[h3][color=fdc68a]Galia Guardstrike[/color][/h3] As Mort warned the group something was coming, Galia came to her senses quickly. Her heart began to race. Could it be helped that she only imagined the Beast itself making it's appearence? What a joy it would be to have this over early, instead of having it drag on for days, weeks, months. Though she knew in her heart that this would be going on for a while. Nonetheless, she quietly removed her covers and came into a crouching position, looking over the shoulders of her comrades to see the creature that had materialized out of the treeline. It's leering sneer caused Galia to tighten her jaw and raise her brow. Some unfortunate herbivore of nature twisted by the evil forest, no doubt. This wasn't the Beast. It couldn't be. Galia felt she would know it when she saw it. That there wouldn't be uncertainty. This was some corrupted minion of evil, it must be. A liason of despair. It was watching them. Here to intimidate. She wondered of it's intelligence, of it's sapience, whether it was possible for it to be malicious or if it was just an empty-headed construction of muscle and flesh piloted by insticts far beyond it's own limited comprehension. It was impossible to know. [color=fdc68a]"It won't come out here. We're still in Fero."[/color] Galia reassured her companions. Her minds eye flashed to the stacks of superstitious stones the villagers had piled alongside the road to mark their border and stave off sinister forces. They must be doing something, yes? Or, at least, they are correlated to the end of the Beast's territory, if not the causation itself. The Beast, for all her desire to destroy it, had never left it's forest. It's territory was clearly marked. It had drawn a line in the sand, and had never crossed it in Galia's ten years here in Feros Province. So what was this? A scout? A messenger? There was no way to know! How could this damned forest get inside her head when she hadn't even entered it yet? Cursed creature. Galia slowly gripped the sheathe of her sword and wrapped her strong fingers around it's polished wooden handle, preparing to summon it's steel at a moment's notice.