The Hunter and the Hunted

[DrkSthrnGnt]

The Hunter and the Hunted (Closed for BlondeAmbition4RP)

The moon set -- as many moons set -- over the forest, and the wayward girl picked her way through the darkness, on her way home from a particularly long journey away from what she would call her safety. Though her mother, father, and grams would always warn her not to stray, there was something just outside her vision, just outside her perception, that would call to her... that would entice her to linger for those mere moments longer.

This was one of those nights where she was expected well before sunset, though her mind drew her to dawdling, and her "business" wasn't quite finished in time. She kicked and strayed along the path... until the moon rose high in the sky, and the pale light reflected off the sheen of her cloak, as eyes pressed against her body.

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

Clara slowly made her way along the moonlit path, taking her time. Her filled basket brushed lightly against the side of her scarlet cloak as she walked, her arms swaying slightly in a graceful and lighthearted manner. She was familiar with this path and had walked it countless times before. Even in the darkness she had no fear of getting lost.

Despite the many dark tales that were told of the forest, she had never been able to bring herself to fear it. Her family’s small cabin lied just along the border of its trees, and over time it had become like a second home to her. When she was just a small child she had begun to accompany her grams into the woods, the elderly woman teaching her over the years how to find and gather the many different herbs, roots, and wild vegetation and their many different uses. When her grams had grown too old to have the strength to wander far from the cabin, Clara had taken up this task for the family instead.

She had been sent out on such a task that morning when her mother had asked her to go and gather mushrooms to use in her cooking, and she had happily made the long journey through the forest to a particular glen that she knew of where they always grew in abundance. Though she had started to make her way back in time to be home before dark as she had been instructed, she found herself hesitant to leave. The mystery and magic of the forest compelling her to linger as it so often did.

The moon now shining down on her she paused in her steps and cocked her head slightly to the side, sensing the presence of something with her nearby. Often over the years when she was in the forest she felt as if someone’s eyes were on her, or thought she could see the movement of something out of the corner of her eye, but then turned to find no one was there. Maybe she should have been afraid by it. After all, what if it was some dangerous beast or magical being of the wood intent on doing her harm? If that was the case she reasoned they would have already done so by now though, and instead of fear she felt only bemusement and curiosity towards her unseen companion.

“Are you there my friend?” she whispered out into the night as she turned towards the trees, a slight smirk of amusement pulling upwards at the corners of her rosy lips, “Don’t be afraid.”

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

At first, there was only silence. A smell on the breeze indicated someone nearby by was burning the gathered leaves fallen from the slowly changing trees. Autumn was sure to give way to winter soon, and with it the foliage, now clear in its ruby hues.

A twig snaps off to the right, and from somewhere deep in the shadows, hidden from the silvery spotlight of the moon, a gruff voice intones, "you know you shouldn't be out here so late: there are creatures who would make a quick meal out of you. If not the creatures, the forest itself sometimes decides to engulf the weary traveler. I wouldn't want to see such a thing happen to a lass like you."

Though the two of them stood among nature, it continued to stir around them: the crickets chirped, the owls looked on, and asked their names. A sudden cool breeze out of the north bit under their clothes, sending shivers.

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

Clara shivered as the sudden cool breeze blew past her, ruffling the red fabric of her cloak as leaves almost equally bright as the cloth in their ruby hues slowly drifted down from the trees around her. A few wayward locks of her pale colored waves brushed across her face, obscuring her vision for a moment before she quickly tucked them back behind her ear beneath her hood. Eyes the color of forget-me-nots peered out in the direction of the voice and grew wide, not with fear as one might have expected, but with excitement!

"You are real then!" she exclaimed with a smile.

For all the years that she had felt the presence in the wood watching her, never had it spoken to her before!

"My family wouldn't listen to me when I tried to tell them of you, insisted that I was just imagining things, but always when I was in the woods I have felt you with me! My guardian of the forest, watching over me from the shadows."

She dismissed his warnings. What did she have to fear if he was here to look over her? She smiled again and took a small step in the direction that the voice had come.

"My dear friend, why do you hide from me? Won't you come out into the moonlight so that I might see you and meet you properly?"

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

"I..." he stops. There was something in that small syllable, something that was a mix of wanting and remorse.

"You should stay there. I can't let you see me... can't let you expect anything..."

There was a deep sigh from the shadows. A sigh that was filled with both sadness, and longing.

Before the woman could move closer, the leaves and twigs seemed to break in different directions. The sound seemed to shift, circling her to her left, always staying just out of reach, just out of the sight and just out of the moonlight.

"I shouldn't have come to you... I shouldn't have come so close. For that I am sorry. I don't know why you think I'm your protector... there's so much you don't know about me." His voice was deep, seeming to echo from the different dark crevices in the forest. For every twig that snapped, an owl seemed to ask from another direction. For every leaf that rustled, another sound seemed to contradict the motion, never being quite clear where he was, where the previously silent companion was now hovering.

