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[indent] Steven dove behind a tree when he'd heard that ominous twig-snapping- but then he sort of laughed at himself. Like, stars, that was such a cliche, right? Walking around in a forest when suddenly [i]snap?[/i] Oh, jeez, this [i]had[/i] to be a punishment, right? A punishment which involved cheesy horror movie cliches. He bit his lip to shush his nervous laughter, leaning hard into the trunk of the tree to keep himself hidden as he forced his ears to listen. If it was a threat that couldn't - or didn't [i]want to[/i] - talk it out, he needed to be ready. He needed a plan, so he needed to know where it was, and-

And he proceeded to grimace when he heard what sounded like something getting [i]very[/i] sick. Unpleasantly sick. [i]Concerningly[/i] sick- Steven peeked out to see if he could get a bead on what made that sound, his first instinct to be to maybe help the poor sickly thing- but then he saw a flash of something black, and then he heard shouting. [i]Human[/i] shouting. It felt like his fingers went cold as he instinctively summoned his shield.

He ran out from his hiding place, then chucked the circular shield as hard as he could at the black mass, the shield making solid contact - he could [i]literally[/i] hear the impact from here, and it made him wince sympathetically, if only briefly. 

Even if he felt bad about hurting whatever sickly-sounding animal that was, he wasn't going to let someone [i]get eaten[/i] by it!
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[hr][hr][right][@LouisTheDummy] (I had permission to auto-hit!)[/right]