Plague dogged her footsteps for the first few moments out of the clearing, following her from up in the treetops. He took great pains to conceal himself, moving at a distance and stepping gracefully from branch to branch, suspending his weight equally on all four limbs and the countless tendrils that snaked out from under the back of his cloak, making the boughs bend only slightly with his passing. However, upon seeing the path she chose, he turned and left into the forest, making his way back to his cavern to quickly grab some provisions for the chase.

It wouldn't take long for her to realize why he left, if she even noticed him following, that is. The northeast exit curved immediately, staying almost flush to the clearing and turning off to end up in a long straightaway pointing southwest.

It is without much pomp or circumstance that Plague drops back into view. Persephone had been headed down quite the long straight-away, had just turned onto it in fact, when Plague fell from the height of the canopy down to one knee in the middle of the path. He picked himself up quickly and dusted himself off, a dark shape dangling from one closed fist.

Plague was not one to partake in a game without hedging his bets. As such, a quick trip back to his lair and a brief rummage through his arsenal were all that were necessary to assure him what he assumed would be an easy victory in this little contest.

"Surprise, dear!" he shouted as the weighted net sailed from his hand with ease, the form spreading in the air as she sprinted towards him, eclipsing her within its shadow as he hopped back up into the canopy and was gone. He was certain she would waste most of her time extricating herself from the net, the weight alone would like bowl her over and leave her wondering which way was up.

A smile crosses Plague's decidedly alien features as he catches sight of the girl struggling to free herself before pulling up into the treetops and making his way toward the clearing they had specified as the destination. There was really quite little chance of her reaching it within the time limit now, but Plague was not one to allow loose ends to ruin a plan.

He rested his hand on the trunk of one of the trees, speaking to it directly, "Hold her for me when she gets in sight of the clearing, Kohryu friend, I need to prepare some things..." he patted the trunk twice and was off.

As Persephone sprinted through the twisting corridors of trees time slowly ticked away along with each footstep. She rounded one final corner and, almost miraculously, the waterfall loomed before her, spilling into that wonderfully clear pool. The idyllic scene was shattered, however, as the roots of the trees shot across the path, twisting like writhing serpents as they snatched at her legs as she ran.

Plague left her there in the darkened copse for a few minutes while he prepared the lounge-styled room in his lair for a guest, starting a small fire and setting out a bottle of wine. He was nothing if not a welcoming host, no matter his plans for the morsel he had ensnared. Besides, he had quite a taste for washing down the emotions of those he fed upon with an equally full-bodied vintage port.

His boots crunched the underbrush as he approached, looking down at the girl with that one yellowed lantern of an eye, laughing softly, "Well, you certainly made a respectable effort, my dear, but you seem rather tired..."

He extended his hand, offering to lift her to her feet, "Now... wouldn't it have been so much easier to simply come with me in the first place? To think, all of this fuss to adjourn with me anyway... It makes you question the intelligence of this little game on your part, doesn't it?"

"Well, normally it would take quite a while to reach our proposed destination on foot, but as luck would have it, the forest is still with us," he laughed, a hand on her shoulder, not really worried about her running. After all, if she would have made it, he would have let her go. Fair is fair. He expected the same courtesy in return.

"Kohryu... a little help, my friend," he called out.

The trees stiffened and shifted again, opening up a long, straight path before them that seemed to lead directly to the base of the mountain. The wind whistled down the lengthy alley and nightfall seemed almost imminent.

"Let's hurry on, shall we? Night is closing in with a surprising haste and I don't savor the thought of having to fight off another of my ilk for exclusive rights to you, dear," he extended his arm outward welcomingly as he led on.

He checked the hooked claws of his nails, rubbing them up against the canvas material of his coat, buffing them to an obsidian sheen that glinted in the dying light, the material of his nails certainly something alien with that strange shimmer it took on, "I'm quite confident in my ability to fight them off, of course, evisceration was always a specialty of mine..."

That much was true, it was practically what those bladed nails were made for, in fact. He had staked his claim to this girl for the evening and come hell or high water he would be adequately compensated for the trouble he had gone through. Fair is, to beat a dead horse, fair.

"However, the thought of actually putting any real effort forth this evening is so... distasteful..." he sighed as they reached the clearing before the entrance to his home, the wildflowers in this field singing to Persephone in a voice both beautiful and terrible. They were cared for tenderly but many a girl had emerged from the cavern, stumbling through this field in shock and horror and the emotional stains ran as a frightful undercurrent.

"You seem to be distressed at the state of the forest, little one. Allow me to put your mind at ease," he snapped his fingers once more and the torrent of screaming yellow energy fled the trees, returning them to their proper equilibrium, the current flowing around the pair and into the cave before them in a fierce wind.

Plague stood agape. That was... odd. He stopped in his tracks, the girl actually dragging him forward in a stagger step for once. It seemed as though his normally quite-competent mind had run into a critical error and needed time to reboot. He shook his head quickly, falling back into step next to her.

"I can't... you just... You know, my neice is the only other person to ever have done something like that. Ever. In near two-thousand years," he says in near astonishment, "Okay, well no, my mother too, but... well, you know the phrase 'a face only a mother could love,'" he laughs, seemingly talking more to himself than her, finally getting back into his rhythm, picking back up on his mental tracks as they descended into the cave.

Kohryu greeted the pair near the habitable part of the cavern, wearing their normal garb of ancient armor, "Hello, sir, Miss Persephone. You might recognize us as the crows and the trees," they said with a deep bow.

"Actions, words, simply terms for two different types of language. One has no more intrinsic worth than the other, I'm afraid. In fact, I've found that speaking something aloud often invokes a more powerful response than an action, prone to misinterpretation, can bring..." he trails off, feeling himself getting a little philosophical as they descend into the earth.

"Forgive my rambling, sometimes I feel I'm far too infatuated with the sound of my own voice," he laughed, listening her compliment the much more hospitable core of his haunt.

"Now? Why now we drink. We attend to such pleasantries before addressing the necessary evil of my feeding. Though that's not to say I won't enjoy every moment of it, but I do sympathize..."

He led her into the lounge by a guiding hand. There were two comfortable if a little ragged chairs arranged around a table with a bottle of wine and two glasses. A fire licked at the logs arranged with it in the rough-hewn fireplace behind them. Kohryu bowed out and left, leaving them alone.

"Please, dear, take a seat."