Not too far into the Virens Forest as one travelled down a well worth pathway, just a few yards away from it there was a noise that didn’t fit in with the forest.

She had decided to start to travel to find her father, and had travelled to the forest first. After the chat with Shiloh at the Winking Mermaid and spending a few days exploring Adeluna, and eating three taverns almost out of food, Tourmaline had headed out of the city for the first time. The half dragon angel wanted to find her father sooner rather than later, but so far had come up short on any leads on where he might be. But at least she was spreading the word that she was looking for him, so maybe word would reach him that his daughter was looking for him.

Hoping to perhaps find people to ask in the Forest Tourmaline travelled into the forest. However, she hadn’t gotten far when her laziness got the better of her. The sound that didn’t belong in the forest? It was coming from Tourmaline, who was sitting with her back to a tree in a deep sleep, snoring rather loudly. Middle of the day or not, Tourmaline liked her naps and unless woken by something she could sleep for hours at a time, no matter how much sleep she got at night.

Tourmaline was a couple of inches under six feet tall, her slightly grey skin was flawless, aside from the tattoo on her right thigh that was exposed from the armour that she wore. Her dark yellow eyes were closed at the moment, and as she slept she was holding a beautiful glaive close to her. Lazy or not, Tourmaline wasn’t stupid and kept her weapon close, even if she didn’t want to use it, and just keep sleeping. She had a piercing in her lips, a stud in her nose and few piercings in her eyebrows, and her dull green hair, though partially hidden under the wickedly horned helm she wore, was down to her shoulders. In truth, her back wasn’t exactly against the tree, she was more propped up on it because of the large wings on her back that were folded as close to her as possible. Grey feathers rustled in the slight breeze and whenever her wings twitched while she slept.

The forest was quiet. A lone creature wandered along the darkened path of Virens forest. It almost looked like a black wolf but its three pure white eyes and the pairs of horns on its head showed otherwise. Normal animals didn't take a step near it. Birds flew away whenever the creature came near. Squirrels would flee and deer would dash far away from the disgusting monster. If you looked close, you could count each rib of the wolf-like monster. There were some parts of him that faded away into shadow, as though he was never truly solid at any one point. 

His three eyes could see through the forest's darkness. He could see every crushed leaf and every green blade of grass. The world was alive to him. And yet, the poor creature couldn't name a single one of these things. It was though the words were ripped away from his mind. Everything was familiar, recognizable…. but he couldn't remember the names. Names. What was a name? Even this, he was starting to forget. Suddenly he heard a low rumble coming from his stomach. The itching feeling of hunger returned. It was always there but some moments it was stronger than others. 

This was one of those moments. In the distance, he saw a sleeping young woman. His stomach grew louder as the hunger overwhelmed his mind. Food. Food. FOOD. His thoughts consisted only of the desire to eat. Her scent was appetizing. She was sleeping. Easy prey. He stalked closer and closer. The creature's body lowered to the ground as he crept closer. His three white eyes narrowed on the target as he slowly came closer and closer. Soon she was only inches away. Then inches became an inch. Just as he was about to open his jaws to take a bite, something hit his mind. There were no words to describe it. The creature's ears flattened and he backed up several inches. It wasn't fear. He understood fear. It was…..something. A guilt. A consequence. Or was it a warning? Words said that he couldn't repeat with his own tongue. 

He couldn't hurt her. He couldn't kill her. Despite all of his hunger that pained and tortured him, he knew that he couldn't hurt this stranger. The beast couldn't hurt anything. Couldn't KILL anything. But he was so hungry. A small whimper came from his throat. Even a small taste would be enough. He wouldn't hurt her. He just needed something. Anything to make him at least believe he was eating. So, the dark creature laid on the ground to establish that he was not a threat when she inevitably woke up. He was only half an inch away from her hand that rested on the ground. The beast reached out his tongue and gave the hand a lick. Just one. He didn't bite her nor made any move against her. Instead the wolf-like beast just laid on the ground next to her and gave her hand a lick. 

