A break from the hunt ((Sage))

[gorrad]

Tifa punched a shadow where it's nose would be then wiped the single bead of sweat from her forehead. More Heartless wouldn't come to this area for a while, she knew, so she hopped up onto a crate and rested her legs.

She had been searching for Cloud all day, and this was his last usual hang-out street. It looks like Leon was right, Cloud wasn't there. Well, it was time to start that new leaf. The Frosted Flame...ready to be reopened soon! She was excited, but wondered if this was really the right thing. After all, she had been searching for nearly ten years.

The barkeep crossed her legs and pulled out a bag of her special trailmix. The contents were never the same, as she made a point to add something new whenever she landed on a world. Maybe settling down wouldn't be too bad. She'd get to have more meals that weren't dried fruit and sea biscuits.

[sagefirefox]

Heartless had been popping up all over. Much to no relief Sage had been trying to run away from them as fast as she could. She had started with attacking them and ripping them apart but noticed that she couldn't defeat them. Ever so wisely she fled, though not very happy about it. Now the population of heartless had gone down, and Sage had done nothing. Nevertheless she pressed on in hopes of coming across something useful. A stack of crates almost created a maze for the small fox yet she weaved through them with ease. Her bushy orange and white tail was just like other fox's, as big as her body and always held low to the ground, yet near the tip it held a flame.

The fox had emerald eyes as well, not the amber eyes that foxes usually had. White fur sprouted from underneath her muzzle and flowed under her belly where it ended there. The rest of her fur was the color of an orange leaf in fall, with the exception of black 'socks' on each of her paws. Where the orange of her tail ended and white started was a forever burning flame. It leapt out from the fur before the white and burnt off in the air. Sage didn't seem to mind, in fact it didn't even bother her. As she rounded the other crate, staying close to the crate to make sure that no heartless could catch her off guard, she ran into a pair of legs. She blinked up in surprise and saw that it was a girl, much older than the fox.

[gorrad]

*Thwump* Something small and furry ran into Tifa's legs. "Hmm?" She looked down and saw a small fox with piercing green eyes. Its tail was on fire, and it looked shocked. Tifa's first reaction was to jump down and put out the fire, but something in the creature's eyes made her pause.

If she jumped down, it would more likely than not freak the poor creature out of its mind. And it's tail...it wasn't normal. It wasn't dying down, nor was the fur of the tail turning black and whithered. This was no normal fox.

Instead, Tifa slid off the box calmly and offered her hand for the fox to sniff. She started talking softly. "Hey there little guy, are you lost? That's right, I'm a friend. Don't worry, Tifa is here to help you."

[sagefirefox]

Instead of shouting and shooing away the creature a hand came down. The hand turned out to belong to a girl, by the sounds of cooing to the fox. Sage delighted in tricking the girl to think that she was just a fox that was abnormal. Not some kind of person that could shift into different types of foxes. So with glee, a bit too much, she trotted up and sniffed the hand. After a millisecond her nose tingled with different scents. Scents of various types of food that the girl must be eating judging by the sounds of chewing from above the fox. The sweet smell of chocolate, the spiciness of peppermints, and something along the lines of fruit...yet the smell was very weak.

Following the inspection of what the person smelt like, Sage decided to sit down and stare up at the girl. The sun was right in her eyes so she couldn't exactly make out any details. But what she did see gave her enough information to predict what this person was like. She had long brown hair, almost black, and was, in fact, older than the fox...by a lot. You could tell by how tall she was, and the fact that this girl had a much bigger chest than Sage. But she was not one for appearances too soon, what she wanted was to act like a fox for once. It the end it might be fun. So the fox pressed her head in the girl's hand and began to purr.

[gorrad]

Tifa had always had a soft spot for animals, especially wolves, and so she was overjoyed when the small creature accepted her hand of friendship. She rubbed the fox's cheek and scratched it right on the ear's sweet spot. She petted as it rubbed her arm and was immediately fond of her new friend.

But now the question came up- what to do with it? It couldn't just wander here, she had never seen one before, and that was saying something. It must have survived the plunge from its home world, meaning it was an exceptional creature. Perhaps...yes, Merlin would know what to do. He would almost definitely recognize it and could help her find a home for it. If he couldn't...well, the Flame wouldn't hurt by having a guard fox.

Still petting the fox, Tifa reached underneath it and lifted it up. She started talking to it in a soft voice once more to soothe it as she walked towards Merlin's house. "Yes, it's ok, I'm not going to hurt you. We're going to see a friend, and he'll find you a good home." She looked over the creature quizzically. "You need a name in the meantime. Hmm. Your eyes are such a lovely green. Emerald? No...they're more of a plant color. I know! They look like Rosemary. That's your new name, do you like it? Rosemary..."

