"That'll be three gold and five silver."

The cloaked figure nodded and reached out a gloved hand to drop the coins on the counter. The elf behind the counter counted them up, then dropped them into the store's chest with a loud clink. "Here's your supplies," he said, handing the bag of dried food to the person before him. "Thank you and... come again..." He trailed off as they turned and left the store into the night outside without another word. Shrugging, he scanned the equipment store for anyone ready to make a purchase. Business had been slow all day, and it seemed today would be no different. Reaching under his counter for the book he'd been perusing, he spared no more thought for his unusual customer.

Neither did his customer spare any thought for him as they made their way through the uncrowded streets. A few people here and there glanced at them, but they kept to the darker parts of the road and nothing could be seen under the shadow of the hood. Even those few with night vision like the elves were unable to get a glimpse, for as soon as they were seen the figure would immediately turn in another direction.

Eventually the twists and turns this unknown person took brought them to the city wall. After a quick glance verified no one was around, they pressed on a certain stone in the wall. With a soft grating, an entire portion swung out onto the forested area beyond. They slipped quietly through the opening, then pushed on the other side, the smuggler entryway re-latching with a quiet click.

Quickly now, the figure ghosted through the woods, following a seldom-used trail deeper into the woods. Several minutes of walking later, it opened onto a small clearing with a pond. Nearby was a charred firepit, and next to it lay a backpack and bedroll. Dropping the rations bag next to the camp equipment, they reached up and opened the clasp on the cloak, taking it off and letting it drop.

Jasmine Yumeryuu let out a soft sigh of satisfaction as the cool breeze of the night washed over her. If that elf in the store could have seen her now, he would have seen just how unusual a customer she had been, for she was no elf, dwarf, human, or even native to his world. Standing there under the trees in all her 6'3" glory was a female rakshasa.

In general she could be described as a humanoid cat, or more specifically a tigress. Orange fur(with black stripes here and there) covered her sides, back, arms and legs. Just above her breasts the fur turns to a white color, going down her front until it fades back into the orange on her inner thighs. Her head itself was very tiger-like, though intelligence shone in her eyes. She was well-curved, though not overly voluptuous; just very well proportioned. At the moment her outfit left little to the imagination: a simple red loincloth hung off her waist, while a red cloth bra tied around her neck and back supported and covered her furred chest. A much more modest outfit was packed among her equipment, but in the waning months of summer it was just too hot to wear with her fur. Anyone who thought her current clothes meant he could take liberties with her, however, would be quickly dissuaded by the two hilts of her scimitars rising behind her shoulders.

As Jasmine removed the gloves hiding her furred hands and claws, she wished she was better at grasping her innate magic. As a rakshasa, she could have changed her form to that of a human or elf, but she still hadn't mastered the technique. She could only manage to hold it for an hour before it slipped out of her control, after which she'd need a good rest to be able to do it again. Thus, it was usually easier to just smother herself in that cloak and make supply runs at night when she could use the shadows to hide her true form, and save the power for when it was truly needed.

Unbuckling the belts holding the sheathed scimitars to her back, she let them drop next to the rest of her equipment with a thump. Padding over to the pond, she lay down next to it, resting her head on her arms as she stared into the water. 'Funny,' she thought, 'how all this started because I sucked at magic.' As she relaxed, cooling off by the pond, her thoughts drifted back along well-worn paths, to her old home of Lanka, on another plane...

The circumstances of Jasmine's birth were never that clear to her. Her mother, Aiko, refused to talk about it, but apparently she had dallied with a dragon named Mandrathas who had visited their plane. A month after the dragon had left, she discovered she was pregnant. In response, Aiko was disowned by her father, Marakuma, so that her disgrace would not taint his position. By the time Jasmine was born, Aiko was working at the Sorcerer's Tower to support herself. She may have been disowned, but her family's influence at least made sure she didn't fall too far through the cracks of the city. While she had brought disgrace, that was only a minor one compared to what her family's peers would see if they found a member of that family living in slums.

