Forum Thread

Glancing to the figure who hadn't made a move to make himself comfortable, or come further into the room, Nathana raises her eyebrow. "The fire will wait then." She listens to the questions as she sets down her packs, Faolan tumbling out of the one that he resided in. She sat herself down on the small pile of furs and watches Faolan wander around the room sniffing at everything. "First, probably a week or so, and no, I have met only the prey I hunt, the predators that hunt with me... Then there was you." She glances at him before turning her attention to the pup who had found her small collection of spare bone parts, the segments she couldn't use. "Second, no one knows I'm here. No one would care." She motions to the wolf and then to him. "Aside from him and you, I'm completely alone in a forest teeming with life..." I could make a cloak out of the wolf hide... Creatures would definitely leave me alone... And if I kept the drippings from the fat and small pieces of muscle still attached to the pelt, I can use that as a perfume to repel other animals from my cave... Her mind was definitely not on the subject matter.

Vannister stared at the woman, who seemed distracted. "Could she be lying? Not likely. I would know if she was." He moved closer to the seated girl, before sitting himself. As he moved he never broke eye contact unless she did. It was a habit of his, one that always seemed to make people uneasy. "Well that is good. And believe me, people would care more than you think. The nearby town is riddled with Hunters. If they knew a She-Demon was living here alone... Let's just say things would not end well for anyone." He glanced down at the black band on his finger, breaking eye contact for the first time since he entered. "Anyway, if you have any questions for me, now would be the time to ask. This cave may be the only safe source of shelter for miles, but I plan to remain here as little as possible. If I find some other protection, I would rather sleep there." He smirked at her. "I'd rather not have to worry about you trying to slit my throat in my sleep."

---

Nathana saw his movement and watched him take his place. Her eyes were glued on his from the moment he started moving. "Well, for one, why didn't you kill me? You certainly seemed to have the ability... Second, you didn't tell me your name. Though I doubt you'll use it much, my name's Nathana." She blinked her golden eyes that seemed to shimmer in the candlelit cavern and grins. "I wouldn't slit your throat anyways... Too messy... I'd probably poison you, and make it so quick you wouldn't know what bit you until it was far too late..." She chuckled, before snapping her head to the side at a clattering sound. Faolan had knocked over the small gourd that was holding the bones. "At least you've found chew things... And they're not things I'll really need anyways..." She sighed.

"Nathana... A pretty name, but not one I would expect for a Demon. Who would call a She-Demon a 'Gift from God'?" He rubbed the back of his head absentmindedly. "Well Sh-, Nathana, You are correct. I could have killed you if I wanted. However I saw no reason. The Hollowgast is a bit animalistic sometimes, so I have trouble holding back its primal desires." He gave her a half smile. "And just so you know, I haven't found a poison that can kill the Hollow." He thought he heard a noise from the cave entrance. After a quick glance he dismissed it. "And my name is Vannister." Something shot into the cave, in a flurry of noise. The thing circled for a moment, before landing on Vannister's shoulder. It was the Crow from earlier. It cawed at Nathana, seeming to try and protect him from the girl.

---

Nathana's eyes darted about the cave as she tried to focus on the thing that entered. When the Crow landed and started cawing at her she fell backwards shifting into a small yellow snake to get a little distance between her and the sharp beak before she shifts again and grows into a large anaconda, rising several feet above the sitting figure and the obnoxious avian. She opened her mouth wide and let out a hiss that made even Faolan stop playing with the bones and stare wide eyed at the enormous reptile. What is up with birds? Last week it was an eagle trying to carry me off, the week before it was a vulture going after my kill... What is it that makes birds go after me like this... I didn't even provoke this bird... Perhaps it's his familiar? Never the less it needs to stop yelling at me. She closes her mouth but doesn't shift back into her humanoid form. "I don't think your friend likessss me."

