We easily jumped over the city gates. True, they later tried to shoot at us from the walls, but we got away fairly quickly. After running about four kiloters, we finally slowed our pace and began walking.
The land around seed quite ordinary—everything looked like anywhere else, except the trees were sohow different. Too large, spreading, with thick, tangled roots. No paths or tracks. It seed as if we were the very first people ever to walk here.
The birds here were strange too.
"Wow, Aurora, look!" I stopped and pointed a finger at a branch. She turned around and looked irritably where I was pointing: "So what?"
"Don't you think these birdies are watching us a bit too closely?" Aurora stopped, looked intently at the bird once more, then swept her gaze over the darkening thicket of the forest, but remained silent. We continued at a normal pace.
My mood was simply excellent. Humming a silly little song under my breath: "Where Piglet and I are going is a big, big secret... And we won't tell about it, oh no, oh no, and..."
I froze mid-sentence. Below, right at the roots of a giant tree, a huge anthill was bustling. The ants were gigantic—so almost the size of my finger joint!
"Wow!" I crouched down, caught one, and placed it on my palm.
It quickly scurried over my fingers, actively exploring sothing with its antennae, and then tried to bite . True, it didn't have enough strength to bite through my skin. Here I noticed so fat caterpillar on the tree bark. Without thinking twice, I picked it off and tossed it right into the center of the anthill. The ants imdiately rushed toward it, preparing to tear it to pieces, when suddenly... BOOM! The caterpillar seed to explode, releasing an acrid little cloud! The ants imdiately scattered in all directions, writhing in pain. So kind of acid defense? Cool!
Turning my head, I saw Aurora, crouching next to , silently toss so beetle into the anthill. And also watching the reaction with interest. We sat like that for probably two hours, bombarding the poor ants with forest creatures.
"Listen," I suggested, "there seems to be a river flowing nearby. Let's bring so water and make them a mini-flood?" She froze, pondering the idea. Then her face twisted into its usual anger. Aurora abruptly stood up, looked down at , then kicked the anthill, destroying half their ho.
"Uhh, we were sitting so nicely!" I was indignant. "Alright, let's go on."
WHIZZ!
An arrow plunged into the tree literally a ter from Aurora's head. I raised my head. Soone had already surrounded us on the branches. Aurora imdiately tensed up, her hands began to cover with fire—she was clearly preparing to smash this entire forest to splinters, but for so reason suddenly took control of herself and lowered her palms.
People silently jumped down from the trees. Their bodies were covered in thick patterns of white tattoos. And... wait a minute. They had animal ears and tails? Are they beastn? Every single one of them? They stood around us with drawn bows and conversed in an unfamiliar language.
"Monsters. Look what they did to the poor insects! They must be killed," one of them said.
"Hey-hey!" I began peaceably. "You guys have cool drawings on your arms!"
The beastn simultaneously took a step back. Soone in the center of the group raised a hand, and the others obediently lowered their bows. Aurora looked at in bewildernt: "How do you know their language?"
"I don't know. Just know," I answered.
A woman stepped forward. On her head, she wore a strange hat made from a wolf's head.
"Who are you and who might you be?" she asked sternly.
"I am a human, and my na is Zenkhald, probably. And who are you?" I waved amiably. "By the way, aren't you hot in that hat? It's sumr outside."
She didn't answer anything. For about two minutes the whole squad whispered among themselves in their language, and then the woman turned back to . "Which god do you believe in?" she asked.
"What is with you all?! Faith, faith..." I rolled my eyes. "I believe in myself! And she... well, I don't know. Maybe she doesn't believe in any gods at all."
Aurora impatiently tugged at my sleeve: "What are they saying?" "Asking how wonderful I am and how they can beco like ," I translated with a serious face.
The wolf-woman turned back after a brief discussion with her people and asked sternly: "Where are you from, and what is your purpose in our forest?"
"Oh, we..." I thought for a second. "The blue water spit us out. We seed tasteless to it. As for purpose... don't know yet, taking a walk, I guess. Feeding ants over there."
She frowned even harder. "How does a hairless, wingless creature know the language of the forest?" she asked her next question.
