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For a few seconds Lydia didn’t feel the pain, the sheer shock sending adrenaline coursing through her veins and numbing her to everything but the fight or flight reaction. She scrabbled for a purchase, found none, and instead closed her hands on the hilt of the dagger. With a half-grunt, half-gasp as the pain finally registered in her brain – distantly – she made a wild stab with the dagger that only grazed the side of the beast pinning her down, lacking enough force to do any real damage.

“Pan!” she screamed, twisting and putting her forearm against the demon’s neck and pushing, trying to force his jaws out of her shoulder.

The guardian didn’t move. Just watched with his glass-like eyes and softly intoned: “Two.”

“Four seconds,” Pan said disdainfully, “A rather pathetic show. I had hoped there would be more fight in her. Five seconds. Enough.”

He walked closer to the mess of a human and the demon. She quivered for a moment, lost in her own private world of fear and agony. There were… voices. It was difficult to breathe. She wavered in and out, wondering if she was going to wake up now, sweating and panting in her own bed, or if she’d just fade out and be gone. And in the deepest part of her subconscious her mind wondered which would actually be preferable.

“Humans are interesting things,” he said, “They’ve forgotten their connection with the earth and that little part of their soul that whispers to the forest and all the brutality contained within is buried so deeply it might as well be dead. Or…”

Lydia’s hand was still around Pan’s dagger. The knuckles turned white and the battered form drew in breath, held it.

“Perhaps not.”

And Lydia convulsed with a wild cry, bringing the knife inward with no regard as to where, stabbing it into the first thing it met, twisting her wrist, and then ripping down like she had seen Pan do before to Nightmares unfortunate enough to invoke his anger. Then her grasp relaxed, the dagger slid from her hand, and her head rolled to the side and she was still.

((as weak as she is there wouldn’t be enough strength to do damage. I’ve thrown plenty of shots when swordfighting when I was exhausted and desperate and even if they hit they weren’t strong enough to do anything. It’s very frustrating))

“She’s awake now,” Pan replied mildly, “Probably panting among her tangled covers trying to reassure herself that it was all just a dream. Nothing more then that.”

He walked over and stooped, picking up the dagger and holding it before him, sniffing slightly at the blood that still clung to the blade. With a sharp movement of his wrist he flicked the drops off and onto the ground before replacing the dagger back into his pouch.

“You had her for five seconds. Now you must hunt your own again…”

Pan smiled and walked backwards to the tree, folding down among the roots at a place where the piled on top of each other, forming what could appear to be a throne of dead, dry wood. His skin blended with the tree around him so that all that could be seen clearly were his horns and the glass-blue eyes.

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Lydia woke with the start of a scream, quickly muffled. She drew the covers up around her, crying into them, and after a few moments snapped her hand to shut off the alarm when it started beeping by her bedside.

“Just a dream,” she whispered, “Just a dream.”

But there was that pounding in her heart, sending blood up through her ears so that she could hear it echo in her mind, that couldn’t be ignored. The feel of the dagger in her hand. The sudden elation of acting – of doing something to hurt him back. She shuddered and stumbled out of bed and towards the bathroom. A shower would wash away the last strands of nightmare and she could just pretend it had never happened.

Not until the next night. She took a deep breath to steady herself, looking in the mirror at the dark circles under her eyes and the hollow cheeks. Damn him.

(exit stage left, Lydia)

Somewhere along the dense forest, strained and trying something for the first time, a new face to the forest tried its hand... er paw, at pulling a certain creature from sleep and to its side. It had a waited a very long time for this to happen, but it seemed that sleep was a rare thing for this... this, delightfully tormented young woman. A scowling grin came spreading across his muzzle, soon she would be with him, and Bauh'eim put more into his calling until he was alone no more. Blinking crystline blue eyes his gaze shifted towards a lump on the ground near his paws and that scowling grin never left his short muzzles. "Look whose here..." a deep chuckle emitted from his throat as he saw her begin to stir against the ground. Upon seeing her move a certain predator instinct brought itself to his being, and cystaline eyes widened to be fully rimmed in white. Bauh'eim, a canine like creature with foul intentions written upon a wicked muzzle, slowly half-circled to the other side of Ropin, soft pad falls merely drown out by the deep-throated snarle that grew in volume; until the muzzle opened and dripping teeth snapped violently in front of her face.

