Night light.

[Eve]

The forest was filled with dark and savage beasts.

But no place was completely black, no place, no matter how engulfed by horror and malady, could keep out the innocent. It was part of an endless cycle, the infestation of evil versus the cleansing of good - and as far as this protagonist was concerned, she could and would displace the darkness of the world she was birthed into.

But it's harder to fight darkness when half of your sun is gone.

The fox was lost. She'd left home in high spirits - off to have an adventure, off to grasp at the world gently and take a foothold! Off to see all the things that could be seen! But having literally never been out of her neck of the woods, and having more enthusiasm than direction, she'd lost her way. Was she near the end of this maze?

She'd always felt safe with her family, but now that she was alone, she felt an intense unease at the overgrown ruin that surrounded her. Night was falling swiftly, and her main goal was to get OUT of the forest...which she knew she could do if she went straight for a long enough period of time. But everyone knows how hard it is to stay in a straight line while traveling a thick forest. She didn't know about continents, not even Caedare, the one she was on, and she didn't know about maps, or compasses. For a creature so intelligent, she was living a very uneducated life.

"ehhh..." she whimpered to herself a bit. Around others she might try to put up a better charade, but she was alone - why hide her unease? She heard a rustle in the bushes that made her jump around. Ears pinned back, she began to slink forward again. Needed to find a safe place to hide until all the monsters went back to sleep for the day.

At the crack of a twig, Rosalind spun around, tail low, and emitted a nervous growl, a sound that felt awkward in her throat. I can defend myself! Right?

There was a light up ahead and her eyes widened. Humans used light, and though she'd never seen a human (what sort of human ventured deep into such bestial territory?) she knew from stories that they were an unpredictable bunch. Should she go to them and request assistance? Or hide from a man who was potentially a hunter or otherwise cruel.

Her indecision decided for her, and she remained hapless and dazed where she stood.

[Kazgrax]

A hazy darkness seeped into the woods surrounding Kaz, wrapping the Fel'asar in a shroud woven from secrecy and mysterious shadows. Pale mercury eyes darted around anxiously as he moved, striding boldly forward despite the many superstitions and chilling tales he had picked up over the years, warning him against places such as these. He shrugged, like a horse twitching its muscles to be rid of flies, he was ridding himself of inhibitions, fear, weakness. Clutched tightly in one gloved hand swung a small lantern, he held it out before him like a ward to protect against the encroaching night. Though the light was fairly dim it provided enough illumination to get a bearing on his surroundings, now where was he again? "Fuck."

With his free hand he scratched at the bristly copper stubble growing in on his chin and jawline, a tell he had been trying to rid himself of. It meant the mercenary was troubled, perplexed, confused, frustrated. At the moment, he couldn't give a horses ass and indulged the habit eagerly, setting down the source of light near his feet and pulling out a weathered and wrinkled map. A cautious glance over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes to suspicious slits and then back to the task at hand. He wasn't lost, just misguided. "Says 'ere I should be abou' two miles east of tha' big rock there." Looking up from the skewed rock, then back down to the paper, rock, paper, rock. "Ah fuck it, what does tha' map know."

Crumpling up perhaps his only guiding light in the suffocating forest, Kaz tossed it with a grunt somewhere behind his back. He shook his head like an animal and picked up the lantern again, straight armed and rigid. If there were precious beasties in this place, he was sure to find them. Word on the street is they sell for quite the pretty penny, well Kaz wasn't about to let an opportunity like this slip away from him because of a few ghost stories and a stupid map. Craaack. Spinning on the spot, his free hand whipping around to grasp at the rifle strapped across his back, he tensed. Every muscle taught, frantically searching for the beast who was no doubt stalking him at this very moment. He looked down. Froze at the broken branch under his feet before cursing loudly to hide the heat of embarrassment encroaching upon his cheeks.

"Gettin' worked up about nothin." Mentally berating himself the mercenary sighed and turned back the direction he had been trudging the last four hours, blinking at the change in scenery. A small red fox stood poised before him, its eyes were wide and unblinking as if he were the ghost. It took a moment to sink in, was this one of them special animals they was talking about? Slowly Kaz raised the rifle, aiming along its barrel with a practiced ease. He jerked his chin in the fox's general direction, as if the action would coax it into doing something out of the ordinary. "Eh there little beastie, aren't you a pretty ting."

[Eve]

When the light came close enough for the two to see each other, Rosalind's brown eyes swelled in fear. Was this a human? The gun he held was foriegn to her, a machine more complex than she could understand at the moment, but she picked up on it's threatening position - pointed directly at her.

He made a motion towards her, and she cautiously took a single step back. Not knowing what to expect from the stick he was holding, the light around him, and the creature's athletic ability, she was unsure whether or not running would be a viable option. She didn't have a lot of faith in her ability to talk herself out of the situation, but it seemed the safest bet at the moment.

"Eh there little beastie, aren't you a pretty ting."

"Thank you," she said awkwardly, taking another step back. Hearing a voice come out of such an alien creature was strange, especially a voice with real language. "Sorry to be in your way...I'll just....be going now since I'm really just trying to leave the forest. Dreadful place really. You should probably be going too, I hear there is a great path for humans back that way." She motioned, indicating the trail she had just come from (not that he knew she had just come from it!)

And with that she scampered as quickly as possible, hopefully between his legs. And thinking quickly, she would do her best to grab the small lantern by the handle in her mouth. Foxes can see a lot better in the dark than people, she'd heard, so taking away his light source would put him at a disadvantage.

Not to mention she was distinctly curious about how he'd gotten light in a container. When she got away, she'd want to investigate. Hope this worked!