Specks of sunlight from above glittered the ground of the forest beneath.  Leaves that had long settled from their exile in the branches were disturbed by the prancing of Evanis's hooves as he maneuvered through the timbers that could reach the heavens.  The people from a town close to the forest were kind enough to provide him with a map so that he could find his way around when he was searching for his bounty, a gnoll named Dagzor that led a bandit clan called the Blood Spikes.  Evanis succeeded in tracking down Dagzor and took out the man that was with him when they were isolated from the camp.  There was a brief fight and the gnoll got several hits in on the deerman, but in the end, Evanis prevailed and knocked the criminal unconscious.

Evanis had gotten Dagzor back to the town where he turned him over to the authorities and received his reward, but now he had the problem of the Blood Spikes pursuing him.  He used both the map and the light from the sun to guide him around the trees and to hopefully stay ahead of his hunters.  Despite the threat of the bandits, Evanis was also well aware of the dangers that the other creatures inhabiting the forest posed to him.  Speaking of which, he jumped onto the side of a tree to dodge a lash of fangs from a snake that he noticed in the underbrush at the last moment.  Evanis used the momentum to launch himself off the tree and used the temporary speed boost to keep running.

His map received another glance, and he was not sure if he was on the right path to getting clear of the natural city.  He stole a peek behind him but could not see the bandits.  That was either a good or a bad sign.  The Blood Spike member that was the most memorable in his mind apart from Dagzor was the bulky rhinoman that would certainly crush Evanis into paste if he allowed him to catch him, that's if the large mace he carried did not do him in first.  Evanis brought his mind back to fleeing, and the sound of rushing water reached his ears.

Evanis skidded to a stop, his hooves booting leaves and dirt into the furious rapids that raced by.  He could not find a bridge or an alternate route for him to use.  The distance across was also too great for him to clear.  It was only a matter of time before the Blood Spikes caught up with him, and Evanis knew that he needed to figure out his next move.  Until that time came, he equipped his bow and nocked and arrow, prepared for a fight.

Huffing for breath the deer continued to run from the predator behind it, it had only just managed to dodge from the predator’s initial claw swipe, but now the chase was on. If only the deer knew that it was being toyed with, it was already dead, it just didn’t know it yet. It continued to run for a little while longer before it could almost feel the hot breath of the predator bearing down on it. A screech of pain as large claw caught flesh and the deer went down as it was set upon.

---

Blood dripped from white fur around the beast’s maw as it stalked through the trees, belly full it no longer needed to hunt for food. Now it could hunt for fun, sport, just because she could. The white tiger could stand on its hind legs and reach a height of nearly seven feet, could run on two or four legs and had claws that could shred metal and make ribbons out of flesh.

She scented the air, another deer, but this was different somehow, not one she had came upon before. Following the scent the huge cat found the tracks, hooved, but… bipedal? Standing tall she looked around, it was not in sight, it was ahead of her, towards the river she had seen before. The white beast started to track this odd bipedal deer only to hear something coming from behind her, a lot of somethings. Deciding to see what these new arrivals were she dived into a deeper part of the forest and turned around, keeping low and out of sight.

A group of assorted species came towards her hiding spot and she quickly climbed up a tree and hid in the branches. Walking past under her her eyes caught sight of a very large rhinoman with a large mace in one hand. Very interesting.

Curiosity killed the cat, so the saying goes, but this cat had a habit of proving that saying wrong.

She watched this group go past a ways before she dropped from the tree and started to stalk them.

Time to see what was going on, until then she’d stay out of sight.

Evanis stared down into the rushing rapids, well aware that swimming across was out of the question.  The raging river would just sweep him away to parts unknown.  He peered around the tree again and this time, he could hear the voices of the Blood Spikes and before long, they made their appearance with the rhinoman standing out among them.  Evanis observed them and counted ten bandits including the rhinoman.  One was another gnoll that wielded a short sword and a buckler, another was a horseman equipped with a claymore that appeared weathered.

