[Silver]

Even as it grew and changed, Syra knew the forest well. Things were always moving, always growing and dying, hunting and hiding, but it somehow stayed the same. At least enough for her to be familiar with it still. She liked it here in the forest where things made sense.

Now and then, she ventured out into the cities, but she always came back. It was strange and uncomfortable out there. People tore down the trees to make homes and there were just so many rules. She couldn’t keep up. Instead, she followed the simple rules of the forest. Live, die, eat and be eaten. Simple.

[Silver]

Today there was something different. She didn’t know what it could be, but she could tell by the sound of the birdsongs that something was off. They were wary about something. Syra was both considerably curious and equally bored, so she figured she might as well investigate. She was much bigger and stronger than a songbird, so she saw no reason to be afraid.

Syra listened carefully to the sounds of the forest as she moved around. She was trying to pinpoint the source of the disturbance using the reactions of the things living in the area. It was subtle, but she knew how to follow it.

[Silver]

Between the leaves was a flash of dark pinkish red. She knew instantly that this was the invader. Without stopping to think it over, she fired a warning shot from her bow. Now, she wasn’t the type to kill something without at least taking a good look at it, so she made sure her arrow didn’t hit anything alive.

The shifting red shape behind the trees froze and made not a single sound. Syra was still expecting it to attack, so she held her bow ready for an assault. To her surprise, a man stepped out from the overgrowth and held his hands in the air to indicate his intent not to attack.

[Silver]

She snapped her bow to be aimed right at his head instead of at… whatever she had fired at earlier. One of his friends, no doubt. He didn’t look like a threat, but she didn’t know anything about him.

“Woah,” he said in a gentle tone. “Common?” he asked, watching her face to see if she responded. She didn’t say anything, but her expression suggested she understood him. “Good, okay, look, I’m not going to hurt you, alright? You can put the weapon down.”

“No. Friend first,” she shrugged in the direction of the thing she saw earlier.

[Silver]

“Ooookay,” he said, a little hesitant. He much prefered if he could hide her until he got to know someone first, but apparently she had been spotted. “Just, please don’t… freak out.”

Percival made a subtle signal with his hand that caused a huge snake to slither out of the brush and toward him. He watched very carefully what the stranger’s reaction might be. If she was startled by the snake or considered it a threat, which a lot of people did, he would have no choice but to subdue her. Which he honestly hated doing.

[Silver]

Much to his surprise, the woman didn’t seem intent on attacking Paradise. In fact, she didn’t seem threatened by the huge snake at all. Well, there was a first for everything. Now he wondered if she was going to do or say anything at all or just stand there staring and pointing a weapon at him.

“This is Paradise,” he said after a moment of tense silence. Maybe if he said something, she would respond. Usually he was the weird one, so this feeling was pretty new to him.

Syra wasn’t sure how to feel about the huge green and red snake, other than it reminded her of fruit. It didn’t seem like a threat, well other than the huge fangs and all. Most people feared snakes inherently, but she didn’t really mind. She actually found scaled creatures more ‘cute’ than fluffy ones, what with her mother being a dragon and all.

[Silver]

Was it his pet? It seemed to be following his commands. Syra did not know snakes to be very smart, but she also did not know them to be two meters long and bright pink, either. She was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. She could probably kill it if it attacked her, anyway.

“Ah,” she said with a nod, acknowledging its name. “Syra,” she said, pointing to herself.

“Syra, okay, nice to meet you,” Percival said with a half-bow. “I’m Percival.”

“Why you are here?” she asked bluntly.

“Ah, you know, just passin’ through.”

[Silver]

“Why?”

“Well, that’s actually… a great question… that I don’t have an answer to.” Syra didn’t seem very pleased to hear this answer, so Percival quickly tried to come up with something. Honestly, he was just wandering around like he always did, but he couldn't just say that. She’d never believe it.

“I was hoping to explore the forest a little bit,” he said. He grinned and looked around at the trees and life all around him. It was a very nice forest to be traveling through, and though it was not exactly his intent when he came this way, he did chose the forest over the other paths he could have taken for a reason.

[Silver]

“I will show you,” Syra said. If he wanted to look around, then he would do it under her careful watch. Lest he kill any of her favorite songbirds.

“Oh… okay,” he shrugged. It wasn’t exactly what he had been planning, but he had a feeling that telling her no wasn’t a good idea. She did seem pretty eager to fire that bow of hers. “Do you, uh, live here or somethin’?”

“Yes, this my home.”

“Right, well, it sure is nice here, you have a good home.”

“I do,” she said with a satisfied nod. “Where going first?”

[Silver]

“Well, hmm, what’s your favorite part?” he asked. While he wasn’t too keen on the idea of a chaperone, he did think it might be a good opportunity to see some interesting things. Since she lived here, she must know of some places that might be of interest. Though now that he thought about it, he wondered if their perceptions of ‘interesting’ lined up at all. Either way, he liked the idea.

Syra had never considered his question in such words before. She surely had places she liked to spend her time, but did she have a favorite? She pondered this question as she led him in an arbitrary direction. Surely she’d figure out where they were going by the time they got there.

[Wild Pet Found]