[Mousen]

Hylas pushed open the tavern doors and ran out into the fading light. Their breath caught in their chest, their dusk-coloured cloak billowing out behind them. Just on their tail were three large men with knives at their belts. Every part of them, the heavy boots, the gristled features, suggested that they were not to be messed with. Hylas looked back, auburn hair curled around their face, blue eyes bright with terror. They turned into the woods where the forest was thickest, and screamed.

The three men came to a sudden stop, exchanging glances. By all accounts their quarry should be just beyond the first thicket of trees, but it seemed like something was desperately wrong. As they approached, Hylas stumbled back out of the woods. Their stride was uneven, hand pressed to their side. As one of the men went to grab their shoulder they crumbled to the floor. Clearly visible now was a large wound, almost black in the half light, bleeding through their shirt and into their cloak. They spluttered, lungs trying to catch up with them. "You... you weren't the-the only ones," they managed. Their shaking hand rose towards the men a moment, and then fell beside them. Their breathing stilled.

One of the men removed a cross-bow from his shoulder, and pointed it into the woods. One of the others checked Hylas over. "No money. Dammit!"

The one with the crossbow snorted. "Course the bastard had upset someone else. Typical. 'He's definitely dead, yeah?"

"As a doornail."

The one with the crossbow grunted, and gestured into the woods. The other two followed him.

Things were still for several moments, Hylas quietly dead on the grass. Then, they took a long breath and rolled to their feet. They shook the leaves from their hair and righted their clothes. The blood was already gone, as if it had never been there in the first place. "Hm. That was very well done, if I do say so myself,"

[Silver]

It was not unusual to find Percival in such a place. He much preferred the company of trees to that of the townsfolk. Therefore, he had set up camp in the woods and planned only to visit town if he needed something, which he rarely did. Today he decided he would wander around the market and see if they had any exotic ingredients for his long-simmering stew. Sure, it was good enough on its own, but they might have something he hadn't had in a while.

The young man tore down his shelter and scattered the pieces, brushed away his footprints, and cloaked the embers from the fire and cooking pot in a magical spell to hide them from whatever might wander by. It wasn't sophisticated magic, but it kept the foxes from tipping over the pot and running off the with bones. When he was satisfied with the state of his camp, he picked up his pack and headed off toward town.

He didn't get far before the bright red tail of an old friend appeared in front of him. A huge snake, five meters long (or possibly more), slid around a tree and greeted him by brushing her cheek against his side. He idly stroked her smooth scales as she slid past him before circling around again to follow him on his way into town.

It was Paradise, the snake, who first noticed the strange occurrence of a dead person among the trees. She curiously slithered by to take a better look, but balked back and hid behind a tree when they suddenly stood up. She was not so easily tricked as to think someone laying still was dead, so she was very surprised to see them just shake it off like that. She turned her gaze to her master to see how he responded.

Percival raised his hand as if he were going to interject, then simply dropped it back to his side. Did he want to say something? Even if he did, could he think of anything to say? He simply frowned, standing there in plain sight, watching the stranger resurrect themselves before his eyes.

[Mousen]

Hylas coughed, quietening the sound with their hand. However easy they made being dead look, their lungs didn't necessarily appreciate it. They did a quick check of themselves, everything in the right place, nothing stolen (they'd purposefully left nothing on them to steal), and three angry debt collectors wandering through the woods looking for an assailant that didn't actually exist. They'd have to quickly run to the tavern, collect what little they had and move on to find the rest of their group. Hylas had purposefully let them go on ahead so they could deal with this... little problem.

It was only as they turned to scurry back the way they came that they noticed something off, a figure not far from them with a large snake at their heels, mostly hidden behind a tree. They froze, looking between the man, and then the snake, and then the man again. He was as gobsmacked as they were, they had not been expecting company at all (and clearly they had not anticipating a resurrection).

"Uhh," Hylas said, and for all their quick thinking they couldn't come up with a good explanation for this. "I was avoiding someone. Thought-- um. Being dead was a good way to go. It's a kind of illusion? I apologise if I frightened you."