Demeanor (noun): behavior; manner of conducting oneself

  Underneath the moonlight stood a great beast reminiscent of silver moondust. Radiant and unmoving, its white and Herculean form luminous in the dark forest—a pearl gleaming from the oceanic void. It watched silently. What huntsman dreamt of slaying a being such as this? Eternal, nebulous, a mother to all souls and spirits who sing and slumber within the realm of the woods. A maelstrom of beginnings.

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  Leaves shuddered.

  Fires crackled.

  Poachers—selfish and mortal humans too trivial to the endless lifetimes that the wolf god would live—stumbled into the cliffside, abruptly going deathly still as they laid sight on the wispy, snow-veiled fur in the distance. Sins of greed, barren of courage and honor, drained with the crimson color on their faces.

  In the presence of those smoky quartz eyes, they fled.