Just Not My Day (Open)

Amber was not human and perhaps never had been human. Sure, she now found herself back in human lands in the human city, after having been in the wilderness for countless months, but that did not change the fact of her humanity. Her pack, perhaps, were human or at least more human than she was. Would her dear sister Aura believe herself to be human? Or the father who had taken her in, Abyss? Of Aura, she thought she knew the answer to be no but of Abyss she wasn't so certain. Even they, however, were more human than she was and she had come to accept that fact. She didn't want to be human anymore; not entirely. She wasn't less than human, she was more, so much more.

In the rain forests of Brazil, Amber had been a creature of daylight. She hunted in the shadows of the trees, camouflaged and never in full light because the foliage hid her her feathered form. In the city it was different; int he city she was forced to be a creature of darkness and, in truth, she preferred to be a creature of darkness. No one in the city could accept the existence of dinosaurs, especially dinosaurs that hunted treasured pets and, perhaps in their fears alone, children. At the very least, she was large enough to hunt children, or even adults for that matter. Humans were slow creatures with dull senses and would make easy prey, but she wasn't so inhuman as to consider them as such. No, that part of her still remained, though it was a distant part of her now.

As a deinonychus Amber moved almost silently, allowing the natural shadows all around her to conceal her from nearby eyes. Her senses were far superior to those of mere humans and it was a relatively simple matter to keep herself hidden from them. Hunting was something she had become very good at and, although her prey in the city as different and the terrain upon which she hunted was different as well, all the skill she acquired still remained. If someone was stupid enough to leave their dog out and unattended, that was their problem and her next meal.

"Wallet, now,"

Amber cocked her head to the side, listening intently. Such distractions weren't something that concerned her in the rain forest nor were they something that even existed to distract her. Now, however? Now she had regained that sense of self that was separate from the predator she now was, that human sense of self. Harmony with all her aspects, that's what she had to strive for, harmony so that she wouldn't lose herself to the predator within again. Which meant listening to such things, and reacting in ways that a natural predator would not react. Because she was anything but a natural predator.

"Give my your money!"

Walking into the light, Amber puffed up her patchy brown feathered and let out a trilling screech, trying to look as large and intimidating as possible which wasn't such a difficult feat with a row of razor sharp teeth and sickle claws that could slice through a jugular with ease. Pitch black alien eyes stared into the eyes of the would-be mugger. Oh, how she wanted him to do something stupid so she could taste his blood on her tongue.

Mugger number one began to run, which was probably the smartest decision he could have made. The urge to run after him swept through Amber, although she managed to resist its allure. Running meant prey and she was, in this place and in this age, the ultimate predator. But no, she still had things to do here, human things like saving the man who was getting mugged. Human things because, without adhering to those human things she would once again lose her humanity completely and that was something she didn't want. Or at least, she didn't think she wanted. Without her human side she had no pack and without her pack, what was she?

Mugger number two did something much more interesting as he began swiping at Amber with a pitifully short knife. Well, perhaps if she wore human skin the knife would have seemed much more intimidating, but in the here and now, her claws were nearly as long as his knife and there were far more deadly things in the wild than a stupid human waving a pointy object.

With a high pitched growl, Amber crouched and then pounced, sickle claws extended. Her leap took her many feet into the air, clearly higher than her would be attacker expected. He slashed wildly with his knife, catching her with a grazing cut along her leg. A moment later, she came down again, across his back and neck tackling him to the ground. Her claws dug into his back, drawing numerous trickles of blood. She screeched, raising her head in victory. Were she nothing more than the predator, he would have been her next meal, but she was more than that and her human side reminded her that he was not to be made pray. Instead, his next actions would determine his fate, whether he was permitted to walk away with a few scars or whether a worse fate awaited him.

In the end it seemed as if mugger number two was also more intelligent than he appeared at first glance. All it took for him to realize the pros of fleeing and the cons of staying where he was was a full sized dinosaur jumping on his back and ripping into his flesh. It wouldn't have taken much effort for Amber to keep the mugger right where he was and end his fragile little life, but that would have been allowing the predator to take too much control and she had to remember the fact that, now, she was part human again. So, she let him get to his feet and flee for his life.

The threat now eliminated, Amber turned her attention back to the man she had just saved. He looked, for lack of a better word, rather terrified by the sight of her though she supposed she couldn't really blame him. After all, not only was she a modern day dinosaur, but she had also pounced and nearly killed a man in his defense. In an effort to show that she meant no ill will towards the man, she let out a high pitched chirp, a far cry from her earlier threatening growl.

As the adrenaline started to leave her system, Amber realized that her leg was bleeding from where the man had cut her. Judging by the level of pain and the amount of blood involved, she didn't think it was a serious wound but it was, nevertheless, a wound. In the wild it might have meant drawing bigger predators upon her, but the city was a far cry from the wild. The man she had just saved, in fact, looked to be injured and bleeding as well.

