he was missing too. I whirled around, and found myself facing a dog and a fox.

I took a step backwards, and the fox reached forward and grabbed my pants leg, and began walking backwards to the water. I giggled and tried to break away from her grasp, but my other leg was caught by the dog. I fell backwards, and felt the cold water splash my skin.

I squealed and tried to clamber up, but the dog jumped on top of me, pressing me down with his bulk. I screamed playfully and tried to shove him off, but the fox had caught my sleeve and was ripping it in an attempt to pull me into the water. The dog jumped off and helped the fox, and soon I found myself sitting chest deep in water. Both the dog and fox took off then, swam to the middle of the small lake, and shifted back.

"Swim with us!" Damonna called, and splashed water at me.

"I feel sort of out of place," I stood up, "I'm the only one not naked!"

"Well there's not much left for us to imagine," Sirius grinned, and gestured to my clothes. I looked down and saw my clothes which were plastered to my body, blushed, and jumped back into the water.

They laughed, and I splashed at them. In a second we were in an all-out water fight, the battle of the sexes. We barely heard the voice over our splashes, but we heard it enough.

"I thought you didn't like kinky, Damonna," Corbin said, "so why are you standing naked in the water practicing foreplay for a three-some?"

~More Notes- See?  I told you!  Comic relief!  YAY!  *Runs around and smacks into a wall*~