[Flashback] Circle of the Moon

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......Civilization: the hallmark of human existence. A civilization, at it's most basic level, is undoubtedly similar to the pack mentality that many wild beasts have embedded deeply into their genes. Banding together and working for a specific goal is a part of their instincts, and because of that they are able to survive and thrive. Unfortunately for everything else on Terra, there are none that have achieved such great fruition from it as much as human beings. Humans are intelligent, resourceful, and in a group they have no equal upon Terra. The advantages they enjoy, along with the seat of relative power within their own realm, fills the species with a false sense of security and blinds them to the true way of the world outside of their organized villages and secured outposts. That is why every so often they are given a reminder of their place, and just how easily their security and livelihood can be ripped away from them.

......Such was the case now, as the young cryomancer Lethe looked down upon a mauled and gored carcass. He was surrounded by four of his fellow samurai at the Village of the Moon, called to the outskirts of the clan's territory by frantic villagers. There had been a string of attacks in the surrounding area for the past couple of weeks, and they were beginning to become more and more frequent. At first they had been dismissed as nothing more than random animal attacks, assuming to be a simple aspect of life in the wilderness. It soon became apparent, though, that it was much more than that. Instead of everything being eaten, it was only the humans in the area that were turning up dead. More often than not the people's farm animals and pets were targeted by the wild animals of the area, but these were all much different.

......"Ugh. Disgusting." the man to the left of Lethe groaned, covering the bottom portion of his face with his free hand. He was right. The smell of the remains was nearly overpowering, as whoever it was had been slain in such a manner that it rested between an opening in the trees, and the sun had super heated the carcass into a festering pit of flesh. It had once been human, that much was clear, but the sheer nature of the kill was the most troubling. From the looks of the markings there had been little to no feasting upon the corpse, and it had simply been ripped apart and had it's entrails dragged around it.

......"Look at the bite marks." Lethe knelt next to the corpse, his finger hovering above it and pointing out key features. "Deep rutting on the forearm bones indicate the man was eaten alive while on his back, using his arms to defend himself. Judging by the grooves, he gave up and attempted to shield his face. If whatever this was went for the face, then I'd say he was dead long before they drug the rest of him around here. In fact, I'd say there were multiple attackers." the young man, despite his age, spoke with an academic confidence that only someone thrice his age would typically use. It's not like it wasn't for good reason. Lethe had spent his entire life among the order, and whenever he wasn't practicing combat arts he was deep within his own studies. They were plentiful and had a wide variety of tasks, and the observation of pack hunters was part of that. Many had told him he had an unnatural obsession with the type, but he simply marked it up as knowledge of survivability.

......"So, what we're probably dealing with here are some overly territorial beasts?" His friend and guard captain, Teotl, asked. Lethe rubbed the back of his neck, a habit he had when he was thinking critically. "Yes, but that doesn't make much sense. The places that the killings have been happening have been sporadic at best. If there is a pack of beasts doing this it isn't because of territory." The question gave Lethe a legitimately large amount of concern. If he had to make a guess on what caused these, he would have immediately responded that it was some kind of vendetta, or a very specific targeting of humans.

......But the wild beasts in this area had no intelligence like that. Even animals like the hyenas, though smart, still didn't have the kind of cognitive efficiency needed to make a conscious coordinated attack like this. Whatever it was, it was trouble and needed to be found. Lethe hoped he would be the one to find it, so he could give it a proper introduction to his blade.

..Wordcount: 782
..EXP Gain: 873
[/color]..PWC Gain: 873
..Other: +1 TEXP (May 22, for posting in multiple threads)

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

A pair of eyes watched lazily from the bush, the faint light from them briefly extinguishing as the watcher -not responsible for the deaths, but interested in taking advantage of the deliciously ripened meat on the ground after the humans left it alone- gave a wide and bored yawn. How long were they going to sit there poking and prodding it? She was hungry now.

Out of the humans present, she recognized her human specifically, and she chuckled a bit to herself, quietly, as she listened to the words he spoke of.

He was very good at figuring things out, she decided. Indeed, when the hunt played out before her, the demon hyena made absolutely no offer to either assist or try to help the villager. It wasn't her human, so she really couldn't care less.

She knew the matriarch of her home clan had been growing increasingly irrational. Some mental disease had taken hold. Ordinarily, a hyena pack wouldn't dream of killing wastefully like this, but the large clan leader was beginning to have hallucinations and her stories, explanations, and worldview grew more twisted with each passing day. There were one or two of her former "sisters" who told her of these things, but she dare not tarry long with them. Theoretically, Iskra's presence was an incursion on the rest of the clan's territory. Thus, even in the daylight she often hung near the village where the animals often lacked the boldness to approach.

But now things were different. It made her slightly uncomfortable, but she decided that if things ever became too unpleasant she could reside with her human for awhile. Above all else, she wanted to avoid a confrontation with her clan. Fighting all of them at once... it would be suicide. So she simply avoided them and waited in the shade, basking in the heat of the day and waiting for the small assembly of gods to dissolve.

[ EXP: 417 || +1 TEXP (5th post) ]

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......The village was active with discussion on what had been transpiring over the past several weeks. First there was a fear of apparitions, who by all means meant them no physical harm and simply got their kicks from scaring the ever living hell out of everyone, and now there was a very real threat that not only posed a physical threat but a fatal one. It was times like these that the young samurai found himself thankful for the way he was raised. Had he been taken in by a simple villager who knows where he'd be right now; he might have even ended up as one of those poor souls that had gotten ripped to shreds. That wasn't his fate, though. Fate dictated him to be warrior, a warrior of protection for this village. At the very least things like this kept him a busy man.

......Him and his comrades had returned from the scene of the killing, taking great care to wrap what was left of the body and prepare it for burial. That was sort of a big thing in the Village of the Moon; the whole burying the dead and the ceremonies that went along with it. Being a tribe of warriors, artisans, and craftsmen they took great pride in honor and beauty, and it was apparent in their cultural traditions. And as such, even while investigating what actually happened many were concerned with ensuring the body was prepared properly. Lethe was less concerned with everything that went on post mortum, and more concerned with actually detaining whatever it was slaying his clansmen. He would have been considered cold by some, but he viewed it as a simple matter of efficiency.

