A small black and white monkey let out joyful screeches as it jumped from tree branch to tree branch. It gripped a thick branch with its tiny hands and then swung onto another branch on the next tree, but this time caught it with its long tail. The creature’s stomach let out a small grumble as it hung upside-down. I guess I’m hungry… it thought as it looked up at its white, furry stomach.

The monkey let go of the branch and transformed just before it landed on the ground in its feet; or rather, her feet. The monkey was really a shapeshifter named Calypso Nola, but she preferred it if people called her Cali, for short. Cali had short, coal black hair and bright red eyes that accented her dark hair. She had skinny arms and long legs that were decorated with tribal markings the same color as her hair. Her dancer’s outfit consisted of a white belly shirt that showed off her back and a flowing, brown skirt that had open sides to allow more flexibility. She had a long, wooden staff tied to her back via some makeshift rope she had made earlier that morning and a small, wooden ocarina dangling around her neck by a black leather cord.

“Well, I better find some food,” Cali said to herself in a cheery voice.

The young woman leaped up into the nearest tree and began climbing it as swift as a squirrel. Once she was close to the top, she squatted on a branch and transformed back into an animal, but this time as a sparrowhawk. She stretched out her mighty wings and leaped off the branch. She gently glided downward for a moment, but then she swooped up and started flying above the forest. Cali’s improved eyesight scanned the ground for any animals that she could eat, but something distracted her from her food.

There was a large lake off in the distance, and Cali suddenly decided that she wanted to eat fish. She headed towards the lake at great speeds in the high hopes of catching a big fish. When she was above the lake, she dove at the water and extended her talons. When Cali was close enough, she stuck her feet into the water and immediately gripped a fish.

Cali flew to a large tree to her right and stood on it with one foot since her other was occupied by the fish. She looked down at the fish and let out a happy screech. Catfish! My favorite! She thought happily before she began eating the defenseless fish.

Domnall sat crosslegged in the shade under a pine tree on the edge of the lake. As he inhaled, he could smell a strange mixture of the pine and salty air. He leaned back against the rough bark and closed his eyes, breathing in the fresh air. He drifted into a daze for a moment, then felt something sticky drip onto the back of his neck. He jumped up and turned, then saw a trickle of sap moving down the tree where he had been sitting.

He shrugged and moved towards the water so he could wash off the sap. Suddenly, something wet and slimy fell apparently out of the tree and landed on his head. He brushed it off and looked down at the thing, which turned out to be part of a fish. When did fish start climbing trees? thought Domnall to himself. He looked up at the tree, then realized what had happened with a smile.

There was some kind of bird, possibly a hawk, sitting in the tree with most of a fish in one of its talons. He ran to the lake and washed off his neck and hair, then jogged back to see if the bird was still there. Looking up, he saw it was still eating its treat. Raising his arm to the bird, he whistled a bit of birdsong and started speaking quietly to it.

"Here, bird... I won't hurt you...."

Cali would’ve giggled if she hadn’t been in her hawk form. She found the antics the young man below her quite adorable, and she decided to play along…for now.

Let’s see how he reacts to this… Cali thought, inwardly smirking. Cali slung the skeleton of the fish aside and flew down to the boy, perching herself on his shoulder. She scooted close to his head and started rubbing her own against his, letting out a soft hum as she did so.

Domnall was both pleased and uneasy about his success at calling the the bird. He was pleased because he had never before been able to convince any animals to do anything. He had once had a dog that rolled over when Domnall told it to sit. However, he was also quite uneasy. He carefully petted the bird, taking the time to examine it. It was indeed a kind of hawk, and hawks usually would sooner scratch out someone's eyes before flying down and sitting on their shoulder.

After a moment more, he smiled. "Alright, you can un-morph now. There is no way you're a real hawk."

Oh well… Cali thought. It was fun while it lasted.

Cali hopped off of the man’s shoulder and turned back into her true form. She looked at the man and took the time to actually see what he looked like. He appeared to be a few years older than her and he was much taller than she was. His silvery hair billowed slightly in the gentle breeze as her skirt did the same, but she did not shiver since it was a warm breeze. Her red eyes met his green ones and she smiled.