[sagefirefox]

If you couldn't see it in the fox's eyes by how Tifa had renamed Sage to Rosemary, then her actions clearly showed it. So Sage wasn't good enough? Her name just had to be moved to yet another herb. Greeeaaaattt. The fox's paws went limp at the mention of the new name And what was with this new home thing? Huh, she was just going to have to play along and see what happens, maybe she'd meet some new people. Maybe she'd get a bed to sleep in and food to eat. Ah, the possibilities were just too good to pass up.She sighed contently and looked at how the girl was carrying her. 'If I were human,' she began in her thoughts, 'I would feel so uncomfortable.'

The irritability of being carried began to get to her and again the fox sighed. Her mind was screaming 'how much longer' but her paws were just aching to get back on the ground. Though all that scratching and petting she had been given hadn't felt too bad either. It was hard to reach behind with your foot and scratch your ear, especially with claws that you sharpened on brick or stone for fighting. Sage gave a weak growl at the name Rosemary and hoped that the other person would understand.

Most of the time to people when the fox spoke her words came out as jumbled fox noises. She had never really tested what people heard when she tried to growl or whimper. You'd think a growl would probably come easy to her but they didn't, it was more whimpers that she didn't even have to try to use. Would the girl hear the fox's mutilated growl that Sage gave or would she hear a fox's growl? Maybe if she heard a regular fox growl that would mean that she couldn't understand Firefox and the fox could freely speak aloud without the other knowing what she was saying. Just to make things clearer Sage gave a little shake of the head to the name.

[gorrad]

Tifa was startled, though not outstandingly so. Ros...the Fox, did not like her new name. That meant she had at least some intelligence. That in itself was not exactly shocking-after all, she HAD survived the trip through the darkness, and that was no easy feat. What was really surprising was that the Fox purred and made noises- not fox noises, but nor were they a language Tifa could understand.

She had asked Merlin about this the last time she was on this world. From what she understood, all worlds, through some odd twist of fate, all ended up speaking the exact same language. Whether this was from a shared ancestry, evolution of speech, or just coincidence, a world had not been discovered yet that did not have the same language amongst the sentient species as all other worlds.

This in turn opened up three possibilities- either the Fox was smart enough to know its name, but not enough to talk, it was just pretending to not be able to talk, or it was the first exception. Either way, Tifa sped up slightly, supporting the Fox's legs as it looked uncomfortable. The sooner she got this strange creature to Merlin's, the better.

[sagefirefox]

Sage picked up on the fact that the girl was pondering what to do with the fox. After her surprised look once she had growled it seemed that she could in fact understand the fox if she attempted to speak. And now it seemed that the girl was speeding up. This could not be a good sign, what if she was taking Sage to someplace where they would torture her to try and figure out what she was? But this girl was too nice, and they had to have seen a Firefox before...right? But...what if they hadn't? What was the point of the fox traveling here if their were no Firefoxes? There was none.

Before she could leap out of the arms of her holder a slight shift in her position came, probably because the human had noticed that she was uncomfortable. A slight irritated look came to her but didn't reach her face. Instead a quizzical one showed on her muzzle. She wanted to know where she was going, it was only natural, so why wasn't she notified where she was headed? Well the best she could do is settle down and wait to find out, which it what she did. If anything happened she would have to fight her way out of this one, that or go human and prove that she was more than meets the eye.

[gorrad]

Tifa was not looking at the fox, focussed instead on the door to the Magician's house ahead of her. 3. 2. 1. Aaaaand, there's the heartless, of course. They always showed up in this area.

Tifa put the fox down behind some crates and smiled at it. "Stay here, ok? I'll be back in a second!" It should be safe there, and she could easily catch it if it decided to run off. She didn't think it would run off, though, it seemed smarter than that.

Ok, four casters. Red, Yellow, Green, and Wizard. Tifa had dealt with much worse before. She ran over and punched the green once, twice, gone. She saw red in her peripheral vision. Fire. She jumped up just as the flames scorched the ground below her and the bottom of her boots. "Ooooh, these were just cleaned! That's it!" Tifa yelled as she jumped. Twisting her body midair, the bartender turned the jump into a kick. Before it connected, she focussed her energy from the last battle. Water. Water would end this shoe-wrecker quickly. She made a mental note to make her next pair of work-shoes fireproof. This wouldn't be the last such fight.

Her foot was backed with the liquid force of the dolphin as it went directly through the black motes that a moment ago was a Heartless. Landing square on her feet, Tifa raised her fists and assumed a fighting position. Two down, two to go.

[sagefirefox]

Sage didn't know what to do. The girl obviously told her to stay here, or close to it. She didn't exactly say 'Stay here...or else.' It was just that she had to stay here, the fox didn't exactly have to agree with it. But there was a small problem with fighting these heartless...she didn't know how. It wasn't that she couldn't fight heartless, because she could, it was that she had never seen these kinds of heartless before. Sure the other girl's punches and kicks worked but would claws work? And using fire on them would work, she had witnessed how one of them blew flames at the fighter. Her ears drooped, how was she supposed to help? Maybe if she just waited a little longer the fight would be done. But if not, Sage was jumping in and trying to help, she silently hoped she wouldn't have to.

