Dania

****Please note that this story has been re-written. While most events have not been altered, some small things have been changed to make the story flow more fluidly.****

Comments and suggestions are always welcomed. Enjoy.

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I don't really know who or what I am. I have lived through many winters and have only come across one other like me. I've met a few were-cats, but only one who was truly like myself. Kimber was her name. Though feline, neither Kimber nor I possessed the ability to change from our Cats into humans. We were stuck somewhere in between. But this story isn't about Kimber, it is about me.

My name is Dania.

I stand about 5'8" and have short grey-ish fur covering most of my body. My face and hands are the exception here. My skin is that same ashy grey color as my fur and it can be difficult to tell where one stops and the other begins. My hair reaches about half-way down my back. My face could be described as mostly human, although my nose and upper lip are definitely cat-like. I have an athletic figure most women would be jealous of. Except for my tail. . . . . I don't imagine that they would welcome the tail.

I have no memories of when I was a child; who my parents were, what people I belonged to, how old I am. Nothing. My earliest memory is from when I woke up one morning in what the humans call the Cascade Mountains. I didn't know this at the time. All I knew was that I was hungry and scared.

Those first few years there were the hardest. I had to fight for every bit of food that I got. Every day was a struggle. And there were times when I just could not find food and would go for days without eating. But, in the end, I know that it made me stronger. It made me faster. I had to adapt or starve to death. This was life for me.

The best part of my days were when I would go into the trees. I loved the trees! There was nothing more exhilarating than to jump from limb to limb, from tree to tree. That sensation of weightlessness as I flew through the air is indescribable. As I waited to hit the next tree, I was invincible.

I have often looked back and wondered why it was that I took so well to the trees. Were my people tree-dwellers? Did I spend my time as a child in the trees? Or was it that I was different from my people? Were they more at home on the ground than I was? Was I a freak? Kimber was more at home on the ground. So which of us were the descriptor for our species? I don't know. Maybe I never will.

By the time five winters had passed, I was no longer struggling for food. The tree tops were my home and I feared nothing in the woods. I no longer questioned who I was or where I'd come from. Those questions just didn't seem important anymore. Wondering about my past took my attention away from the present, which could have been dangerous. What mattered was that I was alive.

As another two winters said their goodbyes, I was queen of my world. The animals did not fear me. I could walk up to any creature without scaring them away. I enjoyed watching them from the trees and then dropping down to be nearer to them, sometimes running my hand along their backs.

And as gentle as I was with them, I also had to eat. I never had the urge to kill for fun. I ate what I killed. I'm not ashamed to say that I used their general lack of fear of me to my advantage and when it was time for a meal, I was ruthless. I did not feel guilty about stroking an animals back to calm it before reaching down and sinking my teeth into its throat.

I was not at the top of the food chain. I WAS the top of the food chain.

Not long after I had been in the Forest for 12 winters, things suddenly became interesting.

I was in the far northern part of my territory and found a clearing with a nice watering hole to take a bath in. I didn't come to this part of the Forest often and hadn't been here in two or three winters. The Forest was thick here with the trees much closer together. Running on the ground proved more difficult, but not impossible. But in my trees . . . in my trees it was heaven. I was a flash of gray up there, gone almost before you knew you'd seen me. If you ever saw me at all.

I was enjoying my bath and enjoying the cool, almost cold water against my skin. Chills ran up my spine and goosebumps covered my flesh. My hands drifted slowly along my body as I removed a days worth of dirt and dust from my coat. I reached down and grabbed my tail, bringing it up between my legs for its cleaning, making sure that it rubbed against that especially sensitive parting of flesh. My eyes began to close in pleasure after on a moment or two of this and soon I was lost to the sensations rolling through my body.

Letting go of my tail, I let a finger take its place while my other hand snaked its way up my body, teasing the flesh along the way. My nipples were already hard by the time my hand made its way to them. One flick with my claw and their sensitivity was evidenced by my inhalation of breath and the purr that followed suit.

My eyes were completely closed now. Had they been open, you would have seen that they were rolled back in my head. My hand, the one not playing with my breasts, continued its ministrations by circling my clit and with the occasional insertion. My Cat was beginning to take over now as my mind slipped away into blissful semi-consciousness. Sometimes I just have to let my Cat out to play or I will go insane, and I did so now, falling completely into ecstasy.

Reality came crashing back to me when I heard what sounded like footsteps in the Forest. I pushed my Cat away and listened more carefully, ascertaining that it wasn't any animal that I knew of. If I didn't know any better, I would say that it walked on two legs . . . . like I did.

Wait!