......In what seemed like a lot longer time than he would have liked, Lethe found himself at a meeting for the village guard. The main topic up for discussion was the string of killings that had been happening. Of course that was first, there was nothing more important than finding whatever homicidal being was behind thing. Guard captain Teotl led the discussion, and after an inspiring opening statement they began.

***

......It was always important to have a facade for the public. A face that you put on for the people in the general public, and an image you project to mold people to your will. Lethe was very good at such a thing, and right now it was coming in great use. While he had left the meeting in a calm and collected manner, he was actually furious. He couldn't believe the incompetence he was seeing. Even if Teotl was friend of his, Lethe was convinced that he was as inept for this case as a leader could be. The young man reviewed it all in his head; if you were a leader and your people were being butchered, what would you do? Each time he came to the conclusion of finding and slaying whatever it was that was doing this. His so called superior, however, sought an approach of wait and see. He wanted the guard to bolster the defenses of the village and slowly work a way to finding the souce.

......This was unacceptable. Even if the people in their own village had a brief moment of safety, anyone caught outside would surely be mauled. Furthermore, what's to say that these beasts couldn't become more powerful if left alone? It was surely a longshot at them having any sort of addition to their power, but why take the chance? They were dealing with a hunting pack, and Lethe was disinterested in continuing to let them run free. The only way to deal with this problem was to deal with it the same way you deal with a serpent: cut off it's head.

......Lethe made one last check of his equipment before he left, ensuring he was adequately equipped to handle anything he came across. "What are you doing, Lethe?" A familiar voice caused him to pause. Lethe said nothing, and securing his weapon around his waist. As he turned to leave his hut, he caught view of his friend and guard captain, Teotl. "I said, what are you doing?" In truth, the white haired samurai had hoped to avoid this conversation, but he supposed it was unavoidable. "My job." Lethe answered shortly, brushing past his superior without hesitation. Teotl went to speak again, but Lethe cut him off as he walked, "You can all have your fun waiting. Me, I have prey to hunt."

......Without so much as another moment of acknowledgement for the man behind him, Lethe disappeared into the brush.

..Wordcount: 763
..EXP Gain: 845
..PWC Gain: 845
..Other: None
[/color]

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

The sun died in fiery splendor as the faint moon seemed to watch, growing bolder and brighter the further the sun fell. It was a magnificent affair, colored like blood and fire. Iskra enjoyed the sight, yawning sleepily near the village garbage pile. She wasn't there to eat, necessarily. It was simply that the smell kept most of the humans away whereas it didn't have the same effect on her rot-attuned nose.

Her eyes opened long enough to see her personal god marching off as though to the beat of a war drum, and she raised her head briefly, yawning and managing to catch a fly in her mouth accidentally. She sneezed in indignation before recalling that evening wasn't the best time for humans to be out and about, especially with her clan in the state it was.

However, he was a free human and she didn't really have any desire to stop him from going off and doing whatever it was he needed to do.

Instead she stood to her four feet, as silently as a ghost, and resolved to follow him without his knowledge and watch how things unfolded. Curiosity drove her to wonder his purpose and what sort of a fate he would come by as he left the safety of his cozy little village.

[ EXP: 281 || +1 TEXP (2nd thread)]

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......Darkness. The last blue sky of the daytime had been overcome by the darkness of the night, and a thick blanket of shadow engrossed the northwest forest. A young samurai from the villege of the moon, Lethe, had been traveling through this region throughout the day and now deep into the night. Far above him, prominently residing in the black abyss above, was the attention grabbing feature in the night sky - save for the twinkling stars and celestial debris. The circle of the moon stood proudly in the darkness around it, illuminating the land below and serving as a beacon of light in the harsh environment around it. Moving through the dense forest floor, Lethe took a moment to enjoy the sight before him. Being that his village was named after the goliath of the night, it held a sacred spot in not only his village's culture, but his own heart.

......It was the belief of his people that the moon gave them power over the other humans of Terra. It was why their order of samurai, the protectors of the village of the moon, were known rather eloquently known as the Order of the Moon. Whether or not it had any truth or validity wasn't much of a concern, as the mere idea of it was enough to inspire his people to great victories in times of peril. Lethe shared those doubts about the effectiveness of it all, but if it was true he certainly hoped for a bit of an other worldly assistance during this mission. At the very least he felt comfortable in the darkness of night, and confident under the lunar light of this planet's closest celestial body.

......Another step, another indication of the pack. This time there was a string of flesh along the ground, dragged from whatever corpse it was pulled from and pulled along until the beast got bored of it's new toy. It was an unnerving sight, but there was something else that troubled Lethe more. There was something more to this mission. In fact, it had a ... personal connotation to it. Having just hastily left his home village to set out on settling what he could describe as a personal vendetta, Lethe couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, but this entire situation seemed to be a lot more than what it initially appeared. The attacks had a familiar nature to it, the very thought of it drawing him back to that fateful night during his childhood. Even though he had no tangible evidence of who or what was actually causing this, in the back of his mind the young samurai had more than a hunch. He'd seen bite marks like that before, and even if it was something he'd hoped to forget a long time ago, he couldn't help but allow it to bubble to the surface of his thoughts now.

......With a troubled mind, the youth pressed on.

***

......Another one. This time it had it's throat ripped out. Lethe let out a sigh as he looked at the carnage along the forest floor. The tendons and muscles that once worked to help this poor creature keep a look out for attackers was now unceremoniously strewn along the ground. The rest of it's body was in prime shape, no indications of attack, and all indications were that this kill was simply to kill. What kind of madness would strike a beast to have it behave in such a manner? Even in the most violent of creatures he'd come across they already had a reason for their attacks, almost always being about territory and food. None of those were the reason here, as it looked more akin to a human serial killer. There was something much more ominous at work here, but what?

......Everything served as a tool for the hunter, though. Each drop of blood, piece of flesh, and disturbed ground allowed him to track the pack's movement. With each piece of the puzzle he found Lethe pressed on, and it didn't take him long to come across evidence of the pack's presence. In line with the rest of his hunch, it seemed they moved from place to place every couple of days, and at this time they were in this particular area of the forest. It was not far outside of the area where they'd found the most recently mauled human, and his newest discovery was what could only be described as a gruesome graveyard of forest animals that had been mauled in a similar manner. Unlike their human counterparts, however, there was evidence of a majority of them being eaten: indication Lethe was near these manace's home.

