Adam flew after the woman as she darted between the trees. He had to duck only once as branches swung out to clothesline him mid pursuit and in that moment, Adam was glad for the reduced state of the vegetation-it meant they were significantly less able to attack him. It wasn't long before the strange breathing trees were left behind and the two running figures passed through the shallow surface of the forests holographic projection and into the straight lines of the city grid. Adam looked forward, eyes fixed on his quarry, and from behind her trailing flapping hair saw the glossy black buildings stretch ever forward into the distant night.

Pale lights hung at the near centre of each building in slightly separated twos, covering the street with carefully measured illumination. The sounds of the speakers faded as the two ran, the 'birdsong' of the park being left behind. Soon the only sound that could be heard in the endless alley was the sound of the chase, of ragged breath and harried feet echoing down empty space. Adam was unsure if it was simply the hour or if there was something more odd of a reason but the street he pounded down was completely empty, in fact glancing to his left and right as he ran Adam couldn't see a single person walking through the disgruntley ordered wasteland. Adam was strangely glad for the eerie lack of people, for him running down the street in determined pursuit after a panicking fleeing woman would probably result in repercussions against him he would rather not face, especially in a world in which he knew nothing of the justice system or law enforcement.

The woman shoot a look back at her dogged purser seeing him much closer now then when the chase had started and confirming to herself his echoing footsteps had indeed been getting closer. She sent the bird on her shoulder away with a thought, cursing under her breath as she did so, faced with the reality this man would not give up his chase due to a simple aversion to exercise. She kept formulating plans of escape in her mind and once again she found herself thwarted by the city's disgustingly industrial design.

Adam continued running after the woman, steadily gaining ground with his longer strides. The bird took off from her shoulder and turned in the air towards him. He started at its diving form with an almost bone deep certainty he was going insane, especially when he saw the hate in the raven's beady little eyes as it closed the gap between them. Adam jumped to the side, as what did a crazy man do but feed into their hallucinations, but couldn't avoid still being struck by the bird's diving beak. His own momentum carried him into the suicidal birds collision and he felt a light laceration form in a line leading off his forehead. The bird had missed it's initial target, hoping to dive point first into Adam's squishy eyes but with startling areal mobility had managed to jerk out of its initial flightpath avoiding pancaking itself against Adam's skull. Its surprising resilient beak left a body trail above his eyebrow as it passed, feathers brushing against his face as it flapped off for another pass.

The kamikaze dive-bomb had slowed his stride and it was with a very unladylike curse that Adam started up the sprint again, seeking to close the distance that opened up between him and the plant girl. She kept her eyes fixed straight ahead and Adam was surprised at her endurance as he could feel his own reserves fastly dwindling. He knew that he wouldn't be making it to her before the bird got another chance to make unauthorised to his beautiful face. He swore at the raven, disparaging the birds strange dive bombing prowess even as it dived toward him again, barley allowing him to resume his previous pace. Then, almost as if to back up his claims about the birds violent talents Adam decided to engage in offence of his own. Adam swung his poorly formed fist at the bird forcing it to swerve out of it's path less it get caught in the tail feathers, swerve that is right into his other fist. Now in any other circumstance punching the air in between yourself was not as much an effective karate form as a way to accidentally hit yourself, but in this particular scenario the staggered throwing of Adam's fists effectively caught the bird falling towards his face as it tried to manoeuvre itself in escape.

Adam punched the bird. It went flying of to the side before Adam's fist followed through and hit his outstretched arm, causing the lli§m§b to sag and deaden. Dead arm at his side and fist still raised Adam paused for a second to look at the bird he'd punched struggle to hop onto its feet and take off, he felt extraordinarily guilty. The aggrieved cry that echoed from ahead served to cement this grief further. It felt a bit wrong to just punch a bird. However, Adam would not have punched the bird if it wasn't trying to poke his eyes out, so he shrugged and continued the chase as the grimace on his face faded. The bird would be fine, In fact it would have been fine if that women hadn't ordered it to attack him. If anything that women had endangered that animal by setting it upon a potentially violent purser.Even if it was done to defend herself, did the bird's safety not also matter?

Spurred onwards by his dubious morality and Ariel menace dealt with, Adam began closing the distance between him and his quarry once more. He saw her hugging the side of one of the towering monoliths. She was crouched over and moving forward in that weird hunched swift walk people do when they try to quickly sneak somewhere. Adam kept sprinting down the middle of the grid line despite the woman's deeply confusing actions. He could clearly see her creeping form. The woman threw a glance his way before turning and look at him with more scrutiny. As Adam got close enough to lock eyes with her she seemed to realise she was not at all hidden against the side of the building she was pressed against, the side of the building that was clearly visible to Adam and that faced outwards to the street he was running down that had no obfuscations in sight anywhere from here to the distant horizon... Adam wondered briefly if the woman was actually insane, and of the two of them present in this alien reality he was the one who understood it more. He quickly dismissed the thought as wishful thinking and seeing the woman was still frozen against the building put on a burst of speed in hope of closing the remaining distance.