Jasmine's early childhood was somewhat troubled. While strangely enough, no sign of her draconic heritage was apparent on the outside, it didn't stop other children from singling her out for it. They would tease her with names such as "Scaley" and "Lizardbreath" and exclude her from their activities. Her persecution and "outsider" view on the cliques and popularity struggles among her peers engendered a healthy contempt of the struggle for power over others. Like any good rakshasa, she knew she was better than those vapid airheads and musclebrains, but because of an accident of birth they were somehow considered better than her.

With her mother often busy with her tasks in the Tower, and no domineering father figure like other families, she was more independent than other rakshasa girls her age. Where they would be forced to be demure and only associate with those of their station, Jasmine would be sneaking around the back passages of the city, sweet-talking her way into and out of trouble. Luckily, word never got back to her mother, though she sometimes suspected her mother knew and just kept quiet in the hope that it would force her family to take them back to prevent loss of face. Thinking back now, she suspected it was more a case of the latter, as it was after one of her more explosive escapades that her mother managed to use her position at the Tower to enroll her in studies there.

What her mother didn't count on though was her difficulty in tapping into her inner magic. Where others her age were already placing continual light spells on their rivals' underwear, she was struggling to cause even a glimmer. Privately she suspected what one nasty teacher had said was true; that her draconic heritage was interfering with her innate rakshasa magic. In frustration she ended up cutting class quite a bit, and one of those times were what had led her to take up arms, which most rakshasa find beneath them.

The young rakshasa whistled to herself as she slipped over the alley wall. Clad in a vest and loose breeches, she was an older girl, but obviously still lacking the curves of womanhood. Dropping into a crouch as she landed on the other side, Jasmine smiled to herself at eluding the school's security yet again. 'Just a little farther,' she thought to herself, planning on spending the day curled up in her hideout curled up with a good book. She started to rise, then froze as she heard the sound of gravel crunching behind her.

"Well, well, what do we 'ave 'ere." Slowly rising and turning, she found herself face-to-face with a grizzled, scarred rakshasa. One eye was closed with a white scar across it, his fur frazzled and dirty. His leather clothes weren't in much better shape, but her eyes were drawn to the dagger which glinted dangerously in his hand, glowing faintly with magic.

Rising up, she took on the "away foul peasant" pose, as she had termed it after learning how to copy it from one particularly snooty girl. "I am merely on an errand for Eiji Vanaras. I am sure he would make it worth your while not to impede me."

The smirk on the rak thug's muzzle turned into a full grin. "Oh, I've had -plenty- of 'rewards' from you high-class ja'fa," he said, tracing that scar on his face with one claw. "Maybe I should get my 'reward' from you instead."

As he stepped forward, she couldn't help but shrink back a bit. Usually the name of the Master of the Tower was enough to dissuade most from messing with her, if she couldn't get away any other way. "I don't have any money on me..."

"It's not money I want." He paused, licking his lips as she came to realize what that glint in his eyes meant. "You may not be as fun a ride as others, but I'll bet you're nice and tight."

Letting out a shriek, she threw her bag at him and tried to run past, but he just knocked it aside and grabbed her arm. "Thas it, scream all y' want. No one c'n hear you 'ere and it'll jes make it all the more enjoyable." Cursing inwardly, she knew he was right. In fact, that's why she normally took this route, since there was usually no one here.

He threw her up against the wall, drawing an oof from her as his dirty hand slipped inside her vest, feeling at her flat chest. She drew in a breath to scream again, but suddenly froze as she caught sight over his shoulder. Not realizing, the grizzled rakshasa grinned. "Going to give in then?"

"That's what I should be asking you. Now step away from that girl."

Whirling around at the phrase spoken in Undercommon, he found a rapier pointed at his nose, and a second one at the ready, both in the hands of a male drow. "What're y' gonna do 'bout it if I say no?" He replied in the same language, not dismayed in the least by the weapons. "Tickle me to death?"

"First, I don't like rapists," the dusky-skinned elf said as he brought the second rapier to full guard position. "Second, I have diplomatic immunity, but I don't think anyone would care regardless if I nailed your scraggly hide to the wall." The rapier at his face traced a small circle around his nose.

With a roar, the rakshasa batted the blade aside and lunged to attack the drow. Sidestepping, the drow knocked the dagger out of line, and brought the other blade up to draw a bloody scratch across his chest. "And third, I think I can do more than tickle."

