~~~
"Liv? What brings you here?"
There were four bunnies. Or, hares? They were quite large things, near as big as a cat— not your typical, tiny plainland hopper. Three boys, and one girl. She could tell by the difference in size— The female vastly outweighed the males. Olivia loved hares... or well, rabbits in general. They were so very cute and fluffy— Not an aggressive bone in their body, it seemed. Most were actually quite nervous, even frightened of being in the vicinity of other, larger mammals, but these four didn't seem to mind her.
The several acres of land that her family owned were quite enjoyable in this regard— In building their home, they didn't clear out the forested lands surrounding them, and so quite often Olivia found herself wandering deep into the treeline, enjoying the sounds of nature, and occasionally having the opportunity to watch some of the wildlife that inhabited the forest from a distance. Most commonly it was simple fauna— small animals or herds which oftentimes kept to themselves. She could relate, honestly— She didn't much enjoy being around people either. Sometimes she would doodle in a little notebook she kept with her while watching them, or practice her script hand— Her mother was always quite adamant that a woman refines her script hand, after all.
Today was a bit unique, however, in that rather than coming to them, a bit of wildlife came to Olivia instead. It was honestly quite the shock— She'd taken a break from her wanderings on a fallen tree, some few meters into the forestlands, and was enjoying the tranquil echoes of nearby birds moving from tree to tree, when this little family of rabbits, passing by, decided to stop and investigate her. Surely, they must have thought her odd, or out of place— Yet they did not seem to fear her— or at least, not enough to run away. The girl sat quiet, fascinated by their presence, as they would amusingly hop once or twice, look about, sniffing for goodness knows what with their cute little noses, before hopping a little closer.
They might have touched her shoes, had another presence— very, very much not of this forest-- not startled them off.
"Oh... Hi Decius."
Olivia's somewhat mournful gaze turned from the fleeing rabbits, to the 'young man' who nowed peered down at her from over her shoulder. At a glance, he seemed human enough, actually— Too human, one might say, as if looking at an idealized painting. His flawless, fair skin, long, rolling, gently-curled locks of the deepest, darkest black one might imagine, and entrancing golden eyes— He was like something out of a romantic novel. Yet there was something so undeniably uncanny about him— Something one untrained in the magical arts wouldn't be capable of identifying, yet would all the same know was there... Gnawing at the edges of their sanity. Olivia, however, knew what it was... and yet, with all the reason in the world to run, to deny this being any agency in her life, she...
"Mind if I sit with you?"
"N-no, I... would like that."
"Then I shall." He was a friendly sort, this Decius— The smile he wore, eerily welcoming and warming, never left his face. His voice sounded of the lightest, richest honey— Delectable and enveloping. He was a very attractive 'man', by any stretch of the imagination, and he postured himself as a lover would to their chosen betrothed— Yet Olivia wasn't particularly bought in by his words, or his actions, or even his appearance. Perhaps she didn't believe herself worthy of such attention, or advances. Perhaps years of knowing him for what he truly was had disillusioned her to his physical ways. But as he gingerly sat himself next to her, and cozied himself close to her upon the fallen tree, Olivia could help but slowly, yet surely, lower her head to rest upon the man's well-defined shoulder, her the mournful gaze never leaving her eyes as she returned to quietly watching over the forests ahead of her.
He wasn't human. He wasn't even a being of this realm. But... he was warm. He was company. And Olivia sorely, sorely wanted for company.
~~~
"...now lass, are ye alright? You dun look great."
Olivia could only just make out a few words— But they were certainly words. Human words, gruff as they might have sounded. The world, and her senses besides, began to return to her, as the fog of her mind cleared, and her consciousness slowly began to focus itself. She was... where was she? What was she doing? She could hear the sounds of a forest around her, albeit barely— And her skin didn't sting with the numbing pain of cold... Was she still in Thanatos?
She slowly began to open her eyes, wincing as the sunlight she'd not seen in many a year began to work its way into her mind. Not much of it was able to work it's way past someone... or something? That had decided to lift and brace her, just a little. Thankfully, she had no wounds— no external ones, at least. She appeared physically fine, though the paleness of her skin and the unnaturally low temperature she gave off might understandably convince someone that she was at least sick. She felt bad about that, in hindsight— she didn't like to make people worry.
Her vision cleared more and more by the moment, and her unfocused eyes began to sharpen upon the 'man' before her... Which turned out to be a bear, in fact. A large, white-fur bear, and quite the dextrous one, to be capable of propping her up in it's claws. For a moment, she silently pondered the amusing nature of her circumstances— She was at peace with her being killed by wolves, only to awaken moments from death at the hands of a bear. Fear was probably the correct response... but it was her own fault for being in the situation she was in. It was certainly an odd chain of events, but death is death, as they say.
"...Hello, mister bear," She managed to weakly mutter, before closing her eyes once more. "I won't hurt you... I won't stop you. I know you're hungry... I don't blame you. Please... just make it quick. I... I don't want to hurt anymore." Her tone was raspy, and coated in shards of a long-shattered resolve. As amusing as her circumstances were, at the end of the day, she just wanted them to end. She was so very... tired. Dying like this, when had barely the strength to resist, was more than enough of an acceptable end for her.
