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↬ "Lovely" + "Ethereal"

She awoke to the feeling of the forest swaying beneath her, snowflakes resting on her eyelashes until she fluttered them away. Trees as tall as mountains reached towards the sky, obscuring the stars in thinly veiled leaf shrouds. Snowflakes grazed past her eyelashes to melt on the heat of her rosy cheeks. The stillness in the air felt calming, the ground's swaying turning into a harsher rocking motion the more she regained her senses.

Warmth cut into the cloth of her back as the motion staggered, the cloak the knights had gifted her offering her little shelter otherwise save to stave off the heat from sinking in further. How slowly she reached out, sliding her hand along sharp edges and how quickly the breath left her as she realized what lay underneath. She struck the blade at her hip sliding her hand along further and unsheathed it with trained precision- one quick motion and she plunged It deep into the beast's hide.

She tumbled off its back an ungraceful few feet, catching herself against the rough bark of an ancient tree and bracing herself. She'd expected an ear-shattering scream to be heard throughout the world, hell and fury- for the very earth beneath her to shake! She braced herself, eyes shut tight enough to see stars, and waited. And waited. And then some more.

Silence. She braved a peek in front of her, expecting fangs rather than the beast's snout prodding at her cheek. Seemingly satisfied, it walked a few feet out in front, turning to meet her eyes as it stepped over the shattered remains of the blade on the forest floor. Its golden eyes bore into her, a playfulness lurking behind their fairness that reminded her somewhat of a small child.

Her heart fluttered at her throat as the beginnings of an old song came to mind.

The fairest eyes of legends old,

Beware the beast with eyes ringed gold.