"Ah, I don't know," I answered honestly.
Curiously, I reached out to a beastman standing nearby to touch his fluffy ears, but he imdiately tensed up and aid the tip of an arrow right at my chest. I withdrew my hand in disappointnt.
The woman nodded at my companion. "And this woman with the fire... Who is she?"
"Her na is Aurora. I'm just traveling with her."
Aurora, tired of standing in ignorance, irritably tugged my shoulder: "What are you talking about?"
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"Just asking who you are, who I am, why we ca. Relax, if they wanted to kill us, they would have tried long ago. But look at their ears! I really want to touch them. And the tails!"
I took another careless step toward the sa nervous archer. Startled, he drew the bowstring with all his might, aiming right at my forehead. His hands were trembling slightly.
"BOO!" I said sharply. The beastman flinched from fright, his fingers slipped, and the bowstring snapped. The arrow flew straight at my face.
Hm, they even covered it with poison. Cool, I noted to myself lazily, watching the projectile's flight.
Suddenly the arrow stopped abruptly right in mid-air, a couple of centiters short of my nose. "Hm, tal magic," I hissed, examining the iron arrowhead hanging in space. Soone in the squad gasped in surprise, and the wolf-woman lowered her hand. The invisible force disappeared, and the arrow fell harmlessly at my feet.
"You guys are cool. So you're mages too?" I smiled. "You know, I'm actually hungry. Won't you feed us?"
The wolf-woman didn't answer and began speaking quickly to her people. The beastn reluctantly lowered their bows and parted. "Alright. Co with us," she told .
"And will they feed where I'm going?" I clarified hopefully. She turned around and smiled slightly for the first ti. The smile turned out predatory, baring sharp fangs. "Ha... You do not lack spirit. Even when death was right beside you, you didn't even blink an eye. You are either an absolute fool, or hiding power."
"Ha!" I smiled joyfully in return. "Didn't understand a thing! So does that an... will they feed or not?"
While we walked, their tails swayed back and forth so coolly. I couldn't resist. SWIPE! JUMP! I lunged to catch one of them.
But these guys seed to have a sixth eye on the back of their heads—the tail sharply wagged left, and I missed, grasping only air. The beastn looked at with unconcealed disdain.
Aurora imdiately grabbed by the scruff of the neck and lifted off the ground.
"What are you doing?!" she hissed maliciously.
"Did you see their tails?" I was genuinely indignant. "They are so fluffy!"
I simply hung limply from her hand while she dragged forward.
"Are you an idiot or pretending to be?" she scolded quietly on the go. "Don't you see this is a perfect mont to gather information about a new world? The last thing we need is to anger them before they tell us enough!"
She soon let go, and we walked for probably a whole hour. I barely dragged myself at the very tail of the squad.
"A-a-ah, are you serious?" I whined lengthily. "Where are we going for so long?" But everyone remained silent.
I was so tired that I started falling asleep right on the go. I think I was already shuffling my feet with my eyes closed when suddenly soone grabbed by the scruff again and held in place. I opened my eyes—this ti it was that sa wolf-woman.
"Stop," she commanded quietly.
All the beastn stopped instantly and tensed up, putting their hands on their weapons. Ahead, waddling, a little black bear was walking slowly.
"We'll go around," the woman commanded her people just as quietly.
Oh co on! I thought angrily. "Let go, we'll be walking for an eternity this way," I hissed, pushed her hand away, and boldly strode forward, stepping out of the bushes right onto the path.
"HEY, BEAR! YOU'RE IN THE WAY!" I yelled loudly across the whole forest.
The bear, which up close turned out to be three ters tall, froze and turned to in surprise.
"Hey, bear, leave quickly, you're in the way! Let us pass!" I waved my arms at him.
The huge beast amusingly turned his head left and right, as if asking: "Are you talking to ?"
"Yes, yes, yes, to you!" I confird impatiently, crossing my arms over my chest.
The bear sighed heavily, slowly rose onto his hind legs, and growled nacingly.
"WHY ARE YOU YELLING?" I said.
