Snippet #2502730

The water was still. The trees were slowly moving in the breeze, for now the forest was quiet, all was calm. Over time the human population grew, many believed it would disrupt the calm nature of the region, but like all other things, a balance was found, at least for now, creatures of all walks of life were undisturbed, and humans were none the wiser.
A ripple in the water disrupted the bubble of calm that had been created, a bird flew from a branch, a rabbit bounded away to it's burrow and Larif Keergire growled. Much like life, Larif became annoyed when the calm was interrupted and he very much liked things to stay as they were.

He leapt from the branch he was perched on and dived head first into the river. He had been hunting, but he wanted to keep the equilibrium for as long as he could before he was forced to change it. The blur that he had become broke the water's surface and it splashed over the bank, he was gone, and the ripples began to die down. What emerged however was no man, simply an otter, clutching a struggling fish in it's mouth. The otter jumped up the bank and continued away from the river, then deeper into the forest shaking the water off of it's fur. When the fish had stopped moving the otter stood up on it's hind legs and dropped the fish from it's mouth, it was caught by a hand, a human hand, that was now in the place of where the otter's paw should have been. The rest of the otter then transformed into a human that stood up where it had been crouching.

Larif Keergire was a shapeshifter, a race of people that could transform into a number of different animals at will, a skill which he had just utilised as he always did. His main transformation however was that of a goat, giving his human form many goat-like features. The fish he had caught was wrapped in cloth and placed in a pouch that was strung around his bare torso. "Good" he muttered, "should go well with the other ingredients I got today". Content that his survival in the way of sustenance was ensured, he headed off towards the nearby town Veraloia. Although the bustle of a populated town wasn't something he necessarily enjoyed, he visited there often to find solace in the fact that he wasn't the only one who disrupted the calm.

Once again, things were as they should be, the birds flew back to their perches, the trees regained the constant flow of the wind. And the water remained still.