Not That Kind of Wendigo Hunting

The richness of the forest was so strong here, each tree seemed more... natural. It might have been almost chaotic in the day, with most of the herbivores awake and chattering to one another. Not here, in the depths of night. Where the loudest sound was the obstinate hoot of an arrogant owl, announcing something unimportant to another owl farther away. Even he was moderate in tone, however. Like he could sense the forced tranquility that the night brought down upon the Forbidden Woods.

Silence and dark calmed Dyani, they reminded her of an older world. If she stayed in this dark deep for long enough, she could almost pretend there were no humans with guns and fire. Just lost, frightened prey waiting and shaking in the night. Almost patient in their wait for her, for death, for dismemberment. Dyani was so used to being here, in nature, that she barely made a sound as she stepped barefoot on the leaves. Her long brown hair hung in a loosely roped braid behind her, messy and discarded. For now she stayed in her human form, until she had decided she was deep enough that no one would spot her when she transformed. She needed the enhanced senses to find what she was looking for, but she needed the safely of her disguise and lies more. Almost close enough to the center to find what she was after, a supposed other Wendigo.

Time with humans was torture, but neccisary torture. For one of the first times ever, Dyani had been grateful she had been included in obnoxious human chatter. Someone had mentioned a Wendigo living in the deepest parts of the woods, stalking prey. Trying to hide her excitement, she asked about this creature. Then asked some more, then asked many others. All completely covertly, but with inner joy. There might be one of her own, one of her kind. Dyani hadn't seen another Wendigo since she had watched her youngest brother burned alive in the woods of Massachusetts. Now there might be one, maybe even feet away. In retrospect, she should transform soon, since her human form reeked of meat to another Wendigo. But she wanted to make sure no one saw her.

A single droplet of crimson fell almost breath catchingly close to her nose and she stood for a second completely still. It couldn't really be... but it was. She could smell it. A tantalizingly fresh corpse. So new she could almost hear the echoes of the screams. It was only because she was human that she didn't smell it miles off. The danger was close, something had taken this human down. Dyani turned into her true form in moments, her antlers growing and her claws and teeth forming. Ever so slowly, almost like she wasn't moving at all, she looked up at what was above.

And saw the face of Wendigo.

Her heart took a mad leap in her chest and her eyes widened in the dark. Splatters of blood dripped on the trunk of the tree and the branch, bits of flesh laid on bits of wood haphazardly. The world seemed to stop because there one was, a Wendigo. One of her own after hundreds of years. There was nothing she could say, so she just stood there in her true form and breathed the scent of another Wendigo after so long without it.

Each Wendigo watched the other, Dyani in no particular rush to frighten him. She admired his kill in a passive, nonthreatening way, making sure to maintain just enough eye contact to watch him but not enough to seem dangerous or too hungry. The scent of fresh kill was almost overwhelming, but her trained ability to keep calm in the face of food made her reserve the cannibalistic desire to tear his meal from his hands. Sheathing her claws but keeping her Wendigo form shown, she backed very slowly away from directly under the kill so she could have a better view, and allowing the other Wendigo the space to jump down if he so desired. The moments while she waited for him to finish were tortuously slow, but she sat patiently and allowed him to eat it all.

"I should hope you wouldn't maim another of your kind without good reason" Dyani replied quietly, watching his demeanor change and seeing the regret in his eyes. Fascinating. It was like he had become another person, since the creature she had first walked up on seemed very hesitant to even show a speaking ability. Much less what appeared to be guilt.