Her hand twitched and her left eye opened. Reflexively, she reached a hand to her side and tried to grip the staff that stand propped on the tree next to her. Her other eye opened and she turned her head, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever is was that made the noise. There was nothing to her left and nothing to her right. Pulling her knees up to make an attempt at standing, she pushed herself away from the tree and got to her feet. Upon balancing herself, she took a few steps away and swung herself around. “Who's there?” she asked.

As expected, there was no response to her question made out of pure terror. Her staff rose and she now held it in both hands, pointing it out towards the tree. It wasn't an Ent, she had made sure of that when she decided to take a power nap learning against it. The grip on the weapon was a loose one as perspiration formed on her hands and slid down her fingers.

Another step back meant another step closer to the lake. Arreis tried to root her heel into the ground, to no avail. The muddy earth near the body of water wouldn't allow her to and she slipped back slightly, dropping the staff. A curse emitted from her mouth and she scolded herself: it was improper to swear. With a hard thrust, she tried to take a step back forward to grab the staff, but once again the slippery mud underneath her took hold of her. This time she fell to the ground, her knees hitting the earth.

She looked like a dog on all fours—if not a dog, a servant. She was not a slave. Her hands supported her weight, but she pushed back on them, levering her body on her legs. “What kind of a joke is this?”

When she finally regained her ground and stood perfectly still, staff in hand, she carefully made her way along the mud. Her robes were already stained, particularly her legs. The weapon was now in worse grip than it had been, with her hands slimy with mud. The noise rang again and she rose it after a moment of fumbling. “Who's there?”

Celsius Monisha

Celsius wiped a small black hair from her brow, stroking a leaf that lay gently in her palm. Her mouth appeared to be moving in a type of motion, but there was no sound that could be heard from it. Gently placing the leaf back onto the ground, Celsius stood up from her kneeled position and pushed a bush that was currently in her path, and in doing so, revealed a girl. This girl came off as one of the human race, and was holding a staff in her hands, not very well gripped mind you. Celsius approached the female with caution, but the expression on her face showed that she wasn't particularly threatened either.

"Hello, there." Celsius said softly.

Stroking another hair out of her face, she continued.

"Did I frighten you?"
"Well I do apologize."

Nodding at the human, Celsius turned and approached the body of water that was in front of her. Standing at the edge, she glanced down and caught a gentle reflection, as well as a small ripple. The nymph extended her hand into the water and as it touched her facial expression changed, obviously into a blissful state. Celsius took her hand out of the water slowly and wiped it on her left pant leg. She turned to the girl once again and smiled peacefully. With a small but obvious nod, Celsius proceeded to her feet, and turned in the opposite direction of the human, not saying a word.

The thing, it seems, that all women have in common is the hair problem. It appears to be that in moments of intense stress, fear, panic, worry, or even love, the hair would fall in your eyes. Blinking rapidly, Arreis took a hand off of the staff to push back the loose bangs that continually fell into her face. It was strange that it happened, her hair was usually tied up, and even then it was put behind her head, concealed in her hood (if you could even call it a hood, really it was more of a veil, but that sounded lame). Quickly returning her hand to grasping the now-muddy staff, she braced herself yet again.

"Hello, there."

She jumped backwards at the sound of the voice. As it so happens, she once again landed on a muddy patch of ground and tumbled to her knees. Dropping the staff in the mud, Arreis let out an angry grunt and looked up at the thing that had given her a fright. It was just a little girl. Scolding herself, Arreis happened to her feet and once again brushed away the stupid hair. “N-no,” Arreis rang, not sounding convincing in the slightest. “I just... I just keep slipping, that's all. Not frightened.” She nodded her head and looked to the weapon she had left on the ground.

There was no point picking it up, she'd just fall again. And she didn't necessarily want to get bruised. Internal bleeding was far from wicked. Her eyes followed the girl as she crawled towards the water, putting a hand in. Arreis smiled slightly as she did so. Little girls weren't threats. When the girl stood, Arreis blinked in quiet amazement: she was shorter than her. Feeling her face flush with colour, Arreis turned her head away just after she was nodded at and the girl—woman, whatever—began walking away.

Once again, Arreis looked down at her staff. Bending over as slowly as possible, she scooped it up and gripped onto it as tightly as possible with her hand. “Wait--” she called after the girl. “What are you doing alone in the woods? Are you... lost?”