A Strange Encounter

Zhāng had occasion to visit a certain mysterious area known only as The Spooky Forest that day since he was investigating the various allegedly supernatural phenomena which most folks tended to believe occurred there. So, that was why he had found himself there in the deepest part of the woods on that day. However, little did he know that he was going to have a rather strange, almost surreal encounter there. For just as he had finished looking into one of the phenomena and been taking a short break before moving onto studying the next on his list, he noticed something…at least what looked like a something moving in a different part of the woods which was nearby his present location. It didn’t seem like your average forest creature either, and had a completely unfamiliar feel to it, so naturally, his innately insatiable curiosity took hold of him entirely, and thus he found himself trying to follow the entity.

Sadly, his tracking skills seemed as though they left something to be desired, for just as he was getting close enough to have a nice view of the entity, his misfortune streak kicked in, causing him to step on a dry thick twig that, for whatever reason, just happened to be lying down on the ground before him. Normally, he would have been able to avoid it easily, but today was not a normal day…no, today he was engrossed in trying to shadow the entity in the hopes of observing it, so he ended up not noticing that little twig on the forest floor next to the line of shrubbery he was using for cover till now. So, as a natural consequence of that oversight, he ended up stepping on said twig with all his weight, albeit only 120 lb. Still though, it was just enough to cause the twig to snap, and in that part of the woods, which turned out to be pretty silent otherwise, the sound of the twig snap which would normally have been ignored, had now come to the notice to the entity he had been surreptitiously following till now.

Curses…me and my bad luck, I curse you, O Three Sisters Fate…why did you have to write the script for today in such a way that I end up in this troublesome situation? You three truly are cruel mistresses…

His thoughts ran thus, and so with a noticeably dejected sigh, he stepped out of and climbed over the shrubbery that he had been using as cover till then with his hands up and his palms facing toward the entity in a gesture of surrender

“Please cease and desist, I have no desire to fight you or to bring any harm to you. So, I humbly beseech you to not attack me. I was merely curious about you, but before I could follow the proper protocol and introduce myself to you, my curiosity had taken over…and so, here we are face to face.”

He spoke thus, revealing his voice to be of a rich baritone, but yet somehow mellifluous nature and after this opening remark and plea, he fell silent in order to glean what he could about the entity via observation. The entity in question seemed to have draconian features to some degree, as he could see from the vicious looking, razor sharp dragon claw she was pointing at him after she had called out to him with that warning earlier. His keen piercing eyes roamed about over her form, up and down and then side to side in an attempt to take in as much detail as possible.

I see…so there are at least four possibilities here…she could be a dragon which has taken human form for some reason…or perhaps she is a dragonkin, the offspring of a dragon and human union…or perhaps it’s a result of whatever magic she wields, if any…and lastly, maybe she is under some sort of malediction, or perhaps some sort of biological agent came into contact with her changing her forcibly to this form…how delightfully intriguing…

Such thoughts whirled around in his mindscape as his brain worked at what seemed to be a frenzied pace to try to figure out exactly what sort of phenomenon he was looking at now, but for the time being, he decided he would just wait to see what the draconian woman would do and hear what she had to say to him.

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OOC:

sentences with italics and not in double quotes are character's thoughts

sentences with quotes and simple bolding without italics are character's out loud speech

Zhāng watched as the draconian woman lowered her clawed hand ever so slightly before asking who he was and why he was following her. He had already explained the reason he was following her, but perhaps the woman thought curiosity was not enough of an excuse. He sighed softly and replied while watching her come closer to him

“My name is Zhāng, and it’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Cinderfield.”

After that, he did something rather theatrical to emphasize his greeting, and that was bowing low to her with a slightly bent knee and his right hand over his heart while folding his left behind his back. Then, after getting back up, he paused briefly to gather his thoughts since this next step was crucial to gaining her trust. After a few moments, he resumed

“I do sincerely apologize if my actions have offended or angered you in any way, mademoiselle. Now, regarding why I am following you and why I was hiding from you, it’s simply because I thought that if I were to jump out before you without warning, you may have deemed me a hostile and maybe even attacked me…and I was following you because, as I said earlier, you seem to be a highly intriguing individual and I simply wish to get to know you…”

He paused again as he wasn’t sure how she would take this next part, but in the end he decided to go for it anyway

“…and if you are gracious enough to allow it, to learn all I can about you. Why do I want to learn about you, you ask? It’s because dragons are one of my most favorite types of beings in this world, and I have never run across one…till now anyway.”

He ended his speech there and then fell silent while waiting for her reaction and reply, all the while letting his keen senses glean as much information he could from her body language and other non-verbal aspects. While never dropping eye contact with her, he also brought a cordial, ear to ear smile to his thin lips, hoping it would cause her to let her guard down some more.