Winding Alleys [Mneme]

[Kiou]

OOCYeah, not sure what's up with my first thread, but here it is again. Just ignore the other one, I suppose... 12th Day of Spring, 512 AV Kiou padded stoically into the city once again, the sun long gone from the sky above. In it's place, the moon was suspended motionlessly, hardly more than a sliver of it's surface visible. His pads landed softly on the stone paths, making hardly a sound as he walked through the empty streets. He had just returned from the wilds surrounding Alvadas, where he had feasted admirably upon a lone elk he had chased down. He glanced around at the empty streets and alley ways as he passed, somewhat nervous. He wasn't very fond of walking through populated areas in his true form; it seemed that it never failed to catch people off guard, what with a 500lb lion casually strolling on past. He usually received pretty mixed reactions. For this reason, he always left early in the morning, and returned late into the night, away from the peering eyes of the Alvadas citizens; at least, for the most part. Now, as he gazed into the alleys he passed, he simply hoped that he could find the one where he had stashed his belongings, seeing as he couldn't exactly take them with him. He had marked the exact alley where his things were, leaving a nearly unnoticeable set of claw marks along one wall. Of course, his smell still lingered there, hopefully. Smells often got mixed and strewn across the entire city, leaving hardly any reliable scents for one with a keen sense of smell to follow. This was another reason that he hated traveling through cities, especially as a lion, when he senses were at an all time high. Sweat, blood, meat rotting on some back-alley meat shop, nearly anything one could think of with any sort of smell to it was easy to pick up to the keen nose of virtually any animal. And it was far from pleasant. Finally much to Kiou's relief, he caught sight of the faint claw marks etched into the side of some of building came into sight, though he probably would have strolled right on by if he hadn't picked up the faint scent he had left in the wee hours of the morning. Stopping to take a quick glance around him, Kiou casually enter the abandoned alley, carefully picking his way through the filth that lined the path to the spot where he had hid his belongings. He had made sure that his things were far away from any of the dirt and grime that littered the alley, placing them against the wall, underneath a strange outcropping of sorts that jutted out awkwardly from the wall. It was low enough to easily hide his things from any passerby's, but he decided to make it a bit more unnoticeable by adding a pile of unidentifiable garbage of sorts to the opening provided by the strange outcropping. Taking another curious glance about him, he quickly shoved the pile of trash out of the way, grimacing and letting out a low, disdainful growl, wondering how he had come to be in this stinking city in the first place. Perhaps in the near future, he would move on to the next place, to continue his travels. He certainly wouldn't mind getting out of a city and back into the wilderness. Taking one more casual glance about him, he shifted back into his human form, shivering slightly as a cool breeze wafted past, touching his bare skin. He bent down and began slowly pulling his things out from beneath the small outcropping. He didn't exactly try to rush in retrieving his things, mainly because he felt no need to. He wasn't worried about anyone seeing him; it didn't bother him in the slightest that he was nude. It felt more natural than wearing some flimsy, annoying clothes anyways. He let out a lazy yawn as he began slipping the loathsome clothes back onto his bare body, starting with his necklace, the one he had been left by his mother, before grabbing his pants. Briefly, Kiou wondered absently what he would do this day. He let out an exasperated sigh. As of late, it seemed to be more of this petching city's choice as to where he apparently ended up, it's streets twisting and turning as if it were a maze. He wasn't sure he liked this City of Illusions, particularly because he didn't understand it, and likely never would. Magic and the like were of no interest to him. Whilst he was deep in thought, he slipped one leg into his pants, not exactly paying attention, and almost fell over as he managed to get tangled up in the folds of the bothersome trousers whilst. He managed to catch himself, however, and began muttering a stream of curses, though his library was severely lacking in that department, only containing a few that he had heard in his travels, most of which he didn't know the meaning of, and probably never would.