......The trail of blood and gore led farther into the dense forest, almost as if there was a trail leading him to his target. The hunter already had the ability to track his prey through the forest, and the amount of blood made the job even easier.

......True to his intuition, he eventually came upon a clearing, and as he quietly approached the edge of the brush his eyes met the true killers. Lethe could hardly believe the sight before him, his body language indicative of him seeing a ghost. That was a lie. It wasn't a ghost. It was the pack of hyenas from his childhood.

..Wordcount: 886
..EXP Gain: 971
[/color]..PWC Gain: 971
..Other: +1 TEXP (posted in 2 threads)
[/color]

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

The fare following the infuriated form of Lethe swatting aside the foliage in a frankly fearsome mood was pretty fine dining. The hyena clan with their mad matriarch had left a trail of delicious table scraps, and she selected only the choicest bits for consumption, faced with such a wonderful buffet before her. Dully, she observed that whatever Lethe was doing wasn't very safe. His flesh was soft and yielding like the flesh of all gods, and he was out here basically alone. The sun sank on mercilessly and soon there was nothing but darkness and beasts and the moon presiding over the murderous shadows.

The woods grew thicker and soon she knew them to be near the place where the vagrant group of animals had decided to rest for the night. There was their leader, foaming fitfully in her sleep, two cubs, brothers, curled up against her breast. The rest of them were in various stages of slumber, scattered randomly in a radius around the pack leader, and two lean and hungry males, ones that would be very familiar to the white haired warrior, sat awake, glaring around the clearing as though hoping a squirrel or something would present itself. Because of the erratic behavior of their leader, they hadn't gotten much to eat despite the abundance of food.

So how would this play out? The rogue member trotted a bit closer with catlike stealth, wanting to get a better look at the situation unfolding.

[ EXP: 325 || +1 TEXP (5th post)]

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......The cryosamurai's eyes widened as he took in the display before him. It was a literal who's who of his childhood nightmares, and seeing the entire pack like this was numbing. It was numbing not just because of the sheer surprise of actually finding the inner demon that had plagued him his entire life, but also because it forced him to confront the feelings he'd buried. so many years ago. It wasn't fear. It wasn't sorrow. It was hatred. He hated these beasts with an undying passion, one that could only be sated through the sating of the earth below him with their free flowing blood. The young man's mind told him to not do it; after all, attacking them would be suicide. There were so many of them and only one of him, but his emotions were getting the better of him.

......For a moment, ice cold terror thudded through Lethe's veins as he thought about being covered over in a mass of furry bodies and dragged into the brush, his body ripped to shreds by several jaws of razor sharp teeth. He couldn't pretend to ever know what his father was thinking or felt on the time of his death, but remembering the sound of the shrieks sent a shiver down his spine. But fear can only do so much, and hatred is a much more powerful emotion. Fear and hatred are curious emotions when working together, and the concoction produced was intoxicating to the young samurai. It was subtle at first, but Lethe quickly found himself drunk on an emotional high.

......His breathing was escalated, each breath coming quicker than the last. His heart was racing, each pump slightly rocking his body. And his senses as a whole had been elevated. It was time.

......Lethe's first two targets were the most obvious. Even if he had been slightly awestruck at the find he'd just stumbled across he was more than capable enough to evaluable the situation at the same time. Most people wouldn't have been able to tell one animal from another, but when you go through something like the young man had gone through as a child, you held a special mental image of each of those involved in said traumatic event. Animals were no different. He recognized each and every one of them and where they were at on the night of the attack. And, as mentioned, his first two targets were the most obvious choices: the two that had personally attacked him. They just so happened to be farthest out from the pack's area, practically serving them up on a silver platter.

......Focused and malicious in his intent, the samurai moved like a ghost in the shadows. It would have been impossible for the first hyena to spot him unless it had already known he was coming. Lethe descending upon the beast with great speed, his katana springing to life from it's sheathe and slicing through the animal's hide in a single pass. The blade was precise in it's location, a deep fissue in the animal's meaty torso erupting from the base of the tail all the way up to the neck. For all intents and purposes Lethe had cut the animal in two. He had no time to admire his handiwork, though, and he pushed off of his planted foot and immediately cane down upon the second animal. This strike was neither as clean nor as eloquent as his previous. There was no clean cut, not gash, and no spray of glorious redemptive blood. No, this animal was put out of it's misery via cranial impalement. Lethe's katana plunged through the top of the hyena's skull and kabobed it into the cold earth. It was, in many respects, a thing of beauty.

......It had all happened in a matter of seconds, but the pack had been alerted. Lethe stood his ground, his blade piercing into the ground beside him, one of their pack mate's skulls staining the tip of the blade. With a flick of the wrist he pulled the weapon from the corpse, and spung the blade in front of him, slicing at the air and sliding into a defensive stance. He'd taken two down, but there were plenty more where that came from. He held a quiet confidence about him, but part of him knew he was likely to die here. An animal taken by surprise was a completely different beast than one that knows you're there.

......If he was going to die, he was going to take as many of them with him as he could.

..Wordcount: 760
..EXP Gain: 831
..PWC Gain: 831
..Other: None
[/color]

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

Iskra stood up like an anxious fan at some sports game when the opposing team looked to be scoring a touchdown, her manner somewhat anxious, but why she had become so agitated took some thought. There was the basic issue of property rights. They were planning to kill something that she dubbed "her" property, and they probably wouldn't be very kind or tolerant of his excursion.

Simply put, to her he had become the sole other occupant of her new clan. To kill him would be tantamount to killing another hyena, one she was related to, in her book.

So perhaps her loyalties were a little divided. She tried to tell herself that this man... this boy was an "other" who was stupid enough to wander out in the forest to mirror their actions and resultant fate as most children mirror their parents idiocy.

If he was weak enough to come out here, he deserved that fate. It wasn't her business to intervene. Besides, she'd probably get killed too. If the matriarch really was as mad as she acted and looked, the thought of killing another hyena, especially one who was not a member of her clan anymore as far as she was concerned, would be no moral issue at all.

The hyena never stopped her pacing, though, and she suppressed a whine of worry.

