 |
PERSONA: Hilaris
GENDER: Female
ORIGIN: Danach
CREATURE: leopard felinoid (Panthera Pardus)
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: Head to tail 40-75 inches. Shoulder height 18-32 inches. About 130 pounds.
HAIR: black
EYES: yellow
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Hilaris, when in her leopard shape, is a lithe and muscular creature, with soft, golden (and white/gold underbelly) fur, black spots, and yellow eyes. Her tail is long, her ears are rounded, and her claws are long and sharp. As a felinoid, she is curvy and slightly furred, with spots and a tail, and ears poking out of her long, shiny black hair. Her eyes are golden. She has all the 'normal' human parts, but her fingernails are unnaturally long and sharp.
VOICE QUALITY: As a felinoid, she doesn't talk much, but it is a low and rich voice. In her leopard form, Hilaris has a raspy voice. She cannot roar, but instead growls or purrs.
LITERACY: As a wild creature living in the savannah, with no one around her but illiterate animals, she has no literacy whatsoever, and when speaking in human tongue, it is a mix of African grammar, and bits she has picked up, who-knows-where.
CLOTHING: In the savannah, Hilaris can neither find clothes, nor does she need or want them. She wears her fur, and so is not quite naked.
JEWELRY: Hilaris can find no jewelry in the savannah--and as there is no one to impress except for her prey, she doesn't wear it.
FAMILY: Although once Hilaris must've had some strange sort of family, leopards are by nature solitary, and fiercely territorial. She lives alone. SEXUAL ORIENTATION/ RELATIONS: Hilaris is 'straight,' because in the animal world, homosexuality just doesn't work. She has had many male partners in the past, and given birth to many healthy, normal leopard cubs. (Having no particular breeding season, females are sexually receptive at 3-7 week intervals lasting a few days. Mating is frequent daily. Litters consisting of 1-6, though usually 3 cubs. All cubs are born blind weighing from 15-20 ounces. Cubs are kept hidden until they can follow their mother at 6-8 weeks. Only the mother will care for the young. She does this until 18-24 months, whereupon she will mate again)
BREEDING
Sexual Maturity: 2.5 years
Mating: Non-seasonal
Gestation: 90-105 days
No. of Young: 1-6 cubs
PETS: No pets. She would probably eat them.
SKILLS: Hilaris is an adept hunter, her diet small mammals and birds, as well as impaka and the like, although she has highly adaptable hunting and feeding behaviour. Preying with a combination of opportunism, stealth, and speed, she hunts alone and generally hunts at night, ambushing and stalking within close range before a short, fast rush. An adept tree climber, she often drags her prey up trees out of reach from other predators. Because of variety and small size of prey, she avoids contact and conflict with stronger competition. Her wide use of trees is mainly for resting, safely aloft from predators, shaded from the midday sun; for hunting, ready to leap, she will survey her surrounding area for food, occasionally dropping straight down directly atop passing prey; for conserving food, she often drags food to the top, away from scavengers.
PERSONALITY: Hilaris is a carnivore and she spends most of her time hunting. She is, however, very playful and loving with any of the mates or cubs she spends time with. She enjoys grooming herself or being lazy in her free time. Fiercely territorial, she also prowls her territory and spray marks the boundaries.
Hilaris stretched her dark spotted, golden body, a long, languid, lazy stretch. It would soon be morning, and breakfast would have to be caught, unless she wanted to be hungry that day. Hilaris ran a clawed hand through her dark, wild hair and caressed her other hand with her scratchy tongue, running it down her fur-covered, felinoid body to flatten the cowlicks. Outside her den the Sun burned a deep red, his head thrown back and his mane billowing as he sang his morning song, touching the savannah with golden light. Hilaris smiled at him and crawled out of her small entrance, climbing face down the jagged brown shale cliff her cave was on.
Hilaris hopped and landed in a crouch, smiled sharply, one canine poking over her lip, as she weaved through the tall yellowed grasses. Hilaris gazed through narrowed yellow eyes at the herd of wild impaka, much like Earth's impala, licking her lips. Her belly growled hungrily as she inched forward on it through the dirt.
This morning I shall dine on impaka...tonight I may eat a tikakah, her mind chanted rhythmically, and she grinned to herself.
The impaka startled, catching a faint whiff of Hilaris's scent, and she froze, her hind muscles contracting. If the impaka decided to run, she would have make a split-second leap, and, more likely than not, miss. But the wind changed and the impaka settled, quietly eating the long, yellow grass.
