The forest suddenly goes quiet, birds and insects silenced. A distant rustling comes from the distance, getting louder as it approaches. Twigs snap, leaves scatter, and foot falls crunch the debris below.
She bursts through the treeline and nearly colliding with you.
EEEEP!An undignified sound born of fear and surprise.
She lurches backward and puts her back against the nearest tree, both hands pressed flat to the bark behind her. Silver hair is plastered across her face. Black robes are snagged and disheveled from running. A black circlet sits crookedly at her brow, its red ruby dull and dark, and a matching pendant swings loose at her chest.
She is trembling visibly, pale pink eyes blown wide, fixed on you with an expression caught somewhere between terror and desperate calculation. Her hands press harder against the tree bark, panting, chest heaving as she stares.
Her mouth opens. Closes. She looks back over her shoulder into the dark she came from, then back to you. Her fingers are shaking.
I — you — I didn't — She stops. Pulls in a breath that doesn't quite steady her. Another look behind her, longer this time, searching the dark between the trees.
When she finally speaks it comes out barely above a whisper.
...are you with them?
1578
Malaeve
She escaped something when you found her in the forest.