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He reached her as she started backpedaling along the building, starting to slip away once more.

"wait'' He cried out as he finally got close enough to tell her he wasn't a homicidal maniac or the member of an agricultural research society. He swiped his hand through the empty space she had just vacated as sprung back with a supernatural graze, leaving churned blemishes in the smooth grounds she did so. She disappeared around the side of the building and he jumped after her, the adrenaline surging in his veins slowing him to push down the amazement and unhelpful wonderings of whatever magic she'd just conjured. "I want to talk, I just want to talk!" Adam ran after her she darted through another perfectly wide alleyway, perfectly aware of how uncomforting his words sounded and how many times he'd seen clichéd villains utter the same phrase in the movies. But he'd been running really fast and didn't have time or breath to compose a convincing eulogy-He'd just blurted the most pertinent thing he could think of, and it was true; Adam really did only want to talk, he be dammed if he killed another person so soon just because some stupid voice had commanded it.

The low humming of the 'space-way' picked up and Adam realised that the plant woman was running straight towards the brightly lit street. Adam lowered his gaze and focused on the woman's heels as she ran, not able to handle looking at there overwhelming overhead torrent of colour. He thought about how weird it was the woman wasn't wearing any shoes and had a belated realisation that maybe this wan't even a woman he was chasing. Maybe he was running down some sort of mythical dryad, maybe that's why she was so skittish, maybe he was chasing after a literal tree. The woman turned right as she emerged onto the sidewalk separating supersonic runway from pedestrian footpath. She leaped forward once again, a faint trail of green leaking from her soles as she did so, once again catapulting her out of Adam's reach. Adam turned the corner much more slowly, remembering what had happened to the man earlier who had attempted an accidental road crossing. As he sprinted after the maybe dryad he saw a clear tube bridge extend up and over the floating vehicles whizzing down the highway. Adam failed to notice the drone that had come to hang over his head as he continued to lumber after the spry tree lady.

He was now really flagging and he realised that if the woman were to reach the bridge he wouldn't be able to catch her. The encounter reminded him of the stories of young men running after beautiful ladies of the forest only to be foiled when it seemed like they'd finally caught them. Although Adam was not worried about the beauty off the tree woman he was so close to getting some answers too, he could certainly relate to the young mens plight-although he would rather not get turned into a tree upon actually catching the dryad as one of his mothers stories had warned against.

"Stop, wait please!" Adam tried words once more, knowing that there very little chance his plaintive shouts would make a difference. "I don't want to hurt you, I need help-please I need answers" Adam felt a little grubby asking this woman for help who had fled at even the slightest hint of a human presence and who lived with the power of nature in a clearly dead steel wrapped world, no amount of plants on the side of a skyscraper changing the obvious truth. Still he hoped the sincerity in his voice could be heard, hoped that the woman would maybe have something to offer him.

He thought he saw a little stutter their in her steps, but he couldn't be sure. She continued dancing forward just out of his reach, escaping the tired man as his tank reached empty. "Please" Adam quietly begged, despair overtaking him once more. His footsteps slowed and gave up the fruitless pursuit, ceasing his harassment of the innocent woman.

Perhaps it was the weak quiver in his voice, or the dejected tone of his pathetic plea but in response to his resigned word the woman actually turned towards Adam and stopped running.

She spoke in a lilting tone, her ethereal voice all but conforming her mythical nature. "Why is it you so need me?" She spoke to him with a sort of desperate curiosity, her words hinting at her desire to interact with him, her interest in what she could possibly provide these humans that had destroyed her home and world. Her question went forever unanswered.

Adams face went slack as he attempted to warn the fantastical woman about the approaching danger. While speaking she had walked close enough to touch him with her shorter arms, this became important as he grasped onto her shoulder and waist and dived to the side and out of the of the oncoming light he assumed was a vehicle. The woman looked surprised only for a moment before green energy exploded out of her heels with a power Adam had not previously seen throwing her and Adam into the space way. He felt a brief tingling in his feet as he started into the golden and greens of the strange creatures eyes, entranced by her coloured pupils, and figured streams of green magic had erupted into his feet also. As the pair dived/were launched into the rush of oncoming traffic Adam got the sense the woman smiled, although her actual expression wasn't quite in the position for it yet. Perhaps it was because he was looking at her eyes when it happened, for that was were the smile started-in her eyes. Perhaps it was because he was delirious after all he'd been through and his brain was conjuring something softer than reality as he watched another person suddenly die. Whatever the reason, he felt the woman smile as they travelled through the air and out of the way of the derailed hover craft. In that timeless moment, he felt his heart melt just a little and he found himself trying to smile his own sad smile back. She flashed green for a moment, the dark green of her pupils turning lighter as her body burst into bright green light. Everything went black, and as it did Adam couldn't help but feel safe-comforted somehow by that one intimate moment, wrapped up in some way by that grin.