It was a crisp, sunny afternoon that Saira had picked for her first wilderness hike out to the forests near the school proper. It was mild hilly terrain, about the most interesting land she could get around here anyway, and she had been admittedly curious about what sights there were out there. In fact... she had seen on a map that there was supposedly a natural spring up in a forest north of the campus, and like a good explorer, it made the Egyptian curious! Thumps on the low grass marked the only sign of her passage, as the campus faded behind the hill and trees...

Of course, Saira had come prepared. While she wore her 'trademark' broad beige coat and glasses, the girl had under it a brilliant orange blouse, airy in fabric and decorated with all manner of lighter-colored orange swirls. Khaki pants and high beige leather boots rounded out her travel outfit. Then, the dark brown backpack had to be considered, with various survival tools on it, including a length of rope, a compass tied to one of the straps so she could grab it and take a look ever so often, some water, a small first aid kit, and at least one spare sandwich. The last touch was the simple wood walking stick in her right hand, which rose to her chest and was pretty good for helping move her along at a faster pace.

Boots struck grass again, kicking up a small cloud of dirt from a nearby bare patch, before proceeding onwards. The dark-skinned girl made sure to cover ground quickly, having already crested a few small hills as the afternoon wore on. It made her happy, at least. She felt like she was doing something by making her way through the wilds, felt accomplished for mapping out the hills.

The sky started to slowly gain a reddish cast as the girl hiked further into the wilderness - and then she saw it! A pristine pool, dotted with some rocks amidst the trees and grass, giving off some mist as it sat in the forest, beckoning. Maybe there was a cave system, or something warming it? The thoughts of what might be in the spring certainly danced in her mind - but so did the thought of how nice it'd be to relax in her own private little pool!

The hunt. It fueled the senses, made reflexes sharp. He knew this time he would have it.

No one would ever dare disturb his domain after this.

The creature was fast, crafty, and lightning speed to the extent that it was a feet ahead of him. The trees certainly did not help at all. They hindered his movements, obstructed his arms and legs, and made leaping difficult. The creature was smirking with glee as it looked poised to go ahead.

Yet his resolve was ironclad. No one gets to mess with him and get away with it.

Endowed with so many god-given talents, the creature never knew what hit it next and in a matter of minutes, all that can be heard from it was a squeak of frustration.

Slowly life was crushed out of it, and in a matter of minutes it laid lifeless on the ground. Its pursuer went over to take a look, make sure it was dead.

He kicked it's sides, and it made no response. Lifeless.

A heave of relief.

Although it was momentary, for it seemed that his temper had gotten the best of him. This was a different part of the forest, and this was far away from his normal path. He had unconsciously veered away from his environs, and the lifeless creature may have had achieved what it set out to do, after all.

With a grunt of displeasure, he kicked the creature away.

Then, a sudden noise as the bushes on his other side seems to move...a creature poised for an attack. Before it can launch anything, he made a move for the upper hand.

Tch...it was just a rabbit.

But that was not the thing that caught his attention.

The bushes revealed a thin ray of light, and it seemed to come from the other side. A clearing...much like the one he frequented...yet this one was on the other side of the forest. Seems his was not the only watering hole, but the question was...was it vacant or occupied?

To add to his chagrin about it's vacancy, a girl stepped onto the scene...one which seemed to particularly know where she was headed. A bookish type, by the looks of her. So heavily covered...but then again, so are the rest of them during the beginning.

If this watering hole was occupied, well, damn the torpedoes...he's gone for so long without a 'meal'.

Having arrived at her destination rather swiftly - thanks to her handy compass no doubt, Saira walked over to the edge of the waters, kneeling down slightly on one knee. A hand went in, and swirled around the water a bit, testing it. Her smile widened when it was revealed to be a little warm, even comfortably so. A geothermal spring, on this island? That was great, and it'd be much better than all those crowded pools!

