Private Finished Watch Out For That... Spriggan

Though Ebbie did not frequent the forbidden section of the woods and was careful to never sleep there that did not mean she wasn't aware of the many dangers that lurked inside. As far as she was concerned though if you chose to make that section of the woods your home you accepted the dangers.

There was no way for her to know why Ain was collecting the traps. She could only make assumptions based on his actions and her assumptions were growing less and less favorable. It certainly didn't help that the man had answered her with a dismissive shake of his head and apparently ignoring her concerns.

Oh she still followed him for sure, but now she was starting to think that perhaps these traps were actually his. He seemed to find his way to them without an issue. He was apparently well versed in how to disarm them and didn't seem to care when Ebbie had mentioned how cruel traps like that could be. Maybe the deer wasn't all he had wanted to hunt that day.

Her butterfly swarm surged and roiled and she narrowed her eyes. The urge to strangle this man for his rudeness was strong but she continued to put that aside for the moment. "Ignoring me or dismissing my concerns like they don't matter is quite rude. Even if you cannot speak you can still make gestures." She was looking Ain right in the eyes. Or at least where his eyes were if they were hidden behind his helmet. Though she was very clearly angry she had not presented any weapon. In fact she remained barefoot, with nothing in her hands.


"Did you set these traps?" She asked him clearly and loudly. "If not, what is your intention in taking them?" How he responded was probably going to be very important. If he didn't even attempt to be polite then he would be making an enemy of this fae. Alone she probably couldn't kill him but she had friends and the fae had their ways of making sure debts were paid that were less direct but perhaps even more dangerous than combat.

Ebbie continued eyeing Ain as he stowed yet another trap in his bags but she was pleasantly surprised when he moved to show he was paying attention to her. Though it didn't completely absolve him of his rudeness, Ebbie definitely noted the gesture of respect that his nod seemed to imply. She knew that she was easily offended and not all beings on this island could be expected to deal well with fae.

She was unable to make out the frown clearly because of the man's helmet, so it was difficult to know whether he had set the traps or not. Setting traps like that to catch normal wildlife didn't really seem to match the way he had been treating the rest of nature before but she still wanted an answer to her question either way. If he had planned to shake or nod his head to answer her it didn't happen. Instead she saw him reach towards the bow on his back.

Ebbie couldn't know whether the man was planning to attack her or not so she acted as if he was. As he pulled his bow from his back two vines whipped out seemingly from Ebbie's shoulders and latched on to branches in the trees above. By the time he had knocked his arrow she was hauling herself up into the trees. If he had been trying to shoot her he would have had no trouble hitting her as she moved but apparently that hadn't been his intention.

She watched as the arrow from Ain's bow flew past her rising legs and embedded itself in the dirt. The fact that he had not killed the wolf drew her attention and she smiled. The wolf would have been quite uninterested in taking a bit out of her once it caught her scent. She knew that she would have smelled of magic and plantlife rather than a human. Still Ain wouldn't have known that Ebbie's true body was made up of mostly wood, vines and other plantlife. things that would not have been appetizing for the wolf. Also the wolf could have been a little annoying anyway.

Though Ain's actions might not have really saved Ebbie from as much harm as he might have believed, the intention of the act was enough. As fae, Ebbie was bound by her debts and this action immediately balanced out Ain's rudeness from earlier and then some. Ebbie owed him a small amount. If he could find a way to request something of her she would be magically compelled to agree as long as it was equal to or lesser than the debt she owed him. Otherwise she was going to need to find some other way to balance things out.

Ebbie lowered herself back to the ground and let the vines coil around her arms and midsection. There was no reason to hide them any longer, though she would keep her true form a secret unless he requested her to reveal it. Fortunately she was pretty sure he could not do that without speaking.

Rather than return to their conversation Ebbie nodded at Ain and then gestured for him to continue on with his activities. Whether they were his traps or not didn't matter. Couldn't really matter while Ebbie still owed him.

Ebbie's eyes were drawn to the bow as it was stowed in a different place. For quicker access or for concealment? Probably both. It didn't really matter since AIn did not seem to be an enemy but she did note it.

