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Ednath Ventorin noticed the tall grass was giving way to what appeared to be a field of thin bent and twisted brass poles, sticking out of the ground at slightly odd angles.

He had lived near Ninimia all his life, and he knew that he was approaching the outskirts of The Clockwork Forest. An acrid smell and an incessant ticking sound, nearly imperceptible to humans, was light upon the breeze.

Ednath had been walking for hours and hadn't eaten in days. The problem wasn't a lack of food. He simply dreaded eating since his taste had begun turning toward the living. He knew that in order to stave off his unholy desire, the safest course would be through The Forest.

Once within the confines of the massive metal trees, nearly no biological thing would exist, and while he might go mad with thirst, he knew he couldn't die and he certainly wouldn't attempt to devour or infect any of The Forest's mechanical residents. He knew he couldn't starve because he had seen his son refuse food for weeks before Ventorin finally gave in and started tossing chickens down into the basement for the young man to devour.

Ednath focused his thoughts on those chickens now. He remembered watching his son tear them apart alive. At the time he was repulsed, but in his current weakened mental state, he tried to bring back every moment of it in a gruesome reverie.

Ednath noticed that he was nearing the point where the dirt road he traveled entered the forest proper. Beside the road ahead on the left was a small wooden pagoda looking structure. It was perhaps 3 feet tall and covered in small red streamers that danced languidly in the wind.

Ednath approached it with caution and cleared his throat before speaking confidently, "HHrm... hmm. Good afternoon!"

The pagoda shifted slightly and a voice with an inhuman timbre rang out like a succession of tuned bells, "Oh! Hello to the young... man." The last word was stressed in a way that Ednath knew the guard had noticed he was counted amongst the ranks of unlife.

Ednath's smile cracked as he feared his infection of The Blood Beast would cause him to be refused passage for some unforeseen reason. He stood up as straight as he could, raised his chin, and responded in his clearest diction, "My name is Ednath Hemry Ventorin, I seek only to heal myself, and I request a safe journey through your territory toward that goal."

The wooden slats that walled the pagoda shuddered but slightly, although the effect was noticeable by the ripples it caused in the small red streamers sticking out in every direction. The voice rang out again, "I think I have need to take a closer inspection of this particular specimen, if it doesn't mind."

Before Ednath could react, the walls of the pagoda blossomed open like a wooden flower, revealing a mass of churning brass parts within. The structure continued to unfold and change smoothly over the course of a few seconds until it had stretched itself out into that of a tall, lithe humanoid form. The red streamers had become a flowing skirt around the hips, and the wooden slats had gathered at the back not unlike like a human woman's bustle.

The gleaming brass lady stepped forward and regarded Ednath with some degree of politely restrained disdain. The man looked up at the tall creature before him. At many points on her form, the riveted sheets of her skin met in such a way that when she moved he could see whirring cogs and meshing gears deep within.

She bent down and touched his face in a gentle way, moving his face this way and that with her cold fingers. He could hear something he could only describe as a heartbeat, alien as it was; ticking slowly and evenly away in her chest. He noticed she was wearing an adornment mostly of metal beads and broken springs around her neck.

The brass lady stepped back and stood straight up again. After a moment of consideration, she spoke again, "One of our children has gone off missing. Have you by chance any word or knowledge of this?"

Ednath answered honestly, "No ma'am. I have not seen any of your kind in many years. Although, I did recently battle a steam powered dragon..."

The brass lady huffed only half seriously, "Steam? Have you taken sight of any steam rolling out from Our Forest?" She narrowed her vision apertures and asked with as much gravity as the tintinnabulation of her voice would allow, "Do you promise now to NOT interfere with Our Forest in any way foreseeable?"

Ednath nodded once and answered confidently, "I give you my word and deed in kind that I intend no harm upon any creature; organic, inorganic, or the two intertwined."

The tall figure fell into itself and again assumed the facade of a pagoda, "You may enter, former human. May you find peace."