She had been against his coming here in the first place, warning him that it was too dangerous. Could he really, really tell her that he didn't even know why he had to come here?
No. No, she would think him mad and take him away from here. He would have to make his way back alone if that happened - and he didn't want that to be the case. Not for this, his first trip into the woods. In truth, not knowing why he had felt such a pull to the Red Forest did unsettle him a bit, but at the same time he couldn't deny the feeling of rightness, satisfaction, that danced across his skin as they broke through the tree line. A shiver ran across his skin, and a trace of tension that he never knew he had, lifted from Nevin’s shoulders as he took a deep breath.
There was a feeling of something not quite right, not a wrongness but a strange note of hesitation, discordance, in the choir of his magic. He felt more at ease here than he had in a long, long time, but even now he wasn't quite… Home. It was like walking into a relative’s house - familiar and safe enough, but not your own home. He frowned unconsciously as he tried to figure out why his magic was resonating with this place.
Behind him, Stare’s beak halves parted as she saw Nevin’s skin began to writhe. He seemed entirely oblivious of the fact as he sauntered forwards, concentrating. Blinking, she stared (that which she did best, after all) and watched as the blood-red tendrils that she had seen just once before, back in that terrifying prison of the Bounty Hunters, gently ease themselves from his body and weave into the air. They trailed from his neck and beneath his clothes, easing out in whatever gaps they could find. Swinging in the air they followed behind him like sniffer dogs, tasting the air and wafting on an unseen breeze.
He seemed to not notice at all. His focused face did not show if it was intentional or not, but Stare thought it strangely curious. As far as she was concerned the objects for use of protection and attack, not in any way part of a sensing programme. Was he then, considering striking something? Was he just being cautious?
“What danger is there?” she asked, curiously, not personally identifying anything herself, yet. Though they were in the wood itself, the trees had not yet thickened enough for there to be no escape route and possible death at every turning. “Nevin?”
Nevin blinked, roused from his thoughts by Stare’s voice. He raised an eyebrow and looked around - aside from the trees, which were a rather pleasant red shade, he hadn't spotted anything. Why did she think there was a threat? He turned to look at her, tilting his head to one side.