So with a little bit of added spring to her step, the bookish explorer unstrapped her backpack, pulling it off of herself and letting it slide down onto the grass with a thump. Then... rummaging! Saira unzipped parts of the pack, taking out a map, and pulling out a pen she had also packed. For about a minute, she scribbled some kind of note onto it, before putting both of those things away.

And for a second, the dark-skinned girl scratched her chin, wondering what she should do next. But... then, the girl was reminded of why she was out here to begin with! That in mind, Saira opened the main part of the backpack, and turned it around on the ground to face her...

...and, right before the watching eyes, she began taking off parts of her outfit. First the coat, with arms raising and lowering in turn to get out of the long sleeves. Then, her glasses, click-clacking to their compact form. At this point she grabbed the first two items and stuffed them into the pack.

The girl took a moment to stretch wide, before continuing. Then... off came the blouse, swiftly slid into the backpack. But she wasn't wearing a bra underneath... it was a bikini top in about the same shade of orange as her blouse, the two cups held together between her breasts by a decorative golden ring. Saira had to sit down to get to the next part, as boots, then socks, came off and went into the pack with everything else.

This gave her the chance to stand up again, unbutton her khakis, then slowly slide them down her legs, showing both the matching bikini bottom, and the soft curves of her body. Satisfied with her clothing change, Saira bent over to stuff the last pieces of clothing into the backpack, before zipping it all up and pushing it off away from the waters. It was then that she moved in.

Slow steps at first became longer strides, as the comfortably warm spring water made it much easier to walk in. Cozying up against a shelf of water-eroded stone, Saira finally began doing what she had come here for - relaxing! A soft, wistful "Ahhhhhh..." and the closing of her eyes proved that she was definitely going to take it easy now!

As sure as the sky was blue, voyeuristic eyes were treated to a striptease of sorts, and obviously it was not done in the same way as it was being received.

The coat went off, revealing a delicious chocolate skin underneath. More of a caramel colored hue, the girl stretches and it does not help but reveal her body all the more. Shapely curves, shapely legs, ample bosom...seemingly more than just ample...she was beginning to look all the more like a perfect prey, one he had every intention of tracking down and 'devouring'. Of course, he was set to do that later, but why wait when you certainly had the chance?

Without taking his eyes off her he set off to find indications that this lagoon's privacy was between him and his prey. There were no signs of anyone else intruding, and the water seemed blissfully peaceful, not unlike when there was something lurking beneath the surface. No bubbles. Not any of the slick traces he'd leave on the leaves of the bushes surrounding his own pool. No cracked twigs, nor were the trees messed up.

Ah...everything was just fine. Time to work out a plan.

He had been treated to a visual treat as one by one garments fell off, only to reveal a delicious bikini-and-bra number. How many of these he's ripped off nubile young bodies, he's lost count. For the moment, however, he will revel in the nice youthful curves of his latest prey. The way the bikini accentuates her body...soon, soon...

As she steps into the pool, she lets out a pretty little sigh of relief, signaling that the pool may not be that cold. In fact, it did seem that there were small billows of smoke rising...indications that it is indeed geothermal. And he did not even think of the island as volcanic.

He's figured out he could handle this...and began working out a way to move in undetected.

As if Neptune himself designed the formation of the lagoon, just beyond the view of the girl, there was a small inlet, leading into the middle, and deep enough for him to conceal himself.

Of course, Saira wasn't all that aware of the hunting creature nearby, instead leaning back contentedly in her own corner of the springs, breathing deeply as she let her body fully relax. Today had been a fairly stressful day after all! First days of class, mandatory gym classes with all of that running - even the hike she enjoyed so much had taken some of its toll.

But now, it was just her, and the water, soaking into her, warming her. Though, one thing the girl did do was shift some, sending subtle ripples through the water as she moved around the rocks, trying to find the nicest, most comfortable spot. Eventually, a bit further from the pack - and to the monster's relief still out of eyeshot from that inlet - she settled down, and actually rested her head on a small outcropping, looking skyward, as the sun continued to go down.