Where was he?

If someone were to wake Tourmaline up and ask her what she was dreaming off, she would either that it was a dream about her having a nice sleep or enjoying a large meal. Or, enjoying a large meal and then a long nap, that was ideal! Plus that was something she did often anyway so at least she could say she lived her dreams.

But when the predator started to get close Tourmaline’s natural instincts started to try and warn her of danger nearby. Between her nice dreams started to become distorted and somewhat uncomfortable in varying ways, and the weird feeling of her skin crawling, Tourmaline was on the verge of waking up. So when the beast licked her hand Tourmaline snapped awake, opened her wings and used them to not only throw dirty in the direction of whatever had touched her, but also to assist in getting to her feet faster. As she did in a smooth motion her glaive was held out in front of her point at the threat.

Now she stood tall, weapon pointed at this… wolf? With her wings spread wide in case she needed to take flight, dull yellow eyes narrowed as she studied the beast before her. It had three eyes! Three white eyes, somehow they seemed intelligent, and despite how lazy Tourmaline was she wasn’t foolish(sleeping in the middle of a forest like this notwithstanding). ”What, are you?” She questioned, her stance visibly relaxed ever so slightly, if this beast had wanted to attack her it could have while she was sleeping. Instead it had licked her hand and woken her up, startling for sure, but certainly better than being bitten awake.

The monster closed his eyes, awaiting any strike that the woman might throw at him. But it never came. He opened his three eyes and looked at the woman. She wasn't attacking. Yet her glaive was pointed towards him. The monster wolf-like creature pushed himself to his feet and backed up a few steps. His eyes scanned the forest and spotted a daisy sticking out of a clump of grass. Instead of going towards Tourmaline, he went towards the daisy and ripped it out of the ground with his teeth. Returning to Tourmaline, he dropped the now crushed Daisy in front of her. The daisy was crushed and covered in drool. The monster didn't seem to notice this. Instead he had an open mouthed smile and his white long tongue was hanging out. 

She had asked a question, didn't she. He understood the purpose of the question but was unable to repeat the exact words inside his mind. The monster looked around the forest but there was nothing he could use to explain himself. He opened his mouth and a deep growling sound came out. Then he jumped back in surprise, as his own voice had scared him. It was unfamiliar but he couldn't recall any other voice he might have had. Seeing that speaking was no-longer an option, he used his paw to write out something. Something that he couldn't read. Words he knew nothing of but he understood was important. 

W E S

That was all he remembered. The words were carved into the dirt. His head leaned to one side, as though he himself was confused at what he had written. All of the sudden, a deep growl came from his stomach. His ears flattened as he remembered the dull pain that tortured his stomach. A small whimper escaped his throat as he looked around for something dead to eat. 

The beast opened its three eyes and took a few steps back as Tourmaline watched it closely, eyes tracking it as it moved away a few feet and… picked a flower? A brow was raised by the half angel as she watched the strange beast pick a daisy up with its mouth and drop it in front of her. Tourmaline glanced to the saliva covered flower for a moment before looking back to the beast again, now she lowered her weapon to her side, but kept hold of it. ”Thank you.” She commented about the flower, though she didn’t have any intention of picking it up until later, when the saliva had dried, or at least for that matter. Not to mention that the beast had a large… smile on its face, at least that’s what Tourmaline thought she was looking at.

She started to believe that whatever this beast was it wasn’t a threat, it looked more confused than anything. After she asked what it was, more of a rhetorical question, when it growled and seemed to scare itself with its own voice, Tourmaline had to hide her grin behind a hand for a moment. But that didn’t last because then the beast started to use a paw to write in the sand. Wes. Those were the letters it wrote out, so, was that its name then? ”So your name is Wes?” She questioned, now truly believing that this beast was no threat, though she wasn’t about to take her eyes off of it.

