lost...again//open

[liz]

Elizabeth opened her eyes and instead of seeing the light, gentle white of her bed canopy, she was hit with the bright sun peering down at her between the scattered leaves of trees, standing far above her. She carefully sat up and looked around her...large trees...flowers...they were everywhere! Where in the world was she? Her attire was a dress that she had been wearing just the night before, so whatever had happened, couldn't have happened too long ago...the dress was still very well kept, after all.

Unfortunately, the dress she was wearing wasn't exactly the proper attire to be traversing the jungle in. It was Rococo style, just as all her dresses were, as it was the style. The main color was an off-white or ivory color and there were navy blue accents scattered around the dress. And thankfully, she had been stubborn with her maids that she would not wear that God awful corset. The women in London were insane...

"Well...not much sense in staying right here, I suppose," she said, picking up her dress slightly so that she could get to her feet. Most of the people in and around her household would have told her to stay put and wait until someone found her. It was a ridiculous notion...why wait to be rescued when you could rescue yourself?

"Six months ago, I would have tried to persuade myself that this was all a dream...but after what I saw with the pirates, I'll believe anything! Pirates...they'd better not have anything to do with this," she said with a huff as she paused to kick a vine out of her way.

[Bagheera]

It wouldn't have been long until the proverbial fish out of water was noticed by a resident of the strange locale she had woken up in. From up high in the canopy, atop thick sprawling branches that spread across the treetops, a pair of yellow eyes eyed the woman with incredulous curiosity.

Bagheera was no stranger to humans, having been raised by them for a short period when he was but a cub... not to mention, years later, taking it upon himself to care for a particularly stubborn mancub some time back. But the old panther was positively baffled at the human he observed trudging through the jungle down below; he lowered one eyebrow and cocked the other with curiosity as he silently observed the woman. The nearest man-village was not for several miles... and he was certain that this human couldn't have come from that village. Her attire was... well, it was certainly unlike anything Bagheera had ever seen. Just what was this woman doing in the middle of the jungle...?

Whatever the reason... she seemed lost, and very out of place in this environment. Slow, unused to the rugged terrain and thick foliage... and very, very conspicuous. Easy game for any hungry predator. Thankfully, Bagheera was above taking humans as prey, but he knew of several jungle-dwellers that would leap at the chance for an easy meal... not to mention one particular tiger that certainly wouldn't tolerate any human presence in his territory. To put it simply, this human wouldn't last long at all in the jungle. If she wanted to survive and find her way back to her own kind, she would need help.

Bagheera sighed inwardly, mentally cursing the desire he felt to aid the woman. Despite being a well-respected predator among the jungle animals, his years in captivity have made him soft when it came to mankind... but, that aside, humans simply didn't belong in the jungle, he reminded himself. He decided he'd best act on impulse, for the moment, or else regret it later.

The black leopard gracefully leaped down to the forest floor, not making so much as a rustle as he landed - but he decided to make his presence known, all the same. "Er, you there, human," he addressed Elizabeth, before cautiously approaching her. Perhaps if he was gentle in his movements and as polite as possible, she wouldn't be frightened... "Pardon me for noticing, but... you seem to be a bit lost."