In Dire Straits

It was really boring to be a kid, Rosalind decided this days ago. After weeks of nothing but playing, eating, and sleeping, Rosalind thought now would be the best time to grow up. Today was the day, she would become an adult. It would be bittersweet to not need Ma, Pa, or Papa anymore, but sacrifices must be made to be a big girl. Today was the day.

STEP ONE of ADULTHOOD: CATCH YOUR OWN FOOD
Now, Rosalind hasn't spent very much of her leisure exercising her hunting abilities. But what she did know, was that you had to first select your prey. From past observations, Ros has watched Ma eat rabbit and deer. Having a bit of a taste herself, she could confirm these things were in fact delicious. But to be realistic, Rosalind knew she would have to begin with something smaller than either of those options. Which brings us here, prowling silently through the small brush of forest beyond her den. Each step was carefully placed, investigating every log and hole she passed. Nothing teeny, tiny, and furry would escape her. Not today.

Just when her patience was coming close to an end, she caught sight of something long... and skinny. And green. Her ears perked and her tired eyes doubled in size. FOOD?! Admittingly, she's never witnessed anyone of her parents eating food that looked like this before. The creature had no fur whatsoever, and appeared to have dry, scale-y skin. But, it had no legs! This mean it wouldn't be able to run away from her. The perfect prey. Ma is gon' be so proud! Excitement lit like fire inside of her, but she knew better than to break her composure. She was an adult, afterall. She knew proper hunting etiquette.

Two dome shaped ears flattened against a hot skull as she prepared herself to pounce. A speckled rump lowered slowly, swaying as she readied herself to pounce. "One.... two.... THREE!"

She leapt into the air and landed on top of the creature. Unfortunately for Rosie, she had underestimated the strength of the lanky thing. The green snake slipped through her grasp, wrapping himself several times around her back legs, causing her to fall forward. She landed against the dirt and yelped loudly. She tried to pull herself out of the coil, but it only caused the grip to tighten.

“HELP ME!” she belted, her squeal echoing throughout.

STEP TWO of ADULTHOOD: DEFEND YOURSELF

▌note:

Her conversation with Goth had been interesting. Something to break up the monotony of the healing process. But as with every process there was always the nasty part where you had to exercise to make sure it healed properly. She had been a fool to hunt with Orcrist and make her wound worse, she shouldn't have exerted herself as much as she had. It had drawn out the healing, making it take twice as long as it should have normally. Caesar sighed as she walked slowly through the fog that clung to the floor of the dying forest. 

"HELP ME!"

Her ears pulled tight and straight on the top of her skull, rotating ever so slightly as she tired to figure out which direction the call had came from. It had sounded like a puppy, a young girl who sounded very frightened. Oh my. Caesar hurried as quickly as she could, limping slightly as she galloped towards Rosalind's call. 

She arrive in time to see a large green serpent wrapping itself around a small girl. She was pale with speckles of brown and grey and little round ears. Hurrying over Caesar hesitated, silver eyes sharp as they surveyed the problem and tried to figure out the best way to extract the snake without hurting the little girl anymore. Hmm. "Its okay, don't worry, I'll get it off." Caesar murmured softly as she circled the tangled pair, looking for the serpents head. There it was! She lunged in quickly and sank her teeth into the flesh at the base of the snakes neck and twisted her head sharply. The loud crack as its neck was severed was unpleasant but necessary to get the creature to release its grip. It twitched a few times as she tugged and pulled the body from the little girl, who was surely shake up from the ordeal. 

"Hey, you okay?"

(can melek pop in here?)

he cry for help made him speed up into a run, though not very loud the call reached his ears as he wasn't too far off. He took a turn and tried to pinpoint the exactly location. Did he miss the person asking for help? He felt frustrated and tried sniffing the air instead, and this time he had more luck. It hurt to use his nose, the nasty wounds on his face oozing with infection by now and he hadn't had time to clean it with water yet. But someone called and he didn't feel right ignoring it.

He stumbled out from the jungle only to find that another adult had come across the child and helped her already. He felt a bit of relief and then tensed. The almost dragon! He squinted his eyes and regretted it right away as it hurt his beaten up face and it began bleeding a little bit again. He tried using his dirty paw to wipe it off and then sat down looking at the two. "Hey, you okay?" Tarun just looked on as the child responded and then he would address the adult red female. "Almost-god!" He exclaimed it loudly and then took a closer look at her. Then wagged his tail to show signs of friendliness.

"You look like red dragon. Why?" Were they related? He was actually curious and his innocent look hopefully made way for snarky comments - comments he wouldn't understand anyway, his mind was too simple. He looked at the child and wondered if she was frightened by the wounds on his face. He pointed at them while looking at the girl but reminded himself that smiling hurt. "Don't be scared." Said the frightening man.

"It's okay, don't worry, I'll get it off."

The voice immediately soothed Rosalind, the best that it could with a snake wrapped around her. She didn't want to speak, she wasn't sure if she could. The feeling of being constricted was a little more than she could handle at the moment, she figured that talking might just make it worse. She held completely still as Caesar distorted the legless reptile, and splooted in the spot she was rescued from. A look of solace reflecting in her red eyes, "Wow, thanks!!" She called to her hero, who she still hadn't turned to greet yet. "It feels nice to breathe again." She sat for a moment and allowed her lungs to inflate themselves, before turning to give proper greeting to the brave warrior that defeated the little green dragon that had nearly devoured the princess of Alteron.

Her eyes narrowed when she saw that her savior looked... a lot like... Mama. But it definitely wasn't Ma. "Hey, you okay?" The lady said. Rosalind nodded, immediately suspicious of her. "Yea... Yeah I'm, I'm alright." She said, standing to take a look closer. She looked like a burnt version of Mama, she finally decided. Rosalind knew she wouldn't have been surprised if this lady was related to her, somehow. She'd met very few people here in Alteron that weren't related to her.

Tarun entered the scene very quickly after she'd speculated that Caesar may be some distant aunt or something, and he seemed to share the belief that Caesar looked like Mama. "You look like Red Dragon. Why?" Now, here's a guy she could get with! Straight to the point with the questions. She thought nothing of his beaten face, after seeing what happened at the little party Mama threw, she knew that sometimes others got hurt here. "I'm with broken-face, you do look like my Ma." She said matter-of-factly. She sat in a poised manner between the two strangers, directing her attention back to Tarun when he pointed to her face and spoke to her, "Don't be scared."

She gave a little chuckle, blowing the hair out of her face to allow her to look him in the eye. "I ain't scared, mister. That's nothin'. I just got attacked by a dragon, that's scary."

▌note:

Rosalind

Caesar

Kujo

Tarun

Rosalind