Vannister snatched the bird, holding it close to his chest. He stroked its head speaking in soft soothing tones. "Hush little one. There is no need for such anger. This girl is a friend and you have frightened her." The small creature stopped it's squawking, but eyed Nathana suspiciously. Vannister returned it to his shoulder, being sure not to jostle it in the process. "It appears not, though I surely don't know why. Perhaps it is because of your reptilian nature." He sat there for a moment, mulling it over. "Hmm, Have the birds seemed... restless lately? Perhaps they sense something we cannot."

---

Nathana slowly shifts into herself, her skin seems to have slight splotches of brownish discoloration. She stares at the bird and blinks with her nictitating eyelids before her main ones. "Mayhaps..." She looks up to Vannister's eyes before shifting her gaze to the doorway. "They have been going after me over the past weeks... When I was out hunting there was an odd and somewhat unsettling feeling. Something is most likely about to change." She jumps slightly at a cold damp nose on her elbow. She turns and smiles slightly at Faolan's black nose sniffing at her. "I'm sorry if I scared you little one..." She stroked his furry head and he wagged his little tail. The bird is right to not trust me... If his protector wasn't here I would certainly have eaten it.

(Sorry for the wait.)

Vannister looked back towards the cave entrance. "Interesting. I'll look into, see if I can get them to calm down. Birds tend to listen to me." He shrugged. "Who knows, maybe they were reacting to my return. As I said, birds have an interesting attractions to me." He stood, turning to the door. "Anyway, I should get moving. I'll need to make a nest before dark." He looked over his shoulder at the girl. "See you around..." And with that he was gone, out the entrance and into the trees, the Hollowgast giving a small screech as it flew through the branches. He ran and ran, the cave disappearing behind him in the distance. Once he felt he was far enough away to be unable to be tracked, he turned south, moving towards his old nest. It sat at the top of the largest tree in the forest, an ancient redwood. It towered above the surrounding foliage, stretching about two hundred fifty feet into the air. He scuttled up the great tree, which had grown considerably since his last time here. After several minutes he was at the top. He sat for a moment, taking in the view, breathing in the cool air. It was great to be back. He quickly found the spot where his best used to be. A glance told him that nothing had moved in while he was gone. Good. His nest was a small hollow opening in the trunk of the tree, in a bowl shape. He slipped into the nest, settling down into the familiar groove. Sleep, that's what he needed. He would figure out the bird situation later. He lay his head down at the entrance of the nest, looking out at the forest, his forest. After a few minutes, he drifted off to sleep.

---

(It's fine!)

Nathana stands as her guest stands to leave and bows. "See y..." She stands back up only to find him gone. "Hmph. Some manners..." She mutters to herself as she starts a fire and goes about carving up the meat into strips with the various shaped bone and stone tools. She smiles over at Faolan who was keeping himself occupied with attacking his shadow cast by the flickering fire. She hangs the furs on the wall and uses a scraping tool to remove the excess flesh and fat, collecting the latter in a small wooden bowl she had carved. After cooking a portion of the deer meat she tossed a good sized hunk of it over to Faolan who ripped into it viciously. She shook her head as he pulled on a piece and when it came free of the chunk he toppled over himself. After the meat had been set to dry and slow cook by the second fire and the bones hung on the wall to dry, she walked over to the small fur bed and laid down covering herself in the soft pelt that used to belong to a large buck. Faolan crept over and snuggled alongside her. "Good night my little Faolan..." She whispered and soon fell asleep.

