Alone in the Woods

Chapter 11 - Friends

Me and wolf mom had a long chat after I got back. It took me a bit but I managed to talk about some of the things that were troubling me. In turn she opened up to me about how she had been doing. Apparently seeing me almost die brought back some bad memories for her.

I'd never even thought of wolf moms past before we met. I had kinda acted like she had simply appeared in the woods one day like I did even though I knew she had history here. When she shared her feelings with me it became clear she had a history of loss. I started to wonder what kind of pack she had been born into, and what happened to make her a lone wolf. I didn't pry.

Afterwards I started doing better. I started hanging out with my other friends again. Apparently both blue bird and fox got mates. Fox's mate was super blunt and straight forward, definitely a fan of play fighting. I liked her and was happy Fox found someone to be with, even if she was his opposite in many ways.

Blue bird's mate had me rolling on the floor laughing. I guess I never really thought about animals being gay, but yup blue bird had a boyfriend/husband and they were so fucking cute together. It did make me a bit sad as they excitedly talked about having built a nest for their future eggs. I didn't have the heart to explain how that wasn't going to work out.

I did still have days where I was feeling withdrawn and stayed holed up in the den. Wolf mom tended to stay with me those days even if I didn't feel like chatting.

It took a lot of courage to finally work up the nerve to go see grumpy bear again. I almost turned around when I saw the monster corpse again, but I centered myself by focusing on the many plants I was connected too. As I walked up to his den I found him taking a nap. The big guy liked sleep. Maybe I should call him sleepy bear instead.

His welcome was kind of the opposite of a welcome. He told me to get lost. When I told him I was there to heal his wounds I got a, "I don't need your pity, cub." and he got rather hostile when I tried to approach.

I backed off but I wasn't happy about it. He was injured and his stubbornness was preventing him from getting better. I sat outside, facing away from the monster, and started thinking of how to help him. Talking was out. I could try to sneak in while he slept but if he woke up I might legitimately be in danger. I'd never been attacked by an animal since coming to the woods, but if one was gonna hurt me it was grumpy bear.

The plants gave me an idea. I could sneakily grow a vine into the cave and use it to heal him. If he noticed I wouldn't be around to be attacked. It was the perfect heist. I did try and wait until he was sleeping again, just in case. I had enough close calls in the last two months. Like literally one per month.

I pulled it off flawlessly like the sneaky little shit that I am. A tiny green vine grew into the cave. It lightly tapped his paw and I healed his wounds. Take that you stupid bear.

I sat there in the sweet afterglow of the heist, before working up the nerve to get a claw from the monster. Wolf mom kept making fun of me for the hair thing but whatever. The monster was kinda starting to rot so I got the help of my plant friends to help pull a claw off.

Even dead it was stupidly tough though, and I had to play worlds prettiest engineer to get a claw. Turns out I had to use another claw to cut off its finger. I tried to get the smallest finger. The claw itself was still large enough to be a short sword.

I left with it to work elsewhere since I had had my fill of seeing the remains for a good long while. Closer to home I scraped off the rest of the flesh to isolate the claw, then reenacted a certain movie by growing a handle onto the claw then breaking it off a friendly tree.

I asked a nearby owl to share its sight so I could properly cut my own hair. Finally I was at last free of the super long locks. My flower hair tie was still around the like two to three feet of hair I lopped off. I extracted it and went for a behind the ear flower look.

If I was smart I could probably make something out of my removed hair, but well I'm not so I just left it all on the ground. I made sure to thank the owl again and headed off to show wolf mom.

Oh boy, the eye roll I got back at the den was priceless. The waves of sarcastic teasing being sent my way was also a delight. She likened my new look to a wolf with its tail cut off. That one was a little rude but overall she was happy that I was happy.

She was mildly concerned I had a sword now, mostly for fear that I'd accidently hurt myself with it. I tried telling her I was a grown ass adult and that I could handle a small sword. She clearly didn't believe me. Didn't matter I kept the sword.