Closed RP A Dark Park After Dark

This RP is currently closed.
“Oh, it’s a good thing I’m wearing a skirt then,” Eli said with a nervous laugh as she looked down at the ground half expecting to see a trail of ants crawling up her leg. There weren’t any, but the thought was in her head so she could swear that she could feel them scuttling around. A flash of light caught her eye and momentarily pushed away the thought of ants. Eli reached out and caught the flashlight as it was tossed her way, and perhaps the newfound fear wasn’t fully gone as she flicked the light down to confirm no ants were crawling around on her.

Eli breathed a sigh of relief as she pointed the light up until she found a branch.

“Is that a good one?” Eli asked as she reached up for the branch. She could just barely touch it with the tips of her fingers, and stretching only really got her to almost touch the top of the branch. Trees were kind of rough, weren’t they? “I can’t quite reach it… if you wouldn’t mind giving me a boost.” Eli said with a smile.
 
“Yep, that’s a good branch. Lower-down branches are usually thicker, cause they’re older. It’s when you get up to the thinner ones at the top that you really haveta be really careful.” Adelyn explains, picking herself up and walking over. She hasn’t taught anyone near anything before, so this is good practice. Any practice is good practice, as her poppa told her.

She bounces on her toes a few times. She’s easily able to reach the branch herself, but at Eli’s request she nods eagerly. “Ok!”

She doesn’t even take a second to think about it before she gestures Eli over closer to the trunk. Once they’re in a good spot, she bends down a little and lifts Eli up, right off the ground. Just like her poppa used to do for her, when she was just a little sprout and couldn’t reach as high. She bends her knee a little for Eli to use as a step should she need an extra second.

“Got it?” she asks, unruffled. She’s careful of her claws, even if she can’t see them right now.
 
“Okay, here we go.” With Adelyn’s help Eli got her fingers around the tree branch, and squeezed down tight. It was rougher than she expected it to be, was it silly that she thought that trees would be smooth? Were some trees smooth? Some certainly looked smooth from a distance but—

With a grunt Eli pulled herself like she were doing a pull-up, she slid one foot off Adelyn’s thigh and placed it on the side of the tree. Her foot shifted as she pushed, helping her pull her torso over the top of the branch. She reached up and took hold of another branch as she pulled one of her legs up and placed a foot on the first branch.

“Woah,” the branch wobbled a little with the added weight, and Eli paused a moment as she scooted her foot forward until she was more sure of her own footing. “Right, okay,” Eli breathed, before she drew herself up to a standing position.

“Oh! I made it!” She said, with a broad smile.
 
“Yay! You did it!” Adelyn grins broadly, clapping her hands together once Eli is up on the branch. Oh, they’re both hands again. She doesn’t remember exactly when that happened, but the sound is still the sound of human skin on animal fur so she doesn’t worry too much about it.

Luckily, she doesn’t need any help to get herself up onto an adjacent branch. She just reaches up and grabs hold, and uses her hind claws to get enough leverage on the trunk to climb up.

Crouching on a branch of her own, one hand on a higher branch for balance, Adelyn feels such a sharp swell of happiness she can’t contain a laugh of pure delight. She has a friend! A friend to climb trees with!

“How does it feel?” She has to ask, eyes bright in the flashlight’s beam. “Your first tree! So exciting! I don’t remember my first, it must’ve been when I was a little baby Aspen.”
 
“It feels very uhm, wibbly and wobbly? Like woah.” Eli said, reaching out with one of her hands and waving it through the air to emphasize her point. She didn’t know trees wiggled so much, they always looked so static when she watched them outside of her window. She could feel the wind rocking the tree under her heels and it was just fun to sway with. She let out a small ‘Ooh’ as Adelyn scampered up the tree after her.

Eli clambered up another branch after Adelyn, it was easier when she could easily reach the branches.

“Oh that’s really cool! You must have been climbing trees forever then!” Eli said excitedly as she swung her leg up over a branch. The tree bark felt scratchy against her thighs so she worked herself up to a crouch. “Do you have a favorite kind of tree to climb?“
 
Eli is a real go-getter. Adelyn beams as her friend climbs higher into the tree, keeping pace with her and keeping an eye out in case she slips. She stops on a branch for a moment, feeling the leaves at the end rustle in another cool breeze.

