The Tangle girl; with an accent of blood

the tangle is not a pleasant territory but it was where the frightened deer had run — into the arms of the spiny shrubbery, hardy grasses and witch-like trees. which, naturally, meant that eske followed diving into drageda's neighboring territory without pause of thought. the spooked deer is easy enough to follow the pair: predator and prey both attempting to navigate the rough terrain. it veers right sharply, and eske pauses consequently allowing it to slip away as she hears the rapid beat of the helicopter's rotors over head. the ground beneath her paws vibrates and she glimpses behind her, ears alert atop her skull at the foreign noise that causes the hairs of her nape to rise and bristle with unease. a long shadow passes through a break in the trees but is gone as eske glimpses skyward. it doubles around as eske creeps into the spindly underbrush to wait in ambush? to see if it might show itself again.

there is a sharp pin-prick on the back of her thigh and she lets out a low snarl as her head whips back to inspect the strange thorn jutting out of her flesh. just as she flashes teeth to pluck it out her limbs give out on her and she slumps to the ground as her body suddenly feels like lead. she is groggy and feels the irresistible pull of slumber and fights. her eyelids drop and then open to see the dark and blurred form of some great flying beast — a dragon, perhaps? she thinks though her thoughts are near incoherent and muddled with heavy exhaustion — her eyelids fall shut as her head lowers to her paws and she succumbs to the sedative.

she awakes as groggy as she felt fighting the sleep. it takes her a few moments: her tongue bone-dry and saliva all over her paws from drooling out of her mouth. she takes a deep breath, blinks a few times and stretches cautiously, remembering something about a maybe dragon — she wasn't sure what she saw or if it had even been real at all — and then nothing as she carelessly fell asleep in a neutral territory. the deer was long gone, she knew, but when she stood was when she noticed the strange thing around her neck and her whole body tensed as if preparing to fight. yet ...there was nothing to fight. something was around her neck and she couldn't even see it. she snaps her teeth, glimpsing the black thing that feels as if it's constricting around her neck, like it's trying to kill her. how was she supposed to defend herself against this enemy when it's fastened around her neck?

she takes a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself as she tries to formulate some sort of ...plan. she doesn't want to go back to drageda until she knows for sure she's the only one in danger from it. for now, she lingers in the tangle looking around for something she might be able to use to try to get the thing attacking her neck off.