How It's Going, II

Every part of the man wanted to tell her what she had done wrong, tell the girl in front of him that she wouldn't have lost all her clothes if she had just talked to him to start - well, she would have still lost her horse, but that wouldn't have happened if she wasn't wandering in the forest all by herself.

Everything about this was unprecedented. Never mind the shifting, what was a female doing by herself? What was a fox at all doing by itself this far out? They know better. Survival of the fittest was the law of the land, and the fox - the female? The anomaly in front of him had lost on every front. On top of his pondering, intrusive and instinctive thoughts were rippling up, clawing at his spine, his mouth, his entire insides.

-Take the girl.-

-Bite her. -

- Mark her. Either way is fine. It's what you were born to do. -

His eyes dilated even more, if it was possible, giving a long, low hiss, bringing his face nose to nose with the woman, teeth itching to bite into her, to coil around her naked body, claim his territory. Sneering, he pulled his lips back to do just that, fangs bared, when she suddenly looked up at him and met his vision, eye to eye. And in that moment, another emotion hit him like a tidal wave.

The fox girl stared into his face, no longer with fear, but with determination. Resignation, yes, but behind those diamond shaped eyes was a glint of defiance... wildness. And the snake realized suddenly, that nothing, prey, beastman, or woman, had ever had the guts to look at him. Actually look at him, not shrinking, shaking in fear or otherwise, or rolling their eyes in disgust.

With a shudder, the rational human, and truly human, side of him took over, lowering his lips, snorting at disgust in himself for wavering.

"Let's make a deal. I don't mark you right here and now, and while we go back to find your clothes, you'll speak more than six words to me."

Before Shuule was able to answer, the man's sweeping tail coiled around her up to her shoulders, concealing her, this time not threatening to squeeze the life out of her. When she wiggled her arms, he loosened his grip to allow her to bring both out to rest, crossed, on his scales.

---

They were not nearly as far away from the starting point of the chase as Shuule had imagined, because of all her twisting and turning through the underbrush. The snake was taking a quicker path, scenting out where they needed to go with his forked tongue, though in truth, the forest in this area was his home, and he had a good idea of his surroundings anyway. The questions came calmly, monotone like everything else he had said so far, and all of them questions she expected, and couldn't answer.

Her parents were normal. No, she wasn't part boy. No, she didn't know how. Yes, her siblings were normal. No, she knew of no one else like her.

The snake paused his questions before asking one more in depth. "Why, WHY would you be out here by yourself?"

Shuule sighed deeply. "My village was too small. I want to go to the city and I had no mates to go with me." She kept it to herself that the village head wanted to keep her, demanded she stay as property of the village, as the only female under thirty years old. She didn't want to be the wife of several foxes. In a society where the non-feral and non-rootless were supposed to hold the women on a pedestal, she certainly didn't think holding her as a captive in forced marriages was keeping up the standard.

He wasn't fooled by this. "Too small, was bored," was not a good enough reason to set yourself up to be eaten or captured, but he also didn't press. He said he wanted more than six words out of her, and honestly, she answered more than he expected her to.

"What's your name?"

...The question he should have asked first, but didn't want to get too familiar with the girl. It was better that way, considering what he was expected to do. But at this point, he was too intrigued.

"Shuule - I know, don't tell me you don't get it, it's fine," she growled, her red ears twitching, which she had allowed to reappear since she wasn't trying to keep up appearances anymore.

The snake stopped moving slowly as she answered, looking back at her. "I wasn't going to say that. We both chose differently. I'm Set. Your clothes are right here."

He loosened his tail so she could stand on her own, picking up and placing her clothes on top of his body so she could dress out of his line of sight within the coils. He could tell she was a cherished female by what she had been wearing, both her skirt and her halter top being the deep blue hue of a blue tailed fox - wild and no relation to the beasts themselves. It was a rare fur and hard to obtain, but someone had taken the time to gift it to her, he figured. On her olive skin, it stood out vibrantly. He watched her reach up to tie the knot at the base of her neck, which was all he could see, and then run her hands through her hair to wrap its length back up out of the way into a messy bun. Suddenly aware that she had a pair of eyes on her, Shuule shot a glare back at him.

"What," she snarled through her teeth.

As seemed normal at this point, Set held his response long enough to keep the upper hand and uncomfortability in the air, but assuming she was properly dressed now, he removed his tail from around her body entirely, swooping it back behind him. Reaching out, he touched the side of her face with the back of his hand, gently this time.

There was a knot in his stomach that threatened to kill him. She was stunning, to him.

Pulling his hand away, he straightened back up, and spoke blandly again as if he was unbothered.

"Alright, well, Shuule, my prediction is that you'll be killed or captured by tomorrow, but it won't be by me. It was too easy, I'd be embarrassed. But remember," He leaned down to be closer to her face again, though this time not trying to scare her down to her bones, "You're all afraid of me, but I'm better than a scorpion. And I'm better than the Rootless. South takes you towards Flame City. East takes you to the Second Great City. I suggest you figure out your surroundings before you find a fate worse than me."

Shuule watched, utterly stunned, as Set turned fully into his serpent, which took one last pensive stare at the girl, before casually turning, lowering his body fully to the ground, and slithered off.