“I guess I was found out,” Cali said rubbing the back of her head with her right hand. “I’m Calypso Nola, but everyone calls me Cali. What’s your name, stranger?”

Domnall smiled wryly as the 'hawk' jumped off of him and morphed into a young woman. He quickly examined her new form.

She looked around twenty-two years old, although he couldn't be sure. There were many beings in the world that looked younger or older than they really were. He noticed she stood nearly half a foot shorter than he did. Her dark hair was quite short, and her eyes were red.

Red eyes? Well, that's something new... He smiled and listened to her introduction, then held out his hand to shake.

"It's Domnall Callaghan. You were a pretty convincing hawk, I have to say. The only thing you did wrong was not scratching out my eyes for interrupting your meal.

Cali laughed slightly and shook Domnall’s hand.

“Thank you, Domnall,” she said with a smile. She pulled her hand back from him and began holding her right elbow with her left hand, her arm going behind her back. The posture wasn’t because she was nervous like most people would think; it was because she found it fairly comfortable. “I just did that to see how you would react. Oh, and for the record, I was a sparrowhawk.”

It was then that Cali noticed that Domnall’s neck and hair were slightly wet.

“How come you’re all wet?” she asked curiously as she pointed at him.

"Oh, a sparrowhawk..." Domnall said quietly to himself. "Should've known..." He didn't realize Cali had asked a question for a moment, then mentally shook himself. "Oh, yes. I was sitting against the tree and some sap dripped onto the back of my neck. When I went to wash it off in the lake, a piece of your fish fell out of the tree and landed on my head. I had to wash my hair and my neck."

He stopped for a moment, having nothing to say. "So... You're a shapeshifter? Just a hawk or multi-formed?"

As she listened to Domnall talk, she studied his facial features and realized that he had pointed ears. They weren’t as pointed as an elf’s, but they weren’t as round as a human’s; they looked to be somewhere in between. Maybe he’s a half-elf… Cali thought.

Cali forced herself to not giggle when she heard the part about the fish. She was never one to dispose of her animal remains properly, and now she was glad that she wasn’t since she met Domnall because of her sloppiness.

“Sorry about the fish,” Cali said, a small blush creeping up to her cheeks. “And to answer your question, I’m a multi-formed shapeshifter. But my favorite is a monkey. They’re so cute! I was actually a monkey before I came here as a hawk.”

Domnall noticed Cali examining him, and saw her looking at his ears. Trying to appear nonchalant, he shook his head so that his hair covered his ears. He really didn't want to be discussing his parentage with someone he had known for less than five minutes.

He was confused when Cali started talking about monkeys, and it showed on his face.

"A mung...kee? What's that? I don't think I've ever seen one." This concept puzzled him. As a ranger, he knew almost everything about the different areas of the world and their wildlife, but apparently he knew less than he thought he did.

Cali could tell that he hid his ears with his hair on purpose, so she stopped looking at them. If he was a half-elf, she wouldn’t be all that surprised that he was uncomfortable with her looking at his ears considering how half-elves are treated by most people. Cali herself had been ridiculed on more than one occasion because she was a shapeshifter. It wasn’t her fault that she had inherited most of her mother’s genes, but she was still thankful for them.

Luckily Cali was brought up to accept everyone for who they are as a person, and not what they were. Yes, sometimes she hated those that mocked her, but she would usually get over it quickly.

Cali stopped reminiscing when she heard Domnall say that he had never heard of monkeys.

“I’m not surprised that you haven’t heard of monkeys,” Cali began. “I know they’re not from around here, but I don’t know where they’re from exactly. Would you like to see one?”

Inside of his head, Domnall gave a sigh of relief. Not only would it be embarrassing to discuss his parents with Cali, it would be painful and possibly harmful for both of them. Even thinking about the topic, he began to get angry, though not enough that it showed on his face or in his body movements. When Domnall got angry, the magic in him took control. He really didn't want to have to explain to somebody why half of the forest around the lake had suddenly burst into flames.

Wrapped up in these thoughts, it again took him a while to realize he had been asked a question.

"What? Oh, yes, of course. Sure." He stuttered, still a bit distracted.