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

Clara turned about trying to pinpoint the exact location of the voice, but it seemed impossible now. She pushed back her the hood of her cloak and let the fabric fall against her back so that she might try to see better, but even then she still could not get a clear sight of him from where he remained somewhere off within the shadows of the wood.

"I don't understand. Why do you hide from me? What is it that I'm not to expect?" she pleaded, wishing he would explain.

His voice had sounded so sad that it made her own heart ache for him. Was he some kind of magical creature of the wood that it would do her harm to look upon? Or perhaps he feared that his appearance might frighten her.

"Why would you follow me and look over me as you do if you weren't my protector?"

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

The girl hears almost a snort come from the darkness, from behind and to her right.

"A predator doesn't always pounce on his prey when he first catches her scent. He can stalk for days... weeks even... all while hungering. That hunger seeps into every pore, every corner of his very being. He watches, waits, studies... when it is finally time to strike, you don't want that prey to evade you. You want to be able to bask -- fully enjoy the moment of overcoming and overwhelming that target. To look into those fearful eyes..."

There's a quiet that follow the small monologue, one that doesn't quite match the words.

"What do you believe you'll find if you see me? What do you think happens then? Nothing will happen. Nothing but pain."

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

Clara whipped around to face the direction that the voice was now coming from when he spoke up again. A small shiver that had nothing to do with the cold running down her back during the quiet that followed despite herself.

"I am not afraid," she insisted, holding her ground.

"I do not believe you are my predator. If that is the case my friend then you have 'stalked' me as you say not for days or weeks, but years without yet pouncing, even though you must have had plenty of opportunity."

Once more she took a step in his direction.

"I don't know what I may find if I see you or what will happen, only that now that I know with certainty that you are there my curiosity insists upon it..."

She leaned forward, her eyes straining to catch a gimps of him in the darkness.

"Are you very fearsome to behold?" she asked him inquisitively, "Do you worry I'll run from you if you show yourself? I promise I won't."

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

A rustling near a tree close by stirs the dried, crunching leaves. A shadowy figure, a few inches taller than the girl appears in the shadows, slowly moving forward. He stops just shy of the moonlight.

Within the lessening shadows, his features are more apparently. Square jaw, shoulder-length chestnut hair, broad shoulders and chest, a physique typical of a lumberman or carpenter. Still not quite out of the shadows, his eyes appear to be pinpoints reflecting the barest of light in these conditions. He appears to wearing a crudely fashioned wolf pelt, scars apparent on his bare mid drift.

There he stands, on the edge of the shadows, some sort of invisible barrier preventing him from moving further.

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

Despite her earlier words, Clara could not help but feel a trickle of fear move through her as she spotted the tall shadowy figure approaching. True to her word though she held her ground and did not run or shy away, her curiosity and excitement at finally getting to see the face of her long unseen forest companion far outweighing her fear. Frozen in place like a startled doe she watched as he came into view, her eyes widening in surprise as he finally came into view.

Why, he wasn't very fearsome at all! In fact, as she stood there and took a moment to examine him in the dim light, she had to admit that she found him to be rather handsome. She blushed slightly at the realization.

"There now, was that so hard?" she teased playfully, a smile forming upon her lips.

She took another step towards him.

"Why were you so afraid to show yourself? You look human enough to me."

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

The man raised his hand hesitantly, his fingertips reaching toward the beam of moonlight. He stopped, retreating his hand slightly.

Then, as his courage developed, he finally reached out, palm forward into the beam of moonlight between the two of them. As his head breached the light, a transformation began to occur: his fingers began to gnarl and elongate, claws slowly splitting his fingertips. Thick hairs began to grow, become like fur in patches on what was a combination of hand and claw.

"This is why..." he says, at nearly a whisper.

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

Clara had started to move forward towards the man again, but stopped as he reached his hand out into the beam of moonlight. Once more frozen in place, she watched with wide eyes as his hand instantly began to transform, changing shape and sprouting claws and fur right before her very eyes!

So surprised she was by it that she almost went back on her promise before not to run from him, her body tensing up instinctively and telling her to flee...but then she heard his softly spoken words and looked up at his face, the expression she saw there reminding her of her words to him before. Countless times she'd walked these woods before and had sensed him nearby. If he meant her harm surely he would not have waited until now.

Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves she held fast to her own courage and stepped forward into the beam of moonlight, closing the distance between them. Slowly, she reached out, grasping his outstretched palm and turning it over in her hands as she examined it curiously, her fingers tracing lightly over its fur. Still grasping it, she raised her gaze up to meet his once more.

"Have you always been this way?" she asked him, her voice equally quiet now.

