A Wary Stroll [Helene/Falric]

She saw him. The minute he walked past the forest edge, she saw him. A stranger with a burning face.

Helene had been meaning to return home from a trip in the forest, a heavy book stuck out of her little shoulder bag that was mostly hidden under the blanket that she always walked around with. It was one of her dad’s lexicons, and she’d been reading it in one of the trees in the forest while eating a lunch consisting of cherries, strawberries and grapes.

And that was when she saw him.

She knew almost everyone in Iadlain – as in, she had seen their faces, but many of them probably did not know the existence of her – so she would easily spot a stranger. This one was interesting. And scary. With his burning face. Helene hadn’t seen anyone with such bright red skin before. What was he doing here?

Stealth and silent as she was when stalking someone, she followed behind Falric at a good distance, taking every opportunity to hide behind a barrel or disguise as a bush.

Helene was a persistent and thorough stalker; she would hide immediately every time the man stopped, and would patiently wait for him to continue. She could sense that he was starting to grow suspicious though. She'd never tried that before, but it was kind of exciting somehow.

She had been a little too careless when Falric had spotted her as a shadow, and out of panic she turned into a bush at a rather inappropriate spot near a house.

Suddenly, the man was out of Helene's sight. Where had he go? He was there before, but he went somewhere, and now he was gone.

The dark elf girl looked everywhere from her hideout, but she failed to find him. Maybe he was an illusionist as well, and he was invisible now. Or he was a fire demon or something. She kept immobile on her spot, feeling like she should wait a while before she would come out. What a pity though, that the man was gone.

Even if Falric was close enough to have a good look at the bush, he would see nothing but bush. That was Helene's speciality; to mimic plants and other things found in the forest.

Though, it would be a different matter if he were to touch the bush, for he would feel her hair instead of leaves, her arms and legs instead of roots.

The bush yelped frightened and leaped away as it turned into a little dark elf girl. Helene turned around to see who it was that had grabbed her hair, and when she saw that it was the burning man, she yelped again and sprinted for the forest.