Writing Non-Human, Ancient Characters

There was a part of me worried this scene would make Ari unlikeable to many potential readers (lots of you have told me how cute she is and how much you like her so there was part of me that didn't want to risk taking that from you), but after giving it some thought, this was the perfect scene to build on her character. She's a mythical creature in a mortal shape, not the other way around. Part of that is she's a carnivore with a strong hunter instinct. 

So, after some realization, I realized that not only was this scene good for Ari's character, but it was also necessary.

I personally like, respect, and trust people a lot more who are not afraid to say their opinions especially when said opinion isn't necessarily accepted by the majority- bonus points if it is accepted by the majority, but they have a different spin on it where you know they believe something that they truly cared enough to think through for themselves. While you may not agree with everything that person says, you know that you can trust them to tell you the truth, I would sooner take advice from someone like that than someone I absolutely agreed with who you could easily pinpoint where they got their ideas from.

And really, what is a character in a fantasy story if not a friend that you're going on this adventure with?

All in all, I'm proud of this week's story. Another thing I thought about that I didn't do on purpose if you have a creature like Ari who's historically known for eating people as well as animals, then you need give them a sense of compassion towards animals if they're the kind of creature that... doesn't eat people. I can imagine there's dragons out there who delight in being superior to all living things that take WAAAAY too much pleasure in the hunt, but I tried to write Ari with a sense of "I like hunting. Animals are tasty. They're better off if I eat them rather than whatever torture Nature has in store."

Something else that's also kind of creeping into the story that wasn't my original intention is this world's version of Nature may more on the malevolent side than what we may be used to here in the real world. Fairies are more similar to demons than the good fairies we grew up with as kids, and there may be something dark deep beneath the earth like a Lovecraftian horror that corrupts all living things (or maybe I need to stop playing Warcraft for a bit). But in any case, I'm trying to think of what would Medieval people have thought about Nature without the safety and scientific knowledge that we have the luxury of today- and did they have a right to be terrified, or have we become too safe and complacent in our modern fortresses that we think the whole outside world is like that?