Blackfoot Forest Don't give it a hand, offer it a soul

@Evergreen

The world would be dark soon. The trees around her casted shadows far taller than the trees themselves. She thrived in the dusk condition. Her narrow and tall form clung to the trees. She even seemed to flutter between them like she, too, was a shadow. Oh how she wished to not be trapped in such a form. It did not harbor the power she felt within. The energy that her sickly body could produce was not the same as the energy her soul produced.

She briefly considered what it would have been to be born as something else. A wild feline with their large paws full of force or blessed with the powerful jaws of a bear. If she could not be graced with such a concept in her next life (for surely she would be given more than one chance, no?) then perhaps she would simply get a better body next time. Not so lithe that she looked as though the wind might knock her over and perhaps a better brain to keep up with those who lived away from home.

A sorrowful sigh escaped her narrow jaws as the nightly choir of foxes began their song in the distance. She really ought to be going.

Wandering a days trip from Easthollow, Evergreen was just beginning his adventure home when dusk started to fall over the Wilds. He had not realized he’d been out so long, likely lost in his thoughts and focused purely on the exploration.

Tension wound his muscles tight; akin to a bow underneath an archer’s skilled hands. His ears flicked in each direction of the eerie cries. The snow covered forest sounded much too alive come nightfall for his liking. Foxes were not a creature Evergreen had numerous encounters with. Their screaming unnerved him.

A sigh, much closer than the foxes, caused the bearish wolf to nearly jump out of his skin. Green eyes widened, with eyebrows comically shooting upwards. ‘A ghost,’ his mind helpfully supplied.

“... H… Hello?”

hover for translations.

Oh. Someone was here other than the wild fauna choir. Their voice sounded close...so close. She weaved a few trees in hopes she would spot them and spot them she did. A large hulking figure, even in the shade of the forest she could tell he was painted in all sorts of earthy tones. Was this her second chance? A bear-like-creature bestowed upon her from someone above?

“ Pozdrowienia. ” She hummed in soft reply, crouching near the earth. Her tail ducked and curled under her form. Her salmon tongue darted out to sweep over her inky lips. A truly submissive form she had taken on in the stranger's presence.

The beat of his heart was loud enough to pound in his ears. Ghosts and monsters were stories his Uncle loved to mutter any time the children acted out. It kept Evergreen up at night without fail. While the wolf was grown from his youth, it still continued to haunt him to this day (as any ghost should!).

A voice echoed back; an unfamiliar word drifted through the air, and Evergreen’s brown fur stood on end. His body shifted slowly, turning to face the direction the soft voice came from. Where he thought to see a transparent figure, a shadow crouched in it’s place.

His ears folded back; body leaned back in surprise. She blended perfectly with dusk, and had she not spoken, Evergreen would not have spotted her. It was not only her presence, however, that took the Easthollow Newcomer by surprise; her submissive posture was equally as confusing.

“Hi,” he breathed the greeting out as if the woman before him stole the air from his lungs herself. “Uh, you… scared me. Are you okay?” Eyebrows furrowed in concern, Evergreen started wagging his tail at his hocks.