Take a left at the fork...or was it right? Iliana was confused walking through unfamiliar territory. For the first time in her life she had gotten lost. Infuriated with herself she kept walking not entirely sure of were she was going. Untill she came to a clearing and saw that she was face to face with the base of a volcano. "How did I miss that?" she said to herself with even more confusion.

It was a pretty gloomy and dreary day, the sun was hardly shining and didn't seem to be capable of illuminating the rather dark forest Zan stood in. He stood completely still, his eyes fixated on a tree trunk in front of him. He was clad entirely in black, as usual. He wore a black shirt with black pants, and on top of that a long black coat. On his feet he wore thick black boots with numerous belts on them, and around his right wrist he wore a small bracelet with sharp pins attached to it, the perfect weapon for insuspecting beings.

He slowly raised his head and looked up at the canopy above with his black eyes, while his long silvery hair slightly waved in the wind. His right hand was placed on the hilt of his katana, although he wasn't intending to attack something or even fight. He felt bad today, and anger had already been flowing through his veins. He could still taste the blood of his last victim on his tongue but for some reason, that still didn't completely satisfy him. He needed to wander around a bit, probably.

The bounty hunter took a deep breath and turned around, laboriously climbing up the steep volcano. After a while he got tired and sat down to rest, and at that moment, he heard noises somewhere below. He blinked a couple of times and narrowed his eyes to take a better look, and it didn't take long before he saw a figure walking through the forest, approaching the base of the volcano. He grinned, not intending to attack the person, but he did stand up again and jumped towards the ground, knowing that he would most likely scare the person.

He landed on the ground, his heavy boots making soft thuds, and he stretched his back, realising the person was a woman. He didn't speak, just kept looking at her, wondering what she would do.

As the clouds moved overhead, Iliana stopped and was staring at the volcano. She was so ferrous with that little elf that gave her bad directions. Whether it was her who just didn’t understand them was beside the point. She dusted herself slightly noticing that her slacks were torn a bit at the bottom from her stepping on them with her boots.

Iliana’s thought was disrupted when a figure, looking to be like a man, dropped down in front of her. She was unsure what to do. Iliana was caught off guard and her first instinct was to step back and lay her hand across her belt were her dagger lay. She was unsure if this person wanted a fight or not. “Can I help you?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Zan smirked when he saw the woman's surprised face. He seemed to be very good at scaring people. Not only because of his gothic and dark appearance of course. But also because of his extremely useful assassinating skills. He could walk very silently and move in the shadows without anyone noticing him, and he needed those abilities to assassinate his victims, naturally.

He watched her place her hand on the grip of the dagger and knew that she wouldn't win in case he did want to fight. But she didn't have to worry, he had no attacking intentions or whatsoever. You could say he was in a pretty good mood, even though he felt sad. The black lines around his eyes almost looked like dark tears and he knew that, and therefore he tried to look bitter again. He didn't want any sympathy, although he probably wouldn't get it.

"You are offering your help while you look pretty in need of it yourself"? Zan replied, chuckling slightly. "What are you doing here in this forest on a gloomy day like this? Are you lost, perhaps? Is there anything I can do"?

He realised how rare that was; him offering help. He blamed his 'good' mood for that.

Iliana scanned her new encounter and relaxed a bit when he spoke. His presents appeared hard and worn. He must be very skilled , she thought. His smile was somewhat unnerving, in a ‘cat and mouse’ way. Iliana could tell that she would be the mouse.

She slowly removed her hand from her dagger and thought it best to not be aggressive towards this stranger. Although he was a stranger, Iliana had encountered those somewhat like his kind before. The eyes are always what give them away but he was posing no threat. Iliana thought it best to look away for a moment for she felt somewhat rude for staring.

“Actually, yes, I’m kind of lost…in a way. I was more or less looking for the nearest town. But you see I was misguided and have ended up here,” she said as she saw that it was growing darker by the minute.

Zan grinned and nodded slowly to her words. He knew that a lot of people often got lost here, especially those who never had been here before. The woman didn't seem familiar, he had never seen her before so he assumed she was pretty new to the lands.

He took a deep breath and relaxed a bit as well, lowering his shoulders which was quite a relief seeing that his long coat was quite heavy because of all the objects in his pockets.

"I see..." he replied, looking around the clearing.

He hadn't really been in this part of the forest either, but he thought he would be able to lead her out. After that he could continue.. whatever he was doing again, he didn't even know.

"Well I could guide you out of the forest, if you wish"? he continued, pointing at something that appeared to be an overgrown path.

Iliana adjusted her eyes a bit to see the overgrown path he was pointing at. She didn’t like that this person seemed to be mocking her in a way, but she shrugged it off. She would be glad to get out of the woods. The darkness didn’t bother her though; she just wanted to find a warm bed, at an inn or something, and get some good rest.

“Well,” she started, “before I have a stranger lead me anywhere, I would like to properly introduce myself,” Iliana smiled sticking her hand out to him, “I’m Iliana.”

The bounty hunter grinned and paced towards her, outstretching his arm and shaking hands with her.

"Pleasure to meet you, Iliana. My name is Zan Mourningsorrow; and I'm an assassin. But don't worry, I won't harm you unless there is a bounty on your head, and I don't think that's the case", he said, smiling slightly.

He released her hand again and took his katana, after which he walked towards the overgrown path and started to cut a couple of annoying veins away. He knew it would take a long time to free the entire path, but if it really wasn't passable then he could always fly and take Iliana with him. It would get dark soon and a lot of dangerous beings were wandering around here at night, searching for easy preys.

