Tailha and Leo only stared at Naji, eyes wide as they tried to process what she just said. Leo's grip on his sister tightened, not sure if he should believe this or not. Naji struggled to get out of her brother's grip, taking a step back until he let her go, his arms hanging down at his sides. "Why do you sound so sure about this?" Naji looked up at the sky, not sure how to answer. "I dont know. It's like something inside me was talking to me, telling me these things." Naji rubbed her head, closing her eyes as she did so, feeling another wave of energy bursting through her. Naji sighed and opened her eyes again, looking at her brother and the elf. "What we need to do is find that man so that he can explain what is going on. I would like an explanation of all this." Leo and Tailha nodded, wanting answers as well. Naji stood straighter and turned towards the wood then turned back to the others. "Do we have a way to find him?" Tailha stepped forward, "I can use a tracking spell to find him if you have something that was once his on you." Naji shook her head sadly, "I don't have anything of his on me. But maybe something dropped when he was suddenly taken away." Tailha nodded and walked towards the village with Leo and Naji, going to see if they could find anything that they could use to track down the man. As they looked around the ground to see if they could spot anything that the man left behind, Tailha spotted something small on Najis left shoulder. "Naji, come here." Naji looked over her shoulder towards Tailha, "Why? Did you find something?" Tailha didn't say a thing, just kept staring at her shoulder. Naji didn't move from her spot, only stared back at Tailha, waiting to see if she would answer. When neither one of them moved, Tailha marched over to Naji, who quickly stiffened her stance, ready to move out of the way if need be. Tailha stopped right in front of Naji and picked something off of her shoulder, looking at it closely. "What is it?" asked Naji. "I think this may be his hair since he was the last one to be close to you. From what you told me." Tailha walked towards the edge of the woods and stopped, holding the piece of hair and closed her eyes, trying to focus on what needs to be said. Taking a deep breath, she started the spell. "na Chirasu im praui na i an help in nin faroth. Guide nin senses so i im lothron reach nin preui" As soon as the spell was said, a light purple lighted started to glow, almost making a ribbon of sorts as it moves into the woods. They watched the light purple ribbon move into the woods, almost making a path of sorts. "This spell doesn't last forever so after a while, I'll need to redo the spell." Leo and Naji looked at each other then at Tailha, "Alright, we understand. Should we follow it now?" Tailha nodded and walked into the woods, Leo and Naji following close behind her. As they entered the woods, the trees blocked the sunlight from following them as they entered, darkness slowly swallowing them. The only light they had was coming from the ribbon as they walked. "Are you sure you know what you are doing?" asked Naji, a feeling of uncertainty came over her as they walked, her eyes watching for any signs of movement. "Yes, I know what I am doing. This is not the first time I have done this spell and it has not let me down once." Naji didn't say anything else after that, thinking that maybe she shouldn't make the elf mad. After a while, they came to a small clearing. Naji stepped into the clearing, her hand on the hilt of her sword as she looked to make sure that the clearing was clear. After a few minutes of looking around and not seeing anything, she motioned to the others, giving them the okay to come into the clearing. The two came out behind trees and walked into the clearing as well. "Alright, we will set up camp here for the night and continue at the break of dawn," says Naji. Leo and Tailha nodded and began to set up camp as Naji went back into the woods to find firewood to start a fire. As Naji was walking back to the campsite with an arm full of wood, she got the sudden feeling that something was wrong. And As soon as she walked back into camp, her feeling was correct because she came back to Leo standing in front of Tailha, his sword drawn and a look of fear on his face. Naji looked at where he was staring and the wood dropped from her arms and she quickly drew her sword. The creature before them was almost wolf shaped, but it was bigger and coloring was different from a normal wolf. Its muzzle was longer than that of a normal wolf and its teeth were shaper and more rigid. The fur almost looked like human hair and was a light brown sort of color. Naji edged her way towards the others but stopped as the creature turned its head towards her, snarling as it stalked towards her. She started to back away slowly, her sword pointed towards the creature and shaking slightly as she didn't know what this creature was. It was then the creature realized what it was truly doing and started to back down, whimpering slightly almost. This sudden change in behavior from the creature took Naji by surprise, as well as Leo and Tailha. Naji slowly lowered her sword, walking slowly towards the creature, her sword almost lowered. Just before she stopped in front of the creature, she bent down and put her sword down on the ground, showing that she meant no harm towards the creature. Standing straight up again, she put her hand out, palm first, walking towards the creature once again. "Naji, what the hell are you doing?" Leo hissed out towards his sister, but she paid no mind to him. The creature took a step back, unsure of what Naji was going to do but after seeing her put her sword and put her hand out to touch him, the creature had a feeling that she wasn't going to hurt him. Naji stopped right in front of the creature, her hand still held out and she closes her eyes, waiting to see what the creature would do. "Naji, get away from that thing.." Leo whispered yelled but again, Nji paid no mind to him. The creature was leary but seeing that her sword was on the ground and she wasn't trying to reach for him, made him go down to his paws so that he could lower his head and close his eyes, leaning his head into her