I ignored her at first, knowing that she wouldn’t expect me to notice her. After all, she was incredibly good at blending into the forest. Supernaturally good, you might say. If I pointed her out, she would realize I was dangerous and run. I might be able to capture her, I hadn’t exactly tested my current physical limits, but I didn’t think I had great odds. I decided that the stains weren’t going to go anywhere soon and carefully laid out each garment on the rocks with the most sun. Who knew, they might even get time to dry.

I went under the water one last time, just to appear natural and unworried, then finally got out. I stretched, hoping that my matter deprived body was sufficiently appetizing, in both the sexual and literal sense. I didn’t show any sign that I knew she was approaching. “Well, hello.” I made sure my startled jump and graceless turn towards the words was convincing, even adding in a girlish squeak of surprise for the extra flair.

I found myself facing a truly beautiful young woman. She was the type of lithe and flawless creature that made up such a small percentage of the population that they could easily make a living off of filming themselves in sexual acts, at least for the tiny sliver of time that they looked like that. She was an image that could drive the mind of any heterosexual man or homosexual woman into the gutter instantly, and that was while fully clothed. At the moment, she most certainly wasn’t.

I deliberately flicked my eyes across her, before looking to the side like the image of a sexually repressed man faced with a sexual fantasy that was far more awkward in reality than imagined alone in bed. “Uh, I… don’t...” I spun around, deciding to play my roll to the extreme.

She laughed, with a tone that was designed to arouse. “It’s fine, it’s my fault for not checking if I was alone before undressing.” She blatantly lied. I really doubted she had ever worn clothes in her likely long life.

“No! That’s fine. I was just surprised. Uh, do you want to get your clothes or…” She laughed at my nervous tone, somehow managing to make it even more suggestive. I, for my part, was trying to remember how to create an erection. It wouldn’t be convincing if I stayed completely flaccid, although I could always fall back on blaming nerves.

I could feel her approaching, and a moment later she ran a hand over my back. I turned to face her, satisfied by my artificial biological reaction. “Are you...?” She smiled at me, silently saying that this was, in fact, a pornographic film and I should, against all common sense, go with it. Before I could protest, she moved forward, pressing herself against me and running her arms across my significantly less impressive body in a way calculated for this purpose. Wow, she was really pushing it. It felt rather sloppy to me, but I might be a bit of a perfectionist.

I molded into her, making sure to still seem awkward and inexperienced. I ran my hand down her back and down her tail. “Hmm, hot.” I whispered into her ear and she froze.

She pulled her head back to see my face, loosing control of her porn star act as surprise overtook her. I smiled, and she flinched back at the predatory edge that wasn’t remotely sexual. “You...”

I cut her off. “Hulder have one of the more interesting customs of all nymphs. Although… you are one of Asmodeus’s descendants, which would make you a type of succubus.” I laughed, as her certainty of her own dominance quickly faded.

I smiled at her as she tried to pull away. “Of course, daemon genealogy is fabulously complex.” I held her in place just long enough for her to stop trying to break my grip, then let go. “I wouldn’t run.” I gave her the same predatory smile, the one that made running seem like a great way to be seen as prey. It would probably help that I give daemons an instinctual sense that I am beyond their scope. It may or may not have been true at the moment, but that wouldn’t stop the little voice in the back of her head saying that I was something that simply equalled death.

“As I’m sure you are aware, Hulder are traditionally very protective of their forest, to the point that you will… harvest those who invade your land.” I smiled at her, this time nothing more than innocent friendliness. “Exact customs depend on the individual, naturally. However, you do have one universal rule, a partially psychological, partially biological, one.” I laughed, and she looked even more uncomfortable. “You see, if someone can see through the illusion that hides your tail, you can’t hurt them.” I put up my hands, as if to say how about that?

She was watching me nervously now, posture poised to bolt. It was actually interesting that she hadn’t. “What is your name?” She asked, which was an interesting choice.

I smiled. “Hmm, that is complicated. You can call me…” I considered for a moment, before deciding on something that wasn’t exactly my name, but seemed appropriate. “Sam, you can call me Sam.”

She frowned. “That isn’t your real name.” She accused.

