The man was lost.

A casual observer would note that his hair was extremely filthy, and that his armor had seen some wear. An experienced observer would note that said armor was mismatched, and his weapons were crudely made. In short, he was a bandit.

But what would a bandit be doing in a forest? He had either deserted the group he was working with after stealing their money, or had narrowly escaped being caught by the law and was on the run- or both, in this case. This particular bandit had worked as a highwayman, robbing any who passed by. He had been part of a group of four men, with no particular obligation to help each other. They were in it for the money, and it was out of convenience they joined forces. One night, while the others were sleeping, one of the bandits cut his comrades' throats, and was going to make off with a bag full of money, when he heard the sound of hooves approaching. It was a patrol force from the nearby city of Talur. Cursing his bad luck, he ran for the nearest convenient hiding place- the Great Talur Forest.

If he had understood the speech of the animals, he would have been warned that a terrible creature wandered the forest, looking for animals to eat. That he would fare better simply turning himself in. Of course, even with the warnings he would have proceeded anyway- as with many bandits, he was filled with an arrogant bravado.

The man cursed, and leaned against a tree, panting. He had been running for at least a hour so far, and although his arms were fairly well-muscled, his legs were not. 

The girl watched the man. It was the first time she had met another human- and she didn't have a very good opinion of her species so far. It was rather unfair to compare herself, the combination of the best parts of a dozen species, with the degenerate below her, now retching from the exercise. He would make good food, at the very least. Her sphere of influence had expanded considerably recently, and now she was hard-pressed to catch enough animals to make for a good meal.

Her Instinct told her that the best place to strike for a quick kill would be the soft, fleshy unprotected neck, and recommended that she simply drop down and rip out his throat that very second, but she shushed it and continued observing.

The man considered his options. Now that the militia were after him, he couldn't simply waltz into Talur undisguised. He'd have to find a decent disguise, buy a horse and supplies, and flee- flee to a different kingdom, where tales of his crimes were yet unreported. But first, he would have to make his way out of the forest. As he had been running with no particular destination in mind, he had no idea where he was. If it wasn't nighttime, he could simply follow the sun until he managed to reach the edge of the forest. He supposed he would have to sleep in the forest.

Like the girl, he planned to climb a suitable tree- and he managed this, after much cursing and slipping and loud thuds when he fell to the ground. However, after tentatively testing the branches, he found that they most likely would not support his weight. Now he was stuck- he didn't think he would be safe sleeping on the ground, and he didn't think he could stay in the tree. He tried to position himself as comfortably as possible without straining the branches, and tried his best to fall asleep. His head jerked abruptly as a nearby clump of leaves rustled, but relaxed when a small bird hopped out.

The girl had caught the sparrow and held it in her hand with her fingers around its beak to silence its sounds of protest. She stealthily moved through the trees until she was in the tree next to the one the man was in. When she crossed over, the rustling sound made by her movements caught his attention, and she froze, only moving her fingers to let the bird escape. In the darkness, the limbs of a skinny girl could look an awful lot like branches.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She positioned her self until she was directly above the man, who had closed his eyes, and slowly reached her arm towards him. When it was so close it almost brushed his neck, she jabbed her fingers into the man's throat.

The bandit's eyes flew open, his thoughts jumbled due to the sudden agony he felt in his throat. His eyes didn't have time to register the hand flying towards his neck, and then he felt nothing.

The girl was furious with herself. She had misjudged the thickness of the man's skin, and her fingers had merely left scratches, although on the inside his windpipe had been crushed. The second time, though, her fingers managed to tear out the man's throat. The spray of blood splashed her face, and she wiped it off with her clean hand, and licked it. It wasn't much different from the blood of other animals, and she was disappointed. She pulled at his hide, to discover that it came off easily, without any gore- what she had removed was his leather jerkin, and as the concept of clothing was utterly alien to her, she had thought it was the man's skin. She pulled at the man's legs, and found that his pants came off, albeit after some tugging, and again without any blood. Frustrated, she climbed down the tree, and found the shiny pieces of metal the man had been wearing before he had laid down in the tree. She cast them aside, as they were of no use to her. She went back up, and rummaged through the man's pants, and found his dagger. Even she could understand that this was a tool for cutting, and after admiring the sharp blade for a moment, she went to work dismembering the man.

After she was finished, she had around thirty pieces of evenly-sized hunks of flesh, and she ate half before her stomach was too full to eat any more. She lay down beside the dead man's corpse, and went to sleep.

The sun's rays woke her from her slumber, and she immediately began eating the rest of the dead man's flesh. When she had eaten the very last morsel- a thin, tube-like piece of meat she couldn't figure out the purpose of- she convulsed, and fell to the ground, although she barely noticed. The reason for the spasm was due to the huge amount of information that was being poured into her head- tens, no, hundreds of times more vast that any of the animals she had consumed. In the short span of 2 hours, she learned every human concept there was to learn- Language, Good and Evil, Society, and countless other ideas. The only one she couldn't accept was Emotion. To her, it was a completely unnecessary thing. What use was emotion to someone like her, whose only purpose was to devour? Her mind battled with it for a while until they came to a compromise- she would only have the barest minimum of emotion. Enough to convince other humans that she, like them, was human- no more, no less.

She opened her eyes, seeing the world through a completely different light. None of her animalistic traits had been dulled- on the contrary, they were sharper than ever- but they now had to cope with a new trait, taking up the most space in her mind.

The first fully human thought she had was that she was naked. She felt no embarassment from the fact- after all, all animals went naked. However, she understood that to mix with other humans, she would need to possess something called 'dignity'. She climbed back into the tree, and tugged on the man's jerkin. It smelled, and was scratchy, but it would have to do. Due to her slight stature, the vest was extremely large for her, and its hem went down to her knees. She picked up the bloodstained knife, and after licking it clean, went to work on modifying its length to fit her. In the end, she was left with what looked like an extremely baggy t-shirt. She did the same for the pants, and after tightening the belt to its limit the pants stopped falling off her. She liked the knife- she would definitely be taking it with her. The 'armor', however, was of no practical use to her. Even if she could 'sell' it, the compensation would not be equal to the effort of carrying it. She checked the 'sword' the man had owned, and shrugged- it was a weapon, and weapons were good. It wasn't as heavy as the armor, so she would be able to carry it more easily.

When she was done looting the dead bandit's belongings, she began making her way out of the forest. After eating the bandit, she had felt a sort of tugging sensation, telling her that she needed to become part of human society. She allowed the sensation to continue telling her so, because she felt that joining civilization would help her find more things to eat. It was a pity eating the way she had done in the past would be looked down upon, but she could bear it. If the memories of food the man had carried were accurate, then she would like human cuisine a lot.