(no subject)

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

Time: April 27, the evening
Place: Library
Status: Public
Summary: Rose needs to return a certan book

Rose held the book in one hand, her fingers covering the teeth marks. Really, she didn't need a guest passing her noticing the marks and asking about them. It would be hard enough to explain things to Gabriel, the librarian.

Especially as I can't say 'sorry, I transformed and then the wind blew the book from the branch I had placed it on and I had to catch it and well...'.

The piece of red feather was still in her hair above her right ear. She didn't need a bookmark at the moment as she was done with this book and seriously doubted the librarian would ever hand her a book again, but she wanted to keep the beautiful feather.

Far too soon for Rose's liking she reached the library door. She inhaled deeply, knocked on the door and entered, her body language nearly as telling as if she had walked in as Cloud with drooping ears and her tail between her legs...

Comments

it got a bit squashed

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

"Well, I was in the woods, reading. I like being outside and I just went looking for a nice, quiet, shaded place. So it didn't happen very close to the manor. So your cats stray far?"

Rose knew never to attack cats. Most cats were someone's pet. She preferred hunting rabbits. She would have to be careful baout that now, though, as Raphael had a bunny.

[cattygabriel]

"Earl Grey doesn't, but Ta-Miu might. She can usually take care of herself, but judging by the bite radius I'd say it's quite a large dog." Gabriel bit his lip worriedly.

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

"It is, but I think your cat could always climb up a tree to get away."

Rose would have liked to ease Gabriel's worries, but she just couldn't betray her people's secret.

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel laughed. "I did find her in a tree. She was wet and shivering, the poor thing."

She did seem to be hiding something...

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

"That sounds as if climbing down again might be a problem..."

Rose knew that Gabriel would probably still worry. Internally she sighed. Why did it have to be so complicated?

[cattygabriel]

"She was scared," Gabriel shrugged, running a hand through his hair. "I can only hope the stray is adopted by someone."

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

Rose nearly choked on her on saliva as she heard Gabriel muse about someone adopting the 'stray'. What if someone really tried to do so? Would anyone be mad enough to try to adopt such a large 'dog'?

I wouldn't put it past one of the angels...

She'd have to be very careful when she next roamed the woods in fur form.

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel stopped and turned to face her, concerned. "Are you sure you're alright?"

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

"Yes, yes I'm alright."

Rose smiled at Gabriel.

"I didn't even think about the possibility that someone would adopt such a large stray. I mean, don't most people want cute little dogs?"

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel shrugged. "I think large dogs would be better, personally, but I'm more of a cat person anyway. How large was it?"

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

"Well, shoulder height like this I'd say."

Rose indicated Cloud's shoulder height with her hand. She couldn't tell Gabriel about the truth behind that 'stray' but she didn't want to lie about its size as well. Besides, she couldn't make the 'stray' too small because the angel had seen the teeth marks.

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "He could be dangerous; that almost sounds like a wolf, but I thought they were far from common here. I'll keep an eye out, he could be rabid."

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

Rose blanched and could only hope the angel took it as being afraid of rabid animals. But that wasn't the reason, oh no. If Gabriel thought that 'stray' was rabid he mustn't ever see her in fur form. It would be much too dangerous even if he didn't catch on to the truth!

"Rabid? You think so?"

She cursed her pressed sounding voice but she couldn't take the words back now.

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel touched her shoulder, both concerned and suspicious. "You're not alright. Are you really that frightened of rabid animals?"

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

"No, I'm alright, really. It's just... it didn't even occur to me the dog might be rabid."

Which was the truth, considering she was quite sure she'd know if she were rabid.

[cattygabriel]

He scrutinised Rose's face, biting his lip thoughtfully. "Have you seen it often, then?"

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

"What? No. But we have big dogs on our farm in Canada. My family has a sheep farm, you know? So I never thought of dogs, stray or not, as really dangerous, I'm used to dogs."

At least, having farmdogs was the way they explained them roaming the farm in their fur form. Which was also why the fur form had another name. It would look suspicious if there were a girl named Rose and a dog named Rose and a boy named Daniel and a dog named Daniel and so on...

[cattygabriel]

"Interesting. I don't recommend the same familiarity with strays here, though. Hmm. There should be a vet in Lower Tadfield..."

He had the feeling Rose knew more than she was saying about this dog, and his last statement had been more to gauge her reaction than anything else.

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

Rose would have liked not to pale again but she couldn't do anything against her body's reaction. Still, she tried to sound calm as she answered

"Well, I don't hug them all or adopt them immediately. But a dog can't frighten me just because it's big or something. And why the vet? We don't even know if anything's wrong with the dog. And no one's been hurt, so wouldn't it be a bit extreme?"

If the angel really called the vet and who knew else and told them to look for a big stray dog that was possibly rabid she would have to leave here. She wouldn't be able to ever safely roam the woods again here, and she couldn't stay anywhere where she could never be Cloud. It was bad enough she could only change once in a while and in secret, but if there were people out there actively looking for a stray dog it would be completely out of the question.

She wouldn't be able to leave immediately, of course, or it would look suspicious, but after a week at the most she would have to tell Ms Hodges that she wanted to move on and would leave the manor. It was a pity, she liked Ms Hodges and she could earn good money here and she didn't know where she'd next find a job...

[cattygabriel]

"Good point. I'll keep an eye out for it, then. Perhaps it's just hungry, the poor thing."

She looked so worried. Hmm.

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

Relief flooded Rose's body and she barely kept herself from breathing out deeply.

"Maybe. But it should be able to catch rabbits. Or at least rats."

She had to know as said 'stray' was her and she knew she was perfectly capable of catching rabbits, rats, frogs, ...

[cattygabriel]

"It'll have to compete with Ta-Miu for the rats, then. I buy her proper cat food, and yet she simply enjoys hunting," Gabriel grinned.

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

"For such a big dog rats wouldn't be the preferred prey I'd say. THere's more meat on rabbits and the dog seemed big enough to get them."

Oh yes, rabbits were tasty. Rats were but a mouthful to Cloud. An appetizer of sorts.

[cattygabriel]

"I should really warn Raphael to keep an eye on hs rabbit, then," Gabriel said. By now they had reached the library, and he held the door open for her.

[roseheerkens.livejournal.com]

"Wouldn't he keep his bunny indoors, in his room?"

Wasn't that what people did with their pet bunnies? Rose couldn't imagine the bunny running freely through the manor, not with all those different people here and the cats and the possibility of someone from the village catching the bunny if it left the grounds.