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

A slight shudder escapes the man, not used to the physical contact. He allows his hand to be moved and examined, though the feeling and sensation is competely foreign to him.

"I... no. There was a time... many moons ago where all I can remember was the hunt. All I can remember was tracking my next meal, and looking out for those that might wish to make me one. One evening I woke up in a barrow I'd created myself, in a cave deep in the forest and... I could tell I was different somehow. My limbs did not feel as tight, and a chill creeped into my bones. Everything seemed different somehow, changed around me. I looked down and saw most of my fur gone... and this body replacing it. I'm not sure if I was a boy before I was a wolf, or a wolf before I was a man..."

He retreated a bit with his hand, a slight discomfort creeping over him. "I learned... well, I found out it was the light that changed me. During the day, if I'm in sunlight, I end up fully the wolf. I track, and hunt, and feed. At night, under the moon, I am something else..."

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

Clara listened with fascination as the man explained his past to her. It seemed he could not remember very much of his beginnings and how he had come to be this way.

"No one was there to explain it to you?" she asked him as she released his hand, having noticed him retreating with it and not wanting to make him feel uncomfortable.

Could he not remember his family then? It sounded terribly lonely to her, she having never known a life without hers.

"Do you have a name?"

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

The man -- looking at her -- blinks. "I... I've never been asked that before. I... I know you're Clara." He smirks slightly, a little bit of red showing up around his cheeks.

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

He must have been alone for a very long time if no one had ever asked him his name. Though she supposed that was to be expected given his situation. She wondered if she was the first person that he had ever shown himself to.

When he spoke her name though it was her turn to blink up at him in surprise.

"How do you know my name?"

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

"Well... I..." he looks down sheepishly, "I heard them call you that, many times when you were late. I followed you a few times..."

His hand, once covered in fur, has now returned to its normal form, more man that beast, as he squeezes them each in turn, apparently shy about his words.

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

Realization dawned in Clara's eyes at the man's expatiation.

"Ah, I see. Yes, that makes sense," she replied.

She could not help but smile a bit at his sudden shyness.

"You need not be embarrassed about it, my friend," she assured him, "As I said, I have often felt the presence of someone watching over me in the wood and knew that you were there."

She reached out and smoothed her hand gently over his own again to still it.

"Yes, I am Clara as you said... is there no name by which you would like for me to call you then?"

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

He frowns at Clara, his hand curling on itself as he thinks.

"I... I mean... what do... people like me get called? I'm not even sure how that works?"

The man looks down, slowly reaching out and touching Clara's hand, hesitantly stoking the back side of her arm, feeling her skin.

"How about Shadow? I mean... I've heard that a few times."

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

Clara shivered slightly, goosebumps breaking out across her arm in response to his soft stroking upon her soft skin.

"Usually a person's family gives them a name when they are born," she explained, "But given the circumstances I think choosing a name for yourself would be alright... I like Shadow."

She smiled, thinking it an appropriate name. It reminded her of not only the dark areas in which he always hid himself from view, but also for the way in which he always followed her around.

Her Shadow.

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

The man -- Shadow -- stood in silence for a few moments, before acting.

Shadow pulled her into the shadows, mere inches from him. "Am I your shadow, now" he asks, looking down on her, his breathing slow but deliberate.

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

The man -- Shadow -- stood in silence for a few moments, before acting.

Shadow pulled her into the shadows, mere inches from him. "Am I your shadow, now" he asks, looking down on her, his breathing slow but deliberate.

He frowns, momentarily, "does that mean you are... family?"

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

"Am I your shadow, now"

Clara would have smiled at the way his words echoed her own thoughts if it had not been for the shock of his sudden nearness and the effects that it had upon her. Her eyes moved over his bare torso, so close to her now, for a moment before returning to his handsome face. She felt a slight blush forming in her cheeks as her heart quickened within her chest.

"Family usually means the people that you are related to," she explained, "Well... except when a man and woman are married to one another."

She felt the blush deepen and hoped he did not notice.

 

[DrkSthrnGnt]

"Married?" he asked, hesitantly, heat radiating at this point off the both of them.

He looked down on her, noticing the red in her cheeks, feeling the warmth in her skin.

He raised his hand, hesitantly, touching her chin, only so much as to raise her gaze to his, as he slowly leaned closer. His breath touched on the skin of her face, as he leaned closer, his lips coming in contact with hers for the first time. There isn't much with regards to contact, but a spark. Something unexpected, but powerful passes between them.

 

[BlondeAmbition4RP]

Shadow's hand touched her chin to lift it, and once again Clara found herself frozen in place as she looked up and watched as he slowly leaned towards her, her eyelids drifting shut as his breath brushed against her face and his lips found her own. A shiver ran down her spine as the spark passed between them, then leaned into the kiss slightly, her hands bracing themselves lightly upon his chest.