...And Saira actually began to drift off slightly. Not quite sleeping, but so calm, so quiet... almost like meditation. Just her, and the water. Silence... peace... Eyes closed to the world, senses focused on just the feelings of comfort. This was worth the trip, that much was for sure.

...Right?

Ever the naivette.

The monster began to test the water, sifting through it gently and finding it to be somewhat relaxing and energizing. This must have been the reason why so many students frequented the school's secret faculty spa, one which they used without so much frowning...only to be ravaged so unwillingly.

The water seemingly caressed his scales, and some of the moss that had grown on him had begun to scrape off. It was actually a relief, since he had been bothered by some time of those moss formations. They made hot days hotter, and cold nights colder. They hindered his scale movements as he sliced through water...but now, as they slowly disintegrated in the flow of the lukewarm water, the monster felt his limberness returning. His old self beginning to surface.

A few silent strokes later he had reached the middle, which had began to shallow. This seems to be a danger to him, since it would blow his cover. However, he himself would find ways to work around this.

Blessedly, though, inland lagoons seem to have a large amount of moss on the bottom, and his green effortlessly blended with the colors of the lagoon floor, up until that spot which was just inches away from those feet of hers.

His head rose up slowly out of the water.

Her head was cocked backwards, the rock forming a natural cushion for her neck. Albeit hard, it still did its job. She took refuge under a clump of trees which shielded her face and much of her body from the sun...as if she needed some more tanning, that caramel skin was just fine...and was relishing in the calmness of the water, the cool caress of the air, as if it was coordinating with the invader.

Before going under once again, he smirked, and licked his lips.

((Just so you know, this is last post for tonight - gotta sleep sometime and all!))

Idly, Saira blinked, coming up from her reverie for a moment to peek at the brilliant red sky. The tree cover was dense, but she could see beams of light piercing through it as the sun shone through the canopy, revealing spots of billowing orange, lavender, and other even more exotic colors of cloud, all lit by the pretty lighting that happened every time between day and night.

It made her smile. It made her stop staring straight up. Left, and right. Nothing was nearby, and her stuff wasn't being nosed at by some wild animal. So far, so good. Still smiling softly to herself, Saira was about to pull her head back, when she sensed movement of some sort. It was a subtle thing, nothing she could really put a finger on.

In fact, the calming effects of the water made her put it out of mind. It was probably a rabbit or something. Maybe a frog. She wasn't really able to tell whether or not it had come from the water or nearby. But, either way, it was dismissed, and her head reclined back again, left to thoughts of peace and satisfaction...

Naivette, indeed.

There are three parts as to when a naive girl's surprise is genuinely expressed.

The first is supressed and ignorant bliss. In which the monster slowly crept up to where she was, slowly and surely making its way towards her unsuspecting frame. She may have the guts to run for it and might make it out, if only she was paying attention.

No. Instead, she is wrapped up in a world that is make-believe. One in which she feels at peace, and in tranquility. Trapped in a place in time where no one would be able to touch her...save for the malicious creature slowly drifting towards her.

Then comes a slow, tedious realization that she might not be alone after all, followed by a heavily tinged assumption that some random animal was trying to avoid her presence. For what she may know, all that there was to it was a rabbit, a deer, or some smaller animal whose path she has trodded upon. There and then, she returns into her blissful relaxation, unmindful that somehow, the monster had crept up close to her and was actually getting impatient, staring at her crotch and the way it was so teasingly revealed between partially opened young legs.

And the final realization comes...shock.

Rude shock, in which something suddenly grabs her and then stops to. She looks around and sees no one that might be doing it, and only then will she start to think that that thing in the water might not be just some small animal...

And finally, the surprise as she is suddenly forcefully pulled away from her position, right into the middle of the lagoon, and steadily into some unseen part of the forest where darkness and gloom hides the creature now besieging her.