“Forever and ever,” she sighs in response, looking out on the forest around them. They aren’t high enough to see over the tops of the trees yet, but she can see a little bit into the trees around them.

Most of the animals must’ve gone to sleep already. What animals stay in such a human-centric area as this one, at least. The night dawdles later and later, and Adelyn can feel the peaceable calm settling over her as well.

“I like all sorts. Pines are fun if you don’t mind getting all sticky with sap. Willows are too weak to climb from the ends, but they’re nice to lay under. Oaks like this one are good and sturdy.”

She pats the trunk of the tree fondly, then re-negotiates her footing in order to grab a higher branch. Pulling herself up leaves the same path free for Eli, and Adelyn wraps one arm around the trunk as an anchor before offering her free hand to her friend. She’s braced to pull her up if she needs to, but Eli might be able to get there on her own. “This one’s a little higher, watch your step.”

“So, how was California? I’ve never been there. I was out in Oregon before I came here.” The light conversation comes a little more naturally now, and Adelyn mentally applauds herself.
 
“Oh! Willows! Those were always so soothing to watch sway through the window, though I never really sat underneath one for long.” Eli said, an excited spark in her voice. Was there a willow tree in this park? She could go sit under it on a sunny day couldn’t she? There was no one to stop her here, so she could just do that now. Something about that made her feel a little… awkward? Which was probably silly, but still.

With a small hup Eli pulled herself up over another branch, where she came to a stop at a slightly wobbly crouch with a hand on the trunk to keep herself steady. With some well deserved awe, she watched as Adelyn pulled herself up past a fairly large gap of branches.

“That was really cool!” Eli smiled as she reached up to take the hand that Adelyn was offering her. She squeezed the hand tight as she pressed the side of her heel against the tree’s trunk to push herself up to the next branch.

“California was nice, the weather was anyway.” There wasn’t too much strain in her voice as she took hold of the branch with her free hand. “I never really saw much of the state, it was mostly just school and, uh, stuff like that.” She said a little sheepishly as she swung a leg over the branch. To keep herself steady.

“How was Oregon?” She asked, to keep the conversation moving along.
 
“Oh, thank you!” Adelyn beams at the unexpected compliment. She carefully helps Eli up onto the branch with her, before her attention catches on one word in particular.

“School.” She breathes it like a foreign term, her eyes wide. She leans in close to her new friend, the brush of fur at odds with the seemingly normal hand that comes to sandwich Eli’s.

“Tell me about school,” she pleads, entirely forgetting about the question she was asked. “I never go to go, never ever. Are there really lots of teachers and lots of kids? Do they make you sit in tiny little rooms when you’re bad, and only let you outside when you’ve been good?”

Her balance doesn’t falter on the branch despite the way she leans in as though trying to read the answers right out of the other girl’s eyes. She’s never met anyone who went to school good and proper.
 
“School? School is like, uhm,” how did one describe school? Eli rolled her free hand while she searched for the words she wanted, her other hand currently very well smooshed in a rather puffy feeling of fur. Lots of teachers and lots of students wasn’t wrong by any means, but she didn’t know about the whole ‘being good or bad thing. Still, Adelyn I really excited to hear the answer so it was her duty to do her very best!

“Mm, well there are lots of students and teachers! The one I went to usually had like twenty-five kids in a class with a teacher. You only really had to stay over if you were in detention or something like that though.” Eli leaned back as she thought about it, though only a little. Branches felt scary to lean back while sitting on one! In AP Chemistry she always sat in the back next to the windows. Birds liked to nest in the tree outside the window. “Its not too bad really, there’s a lot of stuff for you to learn but days can feel really long when you’re at school for eight hours every day, and even longer if you have clubs and stuff.”
 
Adelyn listens to Eli’s answer like her words are the only thing in the world that matters. Her ears catch each and every syllable without difficulty, but she still leans forward even more until her face is very close to Eli’s. The blue of her eyes really is very light, the lightest shade it can be - or was it gray, and her pupils covered by the cataracts everyone assumed she had at first glance?

