Nissa listened closely to the conversation unfolding between the three. Her ears perked up when she heard the term ‘bandits’. [i]Bandits?[/i] she questioned silently. [i]I must’ve wandered into the wrong woods…[/i] After they mentioned it, she realized that, soon enough, she could indeed smell the smoke riding in the breeze. All her focus on them, she listened intently so as to learn more information about these bandits, but what she saw next shocked her far more. Even with her dull human vision watching from a good distance away, she knew what she saw - the two men suddenly sprouted animal appendages. Her jaw dropped. “Those are…” 

“And what are you doing way out here in the woods, lady?” A coy voice spoke up from behind her. Spinning around, Nissa saw them - the bandits. While she hadn’t been entirely aware of it, she’d crept out of her hiding place as she listened to the exchange between the others, now standing in plain view, and she’d even started talking to herself at the last second there… And all the time, she was so absorbed in what she’d been watching that she was [i]completely oblivious[/i] to the sounds of anyone creeping up behind her. She couldn’t believe herself. 

“You know, it’s not safe for a woman like yourself to be out here all alone… how’d you get here?” the leader of the group asked, though Nissa could tell the group was anything but sincere. Even if she hadn’t known they were bandits, the tone in the leader’s voice and the look on all their faces had that subtle, sinister feel to them as they all seemed to be inching closer and closer to her. And on top of that, she hadn’t trusted any humans in a long, long time… 

“Stay away from me.” she spoke sternly, taking a few steps backwards. “I’m warning you!” With those words, her hands quickly transformed into talons, held out in front of her defensively. Ordinarily, she would be more timid with her transformations, but with two others like her only a short distance away… She could only hope she’d have some back-up. In the meantime, what happened next all depended on who made the first move…