His chest heaved slightly when he had freed the first part of the path and he turned around to look at the woman on the clearing.

"Follow me".

He had the feeling that she didn't really like him, and that thought caused him to smirk. He didn't care, he was used to being disliked, wherever he went. People were often taken aback by his bat-like appearance and his tomboyish and sort of aggressive nature.

“Intriguing,” Iliana smiled, as she followed him. It appeared to her that he sliced though the vines like a hot knife though butter. His weapon was some what alluring to her. Iliana was still unsure about Zan, but most of those she had been around were not all that ‘normal’, including her self.

Iliana was tired and grateful that this stranger was willing to help her. On a regular day she wouldn’t have accepted his kindness for she was used to doing things alone. She has never prefered the company of others. Iliana would rather observe or study the behaviors of others from a distance.

As they made their way through the path, Iliana felt a disturbance like an icy hand up her back. She tried to avoid the feeling by making conversation. “You must lead a very exciting life, being an assassin and all?”

Zan continued clearing the path from the annoying vegetation and grinned when he heard Iliana's question. He waited before he replied, noticing that a not too large trunk of a dead tree was blocking their way. He flapped his small bat-like wings and jumped up into the air, grabbing the end of the trunk and laboriously pulling it into the forest again, away from the path. He then landed in front of Iliana again and grinned.

"Ya, you could say my life is pretty exciting. But dangerous as well. I can't just always ruthlessly kill other beings without paying attention to a lot of stuff like their allies and so on. At the moment, there is a huge bounty upon my head already, even though I'm a bounty hunter myself".

He sighed, scratching the huge scar on the back of his left hand. He had gotten it when he had bonded with an imp recently, to become more powerful. It had been some kind of daemonic pact, and a lot of things about him had changed. The most interesting things were the tiny horns upon his head, which couldn't always clearly be seen because of his long silvery hair. He knew that he would look even more like an imp soon.

"Do you have a job or something like that"? he asked Iliana, while turning around again to continue the journey.

“No,” Iliana replied, “I don’t really have a job. For the time being I guess one could say I’m searching for myself.” Iliana’s mood changed, she was feeling a little depressed. She’s never really had a job or a purpose for that matter. She has spent most of her life living off the land, with the occasional pick pocket so she could afforded a nights shelter. Her green eyes started to glow a bit with her self pity.

Iliana was impressed by Zan’s strength. Her own physical abilities were only a fraction of his, but she still had enough strength to defend herself, if need be. Growing up, those who knew her said that she had the power of a man in battle. Although she looks small, unbeknown to Iliana, her inner abilities are growing with each new travel.

"I see..." Zan replied slowly, realizing that Iliana didn't look that cheerful and confident as before anymore, as if his question had stirred bad memories.

He quickly tried to think of something else to say but didn't really get the opportunity. When he cut away a large branch, he suddenly heard noises somewhere in the forest and he froze, immediately raising his katana in front of him to defend himself in case they got attacked.

His dark green eyes flared angrily and turned black, like bottomless pits. He stepped backwards to Iliana and gave her a warning look.

"Did you hear that too?" he asked in a determined tone of voice, knowing that what he had heard hadn't been his imagination. "We might want to be careful from now on.. I have the feeling someone is watching us.

He tried to stay calm but the desire to kill raged inside of him, so whatever it was, it'd better stay away otherwise it would be dead in no time. Unless it wasn't an ordinary inhabitant of the forest, of course...

Iliana nodded to show that she too had heard the noise. Her hart began to pound in her head. She knew they were being watched, buy by whom? she wondered. Iliana slowly began to turn her head; she was looking for any movement in the brush. Her eyes narrowed as she saw a figure move high in the canopy. She quietly gasped and motioned her head up towards the trees, “Look!” she whispered to Zan. Iliana wasn’t sure about what it was but it appeared to have red eyes.

The palms of her hands were growing extremely warm. The sensation was almost unbearable. Fear was started to surge through her body and her scents were heightening.
Fight or flight, she thought to herself.

((OOC: sorry that it took way too long to reply >.<))

Zan looked at the canopy Iliana was pointing at, and caught his breath. He narrowed his eyes, the green irises slowly turning black. He couldn't really see what kind of creature it was, but it was surely intending to attack them. He gave Iliana a quick look.

"Do you have any weapons, or know any spells?" he whispered, while fixated his eyes on the moving creature again.

He himself only had a katana. He could cast a Claws of Darkness spell or summon a daemonic being, but he wasn't sure if that would be useful right now, seeing that they could barely see their possible attacker. His last weapon was the Horn of the Shadow Hound. He had never used it before but knew it was an extremely powerful item. So if they couldn't defeat the creature, he could always use the horn.

He bit his lip and hissed. "It almost looks like a panther of some kind but I'm not sure if that's it..."

(OOC: that's okay.)

Iliana looked down at her hands. She had only fought in a hand-to-hand battles never really using weapons or magic. Iliana wasn’t sure what was lurking around them but if it was animal she wasn’t accustom to killing them either. She killed people but not animals, unless they threatened her life. Iliana had a respect for animals and they had one for her, unlike people. The people Iliana always came across were mostly rude and obnoxious. Some how most people provoked her to end their life by attempting to take hers or harm her in someway.

She brought her attention back to Zan.
“Not really,” she replied in a whisper, “What do you think it is?”