At the back of the gardens

[Animaux]

Cal woke up at dawn.

She raised her head from the pillow, and looked sharply at a couple of claw rips in the sheet. One of THOSE dreams again.

She stretched each of her hands and feet and got out of bed with twitchy little movements, surprisingly awake for the hour. Something in the back of her mind was tickling restlessly and she needed to address it.

Cal was already wearing a tanktop and light pants, and she didn't bother to add anything to her outfit. Opening the door slowly, she closed it behind her and stepped down the hallway in her bare feet.


She left the building on the bottom floor, by the back patio door. She turned her head from left to right, inhaling the cool misty morning, and decided on the direction of the gardens.

Her feet left imprints in the dewy grass as Cal jogged easily into the gardens. She ran around plots of land, tapped trees as she went by, and leapt over planter boxes.

At the back of the garden, the outskirts of the property, she found a little-visited grove of trees and smiled as she came to a stop. Her head turned involuntarily back to the mansion to check that nobody could see her.

Then she wriggled out of her pants and pulled off her tanktop, threw them to the ground and danced a few happy steps in the nude.

Reaching up to grasp a low branch of a tree, she leapt and pulled herself up, swinging back and forth and relishing the feeling of the muscles in her arms holding her body curved in the air.

With a final swing, her arms grew long and her body grew short... and her toes reached up to join her fingers... And Cal the orangutan shot up into the tree.

The grove's leaves rustled, spraying dew into the air, and each tree's limbs rattled in turn as the sun came up over the horizon. Animaux was a blur, fur changing from orange to brown to white to black to striped to spotted as she shapeshifted over and over, and a menagerie of happy sounds drifted over the garden.

[Animaux]

ATTENTION... X... LAB... REPEAT X-MEN LAB ...DIATELY.

Cal the giant lemur stopped as her sharp ears caught the faint sounds of an announcement coming from the mansion. She dangled from a branch, trying to figure out what it was saying and whether it was applicable to her.

She wasn't an X-Man, and she hadn't been in training recently, but she knew she could be on that road if she chose to be; was this accouncement for everyone in the school, or just for full-fledged members of the team?

Animaux dropped to the ground on all fours and changed into her most comfortable animal shape, a golden retriever. She was hungry by now from her workout, so maybe she should head in to the mansion anyway.

She started to trot towards the building, but got sidelined by sniffing most of the trees and flowerpots in the garden. No real hurry.

[conduit]

ooc I had written this before I realized there was someone back here. I figure they might end up running into one another.

Rayen walked around the outside of the expansive building, enjoying the early morning sunshine, the smell of the trees and the grass. Her tennis shoes dangled in one hand, bare feet padding along the grounds with quiet, deliberate steps.

Stopping in the back yard, she reached for her cigarettes in her back pocket, then paused. Looking around a bit, she let her hand drop and took a deep breath.

It's okay. You don't need that now. You're nice and calm, there's nothing that's going to unsettle you here.

Rayen hadn't been this jumpy on the reservation. Mostly because it had been years since the accident, and she was careful not to get herself into tense situations. But here... this was all new, and she knew so little about her own kind... it was embarrassing how little she'd kept up with it. Maybe they had history books or something of that sort. Maybe Kurt could explain things to her.

She looked back to the house, wondering if she could make it up to her room without anyone seeing her. Why did she want to hide? She wasn't sure. Maybe she had to protect them all. From her.

Her eyes fell on a small electrical box near a tree. Walking over to it, she knelt in the grass and tapped the green metal. It was bolted. Well... that never stopped her.

Rayen placed the fingertips of one hand on the box, drawing a line down the center until she could feel where the transistor sat. The current jumped at her fingers, made them tingle. She opened her senses and pulled the electrical flow to her, watching it wind up her fingers like frantic white-blue vines.

There was something like coming home in the sensation, as her body relaxed and her heart began a thunking, steady beat. Careful not to overload the box or tap too much energy away from the house, she allowed the current to accelerate through her body and across to the opposite arm. Very slowly she magnified the flow by a few watts, hearing the small box in front of her hum. The sound echoed the vibration in her ribcage, and she took a breath in, letting it out slowly through her lips.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Rayen pulled her fingers back, cautiously absorbing the last of the current and breaking the connection gently. If she had severed herself from the circuit abruptly, it might have disturbed electrical systems in the mansion, and she didn't want to risk messing things up on her first day.

Standing, she shivered from head to toe, and broke out in the first grin she'd managed since arriving last night.

[Animaux]

Cal looked up from peeing on Storm's flower patch to see a beautiful, dark-haired woman walking barefoot into the gardens. Her golden-retriever ears pointed forward and her tail started to wag. Oo, oo, a person!

When the woman knelt by an electrical box and started to manipulate it, Cal realized she must be a mutant. Light curled around her fingers and Cal cocked her head, fascinated. Electricity... she could do a lot of damage, that one.

But being a dog always made her want to play, and she raised and lowered her paws excitedly, waiting for the stranger to stop playing with currents. When the woman stood up Cal's tail began to wag again.

She bounded out from behind a tree, panting happily, and cut a wide path around in front of the woman so she wouldn't be too surprised. Oo! Oo! Oo! Person!

[conduit]

Rayen noticed the dog coming, and smiled, not thinking for a second it might be anything else.