[ EXP: 297 || +1 TEXP (2nd thread) ]

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......There was but one cry among the two dying beasts, their last crescendo before they silent drifted off into the night and out of the world of the living. It was enough to draw the entire of the rest of the pack: seven bloodthirsty animals all honed in upon a single target, the slayer of their kin. The adrenaline rush came and went with his first two kills, and the amber eyed samurai faced his judgement from the pack with little to no fear. They would either kill him, or he would bring down upon them the vengeance he'd so yearned for these past ten years. Through it all it had come to this. In the darkness of the night under the bright full moon a bloodbath was about to ensue, and just who's blood was going to make up the crimson lake was yet to be determined.

......The pack circled around him in unison, working as a cohesive unit rather than a band of individuals. This was one of the traits that made them so dangerous, and what made it extremely foolish in most respects for Lethe to attempt this alone. He didn't care, though, it was something he had to do. If it weren't for the many years he'd spent studying predators of varying species he probably would have stood there and tried to combat them defensively. Against a pack hunting unit like this it was suicide, though, and Lethe wasn't about to just stand here and wait for his death. He had to make the first move and strike them down one by one, beast by beast. He would strike them down until he came upon the leader, the matriarch, for he had something special in mind for her.

......Blade in hand, Lethe kick stepped back and spun quickly. By the time he'd reacted a member of the pack had circled in behind him, and if there was one thing he knew he had to do it was ensure that he wasn't to be flanked. The samurai's blade cut through the humid night air like a warm knife through butter, and it came upon the targeted hyena in the blink of an eye. By some grace of a pagan god the animal was able to avoid his initial strike, kicking it's hind legs around so it's body spun. His attacker wasn't to be discouraged, though, and Lethe simply used his own inertia to redirect his force, allowing his blade to turn at nearly the same moment and degree as the animal that had so narrowly avoided it. The result was a beautiful spray of red and what Lethe could only assume was an agonizing growl. The blade entered through the base of the sternum and erupted out of the beast's back, a red ooze coating the once shining blade. "And then there were six ..."

......The young avenger had no time to admire his handiwork, as the rest of the pack had decided they had waited long enough. The final six beasts descended upon him in unison and with speed that would have been impressive to watch had Lethe's life not been threatened by it. THe situation called for a much more defensive response, even if his initial plan had been to avoid that. He would need to avoid their attacks and take them out as the opportunity presented itself. Lethe wasted no motion, and as the first of the pack reached him he leap. Due to his tall from and long arms he was able to grab on to a branch, and by pulling himself and throwing his weight forward he was able to flip through the air behind the assault. It left two of the hyenas closest to him, with the other three attackers confused about where exactly he'd went. He had more in his arsenal than his katana, and he was about to show them.

......Muttering under his breath, Lethe summoned the power of ice to aid him. The two beasts that had been left behind had no way of knowing what was about to be brought down upon them, and they found themselves quickly frozen into place by arctic bonds. With their feet fozen to the cold midnight earth, Lethe went into action. His blade returned to it's home in it's sheathe, and Lethe's hands grabbed on to either animals back. He'd never attempted to use this technique to such an extreme degree, but he saw this as as good of a time as any. With an adequate amount of applied concentration, the cryosamurai began to absorb the heat out of his target's body. This was frostbite, which drew heat from a target and left them a frozen husk of their selves. Typically this was a very slow reacting technique, but the frantic nature of the combat gave him a mysterious boost in his abilities. The heat was drawn quicker than usual, and what typically took minutes was taking seconds. The frostbite began on their backs and quickly spread down their back and around their legs. Before Lethe had even realized what he'd done he had already completely frozen the entire bottom half of the two hyenas. The animals weren't able to react much to what had just happened, as a surprise yelp quickly turned into what he could only assume was an animal's shriek. The sound caused the other three to realize what was happening, and they turned and immediately set course towards Lethe.

......The young man waited until what was, for all intents, the last possible moment to move. The three hyenas came upon him with such speed that they didn't have time to divert their course when he jumped away. The result was the three of them crashing into their two half frozen pack mates. The result was rather entertaining, which was the shattering of the two into two pieces: one frozen and one still living. Well, that wouldn't last very long considering how quickly they were bleeding out. "And then there were four...."

......Lethe landed and rolled, coming to a stop several feet away from the three dazed attackers. It seemed these were the last three of the peons before he could take on the leader. Or he assumed anyway. He'd gotten himself in a rather unwanted spot now, as his body was exhausted by the execution of that technique. Lethe had been wanting to conserve the rest of his stamina for the leader of this malicious pack, but it became apparent that he was going to need it to survive. Whatever he had left would have to be worried about once he'd already dealt with these three. Luckily, he knew just the technique to use.

......There was a slight sense of shock among the remaining ones, if those animals could feel such a thing. After all, they'd just seen two of their own shattered into half ice, a power that they'd no doubt never seen before. Unfortunately for them that was just the start of it. By the time they'd prepared themselves for another assault on the man he'd already prepared himself. His arms were outstretched to either side and he mumbled something in his native tongue. The water vapor around him crystallized into razor sharp shards, floating and orbiting around his body. His command over the elements had grown, and he was fully intent on showing these creatures why they should have stayed in their own barren section of the forest. Lethe's fiery eyes opened, locking in on his remaining prey. His hands pushed forward, directing the barrage of razor sharp shards. Checkmate.

......The barrage of a dozen or more icy - for what was for all intents - daggers tore through the remaining hyeans. Some of them imbedded themselves into the animal's fleshy selves, while others cleaved completely through them. What was left over after the technique was a trio of impaled and shredded bodies, unable to move. From the looks of things they hadn't immediately died, but they were rendered unable to move and would easily bleed out in just a couple minutes. Part of him felt bad for such a thing, as he'd been taught to put such beasts out of their misery when this type of thing had happened ... but all he had to do was remember his parents and he scoffed at the idea. Let them bleed out.

......The carnage had been wrought in just a few minutes, and no the area had fallen eerily silent. Slaying the others hadn't blinded Lethe, he still had to claim his true prize. But wait, where was she at? "And then there was one ..."