Having not a clue just exactly where she had ended up, the blue-haired woman dared to stir and rouse herself from a drowzy state. Unlike in the real world, her mind was not clouded by the drugs the doctors had her on, nor the impending instincts that they drew out of her. Not that she wondered about it, or even knew such a thing existed, for as she awoke she could have sworn she heard something. Growling? Stiffened at the thought, but pulling her face out of the dirt long enough to get a look upwards... her only reaction to snapping jaws was jerk backwards and scramble desperately to back away. While doing so, the blue tinted sunglasses from the brim of her nose fell to the ground below, and there before her was a creature. A-A dog? she thought, quickly losing color to her face, not to mention motor function in her legs and arms, for while they grew heavy with fright, her mind screamed at her to run.

Bauh'eim watched her reactions with a morbid excitement, raising his lips to expose thick fangs, and wrinkle his nose in a terrible anger. Approaching her this time he allowed his matted fur to bristle and raise at the neck, and as if his appearance wasn't enough to frighten her stiff he chuckled again, crystaline eyes wild with glee. "This... my dear little worthless-one, is going to be amusing", he cooed to her, watching the human shiver at his words. Fun indeed.

Ropin tried desperatly not to look at the approaching creature. If she didn't look at him then maybe she wouldn't intice him to do anything, but even so her arm started to shake in fear, and her pale skin vibrated with the movement as it went up her back and through her body. She didn't want to believe what was happening, hadn't she just been asleep? Or was she even sleeping before? Where was she? There were so many questions she dared not ask, especially to a talking dog that seemed to have it in for her. Though when pressure was applied to her leg she opened her eyes to see what had happened, and wished she hadn't. The dog was standing with a paw on her leg, and his bared teeth just inches from her face. Ropin shuddered, trying to pull her face away from his in a slow movement; completely quaking now.

Bauh'eim wasn't practiced in his style of tormenting just yet, but being a quick learner and a chaotic mind, the plight was no longer his own. For the dog terror was allowing his body to do as it pleased, to obey his minds desires and greed. His bared teeth turned into a sort of wicked grin when she tried to pull away, and his response was to leap at her shoulders, placing a paw on each one and keeping her down on the ground. "Still, worthless one. Still so I can enjoy this", he growled to the point that words almost couldn't be understood. White rimmed crystaline eyes stared into hers for a moment before he got up, teeth still bared as he began to circle her. Though, when the woman made a movement of any kind, Bauh'eim snapped viciously at her being, once or twice making contact with her skin. She'd learn that he was the boss. And she'd learn not to disobey him. His deep chuckle came from the back of his throat, and the terror's matted fur raised on end once again. Something felt different though, and his acute nose told him of some odd change to the scents around him. That made him uneasy and his ears went back, this was his kill! HIS KILL HIS KILL HIS KILL! Angrily he flung himself upon the poor woman once more, a single paw pressed against her lower neck and bared teeth growling into her. "My kill", he whispered to her, his mind obsessed with the thought.

Flicking a single floppy ear towards the first announcement of a presence, Bauh'eim had a bit of a hard time tearing his mind away from its constant obsession long enough to understand what was being said. Snapping his attention away from the woman's paled face he lowered his lips just slightly as he gazed at the 'living tree' so the thing was dubbed. Larger then Bauh'eim. Different color then Bauh'eim. Surely didn't stand on four legs like Bauh'eim. Still in a primal state the dog terror crouched down on his haunches before sitting squarely on Ropin's quaking stomach, trying to eye up and weigh the being before him.

Ropin on the other hand, at the sight of yet another monster, had taken to closing her eyes very tightly. Though it did take the dog's attention off of her for just a moment, and her paniced mind begged for action. To run, to escape, something to get away. Feeling pressure on her stomach, Ropin jerked slightly in surprise.

Despite how slight the jerk was, Bauh'eim snapped his jaws mere inches from her face, his warm breath seeping over her paled skin. When her movement stopped and he felt her tense underneath him, the terror returned his attention to the 'living tree'. Though he was quite curious about this... title. His forest? Taking a sweeping glance around, his white-rimmed crystaline eyes sought to trace every little twig and tree. This was the 'living tree's'? "Bauh'eim", he answered at length, taking careful consideration into this stranger who apparently owned more then he did.