It was a crisp winter’s day and Regan was off of work from the shop and the greenhouse so she decided to go for a walk in the woods like she usually did with most of her free time. She dressed in her faded blue jeans and her olive green tank top, along with her black combat boots and her black hooded sweater to help cover her up. She left the mansion and headed back out into the woods for a leisurely walk. She pulled the black hood over her feline ears to help cover her head and face in case someone took a passing glance, they wouldn’t really notice her feline features through the trees.

She came upon her favorite tree in the wooded area. It was a large and old tree with many branches and knots for her to dig her claws into. She quickly dropped down to all fours and playfully ran towards the tree. With a well-planned leap, she jumped up onto the trunk of the tree and dug her claws into the thick bark. She quickly climbed her way up the tree to one of the top branches and perched there in the sun, quietly watching the critters of the forest playing and listening to the sounds of the city off in the distance.

Lately Ty found himself spending more and more time at Tses since he came out of his emotional turmoil. But today, she'd told him to go home to Sanctuary and take some time to himself for once, something he hadn't done in quite some time. But instead of directly listening to her, he took a random detour, and he found himself near a wooded area.

Being in New York for six years did not destroy his inner Georgian. Though dormant, it still lay deep within him, usually only coming out in the form of his accent. But seeing the trees...something in him clicked, and he briskly walked into the woods, instantly feeling a wave of nostalgia.

His deep blue eyes took in the sights as he sat under a tree, pulling out his knife. He began to strip away some of the bark before carving a heart into the wood of the tree, then he began to carve more unorthodox images. They were simple and crude, but to him they carried alot of meaning. Inside the heart was a small equation of pictures. A fish, a plus sign, and a crescent moon, however, were something that only Ty would understand.

Smiling at his work, he picked up a stick and began carving the stick randomly, mostly giving it a point. Little did he know, he wasn't alone...

Enjoying the breeze ruffling her fur, Regan let out a soft sigh. Right now she was at peace. Things weren’t perfect, but things weren’t too bad either. The outdoors just made her heart feel lighter and she didn’t feel all the pressures of the world and the constant fear of the people of the city. It was just quiet and calm up in her tree, alone in the woods.

…..

Well she was alone up until now anyways. Regan’s ears perked up as she heard the crunching of snow underfoot and her emerald eyes quickly darted in the direction that it was coming from. She spotted a male figure in the snow and he was heading directly for her tree.

Feeling a slight twinge of panic flutter through her chest, Regan remained motionless on her perch in the tree. She watched the male closely as he came forth and pulled out a knife to start carving into her tree. She wasn’t very happy about that, but she supposed that she didn’t really own the tree, she just really liked it.

It was long until he finished his carving and she curiously leaned forward a little trying to get a better look. The male then picked up a stick and started to whittle the end of it into a point. She squeezed her clawed hands around the branch she was perched on and dug her claws in slightly, she was now starting to worry that if he spotted her, he might just try and use that stick as a weapon, and that would end very badly for the unknowing male below her. But now she was stuck in this tree, if she tried to make an escape, he would easily see her and her mutation.

Ty continued whittling, carving the rest of the stick. But Ty's left hand was taped, and the glove on his right. Though it helped contain his power, this wasn't quite as useful for preventing the cold. His fingers began to hurt as he held the knife and the stick. Unfortunately, they began to grow numb, and Ty's hand slipped, the knife missing his stick and nicking his finger.

"Ow! ****!" he exclaimed, dropping the stick as he looked at his finger. The cut wasn't bad, but it was deep enough to bleed, staining the snow on the ground with droplets of deep red. Folding the knife and slipping it into his pocket, he stuck his wounded finger in his mouth out of reflex.

Green eyes stayed ever locked onto the male below as he worked away on his little wood spear. Suddenly the knife in his hand slipped and nicked his finger, the scent of his blood filled the air and the inner saber tooth forced a small growl to escape Regan’s lips unintentionally. She gasped and clasped a clawed hand over her mouth. So much for being inconspicuous!

She remained motionless on her perch and hopped that the male below hadn’t heard her, or at least didn’t realize where it had come from directly. She stared down at him, waiting to see what his reaction would be and she hoped that she wouldn’t scare the living daylights out of him if he did spot her. If so she would use the trees to make her escape back to the mansion and avoid any serious confrontation.

It didn't take long for the cut to stop bleeding, thankfully. However, he was sure he heard a growl behind him, and he whirled around, looking for the source of it. He jumped a little, but then semi-relaxed, though still ready for anything. But not a tiger.

"What the...?" he started, then noticed quickly that this wasn't exactly your run-of-the-mill tiger. "Oh, whew," the man murmured, then took a breath, still not letting his guard down, but for some reason he felt better knowing that he was dealing with a fellow mutant. Then again, he couldn't say many mutants had given him trouble. But none of them were part tiger either.

"Wait a minute...." Ty continued, talking mostly to himself. He remembered Chloe once mentioning meeting a mutant that very much matched the one he was looking at. "Hey uh, you wouldn't happen to know a girl named Chloe, would you? Butterfly?" Yes, he was more or less going out on a limb here, but in his mind it was better to try to make conversation than just stare and risk being eaten.

The male below had heard her it seemed since he was now staring right at her. Dammit! Why did she have to be an animal, and of all animals, a predator on top of that, it wasn’t fair. She slinked back in the tree to try and pull herself away from his view and to make a flying leap to the next tree when he acted relieved. Obviously this guy was either a mutant himself or one of the humans that didn’t fear them.