......Lethe was exhausted from the strain of the techniques he'd just unleashed, but he knew he had to keep it together. One more. If he could find her, anyway. His view of fate shifted quickly once the matriarch revealed himself. He'd viewed it as his fate to avenge his parent's deaths, but fate wasn't shining on him at this moment. The matriarch had fooled him, waiting for him - as far as he could gather - to tire himself out and allow it to view his combat abilities. It had ambushed him from the shadows, as his tired body had caused his senses to dull. He never saw her coming, and before he knew it he was on his back with the blood thirsty beast on top of him. Lethe's blade had been knocked away, and she was in prime condition to kill him.

......Somehow, this isn't how he imagined it all ending, but part of him welcomed death. This was it.

..Wordcount: 1,593
..EXP Gain: 1,738
..PWC Gain: 1,738
..Other: +1 TEXP (earned more than 250 exp)
[/color]

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

When the white hyena came bursting out of the foliage like some sudden snowstorm, it wasn't out of conscious actions, for if she had been using logic, she would have firmly decided that it wasn't worth it. Her reason would have told her that she belonged among her own kind and not at the feet of men, who had no friends among beasts that refused to be tamed. Her life might have taken a different course. She would've found some other wild hyena clan, let this matriarch die of her madness alone somewhere, and raised a family like any other beast, dying from some disaster or disease. Her innocence would have been retained, for after what she found herself doing, she knew she could never go back among the neutral spirits of the wild that had their own code of conduct.

No, her honor would drive her far, far away from the woods of her birth after she shoulder checked the larger beast so abruptly she went tumbling off of her feet.

Now this wouldn't have been an important detail among bipeds, for when they fought they usually did so with weapons and their objective was to kill their enemy while he stood. There was a similar style in the wild where a beast would jump in, snap, and leap away, and thus murder through a thousand hurts. Iskra didn't fight that way, however. She fought like the quadrupeds of the snow whose primary objective was to make their opponents lose their footing.

Nobody taught her this. It was the heritage of her snow demon grandmother. Similarly, hyenas seldom went for the jugular as she did, but the knowledge of killing cleanly was instinctively hers and she did it out of fear that the older, larger hyena would rise to her feet with all wrath and malice possible powering her. At this point, she committed the only sin she knew of, and it was out of self defense.

The darker hyena snarled and raged in surprise and hurt, but there was little she could do. In the briefest moment of respite, she'd let her guard down and now she paid dearly for it. Iskra was just as shocked, but at that point she could not have loosened her jaws. Fear and thousands of years of ancestral habit kept them as locked as a casket, even as the blood of the one who had been her mother figure bubbled into her mouth like the vile juice of some forbidden fruit.

Only when Lethe's attacker had ceased moving and fallen into a cold, eternal stillness was Iskra finally able to force her jaws apart, dropping the corpse and taking a few confused steps back, the weight of what she'd done weighing slowly on her as she looked from one dead kinsbeast to the next.

[ EXP: 559 ]

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......The snarling and snapping grew close. Closing his eyes and throwing his arms about his face, Lethe prepared for the worst. With such a large beast a top him, he knew it was next to an impossibility that he was going to survive this. After all of the energy he'd put into evoking his frigid revenge upon the rest of the pack, he had no additional energy to fight off the matriarch. He'd failed his mission as a whole, and would only ever return home as a corpse, but he took some small solace in the fact that he'd ridded the world of a majority of the pack. With the foot soldiers gone, he'd be able to rest easy knowing that with only one of the beasts left the attacks should either stop all together or be so infrequent it'd be a non issue.

......Death never came.

......No, he was granted reprieve from the eternal darkness of death, and as quickly as he'd been pinned to the ground by what he assumed would become his killer, the matriarch had been toppled from atop him like a queen from her throne. The young samurai found himself dazed at the sudden change in situation, and he simply lay there, sprawled out on the ground as he could hear a battle ensue around him. Growling, snarling, snapping. What was going on? His mind raced, and slowly but surely he gathered himself and sat up a short time. By this time, the growling had ceased. The sight that met his eyes caused him to stare in disbelief, his breathing slowing from mild shock. There, before him, was the dead body of the matriarch, her neck in the jaws of long time friend: Iskra.

......It was a testament to the hyenas abilities that not once had Lethe known she was there. He would have never expected her to fight one of her own kind for his sake, and even more so wouldn't have expected her to trail him like this. Perhaps repayment for him feeding her all this time? No, it had to be something more. She had to be something more, for he had never known a mere animal to show such intelligence. It was a small miracle, and if it weren't for her he'd surely be a cold hunk of meat on the ground, throat shredded and innards making a pleasant feast.

......"Iskra ... ?" His voice was low and shaky, and his eyes fell upon hers. In truth, he was too grateful for words, left speechless at the realization he life could have been taken away so easily. Without her, he'd be dead.

..Wordcount: 437
..EXP Gain: 466
..PWC Gain: 466
..Other: +1 TEXP (May 25th, earned more than 250 EXP)
[/color]

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

When the man she saved said her name, she was still in shock from the very alien feeling of guilt and the equally fresh feelings of loneliness, and her responses were whimpers at first until she realized that now Lethe was the only one she had left in the world.

And what then? She carefully made her way over to him out of an odd sort of anxiety and a need for comfort. So what would life be like for her now? Every hyena she ever knew lay dead at her feet, and her only friend was their killer. If it hadn't been a fight in the middle of the woods, they would've had the power to end him.

But he was man, so he was stronger than they and stronger than she could ever hope to be. Her fate had been sealed the second she saved him. She would be doomed to be his pet... to be a servile thing.

She'd rather die, and so appalling was the thought of simply serving the man who had killed her family with her help was enough to make her shudder. The hyena shook so hard that she couldn't keep her feet and leaned against Lethe for support. What now, what now? The phrase repeated in her head.

The hyena clan hadn't accepted her this entire time, right? She would be fine. Fine fine fine. The shaking picked up in pace and her eyes rolled violently upwards. The little balance she had she lost. Clearly she was having some sort of a panic attack and she made a noise not unlike a scream, for a sudden and unknown pain shook her form. It was her first time using magic.

Because the words of the young man echoed in her head. A little taller. And walked on two feet.