"Well hi!" She said in a sweet, playful voice, leaning over to offer her hand for a smell. Always a good idea to let a strange animal get your scent before you pet them. "Look at you having fun out here! Who do -you- belong to??"

[Animaux]

Hi! Hi! Hi! thought Cal, and bounced up to the woman. She sniffed her hand and managed to resist the urge to sniff elsewhere. Nope, nope, people don't like that.

Cal smacked her lips a few times and decided that her doggy mouth couldn't form the word "Xavier's," so she looked up at the woman and then looked towards the school and then looked back at the woman, tail wagging madly.

Then she came forward and nudged the hand for a good scratch. Mmmmmm pet me pet me.

[conduit]

ooc dying of cute!

Rayen laughed, scritching the dog happily. She knelt down for a second, giving her a good once-over with pets, then stood.

"Did you want to go inside?" She said in that same friendly voice, standing. She picked up a stick- more like a twig, just something blown to the ground from a branch- and tossed it towards the mansion.

"Can you fetch? Go get it!" She went walking in that direction, swinging her arm to encourage the dog to do as she said.

[Animaux]

[OOC: *lol* I'm having way too much fun. : D]

Cal wriggled happily. Oooo yeah yeah get under the belly ooooooooo. Oh man, it's great being a dog.

She snuffed at the mention of going inside. Perhaps it would be a good idea - she WAS getting hungry. She bobbed her head up and down and kept the tail wagging.

This seemed like a nice girl; Cal hadn't seen her before. She wondered if maybe they could be friends in human form too. Cal never considered that the woman might feel deceived when she found out that the dog was actually a mutant. Her people skills were a bit... lacking.

Her dog skills, however, were very strong. Oh yeah! It's a stick! It's a stick! I know this one! She bounded after it and grabbed it in her mouth, slobbering profusely, and then turned around and ran back to the woman as she walked towards the house.

[conduit]

Conduit laughed, taking the stick back and twirling it in her fingers as they walked up to the house together.

"Well it's nice to know they allow pets here, seems like a pretty cool place." She sighed. "If I ever get to know anyone. You don't seem to have that problem though do you?" She rubbed the dog's head as she put her tennis shoes back on.

[Animaux]

Cal looked eagerly at the stick.

... A one-shot fetch game? That's no fair! She drooled a little.

But the young woman was talking again and she perked up to listen, trotting at her heel. Yeah, they allow pets when they're students. Damn, maybe I should let her know I'm not a normal dog... I wonder how she feels about nakedness... Maybe I should find someone to recognize me for her, who knows me.

But just then, the woman was talking about getting to know people.

You don't seem to have that problem though do you?

Cal winced with both of her eyes, even though the petting felt good. Oh, that's right. I do. And she let out a big huffing dog-sigh, and sat down.

[conduit]

Conduit turned, smiling a bit and sitting down next to the dog. She scritched behind its ears, looking out at the garden.

"My grandfather had a few dogs, back home," she said. "He always liked to tell me they descended from the great Coyote spirit. Then I had to remind him that Coyote likely did not eat the stuffing out of the arms of the couch."

[Animaux]

Cal stretched luxuriously under the ear-scratching, and licked her lips. Mmmm, stuffing.

However, the words had given her an idea. She stood up carefully and backed off a little ways, watching the young woman intently, hoping to make her stay where she was.

Then, as slowly as she could manage it, the golden retriever began to change. Her snout sharpened, her ears sharpened, her legs slimmed, her golden fur grew dustier and shorter, until a large coyote stood in the grass.

Animaux pranced her front paws a few times like she had as a dog, and tried to look pleasant.

[conduit]

Rayen sat there with an appropriate amount of surprise on her face. Her eyebrows raised, and she was frozen for a moment.

Well it's either Coyote, or a mutant. Do animals have the mutant gene now?

"Wow. I guess um..." she frowned, then half grinned. "Hey. Can you understand me?"

[Animaux]

Uh-oh, here goes. Well, better now than later, eh?

Cal looked sheepish. She nodded her head once or twice, and then lay down in the grass, trying to make herself look at cute and harmless as possible.

[conduit]

Conduit laughed once, running her fingers through her hair. "Well shit. Now I feel kind of stupid." She tossed the stick at the coyote and shook her head.

[Animaux]

Cal almost felt bad for leading the girl on, but at least she wasn't angry, so Cal's guilt evaporated quickly. She really didn't have very many friends, due to her shifting nature and lack of social skills... it had never occurred to her that fluffy animals make friends more easily.

She hopped up and went after the stick again, pouncing at it in the grass and gnawing on one end, which splintered delightfully under her sharp teeth. She made little yipping noises of happiness. Someone to play with!

After a moment she grabbed it up and trotted back to the young woman. She dropped the stick in her lap and nudged her arm, trying to look friendly.

[conduit]

Conduit laughed a bit. She stood up, scritching the coyote's head.

"Time to go back in friend." She threw the stick once more. "You be good."

With a smile, she turned back to the house and went through the door.

[conduit]

[Exit to 'To the parking garage']

[Animaux]

She scampered after the stick and when she pounced it and turned around, the girl was gone.

Cal-Coyote huffed a sigh of unhappiness and sat her bottom down hard in the grass. So much for a possible friend.

Abandoning her stick, she headed back to the grove of trees for her clothes. It would probably be a good idea to wear them when she went inside for breakfast.