A Forest's Beast (discontinued)

Part 3 - Talkative

"Did I- I do th- that..?"

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"The vines . . ? No, young flower, those were my doing ~ . . . I was talking about you moving, that should be impossible if I'm right next to you . . ." He said, trailing off towards the end of his statement. Lavender winced a bit at the name he had called her, as it was what her mother used to refer to her as. "Don't go anywhere . . ." he said in a way more threatening voice after a calm silence. "Am I understood ~ . . ?" he continued, playfulness once again leaked from his speeches.

The kind-of creeped out female nodded exhaustedly. After a moment she felt the pressure leave a bit, sighing a relieved sigh, she quietly thanked the creature who seemed to be deep in thoughts once again. As the plants silently settled back into the forest floor, she felt the slight need to start a conversation.

"So... Do you have a name..?" The young teen questions the creature in front of her unsurely. She fixed her blanket a bit before sitting down, waiting for an answer of the shadow-man. "I do, but most call me other names . . ." This made the brunette confused. "Then... what do you want me to call you?" She asked, now starting to feel a bit more comfortable.

Her question seemed to have caught him off-guard, she didn't judge him, she actually asked for his real name, what he wanted to be called. "You truly are a peculiar one, little girl . . ." he mumbled under his breath, knowing that she slightly heard him. "Outsiders call me 'The Beast', although my actual name is Connor . . . What's yours, little one?" Connor said, and you could clearly hear the sly smile in his voice.

"I'm Lavender, nice to meet you..?" she asked the last part a bit unsure if it was the right thing to say at the moment, especially after how they 'first met'. She smiled her 'happy smile', but this time, it wasn't faked. Did she really find comfort in his presence? Lavender scolded herself in her thoughts, other people called him a beast for a reason! Or did they just... judge a book by its cover? He did, after all, seem like a nice guy, if you ignored his first actions towards the small teen.

"The pleasure's all mine, Miss Lavender . . . And my deepest apologies about what happened earlier, I thought you were an intruder . . ." He finished with a guilty look in his glowing eyes as he looked down at the ground. The girl was a bit taken aback by the sudden etiquette, but instead carried on with the somehow nice chat. "There's no need for formalities, and its perfectly fine. If you look back at your history with my kind, you do have your reasons at protecting the forest..." After a small pause, she added muttering: "I would have done the same thing..."

"I see . . . But as i stated before, i would still like to know why you're this deep into the forest . . ." Connor said as he looked back up at the brunette he found very amusing. The female in question gulped, as she couldn't stop the small knot forming in her throat. With a small sigh, she started her as-short-as-possible explanation. "Well... I ran away and since I've always found this forest nice and calming, and because everyone is so scared of it, i ran here, hoping no one would find or come look for me." She finished, not giving to much detail.

The dark humanoid, noticing her discomfort on the topic, decided to let it fall and work with the given information. "Alright, now, if that is okay with you . . . Would you like to stay at my place . . ? A little girl shouldn't sleep out here . . ." He said, memories of the Edelwood trees claiming another kid as one of them flashing in his mind. Thats when he noticed, he wanted her to be safe. He wanted to protect her, and make sure she was happy. He had feelings for her, in a fatherly way.

This only happened once before, and he thought that the other person he felt protective over had put a spell on him, so he tried to get rid of him. That didn't work tho, as he didn't have a strong enough heart to hurt, let alone kill, the one he saw as his family. So, instead, after he figured his emotions out a bit, he decided he wouldn't let him leave the forest. This worked for some time, then the forest started to like him, and became a part of him. Now he looked a lot more like Connor, same branches on his head, just more colorful pastel eyes. He smiled a bit thinking about his 'son', he liked to call him his child since he practically grew up with him as a parent. He wondered if the brown-haired teen was the same as him...

As he fell on the topic of his son, he quietly continued his unfinished sentence: "And, i'd like you to meet someone . . ." The small girl smiled up at the male towering over her, seeing the large difference in height. "Sure!" she said happily, getting excited at the thought of meeting someone else, that may be as kind as Connor. As she got up and started preparing her backpack, a branch started growing from the tree closest to her. She noticed it and looked at her new-found friend, saying: "You really need to tell me how you do that." in slight awe. The growing plant picked up the backpack and took of with it, pulling it into the tree.

As Lavender looked at the tree's bark closing after absorbing the backpack, she looked up at Connor confused. "They'll bring it where we're headed . . ." was all he said before walking off, expecting the small girl to follow him through the woods, which she did.

After a tiring while of walking, she finally gave up and just slid down against a tree, sitting on the ground. The shadowy silhouette saw this and picked her up, setting her in his neck. As she held on onto his branches, she noticed how high up she was, and the twigs and leaves they should knock into, made way for the pair. As she was fascinated by the control Connor had on nature, she lost track of time. "Here it is ~ . . !" she heard her transport state after another 10 minutes or so of walking, in a sing-song voice, slowing down his pace.

As they stopped in front of a cave with numerous thick vines and plants hanging in front of the entrance, making it look like just an ordinary stone hillside with growth sticking to it, she slowly climbed down, off of her friend. "Thanks for the ride but... how do we get in?" the young girl asked the living shadow. "Simple! Just ask the vines to rise and -" He was stoped by the small look on the girls face saying 'seriously..?'

"Oh, right . . . I'm not used to having human visitors, okay . . ?" he stated narrowing his eyes at her small frame. "Anyways . . ." he commanded the vines to open the so-called 'door'. Walking inside the teen was met with a wide cavern, decorated with plants, vines, and some furniture made of the same materials. As she walked around, the girl saw several foods, but nothing more than 4 apples and some carrots. She didn't bother to ask about that tho, seeing she doesn't eat that much herself. The brunette heard the 'door' open again, thinking Connor just left, she didn't mind it. She started doing so when she heard another distorted voice, altho less distorted than Connors, shouting near the end of his sentence.

"Hey Con-.. Human?!"

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