“What’s-” she starts to ask, and then the unthinkable happens. Her foot slips. The bark bites through her pants as her leg skids along it, and Adelyn yelps. She hurries to catch herself, feeling the dark press in around her in a way it never has before.

In her panic she forgets to be mindful of her nails when she grabs Eli’s hand tighter. Her hind claws aren’t catching like they normally do. The breeze that knocks into her is cool and raises goosebumps along her arms.
 
“Woah!” Eli reached out and grabbed hold of Adelyn’s arm as the girl slipped from her perch. She winced at the feeling of the branch scraping against her skin as she squeezed her thighs to keep the two of them stable. Or at least as stable as possible given the circumstances. Trees were really rough! Ow, ow, why were they so scratchy?

“Huh? Wait, shouldn’t your arm be more uh…” Eli’s eyes flicked from Adelyn’s cloudy blue down to her very not fuzzy arm. Shouldn’t that be more… puppet…y? Also claws, she had really sharp claws didn’t she?

Oh. Was this her fault?

Wait, now was t the time for that.

“Are you okay?” Eli said, straining some as she attempted to help pull Adelyn back to a sitting position.
 
With Eli’s help Adelyn is able to regain her footing in the tree, and she wraps her arm around a branch above her for an even better anchor once she’s sitting. She’s panting a little from the sudden adrenaline, but still takes a moment to smile at her friend’s quick thinking.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I’m okay. Whew. That hasn’t happened in forever.” It’s the truth, and she only belatedly thinks to question why it happened at all. Looking at her arms and legs, they look normal, but they’ve been looking normal for a while since she’s been around Eli.

She runs a hand down her own arm, stopping just below her elbow with a held breath. Then she lets it out all at once. It feels like… fur. Her fur, snow leopard fur, just as it’s been for years. Reaching awkwardly around the branch, she feels further down her arm, and although her eyes say skin her fingers say fur. She decides to trust her tactile senses.

“How weird,” she comments. Then, “Are you okay?”

It looks like her friend’s legs are scratched up, and Adelyn frowns with worry. Skirts aren’t very good for tree-climbing. Maybe they should get down soon.
 
“That’s good,” Eli said, her shoulders slumping with relief. As fun as climbing a tree was, falling down a tree did not seem like it would be very fun at all, and if Adelyn was having troubles with it then maybe she should save the upper part of the tree for when the sun was up. Though with that said, “It is pretty to see the city from up here isn’t it?” she said, quieter. The lights were nice to see twinkling through the leaves, as long as she didn’t break her neck looking out at them. Eli’s head jerked up a little when she realized that Adelyn had been asking if she was fine too.

“Huh? Oh I’m…” Eli paused before she finished saying ‘fine’ and looked down at her own legs. She frowned, and carefully slid her skirt part way up her thighs, wincing as she saw the collection of fresh scratches along her legs. The needling stinging pain came a few seconds after. “I think next time I should wear shorts.” She said with a slightly strained smile and small laugh as she let go of her skirt.

“I should have some antiseptic spray down in my bag if you don’t might going back down.” She added, not sure if Adelyn wanted to keep climbing after her slip.
 
“Oh no!” Adelyn cries softly, her hand flying to her mouth. Those scratches look bad, and she knows her scratches. “I’m sorry.”

Her ears tuck closer to the sides of her head, ashamed at her lack of forethought in indirectly hurting her new friend.

“We can go down.” After agreeing, she takes one last look around and is surprised to see the moon high above them. Its light casts the trees in silver, and she takes a moment to breathe it in. It feels like it’s been ages since they first met, but it must have only been a couple hours at most.

“It’s getting really late,” she comments, dropping her gaze to the branches below and beginning to pick out the path she’ll take to get back down. The lateness doesn’t really bother her, since she was used to napping whenever she wanted back home, but her grandparents might want her to at least drop by tonight.

Adelyn unwinds her paw from the branch and descends from the tree. It’s much quicker getting down, she finds. She offers her hands and balance to help Eli through the tricky spots until they reach the lower branches, then pauses. “Wait here.”

