Master Ace slowly walked through Gloomwood. He had two main purposes in being here, to observe an umbra and to observe the woods themselves. He wandeered with no source of light; it was not quite needed for himself. Occasionaly he twitched his ebony scaled tail behind him when he thought he heard something aside from the gentle treading of his feet on the grass. Ace knew little of the Ubra feles. He had read of the dissapearance of Balefire into the plane of shadow, but his source made it seem more a myth than as if it had actually happened. After hearing of Balefire's return Ace immediately prepared to make a visit. In the little bit of reading he had done before leaving the academy he learned a small bit of Umbra Feles. The paticular book did not have much so say on the creatures, but it give a good description of what they looked like. Ace tried to find a bit more of the Umbra Feles from his sources on the shadow plane, but they were not aas in depth as Ace would like. From what Ace had heard these were the only creatures that had also made the cross over from the shadow plane, but Ace paticularly doubted that. He knew he would have to be ready for anything. Ace was amazed when he firs entered the woods. The trees of Gloomwood were obviously not originally of Imythess. He knew he would have to remember to dedicate some time into looking those over.

Acora'shiin was in the forest as well at that time. She had come for almost the same reason as Ace. To find an Umbra, but do much more than simply observe it. It was a specific umbra she searched for and after a while of walking through the woods, she came to the small river which almost trickled through the strangely shaped trees she had come to accept as normal trees long ago, having been raised in Balefire at the edge of the forest.

Once at the river she put down the simple lantern she carried, she dimmed it so it was almost out and only gave the faintest of lights. Unaware of Ace's presence, she made a soft hooting noise, calling into the darkness. For several long moments she stood, waiting...

Finally her waiting was rewarded by the sound of extremely soft footsteps, barely audible. She would never had heard them if she hadn't already been expecting them. She smiled as the umbra stepped carefully into the ring of light.

She was a powerful looking creature with a hide of soft, dark fur. Acora could see the muscles rippling beneath the umbra's fur as she took long strides to face the human girl. Kali (what Acora had decidedly named her umbra) sniffed the firl over lightly, as though trying to decide whether spending her time with a human was actually worth it. Finally Kali dropped her head, a sign that she would let Acora touch her.

Acora reached out slowly and stroked the glossy coat, admiring the umbra's dark beauty. She was as tall as Acora at the shoulder and her head rode slightly above that.

As Acora stroked Kali, she had no idea someone else was in the woods as well.

(Sorry about posting at that other topic, by the way. I checked to see if it was private, but when I posted it, I didn't see a 'P' or 'Private' when I made that post.)

(Oh... I put it in the topic description. I was wondering where Khepri {or what ever the name was} dissapeared to)
Ace puased when he heard the soft hooting noise. Was this the sound made by an umbra or some other creature dragged into Imythess from the plane of Shadow. Making sure to take light steps, Ace walked towards the sound.

As Ace's feet steped lightly upon the grass, he began to wondered how plants of the shadow plane could feed off of the darkness while plants of the material plane usually fed off of the light. He would certainly have to remember to make several experiments with some of the plants of gloomwood.

Ace shook his head as he recalled the task at hand. Another thought drifted into his mind. What would he do if the umbras didn't prove so freindly? Ace would of course try to defend himself while dealing minimal damage to the umbra or in an unlucky case, umbras. Perhaps they may even leave him alone If he brought a little bit of light into the woods, but that might also bring cause for them to attack even more ferociously.

It was not long before Ace could hear the sound of a river. It was not too loud. The soft trickling was the most soothing sound Ace had heard since he entered the woods, but that wasn't saying too much since he had only heard strange malevolent hoots and howls.

In the distance, Ace could see a faint light. The light dissrupted his darkvison. He could see aroun the light fairly well, but what was containted within the light was blurry. He woould have to go closer to get a good veiw. While Ace was trying hard to move without a sound, Ace's ablity to move silently was doubtless;y dwarfed by Kali's entrance into the light.