[center][h3]First of the Forest Folk[/h3][/center] Nimueh used to like the forest. Not anymore. She was shivering. It was damp and cold. Once she had enjoyed the critters running about. Now their endless chittering made her paranoid. She kept looking over her shoulder constantly. It’s been two days now since she had run. At night she could barely sleep. At first she didn’t want to. It would make her such an easy prey for whatever predators roamed these woods. Eventually the sleep deprivation started catching up with her. She tripped more often and couldn’t think clearly anymore. Eventually she tried to climb into a tree to sleep up there. It was rough and horrible but exhaustion had burned her out. But she kept waking up from the smallest sound. Now on her second day she wanted to go back. Not that was ever an option now. There was one thing no zenii could do. One thing the Lady had explicitly forbidden. And she had done it. She might as well be disowned from the Lady as a zenii. She was now.. something. Something of the forest. The sun was dipping low again. Her stomach ached a bit. Luckily enough she had eaten some berries today. At the very least she would die of starvation. Still, her clothes were tattered and torn around her. Soon they’d be nothing more than wet rags that would cool her down. For now though, she kept them on her as she again tried to climb into a tree. She failed several times. Most of the times she just slipped and fell on both of her feet. One time she fell from a height on her back. It knocked the air straight out of her. As she looked up she saw the squirrels running up the tree as if to mock her. For a moment she just wanted to stay down there. Just to lay still for just a second. She closed her eyes, and drifted off as she just muttered some feeble prayer for help from the Beast Queen. She found herself on a beautiful tranquil field filled with grass. There were some trees spread around, though they weren’t close enough to call it a forest. A fox ran beside her away from her towards a creek that ran on her left along the plain sporting crystal clear water and a pebbled bottom. Nimueh was just frowning at the sight. [color=a2d39c]“There you are.”[/color] Nimueh looked up. There was a green-furred fox sitting next to the creek. “This isn’t real, is it?” She asked as she waved her hand around. The air felt real. Very real. As did the warmth of the sun. But she didn’t feel drenched or cold. She had been shivering for a day now yet here she felt perfectly comfortable. [color=a2d39c]“It isn’t.”[/color] The fox said matter of factly. [color=a2d39c]“I have a task for you. Your kin are embracing the wrong side of this world. Civilization-“[/color] “Can you just let me die?” Nimueh interrupted. She was dead serious. This dream - because it couldn’t be anything else - brought a strange sense of oblivious clarity. The forest would kill her sooner rather than later. If the elements didn’t then the predators would. And if she ever set a foot out of it Masol or some other zenii would beat her to an inch of her life and let the Lady finish it. Really, her life was already over. This seemed to shock the fox a little bit. [color=a2d39c]“You’re young. Your body is still somewhat healthy. Though it is wearing down fast. Why would you want to die already?”[/color] “You don’t know what’s happening, do you?” Nimueh asked. Which seemed to upset the fox. [color=a2d39c]“Your tone is starting to displease me.”[/color] “Will that lead to you killing me!?” Nimueh snapped. The fury now radiating from the fox would suggest so. Nimueh had seen those eyes before. In all the wolves that eyed her hungrily on that fateful day. She had seen it in the eagle that had killed a hare not too far from her once. They were hungry for flesh. But then the creature backed off. “Whatever, the forest will kill me off fast enough.” Nimueh said as she turned away from the fox. She knelt before the creek and let some of the water run along her hand. Here, in her dream, they weren’t bruised or scraped. She tried to drink the water. It tasted like the most refreshing, juiciest fruit she had ever eaten. But again, she was well aware it was only a dream. [color=a2d39c]“If you tried, maybe you could survive like the animals-“[/color] Again Nimueh cut her off. “I’m not an animal!” She yelled. “I don’t have fur to keep me warm.” She kept yelling as she showed the fox her arms. “See this!?” She pointed at her worn down nails. “This doesn't rend skin! And these?” She pointed at her own teeth. “They don’t rip flesh apart if I bite something! I’m not made to live in the forest! I’m made by the Lady to sit around a blackstone!” The fox looked her up and down. It seemed to ponder for a moment as it started walking around Nimueh. [color=a2d39c]“You’re not wrong.”[/color] It said as it licked her leg for a moment while Nimueh just stood there, fuming. [color=a2d39c]“Strong legs. Good muscles. But no fur to speak of.”[/color] The fox said, seemingly thinking out loud. Eventually it sat down again in front of Nimueh. [color=a2d39c]“Fixing you will take too much time right now, and it would be a useless endeavor anyway.”[/color] “Geez, thanks.” Said Nimueh. Sure she wanted things to end but that didn’t mean she didn’t have any self-worth. She wouldn’t just take insults like that. [color=a2d39c]“You’re a defiant one though, that is good. You’ll need that.”[/color] The green-fured fox said. [color=a2d39c]“I’ll give you a simple solution. When you wake up you’ll be able to turn into an animal. That should help you survive in the forest.”