hand. The feeling of hair like fur touching her hand had her shooting her eyes open and turning her head towards the creature. "You're something else, aren't you?" she whispers towards the creature. The creature opened its grey eyes, looking into hers, almost telling her yes with his eyes. The creature took a step back and began to howl towards the sky, its form changing. The snap of its bones breaking echo through the clearing, making Nji, Leo and Tailha wince at the sound. Its form started to shrink, almost as tall as Tailha, just a little bit shorter than her. Its head started to take that of a normal head but its ears were slightly pointed, not as much as Tailhas. As it was curling into a ball, they could see the arms wrapped around itself as they finished the change. Standing up slowly, a little wobbled from what happened just now, it opened its eyes and they could clearly see that it was a boy from the nakedness that was showing. Tailha squealed and blushed brightly, closing and covering her eyes. Naji and Leo stood there unfazed as they looked upon the newcomer. "Um..Would it be too much to ask for a pair of pants to wear please?" the newcomer asked shyly. Leo tossed him a pair of pants to put on, keeping an eye on him as he did so to make sure that he didn't do anything else. "Alright, now that you're covered, tell us who you are, what you are and what you're doing here. Now." The newcomer sat down on the ground, crossing his legs and waving around him so that the others could sit as well. "Well, my name is Nym. I am a changeling and well, you have seen how that works." They all nodded in agreement, hoping that he wouldn't change back into whatever that beast. "Were you following us the whole time?" Nym shook his head, "No, I wasn't. It was only up to a few minutes, just before you three entered my clearing." They perked up at the end of that. "You're clearing? You live here?" asked Tailha. Nym nodded, "Why yes, I do." Tailha looked around once more in awe. Nym chuckled and continued, "I did not know if you were friend or foe so I did the one thing that was best at the time and went to attack you." Naji squinted her eyes and gave a glare towards Nym and he could only rub the back of his head and smile sheepishly. "I am sorry about that by the way." Then he gave a serious look towards Naji, "But I want to know how you knew I wasnt going to kill you. You are the first one to approach me like that." Naji had to think about it for a moment because she didn't know either. "To be honest, I dont really know. I have been hearing voices in my head as of lately. They told me that you are more kind then you show." Nym looked over to see if she was lying to him but all he could see was confusion and the truth. "Alright, I believe you." Leo stood up, wiping the dirt off his legs and said, "We best set up camp for the night. We still have a long way to before we make it to where we are heading." Everyone agreed and stood up as well, dusting themselves before they went to start making camp, Naji going to pick up the wood she dropped earlier. Nym watched them, wondering what was really going on. "Excuse me? But you are planning on making camp on my home. I would like to know what is going on." Leo looked at Nym and said, "Actually, you dont get to know. We hardly know you. We do not know what you are about. We do not know if you are with us or against us." Nym stood up as well, coming head to head with him and looked him dead in the eyes. "If you are speaking of the attack on that village, I had nothing to do with that. If anything, as soon as I saw that smoke, I was already on my way to help before it was to later. But by the time that I got there, everyone was gone and everything was on fire. All I could see and all I could smell was burnt bodies. So you have the nerve to ask me if I was against you. I could have easily killed you as well so dont forget that." Nym turned away and jumped up into a tree, some leaves slowly falling as they head the rustle and then silence. Leo stood there, his hands curling into fists as he seethes in anger, wishing for something to hit. "Leo, now is not the time. Help us finish making camp so that we may rest." Naji lays a hand on her brothers shoulder, only for him to shrug it off and walk off into the woods. Naji sighs and watches him walk off, Tailha coming behind here. "Is he alright?" Naji keeps looking towards the woods, "I don't know, this is the first time that I have seen my brother in years. He has changed from what I remember him as." She walked away and continued to make camp as Tailha stood there, staring into the woods. Sighing, she to turns around and finishes making the camp. Naji already had the fire set up and going, sleeping bags in spots around the fire. "All we need is food and then we can rest." Tailha nodded her head and looked at the pond, seeing the fish swimming around. She walks over to the edge of the pond, the water gently washing against her feet. Bending down, she sticks her hands in the water and waits. A few minutes later, she had a small pile of fish right beside her. Grabbing the fish, she takes them over by the fire, sticks them in sticks and sets them over the fire to cook. By the time all of this was done, Leo comes walking out of the woods and sits on his sleeping bag, his back towards Naji and Taliha. "Leo, you can not ignore us." Naji says as she stares at her brothers back. "Let's just get to sleep. We have a long road ahead of us." Naji sighs, "Leo, we need to talk about this." "No, we don't. Now, get some rest." Leo lays down on his side, his back still towards the others. Naji sighed as she stared at her brother's back and laid down as well, closing her eyes, "Let us rest Tailha. We still have a long walk tomorrow." Tailha nodded and laid down as well, closing her eyes and falling asleep. As everyone was falling asleep, crickets could be heard from all around them. But something moved among the trees, watching them as they slept. A dark shadow slowly coming out before it stepped on a twig, a resounding crack could be heard over the crickets. It stopped suddenly, waiting for something to happen. And when nothing did, it slowly stepped back into the shadows, disappearing.