((Is the yellow one a Yellow Opera?))

[gorrad]

((Indeed))

More fire. Great. Tifa managed to jump over this blast too, even though it was waist high on her, and land right on the Wizard's book. It provided perfect leverage for a hard punch to the weak spot on their forehead. The yellow was another one-two punch. Tifa was lucky it hadn't cast any lightning, those were much harder to avoid.

Wiping the few beads of sweat from her hairline, Tifa went back to the crates and picked up the Fox. Looking into it's eyes she said 'Sorry about that. You were good staying there like that!' Resupporting it's legs, Tifa marched up to the door of Merlin's house and knocked softly. To anyone else, it would be rather loud, but she had to hold back.

((Curses! Why did Aryn choose NOW to leave? Any other RG member wish to be at home?))

[sagefirefox]

Soon all of the heartless had disappeared and the fox was sitting almost obediently at the foot of the crates. Whatever type of heartless they were the girl disposed of them quickly. In a flash she was in front of Sage gingerly picking her up and strolling over to a door. This must be her destination, a short knock on the door confirmed it. She jumped a little at the knock, was this a good friend's house or an enemies? Maybe it was just the person, after all she had just recently witnessed the girl killing off heartless with her fists. The fox had to admit, she was pretty scared, but it didn't seem like anyone was answering the door. Just her luck, really, if no one was home that meant she could drop her act and saunter away. Her hopes were high as she waited, suspended in the air.

[yuffie]

Headbands missing in action weren't cool one bit! Yuffie was looking high and low for this thing all day, she was wondering just where it could have been, she had looked almost everywhere it seemed. Was it honestly gone? But... but... What would keep her hair up -- wait -- out of her eyes? What would give her that feeling of being a ninja? Sure other things, but she was too drawn in by the fact that she had misplaced something so small.

If she would've done this with her materia it would have been much worse. Sadly, she had even lost it in Merlin's house (the area she had been desperately searching in). It wasn't far, and it couldn't have gone anywhere, so why was it that things were going wrong? And as the cherry on top... she would have to clean up this place. Merlin was always messy, but he knew where things were, somehow.

She jumped up slightly at a loud sound. Was it a storm? Earthquake! Hit the deck!

Jumping under Cid's computer station, she held her hands over her head, waiting for something... but nothing came. False alarm... but what was it?

The door? Probably.

Getting up, she opened the door, seeing a familiar face. Tifa, though she seemed a bit tired she was back, and she brought company to boot. A fox? That was neat.

"Heya Tifa!" she said excitedly, changing her view to look at the fox, petting its head gently, "The committee getting a pet? Can we keep it, pretty-please!?"

[gorrad]

Tifa listened with interest at the sounds inside the building. Shuffling, what sounded like a stack of something being collapsed, a rolling chair skidding...Yuffie was there. No one else with a key to Merlin's house would make that much noise except maybe Cloud, and he wasn't there. She had checked (And left a bit of a mess). Well, Yuffie would be more help then no one, if only because she would know where Merlin was.

So it was that when Yuffie opened the door, Tifa was already smiling and looking where she knew Yuffie's head would be. That smile, as she thought, turned into a laugh at the first words out of Yuffie's mouth. "Maybe, I'm not sure yet. This little guy was out in an alley, and I hadn't seen anyone like him before. His tail's been like that the whole time, I don't think it hurts him. He seems to be pretty smart, too."

Tifa walked with Yuffie inside the house and placed the Fox on the table next to a stack of books, a hair ribbon, and a pen. She looked quizzically around. "Is Merlin here? Hmm, maybe I should look for him." She walked towards a nearby end-table with books stacked high on it. Merlin was a powerful magician, he could easily hide underneath such a small area.

[sagefirefox]

The fox looked rather surprised when a girl opened the door. As if asking wasn't even an option the girl shot out her head and gently stroked Sage's head. "The committee getting a pet? Can we keep it, pretty-please!?" Her sentence opened up a couple questions for her, what was the committee? Maybe if she 'played fox' for a few more minutes she would find out. The other girl, the taller one carrying her, answered using the wrong gender for the fox several times. After the first time she said he she would huff at the word, each and every time. Then she asked if a person named Merlin was here, of course she didn't ask it like that, she asked it like she knew Merlin well.

Her four paws touched the top of a table and she was no longer being carried. So apparently this was Merlin's house, she wondered if he had anything to eat. Hey, if she was going to become their pet she better get to mooching. A loud rumbled helped set her thoughts out loud and she whined softly. Again she whined, more continuously, and flopped down onto the table with a loud thwack. With a much exaggerated sigh she looked between the two girls. Sage noticed that they both wore dark vests over very short tops, she couldn't help but sniff lightly. And they both had very dark hair, she sensed a theme. Maybe they were fighters or something; the fox remembered how the one girl fought.