I'm wandering. Exploring the city with my hands in my back pockets and an immense black hoodie I stole out of someone's room at the inn making itself a dress over my petite figure.

It's been over a week since we've found ourselves in the realm of Rhy'Din. Outwardly, I've been adjusting splendidly considering the circumstances. I laugh, I joke, I speak to people and creatures I was sure were a product of mine or someone else's imagination before we got here. Truthfully? I'm f*cking scared and I have a god complex that's slowly getting torn apart. By the way, that's the worst kind of complex to come down off of; especially when thrust into the situation that you used to control from afar.

I wonder how we're going to get home, if I'll ever get back to the shop.... For a moment I bitterly wonder if a certain someone in my life even misses me. Bah! I tossed the thought aside and boosted my ego: If I'm not sure he'd miss me, he's not worth it. Into an alley I absentmindedly strayed.

How did it happen? Why did it happen? Am I now a victim of someone else's fingertips just as he was of mine? If that's so... is he acting freely? I'm not sure if I'm scared or comforted by that. I must consider the possibility that he is not truly a maniac; I have shaped him that way. That now he will carry on with his life in a peaceful manner and I nor any of my friends have anything to worry about as far as that is concerned.

Yeah, fat chance. My head was racing; trying to justify; trying to make light of the situation.

But there was no light in this. I heard a clock strike fourteen in the distance and my heart dropped. How far have I gone from the sanctuary of the inn? Where exactly is this dilapidated portion of city in relation to the Red Dragon? I've forgotten these details... the important details. What I do remember is the clock tower that strikes fourteen when it is not fourteen o'clock. The "Dead-Zone" that this place is. Even if my friends suddenly befriended a magic user to find me, I'd still be screwed. Off the map. Ah, that's why I made his home here.

I can feel the adrenaline surge after that startling realization, so I start to walk. Fast. Back the way I came.

This... isn't the way I came though. I look around frantically for some clue, but as luck would have it, all I am faced with that means anything to me is a seven story building. A seven story building that seemed to hang on by a thread; that housed things I would curse any god for dreaming up for their own entertainment.

A wave of self loathing swept over me.

He had stood close by, watching the entire scene. That is, he watched her walk, stand, stare, then hurry away. The role of the predator had kicked in long before the girl came to realize just how far off of the map she had strayed. Add the seductive scent of fear to the concoction and one could be sure that the jackal would stick around?unfortunately for them, in most cases.

However, this human had sparked his interest far deeper than a fleeing victim-to-be. What is it with you and the human girls? came the hiss of the dragon. Stitch ignored it; such a petty creature. Interesting how they switched... one might suspect that they enjoyed being at each others' throats. There she went, down an alley, and there he went following behind her. His lips peeled back in something of a maniacal grin.

That poor girl. Didn?t know where she was going; didn?t know which paths to avoid and which ones were reliable. She probably didn?t even know she was in WestEnd, let alone why she should be on her toes. Then it was black. It was black for several seconds.

The can went tinkering ahead of him after a swift kick and much to his lack of surprise, that stench of fear thickened. With a phantom?s grace, he closed the gap between them that couldn?t have been much further than twenty feet.

That poor girl. Just a lowly human with senses inferior to his own. She never heard him coming. Never smelled him coming. Never saw him coming. Oblivious and defenseless in the dark?that fragile thing. It lit a fire in him that was forced under wraps so that intentions that he wasn?t one-hundred percent about wouldn?t expose themselves so quickly. She ran into him and fell.

The jackal gave in to a smirk and slowly, he crouched before her, resting elbows on his knees after pushing the long black sleeves up. Green tinted light washed over them, just barely alive with a sporadic flicker. It was taunting how smug he was; how very calm his movements were in contrast to the sound of her heart pounding in his ears. Serpentine eyes trailed her tiny figure and his smirk evolved into a grin when deadly jaws parted, ?S?tha? me jacke??? He pulled the cigarette out from the tiny space between the base of his ear and the messy blue fan of hair. Audibly, the wheel of the lighter clicked once, twice....

A warm glow illuminated them both for a handful of seconds, then it was gone with a fresh cloud of smoke.
?Awfully brave o? yeh t? ?elp yerself t? sommon?s room yer so frigh?ened of,? he muttered through that devious expression of sheer amusement.

A long pull of smoke was taken from the fragile smoking stick between index and middle fingers. He lingered in the silence after her stuttering inquiry, letting the suspense intoxicate the air between them. Both eyebrows lifted, unconcerned, as his attention was drawn to his claws for no real reason. "Yer in th' West End, love." Venomous hues considered her again. He'd not let on that there was something...off about her, but he wasn't going to be particularly easy to get along with, either.

Is she following us? How many times has she ran int' us thus far? He smirked again, taking pleasure in the fragment's paranoid speculations. He resisted the urge to respond to his reptilian parasite, lest he run the risk of never getting any useful information out of the skinny girl before him.

"Ye din' answer me question, though. My 'oodie?" Feigned annoyance subtly tainted his body language: a flick of his cigarette, a shift in his weight, an upward inching of one hooped brow. He returned to his original height to properly look down on her.