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On Hanna's Journey, she finds Cian, a Malayan Tiger with dark blue eyes. Lasts overnight from the 27th to the 28th September.
Word Count: 472. Worth 2 points.
Hanna looked around warily. She had not wandered far from home, only to the edge of Serena Reserve. She was planning on going further, but now she was standing at the fence, unsure of where she should wander. North, into Ethereal Eclipse? South, into The Trenches? Perhaps she should skirt around Crimson Dreams and visit Rabbit Lake? She'd been meaning to do that for awhile now. In the end, she whirled around and started walking in a direction at random. Her path took her northeast, into Ethereal Eclipse and around Crimson Dream's lands, then into Shiloh Hills. She stopped for the night right against Rabbit Lake. As was dictated in AniWayan tradition, she carried no weapons besides those Nature had lent her, her teeth and her claws, and none of her belongings. Every noise the woman heard made her flinch a little, expecting it to be a charging bear or a stalking cougar.
Because of her rampant imagination, it was a long time before Hanna fell asleep. Even after she had dropped off into slumber, she didn't rest well; the fears she had been having before carried over into her dreams. One that kept repeating itself was of her being chased, weaponless, across a wide plain by a variety of felines of varying size and coloration. Eventually one of the cats would trip Hanna up, but they never killed her. As soon as the female had flipped over, the dream would start all over again, with the canine sprinting away from the pack of cats.
At dawn, Hanna woke suddenly, her eyes blinking blearily as she tried to wake. She became aware of a scent, one familiar and strange at once. Her ears laid back, Hanna turned her ebony head to the right. What she saw very nearly scared her witless.
A large orange and black cat lounged some five feet from her side, his midnight blue eyes boring into her. Hanna skittered away from him on her rump, till her tail touched the waters of the lake, striving to get as far from him as she could without physically entering the lake. A twinkle entered those timeless blue eyes, and the feline seemed to smile. 'Relax, young one, I'm harmless. My name is Cian.' He pronounced it kee-an, emphasis on the first syllable. "What are.. Are you my Spirit Guide?" The tiger replied, 'I am, indeed, Susquehanna.' Still wary, Hanna made her way to the tiger's side, marveling at him.
She found that Cian was warm and fuzzy and emitted a steady, rumbling purr. He was longer than she was and would stand nearly to her waist. After several minutes, she stood and waded into the water, Cian splashing next to her. She trusted him; there was something right about his presence, and who was she to argue fate?
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