Hourglass of Black sand [open]

[hero]

She read over the words as if it were written in a foreign language. Well it was in Russian but that was hardly the point. Her mother had finally written to her, since phone calls from Russia were damn expensive. This slightly worried Hero. It had taken her forever to write and the words were slurred and rambling. Though it wasn’t unusual for her mother to ramble it was nerve wracking. Her hand pushed back the dark hair that fell in her face and the other held the yellow paper as she slumped against the oak at her back.

‘Do not be worried,’ Her mother wrote after explaining how she had been in bed sick and alone for that past two weeks. How was she going to feel just peachy knowing that. She had to go to her but the note went on to tell her that school was the most important thing and that leaving would only ruin what her mother worked so hard for. She felt cornered by her mom’s sickness and the duties of school. She wished she could just finish school so she could finally take her mom to all those places they always wanted to go. So she could finally study Egyptian Mythology like her dream or visit her grandparents in Saudi Arabia and hide them from the war on their borders.

She put the letter down with a pitiful sigh and slid it into the envelope only to get a paper cut in her aggravation. “Crap,” She hissed, paper cuts were the worst. Now all she needed was lemon juice to spray into it. The guilt finally washed over her, she should have been taking care of her mother. But no she was washing up the sun in America. She missed her mother and surprisingly her home in Russia.

How was she going to pay attention in school when her mother was sick and lonely. She hated herself and her jerk of a father who left them because he thought shifting was against god. If that were true shifting wouldn’t exist, she had told him before he slammed the door and never came back. He thought she was a demon and Satan’s child.

She wanted to cry but held herself back from it. It spilled only weakness. Something she did not need right then. She let out a shaky breath ordering her brain to freeze. She controlled herself not her emotions. But what left did she have at this moment to rely on.

[Liam Burrow]

Male lions aren't the hunters of the pack. They simply worked to keep the pack guarded and make sure that no intruders got in. However, if the time came, a male lion did have to learn at a young age to hunt if he happened to be on his own. Liam didn't really fall into either of those. He didn't know how to hunt and he didn't really know how to fight either. Well, not in his lion form. He assumed it was more instinct than anything and that was something he would eventually have to live with and confront. His general lion body wasn't really made for primal instincts. The white lion was usually the first one to go because of the distinct lack of camouflage, similar to most naturally white animals. It wasn't something he could control or fix but he was working on something that could possibly hide it. But that was a secret.

The form of a beige mass of muscle was prowling through the woods, trees groaning as he slid between them and his paws left large footprints in the ground. The fur covering his body seemed to reflect the light, giving away his position as he moved and allow for anyone to see him. He paused for a moment, looking around again, his inquisitive eyes stopping on an approaching figure. It was a dark brown bear heading straight for him, body heaving and mouth open. With a roar, Liam reared up and growled at the bear, causing it to stop. It looked over the lion's shoulder at a small clearing where a girl sat, seemingly weeping over a piece of paper. The bear growled at Liam, obviously wanting him to move. The lion roared again and took a defensive stance, prepared to fight the bear if he really needed to. The bear growled deeply and lunged at him, teeth bared and large body lumbering forward. Liam stood poised, ready to attack as the bear came at him.

When he finally reached, Liam gave a roar and knocked the bear backward, pinning it against the ground with one large paw on its throat. The bear managed to wriggle free and lunge at Liam again, rolling him against a tree where Liam's back stretched out. The lion roared in pain, splinters pressing into his fur as he pulled himself off, glaring at the bear. He pounded forward, tackling the bear to the ground again and nearly biting its head in his fury. The bear gave a terrified yell and scampered from underneath the lion, tumbling away. Liam snarled after the bear had left and glanced over his shoulder at the girl who hadn't seemed to move during the whole thing. He pounded over to her, his tail swishing in annoyance. With controlled accuracy, he turned back into his human form. At six foot eight, and two-hundred, fifty pounds, Liam was very much anatomically correct. He stood over her, stark naked and looking incredulous. "A battle of the beasts and you literally sit here and do NOTHING? How clueless are you, Barbie?" He demanded, scowling down at her.

[hero]

Hero was hardly the damsel in distress, she hated the term and thought she could bloody well take care of herself. The bear was a surprise, she was so overwhelmed in her head that she hadn’t noticed the stupid bear or the giant white lion fighting like clash of the titans.

