[Sky the Mongoose]

A giggle resounds are the trees, coming from all sides. The giggling continues, changing slowly from a sweet, childish giggle to a deeper laugh of a full-grown woman. Then, a head, a perfect green face with yellow glowing eyes, a mass of beautiful branches with leaves hanging from them forming hair, begins to pull out of the tree closest to Selena. From the head follows the neck, then the upper chest, ending before breasts are revealed. The bark around her shoulders has dissipated, giving the sense she is naked beneath the cover of the tree.

“What is there to speak about?” She says with a grin on her face.

[Selena]

Selena smiled at the tree nymph calmly. “Well, for a start, don’t you think it’s a little unfair that you cost my cousin her meal? It takes a lot of energy to hunt our food down, after all.”

Floating over to a nearby tree, she settled on the branch so that she would be level with the woman’s face. “Second, I had no idea that there were any nymphs left in this forest. I was only told to expect animals and maybe some humans here, so it’s good to meet someone else. My name is Selena, and I am this forest’s appointed Guardian for the next fifty years.”

From her perch, she bowed elegantly, the movement smooth and clearly well practiced. She’d trained hard for just such moments, and now that she was able to use her knowledge, she felt certain that things could go as well as she had hoped they would.

[Sky the Mongoose]

The dryad giggles. “Your cousin is quite temperamental. I didn’t make her run away from her meal to chase after me, did I~?” Her grin grows wider, before frowning. “Yes, nymphs are very few here. I haven’t seen another in ages.”

“… Guardian, you say?” She begins to slip out of the tree, and sit on a branch, making sure that her major parts were hidden, but there was very little bark on her. “Hm. Normally, I’d be angry with those who interrupt my rest, but you seem like quite the nice girl. Tell me more about this, Guardian thing.”

[Selena]

Selena smiled at her-it was good to have someone she could talk to properly here. “No, you didn’t make her, but you did attract other predators to her meal. Still, never mind that now. As for my Guardianship here…”

Her mind turned to the Temple, high up in the mountains where her kind lived. “My being here to care for the forest is more of a… training thing than anything else. That, and an attempt to keep the humans from destroying more of this world. My people are a little different to the Shifters or the full cats, you see-we are truly half and half, permanently, because that’s how our Goddess made us. There’s seven different species in all, and we all have different skills-mine is the ability to control air, and with the bow.”

She lifted one hand to touch the tip of her bow, her smile playing happily around her lips. Her tail twitched as she did-she liked having someone new to talk to. “Just as an example, say you had hurt yourself in some way-I would be able to use my abilities to heal that wound, and, if we were lucky, to strengthen you so it wouldn’t happen again.”

[Sky the Mongoose]

“Hmmm~ That’s good, because people tend to get a bit angry at me~.” She giggles, her mischievous grin turning into a pretty smile. “I like to trick those that disturb the forest~.” Her eyes seem to shine at the word trick, and she rocks lightly on the branch.

[Selena]

Selena’s smile was a bit more serious now as she replied. “I shall be joining you in those tricks, if that’s all right. My orders from the Goddess are to protect this forest however I can-without revealing my identity.” Her smile turned a little evil as she continued: “Of course, that means I have full rein to do whatever I like to them-within reason, that is. Bruises are fine, broken limbs are not, apparently.”

And didn’t that bring back memories! One in particular was of when she’d caught a human child deliberately beating a puppy for not doing what he wanted it to. By the time she’d finished, the puppy was completely healed-and the child had been black and blue in several places. Selena was a firm believer in ‘you reap what you sow’, and likely always would be.

[Sky the Mongoose]

“Oh, really now? Well, I must warn you, my tricks are often… taxing on those who experience them~.” She giggles. “I get them lost in the forest, trick them into wearing themselves out, do something particular based on what the thing is… And one trick in special is… a bit lewd. But I must spread my seeds someway.” She shrugs, leaning forward on her branch more as she talks, before rocking back and restarting. She seems to enjoy the conversation as well, it has obviously been a long time since she’s talked to anyone without tricking them.

[Selena]

Selena laughed. “I admit, I do enjoy making humans lose their clothing! It’s always fun watching them try to catch their trousers or some particularly embarrassing item that they shouldn’t have taken off in the first place.”