Still poised and ready to make a run for it, Regan stopped and looked back down at him, slightly curious, but still very cautious, it could be a trick after all. She didn’t say a word, just stared at him with frightened eyes. Then he asked if she knew Butterfly and it made her tilt her feline head to the side, a flicker of curiosity in her emerald eyes. She nodded slowly but didn’t speak to him. She wondered how he knew that Butterfly was her friend and how he knew about Butterfly.

"I thought so. She told me about having a friend who resembled a tiger the last time we spoke," he said softly, apparently hoping his charm for [most] animals worked on mutants too. "My name is Ty, and Butterfly's my sister," he explained, leaning back against another tree, looking up at the other mutant.

His face faltered for a second, knowing that he hadn't exactly been the best brother in the world. He was trying his best, but sometimes it didn't work out like that. "I know you're probably wondering, so I'll go ahead and say I'm a mutant too.Though I can't say I expected to see anybody out here. I was just kinda wandering around, relaxing. For once just getting away."

The man seemed very relaxed, then again, Ty'd been eye to eye with a roach that was almost his height. After that, it'd take alot more than just the appearance of a tiger-mutant to freak him out. Though if she showed signs of hostility...then it'd be different.

Regan edged closer to the end of the branch so she could see the male better. He said he was Butterfly’s brother and that she had told him about her. She was kind of mad about that. Butterfly knew how much Regan hated being seen by people, and now she was telling other people about her? She hoped that it was only because Ty was her brother that she spilled the beans about her feline friend. She would let it slide for now, but she hoped that the news of existence wouldn’t keep spreading. Finally piping up, Regan responded in a small voice. “I’m Regan.”

So this was the guy that put Butterfly up in a condemned building in the middle of winter? She was not thrilled about that but she was not going to be rude and say that out loud to him. He claimed he was a mutant as well, she wondered what he was capable of doing, but she wasn’t about to ask. He wasn’t expecting to see anyone in the woods and of all the people to stumble across, he stumbled across her. It sure was a small world. “I was not expecting to run into anyone myself. Not many people hang out in the woods so it’s a safe place for me to get out and about.” she said in reply, her voice held a soft Irish accent as she spoke.

She wondered what he was getting away from, but he seemed pretty relaxed to be standing below a tigress. She wasn’t exhibiting any hostility, but she was still being careful, she wasn’t just going to trust this stranger right off the bat, he did have a knife and that little stake still, and for all she knew, the second she was in range, he might use it.

Ty pocketed the knife, tossing the stick over his shoulder. "Nice to meet ya. It's actually nice having a quiet conversation, too. Change of pace, ya know?" He leaned back against the tree, looking up at the tiger.

"Where I grew up, there were wooded areas like this everywhere. I practically grew up in the woods, climbing trees, carving stuff, just...being a boy." He chuckled lightly. "But I've been here six years, since discovered my mutation, and I don't really do this much anymore."

Regan watched as Ty put away his knife and toss the stick he was working on over his shoulder and she relaxed slightly. She sat down on the branch in a straddled position and lowered her upper body to lie down on the branch so she could look down at Ty easily. Her long tail trailed down past her feet and curled at the end. She gave him a curious look as he made his statement. “It’s nice to meet you too, but I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean. Have you not had many quiet conversations lately?”

“I love the woods.” Regan replied with a small smile. “I come out here a lot when I have free time, I like being outside. I spent most of my life locked up indoors so I take advantage of getting out and about when I can, and I sure do like climbing trees.” She said with a little giggle as she hung her head over the branch a little more which caused her vibrant red hair to hang around her feline face.

Ty shook his head. "Can't say that I have. It's been one thing after another. Cops, mutant haters...chaos followed by chaos. Toss in a volatile relationship and...there's my life. Even if the latter's sorta calming down. For now." He chuckled slightly, then continued listening.

"Yeah. I used to love the woods too. It's been so long since I've actually been in them though. Though I guess moving from the country to the city does that to ya." He gave a slight nod, smiling as he relaxed a little more.

Regan’s head tilted to the side as Ty spoke about his current adventures and she was thankful that her life was looking pretty decent and calm compared to his. “Well that’s unfortunate to hear, seems your luck has not been all that great Ty.” She offered a sympathetic smile, “I hope it gets better for you soon, it’s never good to live a completely crazy life, you need to have some sort of peaceful escape.”

“The woods are a nice place to escape to, but living in a city does make that a little hard to do at times. I don’t go into the city myself,” she said with a slight frown, “I’m not exactly a welcomed sight to behold walking down the street.”

Ty gave a dry laugh. "Yeah...Lady Luck doesn't like me very much, I don't think. Though it has its moments." He sighed softly out of his nose. "It's peaceful, all right, and I can understand. Especially with all this tension that seems to be building towards our kind. Honestly though, from what I gather so far, you make better company than most of the quote-unquote 'normal' looking ones." He gave a soft smile.

Regan’s frown quickly turned into a fanged grin at the kind compliment that Ty had given her. She sat up on the branch and swung her right leg over the branch and launched herself down to land in the snow on her feet with a slight thud. “Well thanks for the compliment! Most people don’t even give me a chance to open my mouth before they run away screaming or want to kill me. The only people that actually talk to me are mutants. That’s not a bad thing though, I have made some pretty great friends, like your sister for example!”