Death stares at the human girl as she continues to shiver. He sighs and walks closer to her prone form. She is still coherent enough to feel fear, as she starts to back up in panic when the Horseman draws close. Death simply moves to her right side and sits down with his hands on his knees. The girl opens her eyes and nearly jumps out of her skin at the sight of the Horseman next to her.
Death stares at her with his same unreadable expression, "Do not worry, I shall remain with you until the shock and tears stop. After that, you will be on your own. Now, as you were." Death dismissively waves at the child while turning his gaze to the rest of the forest. Though he only saw four Yoma, there might still be some waiting in the shadows for him to drop his guard.
The girl stares at Death for some time, before pulling her legs to her chest again. Her hair falls around her neck as the sobbing starts. They wrack her form with each inhalation, filled to the brim with all her fear, hopelessness, and despair over the current events. The entire time, Death sits and listens. He may care very little for the girl, but he can understand her plights.
The loss of family is never gotten over easily. While the Four have never had a perfect relationship, they are the last of their kind. He would do anything to protect them. It was for that reason he was here in the first place. And this girl had just lost all her close relatives to a pack of flesh-eating monsters. That was not something you got over within a day. Coupled with the loss of innocence and the sudden realization of the finality of death, it was a miracle the child hadn't contemplated suicide.
The human and the Force of Nature sat there among the trees for some time. Leaves fell and piled up on the nearby grass only to be blown away by the wind. Death remained with the girl the whole time, even after her tears had dried up. Her face remained in her knees until she lifted her hazel eyes to stare at her rescuer.
"Finished?" the Horseman asked. When she nodded, he stood up, "Then my work here is done. I trust you know the way back to your village?" Another nod gives Death all the information he needs.
As he starts to walk away, the girl gets up and holds her hand out towards him, "Wait! Ah!" She falls to the ground and causes a pile of leaves to crunch and scatter. She slowly pushes herself up to look up at the Reaper.
Death glances back at the girl, "Do not presume that I will become your protector. I have business I must attend to."
"But-but-I…they won't…" she goes quiet, unable to finish her sentence. Instead, her sobbing starts up again, with balled up hands moving up to dry her eyes. Death keeps staring at her for a bit longer, before walking over to her side and picking her up by the arm.
He gently sets her back on her feet. At her confused look, he states, "I said I would remain with you until your shock and tears have stopped. Your shock has gone, but your tears still flow. So, I will stay with you." With that, the Horseman starts to make his way back towards the village. The girl stares after him for a short time, before her footsteps fall in line with his. Her arms wrap around her shoulders as she hugs herself in his wake.
As Death walks, he looks back at the child following him. He doesn't plan to keep her with him. Not only does he have little patience for those who can't keep up with him, but she would become a mighty hindrance during his later battles. He'll drop her off at the village, see what information he could gather, and continue his way. Until then, he might be able to discover something about this world from her. He was doubtful that it would—
The Horseman stopped in his tracks, causing the child to run into his right leg. She hit the ground quickly and looked up at him with confusion. That soon turned to fear as she concluded that it had to be more Yoma. She quickly grabbed onto Death's leg, shaking in fear.
Death looked towards a single tree that didn't seem much different from the rest. However, the thing Death noticed was the long, human shadow extending from the tree's.
Swiftly, his right arm shot out with the green, ethereal hand of Death's Grip following soon after. It grabbed up the leaves from the ground near the tree and brought them to the Horseman within the span of a second. Death called out to the hiding fool, "Show yourself! Else I'll drag you out by your neck!"
Silence reigned for a few moments before a cloaked figure stepped from behind the trunk of the tree. His entire body was covered in a long, brown cloak that made him blend in with the environment. He had done a good job of hiding himself up till now. However, Death was no fool and he had dealt with creatures harder to discover than this man.
The human slowly stepped out into the light but kept his face hidden beneath his hood. He spoke in a gravelly, light voice, "Well now. We never expected something such as yourself to appear."
"Spare me your empty conversation," the Horseman took out one of his scythes, "tell me what you want."
The human held his hands above his head, "Very well. I am here with a proposition of sorts. If you'll allow me to take the girl off your hands, I'll gladly inform you about anything you could possibly need answering. It is obvious that you are not from around here and wandering blindly would do you no good. And you have no reason to keep the girl anyway. So, what do you say?"
Death does not trust this man as far as he could throw him, but he could not doubt what he said. He was planning to send this child to her village and he was mainly looking for information. He stood to benefit most from this deal.
However, he knew what making a deal that sounded too good to be true was like.
He was the master of such things, after all.
[] He took the deal anyway. Though Death didn't trust the man, he would not pass up this reasonable deal. (You may pick multiple questions)
-[] Where am I?
-[] Who are you?
-[] How long have you been there?
-[] Other? Write in...
[] He refused it outright. He didn't trust anything about it and would not let himself be tricked.
[] He would simply take the man hostage and force him to answer his questions. There's very little this human could do to one such as him.
[] Write in…