Now's the chance, thought Hilaris, creeping forward, her haunches bunching...
Hilaris sprang out of the grass toward the impaka, running full tilt at a small one. While the rest of the impaka scattered, Hilaris's target was frozen, hypnotized with fear and the yellow of the leopardess's eyes. Hilaris growled and jumped onto the impaka, quickly biting the throat and ending its life. She had no regrets about killing the impaka.
First pulling the beast into a tree, Hilaris sank her teeth into the impaka's flesh, reveling in the sweet, metallic taste of its still-warm blood, the freshness of the young and tender meat.
Finished with her meal, Hilaris sauntered down to the water-hole, for once forgetting her carnivorous nature and drinking peacefully, side by side with the other animals that would normally be her prey. Dipping her chin into the water, Hilaris rinsed the blood from her face, discouraging any diseases that might come of the impaka's blood.
Hilaris prowled restlessly, surveying the borders of her territory, scent marking every once in awhile. She paused to rake her impressive claws across the trunk of a tree, leaving deep indentations in the wood. Across the territory, a mile or so away, the long rasping cry of an enemy female reached Hila's ears. She growled and answered powerfully, discouraging any would-be intruders. The other female did not sound again. Instead, a new cry, one of a male, answered Hila. She purred to herself, and with a few loping strides moved down her boundary to the nearest place she had heard the male's voice. She answered him, longingly. He replied, closer now. Suddenly, he appeared, a handsome, large leopard. He looked deep into her hypnotizing eyes and was entrapped by them, and her by his. Hilaris moved closer, tempting him, flicking her tail gently to and fro, then trotting a few steps deeper into her territory.
Come and get me, she seemed to say. The male nodded and trotted after her, inviting a playful chase across the savannah, ending in a warm roll in the long yellow grass. The male, Irikaa, licked Hila's cheek and she responded with a deep purr. They mated in the brilliant sunset. Then Irikaa was on his way, back to his territory, always close by.
I be seein' you, agin, he murmured leopardian, and disappeared.
Hilaris watched proudly as her two cubs tumbled nearby. They were young, but in a few weeks she would sever the ties that held them close to her heart. Irikaa had sired them well; they were true leopards, pure, like him, with none of the shifting ability their mother possessed. This was a good thing, for it would be easy to abandon them when the time came. For now, she would watch them, protect them, and teach them to fend for themselves. The cubs, weary of their play, crawled to Hila's soft white-gold belly, their fuzzy golden-black fur blending with her own, a mimicry of the power they would be in the near future. Hilaris purred as she licked them clean, spotting Irikaa's green-gold gaze upon her. He nodded, and moved away. Soon he had vanished.
The cubs were gone. Irikaa had visited after they left, but Hila found she did not want his company. She let him go to the audacious female that provoked her territory. Hilaris looked at him as he walked away, darting confused glances at her over his shoulder, until finally she turned and shimmied away. Hilaris had felt the call of her other kind, and she would go to meet it.
Hilaris traveled for many days through blazing heat, pausing at every water source, and eating when she was hungry and could catch her prey. No other factors save an occasional nap swayed her steady march. Finally, her pawsteps slowed, and she gazed upon the first human civilization she had ever seen: a small mud hut with a straw roof. Exhausted, Hilaris climbed the nearest tree and slept for a long while.
When she woke up, Hilaris shifted quickly, with some regrets, from her leopardian form to one of more human proportions, although she retained the tail and a thin coat of fur over her distinctly brown skin. She jumped easily from her perch and landed on the dusty, sunbaked earth. She stood and walked proudly, her head held high like a queen's. She entered the hut without knocking.
Inside the hut, a bright light caused the pupils of Hila's still catlike eyes to narrow to tiny black slits. She glanced carefully around, getting adjusted to the new surroundings. The source of the light came from a large lamp in a corner of the hut, which was placed beside a large, comfortable-looking couch. Upon the couch, a man of dark skin had been sprawling, his nose in a medical book, but in the instant he heard Hilaris enter, he sprang from the couch. In mid-leap, he shifted from human to cheetah and landed, teeth bared and tail lashing. This so surprised Hilaris that she changed, too. Cheetah and leopard faced each other, growling. The cheetah's eyebrows raised and he stepped back a pace and returned to human form; Hila also regained human proportions.