Green eyes sparkled with amusement as she grinned. “Even more fun is then making them trip and fall flat on their faces to reveal said item missing. But I only do that to particularly nasty ones-you know, the ones that have really earned a good humiliation.”

[Sky the Mongoose]

Illedi’s eyes shine bright, and she grins. “Ohhh, have you ever seduced a human, waited until they removed all their clothing, then stole it and scattered it around the forest? It’s especially fun when they’re married, their wives get very angry~!” She laughs. “Oh, oh, oh, and, have you ever gotten a rodent in a human’s clothes? Their reactions are hilarious!” She rocks back and forth a bit more in excitement.

[Selena]

Selena laughed. “My people don’t have that kind of interaction with others, I’m afraid-we don’t need to. But I can imagine it would be fun to watch!” She fell quiet a moment, then felt herself turn red under her facial fur. “Well, maybe if I’d seen a naked human male before… I remove their trousers, but never go any further with them…”

One hand rubbed at the back of her neck-as the current youngest of her people, Selena was considered to be nothing more than a child. Most of the other Elementals were much, much older than she was after all…

[Sky the Mongoose]

The dryad giggles, then swoops onto the same branch as Selena in a quick, fluid motion. She seems almost weightless on the branch. She gently pokes the Elemental’s cheeks. “Awww, are we blushing, now? Obviously you have things to learn, my dear. A true master of tricks is never flustered~.” She grins, crossing her legs as she leans close to Selena, her eyes flickering lightly before steadying on a low glow.

[Selena]

Selena laid her ears and whiskers flat back against her head, feeling a bit awkward now. “I get the feeling I’ll be learning them during my time here. And an Air Elemental always has a few tricks up her sleeve-we wouldn’t be considered a true Snow Leopard without them.”

It was true-at the age of ten, she had been set the task of playing a trick on the current Disciple of Earth, an Iriomote Wildcat female named Marina. Out of all the Earth Elementals, Marina was considered to be the grumpiest-and the scariest-of them all, so at first, Selena had been scared witless of her. In the end, she came up with an ingenious trick that she implemented right before Marina was due to have a meeting with the Goddess and the other Disciples.

Marina had walked right into it, and had ended up covered in tar, feathers, and flour-Selena had decided to go all out on her-and because she was expected in the next few minutes, she was forced to go to the meeting still covered in the mess. A mess that had had all members of the meeting laughing every time they saw the three thousand year old female for the next six months, and the Goddess Herself was still prone to fits of laughter when She saw Marina now.

Now that she thought about it, Selena guessed that that was probably why she’d been posted to such an out of the way area of the planet…

[Sky the Mongoose]

She giggles. “Alrighty~.” She rocks back and forth on the branch, smiling. She then looks back to Selena. “So what do you wanna do? I’m a bit bored, now.”

Life in the forest had been quite boring to Illedi, as would be expected of a nymph with Siren blood. She only gets to harass a few humans a year, and legends of people losing themselves in the forest have taken their toll. So she was always excited when someone knew came up, and this was even better, someone to talk to, and trick! And, she couldn’t leave! Brilliant.

[Selena]

Selena smiled at her new ‘friend’, and then closed her eyes. “Give me a moment-I may be able to find someone we can play some tricks on…” The breeze around them picked up, and then shot away from them-although Selena kept her own personal wind, which usually acted as a shield-close to her. She never went anywhere outside of her home without it, not wanting to trust anything to fate.

When she opened her eyes, they were pure blue, and her voice had a sing-song note to it that was normally absent. “Ten humans located five miles south. They are currently hunting a winged wolf. Aid for the wolf is requested immediately.”

A shake of her head, and Selena was back again, smacking the side of her head with the palm of one hand. “Ack. Hate it when She does that. Well, that answers that question.” A breeze lifts her up off of the branch, setting her down so that she was stood on it instead. “Do you want to come along…? It looks as if this trick feast may be partly work for me, though…”

[Sky the Mongoose]

She grins. “Ten? Oh yes, yes, yes!” She hops excitedly, then jumps into a tree, hopping from tree to tree gracefully but very quickly. Within a few moments, she’s disappeared from Selena’s sight, and halfway to the human hunting party,l giggling giddily all the way.