The Lady, while she had tried to stay in the Basin, found that it was droll simply walking circles waiting for a shadow beast to come. It wasn’t that she was underestimating the seriousness of Deodat’s warning; she believed that something dangerous was brewing out there. But she figured, perhaps naively, that the Gods would at least be able to protect the forest of entry. The soldier had seen the devil far south and to the west, and it would have to travel a long way to make it to the beginning of the Helovia.

She travels through the trees, their branches golden and auburn with the dying leaves of the season, and the sun is pleasant upon her spine where it breaks through the foliage to caress her skin. For once, it is only a mild autumn day, the breeze crisp and tender as it whispers across her ears and brings a refreshing coolness to her heated skin.

Dark rimmed nostrils breath softly on the air, catching an unusual and predatory odor nearby; at first, she pays it little mind, assuming that it is only a wild animal and a quiet one at that, though it does make her mildly uneasy in the same way that the scent of a wolf does. She hears no beating of feet upon the soil, no tell tale rustles of leaves in the lonesome wood – but she is brave, foolishly so, on most days.

Pausing when she’s sure the smell is growing stronger, she peers with gold hued lenses into the world, searching for the source of the scent; she finds a gleaming white blur moving through the trees several yards away from her, on an adjacent path. Perhaps she should carry on with her day and leave the thing be, but curios is the Lady, and so she moves to arrive on the same path the creature traveled on, some ten or so feet from where he walked.

Breaking through the tree line, she peers at him curiously, taking note of the wide face and thick fur. The paws seem like those of a wild cat’s, though she has never seen a tiger; she wonders if he, too, holds claws and great teeth for destroying the flesh of which her enemies were made.

This does not reveal itself on her face, which is a perfect mask of smiles and gleeful discovery, the expression worn by any who sought to convince others to follow them home. He isn’t a unicorn, but he is also not a hornless; he is simply his own species, not a fallen beast or one who breeds with birds, and he could be quite useful, she decides. "Afternoon," she calls out to him from her lone position, gleaming and beautiful as she always is, "Are you in need of some assistance? Perhaps directions, or a home?"

If he says he’s going to the Throat or the Edge, he’s shit out of luck. She’s not going anywhere near those festering hell holes and she surely isn’t going to provide him proper directions to find them.

[ OOC: Not the Edge/Throat but.... THROWS ILLYNX AT YOU x3 ]

Illynx