Roots and Wings

Lips pulled back in a snarl, sleek fur covered muscles shifted and hunched, as yellow-tinged eyes gleamed with anticipation and kill, blood, kill. Muscles readied, a low growl rose from deep within her throat, and -

Run, run, and away you go, little white rabbit you.

She was the wind, the forest, the end. Nothing could stop her. Leap, tuck, roll and she was back on her legs again. Exhale. Inhale. Faster. Faster. Trees, leaves, rocks, branches, dirt. All became a blur of green and brown. The adrenaline coursing and rushing through her body made it possible for her to ignore her aching lungs screaming for her to stop. For more oxygen. To finish it once and for all.

This was just a game of cat and mouse. Little white rabbit knew his end was near. Its desperation and fear was palpable in the air around her. And it made the chase all that much sweeter than the blood that would soon be spilling on the forest ground. It would take just one little leap, one little swipe and -

“Didn’t your parents ever teach you to never to play with your food, Noelle?”

The sudden shift of the wind behind her was the only warning she received before she appeared in flash in front of her; successfully distracting her and causing her to skid to a stop, claws sinking desperately into the hard ground for leverage, in order to avoid colliding with her.

Once paws were firmly planted on the ground, she looked into the face of death and snarled. This demon had cost her her prey. Her pride. The pleasure of tearing and sinking her fangs into bones and flesh and -

“No time. Change back now.”

Throwing one last resentful and hateful glare at her, figuring that it would be easier to glare and bitch once she was human anyways, Noelle growled and lowered her head as she willed herself to change shape. The sound of muscles and bones shifting, tearing, and re-knitting echoing in the otherwise silent forest before coming to a stop a couple of minutes later.

And where there once was a beautiful panther, now stood a beautiful woman, apparently comfortable with the fact that she was naked in the middle of a forest in the middle of Fall. Whatever. Animals didn’t care much for nudity anyways.

Annoyed and exhausted, now that the adrenaline from the chase was wearing off, she crossed her arms in front of her and tapped her foot impatiently on the ground. “What do you want?”

“Manners, Noelle. I didn’t take you in so you could be disrespectful to your elders. Especially to the woman who saved you.”

“I would hardly call, you using compulsion to the nearest family who had a tendency to be quite abusive into taking me, ‘saving me’,” Noelle muttered, one eyebrow raised.

“Details, details. But that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about.”

“And what might that be?” She questioned tiredly.

“It’s time to pay up, little one.”

Blinking stupidly for a second before snapping herself out of it, Noelle let out a resigned sigh. She had known this day was going to come someday.

One couldn’t escape destiny. Especially one that looked like a demon in disguise with teeth and claws and eyes that glinted like ivory in the moonlight and buried so deep inside you that it would rather eat you alive before letting you go.

“I want you to look into some old - friends - of mine. You should have no trouble finding them.”

“Friends? Since when does the mighty and elusive Katherine have any friends?”

Waving the jab away with a pale slender hand, Katherine continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted. Typical. “Stefan and Damon Salvatore. Keep an eye on them and report anything out of the ordinary back to me. Do whatever you need to get close to them. But they must not find out about who you are, especially about me and your connection to me. Is that understood?”

“Couldn’t have made it any more clearer.”

“That’s a good girl. Now, let’s go find something to eat, shall we? I’m feeling rather fickle tonight.”

Run, run, and here we go again, little white rabbit you.