She cackled out her grief and pain until she brought her paws to her face. The skin of the large, white beast split cleanly, like the hood of a cloak and a woman's face emerged. Indeed, the fur all over her body had become lose and continued to loosen until it was only a blanket shrouding a dark-skinned woman's naked form. Her eyes were the same, and her hair was shoulder-length and spotted.

Clumsily, she stood up, as though in a daze, still shivering as she drew her former skin about her body.

[ EXP: 459 ]

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......For a short time Lethe simply sat there and reviewed everything that had transpired in his head. How could he have been so foolish? It was an instance of clarity, but then again hindsight was always perfect. He knew now that he shouldn't have been so foolish as to believe he could have done it all on his own, and his mind kept returning to the fact that he owed a hyena his life. Typically what needed to be done would have been obvious, but the aforementioned obstacle muddled the reaction he normally would have had. That wasn't even considering the fact that to some small felt degree he felt bad. There was a good chance that watching those of her own kind be slaughtered by him, and then go as far as to kill a powerful one for his own sake all had an effect on the poor creature.

......That notion was confirmed as he quietly watched his bestial friend. Her reaction wasn't one of relief, or happiness, or content; it was a reaction of sadness and despair. Of course he didn't know what was truly bothering him, and simply assumed it was because she'd killed one of her kind. As the animal came to him his hand gently trailed her neck in a grateful stroke. Animals always enjoyed being petted, and he assumed outside of getting her food this was the best way he could thank her. A little attention. "Thank you, Iskra." He finally managed to say after remaining silent the entire time. Even if she couldn't understand him it made him feel better.

......What came next was something he wouldn't have been able to foresee even in his wildest dreams. Once she started to cry out, Lethe became frantic. Had the matriarch harmed her during the battle? How could he help her? In his misguided attempt to help, he quickly looked for a wound. He fell completely idle, however, once he saw what was actually happening. She was transforming.

......If someone had asked him moments before he would have told them that nothing could have surprised him more than being saved by a pet. But this ... this took that, chewed it up, and spit it out. His most instinctive reaction was to back up, and he did, where he stood in quiet disbelief at what was unfolding. The hyena first became a biped, and then her hair began to fall out from her body. And her body ... was indistinguishable from it's previous form. It had twisted and morphed from it's previous bestial make up and left her with the body of a woman. And what a body it was. In typical male fashion, this was the aspect Lethe most immediately noticed outside of the sheer shock of her transforming. It seemed even in times of disbelief a man's mind worked on the most basic level that nature intended. He couldn't take his eyes off her.

......The transformation didn't take overly long, but it certainly seemed like it did. Once it was all said and done his hyena pet had transformed into a beautiful and attractive woman. She possessed a darker skin tone, mostly seen in the distant desert tribes, though he doubted that's where she was from. No, this seemed more like something one of those spirits he'd come across would do. He knew she wasn't dead, nor was an apparition, so what was she? Then again, it's not like he was going to complain.

......" I .... " Lethe stumbled over his words, his attention drawn to the mostly naked woman that had just formed. Was this all some sort of dream? "Iskra?" He repeated her name for no real specific reason other than some part of him wanted to make sure it was still her. His limbs were shaky as he rose to his feet, a combination of the battle before and the adrenaline that was running through his body. It wasn't every day you saw something like that. "Iskra, is that you? What in the hell ..."

......Ironic that he wouldn't realize how true that last statement was.

..Wordcount: 681
..EXP Gain: 749
..PWC Gain: 749
..Other: None
[/color]

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

The fur cloak adorning the woman's back seemed to bristle at the voice cutting into her confusion. This entire world had changed and she certainly wasn't sure exactly what she should make of it. Her old life, her old friends were dead now, and it seemed her clan was now composed of her and a human... another human, rather. She looked at her hands for a moment, flexing the fingers and observing the cunning way they moved. She looked down at her body and noted that she stood on two legs. A grin stretched across her face.

At least there was outlet for her anger.

Without a single word of explanation (for what could she say? She wasn't completely sure herself what had transpired), she marched over to the man. She'd saved him and she was clearly the leader of this arrangement, so she wanted to both claim her prize and prove her dominance. Roughly, she shoved the human to the ground, snarling all the while as she started to tear the covering off of his body, glaring into his eyes. Her spotted cloak fell tenuously to the ground behind her, but she didn't seem to notice.

[ EXP 287 ]

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......All the while she hadn't responded, Lethe stood there in a half daze, gawking at her form. Oh, he'd always been taught that it was rude to stare, but who could blame him in this case? A hyena that he had always seen as a pet, who he'd always fed scraps and fresh game at night, had transformed into a human right before his very eyes. A human female. An attractive human female. Among other things, he wondered if this was the first time she'd ever transformed like this. Judging by her reaction she certainly seemed surprised by it, and in some small way was nearly as taken aback by it as he was.

......He vaguely remembered his joke to the former animal the first night they'd met, about her dominance hinging on her needing two legs and a bit of height. Seemed like she took that to heart. Hmm, he wondered what else he could joke to her about and make her take to heart. Wait, if she transformed like this that meant she wasn't a human. Was she like him?

......All of that paled in comparison for it became quickly apparent to him that he was, in fact, not going to receive an answer as to what exactly had just happened. In addition to not receiving an answer his quest he very quickly had her coming at him. Was she mad that he'd slain all of her clan and in some way drew her out to kill the matriarch? He hadn't intended for that to happen, so surely she wouldn't -

......Oh ... now that was quite nice.

......He attempted to say something, perhaps a protest, but words failed him. Maybe it was her naked body rubbing against him. Wild guess, he thought. Part of him hated the fact she was man handling him, but there was another part of him that didn't mind in the least. Yeah, that was definitely the part that was in the majority. So, he simply sat there, allowing her to tear away his clothes all the while staring at her dark naked body atop him. Who could blame him? Why would he protest her actions after she'd just saved his life? And, well, he had to be honest with himself: there was absolutely no part of him that wanted her to stop.

......And so, Lethe let his guard down, submitting to her will.