A loud cawing jerked Vannister from his peaceful slumber. He stared through groggy eyes at the black bird sitting on a nearby branch. Was that thing still following him? He turned over, attempting to go back to sleep, but the crow would not be ignored so easily. It hopped into his nest, it's talons gripping lightly into his shoulder. He swatted at it, mumbling curses under his breath. "What do you want? Why are you still here? Don't you have your own nest to attend to?" He knew at this point that more sleep would be impossible. Lifting his body slowly, he glared at the bird. "You think this is funny don't you?" He could have sworn the thing shook its head at him, but the thought was chased out at the sound of a gunshot. He pushed his head into the open air, listening for more noises. Stomping feet. Sounds of men talking and laughing. An animal crying. His eye narrowed, as his blood began to boil. How dare those... Pigs hunt in my forest. A growl burst out from behind his clenched fangs. His claw tore at the bark as he flew down the tree. Four of them. The forest echoed with screams of man and beast as four became three, then one. His glowing eyes burned into the last hunters. His fear was delicious. He was suddenly thrown back, as a crossbow bolt pierced his shoulder. The carbon fiber shaft pinned him to the tree behind him. The hidden fifth hunter rushed up to his friend, pulling him up. They both bolted into the trees, screams of rage and agony chasing after them. The beast tore at the shaft holding him. Very few things could penetrate his hide. Whatever the man was using must have been heavily modified. The bolt even had a barb on the backside of it, preventing him from sliding himself off it.The crow fluttered down, landing on his other shoulder. He grunted in pain as he blood soaked hand tugged on the bolt. He turned to the bird. "Go get the girl." He gasped. Sweat dripped from his hair as the bird took off in the direction of the cave.

---

Nathana woke with a start to a cold nose on her neck, and then a warm tongue on her cheek. "Ah! Faolan!" She fell off of her furs and onto the stone floor, she sits up smiling and shaking her head. "Well, you've made yourself quite at home I see..." She looks around to the bones strewn about the floor. She stands up and moves all of the bones to one part of the room, and put another bit of meat on the floor for him to chew on. She sighed as she went over to her pelts and her head snapped to the entrance as she heard men screaming and yelling out in either fear or pain, perhaps both. What in the name? She walks over to the entrance to look around and she lets her forked tongue slide out and then back in. She tastes blood on the air. "Vannister most likely... But, men? Why are they here..." She turns to recede back into her temporary domicile, but halts as she hears a familiar flapping sound. "Not again..." She glances over her shoulder only to see the black bird that yelled at her the day before flying directly for her cave. "Where is your friend black one?" She asked as she took an instinctive step backwards, for as of late she had developed a distrust of avians. She turned her stare outwards. "He killed the men... But got hurt himself didn't he..." She runs over to Faolan and sets him into one of her baskets and hangs it from the wall. "Stay." She moves about the room swiftly as she gathers a couple bone weapons and stone tools. "Proklinjati sve ljude za vječnost." She mutters before returning to the entrance. "Take me to him."

The bird circled the girl, obviously still distrustful of her. It gave a short squawk, as if to say, "No funny business," before shooting out of the cave and into the trees. Even if the serpent woman couldn't keep up, she would be able to track her. Probably.

Vannister had managed, through much effort and pain, to pull the arrow out of the tree. He was now seated against it, blood running down his arm and pooling beneath him. He did his best to stop the bleeding, but the effort only moved the shaft causing more pain and more blood. Hands at his sides, his mind began to wander. The blood loss and pain were making him confused, pulling up terrible memories of the past. Flames danced before his eyes, screams blood and bodies. His village was burning, and rocks were blocking many of the doors. The screams were from those houses. In the streets, there was no one left to scream. Mangled bodies were tossed everywhere. And in the center of town? The gallows, with a single body hanging in the flames. All he could here was screaming, crying, crackling fire... and laughter. His laughter.

---

Nathana clicked her tongue as the bird took off into the woods very quickly. Her skin rippled and pulled taught as she began to shrink and thin herself. A few snaps and crunches echoed behind her as her bones reshaped and restructured themselves. Anything she was carrying and wanted to keep with her shrunk and was absorbed into her. Her skin grew into midnight black scales and her length reached almost nine feet. She sped forwards at a speed of 12 miles per hour through the underbrush and over downed logs. Though her vision wasn't that great, she could smell the bird as though it hadn't cleaned itself in months. She could also see it's heat signature moving through the breeze above her. She followed it as closely as she could until she got wind of the metallic scent of blood. Vannister. What have you done... She climbed over a rock and spotted him leaning against a tree with an arrow-like object through his shoulder. She slithered over to him and shifted back into herself as she moved. Her tail split into two and arms grew from her sides and she knelt next to him as the rest of her tail shrunk into her back. Along her jaw ran a few black scales, remnants of what she was. "That looks really painful..." She mutters as she inspects the arrow and pulls out a scrap of cloth from her bag and uses it to dab at the wound gently.