The growl from Wes’s stomach though got a reply from Tour’s own stomach and the half angel sighed. ”You’re hungry to, huh? I don’t have any food, I would have eaten by now if I did.” She really didn’t feel like trying to hunt anything, of she could hunt, her mother had trained her to do that, but Tourmaline was just too lazy to do it now, even though she was hungry. Then again she was always hungry. Tour also didn’t have any range weapons on hand either to hunt with so that didn’t help. ”Not sure what to tell you, boy, we’re not anywhere close to get food, at least not for me, not sure what you eat.”

Unlike many other people that had encountered the monster, they would flee or attack. Instead Tourmaline seemed to be paying attention to him and listening. When she asked if his name was Wes, he wagged his tail excitedly.  Although the monster couldn't understood every word she was saying, he did know the gist of what they meant. The woman was hungry and didn't have food either, especially after hearing that growl. For some reason, this knowledge made him want to find her food. The monster didn't understand why. But he had a sudden urge to get her food. It almost felt familiar. Providing for somebody else….

He began to sniff the forest, looking for the smell of a dead animal. There were plenty of predators who hunted in these forests. He picked up the scent of something, but it wasn't food. The bushes rustled and moved. A growl escaped his throat as he began to back away from the bushes. A roar could be heard as a large brown bear lunged out of the bushes and towards the both of them. He couldn't let the bear hurt the lady. That was all he understood. So instead of standing by, the monster stood in front of Tourmaline, ready to take the beast on. 

If he was at a normal state, he would have realized that Tourmaline was probably better equipped to fight than he was. The bear attempted to swipe at him but the wolf-like monster faded into shadows before the attack could hit. The monster re-formed behind the bear and used his sharp teeth to bite the bear's leg. The bear roared in anger and turned around, away from Tourmaline to fight the monster.

When Wes started to sniff around, probably in search of food, Tourmaline hooked her glaive to her back and watched him. That was until the bushes rustled and Wes started to growl so out came the glaive again just as the huge brown bear charged from the bushes towards them. Tourmaline got into a ready position, she didn’t want to kill the bear, just make it go away and know that there was no meal here. But Wes stepped between them as the bear charged and she watched as Wes faded into the shadows as the bear attacked him and reappeared behind the bear. That was certainly interesting.

When the bear turned from her Tourmaline started to unconsciously project her aura, one of laziness, as a natural defensive mechanism. An odd measure for sure, but one that had saved her more than a few times. When someone or something came up to fight her for whatever stupid reason, they eventually found themselves unwilling to fight, just wanting to go and take a nap. Though sometimes it was a more gluttonous aura causing those around her to become hungry and only think of food. That had a few times been more of a hinderance, but it had its uses.

Tour reached out with her glaive and poked the bear in the back, she had no fear of the beast anyway, her wings out wide to take off if she needed to. When the bear ignored her the first time Tourmaline prodded harder getting its attention this time as it gave a small roar and turned around to face her. But Tourmaline’s aura was already working as the bear dropped back from its imposing stance on its back legs to all fours and huffed as it eyed the half-angel. The two stared at each other until the bear huffed again and gave a really large yawn with a shake of his large head.

Without another roar or sound the big bear padded away a few yards before yawning again and flopping down. It was asleep within a few seconds of closing its eyes. Tourmaline grinned, and yawned as well, now that the threat was gone her aura slowly started to dissipate. ”That’s what I thought.” She chuckled, once more hooking her glaive out of the way and folding her wings and looked to Wes again. ”You’re a brave one, huh? Well, come on, let’s get out of here before he wakes up grumpy, and hungrier.”

Wes watched the creature walk away then lay onto the ground to fall asleep. The monster padded over towards Tourmaline after her aura had decreased and watched her fold up her wings. Then she spoke to him, mentioning how they should leave before the bear awoke. He let out a yip and began to wag his tail with excitement. Wes dashed down the path with great excitement then dashed back towards Tourmaline. He ran a circle around her, as she seemed to live at a much slower pace. He then calmed down and began to walk by her side. His white tongue hung out in silly manner and it seemed the creature didn't really hold that much menace in it. If anything, it seemed more like a goofball that happened to be in the body of something fierce.