Was this creature like me? Was it one of my people? Excitement nearly got the better of me. I was out of the water and heading towards whatever it was before it occurred to me that it may not be friendly. Even if it was one of my people, there was no guarantee that it would welcome me with open arms. For all I knew. . . . well I didn't really know anything. Caution seemed the better option here so I headed in the other direction and into the Forest on the other side of the clearing.

A few steps into the treeline and I stepped on a branch. The creature stopped and the sound of the crack and I knew then that its hearing was as good as mine. If it could hear me, then it knew where I was. I had to make a conscious effort to not make any more sound as I circled around the clearing a bit and then ascended into the trees. Into safety.

I made my way through the treetops and eventually found this thing wandering around in my woods. I was more than a little shocked when I found him. Yes, I'm sure it was a him.

Not only was it a him, it was a big him. This thing was huge. If I were to have stood next to him, I would come mid-way his chest. His arms and legs could have been mistaken for small trees. His massive hands would have no trouble fitting completely around my waist. His fur was a reddish-orange and covered most of his body. What was this thing?

I must have gasped at that moment because he looked straight at me. His eyes were a deep green and I was trapped by his stare. I felt nothing but terror. Not from him, but because I didn't know who or what this thing was and it was in my woods. And although I sensed nothing menacing about him in his gaze, I didn't like it anyways. I had to ask myself if there were more of him, and if so, how many.

I took off as fast as I could and he began to follow. The thick underbrush made it hard for him to keep up and I was relieved that he never came into the trees. It only took a few moments for me to get far enough away that I could no longer hear him. I paused just long enough to think to myself that I wanted to get as far away from him as I could. And I did.

I traveled the rest of the day, making sure to stay away from my home, and, as night fell, I stopped to rest. The pace I'd set should have gotten me a sufficient distance away. Exhaustion and exhilaration nearly overwhelmed my tired body. A part of me hoped that we would never cross paths again. I would do well to be cautious, this thing walked upright like I did and seemed to be intelligent like I was. But the cat in me was curious. It wanted to know what this thing was. And I couldn't resist my cat.

But first, I needed to rest. I fell asleep as the Sun was setting and the Moon rising. I love the Moon.

I awoke to the sound of a branch snapping and my first instinct was to panic. I had to get away.

It had to be him.

What else could it be?

But how had he found me?

He couldn't have, I was too far away. . . .

All of these thoughts raced through my head all at once and it took a second to get my bearings. I took in my surroundings. He wasn't here. And he hadn't been. I saw the skunk and knew what had happened. Some stupid animal and pissed it off and gotten sprayed and then ran off, snapping the branch. What an idiot. Being scared like this pissed me off.

These were my woods and I would be damned if something else was gonna come in here without me knowing about it. I had to find this thing and learn about it if it was the last thing I did.

I set out immediately even though the moon was only half way across the sky. The night was something I could use as a cover. I retraced my steps back the way I'd come. This thing had come much closer to finding me that I wanted to think about. This could only mean that he was able to track me. My claws did leave marks on the trees, so this was not out of the question.

The sheer size of this things feet made him easy to track. Very little effort was required to see where he'd gone. It never occurred to me that something able to track that well should have been more adept at covering his own tracks.

It took no effort to follow his tracks back to the clearing where I'd bathed. He left his tracks all over the clearing. There were almost identical to mine; the same shape, but larger and without claws. I could tell that he'd walked around the watering hole a few times, gone in a ways, and then headed into the Forest on the opposite side of the clearing.

I'd never been very far in that direction. Was it possible that he lived in that direction? That our territories overlapped? That they overlapped and we'd just never crossed paths before? Or was he just trespassing?

No. He'd come from within my territory and was heading out. He was definitely trespassing.

I made my way into the Forest the way this thing had gone. I had to be careful. I did not know the area very well and he could be anywhere. The slightest sound would give me away. Stealth was my friend here. For almost an entire day I followed the tracks left by this massive being.

When I found him, I quickly decided that I wished I hadn't. He wasn't alone. There were at least a dozen or more of these creatures there with him. They had fur that was a darker brown than his and they were all just a bit taller than he. The orange-ish fur was unique to him. And although he was shorter, he was much thicker and appeared to be stronger than the others as well.

I stood there not moving, afraid that if I moved they would know I was there. I couldn't run. I mean, what if one of the others were faster than him? What if they could come up into the trees like I could? What if they could knock the trees down?

These and a hundred other thoughts raced through my brain as I contemplated what to do.

As I pondered this, I happened to notice that he was directly at me. Again, I was captured by his green-eyed gaze. He gave no signal to the others that I was even there. But he knew. I don't know why, but I got the feeling that he'd been waiting on me. He'd left his tracks for me to follow. He knew I would come.