She looked at him with the hard, flat eyes of a predator, just like how a lion looks at something that it wants to eat. Her eyes were entirely black, lacking the white sclera indicative of humans. She appeared dangerous despite her long white eyelashes and soft eyebrows. This woman was beautiful without even trying. Her dreaded hair was stark white and looked like long tendrils of falling snow. The moonlight reflecting off her hair made it look as though she had a silver halo. Nestled in her haloed hair were two ears with sharply pointed tips. Both ears had multiple small gold hoop piercings. She said something again. As she did, Basil was too focused on her teeth to read her lips. They were sharper than knives. He suspected that if she had bitten him instead of shot him with an arrow it would have caused much more damage. Basil scrunched up his face in confusion. He wanted to know what she had just said. He was sure that if he didn't figure out a way to speak to her soon he might end up even more injured...or dead. So, he took a chance.

"I...can't...hear...you," he said aloud, hoping that he recalled the sounds he had practiced so many years ago. He couldn't remember the last time he'd spoken aloud. He also hoped that she could understand him.

She tilted her head to the side at his words, causing more of her dreads to fall over her shoulder. When she stared at him he could see himself reflected in the black pools that were her eyes. Then he felt something. It felt like the pressure of a growing headache.

"Who are you?" asked a surprisingly soft, but deep, voice inside of his head. He sat up straight despite the numbness of his shoulder and her boot on his chest. He was startled. It couldn't be real. There was no way there was a voice inside his head aside from his own. His eyes grew wide when it happened again.

"Who are you human?" the voice asked again.

Basil focused back on the woman standing above him. She seemed exasperated by the whole situation. Cautiously, Basil started to think, but he couldn't keep the excitement from his internal voice.

"Is...is this you? Are you talking to me? Can I hear you right now?"

Basil wanted to cry when she nodded. He felt a warm tear escape from one of his eyes. So much for looking tough.

"I can't believe this. I've never heard another person before. I've never heard a woman's voice before. You sound beautiful. Can you...can you talk again please?" Basil said, not believing that he was hearing.

"Who are you?" she asked. "How have you come to be here, human?"

To Basil, her voice sounded the way that molasses tastes. It was warm, rich, and deep, yet still sweet and alluring.

"How are you doing this?" he questioned, rather than answering her.

"Magic. How else would I do it?" she replied with a raised eyebrow. He looked like a puppy to her, not at all suited to fighting.

"I'm Basil," he said. "I have no idea how I got here. One minute I was being dragged into my house by my mother and sister after a shifter attacked me, then the next I was in this place. Where are we, anyway? I have never seen a forest like this before, not in real life anyway. Oh, what is your name and what are you?"

Basil relished in the opportunity to finally hear and be heard. In that moment, he didn't even care that she had probably tried to kill him earlier. Even the arrow embedded in his shoulder was now irrelevant. He was too excited. Perhaps she picked up on this because she indulged him.

"You're in Yosemite National Park," she told him.

"How the hell did I get to California?" Basil wondered.

"I don't think your actually in California, Basil," she answered. Basil liked the way she said his name.

"What do you mean, not in California?" he asked.

"I have a theory," she said. She got closer to Basil and knelt so that they were eye to eye. She leaned in closer and placed a hand on his good shoulder. She had long black fingernails that looked like the impractical kind some women like to wear. Unlike theirs, hers looked like they could do actual damage. She was close enough that Basil could tell she smelled like amber. While Basil was distracted she used her other hand to quickly break the arrowhead off and yank the arrow's shaft from his shoulder. He howled in pain when he realized what happen.

"How the hell is pulling that out a theory?" He grumbled. His shoulder throbbed.

"Look at your shoulder," she said nonchalantly, standing back up and away from him. She placed the two halves of her now broken arrow in her arrow holster. Basil looked down to find that the wound was gone. He rubbed the blood from his shoulder and found only smooth skin.

"You are a dream walker," she told Basil. "That arrow is coated in enough sleeping powder to put down a bear. If you were really here, then that arrow would have put you to sleep within thirty seconds of entering your shoulder, just like the bear."

"What's a dream walker?" Basil asked, rubbing his shoulder when he felt a phantom pain.

"Dream walking, astral projection, traveling, call it what you will. Your spirit can leave your body when you are asleep or unconscious. I would assume this is the first time that this has happened to you."

"Oh, that's cool I guess," Basil responded. "Does that mean I could go anywhere in the world?"

"Yes, but it also means you could mental drown in an ocean or drop yourself into a vampire nest if you're not careful."

"Vampires only drink blood though."

"Basil, you bled when I shot you. They can bleed you dry this way and your body would remain in a vegetative state," she explained with a roll of her eyes. She then grasped his hands and helped him stand. Basil thanked her and rotated his formerly injured shoulder. It was as if nothing had ever happened. The two stood in silence that quickly became uncomfortable to him. She didn't seem to care either way.

"So...why did you kill that black bear anyway?" Basil asked.

"I didn't kill it, I just needed something from it. It will wake up soon."

"What did you need from it."

"Molars."

"You took its teeth?" Basil asked skeptically.

She held up a small black leather pouch and opened it. Before Basil could protest she forced his hand opened and dropped the bag's contents in his hand. Sure enough, four slightly bloody molars sat in his hand. He gagged a bit. She smirked and picked them back up, placing them in the bag one by one.

"Why do you need those?" he asked.

"I just need them," was all she said.

"Okay," Basil responded, slightly confused. He started to turn in a circle so that he could examine his surroundings more closely, but when his back turned to her he heard a deep throaty growl in his head. He looked back to find the young woman staring at the tattoo that sprawled across his back. The same tattoo that his mother and sister had. He turned back around slowly with his hands raise. She approached him in anger and grabbed him by throat, forcing him to walk backwards until his back was against a tree trunk. Her nails bit into his throat.

"Why do you bare the mark of the Thunderbird," her voice echoed in his head. Her warm tone was gone, replaced by an acid and anger. Basil had never heard anything so loud. It made his head hurt. "Did my father send you?"

"I don't know!" Basil pleaded. "It's just a family tattoo. My mother and sister, Birdie, have it too!"

"Who is your mother," she hissed.

"Mapiya, why?" He answered.

Basil watched her visibly relax at the sound of his mother name. She released him and walked away only to start pacing back and forth in front of him. She was talking to herself out loud as if she was contemplating something. Finally, she ran a hand over her face and turned back to him.

"I guess it's finally time," she said in his mind. She sounded so, well Basil wasn't sure, but he though he had just heard what sadness sounded like. She reached into her arrow holster and pulled out a large gold coin. She placed it in his hand. It was nearly the size of his palm, much bigger than any coin he'd ever seen. Basil looked up at her with his eyebrows raised in a silent question.

"You will need to find me soon. When you get here, flip the coin three times and say my name," she instructed.

"What are you talking about. I don't even know your name," Basil said. Her evasive speech was starting to annoy him.

"Goodbye Basil," she said getting closer to him.

"Wait, no, don't!" He cried. "You haven't explained anything."

She got up close to him and whispered the word "Larue" in his mind before hitting him in the chest with her open palm. The force of the blow caused him to fall back into darkness.