A knife blade of pain jerked Vannister back to reality. His eyes focused on the figure dabbing at his wound. Nathana had come to help him. Guess that bloody bird had made up for his rude awakening. He grabbed her wrist, gently pushing it away from his shoulder. "Perhaps you could figure out how to get the thing out first before you start poking it?" He glanced at the metal shaft. "No was to snap it off. At least not with what we have here." His words passed through gritted teeth, and the pain was making him a bit delirious. "Thanks for coming though." His eyes wandered over her, noting the dark scales along her jawline. Those were new. The Raven circled above them for a moment, landing on the ground at his side. It hopped onto his lap, nudging him with its head. He chuckled, patting her on the head. "Yeah you did good little one."

---

Nathana jumped slightly as her wrist was grasped and moved away from the wound. Her eyes darted to his face and then to the shaft. I could sneak into the village nearby and steal a saw... That wouldn't take too long... If I could get him back into the cave I could give him some herbs to sleep and relieve some pain... She mutters a few unintelligible things before staring at the bird comforting him. "I can't do much out here. If we can get you back to the cave I can give you something for the pain, and something to make you sleep through the process of removing that thing... I have an idea for that." She starts putting her cloth back into her bag, but stops with her hand in the bag when she spots some of the bodies. Her tanned face lost a little bit of color as the gruesome sight sank in. D-did he do all this? Who in the worlds am I tending to? Her mind and imagination went on the rampage picturing how he did all of what she found. She took a deep, slightly shaky breath before closing her bag shoving those images out of her mind as she has something more important to think of.

He nodded at her suggestion. "I should be able to make it there if we go slow." He glanced back to her face, noticing the worry in her eyes. Her face had gone pale as well... Why? Vannister followed the woman's gaze, spotting what had caused her such distress. "Shit. S-Sorry about that. You weren't supposed to see that." He forced his body upward, standing shakily. He took a few steps before falling to his knees again. "On second thought, could you find me a branch or something against?" The bird had seemingly disappeared. Nothing he could do about that. The sound of rustling leaves came from behind him. He looked back to see the face of a truly massive Dire-Wolf staring at him. The thing must have been at least six feet tall! His first thought went along the lines of, "oh f*ck." After the initial shock all he could think was, "why are we not dead yet?" The beast crept forward, it's coat a gleaming black, almost unnaturally so. It's red eyes were locked with his, as it stopped inches from his face. So this is how it ends, huh? Devoured by my own forest. Truly poetic. What Vannister expected was a snap of jaws and the fires of hell. What he did not expect was for the beast to pick him up by his shirt collar and begin carrying him in the direction of the cave. The wolf glanced back at Nathana for a moment, giving her a small "follow me" snort before continuing its trek.

---

Nathana had shot forwards to grab him as he fell, but she stopped at the sound of something approaching. Ice raced through her veins as she watched the huge beast, one larger than the female she had previously killed, stop in front of Vannister. Her mind ran through several scenarios of what she could do, all ending not very well for either of them, when the beast grabbed his collar and started walking towards the cave. Her eyes widened as it looked to her and snorted. She watched it continue walking for a moment before she turned and began to follow, her mind blanking on many things, the grisly scene practically forgotten as she left the sight of it. She had spread death once like that. Probably not as messy, but certainly as many dead. She had wandered a little to close to a human hunting cabin when one of the hunters emerged from the large oaken door. He staggered over to a bush and she heard him relive himself there from her hiding place amongst the leaves. She hadn't been able to find much to eat so she was desperate. The man turned around and spotted an oddly colored "rope" sticking out of the leaves. He went to grab it when it bit him. He let out a yell that would wake the dead, his breath was terrible smelling, he was intoxicated. More men came from the cabin all stumbling like the first one. Six. Six in total. Her mind blanked. Five. Three. Two. One. When her clear thinking returned they all laid around her, their limbs were swollen and seemed to have been ripped open. She found out she could turn into lizards as well as snakes, but chose to not utilize the four legged scaly dragon shape that had done this deed. As she walked along several yards behind the wolf she wondered what it'd do when it reached the cave.

