After being alone for so long, it was strange to have someone so close to him. Someone who trusted him enough to doze without a care by his side. If she knew what had brought him to her, she wouldn't be so close. His breath left him heavily, a visible cloud from the cold dancing in front of his eyes.

"I can hear you thinking from here," Death muttered sleepily. She rolled over to look up at him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Blood levelled her with an unimpressed stare.

"No."

"Well it's too quiet out here to sleep. I'm used to..." Screaming, crying, fire, cackling "...noise." she finished quietly.

Blood sighed again, looking out into the distance.

"Could you just... talk? Say anything? I don't really care what it is." Death murmured.

"... Say anything? Well... I guess I could tell you... a story," Blood mused. Death smiled and curled up closer to him.

"That would be nice," she admitted.

"There once was a bird... a nightingale. This nightingale lived with his family in a tree. They were safe and happy and lived in harmony with all of the other birds in the trees. Life was good. But this nightingale was curious of what was beyond the trees. He didn't have many friends, so he ventured off alone to explore one day....

He sang loudly as he flew through the sky, for he had no cares in the world. The scenery around him changed. Suddenly the thick trees gave way to a beautiful clearing. And in this beautiful clearing, the nightingale saw two strange creatures. They weren't birds, no, they were long-limbed with claws and sharp teeth - wolves. The nightingale had never seen a wolf before.

"Oh, hello there beautiful bird!" one wolf called with a smile.

"We heard your song from far away," the other wolf admitted. "We wanted to see who was making such wonderful music!"

They were so nice! The nightingale was overcome with the praise. None of the other nightingales had ever complimented his songs. The wolves and nightingale continued to talk until the sky began to grow dark. The nightingale looked up.

"Oh no, it's getting dark," he worried. "I need to get back home or my family will be worried! I'm so sorry, but I need to go. It was nice to meet you!"

The wolves looked at each other before turning back to him.

"But we can't let you go home alone! These woods are dangerous at night! Let us come with you~"

"Oh, I didn't know that," the nightingale fretted. "Okay, thank you!"

Oh, but he had no idea just how dangerous the woods were. Not truly.

He led the wolves back to the little circle of bushes and trees where all of the birds and other critters slept and quietly bid the two goodbye. They smiled and walked off. He slipped into his little nest beside his sleeping sister and drifted off into sleep....

And woke up disoriented on the forest floor, his nest in red-painted pieces around him.

"What... what's happening?" he mumbled, trying to believe what he was seeing. It was the wolves, covered in red. "What's going on?"

"Oh, good morning little nightingale," the larger wolf chuckled.

"We just finished our breakfast," the smaller one cackled. "But now we're off. Goodbye!" The wolves walked off.

The nightingale looked around. He was alone. Surrounded by feathers and so so much red.

He had led wolves right to his family.. and so the lesson of this story is: Don't trust a stranger blindly or you may lose everything you ever cared for due to your own naivety..." Blood looked down to see Death snoozing fitfully beside him. He sighed.

"Probably best that you fell asleep halfway through that..."