Persephone
She was running, on all fours, for the first time in real life. She had dreamt about this moment every night in the weeks leading up to her birthday, but this time it was real! She almost couldn't contain her excitement.
Unlike her dreams, she was running through the snow-scented artificial forest near her best friend's skulkhouse. The winter chilled undergrowth also congrats greatly with the dawn-lit lavender fields she'd dreamt of, but the white ambiguity of the sky peeking through the trees held its own sort of beauty. It hadn't snowed all winter, and she was also full of excitement that her birthday had brought about her favourite weather.
It was nothing short of a great success, her shifting ceremony. Essentially a debut of her Spirit to her skulk, and to herself. She wore a ballgown and everything, but of course stripped down beneath a tent. It was there she changed for the first time. It didn't hurt, but it wasn't necessarily as fluid as it could be, considering her inexperience. Nonetheless, she only took a few moments to swap skin for fur, and she'd soon shot from the tent, fox-footed.
She knew something of what to expect from her parents, but the clamouring of the crowd had still irritated her into entering the forest at a brisk pace, not preening much. She'd been able to see a little farther, hear quite a bit better, and of course smell much more distinctively, but the difference now was a lot to get used to. She'd done her best to orient herself towards the water, despite the freshness of this form, and now, moments later, she could smell that she'd been correct.
She sprang happily from tree root to tree root, avoiding leaving prints both instinctually and for fun, as kits do, and laughed a bit to herself as she went further into the forest. The answering chuckle of her Spirit startled her to a stop, just as she reached the edge of an iced over pond. Looking down at her paws, which she self-consciously thought of as cute, she tentatively looked inward as well.
This early on, she could only see her Spirit as an aura; a swirling mass of light in the vague shape of a vixen. I am Persephone, Child, the Spirit thought to her - their connection in this form making their thoughts one. Go to the pond, so you can see us. We can also talk that way.
They moved over to the pond and rolled around to clear the new snow. They were about to step forward and look when Penelope suddenly wrested control of the body over to herself, already following her own orders before thinking Run!
They ran, much faster than the frolicking pace from before, with only one of them really knowing why. But both of them knew that it wasn't fast enough. They both heard the scream, coming from way too close. The next thing she knew, something tackled them from the side, jaws locked around the base of her throat and shoulder with a crushing grip.
It was then she knew. This was her mate.
