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Enitan fidgeted with the satchel across his chest nervously, opting to preoccupy his mind with the strap of it instead of how tired he felt. He wasn't about to complain about how far the group of shifters had trekked through the past day or so, but doing so throughout the day was beginning to wear on him. He cursed the fact that he hadn't anticipated it enough to try to get himself adjusted to life in the daytime before the journey had begun, being more comfortable when the sun set for the day. Seems he was always coming up short on being prepared, no matter how eager he may have been to join. Social ineptitude, it seemed, put strain on more than just interactions with others.

They were in Tale now, though, and this land shot Enitan's nerves. It felt as though any sound that came to the boy's ears sent needles down his spine, expecting the worst to pop out of the scenery at any time. Word that they were sure to come across the alkidikes and the leaf tribe... maybe he should have stayed with the group after all? They were all together now, however, so were safe as long as they moved as a group. They weren't going to be going anywhere for now, and Enitan would be sure to make it back before they even thought about picking up pace again.

He just needed some time to sort things out, something he couldn't do while with a bunch of strangers. He felt secure when around them, sure, but he was always paranoid he would blow it with the lot of them before the journey really even got started. It's not like he could really prove himself as it was, not yet; he was still merely a prentice with a carving knife and a short temper. And attachment issues. Maybe... maybe now wasn't the best time to wander off, on second thought.

The sun was sprinting across the remaining span of sky now, however. Even though Enitan was exhausted, he found he couldn't really sleep. There was too much excitement, too much worry, and he was a night owl. If anything, the darkening of the sky energized the shifter, even if it was in a groggy sort of manner. His mind just wouldn't shut up! He wasn't about to keep the others awake with his restlessness, those that could sleep, that would only injure the expedition that much further. At least he could function on less sleep, for he had this whole time.

Enitan froze as he listened to the rustling of the leaves, barely audible but dancing nonetheless. There was a bit of a breeze in the air at this time of night, chasing after the setting sun, but it didn't feel harsh enough to be but a faint breath; it wouldn't have been able to move the leaves like that. It was possible that it had been some other fauna that was causing it -- he didn't often find himself traversing so far under a canopy of trees like this -- but that didn't settle his nerves any easier. There were some pretty dangerous critters down here, after all.

Whatever was causing it, though, it was moving fast. He wasn't sure where it was going, what it was planning, what it was, or what the heck he was going to do if it came near him. He held back a wince as he made sure he still had his knife with him, a hand tightening on the satchel's strap in nervousness. "Stay away, whatever you are," he cautioned under a breath as he turned, trying to pick up what direction it was coming from. He was so unused to the absence of light in the shade of the trees, but at least there was still some familiarity.

"Holy-!" Enitan coughed, jumping backward as he upgraded his grip on his satchel to a choke hold. He hadn't anticipated anyone to be up and out here this late, let alone anyone who knew that he was. He could hear the rapid pulse in his ears as he realized just who it was that was standing in front of him, mind already eager to label her as a threat. He didn't want to go straight for the only thing he had on him that could be used as a weapon, in the off-chance that would be a quicker route to death, but his hand twitched in reflex to doing just that before he caught it.

The alkidike's words just about fell on deaf ears as the boy attempted to analyze his options through a panicked haze, falling just short of accomplishment. Instead, he went with a less-than-intelligent growl for a reply, "What are you doing out here?"

Even through the rise in pulse, Enitan noticed how much satisfaction the alkidike was taking from this situation. Fight or flight was a precarious choice for the shifter: he didn't tend to prefer one over the other during times like these. He wasn't protecting anything in the immediate area: he only had himself to worry about right now, and that wasn't always a top priority.

The more she spoke, the more she attempted to rile the fear out of him, the more he found himself teetering between the two extremes of panic and rage. The problem was that neither one of the emotions was apt to back down, vying for control over a body that was frozen in deadlocked indecision. It didn't help matters that the alkidike wasn't moving, merely provoking, so Enitan was unable to discern her intentions. Was she here to boast something, or was she here under a more hostile pretense?

His voice was hiding at the moment, however, so he couldn't very well ask about it. Would he even have received an answer had that not been the case? She seemed to aim to play with her words -- play with her prey? -- more than giving a definitive answer. She answered a question with another question, after all. At least his hands weren't shaking; he was pretty good at maintaining his posture even though his expression spoke greater volumes at the moment. Spooked into being quite dumbfounded, as a matter of fact.

