Scratching on the Walls (Merlin)

[Caitylin Roe]

It took Cat almost a full minute to untangle herself from the grass. Man she really needed to get out more, because this was ridiculous. She was a fox. She was supposed to be good at this nature stuff and, on a rare occaision, she was. For the most part, however, she was a bit more of a city fox. She ate rats and chickens and the occaision all cat and, instead of the grass being her hiding spot, it was the deserted carts from the market.

Wait, was he laughing at her? He was! Oh crud, he saw that? Embarrassment rushed through her and, if she'd been in her human form, she probably would've been blushing. Instead, her ears drooped a bit to the sides like they might if she'd just fallen in a bucket of water.

"Nothing..." she answered a little too quickly. Her shoulders slumped as she realized how fake her answer sounded. "...Hunting."

He looked away too amused with what he'd just seen. Pricking her ears forward again, Cat gathered her legs under her and hoped out of the deeper part of the grass, so that she was only up to her chest instead of her chin. She kept her tail up, shoulder squared, like none of that had just happened.

"Why? What'd you think I was doing?"

[youngwarlock]

It was becoming somewhat clear to Merlin that this fox seemed to be rather unsure of herself, unless of course she was too embarrassed to admit her natural instinct to play. The young warlock didn't know too much about foxes, especially magical ones, but surely hunting didn't involve rolling around on ones back in the grass. He frowned quizzically, the smile still remaining on his features as he knelt down onto the crisp grass. If she really had been hunting, she was going to appreciate this small token, he hoped.

"So you are hungry then?" Merlin asked, ignoring her question and producing something from his jacket pocket. The sandwich, half of which he had eaten earlier that evening, consisted of two dry slices of bread with a few cuts of ham inbetween. The fox had obviously been searching for food in Camelot, so she must be starving. Merlin only wished he had more to give.

"Here..." He said, placing the sandwich down upon the grass, as close to the small animal as he dared without alarming her.

[Caitylin Roe]

Cat showed no reaction to his comment about her being hungry save for a small twitch in her ears. She wasn't actually too hungry, though she was more than willing to take advantage of an opportunity. The instinct to dive for that mouse had been uncontrollable. Actually most of her reactions as a fox were out of her hands. Tonight's control had been the exception, not the rule. She was beginning to realize that, that was because of him, her speaking to him in the way he was talking to her.

She remembered her mother going off in the night, stealing food and money from travelers as a fox. Had she had control like this? Had the lack of her family been what made her slip up? She'd lived in the woods her entire life until she'd met Cat's father. He was actually proud of taking her away from her family. He claimed they were bad influences, that they would've ruined Cat and her mother by teaching them magic. But maybe that was the secret to managing the curse?

Cat decided that she was going to at least give this boy a chance. If she turned him in, he'd be executed and she'd go back to being buried in her own body. She'd be a nobody, a nothing. Cat really hoped she could trust this boy, because she was going to be very sad if she had to have him killed.

Still, she found her eyes narrowing slightly with suspicion when he knelt down. She noted that his hand had slipped into his pocket and tensed slightly. He could easily have a hidden weapon. But she visibly loosened at the scent of the ham from his sandwich. Her mouth started to water as she watched him lean over and place it on the ground.

Telling him to take it back, that she needed it less than he probably did, seemed like the right thing to do, but Cat didn't do that. Instead, she carefully stretched forward, craning her neck as far as it would go without having to step forward. She sniffed from a distance and took a single step, easily snatching up the ham from the middle of the sandwich and recoiling to chew the meat in the relative privacy that the distance between that gave.

She swallowed the last bits, licking her lips to get the remaining splashes of salty juice.

"Thank you," she said, dipping her head in a very un-fox-like nod.

She had no idea what she was doing. It was so surreal, standing here, nodding in her foxskin while she talked telepathically to another magic user. Never in a million years would she have imagined a noght like this would come. Part of her was thrilled, but part of her didn't know what to do here. She should be running away. But somehow she couldn't.

"So, why does someone like you work for the most anti-magic family to ever be born?"

[youngwarlock]

Merlin smiled happily as he watched the fox snatch up the pieces of ham and devour them as though they were the first meal she'd had in weeks. He nodded in response to her thanks and found himself desperately wanting to know more about her now that they were in a more relaxed environment without the need to escape. So many questions were whirling around inside his head but before he had chance to speak any of them, the curious fox revealed that she had questions of her own.

Indeed why did he work for a man whose father would have him hanged if he found out Merlin's secret? The answer was one that the warlock had only found out himself, little over a year ago.
"Because one day prince Arthur is going to be the greatest king Camelot has ever known." he replied via their special way of communication, glancing down at the small creature with a smile of assurance.

"He will unite the lands and allow those with magic to practise it freely ....One day... we'll all be free to be who we are..... and apparently it is my destiny to help him become that great king...or so people keep telling me."

He leaned back on the soft grass and glanced up at the skies thoughtfully, watching as the stars twinkled in the darkness. It felt good having someone else to talk to again, even if she were a fox. "I've saved Arthur's life so many times and he doesn't even know it..."