[/color] “Wait… you can do that? You can help me out?” Nimueh asked. Weirdly enough a spark of hope ignited in her heart. Which brought some crushing weight down on her shoulders. Suddenly the clarity of the abyss was gone. Replaced with a very mortal desperation to cling to life if there was even a chance. The fox just nodded. Nimueh fell back on her knees in front of it and hugged it closely. The second she embraced it though, the fox turned into a snake in her arms and quickly slithered free. [color=a2d39c]“At least now,”[/color] the snake said. [color=a2d39c]“You can do what I need you to do.”[/color] “What’s that?” Nimueh asked while she was still sitting down on her knees. [color=a2d39c]“Your kind is walking into the forests holding these pots and wicker baskets and other things to hold my bounty. Soon they’ll enter with biting tools that will fell my sentinels. I need you to stop them. By word or by claw.”[/color] “All of them?” Nimueh exclaimed. “I-I can’t! I’m just me. I'm nobody. Less than a nobody to them! I just broke the zenii’s most important law. They won’t listen to me.” [color=a2d39c]“By word or by claw.”[/color] The green-furred fox repeated. A shiver ran down Nimueh’s back. She tried to swallow her fears but she couldn’t. Just like she knew from the visions and the dreams in the past, when the Beast Queen didn’t like something she would change it. Through any means possible. It seemed that Nimueh’s lack of immediate defiance was enough for the green-furred fox. Who got up and started walking away. Though it was stopped by Nimueh: “Wait!” She yelled. “I just wanted to say thank you first. Not just for this chance. You saved me two days ago. Or you helped me save myself. I’m not sure, but thank you.” The fox stopped, and turned around. It tilted its head as if it was confused for a moment. [color=a2d39c]“I did no such thing.”[/color] It simply said. “But… the branch and the vines that- surely it was your power. The forest’s power.” Nimueh said. The fox tilted its head again, and then closed its eyes for a second. For a moment Nimueh felt a strange presence in her mind. It felt as if a small fish was swimming around in her head. It didn’t hurt, but it felt so very weird. [color=a2d39c]“Ah.”[/color] The fox said as it opened its eyes again. [color=a2d39c]“How interesting.”[/color] “What is it?” Nimueh asked insistingly. [color=a2d39c]“It would seem that my initial gift came with something…more.”[/color] Said the fox, seemingly pondering on something much bigger than just little Nimueh. Though it turned to face the girl again after a moment of silence: [color=a2d39c]“It would seem that you called upon some inner power, which in turn manifested itself into a strange substance that covers the world which made your will reality. Yes, I’ve noticed that substance before.”[/color] Nimueh just blinked. She didn’t understand. Not at all. [color=a2d39c]“To put it in simple terms, you used magic. You cast a spell which uses this mana to do something. In your case, it killed this zene.”[/color] There was a cold lack of empathy when the fox talked about the murder. As if it was as normal as breathing or walking. [color=a2d39c]“A sibling of mine might know more. But that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that your kin realize their mistakes before it is too late. I’ll be going now, Nimueh. My duties demand me to be elsewhere. But I’ll return to see how you’ve progressed. Don’t let me down.”[/color] With a jolt Nimueh woke up again. It was night. The forest was alive though. She was lucky to not have been eaten by anything. She looked at her knuckles. They were bruised and scraped again. The dream was still in her mind though. Normally it fades away so quickly but not this one. Was it real? She got up and looked around. There was a tree still next to her. The one she tried to climb. With the squirrels that had mocked her. Now she wanted to climb into that tree as well. She wanted to join those squirrels and put out her tongue at them. With a thought she suddenly felt her body morph and change. It didn’t feel painful, luckily. But it was still strange. To see the world become so large suddenly. The rags that were her clothes fell on her tiny squirrel shape, but she got away from them fast enough. “I can do it!” She shouted. It didn’t come out as animal speech but still in the language of the zenii. “I can do it!” With renewed vigor in her heart she rushed forward towards the tree and started climbing it. As much as she still felt herself, she felt that her instincts were different. Suddenly she just knew where to put her claws and how to move upwards. She knew how to turn her tail to stay balanced. Most importantly, she knew how to get up the tree quickly. As a furred squirrel she managed to get into the tree for safety. She also felt so warm. Like the cold wind just didn’t bother her anymore! [hider=Summary]Nimueh has been wandering through the forest for two days now. She barely slept. In the evening she crawls up a tree but falls out of it. Resigning to her fate she closes her eyes while saying a prayer to the Beast Queen. In her dream a green furred fox appears. Who starts asking things of her but Nimueh justs asks if it can end her suffering. The green-furred fox notices that the bodies of zenii are ill made for survival in forests and such. She gives Nimueh the ability to transform into animals, and then explains her task: to explain to the zenii that civilization is not the way to go. By word or by claw. Then she’s off. But first Nimueh tries to thank the Beast Queen for her help with the zenii. The Beast Queen explains it wasn’t her help but Nimueh’s own inborn power that used magic. Nimueh wakes up in the middle of the night and tries out her new ability to transform into a squirrel.[/hider] [hider=Vigor] Phelenia Vigor Start: 2 - 0 (discounted from 1) to bless Nimueh with the ability to shapeshift in any animal Phelenia Vigor End: 2[/hider] [hider=Spirit] Nimueh Spirit Start: 2 + 1 Spirit: Being in the post + 1 Spirit: Being the focus of the post Nimueh Spirit End: 4[/hider]