I shrugged. “What’s you’re name?” I asked rather than answering. This time she scowled.

“Call me… Green.” I raised an eyebrow at that.

“That isn’t your real name.” I more pointed out than asked. She shrugged, still not relaxing her posture. “So, any reason you are still here, or am I just that intriguing?”

She watched me for a moment. “You smell human.”

There was a pause. “Was that a question, or are you just commenting?”

This time the pause was even longer as she visibly tried to figure out how to phrase her question. Before, her English had appeared perfect, but that had changed when I touched her tail. Her English was strictly still fine, but she had a noticeable accent that wasn’t quite right. Her physical appearance and mannerisms had also noticeably changed. She was still beautiful, but it wasn’t quite a human beauty. Her skin had gained a mottled pattern reminiscent of moss that blended into the woods, and the reflectiveness of human skin was gone.

“You seemed to be a human, but now you feel… thick.” I waggled an eyebrow.

“Why, thank you.” She shook her head.

“No, not your penis. That is actually rather small.” I nodded, not remotely offended. Being a shapeshifter makes body image problems essentially impossible.

“You look human. You smell human. But, you don’t feel human.” I frowned at her.

“You mean when you where fondling me?” I said, deliberately misunderstanding.

She gave me a glare. “Not touch feel. Feel feel. Stupid language.” I nodded at her response.

“So, why are you still here? I touched your tail, you can’t use magic on me and will have a lot of trouble attacking me, so why haven’t you run?” I asked, ignoring her implied question. She remained perfectly still, like a cat ready to burst into motion, but she never did.

“Humans never see the tail. If you are human, you can’t tell of tail.” I frowned for real this time.

“Of course they can find the tail. It’s just a matter of luck or prior knowledge. The illusion isn’t very strong.” She shook her head.

“No, they can’t ever see it, not even if we show it to them.” I stared at her blankly, mind spinning through the possible meanings.

“Are you saying that they don’t see you as inhuman even if you don’t hide it from them?” She shook her head.

“No, they sometimes think we are trees or animals.” My frown deepened.

“But, they never see you as you are, even if you use no magic to hide?” She nodded. That was… interesting and hinted towards a possibility I hadn’t considered likely before. “Have you tried to show them?” She nodded again.

“We have tried to take them for... entertainment, but they can’t ever see us as we are.” I was pretty sure the pause before entertainment wasn’t from discomfort from what they did with captured humans, but just because she really wasn’t sure what the best word was.

“So, you want to know why I can see you as you are when other humans can’t?” She nodded, confirming my suspicions. “Well, I’ll tell you why I can if you tell me where the closest place more than 10 humans live all year long and what other daemons you know of that live within or around your territory.” I said, giving the full conditions I would agree to. If we both agreed, neither of us could willingly break our end of the deal.

The look of confusion on her face was unexpected. “What is a day-mun?” She asked. I frowned, trying to summon up other possible names.

“Yōkai, Fey…” I stopped because her face lit up with realization.

“Yes, fey. We are fey.” I nodded.

“Yes, you are fey. Are there other fey?” Her eyes narrowed.

“You fey?” I shook a scolding finger at her.

“Now, that would defeat the point of making a deal. So, how about it?” She seemed to consider.

“There is a town with many humans.” She pointed off in a random direction that looked like any other. “Other forest fey move through, but they don’t stay. The town have human fey, but they aren’t welcome here.” She looked at me with suspicion. “Are you human fey?” She half asked half accused.

I figured forest fey meant types of daemons that naturally lived in nature, specifically the local forests. Human fey probably meant daemons that naturally lived like humans amongst humans. That meant that the town should have someone who could give me information from a viewpoint a little wider than a xenophobic forest spirit. I scooped up my still damp clothes and started in the direction she pointed before turning back to her.

“You see, it’s rather obvious why I can recognize you.” She watched me as if she suspected I wouldn’t hold up my side of the deal. That was fair enough, considering she had no way of knowing that I couldn’t break it. I smiled my smile that was… wrong. The one that would make any daemons sense that I was… more. “It’s because I’m a god.” I said before turning away to begin my trek to find some god damned answers.