Jasmine remained frozen against the wall as she watched the drow pick apart the much larger rakshasa with his rapiers, deflecting any attacks he attempted and stinging him enough to disrupt his concentration when he tried a spell. The fight continued for several minutes before the drow impaled the rak on his enchanted adamantine rapiers.

Wiping off his swords, he walked over to the frightened rakshasa girl and bowed slightly before her. "Your assailant is take care of. m'lady."

Blinking off the shock, she shook her head a little. "Th-thanks. I really should get going now..."

He tilted his head at her. "Would you like an escort? Scum like this," he paused to spit on the corpse, "usually has friends nearby."

"Um... well..." She stuttered a little, trying to think of a reason to refuse him, more than a little afraid he might have his own reasons for rescuing her. "Don't you have to get back to what you were doing?"

The drow shrugged. "Nothing that can't wait until later, m'lady. Back home we were always taught to respect women and girls, and trash like that would have died long ago."

She nodded a little, still tense. "I... guess... if you'll swear on your deity that you'll leave when I ask you to..."

An affronted look crossed the dark elf's face. "My lady, I would never betray anyone's trust. That's why I got sent here in fact. Our grand Matron Mother knew that I couldn't be bribed by a rival to assassinate her daughter during her stay here."

Leaning down to pick up her pack, she glanced back at the drow. "What's your name anyways?"

"You can call me Nathaniel."

That first time Jasmine sent him off before she reached her hideout, but he always seemed to be there when she was headed that direction, waiting to escort her, and after a few months she came to trust him enough to let him in. They would swap stories; him of his home in the Underdark and her of her times in the Sorcerer's Tower. After one particularly frustrating failure at the tower, she started to badger her new friend to teach her some of what he knew. Surprisingly, she was a natural, though after trying many different types of swords she found she preferred the scimitar to the rapier Nathaniel Kitarelo(which she later found out was his full name) favored. She also found she preferred fighting florentine(two-weapon) rather than "sword and board" as Nathaniel called sword and shield.

Her weapons training not only helped her deal with her growing frustration at not being able to get anywhere with magic, but helped her deal with the changes to her body as she finally came of age.

It seems funny now, but back then she felt constantly off-balance, and her growing breasts felt like an annoyance more than anything else. They always seemed to be getting in the way, and the growth spurt the rest of her body was going through didn't exactly help. The regimen of training she'd begun with her drow friend though helped her deal with her changing sense of balance and form.

Along with those changes she found that magic was starting to come a bit easier to her. She still couldn't cast any major spells, or even minor ones, but she was actually beginning to be able to feel the magic within her maturing along with her body. It was still a struggle to tap into it for external use, but within a relatively short amount of time she'd managed to figure out how to shapeshift, though she wasn't able to(and still can't) hold it for too long before having to let it lapse. She'd even surprised Nathaniel once by showing up at one of their regular practices in the form of a drow female! The remembered expression on his face made her still chuckle, even now.

That was one of their last practices, though. Shortly thereafter that drow delegation was recalled, due to something about a missing goddess. As a parting gift he gave her a pair of scimitars of her own, and made her promise to practice every day. That promise was easy to keep, since it let her work out her frustrations without killing someone.

About that time her body had finished filling out, and while the teasing about her draconic heritage had stopped, what had replaced it was almost worse. With still no outward sign of it apart from her troubles in magic, a lot of her male classmates were starting to see nothing other than an available, very-female rakshasa. On top of that they weren't very shy about making that known. She took to wearing her scimitars strapped across her back to dissuade them, without much success. She even tried sleeping with a couple of them out of desperation, but it just made them that much worse; not to mention that she didn't get anything out of it since they didn't even try to please her, instead just using her body for their own pleasure. She didn't realize how much worse though until a couple weeks later.

