[u](Collaboration Post Featuring YoshiSkittlez's Red Riding Hood & Major Ursa's Black Night)[/u]

There wasn't going to be anymore time wasted in that forest. Previously, he had thought that it would have been a safe enough place to hide out and take his rest...the presence of Day, and then the woman in red had shattered the idea. Mounting his horse, Night spurned it into a slow sort of trot for now. The clip-clopping of the hooves on the dirt path, crunching a few prematurely fallen leaves here or there, combined with the rustling of the wind through the leafy tree branches, created a calming sort of ambience. Even with the darkness of his presence, the fingers of the shy sun poking through the leafy canopy made this horseride entirely enjoyable...even if the lack of animal presence (save for his faithful horse) did make the experience yet another lonely one.

It was only a few minutes on horseback, travelling through the forest...that he noticed a steady change to the air. The sparse sun peaking through the trees shouldn't have provided this sort of increase in heat. Proceeding onwards, the heat was increasing steadily, and the air was heavier with a portion of smoke. Bringing his horse to a gallop, he found himself riding into the middle of a forest fire. There were powers he could use to end this, and then there was the balance he firmly believed in maintaining. In order to maintain this balance, naturally occuring or intentional, he would do nothing and let it burn. Let the trees burn, the earth be scorched, the air be soiled by the ash...hopefully, it'd run it's course and exhaust quickly. 

Steering his horse a little bit aways from some of the greater fire, the black horse galloped and lept over some burning shrubbery. It seemed like the fire was almost alive and wicked; already engulfing a section of the forest with ease and speed. The shadow didn't have a heart, but [i]something[/i] stopped for a fraction of a second when he remembered that the girl in red was still somewhere, trudging through the brush and grass...the now [b]burning[/b] brush and grass.

Without even knowing it, he'd halted his horse's movement as the realization struck him...but as soon as he realized this, Night got his horse moving again. Why did it matter that she was still somewhere in there? It would be up to...'fate' to decide whether she lived or died, not him. Would he do this everytime he happened upon a stranger in the woods in need of help? Of course not, the notion of doing such things seemed meaningless. If they were meant to die, they'd die, and that would be the end of it.

Spurring his horse into a faster gallop, he cursed under his breath and yanked the reins to turn the horse swiftly around, going back down the direction he remembered the girl in red walking. With his reasoning, his actions [i]weren't exactly[/i] outrageous. If she was meant to die, he'd arrive too late, having wasted his time. And then, for sure, that would be that. And if she wasn't, if she wasn't...

Night didn't even know anymore. Cursing more furiously under his breath, he rode on.

Red didn’t know where she was going, but that wasn’t new by any means as of late. She hadn’t been home in months and still didn’t plan on returning home. In fact, she was sure that she never would. But what was she to do now? She could always return to Snow's resting place and say her goodbye's...again...but she wasn't sure if she would be able to bear seeing the seven dwarves just as wrecked about it as she was. Not to mention Charming...just what the hell was she supposed to say to him if she had accidentally ran into him there?

[i]Hey sorry, I let Snow meet Regina on her own because I thought my boyfriend was a werewolf and was trying to help him...so it's kind of my fault she's dead...[/i]

Red shook her head and sighed. Somehow, she just didn't see that conversation going well.

Red had been so lost in thought that her nose hadn't even picked up on the sense that there was something 'wrong' in the air. Or maybe it was because she still sensed the 'strange' about that shadow guy she met in the glen that kept her senses knocked out of place. Despite the reason, she was unprepared when the corner of her eyes caught a flickering yellow light.

Spinning on her heel, Red turned to face the small amount of flames that had crept up on her, though it didn't take long for the foot-high burning grass to become a wall of blazing heat. Blinking, the only thing Red could do was think on what had caused a fire and was frozen in place. It wasn't nearly hot or dry enough in the forest...and there wasn't any lightning...so [i]someone[/i] had to have done [i]something[/i].

Night's eyes may have been set on searching for the red of the young woman's hood, but the forest was now a feast of hot colours for the eyes. Red, blazing orange, flashing yellows, and more red. It was bright, even with the darkness that cloaked him, the fire licked the green leaves and made them into hot ash almost instantly filling the air of ash and smoke. The heat made him...dizzy, even a little [i]tired[/i]. He wouldn't die in this fire, but he was out of his element. Shaking his head from what felt like a fog in his mind, Night scanned the immediate area as best he could, before bringing his horse to the next area.

Quite suddenly, his horse went from a fast trot to a complete stop. If this were any other horse, Night would have suspected it's stop from fear...but with this particular horse, he knew better. Scanning the general area once more, he still didn't see the girl...but he was sure that the horse must have known better. Dismounting, he stared over at the blaze of a particularly large tree on fire. If the girl was in the immediate area, or close enough, she'd definitely hear this. Raising a boot--[b]BOOM BOOM, CRACK[/b]--Night kicked the tree down with nothing but brute force. Watching it crash into another tree, more of the forest becoming open to observation once the tree was no longer standing in his way.

