Walking amongst the city streets, Cloud's gaze flickered to and fro over the city of Nibelheim. His hands were clasped behind his head in thought as he walked, quite oblivious to any sounds or movement around him and continuing on without glancing back more than the one time he gifted them with.

Compared to the last few (eventful) occassions he had ventured here, the spiky-haired blond was feeling a lot lighter about the prospect of heading out here. But he had actually volunteered this time to scout around, for once, feeling like he should've made his peace more prominently.

With a sigh, his eyes flickered up to where the ShinRa Mansion stood - flinching somewhat at the fires that blazed suddenly in his mind. He closed his eyes forceably, sitting himself down on the paving and ignoring the slightly irritated voices from the few people who had been following. Today, he had no sword. Today, he would hope for no conflict.

And just sit.

[[OOC: I would like to murder this post.]]

Not having the sword didn't mean he was totally useless if a fight should come along. He had a small blade pocketed... somewhere around... but it would've been a lot easier to deal with these situations if he had decided ever to wield a gun as his friends so often did.

Sadly, nothing was ever quite that simple when it came down to Cloud.

With a lofty sigh, the blond's eyes followed a small (and admittedly ruffled) cat as it tore across the pavement towards him and the ShinRa Mansion. For a brief moment, he almost considered plucking it up and finding it some place more comfortable to stay, like a lodge or a bar. It wasn't until it was drawing near that he heard the snarls and barkings of the pack that followed the femme and clambered to his feet to try and get out of the way.

Ah, well... he did try.

Barrelled into and knocked from his feet, Cloud landed on the ground with a small 'oof' of air as a couple of the dogs jumped upon him in their failure to catch the cat, now stalking along the fence. His arms covered his face as he stuttered in a small laugh of annoyance, protecting himself from any fangs looking to dig.

Pulling the small blade from its hold at his shoulder, he kicked the dog off - quite relieved at its yelp as he sprang to his feet. In the sunlight, the blade shone somewhat: causing a much appreciated distraction from both himself and the cat whilst drawing a form of whimpering from the hungry canines.

They were -just- dogs afterall.

Heaving himself up upon the fence, the swordsman glanced down at the circle of retreated dogs with a wary look. Might as well get the cat somewhere safe rather than murder a couple of strays.

Now Cloud here was getting pretty uncomfortable balanced up on that fence with a stubborn little animal hissing and spitting at any of his attempts to help. He understood that it might've been in shock, and ideally he would've laughed at the irony of the black cat having the worst luck of the day, however today he just really wasn't in the mood to haggle.

Snapping his hand back at the hiss, he frowned moodily before sitting up and turning his hed away from the cat. Fine, well he could play anti-social too. Pouting, the delivery boy propped his chin upon the palm of his hand: his blond spikes flopping down into his face as he shot a sly sideways glance at the feline.

Its eyes were odd.

The violet hue was making him uneasy. Cats weren't -meant- to have violet irises.

Reaching slowly for his satchel on the ground, he pulled it up and waited - trying to make as little movement as possible as he equiped the heal materia to his wrist. That thing (he didn't believe it was a cat anymore) looked injured, and strange or sane he was going to do something about it.

Hopefully.

Jumping at the feline, Cloud grabbed it firmly in both hands as he lost his balance and crashed the short distance to the ground on the ShinRa side of the fence. Clutching the animal to his chest, he closed his eyes for a moment trying to block out his own pain at falling to help a wave of calm wash over the cat.

"Couldn't just be easy, now, could you?" he winced, turning it to face him with an eyebrow raised. Stupid cat.

[ooc: If I'm not allowed to do that you can yell at me : D ]

The cat uttered a low 'mrow' as Cloud tried to help her and the feline was not in a good mood to accept help even from Chocobo Boy. She hissed at him when he reached out to grab her and the hand snapped back immediately. It was mainly shock (The feline was chased by stray dogs and was shot with Fira materia for Leviathan's sake!) from her burnt wounds on her small body and a bit of pride that did not allow her to accept help.


The feline watched Cloud look away and that allowed her to relax by a small fraction as she felt another presence nearby watching the ex SOLDEIR and Sera both. The violet eyes looked away from Cloud to Vincent's direction (She never saw him.) and that was when she was jumped.

At first, Sera did not feel (not even the crash) the hands that had grabbed her and the shapeshifter briefly wondered if she was even struggling at all. The taste of blood (Whether from biting sharp fangs into Cloud's wrists or from her own tongue, the witch did not know.) filled her mouth though the taste itself was familiar.

All Sera knew that the burns felt again like fire licking her skin tortuously like when she helped Vincent rescue the two children from the building or twenty years ago when the Fire turned her into an orphan at five years old. Sera never had good experience with the fire element as one could see. Her violet eyes were tightly shut and a feral hiss escaped her throat. The witch did not like her current situation at all.