While Enitan could commend her way with poetry if he had been thinking straight, his cluttered mind pulled the mention of the menzuri out of her analogy, knocking him back into being on the defensive instead of the unaware. None of her words were missed. He tensed up, muscles sparked into overdrive at the connotations. "You'd better not take a step closer!" he warned, sliding the satchel behind himself and out of the alkidike's view. Outwardly, it was indiscernible whether he would bolt or charge at her should the alkidike take a step toward the shifter. He didn't want to find out which creature she ended up transforming into before him.

There were a number of reasons that had kept Enitan from proving himself a fool too early in the encounter, leaving him appearing as though he were afraid of being eaten by a monster in the bowels of an unfamiliar forest. Truth was, he was a bit scared -- he didn't know what alkidikes were like, or what they were capable of, aside from the stories that were relayed from the elders of the tribe. He hadn't met one before, on his own, and had barely ever even caught a glimpse of one through obstruction of foliage at a safe distance. In short, there was zero experience in this area when it came to the shifter.

Taking into consideration that he threw outsiders of his tribe under the most stringent scrutiny left him little in the way of patience to learn, his short fuse created hazards for the good of cultural relations. Prejudice was a horribly rampant instigator of his more petulant side, and pessimism always feared the worst of another in these instances. He didn't take too kindly to the unknown.

The alkidike's concern for his bag made Enitan wonder if she was merely trying to bully him into pilfering the bag, or if she really needed something from it. What, did she need food or something? It didn't occur to him that his defensive reflexes may have been giving an adverse impression, as though he were trying to protect something of high value. True, food was always a highly prized possession, but that wasn't in the forefront of his mind -- no, it was the fact that she was interested in it in the first place that created the tighter clutches on the satchel he was given for the remainder of the journey. Bracing his footing, he shook his head lightly, as though refusing to tell her. Or even speak, for that matter. He was too busy sifting through his narrow options, determining different routes to take should things turn ugly.

Unfortunately, he seemed to have predicted this occurrence, though failed to notice that it probably could have been more deftly avoided. While he had been half expecting her to attack him, he was nowhere near aware she could move so fast. His eyes widened when he realized just how much taller she was to the below-average shifter, causing his joints to lock temporarily until he made a conscious effort to get moving and get moving fast. Enitan may have been built for speed and flexibility, but there was only so far that would go to save his hide. He couldn't charge at her, and he couldn't shield it; there was only enough time to try to dodge it.

"Woah!" he cried, realizing with a start that the forest floor in this part of the continent was not nearly as stable as the footing he was so used to. In an effort to jump backward, he ended up losing his footing in the wake of a more loose form of floor, sliding back and down. He forgot to consider that most things weren't as sturdy as tree limbs, especially when one wasn't used to anything else! The aborted retreat caused the punch to miss its aim, but still clip a rib. In the trial, Enitan's mind went numb and he found himself acting on impulse to cut off the fear that had been paralyzing him. Rolling to the side, he initiated swift movements to get as far away from his attacker as quickly as possible in the off-chance she wanted to hit him again with a well-placed kick. Stumbling to his feet, he started dashing off to catch her off-guard. He knew he wouldn't be able to outrun someone with that sort of stride, he just needed a plan of action. "Good grief, you're insane!" he breathed, with no intention of having her overhear; in a way, it was just another coping mechanism for the shifter.

His mind was a cluttered mess of a filing cabinet in the heat of the moment, as it felt as though his options had been pulled from their shelving and scattered to the floor. It made locating what he was looking for nigh impossible, slipping on the pages in his hasty search. While panic was far from an alien emotion for Enitan, the severity at which he was experiencing it was. Was this really all he was capable of doing in a crisis situation? Running?

Pulling a tourniquet over the dead-end search for a course of action in his mind, inhibitions like 'attempting to be a strategist' were ignored before they became too hazardous. Impulsiveness was in his blood, after all. He pulled his eyes to take a glance over his shoulder at how much ground the alkidike was covering, and took note of the frightening speed at which the space between them was being obliterated. She was vicious and brutal, he wouldn't be able to take chances.

Or maybe taking chances was all the luck he needed, for he tended to play his cards toward the element of surprise. He took a quick sweep of his eyes to the branches above his head, as though looking for a branch he could latch onto real quick, while still maintaining his current speed. In all honesty, he was, but he wasn't having much luck with it in the compressed time he had. There was only one other thing that popped into his head on the spur of the moment that had potential.

