Ilayda had taken to wandering through the darkened forests in the Draconi region, trying to stay out of the sight of others who might do her harm - and, of course, the Tribe that she felt certain must be looking for her. Obviously, her body had never been recovered from either the camp or the battlefield of the last great battle between the two Tribes, so surely they would be after her. She had no way of knowing that both Tribes had destroyed each other utterly, having fled her home at once, but the thought lingered in her mind that pursuit would surely be flying behind her, waiting to snatch her up and destroy even a broken symbol of power from their old enemies.
She had been wandering around that night, looking for anything that she knew for a fact to be edible, though the evidence of hunger had carved out hollows along her shoulders and under her cheekbones. Ilayda had been something like a princess while being the only daughter of the Tribe of the Red Sea, and the next heir; to go from everything to nothing in a matter of hours had been hard to cope with, and she had never been a hunter, nor a particularly knowledgeable gathered. For now, she existed on the small berries that she knew to be safe, but it had been a day or so since she'd felt even slightly full, and nearly two weeks since she remembered the sensation of a stomach that was genuinely filled near to bursting. It had certainly taken a toll on her morale.
However, as she was flicking from shadow to shadow, she saw something pass her. It looked roughly human, though the hood and cloak revealed no other clues; with a quiet indrawn breath, she flitted after the figure, slender shape dipping easily from shadow to shadow, though the tattered radiance of her once mother-of-pearl gown and the gentle glow of pearly-blue hair made her task difficult. Still, she practically ghosted along, slender feet barely depressing the grass beneath her; in fact, this was partially because she called to the water in the air, feeling it thicken as a cloud of mist that dulled the edge of silk and jewelry.
She followed him all the way to the edge of a clearing, one that she had found just the other day herself. There she hovered, slender hand pressed against the rough bark of a tree, simply watching - until the figure removed its cloak. The twisted, frowning face of a skull sat beneath the concealing headdress, the shadowy pits of eyes rent with a glowing red fire. Had she been anyone else, she may have been frightened; however, the color red called to her, and while her Tribe had always rejoiced in life, Ilayda knew enough about the world to know that you couldn't have one without the other.
Dismissing the cloud of mist around her with a gentle wave of her hand, it looked like the fae girl appeared out of nowhere. Shimmering curtains of pale blue hair fell in tangled falls to her waist; her face, though moon-pale and lovely, was smudged with dirt, and her once-beautiful dress had long since grown ragged around the edges. Still, she looked just as graceful as any faerie ever had in any of the tales. She stepped from the edge of the forest, moonlight casting a shimmering radiance about her that gave her an extra dimension of the surreal.
"Hello." Even her voice was soft, musical, with a quality in it that sounded like the energetic chattering of streams. Her eyes were wide and pale and blue, looking curious but not afraid. The lines of her body had been carved by hunger from delicacy into skinniness, but even so, she seemed to glide across the grass. "I've never seen you before. Are you lost?" She was intensely caring in every line of her body, not half as mischevious and malicious as her other faerie kin. In fact, every inch of her spoke of kindness, like the Lady of the Forest appearing in the moon.
