Tynan heard her footsteps on the forest floor which ended with some distant murmuring of conversation. He had wanted to fight back, but no matter what he said, he knew where that would leave him. With the foul smelling polstice on his nose, his torso aching from the strikes, he sat by the stream.

Beast mastery was a beguiling thing. Looking into the mind of animals, you begin to loose sight of yourself. You see things in animals that resonate frighteningly with the ugly side of humanity. Constant fear, wariness, the hot taste of rage that fueled the fight for survival and the hunt. They were all in him. The better you were at mastery, the more prone you were to loosing yourself as the animal inside you took hold of you.

If you weren't careful, beast mastery would leave you nothing more than... instincts on legs. Human shaped, but no longer human. The mental image of the Eris came to mind. His eyes narrowed in resolution. He would not loose himself.

It probably wasn't a good idea to go back to camp now. He wasn't sure how Arum would take it. The priest was probably still angry with him. He sat by the stream, hunched over and aching as the distant murmuring continued in the camp. He suddenly felt very alone. Which... was something animals hardly ever felt. When you're living from meal to meal, you rarely had time to be upset that you had no friends. Loneliness was human.

How nice, he thought bitterly.