At that time she had been starting to grow a bit curious about her father, and had started snooping around the library for dragon lore. Since she hadn't wanted her mother to find out, due to the fact there still seemed to be some hidden issues there, she'd been sneaking out after supposedly going to bed and perusing the library at night. Well, this time when she'd been sneaking out, her ears picked up some voices in the den, so she snuck around to listen, out of curiosity. They say curiosity killed the cat, but it saved this one, for what did she hear but her mother and the father of a particularly abusive rak named Subara. She always had good hearing, but even then it was hard to make it all out, but what she did hear made her fur stand on end. Apparently Subara had taken an interest in her, and if her mother would marry her off then Subara's family would help restore her mother's position and remove the taint of disgrace from her reputation. Gritting her teeth, she turned and headed back up to her room to start making plans. There was no way she was going to become just another baby-popper or pleasure slave, especially to a prick like Subara. Within a few days she'd gathered everything she needed...

Cat-slit eyes narrowed as they glanced left, then right along the empty street, before their owner dashed across to the shadows on the far side. After all her scouting and planning there was no way Jasmine would let herself be caught out by an unexpected passerby. After checking her pack buckles to make sure nothing got shaken loose during that dash, she ducked into the alley and padded quietly between the buildings towards her ultimate destination: the town's Gate.

While she'd never been to it herself, she'd heard plenty about it from various servants. Most rakshasa would deem it beneath them to associate with servants outside of an order to take care of this and that, it could hardly hurt what little reputation she had, now could it? Thus she'd managed to make several friends among the servants of several households, and it was from one of them she'd found out about the Gate. Apparently the plane the city was built in curved in on itself, with additional protections cast about it to prevent normal gating in and out without a special amulet. However, the City's Gate and others like it allow for travel to and from other planes. Supposedly each can have up to 6 permanent settings, though typically only 5 are used and one is left mutable in case of emergency.

She had contemplated just leaving for one of the other cities in the plane, but she wouldn't put it past Subara to try and find her magically. If she planejumped though, that would really mess up the trail. She might not ever be able to find here again, but not like there was much she'd miss, apart from a few acquaintances and one or two relatives that actually weren't asses. If worse came to worst though, according to the quick research she'd been able to do there was a city called Sigil where she would likely be able to find a way to contact them. The one problem though was going to be activating it. She'd read on the method, and luckily her problems with magic never extended to dealing with magical items, but since part of activating it involved "feeling" the destinations magically with her mind, she didn't know how it would respond to her.

Her thoughts on all this carried her through several more blocks inward(the Gate being at the center of town). Several couples and wandering singles passed her by, but never caught sight of her in the darkness, between her stealth and their intentness on their destination or each other. Suddenly, before her was the Main Circle, with the gate standing tall in the center. Pulling back into the mouth of the alleyway, she looked around again. No real traffic, but... savashri, she'd forgotten about the guards!

Two rather alert guards paced slightly on either side of the empty arch. Both rakshasa, and while not armed with conventional weapons, most likely with some powerful spells on hand. Two guards by themselves may not be able to stop an invading army from the Gate, but a few well placed Time Stops and there'd be plenty of time for a sizable force to form to oppose them. It wouldn't do to be stopped when she was this close, but at the same time she had to be able to be close to "read" the destinations and activate it.

She dropped back down, sitting there and watching the guards watch the circle for at least a half hour, maybe longer, and unfortunately they were as alert as ever. Her thoughts were starting to turn to possibly stealing one of the gating amulets when a spark caught her eye. Returning her full attention to the gate, she saw a glimmer of light in the middle of the arch, which then quickly spread, filling the entire arch with a glowing blue light. The guards seemed as surprised as she was, but from the way they focused their full attention on it she guessed that this is what it was supposed to look like activated. Someone stepped out, then two, then three. The first one nodded to the guards and said something, which seemed to calm them. The first one turned around, and Jasmine shook herself. This was her chance!

Gathering herself, she sprinted full-bore out from the corner of the building she'd been concealed behind and tore across the courtyard. The guards hesitated, then one began a spell. She would never know what one for before he could finish she leaped right between the two guards, knocking one of the surprised visitors aside as she dove through, into the unknown.

Shaking herself free of the memories, she put one hand into the water to test the temperature. Nodding, she cupped her hand and brought some up to sip, letting the rest run through her fingers. Since that time she'd wandered the land a little, exploring this unknown land. She knew she wasn't made for the wilderness though, and she glanced off in the direction of the city she had just visited. Maybe it was time she stopped hiding, and started living again.