It was the third stage that was new to Saira, as she felt... something move by her leg, then grab hold. Almost immediately, alarm shot through her mind. What the hell was that?! Was that what she noticed earlier? Of course, the absolute first action was to get out of the water, and those same young, shapely legs began to rise out of the spring and bolt to where she had left her backpack...

...When that something grabbed again, and pulled hard. Saira let out a high-pitched scream, clawing at the very rocks that cushioned her head earlier, kicking at the water with both grabbed and free legs, causing her indeed nubile body to pitch and spasm all over the place. The girl tried, credit had to be given for at least that.

But she was no rock climber, so her grip faltered. She was no swimmer, so her legs had no hope of breaking free of the monster's grasp. No, Saira was a scholar, even if she was one that actually got her hands dirty ever so often. And unfortunately for her? Nothing about being a scholar would stop this. That would be why she only screamed, rather than try to say anything - this was obviously some kind of predatory animal (like a crocodile or something!... Definitely "or something".), which she figured wouldn't be able to understand anything, so she'd be wasting her time.

While the dark-skinned girl struggled, her mind raced. What could she do to try to get away? Why oh why did she insist on going to the nice secluded place far away from everyone? Was this thing going to eat her? Was she going to die?!... The truth, she didn't know - though it was no more comforting...

Damn the discomfort, all he knew right now was instinct. His body was running on pure instinct alone...

It gives him focus...

Makes his reflexes sharper...

His movements faster...

Makes him stronger.

He was akin to a shark in the ocean, which had a certain familiar scent of blood. There was no turning back now, and with the girl's frame it was not very difficult to drag her away from the safe spot and into...

The forest?

Suddenly it dawned upon him that the forest was a pretty bad thing. The creature he had just killed earlier proved that. There were a lot of them in this forest and each one, even though small, packs a sexual appetite equal to that of someone as large as he is. He would have to contend with a lot of those guys in order to get a good shot, but he could not just abandon this, what he has started already.

He decided to play with her some more while thinking of the best way to take her.

So, as if on cue, he slowly releases her foot and lays silently still on the floor. It might have been the most foolish thing to do, but he needed time to think.

Besides, someone as smart as her, her brains would never count for anything anymore, now that she's scared and panicking.

Those were the rules.

Saira surely didn't know what was going on already, especially when the monster let go. What... was this thing? Maybe it was doing something like what sharks do. Y'know, 'tasting' or something - and this... this... monster didn't like her taste? But after about 2-3 seconds of utter confusion, Saira decided she needed to get out of there.

Beginning to make a break for it, the girl leapt out of the water, trying to get through the mess of rock ledges and outcroppings, trying to at least get to what she assumed was safety on dry land. Thoughts, again, raced through her head. She needed to get her pack, she'd grab her walking stick, then back off slowly once she was out of the water. If it was amphibious or something, it'd be slower on land, right?

Or so the logic went. Grab the stick, beat it back if it chases, and then... get to a safe distance before bolting. These creatures react to sudden movements, and all.

...There was so much she didn't know.

His eyes were clearer from under the surface of the water. He could see her movements, could predict her movements even more so now that she's in a state of panic, and...

...was heavily turned on, seeing her full body wet for the first time.

Her chest heaved with nervousness, and the desire to somehow escape this nightmare, but that only made them jut out all the more so that they look as if they're raring to burst out from the confines of her top. They looked like firm, soft oranges...big oranges...that would fit well inside his palms. As if they were inviting him to sample them...

And her legs, which ended at a hint to the doorway between sanity and insanity, that which were the staple prize that every 'male' in this island would fight and die to covet. That treasure which they try so hard to guard, only to willingly give at the moment when they are lost in the throes of ecs...

Wait.

The creature gathered himself, and shook his head as if he was asleep. That wasn't the way to go. He issued tiny air bubbles and smirked as she seemed confused as to what to do.

Even the best brains sometimes turn dumb when faced with unexpected situtations.

With clockwork precision, tentacles erupt from his back, and out of the water, aiming for the girl's legs which were still within range, being so near the edge of the lagoon.