(Well, that turned out longer than I had expected...)

Vannister's body had grown quite numb as the great beast loped through the woods. He tried to look around, to focus on anything at all, but was unable. He was just so tired. A jerk from the wolf brought his senses back. He couldn't let himself fall asleep! He began deliberately counting from 1-100, in an attempt to keep his mind focused. He probably sounded delirious, his words growing more slurred with each passing second. A few minutes later and they were at the cave. Bounding inside, the wolf lay Vannister down on the floor. The creature then backed away, lying down a few yards away. By this time Vannister was nearly unconscious, only faintly muttering his numbers. His mind was elsewhere now, lost in his own nightmares. In his mind he walked alone through the cold embers that were once his home town. Only one structure had survived. He stared at the gallows, where so many had hung. Falling to his knees, he couldn't hold back the tears. Grief was all he felt. Grief was all he knew. A gust of wind passed through the blackened streets, gently swinging the trees terrible fruit. She looked so peaceful, as though she had just been put to sleep. He could feel something around him. Life, surrounding him, coating his mind. Warm breath puffed on him from behind. He turned, surprised to find himself faced by a Dire-Wolf, cubs in tow. She stared at him, totally at ease. The forest came alive with sound, as creatures of all shapes and sizes poured from the trees. They gathered around him, as he sat in silence. The forest had come to comfort him. It had accepted him for what he was, and welcomed him. The Dire-Wolves gathered, pack wars put aside for now, to show him he was not alone. He was a creature of the forest, and would always have a home here. As the vision faded to black and he slipped into unconsciousness, he smiled.

---

Nathana nearly holds her breath as the wolf sets down Vannister's seemingly limp form on the cold rock floor of the dimly lit cave. She walked in and set her things down by the wall of the cave and grabbed various herbs and dropped them into a little bowl carved out of a black and grey stone. She used a small stone rod made out of the same material to start grinding the herbs together. [I]Put a little water in it and make paste... Smear around the wound..." She set the bowl down and quickly grabbed some water from the stomach of some creature and poured just a little into the bowl. As Vannister was already unconscious she wouldn't have to worry about having to give him something to sleep. She grabbed a few strips of cloth and the stomach of water and slung them over her shoulder. As she mixed the concoction she walked back over to the body kneeling on the opposite side of him from the wolf. Her eyes darted up to those of the large canine's before going back to her work. She took out her little bone knife and slowly cut a little more of his shirt around the wound to give her a clearer area to work with. She set the knife aside and put some water on one of the strips of cloth and began to gently clean the area around the shaft. Once it was clean enough she gently pushed his body to the side and smeared some of the paste around the bottom of the shaft on both sides. After a good deal of sawing, gentle pulling and wiping, she got the bolt out in two parts. She had wrapped the wound on both sides with the poultice underneath the strips of cloth. She rinsed her hands, which were coated in blood and the mixture and then sat down next to the body again checking his temperature and pulse.

The great beast watched the woman with curious eyes. Vannister's breathing seemed to have stabilized, but he would still need a lot of rest. The wolf gently pushed itself up, padding over to the pup sitting in the corner. He growled at her playfully, pouncing on one of her paws. She snorted, nuzzling the pup. Her body began to shrink, twisting into a new form. Now a human form knelt before the pup, her body shrouded in inky black. Turning to the woman tending to Vannister, she placed a finger to her lips. Another twist and the girl was gone, with a small raven in her place. With a rush of feathers, the bird flashed out of the cave

---