Rawr (Open)

A young girl crept into the silent library, the door creaking loudly. It was a nice afternoon, with a cool breeze and dry air. But that is not what the blonde needed. The slightly humid warmth of a library was perfect for what she was going to do. In her small hands was a cardboard box, lightly spotted with dried mud. She set it on the floor carefully, and began to pull away the flaps. Her long blonde hair fell down to cover her face, brushing the top of the box. It hadn't been taped, and the item inside was easily taken out. The Autumn student gingerly lifted the object on to the table; after putting down old newspapers, of course.

It appeared to be a clay model of a lion, mane and face extremely detailed. It was about two feet long, and a three quarters high. Tiny yellow glass eyes stared straight ahead, while the body was in a neutral standing position. It had been painted just so that the paint would never crack, no matter if it was stretched or bashed upon. The mane was a pure gold, with the body being a soft sand color. If one was to open it; which they shouldn't, they would see a flexible but strong wooden frame. This next part explains why this was needed.

The girl who had come in was Amelia Mclochland. The one with the feuding sisters. She was extremely short, a mere four foot ten. Her small piano hands held a sharp tool, which she was using to define the mouth of her creation. When she confirmed it was to her liking, she stepped back to admire it. Then it began to move. First a flick of an ear, a slight shift of a paw. Then it was moving fully, pacing the desk. It mrowed at Amelia, and leaped on top of a nearby bookshelf. It meowed in surprise when a stack of books it had been standing on tumbled to the ground, coming down with it.

The girl made a worried noise and went over to help the little lion. She began to hurry after her creation made odd, hurt sounds, only to find someone had beaten her to it. She peered around the bookshelf, looking at her severely injured lion. Though the head was completely off; the frame showing, it still wriggled about in frustration. It was resisting the help of the newcomer, fighting back with soft paws.

Dylan's day had started normally. As usual, the dorms were loud and reading there was impossible. He had come to the library to relax, read a book, maybe even nap. He had been looking at a bookshelf, his biggest concern was what to read. That was before a clay lion had fallen on him.

Dylan had quickly wrestled the lion into place. It wasn't that hard, clay doesn't exactly cut well." Why does this happen to me?"Dylan thought, a bit annoyed at life. Looking around Dylan saw an unknown face peering around the corner. "Hey,"he said,"this thing belong to you?" Dylan held the headless lion by the neck, holding it away from himself.

The girl winced when she saw the scene. This was embarrassing. Creeping out from the end, she warily took her creation from the boy. Noticing there was quite a bit of clay in the everywhere, she quickly apologized. "I'm so sorry! I'm not very good and this is his first run.."

The severed head growled in annoyance until it was picked up. It was mostly unmarred, except for a few missing teeth. Amelia carried it over to her table and attempted to fit it's head back on, smoothing the neck and the head back together. When he began to fidget and protest at all the fuss, the blonde forced him back into his original non-living state.

She sighed and searched through her bag for some napkins. After finding a tiny box, she nervously went back over to the clay-smeared boy. "Sorry.. Here..", her voice was low while she was giving him the tissue box. "I'm usually better prepared for an outburst like that."

"No problem. Not many people can say they were attacked by a lion."Dylan said, taking the tissue box. He started cleaning himself up. There was clay stains on his clothes but, those would wash out. After mostly cleaning up, he examined the girl in front of him.  He would put her around his age. "She's cute."he thought."So what's your name?"

The Autumn student scanned the boy's face. She laughed at his comment. "I guess not." Her feet scuffed the ground quietly.

 She found a smear of gold-tinted clay on her palms, and played with it after rolling it into a ball. Looking up at his question, she answered with a smile still on her face. "Amelia. Yours?" A strand of hair fell in her face, which she blew away with a slightly annoyed look.

"Dylan. So, did you make this thing?"Dylan said pointing to the body of the lion."The detail is amazing. It is an incredible shame that such detail went to waste. It was purrfect!" Dylan believe he had made such a corny joke. It was such a bad joke in fact, he started laughing at his own stupidity.