One of the other animal beings was a warthogman with a spiked flail who wore leather armor on his upper torso and a chainmail skirt.  Two other Blood Spikes were elves, one with a crossbow and the other with a short sword.  The rest of the kill team consisted of humans, and Evanis noted that one of them was rather tall with bandages wrapped around the left side of his head and his right arm.  Said man also carried a one-handed fighting axe.  Evanis ended his examination of the bandits by focusing on a woman with a hunting bow and a quiver full of arrows along with a smaller, but nonetheless menacing mace that hung at her side. 

The deerman deemed the two Blood Spikes with ranged weapons to be the biggest threats out of the lot, not counting out the rhinoman.  He watched as the bandaged man ordered, "Spread out and search!  Luje, go left!  Serani and Guthelwe, check out that river ahead!  The rest of us will search this area over here!"

"Do I have to go alone!?" a man with a helmet and a dagger whined.

"Sorry Luje, but with Dagzor in lockup, I'm in charge!" the man boasted with a chuckle.

As Luje walked away with a downcast expression, the two elves approached the river.  Seeing Luje being isolated from the main group made Evanis target him first.  He took aim at the man, wanting to take him down before the other two Blood Spikes reached the river.  When Luje was far enough away, Evanis released the arrow, and it zipped toward the Blood Spike.  A cry of pain escaped Luje as the arrow pierced his right armpit and he collapsed into the ground.

The two elves turned to see their downed comrade and one of them shouted, "Luje has been hit!  The deerman's here!"

Evanis took that as his cue to leave and sped up the river with one of the elves aiming his crossbow at him.  The head of the hunting party pointed at the escaping deerman and barked, "After him!"

A bolt from the crossbow whisked inches past Evanis's shoulder and embedded itself in a tree just ahead.  Evanis decided to see if he could thin another one of their numbers and nocked another arrow before he whisked around to target the elf that was reloading his crossbow.  He readied the arrow and let it fly, the projectile striking the elf in his left arm, causing him to scream in pain as he dropped his weapon and his fellow elf shouted, "Venison got Serani!"

Evanis produced another arrow and kept running as the group chased after him with the rhinoman roaring, "I'm gonna snap you like a twig deer!"

The other elf, Guthelwe stayed with Serani and attempted to tend to his wound.  Further away, Luje's life was expelled from his body via the blood loss he suffered.

So this group was hunting the deer thing she had scented before, interesting. Such a large group for a lone being, and with a few of them being a good challenge on their own, seemed overkill. Was this deer thing that powerful? Valuable? The big cat decided to watch for a bit longer, that want to hunt burning deep inside of her, a low snarl started to escape her but she stopped it as not to give away her position.

It wasn’t too long before blood was in the air as an arrow dropped an elf and a chase started. Most of the group started chasing the deer thing, which she still hadn’t seen, leaving one of their number behind to tend to the wounded elf, while the other died of blood loss. The blood, it was strong in the air now and it riled up the big cat’s blood. Something clicked in her mind, a switched flipped and the big cat went into hunting mode, she started to stalk forward.

Guthelwe got some cloth out to make a tourniquet to help slow the bloodflow to Serani’s arm. Distracted and separated they did not notice the white cat creeping up on them from the trees. In a flash there was a blur of white before a red splatter decorated the ground near where Guthelwe had been kneeling. Serani could make only a small whimper as the same fate befell them as bloodied claws reached out once more and the cat was back into the trees.

Catching up to the main group the big cat found that the archer woman was lacking a bit behind, probably because she was a human trying to run with non-humans and didn’t have close to their stamina. Likely why she picked a bow, so she could stay back and let the big beasts do the direct fighting.

The cat charged forward just out of sight from the human archer to get just ahead of her and creep into an ambush position. She had no thought of who’s side she was taking, or who these people even were, but at this point that didn’t matter, she wanted, needed, to hunt and kill, her instincts were driving her.