The beast, still standing on two legs absolutely like a human, lazily scratched behind his ear. Then he casually leaned his shoulder against a huge tree and crossed his front paws over his chest.
"Listen, shorty, get out of here," he said displeased. "I stood here first."
"What, is it a pity for you to leave or sothing?" I was indignant.
"I've been standing here for ten minutes already, kid. I have a mass of a ton, you know how hard it is to drag it back and forth?"
"I've been following these fluffy ones for a whole hour!" I jabbed my thumb over my shoulder. "Understand too, I'm tired, and now because of you we're going to have to go around!"
The bear yawned loudly, rollingly, and scratched his thick belly. "I would have left," he admitted sadly. "But I can't."
"And why is that?"
"My female kicked out of the den. Said: 'Go at least catch a boar, freeloader'. And I, by the way, want to paint. You understand? I'm an artist. A creative soul. But she's all: boars and boars..."
I nodded my head: "Yeah, bear... It must be hard for you. Art is not appreciated at all."
The beast sighed mournfully and dropped heavily back onto all fours. "Alright, kid. I'll go for raspberries then, kill so ti and co back. And you guys pass."
"Wow, thank you!" I was genuinely glad.
The bear had already turned around and started to leave, but suddenly stopped and looked back over his furry shoulder: "And uh... If you're going to eat at their place, I don't advise touching their honey. They have so wrong kind of bees."
"THANKS, I'LL KEEP THAT IN MIND!" I shouted after him.
The bear, amusingly waddling and wagging his thick rear, slowly disappeared into the bushes. The danger had passed.
To them, it looked like I just stood there and took turns growling at each other with a three-ter monster, and then for so reason he peacefully left!
"WHAT are we standing for?" I asked loudly, breaking the ringing silence. "Let's go quickly, before he changes his mind!"
Slowly, as if not believing their eyes, they moved from their spots, and we went further. Aurora pulled up beside and asked quietly but tensely: "Were you talking to the bear?"
"Well, yeah."
"And you understood him?!"
"He was just growling!"
"So what? Talked to a bear, ordinary thing," I shrugged.
I caught the gaze of the wolf-woman on . She was squinting strangely at out of the corner of her eye. And in general, all the beastn were now glancing in my direction with so mixture of apprehension.
We walked a little further, and then my strength finally ran out. "That's it, I'm tired. I'm not walking anymore," I declared and plopped right onto the ground with a swing.
The squad stopped imdiately. Everyone turned around and stared at . The wolf-woman stepped closer: "Why did you lie down? Let's go."
"TOO LA-A-AZY! Don't want to. We've been walking kind of long. I want to sleep, I want to eat," I whined.
She lood over : "Get up, I'm telling you."
"Won't get up. How much further?" She raised her hand, squinted, placing her palm against the horizon line, and looked at the sun. "Two more fingers," she answered briefly.
"What? Two fingers? A-a-ah, fingers... seriously?" I rolled my eyes. Apparently, they asured the ti until sunset by placing fingers against the sun. "How much is that even in normal hours? Na-a-ah, still far."
Aurora silently looked at . Very angrily.
"Seems like absolutely no one in this world understands ," she sighed heavily. "Idiot, get up! Don't hold us up. The faster we get there, the faster we find out everything."
"What's the rush?"
"A-A-A-AH! How annoying you are with your whims and whining!" she exploded.
The wolf-woman addressed again: "Zenkhald," she hesitantly tried my na. "We need to make it before night. It is unsafe in the forest at night."
"Huh?" I yawned. "Then carry ."
She raised one eyebrow in surprise, clearly not expecting such insolence. Aurora didn't wait. Silently, her face contorted with fury, she grabbed my palm and simply walked forward, dragging along the ground behind her.
"Ow! Ow! That hurts actually! The road is uneven here, all sorts of rocks!" I said, bouncing on the bumps. But she didn't even turn around.
So beastn in the back began to chuckle quietly at this picture. I don't know why it's funny to them, but kinda... two fingers is still a long ti, I thought, relaxing my back. Fine. I'll sleep like this for now.
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