Life had a way of being very confusing sometimes. You could be perfectly happy with your lot in life and then some men could come along, with their bribes of pastries, and turn everything on its head. It wasn't as if Miette's life had been ruined, thumbs were mighty nice, but that she had to be thankful for what they did.

The rust haired lady strolled along, keeping pace with the crowd, blending in like she had done a thousand times before. Her stomach growled, loudly reminding her that she was hungry. It wasn't as if this was a new feeling for Miette, she was always hungry, but now it was harder to feed herself. The growl was an unwanted reminder of that fact. With a little sigh she kicked at a small stone, sending it skittering a few steps ahead of her.

She needed to make money. That was how humans got their food and those nice, soft beds. It was hard to make money when you had no skills, all she had were her senses and her wits. Perhaps there was a way to make a living with that though, she thought. People  always seemed to be losing things and she was good at finding them. A smile smile crept across the young woman's face, a plan was coming together. She could be a tracker, probably the best one in the city.

Of course this plan didn't help right now. She was still hungry and still penniless. Miette strolled a little further down the street still thinking. How did one go about letting others know that they had a service to sell? It was not the sort of thing you stood on a corner and yelled about. With a sign she took a seat in the mouth of an ally. She had a lot she needed to figure out.

Amaranth had always been drawn to Wyllmochvar. The city was beautiful, and the locals took good care of their gardens and parks. The various architecture of the city was also fascinating. Being a daughter of the Earth Mother, there was also something oddly alluring about the atheistic culture. But most of all, Amaranth loved the intellectuals. The city was filled with them; Outspoken, erudite, quick-witted people with whom she could have gainful conversation. But for a woman like Amaranth, there was such a thing as too much socializing - she was used to trekking the woods and hills, mostly on her own. And so, she decided to enjoy the views of the city in squirrel form.

She was bouncing across rooftops and trees when her nose caught something peculiar. What’s that scent? She morphed into viper form, so as to follow the scent better. Something was off about it - it was human, but there was something canine about it as well. But not like a human who tended to be around dogs - this was a single scent. Intrigued, Amaranth slithered her way towards the source.

Three minutes and half a dozen terrified rats later, Amaranth was on street level, looking at a woman. In her viper form, she was nearly invisible against the drab background of an old house. She heard a growl. It seemed to come from the woman’s stomach. There’s something feral about her, Amaranth thought, and she had a feeling - an instinct given her by her parentage, perhaps - that the woman was in a form not natural for her. Amaranth shifted into human form, stepping out of the shadows.

“Hello,” she said, addressing the strange woman in slightly broken Wyllmochvarian. Her attire - leather corset and fur skirt - further emphasized the fact that she was not native to the city. Her hand unconsciously reached up to the wolf fetish on her choker, and she took a few steps closer. “You look a little lost. Can I help?”

Strange scents flickered past Miette's nose. She paid no attention to them, she was from the city, she was use to foreign smells. After a while the strange scents of those from far away lands became normal. And this was why she gave no attention to the peculiar scent that belonged to Amaranth.

An accented hellos quickly caught Miette's attention, however. In fact the woman gave a little before whipping about to face the other woman. Miette wore a look of guarded defensiveness, recent events had caused her to feel a little more wary of strangers.

"Ain't lost," she said with a thick street Wyllmochvarian accent, "Just thinking is all. I'm alright on my own." Miette's look sorted a touch as the words left her mouth. "Of course company ain't a bad thing," she added. 

Miette's brown eyes flickered over the other woman, taking in her attire. Her clothing made it clear that she was not from the city, as if her accent wasn't enough. Instinctually she gave a little huff and quickly tried to hide the sour face she made. The lady who stood before her had a very distinct scent to her, it was a hodge podge of seemingly every critter Miette had ever encountered. Needless to say the scents did not compliment each other.

"You ain't from these parts, are you?" She questioned, already knowing the answer. Miette's cautious defensiveness was quickly giving way to her more chummy personality. The other woman had not yet done anything that made her seem dangerous. Besides there was a chance that being friendly would get her a hot meal.

Amaranth smiled at the scrawny-looking woman, taking a few steps closer still. “Not ‘lost’ as in you need directions,” she said, cautiously implying that the woman seemed out of place, somehow. Amaranth took a seat across from the scrawny-looking woman, her eyes drinking in every detail. She remained silent for a while, before speaking up again. “My name is Amaranth. Amaranth Rose. I’m a skin-changer.” She smiled at the woman, waving her hand in the air. A strange greenish glow enveloped her hand, turning it into the paw of a bear for a moment. As the paw morphed back into a human hand, Amaranth kept eye contact, studying the woman’s reaction.

“I heard your stomach growl,” she said, smiling brightly again. She stood up, and dusted off her fur kilt. “I can, perhaps, help with that,” she continued, and started gesturing again. This time, the gestures left trails of green, red, and yellow in the air. From the ether of that trail, food was created. Two slices of bread with butter, a banana, an apple, and a small cluster of grapes - a relatively hearty lunch. The food took its rest on a plate made from what looked like bark, held in Amaranth’s left hand. She offered the plate to the woman, smiling once again. “Come on. Eat. That food is woven straight from the essence of the Sundering Gardens, where I grew up. You won’t find better.” Assuming the woman accepted the plate, Amaranth would take a seat once again, and remain quiet so as to give the woman the opportunity to eat uninterrupted.

Sellagious sat on the edge of the fountain, listening to the chatter of the city, to the trickling water, to the wind blow through the trees and flowers. He watched the comings and goings of the street folk. Smelt the pastries, and flowers and… something else. Raising an eyebrow, he looks around for the source of the smell. After a few moments, and a few deep sniffs, he located the source. A scrawny-looking woman was sitting at the mouth of an alley, looking a little dejected. Frowning slightly, he realised he had never seen this woman before.

Before he could approach her, however, a second woman, that he realised also smelled odd, approached her, and struck up a conversation with her. Curious, he watched the two odd smelling women. The on in the alley seemed on guard, defensive. The other, relaxed. He watched as the the standing woman's hand morphed into a beasts and back again. That raised one of his eyebrows. Then, she conjured some rather good looking food. That raised the other eyebrow. Reaching over, he ran his hand along his familiar staff. It had been a while since he had seen a changer.