Traveller's Forest

[Alex]

"Ashling." said the Shade, still looking at the Spider, perhaps for an answering name.

He raised his hand to his mouth unconsciously and began licking the thin blood from his palm. He continued, his gaze unwavering at the Demon, still in his tree.

"Well?"

[Pip]

Drei slowly walked down to the trunk, and onto the soft ground by the roots.

"I'd like to apologize for my brash behaivior" Drei said as he approached the elf and the shade."I thought you were more of those blasted humans coming to 'prospect' my forest for new lumber. Or that blasted group of palidins hunting me. My most sincere apologies"

He gave a most gentlemanly bow, and the spiderlike face seemed to dissolve from his visage into something more of an elven shape, except no visible ears, just ear holes. He had one yellow cats eye, and one red eye, a pure blood red, in both pupil, iris, and the lens of the eye.
He gave the pair a friendly, and welcoming smile.

"As the shade has guessed, yed, I am a demon. My name is Drei, and I humbly welcome you to my abode"

[Stella]

"Oh, um..." Nealai paused, a little surprised by this change of pace in character."Then, Mister Drei, where exactly is this place? I'm sort of on my way home and I've...gotten a little turned around."

A particularly chilly breeze wound its way through the trees, tingling the Moon Elf's spine. He was reminded how cold, hungry, and tired he was.

He was ashamed.

It's nightlight and he's sleepy! Gads, he's turning into a daylighter. Unbelievable. He hadn't even began to conform to such a custom when he was under-

He shook his head.

No point thinking about that now. He needed to pry help out of these two creatures if he was going to get anywhere.

"...and do you happen to have anything to eat?"

[Alex]

Ashling shook his head at the elf, and inched away from the spider around Nealai. Once Ashling was between him and the spider he said,

"Crisis averted, I suppose. I'll leave now..."

He took a hasty step away from the party.

[Stella]

Nealai almost blurted out a panicked 'what?' but held his tongue at the last moment. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he really didn't want to be left alone in this unknown land by the only living creatures he could assume to be non-lethal towards his well-being.

However he also knew it was not his call to keep this strange dark creature—Ashling, he said his name was—from leaving.

Finding himself without options once more, the blue-haired elf looked to the demon for his reaction. He didn't know which he preferred, Drei in his more demonic form or in his current elven-like guise. It looked so unnatural as though he was wearing the dead skin of Nealai's kin.

Just the thought causes him to shiver though it might've been partly due to the breeze that still curled through the trees.

[Pip]

"Leave blinker and I can guarentee, without a proper guide, you will get lost. Being this deep into the Traveller's wood, the path's are winding and confusing. Who know's where you will wind up" Drei shot off to the Shade as he backed away.

He turned his attention to the Moon elf, and gave a friendly smile."And as you have asked, This is the traveller's wood. Every person trying to get from the north to south of Aers and vice versa eventually traverses through this forest.Normally, people travel by light of day, so as to not get lost on the darkened path, but travellers by night usually carry an aura of suspicion. Hence my earlier lack of trust, for which I apologize."

He still didn't trust either of them, but morso the Shade, this...Ashling...as he had said. Shade's could hardly be called trust worthy, creatures that could phase in from the material world to the immaterial made perfect assasins and could kill a man in broad daylight. He would have to be very carefull around this one. But the shade had not done much to aggrivate him, so he would help them through the night, for now.

"I can offer you two some shelter, till daylight. Then lead you two to the main path of the wood, which can take you anywhere you wish to go. It's the least I can do for my earlier...rudeness." He said, and with a leap he began jumping up branch by branch into the tree. Once he had dissapeared, he lowered a long strong rope from the upper brush.

[Alex]

"This blinker can manage well enough on his own, thanks." spat the Shade."You're not the only one who can see in the dark."

He backed up, still facing the demon and the elf, until he was well out of the protection of the tree. Back stiff, he turned and stalked off into the night, not looking back. From a growing distance, one could see him lifting his still bleeding fingers to his mouth, and maybe the pieces of thick string that fell to the ground in his wake.

[Stella]

The frigid verbal repartee being exchange was rather dampening. Nealai really didn't want to stand around all night in the cold but he made up his mind on what to do. He must be crazy after all these weeks of confinement.

"Um, thank you, Mister Drei. That's very generous of you and is greatly appreciated," the little elf called up the tree. He casted a quick glance after the Shade who was rapidly receding into the opaque darkness of the forest."But, I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

His stomach grumbled and his muscles ached in protest.

He persisted.

He had thrown away at a chance for a real bed, possibly some food, and a willing guide for a stranger.

Well, this one hasn't tried to attack him, and on the plus side, he helped him. That had to count for something, right?

Turning on his heel, Nealai stumbled through the tangle of overgrown tree roots after Ashling who was nearly out of sight.

"Hey! Wait up!"

He really must be crazy.

[Pip]

Drei watched as the two strange creatures trailed off into the dark woodlands. He gave a long sigh and a shrug. Bad first impressions always made a monster out of him.
He turned around and crawled swiftly back up his tree, and, finding a reasonably strong limb, settled himself into it, keeping his elven-esque form.
He stared up at the stars as they shone through the branches of the beautifully old tree. He knew he'd have to venture out into the forest for a new home once this baby gave out, but for now, it was the best one he had found, and with that he fell into his rest in the comforting branches.

[Alex]

Ashling glanced nervously back at the elf; he could feel himself fading out.

"Oh well..." he thought as he disappeared from view.

Letting himself go completely, he stalked quietly away into the night.

[Stella]

It didn't take long for Nealai to realize with a start that he was quite alone in the forest. He had been so preoccupied with avoiding those nasty underfoot tree roots that he hadn't the time to look up when Ashling vanished from sight.

The evening was filled with distant, reverberating sounds of night creatures he's never heard before. He shivered not just from the cold and rubbed his arms through the thin fabric.

Another stupid decision made.

Now he was not only lost but he was lost and alone in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar dangers. He longed painfully for his home valley where wildlife was scarce and the most one would do to get injured was due to one's own clumsiness.

There was a rustle and out of the corner of Nealai's eye he spyed a disturbance. Fearing the worst, he hurled himself against a tree, pressing his back as the cool bark so nothing could sneak up on him.

"W-who's there?" he ventured, grasping as his dwindling courage. The forest was silent.

Something congealed caressed his arm with a chilling touch. He shrieked and threw himself to the ground in the opposite direction.

It could only be described as a clump of shadows that barely ressembled a four-legged creature. It crawled towards him with the awkwardness of a newborn child. Its loud panting breath seemed to echo in the area.

It wasn't an echo at all but most of the same creatures emerging into the dimmed moonlight, oozing out of ditches, trees, each other.

Weak with fatigue and hungry, Nealai scrambled backwards with great difficult.

He was going to die or something worst by the hands of these things, he knew that.

A creature had come alarming close. In a lightning fast movement, it lashed out a limb and caught hold of the elf's ankle before he could even react.

So cold that it burned. Cold. Cold. Cold.

Before he knew it, he was screaming.

[Pip]

A red glimmer flew through the air, and punctured the shadowy creature. 3 more blurs glistened in the moonlight, as shots flew at the monstrosity. The strange beast seemed like a like a new pincushion, with the black sticks protruding from it's back.

Drei released another trio from his longbow, as he stood in the trees, his red eye concentrated on the creature, moving as it moved. He drew back another arrow, ready to react as to however his prey might.