Without hesitation, she jumps from the tree. She misjudges the landing a little and stumbles a few steps, but a little dirt never hurt anyone. She brushes her hand and paw together and turns around, her arms open. “I’ll catch you! I won’t let you get more hurt, I promise.”
 
“Right, okay back down. Eli said, hyping herself up for the journey back down. Back down hadn’t seemed so bad until she actually looked down and realized both that they were very high up and that it was also harder to see where she needed to put her feet. Adelyn however descended the tree as easily as she had climbed it, and Eli couldn’t help but give a little audible “ooooh.” Could she get that good at climbing trees too?

Well, even if she might, she certainly wasn’t good at it right this very moment. She was much slower as she made her way down, with more than a little help from Adelyn when she couldn’t quite find her footing a few times. She gave another little yelp of surprise when Adelyn suddenly jumped off the tree and dropped back down to the ground below. She landed with a little stumble, but seemed perfectly fine when she called for Eli to jump down.

“Right. Okay.” Eli said without thinking, then she froze because she made the mistake of thinking. She was supposed to jump? But what if she missed or somehow hurt Adelyn? Eli spluttered for a moment before drawing in a breath of the cooling night air.

“Okay. On three.” She leaned forward trying to judge the jump. The branch wobbled in protest against her weight, which she tried to ignore. “One… two… three!” She hovered for a moment after saying three, her nerves almost failing her, before she leapt. There was a moment of weightlessness, and then she fell.
 
“On three,” Adelyn agrees, adjusting her stance to be as sturdy as possible. Her dad would do this for her all the time when she was little, so surely it can’t be that difficult. But she wants to keep her promise no matter what. That means being as prepared as she can be.

With her arms stretched out to either side, she can see how her fur shifts as Eli falls towards her. First the texture changes, becoming more artificial, then it starts getting shorter and shorter. She tears her gaze away and focuses on catching her friend.

“Oof,” she says, because it’s tradition. In reality, the collision hardly rocks her since Eli is so tiny compared to herself. She spends a moment with her arms wrapped around the other girl’s torso, holding her aloft, before realizing that her job was done. “Oh right. Down you go.”

Adelyn is very careful as she sets her friend down, making sure she has her feet under her again before drawing her hands back. “Safe and sound on the ground.”

She laughs, her hands lowering to her own sides. Strangely, they feel foreign now that they aren’t being helpful. It’s a weird feeling. Her smile slowly dims. “Are you… going to go home now?”
 
“Oof, Eli said as the breath was forced from her lungs as Adelyn caught her. It wasn’t an ‘ouch’ sort of oof but more of a ‘shocked by the sudden impact’ sort of oof, which was very different. Adelyn caught her very well so no complaints about that! She was also super strong! That was probably her powers wasn’t it? Or could she get that strong too?

Eli had not come to an answer by the time Adelyn put her back down. She did however feel her legs stinging a little, so she knelt down and opened up her pack to find her little first aid kit to bandage up some of her scrapes. “That was fun! And um, a good catch!” Was that a weird thing to say? Maybe that was a weird thing to say.

Eli glanced up when Adelyn asked if she’d be going back home, and she scratched her cheek. “I mean I probably should…” She trailed off for a moment, her lips pursing. It wasn’t like she had anyone making sure she got home on time was it? And Adelyn sounded a little sad, which made her feel a little… sad too. “Unless… there’s anything else you’d like to do? I’m, uh, free tonight.” She added, tentatively.
 
Adelyn considers the offer, crouching down on her heels and resting her hands on her knees while Eli goes to her backpack. She drags a claw through the dirt, tracing patterns absently.

“I should probably get home before the sun comes up. But I can walk you to wherever you’re going, if you want. I haven’t gotten the chance to look around all that much, and it would make me feel better knowing you got home safe.” She smiles again, having reasoned herself into it. Her grandparents won’t be too worried, she doesn’t think. And if they are she can tell them all about her new friend!

“And… Or? We could hang out some other time! If you want to!” Her heart is beating a little faster, and she isn’t quite sure where to look. It feels like fear but not. She really hasn’t gotten many opportunities to meet others her age, and so many things about this feel strange now that she’s just sitting here. It’s a good strange, she decides.
 
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