She found no reason to get up and help, how would she? She looked over as the lion stalked toward her. She looked to the note, quickly stuffing it into the envelope. She was well aware of the boy standing over her. He spoke harshly and it pissed her off, there was no way in hell she was going to let him talk to her that way.

”Clueless? I didn't start that fight. Who do you think you are?” She growled looking at him with narrow bi colored eyes which quickly turned confused. She hesitated, blinking before looking away, ”God, can you please put some clothes on.” She wasn't admitting anything by the hesitation..it just surprised her, he obviously wasn't very embarrassed.

She grabbed the envelope and quickly tucked it into her shirt, a woman's pocket. ”I didn't need you to fight that thing, I would have been perfectly fine.”God, what was she talking about?

She was 5'5 in human form and 20 inches tall of jackal. She could fend off a beast but hardly fight one. She could hide and hope it goes away but hardly fight one. She was well aware of this but still stood defiantly against him. She glared at him before standing up, arms crossed over her chest.

He was imposing and annoying. She didn’t like his attempt at being authoritative, she was not a child he could boss around. She didn’t even know who he was. She was not a damsel in distress that he could save and hardly the woman he could boss around as soon as he met her.

His height was nerve wracking and it was hard to look at his face when he was a bloody freaking giant. She glared, ”Just who are you?” She said with a growl. He was an arrogant egotistical person it was clear as soon as he spoke to her and she already disliked him.

”And don‘t even think to call me Barbie, Ken.”She said narrowly. He was clearly just another dumb meat headed jock. She hated the guys whose brains were in their muscles or their dick. No wits at all and an ego to match.

[Liam Burrow]

Liam looked down at her, his eyes slightly narrowed as he tried to straighten out the situation. "I beg your pardon?" He asked, rolling his eyes. "Let's start from the beginning." He said, taking a deep long breath as he prepared himself to over-analyze each and every thing she said. "When I said the word clueless, I meant the definition as defined as 'lacking understanding'. By saying that you didn't start the fight implies that your understanding of the definition of 'clueless' to be 'accusatory'. Which doesn't even make sense, if you think about it. When I called you clueless and lacking of understanding, I was referring to the facts that you, 1) didn't notice the battle going on behind your head and 2) didn't care about the bear that was running straight at you with the certain intent to maul you to death." He finished, taking a deep breath as he prepared to continue.

"Second!" He began, looking around curiously as if he didn't mind being naked and as if her objection to his birthday suit didn't offend him. "The phrase 'Who do you think you are' is terribly overrated not to mention it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Asking someone who they think they are doesn't really answer a lot of questions, does it? After all, what if I just say, well I think that I'm a senior at Shifter Academy. Then what do you say?" He paused, barely giving room for her to respond. "Precisely, there is no answer to that. Moving on, you asked me to 'please put some clothes on'. On what, ma'am? Where do you want me to put my clothes? What if I wrapped a shirt around my arm and then pulled my shorts onto a passing rabbit. Wouldn't that be correct too? Because you didn't specify where to put these clothes. " He nodded satisfactorily and took a step back.

He knew that women were typically not to be messed with and being a sarcastic, annoying manly man pissed some women off. So he kept his distance from her as he carefully berated and took a part each phrase she fed to him. "I'm just going to ignore you asking me the same question, but I'm Liam if you must know. As for defense, yeah. You did. A bear was approaching you at top speed and you /literally/ had no idea." He blinked down at her, shaking his head. "Anyway, the reason I called you Barbie refers to the fact that you were a little bit ditsy when it came to realization of the situation around you. And because you didn't really know what was going on, you didn't really have any idea how to react if I hadn't held that bear off. In conclusion, you called me the Ken to your Barbie, which implies that you do have a sort of physical attraction to me, much like Barbie does to Ken in most situations and he ended up being her mate for life, although that was almost interfered by with River, who is a completely new story." He blinked, wondering when he'd picked up the information of River being a rival to a Ken doll before he decided that it didn't really matter. He'd proven his point to the girl and that was the important thing.

[hero]

]\

She kept her eyes in a permanent scowl and fixed it on him. She allowed him to ramble on like a nagging woman. He was worse than one. His voice was starting to annoy her but she just stared at him as if she was watching a boring program. Every time she tried to speak he interrupted her, she didn't like to be interrupted and was hardly in the mood to deal with a dumb ass like him. Only good thing is it kept her mood off her problems.

She didn't get a long with people because she worked so hard to get them away from her. She gets mad easily and doesn't like being underestimated or tampered with. This boy was arrogant and annoying.

