Ricure walked purposefully through the thick jungle, her hands balled into loose fists. She had that kind of arrogant gait, as though nothing could touch her or scare her. But it was this arrogance that prevented her from sensing the presence following her- tracking her. She came to a small clearing barely ten feet across and there was no more path. The ground looked like an area where maybe a Tortua had nested for a night or so.
"Great." Ricure mumbled as she unsheathed a dagger from her boot and began slashing away at the foliage across the way.
A thin watery substance dripped out of the severed vines and Ricure sniffed the end of the organics. It smelled faintly sour yet smelled also like something else she thought was so familiar. She definitely liked the scent and continued to keep her nose around the liquid as she cut her path. It lightened her mood, to say the least, and her eyes were drawn to the spine of the leaves from the vines- they were violet. She giggled quietly for just a second as she made the connection that the violet was also the colour of her eyes. "Man, wouldn't it be awesome if I smelled like this stuff too?" she thought. Slowly she stopped chopping at the vines and knelt to the ground and cupped her hands under the dripping fluids. With a handful of odd smelling liquid she smiled as she brought it close to her face, sniffed it again and promptly smeared it all over her skin. She sighed as the juice created a tingling sensation on her and she truly lost herself when she laid herself down under the vines and let them drip the sweet liquid on her from above. Ricure began to giggle uncontrollably and then she broke out into laughter; her body felt light and tingly and everything started looking extremely beautiful. She wondered how she could have disliked this wonderful jungle. As she thought and laughed her head off, she heard rumbling in the distance. "Oh, I hope it rains!" she thought, "Jungle storms are gorgeous." She lifted herself from the ground, soaked in the vine's lifeblood and raised her hands to the sky and grinned. As she looked upwards she saw a clear bright blue sky, a cloudless sky, but she still heard the thunder. And heard branches break behind her.
Ricure turned around slowly, her arms dropping back to her sides and stared expressionless at the beast in front of her. It was three feet high, five feet long with a black body and yellow stripes. At the end of its long muzzle was a black and pink speckled nose. It's tail split into two at the end as did its long ears. It continued to growl at her and eye her with hunger and very slowly took steps with its huge paws toward her. Ricure stepped back from the beast just as it came to her and