A cracking sound that reminded Red of thunder pounded in her ears suddenly, giving her wolf-like talents milliseconds to react. Instinct took over as she sprinted to the right and took a dive; a thick, burning tree branch crashing to the forest floor narrowly missing the tip of her boot as she lunged out of the way. Cursing and wiping the dirt from her chin, Red scrambled back up onto her feet and paused to collect her bearings, noticing right away that two or three trees had fallen over from the burning fire, encircling her in a wall of fire. She knew this forest though, there had to be an out…

Well…she [i]would[/i] have known where to go if the entire forest didn’t seem to be on fire. Everything looked different no matter where she looked. The once lush green trees were now torches of burning light, all looking exactly alike in their orange and red rather than individualizing themselves with the various shades of green. The smoke entering her nose kept any familiar scents well away as well as providing enough coverage to block the sun from view and was unable to tell North from South.

For the first time in months, panic shot through Red’s blood like a quick-spreading venom, and a fleeting thought of ripping off her red hood and leaving it to burn just so she could become her recently favored side began to become more and more tempting. What other choice did she have? But was it worth losing the cloak forever?

Through the combination of light and heat from the fire, Night could see...the solid red of a hood, and some dark hair tumbling out as she seemed to be searching in the other direction. At least, up until the tree domino effect frightened her quite a bit.

Forgoing the idea of knocking over another tree, and losing his patience with the heat (especially since he wore his gnarly shadow armour fully), Night brought forth a blanket of darkness. It swept over the flame between them, stifling the life of it, the heat and light. It rolled forward like a thick black carpet.

Red turned to face Night as she felt the heat immediately starting to die down at her back and when her eyes fell upon the shadowed stranger the look on her face gave obvious surprise, even causing her to stumble back a few steps.

The distinct blackness emmitting from the man was a drastic enough contrast against the sunburst of bright colors, she was sure that she had come across a [url=http://www.tveverafter.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/wraith1.jpg]Wraith[/url]. With her breath caught in her throat, she looked at the 'road' of darkness leading straight to him and then back to the fiery depths of the forest. Burning alive didn't sound too pleasant, but neither did having her soul ripped from her bones. But...she wasn't marked, at least she didn't think she was...so maybe she had a better chance with the Wraith...

"Ah shit..."

Red squared off the eerie blanket of darkness, taking only a half-second to breathe in deeply. She began running straight towards the figure, her hands busy pulling at her cloak until she managed to get it off completely. She jumped into the air, un-naturally high for a human, and threw the cloak out in front of her. In the blink of an eye, the slender dark-haired girl had undergone a complete transformation while in mid-jump, landing on all fours with the red cloak caught and clenched tightly in her jaws.

The black wolf landed delicately on the blackened forest floor, running a few paces past the looming black figure until curiosity got the better of her. Gradually slowing, the wolf turned her massive head to look over her shoulder at the figure, her bright yellow eyes instantly recognizing the figure to not be a Wraith, but the same man she had met in the woods earlier that day. It was impossible to see because of the helm he wore, but she could [i]feel[/i] the two of them making eye contact.

Initially shocked by the girl's transformation...suddenly, her lack of fear earlier made much more sense to Night. Werewolves were nocturnal, which would explain why she hadn't been bothered by his dark presence initially. Her comfort lay in her nature, not the nature of a crime...he couldn't fault her for that. And Night basically, more or less, tried to push her away from where and how she felt safe. Like...trying to force a wolf to stop howling at the moon. He...couldn't do that anymore.

The sudden crack and boom of yet another tree falling and crashing down shook Red from her sudden daze. She turned her head from the man to the path out in front of her, instantly recognizing it now with the help of the shadows behind her. There was a small village not too far from here, just over a small river that would be sure to keep the fire from burning it down tot he ground. She wouldn't head straight to the village, however, and more-or-less find a secluded barn to sleep in for the night. She turned her head back to the man and emmitted a muffled [i]woof[/i] through the cloak between her teeth, jerking her head as if to say, "this way" and (for the moment) ignoring all previous thoughts of the disrespectful bird corpse destroyer. Despite what he [i]really[/i] was, he was still alive and breathing, and she couldn't let herself leave him to the mercy of the forest.

Staying in the same spot for a few moments, and feeling them like years, Night turned to follow the werewolf's movement...his eyes connected briefly with her's. She followed up her staring with a head gesture and a woof to follow...and with this, Night remembered his doubts. As a creature of the night, she wasn't exactly aware of the reason he'd avoid what humans usually thought of as the safety of civilization. His presence could make every small shadow in the town become the possibility of vagabonds, deady creatures waiting to crawl out from underneath, and omen of illness.

Well, at this time and place, he thought for only a moment...he should follow her. It wasn't that he wanted to terrorise the village people; the townsfolk. But it had become apparant to Night that she wasn't going straight into town, especially when in wolf form. This person...wanted him to trust her. Even after previously...misjudging her, and driving her off like he did, she still only wanted his trust. Even after he thought her a possible runaway thief, murderer, even if the thought was only brief on the initial meeting.

"...haaah..." Such a strange turn of events. It seemed...the girl wasn't going to die today. Letting out a low pitched whistle, his horse trotted on over and passed them, moving on ahead. Turning back to face the werewolf, he held a gnarly gauntlet out and made a gesture, "Go on, then. Take the lead, and I shall follow close behind."

Red nodded once, her silent way of approving of the man's decision and turned her large body around to trot down dirt path that would lead them to the outskirts of the village.