Blackbeak Bluff bon temps

A growl brought her back to her senses, ears laying flat against her skull as she turned her head towards the beast. He was pale in the face and easily towered over her, filling her head with visions of ghosts and ghouls. Instincts told her to run for fear of being pushed from the clifftop, though her legs would not move, still in shock from her near-plummet just moments ago. Besides, nurture countered nature and urged her to remain there, however fearful she was; a small voice called from the recesses of her mind, insisting she was being unfair by assuming the worst of him. But she couldn’t help it, not now, having turned into a bundle of nerves.

“I—” she tried to speak but could not find her voice, tongue struggling to form words. “Why—it’s so sudden.” It took several tries but she’d finally managed to get out a full sentence. Her gaze slowly drifted back towards the ledge, then snapped back to the man’s face immediately after she’d reached it. He was closer now—too close—and she felt uncomfortable under his stare. However jittery she was, she tried to push herself up into a sitting position, her movements slow and cautious, now fully aware of just how close she still was to the edge of the land and he was to her. “Back up... please?” her request was a quiet one, softly spoken as she stopped mid-rise to watch him. Terribly naive, Kaori expected for him to comply—because having manners meant being listened to, according to her family.