In the plentiful, ambient moonlight, a silhouette shrouded in shadows moved nearer and nearer still despite its clearly ever growing scale. Whatever lurked in this wood was massive beyond a doubt, as large as a mighty steed but without so much as the disturbance of a lone stone or dry twig. Silence in its footfall, it followed the wind and the scent trail that accompanied it until it loomed in the darkness not far from a great, old oak whose boughs concealed the foreign presence. The vastness of the tree was specific, at least so to the illuminated gaze which seemed to dwell on its figure for a time.

Rousing itself from its concealment, the brush and natural illusion disappearing, it stepped over the sprawling vines and planted a giant paw firmly to the soil, looking over the scene before it wherein it could see a figure not too far under the tree's warding.

[i]"You would not be welcomed here... and yet you are."[/i] The powerful voice shook the air calmly, undoubtedly enough so to stir her from her sleep. A divine sound, it certainly was not that of any man she had ever heard - being slightly growled, low and gravelly; a strange vibration accompanied it too.

The muzzle tilted, deadly sword-sized canines protruding from its jowls in the silver light of the moon, glinting with otherworldly keenness. It was a figure of some sort of feline beast, far larger than anything this forest could regularly sustain and certainly a monster of legend. The mixture of shadow and moonglow made it hard to discern, but there was no doubt it was a presence of another realm she was in; something primal, ancient and pure.

[i]"Tell me, small one of mortal blood, why is it that you have been spared by this place and its inhabitants?"[/i] It said, making no effort to draw her out from her hiding place.

[@Ojo chan 42]