Dragoncrest Cliffs Gleypa

Suzu hated the patrol. She worried, every time she had to pass along the eastern borders, where she could see the tangle of brambles in the distance. She imagined, every time she passed, that the bear would stand up, loom above the bushes. That it would lunge in her direction. 

She'd never even seen a bear before- but she imagined it as a dreadful beast. A monster. Something she'd been told of in stories, names sung to her in a dirge. Her mother recounted history to her, and for most of the months of her life, Suzu had listened, feeling only a slight tinge of remorse for those mentioned. She did not know them. She did not know the fear they'd felt when Shardik had loomed over them. 

Now, she did. 

She tried to hurry along the borders, tail tucked. The scent of blood and something feral and fetid made her go stiff. Something familiar, frighteningly so, made her shiver. Sobo. She cast her gaze around, looking for something...And then she saw it. Hulking shoulders, a long, heavy muzzle. Small, glinting eyes, dark, unsatiable. 

Shardik.

Its breath hung on the air like poison to a glass. 

She couldn't run, couldn't flee- but she could call out. 

She sounded the alarm.