The man at least appeared to understand that Amber had saved is life and, even better, was not about to eat him. That was good. What was not so good was the fact that, in present form, she was lacking in vocal chords and a mouth capable of forming actual words, which made it rather difficult to communicate with the man she had just saved.

"Okay. So. You're friendly,"

A nod and a chirp of affirmation.

"So, uh...thank you? For saving my life? Oh my god, I'm talking to a dinosaur. I've lost it. I have completely lost it,"

A shake of the head and a series of chittering chirps that might have almost been taken for laughter. Not that she really blamed the man; after all, it wasn't' as if real live dinosaurs were a common sight in the big city.

Amber raised a clawed arm and held up one finger, trying to indicate that she would be back in a moment. At least she had something that resembled arms and hands, which allowed for a basic sort of mimed communication. Once she was reasonably certain he got the idea, she limped behind a nearby building and began the short, but horrifically painful task of shifting back in her human form. As bones changed position, muscles shrunk and rearranged themselves and feathers and scales got absorbed back into pale human skin, she grimaced with the pain wracking her body. She was used to it by now, however, and less than a minute later she was left as a pale, naked human girl.

Amber remained behind the building. The idea that the naked form was somehow shameful or embarrassing was a very human idea and something that she had left behind in the rain forests of Brazil. However, she knew that her nakedness might bother others even if it no longer bothered herself. "The dinosaur was a mutant and I am she. I am now left without clothing." Words. She was getting used to using words again. Blood dripped from the gash in her leg.

Sarah was walking down some nameless street with nothing to do. Raining was pouring down her, but her long coat was covering her white shirt so she didn't mind. She wasn't sure why she was. She just was. She turned the corner of one building and spotted what looked like a dinosaur...

She stopped dead. Then suddenly the dinosaur started to shift. It's body seemed to be shrinking. It was oddly disturbing and Sarah winced at how painful it must have been. Her mind instantly realized that the woman, who was what the dinosaur changed into, was a mutant. Another realization, the woman was naked.

Made sense actually. As the human body shifted, the clothes would rip in shreds. When the woman was done, Sarah started to move towards the woman.

>>"The dinosaur was a mutant and I am she. I am now left without clothing."

The woman's body was pale, that much Sarah would allow her eyes to see. However a quick glance across the woman's body had Sarah seeing a large amount of blood on her leg. The brunette strode closer to the pale woman. Her nakedness was startling, but understandable.

'Sounds like she's talking to someone.'[/color] After the thought floated, a jacket appeared around the side of the building the woman was closest to. Sarah stopped close ten feet from the pale woman.

>>"Here. Put this on, you'll get soaked out here. Are you alright?"

Sarah smiled. That voice was distinctly male, as was the jacket. Sarah wondered if she should say anything. Instead, she took off her jacket and white shirt. Once her shirt was off, her cream bra was showing, though not for long as she slid her coat back on. She ripped her shirt into strips before looking at the woman, avoiding looking at anything other than her face.

"Want me to wrap that? The rain's washing the blood, but it can still get infected." Sarah knew she wasn't going to touch the woman without permission, but she also knew she'd let the woman do it herself if need be.

Noah blinked as he heard another voice, waited a few moments, then stepped around the corner. There was another girl here now; what were all these teenage girls doing wondering the streets at night? And turning into dinosaurs, for that matter?

The girl wearing his coat was pale as a sheet of paper, her eyes pitch black, and it unnerved Noah a little. He nodded to the newcomer, then fixed his eyes back on the girl- and the blood on her leg.

"Hey, I'm a doctor," he said softly. "Mind if I have a look? Might be able to help out with that," he continued, gesturing toward her injured leg. His own arm was throbbing with pain, but he could fix that later with a gauze wrap and a bottle of vodka. He wanted to make sure she was okay, first. She'd saved his life, after all.

While Amber did not believe her wound to be serious, she nevertheless knew a doctor could assist. There was always the risk of infection or poison on the knife, even if the wound didn't appear very deep. In the wild, the option for medical attention wasn't there and she had been forced to heal herself from a number of minor scratches, bites and cuts, but she didn't have to do that now. Another advantage, perhaps, of relearning what it was to be human and to live amongst humans.

"You may look," Amber agreed. She limped closer and showed him the cut on her leg. Trust was an important thing when injured, especially trust of one who called himself a doctor. She had saved his life so he hopefully wouldn't have any motivation to try anything and humans didn't typically prey upon the weak for food, no matter how hungry they happened to be. Nor did this human appear particularly hungry, anyway.

"I'd ask what happened, but I think I know a little bit. Is there any other injury?"

"The doctor was attacked. I saved him. Now we're both injured. I am not injured beyond what you see." Amber noted the points, one by one, for the woman. She could make her own conclusions from there.