..Wordcount: 397
..EXP Gain: 420
..PWC Gain: 420
..Other: None
[/color]

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

Iskra moved quickly, and in an instant her hand was about the man's throat as she continued to glare for a moment, her sharp nails digging into the muscular flesh of his neck. He didn't make many moves to resist, however, and he seemed to have an erection, a sign of submission in her species, so it was a simple matter for her to move her waist up over his prone form. In a rather ironic echo of her previous failed attempt to mount him, she grabbed him roughly by his white hair and vigorously started to hump his face. There wasn't really anything gentle and loving in the gesture, but in her mind it wasn't supposed to be. It was supposed to establish who was boss. She was one to be afraid of him simply because he'd butchered most of the only family she'd ever known, but on the heels of her fear followed a profound anger and a desire to strike out and dominate this thing that she found a threat in some dim way. It was only natural, though the sight of a naked, spotty woman holding down a large man and riding his face like an untamed stallion, her tongue sticking out with the effort and a musky scent tainting the air might come across as strange to any passers by.

But they were alone, and so she continued her vicious efforts.

[ EXP 301 || +1 TEXP (5th Post) ]

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......Now this ... this unexpected.

......It wasn't what exactly what the young samurai had in mind when he'd woken bright and early before the breaking dawn this morning, rolling out of bed and anticipating another run of the mill day as a soldier of the Village of the Moon. Sure, he supposed there were other things he should have been surprised about when it came to the excitement level they provided, or the adrenaline rush. After all, this day had seen some rather eventful features pass, with the violent strike of redemption that had stained the forest floor red with the blood of insane animals, and the rescue and subsequent transformation of the woman (animal at the time) that had saved his life.

......Well, actually, that was second most interesting. In all of his years alive, however brief that may be in the grand scheme of things, he'd never seen anything like her transformation and the sheer fact she could pull of such a mystical ability was bewildering. Not only had she transformed into a human, but a woman that was ... like this. He was fairly certain that if he could learn how to teach that ability to certain women in the village he'd make a fortune. Maybe he could ask her when they were done?

......The fact that she had him by his neck wasn't as concerning to Lethe as it may have been to anyone else in this position. All things considered, he had a strangely strong trust of the woman. Perhaps it had been all that time he'd spent with her in her animal form, but he trusted her to not harm him too much. Which, his trust was replayed in the fact that she didn't rip his throat out. In some small way he even saw this as a reward for said trust. With the way she'd acted as an animal, Lethe was fairly certain this was some sort of domination ritual by her ... or something. She was wanting to show him she was in control of him, and Lethe wasn't about to protest her methodology.

......And, strangely enough, there was a part of Lethe that enjoyed the domination she enforced on him. Sure, there was a part that didn't like it, but it paled in comparison.

......Had it not been for that, he may have reacted differently to her. Really, it was a perfect storm for the demon in many ways. His trust of her, his instinctive submitting to her display, and the fact that he was enjoying every minute of this (though he would never tell her that) was enough to produce of a lackey cocktail of submission.

......It wasn't but a few seconds after he began to enjoy her naked form had she already mounted his face. It wasn't exactly what he figured she'd go for, but he could work with that. Knowing that he didn't want to risk drawing her ire for doing anything that would even remotely resemble a resistance, Lethe fully embraced all she had to offer. He found himself in disbelief that the transformation had allowed her to morph into such a perfect human form. Everything was there, no weird appendages or penises were present. Thank the gods.

......The demon continued to grind on his face, causing the samurai's visage to glisten with growing intensity with each pass. That, along with the scent that was around the surrounding area, was enough to nearly drive the young man mad. He wanted to throw her to the ground and take over from there, but he knew that she was most likely stronger than him as a woman that could transform into an animal, and would probably react badly to it. He was obviously ready, but he restrained.

......Instead, he simply redirected his urges, reaching up and grabbing a hold of either butt cheek, strengthening his new matriarch's thrusts.

..Wordcount: 642
..EXP Gain: 713
..PWC Gain: 713
..Other: +1 TEXP (May 27th, posted in 2 threads)
[/color]

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

Perhaps she might have satisfied herself with enough of what she was doing to firmly establish that she was in charge of this person who had committed such a great crime against hyena kind.

Oddly enough, her resentment towards him causing the situation began to atrophy the longer she went on. He had a pleasant mouth. So soft and warm... like a male should be. Indeed, she had a long, hard road out of her bestial past into the fullness of human thinking, despite the long and hard things behind her. All accounted for, the life she was initiating herself into would be infinitely more perplexing than the simple existence she'd come from, as brutal as it may have been.

For instance, such displays as this were not acceptable to most humans. If she wanted some as followers. Rather, she would have to express her dominance through biting words instead of literal bites.

But her anatomy had changed to an extent that she would have found awkward if she had any higher-level thoughts in her head at all in that particular moment. There was not the customary motion of allowing yourself to roll up like a shirtsleeve and thus allow passage. There was this oddly vulnerable aperture that made her feel less of a-- well, she couldn't say woman. Perhaps it made her feel less like a hyena. It would be the first of many such moments that collectively made her feel weaker in this form, though her physical strength may not have declined.

She shuddered and growled, continuing on for a few moments until she began to wonder at the odd gesture he had just given. It seemed submissive as well, but for just a moment she stopped and looked down at him with narrowed eyes.

[ EXP 390 || +1 TEXP (1st Post) ]

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......What a sight all of this made. If there was one thing that was certain it was that if anyone from the village happened to stroll by, Lethe would quickly be a legend amongst his peers once he explained the situation. Sure, there was the off chance they wouldn't believe what he had to say, but seeing is believing.

......Lethe very quickly found himself lost in the pleasure the woman provided. Even if she wasn't doing anything more than forcing him to please her orally (or show her dominance as he assumed, though in Lethe's mind he had no qualms about who actually was in charge, but the more she asserted the happier he'd be) there was still something about it all that had his sense ablaze. What's more Lethe could have sworn she was secreting some kind of pheromone. Sure, there was little to no way that that was true, but it certainly felt that way to Lethe.

......But then she stopped her movements, and the sudden departure from her very reciprocative thrusts caused Lethe to slow what he was doing. When his gaze drifted up her body and to her face, he was met with a very intense stare. In a way it seemed more quizzical than anything else, as if asking him what he was doing when he'd grabbed her. Either that or he was so pro it had surprised her; though somehow that thought seemed to be more of a fleeting thought rather than a possibility.

