Heirot

Laya smiled at it. For some reason even she could tell that it didn't mean any harm. She bent low and scratched behind its ears, looking at Adonis for a moment. "Poor thing, you don't want to eat that.... it will be bad for you," she said softly.

She wrapped her arms around him and tugged him off of Adonis, coming to pull him into her lap. "I think he has something wrong with his paw," she said, glancing up at Telanis. "What do you think?" If there was one thing she didn't fear, that was an animal. Her people had befriended animals. That might by why she was so drawn to helping Telanis.

Neko looked at the leopard trying to consider the possibilities. It was a predator, but it was being friendly? Odd... but then quite lucky. That was the last thing they needed, to be attacked by an animal. The more she looked at the creature, the more she fell in love with how cute the formidable animal looked cuddling into Laya's lap.

"So... cute!" Neko gasped, her cheeks flushed as she walked over to Laya and the large cat and kneeled down next to it. She began to pet it's head affectionately, but she was still wary of its claws and teeth. Kratos twitched at the sight of his sister and Laya being so close to a leopard. he feared at that any moment it would strike and they'd both be dead.

"Telanis... are you sure?" he asked nervously, never taking his eyes off of the scene.

Telanis glanced at Kratos with his best "I didn't do it!" look, while Adonis climbed to his feet and pointed at the creature sharply.

"What are you thinking, that's a wild animal," the black unicorn shouted, not sure how to get rid of it now that they were touching it.

As if to detract from his argument, the leopard yawned contentedly, fanged jaws stretching wide, and keeled over against Laya, exposing its furry white stomach to Neko. Its paws paws stuck up in the air, and there was a splinter of wood several inches long wedged into the big pad of the cat's left paw.

Neko suppressed the urge to shout 'Kitty!' as she petted the creature. She ignored Adonis' comment on getting rid of the leopard and smiled to Laya.

"He's really cute!" she was warming up to it now, smiling greatly. When it turned over though she almost jumped. It was unexpected but then she saw it, the splinter in its paw. "Oh...now I understand. You're hurt." Tenderly, Neko reached out to the leopard's left paw, watching and waiting for its reaction as she then pulled out the splinter.

Kratos had to hold his breath to keep from yelling.

Laya hugged the leopard, holding him down a little bit tighter as Neko reached to pull the problem from his paw. "Poor thing, you should be more careful," Laya said with a smile, glancing back at Neko and nodding that it was okay to pull it free.

The leopard's amber eyes stayed locked on Neko's as the thorn came loose from his paw. Its gaze remained so still and level for such a long time afterward that Adonis exchanged a tense glance with Kratos. However, the cat moved before anyone had time to react, stretching its neck up and running a dry-scratchy cat-tongue - a BIG cat tongue - up the side of Neko's face. In the same playful movement, it twisted back onto its feet and stretched luxuriously, arching out the claws on his remedied paw.

Neko would've have yelled had it not happened so fast. The tongue was rough on her face and the animal's breath was hot. Neko sat, shell shocked, but unharmed.