Maya would finally detect the sharp, coppery scent in the air just moments before she spied the limp and bloodied body of the deer. It lay on its side quite still and was staring directly ahead of it with glassy, clouded eyes. The girl could not help but cover her nose and mouth with the sleeve of her sweater as she recoiled from the corpse. Flies would be upon the poor creature soon enough and she did not want to be here when that inevitability finally happened.<br/><br/>Her attention was sharply snapped back to the monk she had been tailing all the while when he withdrew that odd parcel from his back and revealed it to be not an antique scroll as she first assumed, but a full fledged and seemingly functional spear. The edge of the metal caught the scant amount of light being filtered through the canopy of leaves and shrubbery and gleamed in the moonlight. Where on earth did he manage to get a weapon like that in this day and age? Not wishing to stand there completely defenseless, the female unsheathed the long kitchen knife she had brought along with her on this evening stroll. It was a well-made cooking utensil with a solid black handle and a wide blade, sharp as can be, but it was still just a knife which made it for a poor match against his long reaching spear. It was better then nothing Maya concluded and clenched her fingers around the grip.<br/><br/>The female did not have the luxury of deliberating where the monk procured his weapon from for too long because just then he barked out his commands and took a stance. His first shout sounded like a challenge and Maya puffed out her chest, clenched her dagger and stepped out from behind the cover of her tree to face this monk and demand that he return her friend, along with all the other missing villagers, and leave this place once and for all. He was an outsider that appeared around the same time as people started disappearing – it was only natural to think that he had something to do with their misfortune. His latter statement however made the woman wonder if there was somebody else present in this haunting setting. Blue eyes scanned the forest hastily but if there was somebody else there besides the two of them she could not find any sign of them, they blended in with the forest adequately enough and made not a sound. After considering her options the female decided to approach the spear wielding stranger. Her booted feet carefully picked their way through the undergrowth while she eyed him warily, still unable to count him among allies.<br/><br/>By the time she was about three quarters of the way to her target – she heard it. There was rustling in the underbrush as something began to advance in a semicircular pattern around them. Maya stopped dead in her tracks and tried to find the source of the noise, but her eyes could only register a blur in the dim lighting. A grey streak moved around them quickly as if circling its prey. For the first time since she set out on her fools quest the young woman felt truly uneasy and held up her makeshift weapon in front of her torso, its tip pointed outwards.