"Who are you?" the man demanded, his stern blue eyes locked with her yellow ones. Hilaris grinned, her sharp white teeth a stark contrast to her dark skin and bronze-y fur.
"I be Hilaris," she replied in Afrikaan dialect, gazing at him. The man had extremely dark brown skin like her own, with two pale markings over his eyebrows. His long black and yellow hair was strangely cut, with a slight widows peak upon his forehead. The pale tips of his hair dropped over his forehead while the rich black swept back fairly short except for a thin tail down to his back. His nose was strong and the lines in his face deep. Hila found him very handsome, and thought he would have made a good mate, perhaps better than Irikaa, if he had been a leopard. He could have made a good mate, anyhow.
The man bowed slightly, and in an exotic accent, purred, "Ivo, son of Sable, son of Zoan, son of Simon, son of Istvan." His lips curled back in a wide grin. "Is there a reason you are here?" he asked. Hilaris ran her still-sharp nails through her long, black hair and shrugged.
"I felt your presence and I wanted to meet another of my kind," she repllied, in a rich, low voice.
"I think there might be another reason for your coming," Ivo said, his blue eyes flashing. He beckoned, and Hila followed him out the door.
Hila screamed, a sound like the screech of a nightowl and a harsh rasping growl. In front of her, Ivo's dragon, the bronze-darkling Zkoth, stood, eyes swirling an angry red. Hilaris, getting over her initial shock, glared fiercely at Ivo, who was laughing. She hissed and spat at him, her eyes narrowed and glowing dangerously.
"I am sorry Zkoth frightened you so," Ivo said, still chuckling.
"He did not frighten me," Hilaris insisted, "I was only surprised." Hila, who shook with mingled anger and shock, bristled at Ivo and his dragon. "Why did you bring him?"
"Because," Ivo said, "I believe that you should attend a hatching at the Healing Den, and we have to fly to get there." Eventually Ivo did manage to get Hilaris onto Zkoth's back, but the only thing keeping her there was Ivo's steady purr throughout the flight.
Hilaris lay quietly on her stomach on the cool floor of her cathair. Ivo had convinced her that it would be easiest to be accepted if she looked more human, and so she had lost all her fur and donned a leather two-piece, a strapless, belly-baring shirt and a pair of very short shorts, both matching, dyed to match Ivo's spiffy riding jacket, a golden color with dark splashes of brown throughout. Hilaris liked the clothing, but she missed her fur and most of all, her tail. She had kept her long claws, insisting that they made her feel more secure and helped her to climb better. Besides, Zkoth liked it when she scratched his itches. Yes, Hila and Zkoth were both stubborn creatures, and the dragon especially touchy, but they had made a promise to Ivo that they would try to get along. (Zkoth still couldn't resist sneaking up on Hila, and that always resulted in fresh new scratch marks upon his light-dark hide.) Hilaris spent a lot of time with Ivo, when she didn't prefer napping or hunting. He was the most intelligent creature she knew, and his being able to shift was an added bonus. Besides, he was an incredible mate.
 From the far right side of the sands came a loud cry. It wasnt a croon of impatience, or of fear.
"She's so hungry," said Hilaris in her strange dialect, as she sauntered toward the big dragon.
Someone near her said, "He. Browns are male."
She looked back at the young man, and sneered. "I know that, she replied. But this is a She. Are you going to argue with me?"
Up in the stands, Ivo chuckled and leaned forward. The dragon she was approaching was definitely brown--but female? Well, more unusual things had been happening already today.
The feline-appearing young woman swayed around the other candidates, not liking how most of them smelled, or how they looked at her. Among the other unhatched eggs at Lanneth's nest, the long necked brown moved toward Hilaris and pressed her head against her side. "I know, Vaddath, let us find something good. I can smell meat in that other room..."
It wouldn't be easy getting the meat away from those two! It was already hard enough prying Ivo away from the leopard shifter. Now, he obviously got some odd message from his dark-bronze, which pleased him greatly by the grin on his face. "I'm sure she will, Zkoth... Suddenly you're going to get along with her far better, aren't you?"
FEMALE Brown Vaddath bonded to Hilaris
Large and brownlike in every respect except that she's a she! She will be able to blend in with surrounding trees and grass nicely, though she is suited to catch large prey at her 35' length.
I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in twelve-thirty flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what's deep inside
Frightened of this thing that I've become
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
Toto-http://hjem.get2net.dk/lomborg/toto/
|