Cali smiled brightly. Her power to shapeshift was appreciated by only one person other than her mother and father, and she had not seen her dear friend for a long time. Pushing the thought out of her mind for now, Cali transformed into the black and white monkey she had been earlier. She let out a happy screech and gave Domnall a toothy smile.

Just then, she noticed that there was a blue butterfly hovering over Domnall’s head. She may be a shapeshifter at heart, but now that she was a monkey she had the attention span of one. She leaped onto the man’s shoulder and jumped up to catch the butterfly, but she missed. Cali climbed onto Domnall’s head and reached up for the bug again, but she missed once again. The butterfly was soon out of her reach and she began pouting cross-legged on Domnall’s head.

Domnall silently watched Monkey-Cali's antics, although he didn't really find watching her chasing a butterfly very interesting. It was more to examine the strange creature.

It's like a little person... With fur... And a tail... And much shorter...

He rolled his eyes, deciding maybe it wasn't that much like a human. Or human-shaped being. In fact, it looked a bit like some strange type of rodent. He raised his eyebrows when Monkey-Cali sat on his head. She was heavier than he expected. He crouched down slightly before he got used to the weight, then straightened again.

Suddenly remembering that Cali was sitting on Domnall's head, she jumped off and turned back into her original form.

"Sorry about that," she said with a bright blush. "Monkeys get too easily distracted a lot."

Cali looked at him and noticed that he had a somewhat distant look on his face. She recognized the look on his face as the one that she had whenever she was thinking about him.

"Is something wrong?" the young woman asked with worry.

"Yes, I noticed you seemed a bit... shall we say, Energetic?" Domnall lightly teased her, but smiled at her so she knew he was joking.

This time around, he actually heard her question and was able to answer it, "Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" He noticed she had been looking at him and seemed to be blushing. Females were very strange sometimes.


((Real sorry for the shorty. I'll shape up in my next post...))

Cali noticed that Domnall had looked at her strangely for a moment, and she couldn't help but wonder why. The thought escaped her mind when she heard his tease, and she giggled slightly. Then she heard him ask his question.

"You just seemed a little distracted," Cali explained. "But if you're anything like me, you probably don't want to talk about it, so I'm going to leave you alone now. See you around, Domnall."

Cali turned around and started walking away, but then she tripped over a rock and fell towards the ground.

((It's okay, I'm getting a bit short too XP ))

Domnall saw Cali begin to fall and jumped forward to catch her. Because of his elven mother's blood, he managed to get her just before she hit the ground. Unfortunately, his hand ended up... Well, somewhere that most females didn't like to be touched.*

Jumping back, he both paled and blushed at the same time. It was quite a sight to behold. "Err... I apologize, I didn't want to do that... I mean, not intentionally, you're very... erm... I mean... Do you mind If I go hang myself now?"




((*Sorry, if you think that's too.... blech, I'll change. Just thought it would be fun to have an awkward elf. Never seen one before.))

Cali closed her eyes and waited for the impact on the ground, but it never came. Instead, she felt a pair of strong arms catch her, and a hand grab her chest. It may have just been her imagination, but she could've sworn that the hand squeezed her breast slightly.

Cali was able to steady herself quickly and the pair of arms quickly left her. She looked up and saw that Domnall looked highly embarrassed. I guess I know who helped me... she thought. Her mind finally registered the thought that Domnall had grabbed her chest, and she blushed brightly even though she knew it was an accident.

She heard Domnall babbling his apology and that made her blush even brighter. She then heard the part about him hanging himself and her eyes widened.

"No! Don't! It was just an accident!" Cali exclaimed, flailing her arms around hyperly. "If anyone needs to hang themselves it's me! I'm always so clumsy and I trip over almost everything! It's my fault! I'm sorry, Domnall!"

(( It's okay, its not too "bleh". That kind of stuff makes an interesting story. And yes, it was highly amusing to see an awkward elf :lol: ))

Domnall refused to look at Cali while she was talking, and was still staring at the ground when she told him it was okay.

