The leaves were beginning to change and Múirne hadn't seen Callum in weeks. She had been going to classes, at least some of the time, but she wasn't doing very well because she wasn't applying herself at all. At nights she took to roaming the grounds in her preferred cat shape, hoping to get some whiff or trace of her human but nothing was forthcoming and other people had come to the house, locking it down and all sorts of stuff.  Ever since that, Múirne had made herself scarce, occasionally climbing in an upstairs room to change into her uniform but spending virtually all her time outside and usually as a cat.

Classes had just let out for the day. Out of some sort of sense of backwards logic and guilt the cat-child had convinced herself that maybe this was all a test.  Callum was okay and this was just to see if she really would go to school like she'd promised.  Even as she clung to that idea she knew it was a cruel thing to think when Callum was anything but that to her.  But she didn't know what else to do and she wasn't about to go to another adult about it.  If Callum didn't come back soon, she figured, she would just go completely feral again. Being human sucked anyway.

So there she was, crouched under a tree just starting to turn a brilliant orange about the tips of its leaves.  Her long, white hair trailed over her shoulders, a few strands clinging to the bark of the tree she was partially leaning against. She was prodding the ground in front of her, occasionally cocking her head to the side and freezing in place. It was hard to tell from a distance but she was interrupting a line of ants passing by; putting twigs in their path, forcing the line to move off its established path with puffs of breath or fallen leaves.  It wasn't out of any sense of cruelty that she toyed so with the tiny insects. It was just that she was at a complete loss of what to do with herself while there were still so many people out enjoying the beautiful autumnal afternoon.