She read the paper. "Peaches would be nice." she said, smiling. It was much esier to communicate when he wrote to her instead of making her guess what he wanted. Of course, they couldn't always have this ease of communication, and anyways, rena didn't plan on staying too much longer. She needed to find a more permanent place to stay...

He jumped outside and picked some peaches from a tree. He rushed and dashed, washing them, making sure they are fresh and cold, then offers the peaches to Rena with a sense of pride. He felt also a bit anxious to see if she liked them too.

Rena took one and bit into it. Her eyes lit up. she loved peaches. They were one of her favorite fruits. The peach she had taken was particularly juicy, so naturally, a bit of it dribbled down her chin. She took her finger and wiped it off, licked her finger off, and said," They're really good!"

Lavender grinned widely and watched her enjoy the fruit. He felt a sense of pride of joy, since he cultivated them. He took one himself and sunk his fangs into it, unknowingly offering the girl a somewhat unnerving and frightening spectacle. The juice flowed down his face as he made a light noise of pleasure from the sweet taste occupying his mouth.

Rena wasn't disturbed by the fangs, but was rather interested. His looked sharper than hers, and were definitely longer. She ignored her question, not wanting to be rude. She ate in silence aside from the slurping noises they made. When she finished, she blurted out her question, "What species are you?"

He looked at her and just said a very direct "Meow!", then he frowned and took that piece of paper and started scribling on it. Then he politely handed it to Rena, and on it it stood written "Cat boy is all I know. How about you?"

She smiled. "I'm part cat, part human. Which is probably why we look so different." She licked the pit of the peach, and it showed her barbed taste buds. She looked human except for her ears, tail, and sharp nails that were retractable like claws.

Lavender nodded with a smile. He was pure cat folk, he assumed. He met very few of his kind, their cities were far to the South in much warmer climates, and far up to the north in the extreme cold. He took the paper and wrote once more, he handed the girl a paper saying "Now what?"

She shrugged. "I guess this is where we part. I thank you for your food and helping me fill my tummy." She got up and dug through her pack, attempting to retrieve his knife. She hadn't noticed his claws, but now knew that he meant her no harm.

Lavender pouted and looked at her with sadness, then shook his head. He took his paper and wrote "Where are you going?" and handed it to her.

She stared at it for a moment, reading it over and asking herself the same question. After a few moments she said, "Wherever my feet take me i guess." She shrugged. "Where AM i going?" she asked her self again. She wasn't satisfied with her answer, but didn't know what else she would be able to say.

Lavender started rushing around his house, packing a back with food and supplies. He stuffed dried fruits and meats mostly. He then grabbed the bag and stood next to Rena while grinning contently.

She watched him run around the house. when he was finished she just stared at him. "You want to come with, huh?" she said after a moment. She wasn't so sure she wanted him to come. She had found his knife and handed it to him. "Here..."

He took his knife slowly, while looking at the girl with his head tilted. His eyes were focused on her expectantly, waiting for an answer. He hoped she would say yes, but he could not force her to do anything.

She looked at him and thought it over. " well, he certainly knows how to traverse the forest, it seems, but he might just slow me down. Or worse, i might slow HIM down... I don't want him to think me clumsy... Or slow..." She shook her head and voiced her thoughts, "I don't want to be slowed down, nor do i want to slow you down, okay?"

Not many people knew this forest as well as he did. No one knew how to find his war around or take care of himself as well as he did. He just wished he could explain that to her, instead he just stood there, looked at her and nodded. He just thought she will find all that out for herself if she decided he can come along.

She smiled, "Then you may come." She looked around and set her bag down on the table, rummaged through it, pulled out a couple apples, and tossed Lavender one. She then extended one of her claws and started cutting the apple up into spirals. "Can we come back here in a couple days to get these apples?" she said. She was planning on just exploring for a couple days since there was this place where they could return to if needed. She wanted the apple spirals to dry out so she could snack on them later. She would hang them up of he said yes, and if he said no, she would hang them off the side of her pack.

((Note to self: Tell mom: tues sept 6@ 2:45 pm))

He brightly smiled and exited his house, dragging his bag behind him. He nodded with approval and pointed to the place in his garden where he dries his fruits, away from the meats. He opened his bag to make sure he had enough food, and not too much or too little. He started looking around to the forest, the mountains, wondering where she would want to go.

Rena Followed behind him after grabbing a bit of string from her bag and tying it around the apple spirals. She then hung them up where he had pointed, her tail flicking back and forth. She Then turned to go back into the house to grab her pack. upon returning to Lavender, she noted that he had dragged his bag. "You know, dragging your bag around like that will make a hole in it..." She said, squinting in the sunlight. She then decided to go back into the house, grab some paper from where Lavender had grabbed that one piece and grabbed 3 pencils from where he kept them, as well as the one he had used moments before, then returned quickly to his side.

He watched her calmly,f eeling confident that no one would bother the house, except forest animals. He nodded and listened to her, so he tied it to his hips to be out of the way and keep his hands free. The boy reached up for the nearby peach tree and took a key from some hidden place on a branch or somewhere that only he knew of, he locked the house when she stepped ou t, and hid the key back. He examined his house, the windows were shut, the fire was spent, the door was locked. Everything was as safe as it could be.

Rena smiled, "Well, if you're ready, lets go!" She started walking, not looking behind her. She had chosen a random direction, but it ended up being a direction towards the nearest road. She had her pack all ready and packed with the paper and pencils, and had no more open space. She didn't look to see if Lavender was following.

As soon as he felt safe that everything was in the best order he followed her, happily swishing his butt and looking around at the trees, plants and the occasional animal with a juvenile joy and amusement. He wondered where she was heading for a split second, but the excitement overhelmed him.

As soon as they reached the road, Rena stopped, opened her pack to one side, pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil and asked, "So is there anywhere you want to go first?" she handed him the paper. "If not then we'll walk down this road quite a ways." she then handed him the pencil.

Lavender titlted his head and stopped to think for a moment... He knew the woods well, so he just started drawing her a map. There was a mountain with dragons nearby, a town a bit further off, a lake, an old mine he had no idea what of. He tried to be as precise as possible, going on memory.

She looked over his shoulder as he drew and as soon as she saw him mention dragons, she went," Ooh! Dragons! I wonder if they have any babies!" She laughed, knowing that it would be a fool's errand to try to get an egg for her own. She wanted it really badly though. She smiled at lavender.