The archer woman continued forward stopping for a moment to look around, her eyes settling on an odd white patch in the trees. Puzzled she went to investigate for a moment only to see a large car face turning to looking back at her. Before she could raise an alarm the big cat pounced on her, driving the woman to the ground and clamping her jaws on the archer’s throat. She did get a terrified cry out before blood spray pained the grass nearby but that was enough to catch the attention of the gnoll closest by. When it turned around it only a moment to see the archer on the ground throat torn open and a white streak heading back into the trees.

The gnoll howled, warning the rest that was there was another threat in the trees.

The big cat growled, this would be a fun hunt!

The gnoll's warning grabbed the attention of the rhinoman who stopped and turned back to see that their fellow archer had been brutally mauled to death.  He rushed back to join the gnoll, who had his sword pointed at the last spot where the creature responsible had disappeared to, and that was when the rhinoman saw the violent deaths that their elf brethren had suffered.  The gnoll snapped, "Someone else is picking us off!"

The rhinoman looked around for what had killed three of their Blood Spikes.  Unsuccessful, he pat the gnoll on the back and said, "Come on and stay together!"

Up ahead, Evanis had another arrow prepared, and he felt that with the considerable distance between him and his pursuers he could get another shot off.  In the rear he heard the rhinoman yell, "Bander, something killed three of our comrades!"

Infuriated, the bandaged man stopped and turned around yelling, "What!?"

At the same time, Evanis had also skidded to a stop and spun around with his bow raised.  His aim was on the horseman and the arrow zeroed in on him, but the horseman ducked to the side just in the nick of time and the arrow pierced Bander's skull.  The man's mouth fell agape with his eyes going lopsided.  He took several steps forward before he fell into the grass, blood seeping from his corpse.  The rhinoman screamed in rage, "Shit!"

Evanis was about to run again, but in that time he sent another arrow toward the Blood Spikes, the horseman managed to close the distance with him and swung upward with his claymore.  The deerman leaped backward out of range of the attack and slung his bow in exchange for his dagger.  The other bandits managed to reach their ally right as Evanis lunged forward looking to slice across the horseman's face.  In response, the horseman raised his right arm, allowing the dagger to leave a nick in it.  Evanis followed up by driving his hoof straight into his opponent's face, causing him to stumble back.

This created an opening for the warthogman to rush in with his flail swinging, intending to maim Evanis with it.  Evanis ducked out of the way of the lethal ball and slashed across the bandit's torso, but the leather managed to withstand the strike.  The rhinoman and the gnoll were closing in, and Evanis knew he would not win a head on battle with a group, so he scrambled away and broke into a sprint, continuing the chase once more.  Along the way, one of the remaining humans in the group armed with a studded mace scooped up a stone off the ground and hurled it at Evanis.

The stone landed just in front of Evanis and it caused him to trip and lose his footing.  He almost fell over, but he managed to regain his balance.  However, this meant that the horseman once again managed to catch up and went for a thrust.  Evanis dodged the thrust and countered by driving his dagger straight into the horseman's abdomen.  Unlike the warthogman, the horseman wore simple clothes, and his only source of protection was a leather pauldron on his left shoulder, allowing the small blade to penetrate deep into his torso.  The horseman unleashed a scream of pain through gritted teeth as Evanis pulled the dagger free and the fresh wound began to bleed.

Evanis continued to flee, and the horseman pointed at him shouting, "Bastard!"

"First him, then whatever's picking us off!" the rhinoman ordered, having taken charge of the dwindling group.

The horseman was still pursuing, but at a slower pace due to his wound.  Ahead, Evanis stored away his dagger and equipped his bow once more, preparing an arrow.  He jumped at a tree and used the momentum from planting his hooves against it to launch himself airborne.  The drawstring was pulled back and his arrow's next target was the warthogman.  The warthogman was knocked down with the wind launched straight out of him when the arrow punched through his armor and into his torso.  The downed Blood Spike was still alive but was coughing up blood.