She laughed amused with him as he spoke of nakedness and then Ken and Barbie. It slightly sickened her. His know it all attitude was pissing her off. ”You don't even know me. Good you're done.” She growled as soon as he was finished with his 'speech'. God, she had never met a boy that talked as much.

”As for you, one. You are far too proud for your own good cause frankly I'm not impressed. ” She said looking him up and down, finding no more reason to be embarrassed of his own choices. She narrowed her eyes, ”Two, I don't give a shit if your a senior and yes I can take care of myself I didn't need you helping.” How dare he be so stupid. Calling her ditzy? He didn't know who she was and there was no reason he should call her ditzy. She had a lot on her mind but maybe she was just being dumb for not simply admitting and thanking him. Hell no. She wasn't going to admit anything to this guy.

”Three, if you know more about Barbie than most girls than there is something obviously wrong with you. Plus there is no way I would ever be attracted to an person like you.” She didn't know much about Barbie since she didn't have one as a child. Plus in Russia, it wasn't Barbie it was some other name she wasn't aware of. She had never met him before but then she realized the reason for that.

”Now look Liam, you're conceited, proud, and egotistical. I hardly need that right now.” She said with narrowed eyes. She wanted nothing more than to shut him up.
.

[Liam Burrow]

Liam blinked slowly, allowing the girl to speak as if he actually were listening. He didn't much feel like replying to any of her remarks, mostly because they were poorly thought-out and his respect for her was gradually lowering. He had thought that she would fight back reasonably, but he had been mistaken. People just didn't know how to fight back these days. He sighed loudly, purposefully while she was talking, and looked up at the tree-tops, shaking his head as his eyes rolled slightly. He took a deep breath to reply to the girl again, this time not planning on making it as long, simply because he'd lost respect and he'd lost interest. "I guess I can do a simple analysis based on your actions that I've seen thus far." He said, looking lazy and annoyed now that she had fought back and it was much further below his expectations. He had hoped much better of her and she hadn't performed. "Firstly, let's examine how you chose to and what you chose to reply to, because, frankly, it wasn't impressive." He said, wriggling his nose at her to show his distaste. "I guess we'll have to start with another defintion. You called me proud. As in pride. As in haughtiness or self-respect. Two things there. You said that I respect myself and that I'm haughty for no good reason based on the fact that you aren't impressed." He paused and looked down at his hands which he'd templed in front of his fae. When he looked up, his mouth was slightly open and his eyebrows were furrowed.

"So you're saying that I shouldn't have any respect for myself because you aren't impressed with...well, whatever I was supposedly implying that you should be impressed with. Am I right?" He asked, tilting up a corner of his mouth, as if looking hesitant. "Well, in any case, I am right. Then you said that you don't care if I'm a senior. I'm not sure if I ever really put emphasis on being a senior, considering as I used it merely as an example to answer your silly question, but alright. I'll take it." He laughed a little to himself, crossing his arms over his bare chest. "Next, we've already pretty much established that you're not observant enough to take care of yourself, but hey, best of luck to you. I hope that the next time a bear is on its way to jump you, dismember and disembowel you, that you are saved by a white lion who happened to be in the area and saves your life, that you're a bit more grateful about it." He said, shrugging nonchalantly. "The Barbie point it moot because it's not relevant and your attraction to me, believe me, is duly noted. I don't care nor do I need your approval to make me feel better about myself." He said, holding his hands up.

"As pleasant and delightful as this encounter was, I think I'm going to have to step out, merely based on the fact that I have absolutely no desire to be around you for an extended amount of time due to the reason of your being a stubborn, indecisive woman who can't back up her points with ideas, facts, or evidence. And since it seems that my distaste for you is mutual, then I would be more than ecstatic to take my leave so as to prevent being around you any longer and cause you to further bother your limited brain span and cause you to try to prove your points with lack of evidence." He smiled, without any trace of mirth or humor in it. "Debate is a wonderful thing. You should look into it if you plan on being as stubborn and persistant as you are. Most people who are obnoxiously stubborn in the real world don't get far if they can't back it up with some evidence. I hope we meet again in the not-so-near future." He said, shrugging his shoulders. He turned back around and, leaping forward, allowed his transformation to rip through him, making him into the powerful lion he was built to be. He lumbered away from the scene, honestly hoping that he'd never have to talk to the girl ever again.

ooc::
we're doneee~