"No, don't be sorry, it was my fault. You can go if you're not comfortable any more. I understand. I really am sorry..." While talking, Domnall apparently found something interesting about the trees over Cali's head, so that he didn't have to look her in the eyes. "Go ahead, I won't hang myself... I'll just jump into the lake or something...."

Cali could tell that he was avoiding looking at her and she was saddened slightly by it, but she could understand his discomfort from what just happened. She listened to his response and carefully decided how she was going to word her answer.

"Don't worry, Domnall, I'm not that uncomfortable," Cali said with a smile. "And as for jumping into the lake, I think it's a good idea. I'll come with you! It's starting to get a bit too hot for my taste anyway. Besides, part of you is still wet from earlier, so why not get the rest of yourself wet?"

Cali hoped that the gesture would cheer him up some and that he wouldn't notice how wrong her last sentence had sounded.

A bubble of complete darkness appears, shrouding all light completely. A man wanders around in the dark, bumping into a few trees then another person, knocking them both over. He quickly gets up and runs away, losing his concentration and the dark bubble dissapears, bringing a stinging light to those who were trapped in it and rendering him temporarally blinded, slamming hard into a tree and not moving.

Cali looked around in utter confusion. "What just happened?"

She looked to make sure that Domnall was all right; he appeared okay, but she never really relied on appearance alone. Her gaze then wandered down to the man that had just ran into her new friend and the poor, defenseless tree. As she looked down at the man, she saw that he was a Drow, and a highly familiar one at that...

"Oh my gosh...VALMYR!!!!" Cali cried, throwing herself to the unconscious Drow's side. "Valmyr! Wake up! Valmyr!"

Cali was overjoyed to see her old friend after so long, but she secretly wished it hadn't been in such a destructive manner.

Valmyr stood up quickly and looked at the woman in front of him "Still taking the form of others? or is this really how you look Calypso?" He half smiled at his old friend but didnt want anyone to know how happy he was after such a long wait to meet her again. "I am fine, but my spell crafts are not going the way i had hoped, maybe next time ill get it to work right" his tone was low and lacking emotion though he did care about her.

Cali couldn't help but smile when Valmyr called her by her full name instead of her nickname. As much as it annoyed her when other people did it, she had grown fond of when he called her "Calypso".
"No, still looking like other people," Cali responded to his question. She wasn't surprised that Valmyr had asked her about her appearance. The last time they had seen each other she had long, purple hair and brilliant blue eyes, or maybe it was the other way around. Cali couldn't remember that well since it was such a long time ago.
"So, how have you been?" Cali asked curiously.

"I just ran into a shapeshifter and then a tree, how do you think i feel" His voice showed he was annoyed with the question even though he couldnt care less about what was asked of him. "And how is your career going? I can always use another to aid me with my experiments of undeath at any time you know" A small sneer grew across his when the words left his lips

"Thanks, but no thanks," Calypso replied, shaking a hand in dismissal. "We all know what happened the last time that happened."
The images of what had happened the last time she tried to help Valmyr replayed in her mind, and she couldn't help but feel frightened and giddy at the same time.

The following has been edited:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since Domnall Callaghan has not posted in this story since July, he will be taken out of the story and it will start from where Valmyr first posted. If you're reading this, Domnall, you can rejoin if you want to. I'm sure we can work something out.

"Now now my dear Cali. it isn't like I shall repeat the mistakes of the past. Who do you think I am? Some immature novice at dark arts? I may be a novice but I assure you there will never be a time when a mistake shall be repeated without proper reasoning such as a small change in the spell" He stood up from where he sat after the run in with the tree and stared Cali down. Taking in what she looked like he smiled the best he could. "You look like you've grown in all the right places my dear. What kind of entertainment do you provide now?"

Cali blushed at the nature of her old friend's comment, but then quickly forced herself to brush it off.

"I provide whatever entertainment is necessary, Valmyr," Cali replied coolly. "Dancing, singing, companionship... Unfortunately, it has mainly been dancing and singing. You know how I am with companionship, eh Valmyr?"

"Yes my dear. I do know about your companionship services but I do no need those services today from you. What were you planning on doing today my dear Calypso? Any plans to meet a client tonight?" He left a small sneer appear on his face and leaned back on the tree.