The Secret Meadow (Gray)

Today had been a real busy day, and Callie was worn out. She wanted something peaceful to do, something that would take her mind off of everything else that had been going on throughout the day as... Well, she wasn't very good knowing what to do with some of the thoughts she had and so much had happened today that she kept just asking herself questions in a rotation over and over. So instead she'd decided to head over to one of her favourite places. A wide open area in the middle of East Eden that was surrounded by trees. In the center of the place was a large field that was overflowing with flowers of all kinds, it was a truly beautiful place and a place that Callie found very special to her.

Today in particular the meadow was a sight to behold, the sun was shining down through the trees to give the place a very enchanted feel. "Hello there, looks like you've grown a lot since last time I was here!" The girl would say happily to a group of purple flowers that seemed to be late bloomers. Callie would sit by the flowers and just relax, happy that she always had this place to go back to whenever she felt uneasy or stressed about anything that could be going wrong in her life. "Isn't this place magical Terra?"

"It sure isn't the same as that crummy over built place where you call your home!" Callie's shadow Terra would reply to the girl from her mind. "This place actually has some colour to it! I betcha the air around here is so fresh too!... Are you sure I have to stay like this? Comeon we're out in the middle of nowhere! It's not like anyone will see anyth-" Just as Terra was making his case on being allowed to explore the area himself, Callie's ears would perk up from under her hood. She could of sworn she heard a twig snag... A-and now she can definitely hear footprints!

Turning around to face this newly emerged man, Callie would look them over for a moment before giving them a bright smile. "Oh don't worry! You aren't disturbing me, this place could never feel unpeaceful!" She'd say happily. Wait... Is unpeaceful even a word? Uhm, now that she thought about it probably not, but he'd get what she meant, right? Probably. "Are you here to see all the flowers too? They're always really pretty this time of year!" She'd say, returning her gaze for a moment to the open meadow of wild flowers. "I like to come here to relax, ya know? But I could never turn down a friendly visitor!" The girl would add, it was strange, she had came here so many times over the years yet had never met this person before. Maybe they're new around here? Or perhaps they didn't know about this place and found it by accident!

Hmm, maybe... "Are you lost?" She'd question with a tilt of her head. Now that she thought about it, the woods were like a maze of trees and grass for someone who didn't know their way around! If this new person was in fact a new person to the forest, she deemed it quite possible that they had lost their way at some point! Oh! Maybe if they were truly lost she could help them find their way out of here! That would be fun!

"A crowd of people? Like a parade or a marching band? Oohhh! That would be lots of fun to watch as long as they didn't trample all over the pretty flowers!" She'd say with a giggle, amused by the thought of seeing some kind of parade march through the forest, although a marching band probably wouldn't be as good of an idea! All the animals usually preferred the peace and quiet of the forest so that would be a bad idea. "Oh? You're not here for the flowers?" The girl would question with a tilt of her head, she wasn't sure why anyone would wonder through the forest if they weren't looking for some kind of beautiful wildlife to admire. "Why are you all the way out here then? I-if you don't mind me asking!"

Callie would nod. "Mhm! The place isn't too hard to find your way around once you get to know it, but a lot of the trees and whatnot look fairly similar in some places and I've known some people who can get lost and confused here because of that fact!" Her fondest memory of that was when she found two other kids wandering the forest, both of which were convinced they weren't lost but by the end were begging her to find them a way out. She even purposefully took the long way out of the woods to make it look even more impressive that she knew her way around! "Huh? I'm..." The girl would pause as she sensed Terra shaking his head in her mind. "Mhm! I'm here on my own, but I've been here loads of times so I could probably find my way back home blind if I had to!"

"Hm? Well... I guess..." It would be kinda odd to have a large parade suddenly come through the forest, all the animals would probably be a little annoyed by it! They don't like loud noises, neither did she really. She could understand better than most how horrible it was to have such sensitive ears when it came to loud noises! "It would still be fun to see a parade, I've never seen one in person!" She had heard a lot about them and even watched one on the television at home before! She thought it could be a lot of fun to actually see one properly, as long as it wasn't too loud! "A bird?" She'd say with a giggle. "I do stuff like that all the time! I love tracking down animals to see where they like to go throughout the day! Although I usually follow rabbits or foxes over birds!" She'd say with a bright smile, remembering the last time she followed a rabbits tracks much to the displeasement of the rabbit.

The young vixen would tilt her head curiously as the man spoke. "What's a compass?" She'd question, she couldn't think of a time she had heard that word before, or at least she couldn't put an image of an object to its name. Not that she'd ever need one herself or even know how to read one if she did know what it was. The girl would shake her head after the mans next question. "Nope! I love the flowers, but I also come out here to see all the little animals and stuff like that bird you followed! It's also just a nice place to relax and get some fresh air away from all that dusty stuff in the city, ya know?" She'd say, suddenly jumping to her feet realizing something. "Oh! I completely forgot!" She'd say, holding out a hand to the man and giving another warm smile. "I never introduced myself! Hi, my names Callie! What's your name?"

Callie would give the man a confused look as she tilted her head. Following the animals scared them...? She had never noticed them being scared of her before... Well, at least not the ones she tended to follow, they were her friends! She was pretty sure that they trusted her... Why else would they come over and eat food from her hand? "Hmm..." The girl would take a moment to think of how to word her response to this, she knew there was a reason for her to not be included in the scaring of animals, but how did she explain it? "I think animals just have good nose memory." The young vixen would finally say with a nod. "They recognize what I smell like before they even see me! And they know that I'm always friendly to them so they don't run away from me!" She'd give a light hearted smile, that was at least one way she usually detected a friend or foe.

"OH!" The girl would exclaim excitedly as she was told what exactly this 'compass' thing was. "I think I remember Kay calling me a living one of those thingys once! She said that she could probably put me in any random place in all of Endy, all blindfolded and stuff then let me go and I'd be able to follow a trail home again within no time fast!" She'd say proudly, truthfully it didn't work completely like that. If she was to be placed somewhere she had never been before it would still confuse her, yet if she was somewhere her nose would remember the scents of the city would always lead back to her home!

Without another word, the girl would shake the mans hand with her fashionable quite over the top smile beaming towards him. She'd giggle lightly as he'd call her 'miss Callie', she hadn't heard anyone call her that before. "Gray huh? Like the colour of the clouds on a rainy day! I usually hide from those, I'm not really a fan of water, it makes all my clothes soaked and it messes up my hair and ta-..." The girl would suddenly stop midsentence as Terra would snap her attention to what she was about to say... She really needed to stop letting her excitement almost ruin everything. "Heh... Sorry, I tend to start rambling a lot... I could start rambling about just about anything if someone didn't try to stop me talking about it! But sometimes it makes me completely forget what I was meant to be talking about in the first place... L-like right now, uhm..." The girl would ramble, trying her best to get an apology across before completely forgetting why she was.