Tentacles?! Saira jumped back further, shocked even further with what was going on. Now she KNEW there was no precedent for this - this was no freshwater squid - they didn't DO this! She backpedaled further, and flipped the walking stick into her hands. Of course, to do that she had to lean down, giving a peek of the sorta-cleavage at the top of her bikini top.

But the view passed, as they bounced back up as she raised the smooth wooden stick, and then down as she let it down with a loud thwack against the nearest tentacle as she continued to back off. Instincts are traits even scholars knew, but... Saira was young still, she didn't have the kind of experience needed to just know what to do. No, her first impulse was nowhere near the right one.

For brief, brief seconds this carried on, as frantic, powerful (...relatively speaking) motions of her body sent hair and breasts whipping and bouncing all around as she furiously attacked the groping appendages. But she couldn't fend them all off, and with a quick wrap around her leg and a tug, Saira screamed again, and was knocked onto her back, the stick falling out of her hands.

Those hands once again clawed at the earth desperately, trying to keep herself from getting dragged off somewhere to some terrible fate that she STILL thought was a lot more fatal than it actually was - naivette extended into outright genre blindness, it seemed. But for all her flailing, Saira only succeeded in giving a better look at her kicking legs, and randomly gyrating her glistening caramel-hued body.

And the tentacles took hold of both legs, as the girl continued to plaintively scream, perhaps realizing she was losing the fight...

For such a studious character, she wasn't so bad.

Perhaps she was the type that was calm and collected until all hell broke loose, but no matter what, she fought like hell to repel the invading tentacles that the creature had shot toward her. Maybe it was a bit of experience with her...experience in the thought that some malevolent monster might lurk in the tombs of kings she's excavated or in the temples of civilizations long gone she's unearthed. The typical wild animal making the place it's new home, or a poisonous spider here and there. These were the sort of things which would've given her some experience about things which went bump when disturbed.

But surely, they did not sprout feet-long tentacles nor did they try to grab her and drag her where she was sure to become...a 'meal'.

Every hit was a pain, and even though the creature was resilient, it did not mean that it was invincible. He felt pain too, and winced a little everytime a good parry or a nice whack connected cleanly.

Yet, every inch of pain was worth it when he saw her bosom bouncing all over the place, as if they weren't comfortable inside that top of hers. The thin sheen of sweat that was developing on her caramel body made her look like a chocolate starting to melt in the setting sun.

' Heh...'

An opening. She set her legs wide for a powerful whack on a seemingly lifeless and bleeding tentacle when the other one had enough sense of self to wrap itself around one ankle. This became the cue for the other one to do so, and yank hard. She kicked hard to free herself but she only opened herself up even more to the beast.

And as she got dragged to the lagoon, the beast rose up from being submerged in the middle, just as the last rays of the setting sun died in the branches of the trees.

" Good...evening." Kouzakai said in a deep, baritone voice that seemed to come from the depths of the sea, as he surveyed the place, and his catch, and felt the cool evening air coming in.

Saira writhed some more, still trying to escape, as the creature brought her back into the water. It was then, as she was held by the slick, tough flesh of the tentacle (which felt somewhat... icky against her leg, as far as she thought), that she saw it. As best she could in the twilight, and with no glasses on...

So the girl squinted, trying to get an idea of what had grabbed her. Something large, rough, hulking... strange. A strange creature... But it was more than just a creature, as the sound of a voice came from it, even if it seemed to come from everywhere. It could talk?! What the hell is this thing?! With defiance, but also fear in her voice, Saira yelled back at the thing.

"Who... What... What are you?! What do you want with me?!"

There were a few stock replies, it seemed, for this kind of thing. There was the angered curse - when the girl just wanted to kill the thing for trying to attack her, when she was that damn violent. Then there was the begging and pleading for her life, for those so meek that their fear overpowered their shock and outrage. Saira fit into the third category - the ones that were so surprised and bewildered that they couldn't go without knowing - what, who, why...