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The moment Derek wakes up, he knows that he isn’t in the Preserve anymore.
Well, not in his Preserve, anyway.
Pushing himself to his feet, Derek takes a look around the surrounding area; it feels more green and alive than the Preserve he had originally found rest in, the animals that run through the clearing he’s standing in actually stopping and staring at him, despite the fact that they usually can sense the predator in their midst.
Rolling his shoulders and deciding that the best course of action is to find the creature that pulled him here, Derek starts walking in a northerly direction. He figures that he’ll run into something, sooner rather than later.
And he’s right; after only a few moments of walking in this more-alive-than-comfortable woods, Derek stumbles upon another clearing and quietly observes the being sitting in the middle of it.
It’s a man - or what looks like a man - sitting in the midst of a field of flowers. He is lean and pale, with hair the color of animal’s fur and eyes like caught amber. Like Derek, his body is bare and - unlike Derek - is lean in a way that speaks to restrained strength and a strike like a snake’s bite.
A gust of wind rustles through the flowers - marigolds, daisies, astrids, and all gathered in a haphazard array - making the man laugh when the petals come up and tickle at his face, neck, and shoulders.
“You can come out, shifter. There is no harm for you here.”
Derek tenses, always wary when another creature notices him when he does not want to be, but he can’t keep the stiffness to his frame for long. The creature is right; aside from the strange awareness that these trees hold, there hasn’t been any sense of danger or maliciousness from this.
Merely a idle watchfulness.
So, taking a deep breath, Derek enters the clearing.