......And so he stopped, both of his hands still firmly entrenched around her rear. Lethe wasn't quite sure how to react at her glaring down at him like that. Did he do something wrong? After all, it was she that started it. It was the first break in the proverbial action, and it was one of the first time's he'd had an up close and personal look at her new body. For someone that used to a be a hairy quadruped that stalked the forest floor, she certainly had a smooth and aesthetically pleasing body, both in hormone educing shape and complexion. In fact, the more he continued to stare at her the more he ...

......Without taking any time to verbally articulate to her what he was going to do, Lethe used his already capable grip upon her backside to pull her back upon his face. If she wanted to assert her dominance in this way then Lethe was going to be the last person to protest to it, and certainly wasn't going to sit idly by and let her change her mind about it. That was the main thing he figured she was doing when she was staring down at him, anyway. It was probably all completely new to her and she wasn't familiar with human mannerisms when it came to this sort of thing. She may probably kill him if he tried anything else, but he was going to take all he could of this for as long as she'd allow it. The best he could figure it, it would be probably the only time in his life he'd be in this kind of position with a demon without the prospect of imminent death.

......Not fully knowing how she'd react to his continuation of what she started, Lethe plunged forth with increasing vigor.

..Wordcount: 553
..EXP Gain: 588
..PWC Gain: 588
..Other: +1 TEXP (May 28th, earned more than 250 EXP)
[/color]

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

Of all the reactions one could give to her sudden glare, Lethe had chosen the most surprising among the possibilities. Even as the noises of his eager slurping away at her, as though she were some spotty-crotched ice-cream cone came across as familiar, but so very unexpected. He accepted her so readily...

Then again, his sincerity about his supplication told her that he was being truthful with his gestures, even if she'd been expecting something different like a little fight. No, he simply continued to figuratively go to town, and the ride, though alien, was relaxing in an electrifying way. It was as though lightning was striking her repeatedly... a human thing. She'd certainly never experienced such as a hyena or heard of any other hyenas experiencing such a thing. Perhaps she was the only among her former demonic kin who would be able to compare a lightning strike with a tongue.

In doing this act in the presence of her dead clan, it seemed almost as if she was being irreverent, and the longer the procedure went on, the more she began to mentally look down on the creatures she'd been raised among, though she couldn't help realizing that such attitudes were an abomination, if she were familiar with such a term.

Could she truly become something she wasn't, or did she decide her own identity? It was a confusing affair and she found it harder than normal to concentrate as her grunts escalated into a noise not unlike a very dry roar or shout.

[ EXP 349 || +1 TEXP (2nd Thread) ]

Intern Rep! : 5 Location : Almost Heaven

..Circle of the Moon
..Lethe, the Cryosamurai:
......If there was one thing Lethe welcomed through all of this, it was the pleasure ridden reactions that escaped Iskra's lips every so often. Truth be told he wasn't the most experienced person in the world when it came to this, having concentrated upon his duties as a soldier as a focal point his entire life, and was navigating her body through pure instinct. This experience certainly proved to him that human instinct was a real thing, and there were times when you just 'knew' how to do something. And that much was true, as he'd been so lost within himself and herself that he hadn't taken the time to fully grasp the gravity of the situation.

......It didn't take him long to become overcome by his own hormones, and even though he had been in an extremely submissive position, he was able to turn himself around and push her up against a nearby tree. They were still in the same position, her atop him, but at least in this way he wasn't laying upon the ground completely helpless. He continued on with his assault, knowing now just where to strike as her reactions to him gave him insight. And with a venerable road map to her body, the young warrior hit all his targets.

......With a gradual change in angle from the shadows cast upon the ground as well as the moon in the sky, they went about for a good deal of time, breaking what would be a quiet night time silence with the sound of human lust. Of course one of them wasn't an actual human, and technically neither were, but that didn't particularly matter. What did matter is that Lethe eventually had taken all he could. He knew full well he couldn't progress much farther than this, as if any indication by her actions prior she wouldn't take anything other that the dominative role. Being a male, he didn't like where that would place him if he tried to further this.

......So, Lethe slowly pulled away from his new matriarch's body, his breathing labored and heavy as the tightness of her body pressed against his face and made breathing a challenge. Even still, it was worth it. But it was all at once that everything besides the lustful unison did he put together everything. This was a story stranger than fiction, and not even he knew completely what happened.

......"I ... uh ... that was ... interesting." Lethe stumbled with the first words he tried to form after the fact. What could he say? He had released the pressure he'd used to pin her against the tree, and he now sat below her, a slightly dumbfounded look gracing his face. "How did you? I mean, what did you ...? What are you, Iskra?"

[/color]..EXP Gain: 510
..PWC Gain: 510
..Other: +1 TEXP (June 6th, earned more than 250 EXP)
[/color]

Mystic Elder Rep! : 31

Iskra looked stoically down at Lethe on the ground, her expression blank as she regarded both the human who she felt considerable affection for, and the stubbornly persistent presence of her dead family that, though it was removed from her eyesight when she stared into his amber eyes, remained in the periphery of her vision like a chain that held her back from this moment. Emotions other than rage and bloodlust ever served her any good as a young creature, and she feared that if she opened up to them now, she may find herself with hurtful regrets or longing or any such things as that, even if the comfort of affection was in her grasp.

She hadn't said a word to the man this entire time, electing to stay as mute as though she were still beast.

If she put much more thought into it, she knew she'd blame herself. After all, she had betrayed the last hyena who was rightfully preparing to avenge the fallen exiles. If she'd gotten involved in the fray earlier, the entire clan may have lived.

He'd said her name again, and in reality it was the only piece of her identity she felt was still intact. The rest of who she was lay scattered around the clearing.

Slowly, cautiously, she reached forward and wove her hands through his silky white hair. It was much like her own, but without the spots. Perhaps she'd subconsciously made this form after his image... there was no way to know. Fingers gave her a new and fascinating ability to manipulate things. A few moments passed and she finally spoke.

"I don't know."

With that said, she rose to her new feet, her work in tying his hair to a nearby sapling complete. She felt a deep coldness, and she feared in some dim way that she might betray him as she betrayed her family if he followed her. Her duty to him was done. She had to go find herself.

So with no further words, she picked her fur up from the ground and draped it over herself as she made her way quietly out of the clearing, disappearing into the darkness without a trace.

[ EXP 422 || +1 TEXP (1st post) ]

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