The Spirit (WIP)

"Shh, easy..."

Kaela held her hands out in a placating manner, daring to take one step deeper into the brush the entity tucked itself into. She froze when dark feathers rippled across the giant creature. It snapped its maw at her with a threatening hiss, the vast expanse of its tattered wings shuddering outward in an impressive display. Its warning is clear: stay away.

But Kaela can't bring herself to leave it be. She watches rivets of blood trudge down matted feathers, between bared teeth to collect under its chin before dripping to the grass. The creature's arms tremble, threatening to collapse beneath its own weight. It's threatening hiss soon petered out into a wet wheeze.

The woman takes another cautious step forward and the creature jerks, nearly falling back to the forest floor before it manages to catch itself again. It stares warily at her, a flicker of what she assumes is fear crossing those fiery eyes, and Kaela feels an answering pang in her chest.

Her heart pounding, she slowly raises her hands again, fingers spread to show her empty palms as she gently shushes the entity again. "Hey, c'mon, it's okay," she says as she moves forward again as slow as she's able, "I-I'm a friend. I won't hurt you."

The creature's growling abruptly stops, startling her into a halt, and Kaela watches as it narrows its glowing eyes at her. Studious, cautious, almost searching as it meets her gaze. This time Kaela follows her gut instinct to remain where she stands, the hairs on her arms standing on end. She outstretches her arms and turns her palms up to the towering thing as it stares, slowly, calmly. An offer.

"Let me help you."

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The WIP of an upcoming illustration for Feathers and Flowers! That written exert there is mostly for flavor and for practice! I plan on writing out a longer sequence for the image, so I suppose it serves as a starting point for me so I'm not just stumbling in the dark ;w; But YEH! This will depict the scene in which Mal and Kaela officially meet, so Kaela doesn't know Mal's name or gender yet. At this point, Kaela only has a hunch at what she is, but regardless she can't bring herself to just leave Mal to bleed out in the forest.

Keep your peepers open! I'll prob get a few more drawings out of the way before I start posting the.... episodes? of Feathers and Flowers, story parts and all! ^.^