Amelia glanced over at the lion, who was completely still. A snarl was present on his muzzle, though his eyes were dead. "Thank you," she responded, giving a small giggle at his pun. She decided to add a few more. "His attitude is pawsitivly a catastrophe, though." She began laughing along with him, while the clay lion glared at them. An annoyed, but amused, growl was heard from him before going silent again.

After Dylan has stopped laughing he said,"So, if you can bring that lion to life, can you bring this to life?" Dylan pulled out a few iron surikans from his pocket and put them together in his hands. He closedhis hands over the pile of lethal wepons.He shut his eyes and there was a flash. Dylan opened his hand to reveal a small replica of a bobcat. The detail was quite good. Whiskers stood out from its tiny face and its claws looked sharp enough to cut. He held his creation out for the girl to take.

She watched as he took a few rather sharp blades from his bag and formed it into a tiny cat. Woah. The blonde took it and stood the cat up on her palm. She imagined how it would run, walk, even breathe.

The small bobcat blinked. Her eyes had become bright and full of life, staring up at her co-creators. Her tiny claws had retracted as she explored the life-giving hands, and she leaped on to those of the matter-converter's. She looked up cheerfully and mewed, twitching her bobbed tail.

"Aww, she likes you," Amelia smiled at the happy cat, who was playfully attacking the boy's thumbnail.

Dylan looked down at the mini bobcat in his hand. He stared at it as it leaped across his hand. The only bad thing about carrying it was the claws. They were not sharp enough to break skin but, they irritated his skin. "This is amazing." he said in awe."How long can you keep it alive?"

Thinking for a moment, she compared the cat's size and energy usage. "For her, probably a week. It takes a bit of energy to get everything about them working properly, and anything bigger than a dog can be a bit tough."

She remembered a few weeks ago, in the forest. "I once tried to bring back an actual buck before. But there were complications and I had to leave him there.." Amelia frowned. It had been difficult to tame him, and with a cold winter coming upon them, it would be hard to reach him in the snow and ice. Not that maintaining that big of an animal wasn't a problem in the first place. That had been her main reason for creating the lion, to be able to practice without having to go outside.

"Oh. So, what are you going to do with your little feline friend over there? Are you going to rebuild him or make a new one?" Dylan said. To be honest, Dylan was quite amazed with this girls power. Between him being able to make animal statues anywhere and Amelia's power to bring them to life the possibilities were endless.

She looked back towards her clay lion, who was still giving them a grumpy look. "I made him like that just in case he got injured. He was going to be a secret weapon of some sort, but lucky for you I hadn't put in his claws or fangs yet," the girl walked to the cat's side.

Amelia reached over to a mangled paw, and did her best to fix it. "He has a wood and wire skeleton, so he is easy to fix." She pulled at his tail, which after a single, harsh tug, came right off. "I also implemented that so he wouldn't be at any disadvantage." She attached the lion's tail back on again, smoothing the clay to hide the line between the body and tail. After fixing him up a bit, the girl brought him to life again, and he gave a grudging, growl of an apology to Dylan. With a sharp poke or two from Amelia, of course.

The young student smiled pridefully at her creation, while he simply 'cleaned' his 'pelt'; the action not doing anything at all.

"Very clever of you. If he had fangs and claws I might be here right now."Dylan said."Being killed by a clay lion is a ... unique way to die. So what about it buddy,"he said to the lion,"you up for round 2?" Dylan was kidding of course. He hoped the lion had a sense of humor.

Amelia grinned in thanks at the compliment, and watched the boy joke with her lion. He huffed and playfully bopped Dylan's nose with a paw, before spotting the tiny bobcat in his hand. He put his nose to her face, to which she gripped lightly with her metal paws. His eyes were wide with wonder, like a kitten's. The girl laughed softly at him, a new creation's antics would never get old.