He hadn't, however, realized the alkidike was readying a shot of her own when Enitan had taken a sharp u-turn to face her a few seconds as she called her challenge. It wasn't the brightest move, and he failed to take note before he launched himself at her as a counterstrike. Instead of attempting another dodge -- one that was sure to fail worse than his first -- he braced himself for it a bit shoddily. Enitan aimed an elbow to the taller female's stomach as Jerarda's punch hit it's intended mark. It was going to be a bit difficult to shake that one off...

Muscles tightened and teeth clenched as an aftereffect of the impact, and Enitan had to fight to clear his head enough not to dwell on the pain of a jammed shoulder. Adrenaline could certainly work wonders if one was capable of utilizing it when it ran rampant through one's veins, and the shifter wasn't about to let it go to waste. He had half-expected to somehow miss, even with the fraction of a moment given to dodge, out of sheer pessimism of the night. However, when his elbow connected, there was a brief few seconds where he stood stunned. Now was not the best time to marvel at the situation, even if it was... technically his first actual combat situation.

Realizing this, the edge of panic started setting in again with the lack of movement from his own body. He jolted, but not before the alkidike had grabbed a hold of the penalties and was back to her previous state of mind. Or... rather an even more vicious state of mind. Her grin was more than enough to buy the alkidike a few more seconds, unnerving as it was, and he hesitated.

The head shot came with little resistance, and it took all Enitan's effort not to fall completely to the ground with the collision. He realized right away that this was a mistake, awkwardly trying to stumble out of her reach as she struck out at him. He was much too fuzzy-headed from the whiplash to notice whether or not she actually got a few strikes in. He let himself drop to the ground after all the effort he put into staying upright, rolling toward her legs in an effort to knock her down. At least there was one good thing about being so small, but he still felt entirely outmatched.

As he wheeled himself along the floor, Enitan was quick to note that it came without physical impact before he had righted his body again. There was a tinge of disappointment in the realization, but the point was made moot with the heat of the situation, a dire need for survival outweighing what little pride he was capable of. Hobbling to his feet but maintaining a half-crouch, Enitan initiated an attempt to run off again while the alkidike was preoccupied causing herself as little excess injury as possible. However, the coalescence of actions, pain, and lack of breathing room incited a sense of vertigo, and the shifter found himself hitting a tree in the same spot where he was punched just moments prior. A sharp inhale was all he allowed before he hoisted himself around the trunk of the tree and out of immediate view, an unceremonious seat planted back firmly on the ground.

His head was fuzzy from the suppressed feelings, but he nevertheless tried plowing through the haze to quickly locate an out from the situation. Limp hand falling at the satchel around his torso, the young shifter flinched at the unexpected object until he remembered with a start what it was. Hastily, he scrambled to retrieve his knife within the belly of the bag, locating and pulling it out with little delay. A few seconds time was all he really needed to re-evaluate this option: pulling out a weapon into this set of circumstances was a horrendous idea. The alkidike was larger, stronger, and could cover much more ground than Enitan could -- at this point, his only advantages were being a bit more than half her height and his quick reflexes. Reflexes that were dampened by dizziness, that is. She would grab the knife in moments, and probably use it on him in the same way she'd perceive him wanting to use it on her, even though he merely wanted to use it for scare tactics. Or she'd probably do worse; he wouldn't be surprised, she was just plain frightening.

With a sigh, he struck the blade into the side of the tree. At least he was at home in the canopy, perhaps up there he would have a slightly better advantage than he did at the moment. The knife was there just to make sure he didn't fall off under the influence of disorientation as he quickly made his way to a lower branch.

Enitan was completely unaware that he had had an audience with his contemplation over his next move, but then he was pretty unaware of an alarming number of things at the moment. Including the fact that he forgot to put the knife away and instead left it lodged in the upper part of the trunk. He probably would have kicked himself for that maneuver had he not been latched onto the branch, carefully steadying himself in order not to fall off. It would have been just what he needed, more embarrassment. He was already a poor excuse of a volunteer on this mission through the unknown lands of Tale, he didn't have to be a poor excuse for his entire race as well.

So, instead of trying to use the canopy as a fresh start to a dire battlefield, he remained seated where he was to catch his breath. Or his sight. Or... heck, his consciousness. He refused to even try to stand, or meet the gaze of the irritated alkidike under the cover of the tree. After a moment, though, he did acknowledge her in a strained huff, "Go away and leave me alone!"

It apparently slipped his mind that he had already tried using that tactic on her, with less than promising results.