((...))<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Well, now... he's fast...</span><br/><br/>The grasses were not a safe place for a human to collapse and bawl... not at all.  Compared to the forest he had so quickly traversed and left behind, the young man<span style="font-style: italic">was</span>in less danger here, but not by much.  He would have to recover his poise soon, or his woman's sacrifice would have been in vain.  Why, even now various creatures were listening in on his weeping, wondering what it was and if it was worth checking out...<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Covered all that distance at a run.  And so fast, too.  On an empty stomach, at that... maybe they were right after all...</span><br/><br/>But the boy, for boy he seemed to be right now, was emotional... very much so to let a few deaths get to him like this, when death was so very commonplace in this world.  True, the loss of an entire party like that was worse than normal, from what they'd observed, and that last act of self-sacrifice by the brown-skinned woman had truly been noble... worth his tears, if not so soon and while still so vulnerable.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">But perhaps the emotional is just as important as the physical... he is surely different from most of the other men in his tribe in that way as well.  He <span style="text-decoration: underline">cares</span>, whereas they don't...</span><br/><br/>Still he cried and raged against what had happened.  It had been obvious how very close he'd been to turning and dying with his people... to making that choice deliberately, on principle.  He wasn't a boy, was he... he was a man.  Very much so, really... perhaps one of the best that remained in the hordes once called humanity...<br/><br/>Finally, the decision was made.  The orders were there, but were open to judgment; however there was no reason to refuse them in light of the situation.  He deserved his chance.  Deserved... her.<br/><br/>The voice would come to Zeref during one of the lulls in his sobbing... soft, calm, feminine, and seductive.  "You know... they're not necessarily dead yet..."<br/><br/>He would hear her, surely... even blinded by grief, his senses would register her words and location.  By the time he would turn to her though, all he would see would be those eyes again... "follow me, young Cadester.  Come with me if you want  some of them to live."<br/><br/>And then the eyes would flit back into the grasses, and he would catch a glimpse of golden brown, either tanned flesh or thin fur.  The form, a mere glimpse of which would scream "female," would disappear back into the trees... then the eyes would appear again, and again, expecting him to follow.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">I'm patient, young Cadester.  Follow me as cautiously as you like...</span>