She had no idea what he was doing. For some reason he seemed to be focused on her instead of whatever his previous plans had been. Ebbie stood there, with her butterflies floating calmly and randomly as he approached. Well, that was until he came close enough for his aura to begin having an effect. It wasn't that she was able to resist the aura. For as soon as he came close enough her vines all uncoiled and two more slid out from somewhere on her waistline all completely by instinct. However instead of lashing out at Ain she carefully forced the vines to coil back around her torso and limbs. The butterflies however rushed forward to make a barrier to block Ain's view as best they could. After a few moments they began to move out of the way again as she gave the swarm directions to overrule their normal emotional response. The insects were not really capable of feeling the fear from the aura but they had responded to Ebbie being fearful.

It was a combination of fairly strong willpower, significant experience with mind and mood altering effects, and of course the debt that she owed to Ain that kept her from attacking him or fleeing. She wasn't frozen though and she was able to speak just fine. "You can step back now. Whatever that is you are doing is not very comfortable."

After Ain stepped back out of range it took a few moments for the butterflies to start clearing back out of the way. Ebbie's vines remained coiled around her body. Outwardly it was a display of power, a way to show she was not helpless if someone meant her harm. Internally it was also a way of comforting herself.

She watched him nod and the circle around her like he was trying to learn something. Was he trying to test her reactions? Whatever he had done to cause the fear had seemed a lot like a test. The man was very unusual and now she was unsure what to do. She would have continued following him for a bit but he was just looking a her like he was waiting for her to do something.

Ebbie slowly retracted her vines back underneath her glamour. It would have looked like they just disappeared beneath the girl's skin leaving no trace. "Is there something I can do to repay you for attempting to protect me from that wolf?" It was risky because it left her open to whatever request he could manage to mime to her but she wanted to be rid of that debt as soon as possible. It also probably would serve as an explanation why she hadn't just left already.

Ebbie waited while Ain seemed to consider what she had said. For most people the concept of a fae's debt was confusing. The number of nuances and factors involved were mind boggling but the basic idea came down to one thing. A favor done demands that at some point the favor must be returned.

Unfortunately for Ebbie though the debt meant that she was going to accept whatever request Ain made as long as it was not "worth" more than the debt she owed him. She watched as he removed a charm from himself and then gestured like he wanted her to do the same. If he had not put the charm back on it might have come across as him offering it to her but he did and the meaning was fairly clear. He wanted her to remove whatever charm she was wearing. HE clearly had seen the vines retract into what looked like normal human skin.

Only the trouble was she wore no actual charms. She would have to drop her glamour so he could see her true form. That annoyed her greatly- outside of her friends very few people on the island had actually seen that form. The request though would indeed wipe out the debt. It wasn't really that dangerous for her to show herself but it was circumventing her normal desire to trust a person a certain amount before showing them. The butterflies seemed to flit about in an agitated way, revealing her annoyance.

After a moment of stillness Ebbie nodded to AIn and then held up a finger to tell him to wait. "Wait here while I change," she said before walking out of sight behind trees and bushes, obstructed well enough that he would not be able to see and then she slipped out of her simple dress. As she held the dress in her hand she let her glamour drop and stop concealing her true form.

Stepping back into view was a feminine humanoid figure but she was not really recognizable as the same person Ain had just been walking with. Her body was made up of bark, wood, vines and other plant matter shaped over some sort of glowing green energy. Motes of that same energy flicked out and floated into the air to join the same swarm of butterflies from before. Ebbie kept some of her vines wrapped around her body but two of them gently brushed across the various trees and plants she passed as she walked back toward Ain. The dress remained carefully folded over one of her arms.

"This is my true form. I have not shown this form to very many people on this island," she said in a voice that was recognizable as Ebbie's but was laced with a floaty, echoing effect from the way it was being produced. While she spoke the energy within her glowed slightly brighter and then returned to normal. As far as she was concerned the debt had been settled. If Ain decided to leave without doing something to make her decide to follow she would go back to roaming the forests alone.