All that remained of the group that was still able to move was the rhinoman, the gnoll, the horseman, the man with the studded mace and another man that wielded a spear.  Evanis landed against another tree with his hooves and gave the Blood Spikes a small smile before he sprung himself from the tree and continued running.

It seemed that now that the group of hunters knew that they themselves were being hunted that they picked up the pace to catch their prey. The big cat got a better look at the ‘deer thing’ now, interesting she had never seen anything like that before, but, at the moment, not only he not a threat but he wasn’t her prey, not when there was larger game. This now turned into a three way chase as the deerman turned and sprinted again, leading the hunters to follow, and the big cat following them.

Time to play!

But first, as the group ran the wounded warthogman was too slow to keep up. He tried to run but soon felt eyes on him from the trees and looked in time to see the bloodied white blur coming towards him. He squealed as the big cat’s momentum carried them into the trees and a moment later more blood coated the foliage and forest floor. She didn’t even wait to see him bleed out but took off into the trees again to catch up.

No more hiding though, time to make this a proper fight, this game of chasey-chasey-killy-killy had to come to an end. As the hunters continued their chase the big cat surged ahead putting on all the speed she could, dropping to all four-legged run allowing her to charge ahead and start to make ground on the group.

With the hunters trying to hit the deerman while they ran that slowed them down each time enough for the big cat to get ahead of them in the trees. The rhinoman and gnoll were at the front being the fastest, with the horseman next even though he was wounded he was still faster than the two lagging humans. The big cat’s speed had allowed her to almost catch up to the deerman, more so if he had been slowing to fire arrows at anymore. Either way, as the gnoll deciding to push himself harder and managed to get ahead a few in front of the rhino, a white furred ball of death came roaring out of the trees, finally fully revealing herself.

White and black striped fur covered a near seven foot tall(on two legs) figure of wire tight muscle. She wasn’t huge in her muscle groups, but there was no denying that she was strong, her golden eyes wide and blood covered her maw down her front, she didn’t wear anything but her fur covered everything anyway. She came leaping out of the trees with a roar making the gnoll try and skid to a halt and get out of the way.

But the shock of seeing a weretiger bearing down on him made him hesitate, that allowed the tigress plow into him. Her long arms reached out, grabbed him, her claws digging into his skin as she planted her back feet, lifted the gnoll, spun and threw him into the rhino who also trying to stop. The gnoll collided with the rhino man, thankfully for the gnoll he didn’t get gored on the rhinoman’s horn, sending them both tumbling to the ground as she roared again. The horseman and the two humans caught up and stopped, weapons at the ready to face this new threat.

The irony of a tiger helping a deer was an concept that was lost to them at the moment as they faced down the bloodied tiger. She waited, as if challenging them to make the first move, claws and fangs at the ready, her body posture clearly stated she was more than ready and excited for this.

Evanis kept running, and readied another arrow on his bow to take down another Blood Spike.  He glanced back, expecting them to keep up the pace and when he looked back he saw that the scenario was different.  The Blood Spikes had stopped pursuing him, instead focusing on something…or someone else.  Evanis could have sworn he felt his heart leap out of his chest when he saw that the new arrival was a weretiger.  Just beyond the forest, Evanis could just make out a heavy amount of bloodstains from the warthogman's last location and had a feeling that the weretiger was responsible.

The rhinoman managed to get to his feet, but the gnoll was still on the ground in a daze.  The two men and the horseman had their weapons trained on the weretiger, anger, fear and confusion etched onto their faces.  The rhinoman's furious eyes bared down on the weretiger and he growled, "So you're the one who's been killing our mates like he was."

While the bandits were distracted with the powerful beast, Evanis was glad to see that someone else was thinning their numbers.  However, he was unsure if the beast would try to make a meal out of him once the Blood Spikes were finished off.  He was not one to let an opportunity go to waste, and let another arrow fly at the Blood Spikes.  This arrow sliced by the throat of the man with the spear and blood spurted from it like a geyser as he tumbled onto the ground.  The rhinoman pointed at Evanis and yelled, "Wochester, Dalwin, get after that deerman!  I'll deal with this monster!"

The chase was back on as the horseman and the remaining human alive rushed after Evanis.  The rhinoman beat against the chest plate of his studded leather armor and roared at the weretiger, "Alright you, let's do this!"

He stomped toward the weretiger, ready to mash her into a fine paste.  While still in pain from the weretiger grabbing him and throwing him into his biggest ally earlier, the gnoll managed to regain his bearings and searched for his equipment.  His buckler was well out of reach, but his sword was close by.  He grabbed that and got to his feet, prepared to join the rhinoman in combat against the lone third party.

The wounded horseman was unable to move as fast as he could previously, and his human ally was unable to close the distance with the swifter Evanis, who nocked another arrow and whisked around to release it at his two pursuers.  The horseman barely managed to hop to the side of it and the man shouted at Evanis, "Can you please just stop and fight us!?"

Evanis scoffed at the futile request and was about to prepare another arrow when he noticed a snake next to a tree that had its fangs poised to strike at him.  The surprise attack caused Evanis to drop his arrow as the snake lashed out like a whip.  He leaped onto a tree just inches from the snake sinking its fangs into his legs, but he dropped away at an awkward angle which caused him to stumble and tumble into a sizable pit that was fortunately dry.  The two Blood Spikes would be on him any moment now, so Evanis was about to get up when a putrid smell hit his nose and he found himself face to face with a ravenous manticore that had its mouth open to bite.  He scrambled away, but the manticore was unmoving, and the milky white eyes told Evanis that the feline creature was dead.

Another surprised revealed itself to Evanis as a glowing green ooze wrapped over the manticore's corpse and enveloped it.  It was also the source of the terrible smell, and Evanis realized that a large toxic slime was consuming the carcass.  Evanis stepped back from it and readied another arrow right as the two Blood Spikes arrived at the top of the pit.  He drew back on the drawstring and the arrow pierced the man through his heart.  The dead Blood Spike dropped his mace as he fell forward against the slope of the pit.  

There was no time for arrows as the horseman leaped into the pit for a melee fight, so Evanis dropped his bow and drew his dagger.  A horizontal swing from the horseman was dodged, and Evanis tried to counter by slashing at the leg, but his opponent was able to avoid it.  The horseman swung again, and once more Evanis managed to jump out of the way.  Evanis rushed in at the horseman when he saw an opening, but a sharp elbow to the nose forced him back and the horseman charged forward seeking to drive his blade into the deerman's torso.  The cervine bounty hunter sidestepped it by a hair and slashed the horseman across his back, causing him to grunt in pain.

The Blood Spike spun with his sword out and Evanis leaped back out of range.  Evanis could see that the horseman was growing frustrated as he stomped toward him and swung downward.  This move left the horseman open however, and Evanis stabbed into his right arm which caused him to let out a shriek of pain before Evanis removed the blade and trotted behind him.  A kick to the buttocks forced the horseman forward toward the slime that was still consuming its meal, and while the horseman tried to stop himself, his fatigue and wounds made it more difficult.  The Blood Spike's hoof tripped over an exposed root, and the helpless horseman fell right into the gelatinous blob along with his sword.

Evanis could see the horseman struggling to escape, but the slime proved remarkably thick, and the bandit soon stopped moving as asphyxiation combined with the poisonous body of the slime finished him off.  The deerman grabbed his bow and walked toward another section of the pit away from the slime that had now been granted another meal.  He looked toward the top of the pit in the direction of where the weretiger, rhinoman, and gnoll were.  Evanis wondered how the fight was going and hoped that the weretiger would not hunt him next should she win the fight.  He looked to the slime, wondering what to do in this situation.

He was fast, but he knew that he had no chance of outrunning an apex predator like a weretiger.  Perhaps the grotesque stench of the slime would deter the beast from checking out the pit.  Otherwise, diplomatic talk may be his best option in this situation.

When the rhinoman spoke the weretiger licked her bloodied maw and made what could have been some sort of laughing noise. But the deerman didn’t keep running he had stopped when everyone else had, and took that distraction to drop another of his hunters, making the rhino send some of them after the deer while he would deal with the tiger.

As the rhino beat his chest plate the tigress settled into a ready stance for a fight, he roared and charged and they collided as the tiger roared. Each time he swung his weapon she slipped out of the way, but as she went to claw at him he got his arm up and used his own natural armour like flesh to deflect her attacks. She also had to be careful of his horn, getting gored by that thing would end her quickly and her own natural armour couldn’t do much against it if he got some speed and strength behind it. The rhino swung his weapon again and she caught his arm at the wrist, in this fight he’d have the strength advantage but she had speed and training on her side. When she caught his wrist she quickly twisted it with her left hand before using her right to strike near his wrist. It didn’t do much to him but it did force his hand to open and his weapon dropped to the ground.

Not wanting to stay close she released him and jumped back, dragging her left foot along the ground to bring his weapon with her. But that jumping saved her from a swing of sword by the gnoll who had joined the fight. She swept her leg and used her claws to fling the rhino’s weapon away as she reassessed the situation now that the gnoll had joined the fight. They charged at the same time and she waited a moment, the gnoll was ahead by a couple feet since it took the rhino time to get up to speed with his bulk. That gave her a precious second to get closer to the gnoll, who swung his blade aiming towards her head and she jumped up a bit.

He only had a split second to see what was going on as his blade crossed her chest, slicing a clean gash in her flesh that seemed willing to take, only to bring her one foot down against the inside of his right leg. That joint went in a way it wasn’t meant to and her made a yelp of pain as they was a sharp crack of bone. That only left her enough time to turn back to the rhino as he swung one of his sledgehammer like hands at her. Unable to avoid it she got her arms up to avoid getting hit in the face, but he instead aimed at her stomach.

The blow drove the wind from her and he a lot of momentum behind it since the strike sent her sprawling away from him. But she corrected mid slide to come up on her feet again heaving to regain the breath she had lost. The gnoll tried to stand but his shattered knee prevented him from standing he was out of the fight for now.

The two much larger opponents squared up again. ”I’m going to shove my horn in place you aren’t going to like it.” He snorted. The tigress huffed her laugh again and motioned at him, then at her chest where her heart would be and then brought that hand up and made a biting and then chewing motion. The rhino took that for what it meant and bellowed and charged her again.

They brawled for a moment, she kept trying to claw at him while he threw punches that she either dodged or deflected, her natural armour taking some of the damage for her. He swung his right fist at her and she caught his wrist again with her right hand so he swung his left fist and she proved her instinct and reflexes by catching that hand to. Before he could his strength to break free or get his horn in play, the tiger jumped and leaned back, planting her feet on his chest, claws extended, she roared as she dragged down his chest carving into some softer flesh as she got her feet on the ground again. He bellowed in pain as she skipped a step back from him.

That seemed to really piss him off as he looked as though he went into a rage and attacked wildly now, with little thought in his attacks aside from just trying to hit her. Now she had a better advantage as he flailed trying to hit her, managing to get behind him. She leaped onto his back and wrapped her legs around him, her arms going around to slash and claw at him. He roared and flailed around some more like a bull trying to throw her off. By the time she was forced to let go she had clawed at his chest some more and blood flowed freely.

The gnoll made his presence known again as he got close again but the tigress took the opening she had to step back from his sword swipe only to stomp down on his broken knee. He squealed in plain before she kicked him in the head, stunning him for now but not knocking him out. Her attention back to the rhino in time to see him lowering his head for another charge. But he was blinded by rage allowing her to side step and slash at him again a couple of times, drawing more blood. He turned and charged again, leading to the same result, but she was leading him somewhere.

One last charge and really put the speed on for this, but at the very last moment she got out of the way. There was an almighty crash and then a lot of roaring and swearing, he had rammed his horn nearly all the way into a tree. Stuck he desperately flailed to free himself, but she was on him before he could. A few swipes of her claws later she had shredded his achilles tendons and slashed the tendons around his elbows, leaving him unable to use his arms. With his achilles tendons slashed he was unable to get his feet under him without an agonizing amount of pain.

That meant he was still stuck and the tigress slipped between him and the tree and faced him, pure hate and rage were in his eyes as he stared her down. She was playing with her food now as she took one claw, found the soft point on his throat and poked at it, hard, finding the artery she was assuming would be there. She nicked it, enough to make sure he’d bleed out eventually, but not quickly. He kept trying to attack but his arms just flopped around useless and if she hit him in the elbow area he screamed in pain. She then placed her hands on his chest and back legs on the tree and pushed and pushed until with a crack his horn came free.

He went down on his ass to the ground with a pained noise as she got to her feet. Unable to get up or do much of anything he could only watch as she walked over to the gnoll and wrap a hand around his throat and pick him up. She walked him over and both the gnoll and rhino’s eyes widened when they realized what she was about to do. With a wicked smile on her the tigress slammed the gnoll down on the rhino’s horn, through his stomach, so it would be a slow death.

She then got up close to the rhino as blood from his comrade dripped down his body and she dropped to her knees. Claws out she pushed them into his chest as he let out a blood curdling scream as she made good on her threat from before. A few very messy moment later she did in fact chomp down on his heart while he watched.

He faded a couple moments later and she dropped what was left of the heart and roared in her victory, blood dripping from her maw.

Heaving for breath with her heart racing hard she didn’t forget the deerman somewhere near. Turning away from the bloody scene she had created she went to find him. The stench of the slime offended her nose, but over it she could still scent him even through the blood all over her… everything. Taking a few deep breaths, remembering that the deerman was no threat to her, she needed to calm down. She wondered about the horseman since she could smell him to and followed it to the pit to see him in the slime, and then saw the deerman in another part.

She huffed and raised hands up, palms out, to try and show she was no threat. She motioned for him to come out of there and then stepped away. If he was quick enough to come out he’d have enough to see her walk into the trees just out of view. Then she gave a cry of pain as some rather awful noises could be heard coming from her direction, like snapping and crunching of bone. The tigress’ roared shifted into a human woman’s pained cry after a few agonizing moments before the change was finished. Using a tree to help herself back to her fee the woman stepped back into view of the deerman, she was still covered in drying blood as the gash she had gotten was healed just the blood from it remained. Her jacket was partially open at the top revealing the large snake tattoo and heart tattoo on her chest, her bare forearms also heavily tattooed with flowers arranged to look like claw marks on her skin.

Visibly she was exhausted as she found a tree to lean against and then slump to the ground. ”Hello there.” She greeted the deerman with a pained smile as dug into a pocket. ”That, that was not what I expected to happen.. holy fuck I’m tired.” From her pocket she produced a pipe and a bag. From the bag she removed some dried and crushed leaves that she packed into the pipe. ”Are you hurt? Can you even talk or understand me, never met one of your kind before. I’m Kawabata.” Enough talk, she needed to smoke. Finished packing the pipe she struck a match and puffed on the pipe until the contents were lit. Catnip, it was pure catnip she was smoking and she exhaled slowly the smoke after a first and very long drag. From her other pocket she removed a flask, popped it open and gulped the delicious liquor down. Oh that felt good.

Now it was her turn to hope that the deerman was friendly now that she was at her most vulnerable.

He could hear the battle cries from beyond the pit and knew that the battle had begun.  There was no telling what was going on up there, but Evanis had no desire to check.  He was about to vacate the pit and make his escape when he heard the agonizing scream from the rhinoman and understood that whatever the weretiger had done to him was brutal.  The gnoll most likely fared no better, and despite his hope that the slime's horrid stench would turn away the weretiger, he was met with disappointment that she appeared at the pit with blood painting her maw.  Instead of leaping in for the kill, the weretiger instead lifted her palms, confusing Evanis for a moment until he realized that it was an indication that she was not looking to fight him.

She then motioned for him to follow her out of the pit and disappeared, but Evanis stayed where he was.  He was unsure if the beast was trying to lure him into a trap.  After all, the slain bandits HAD to provide a fulfilling feast for her, especially the rhinoman.  Evanis's ears perked up when he heard the weretiger roar, but that was replaced by the cry of a woman followed by sickening crunching noises.  The rational act would have been to take off right there, but something compelled him to check out what was happening.  He gave the slime one last glance before he climbed out of the pit and saw the carnage that the weretiger had enacted on both the rhinoman and the gnoll.

There was a fleshy hole in the spot where the rhinoman's heart should have been, and the gut-wrenching sight sent butterflies into Evanis's own heart.  He began to back away when a figure emerged from the forest.  A woman in a jacket with tattoos on her body.  Evanis felt his nerves relax when the woman greeted him and was stunned when the first thing the woman did after the vicious skirmish was take out a pipe and began to smoke.  It hit Evanis like a battering ram that this woman was the weretiger from earlier, and after she introduced herself as Kawabata, Evanis gave her a slight bow and said, "Evanis Pinestill.  I appreciate you helping me in dealing with these bandits.  They were quite upset that I turned their leader over to the town guard earlier.  Earned a pretty good bounty for it, and apart from an elbow to the nose, I'm fine."

His eyes shifted toward the mutilated rhinoman and he added, "I must admit, I never expected a weretiger to aid me.  I was actually concerned I was going to become your next course after the bandits, hence why I tried to hide in that pit with the slime.  At the start I was trying to find my way out of this forest when the bandits arrived."

Evanis pulled out the map and looked it over before he checked out the ground and advised, "We better be watchful for snakes.  I almost got bit by two of them while I was on the run."

Oh he did talk! That was good, and he seemed friendly, that was even better, Kawabata inhaled on her pipe again as Evanis spoke. He explained they were chasing him because he had turned their leader in for a bounty, and that he was concerned when she had turned up in all of this mess. ”To be totally honest, Evanis, I caught your scent before I got on their trail. I had already ate before that to, but for I’m sure obvious reasons your smell different than feral deer and, as they say, curiosity killed the cat. But then I caught that rhino’s scent and, well, in that moment that was kind of more interesting. So, for what it’s worth, you’re welcome for the help, even if things might not have started that way.” She explained, just wanting to be honest with him is all. She was sure if for whatever reason he did attack now he would win, her reflexes might allow her to avoid an attack or two, maybe get a sword out, but that would be about it.

From her backpack she removed a cloth and wiped some of the blood off of her face, shifting forms didn’t make her clean, in fact it made the problem worse since now she was smaller and there was less places for the blood to be. She would have to take a dip in the river soon, before the blood scent attracted other predators. ”Snakes are one thing, I need to get cleaned up, or this blood will attract other predators, been there, done that, don’t want to do it again. Bears are assholes.” The ronin pushed herself back up to her feet again and stretched. ”If you’re willing, Evanis, we could travel together for a bit, I just need to take a dip somewhere and clean up is all. I don’t have a map and with all the running and chasing, I’m a bit turned around, so I have no idea how to get out of this part of the forest.” The hunt had taken over her mind and it was now seeing his map that she was realizing she had no idea where she actually was. Kawabata was sure she could figure it out, but since he had a map and probably a better instinctual sense of direction, she might as well see if she could tag along with him.