They’d chosen this island for a reason, and it hadn’t been the scenery either. Marines had docked on the island ahead and so they needed to stop, wait for a few days, maybe a week… just to stay one step behind them.
The scenery was nice though. On one side of the island, a bustling city, which his team had found most interesting, quickly disappearing into the throng of people, with the understanding that the strongest of their group would disappear to the other half, into the thick, dense woodland for a while, shed the weight from his shoulders, grow a little fur and just disappear.
With Hattori soaring overhead, the leopard zoan waited until he’d fully immersed himself in the cover of the trees, having long since ditched the walk path into the thick of it, before he dropped to all fours, muscles re-shaping, reforming moving around within, spotted orange fur covering olive skin, clothing seeming to disappear within the thick coat.
Nobody would bother him like this, nobody ever did. When one saw a leopard in the woods, one did not purposefully bother it.
After a few hours of roaming, climbing trees, hopping from thick branch to thick branch and returning to the ground, Lucci had noticed a peculiar smell, one that didnt quite fit in with the surroundings, Baby wipes. Said smell had been progressively getting closer and closer for the past half an hour, he assumed a backpacker had probably been wandering around with a child, surely there were no—
He honestly didnt expect the grab at his tail. Hackles raising in alarm as he snapped his head around to find out just who would be foolish enough to grab his tail of all things when he was greeted by the sight of big golden eyes, eyes belonging to the excited little girl currently holding onto his tail. Defences dropped immediately, claws retracting, it was just a little girl… not even that this kid didnt even look old enough to be out of diapers… tail flicked in her grip, causing another bout of excited laughter… but where were her parents?
Surely she couldn’t be on her own out there? So far from the city? Sniffing the air Lucci couldn’t smell anyone near by, there was the odd smell of cold on the approach but that was all, he couldn’t very well leave the little thing on her own, surely her parents would be looking for her, the forest wasn’t too dense, and they weren’t that far away from the footpath, someone would come, but for now…
He supposed it couldn’t hurt to keep a watchful eye on the girl, keep her at least a little entertained until someone came, keep her safe…
It was normal for Lynette to spend a few hours a day on the huge garden of Helen’s mansion, playing with the toys Law’s crew had given her as her mom cooked or did the housework. Helen knitted or read a book, watching over Lynette, but both women had understimated the speed those chubby legs could reach. As a result, and after chasing a butterfly for like ten minutes Lynette ended up crossing the hedge and getting into the dense forest.
By the time she lost the butterfly and turned around she realized that she didn’t know how to return to Helen’s garden, but for sure mommy would find her as she always did, so she just waddled around the forest, suckling at her thumb as he looked at the tall, taaaall trees how dark everything seemed to be in there. She couldn’t see the sun, but she didn’t mind the cold. Cold reminded her of mommy so it was all right. After a while of just seenig trees and trees she found somethng that inmediately caught her attention. The golden fur seemed so fluffy and the spots on it reminded her of dad’s jeans in the picture she had in her room. Not concious of how dangerous that was she got closer to the leopard and grabbed at his tail.
Contrary to what logic or self-preservation incstinct said she wasn’t afraid when the creature turned, showing those huge fangs menacingly, but she didn’t understand the danger and just hugged the leopard’s face.
— ❝ Kitty!❞
She squealed, closing her eyes because the kitty’s face was very fluffy and warm. She separated after a few seconds, looking at the leopard right in the eyes.
— ❝ Hello kitty!❞
She greeted him. She knew it was quite big for being a kitty but she had no word for that creature yet, so kitty would work until she learnt the word ‘leopard’.
scarredagentofjustice reblogged this from snxwbird and added:
snxwbird reblogged this from scarredagentofjustice and added:
