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Ayalla lies sprawled out on a sand dune, watching the sunset with her little cat Tiger in her lap. Tiger's ears twitch, and she sniffs the air. Ayalla is startled out of her quiet vigil as Tiger suddenly launches herself off Ayalla's lap and races down the sand dune. Ayalla struggles to her feet and follows far less gracefully as she slides down the side.

Slow down you insane little creature!

A few moments later, Ayalla is breathing heavily and is quite sandy after her wild chase. She stumbles to a stop, almost tripping over the tiny cat, but putting her hand out to catch herself. However, her hand does not connect with the sand. Instead, her hand wraps around a hard, metalic pole. She jumps back, unsure of what she just touched. Squinting in the near darkness, she makes out the shape of a halberd planted deep in the sand and a necklace hanging from it. Her eyes widen as she recognises the items.

These are Sal's...but that means if he doesn't have them...

She looks down at the cat, who is busily purring and rubbing her back against the halberd, a look of fear and worry on her face. Ayalla looks around for a sign of where Salathe might be and is rewarded with the sight of faint footprints in the sand. She quickly yanks the weapon from the sand, puts the necklace in her pocket, scoops up Tiger, and jogs in the direction on the footprints, towards the darkening woods.

A squirrel scurries up a tree, its running from something, it looks around and sees a red glare from the opposite tree. A lizard springs from the tree and lands on the branch and grabs the squirrel and wrings its neck and eats it. He is disrupted by a voice though

"Heeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooo"

The lizards head turns the direction the voice is coming from

"Heeeeeellllllllllloooooooooo!!! Anyone out there? Salathe? Athian? anyone..."

Quickly he makes his way to the voice. He stays on the tree tops and he reaches the spot the voice was coming from. He sees a girl, and her pet cat. Slowly, he runs his long tounge across his sharp teeth and crawls across the branch right over top the girl. Looking down on her, his eyes fill with blood, and the color of his eye changes from grey to red and blood drips from eyes down his face and fall to the ground

Ayalla crashes noisily through the undergrowth of the forest calling out for Salathe. She comes to an abrupt stop, noticing there are no longer footprints. Ayalla sighs and looks around when she hears a soft patter of what sounds like water behind her.

Of all times, the gods decide to make it rain now...

Grumbling she turns around and notices the liquid is only in one spot. She kneels down and looks at it carefully. Confused by the dark substance, she reaches down and carefully dabs it on a finger, rubs it between her fingers and sniffs if. Her eyes open widely as she realizes what the substance is. In a swift movement she drops Sal's halberd, draws her sword, leaps back and peers into the darkness above her. She is greeted by two dark eyes watching her from the tree. The figure slowly makes its way down the tree. Ayalla takes a step back and readies herself for a fight as the figure approaches. It steps into a patch of moonlight, and Ayalla relaxes as she recognises the form of Salathe. She lets out a sigh of relief and her samll frame practically jumps on him, hugging him tightly.

I was so worried! I thought...well, you know...oh nevermind... I'm just glad you're all right! I brought--

She had failed to notice Salathe's bloody eyes, dismissing what she had seen in the tree as a trick of light. Salathe's eyes suddenly fade from red to gray, a look of confusion on his face. He stands still, but then he smells her and staring at her tasty skin so close to him, his eyes turn red again. Ayalla, still chattering happily does not notice any of this until it is too late. Salathe roughly throws the girl away from himself, sending her stumbling backwards. He falls into a predatory stance and advances upon her. She looks at him fearfully, scrambling to her feet and making sure Tiger is still on her shoulder.

Sal, what's wrong with you? Why are you acting like this?!

Salathe continues to advance taking no note of her words. Ayalla turns and flees quickly, caring not what direction she goes in. She runs until she is gasping and slumps to the ground, noticing Salathe had not followed. She hears a distant cry of pain, like that of a dying animal. Trembling, she gets slowly to her feet, pets Tiger whose nails are firmly planted in her shirt. She cautiously retraces her steps wondering why Salathe had not followed her after what she had seen. Reentering the clearing she had left about half an hour ago, she sees Salathe shaking violently, spitting up blood. She approaches slowly.

Sal...is there anything I can do to help you...?

She looks helplessly at the prone figure. She sends a quick prayer towards the heavens and takes up a casting stance. She breathes deeply and closes her eyes, focusing. The words come easily to her lips.

Mes pen!

She opens her eyes, noting with satisfaction that he has stopped coughing up blood. He lies panting on the ground looking at her fearfully, his eyes a soft blue color. Ayalla cautiously walks towards him, but stops short as he hisses at her and struggles to his feet. He looks at her warily and runs into the dense foliage, diasppearing into the darkness.

Wait, Sal! Arg...I'm going to need some help...

Ayalla sighs tiredly, and slumps to the ground dispiritedly. She gets up slowly and walks over to where she dropped the halberd and picks it up. She looks over her shoulder one last time and trudges towards town.

Salathe continues pounding against the forest ground, frustrated he cant find the spot where he buried his bone. But then something else catches his attention, he sees a man looking at him, quickly he scurries to a nearby tree and hide behind it, hoping the man didnt see him.

"Salathe?"

Salathe jumps at the voice of Grant and he peers around the tree and looks at him. Seeing him, blood begins to fill up in his eyes, and his eye color turns from grey to dark red. Salathe walks out on all fours and looks at grant, and hisses. With blood dripping from his eyes, Salathe looks at grant and leaps on top of him, knocking him to the ground. Grant reaches for his wand and creates a fireball that launches Salathe away onto the ground. Grant gets up and looks at Salathe for a second and casts a paralysis spell on him.

"Whats gotten into him..."

Salathe moans, laying on the ground, looking at Grant, now with blue eyes. He twitches and spits up a mouthful of blood. Salathe screams at Grant trying to get up, but is paralyzed and falls back down.