Alone in the Woods

Chapter 14 - Uninvited

I tried to keep quiet about my time at the forest's edge. Wolf mom would definitely be mad about that. She did notice I was missing my hair flower. I had to actually speak out loud to give my excuse because there was no way I could lie passably with vibes. That only made her more suspicious since normally I barely say a verbal sentence to her per week, and here I am rambling with too many words some excuse about a bird stealing it.

Did I ever mention how bad at lying I am? Lying feels almost physically painful for me and I never understood how anyone ever believed me. Heck wolf mom didn't and she was a wolf. I mean she is probably the smartest wolf to ever exist but that was beside the point. She caught me lying and I immediately caved.

To say she was mad was putting it mildly. I actually started crying from how much anger she was sending my way. She did stop when she saw how upset I was, and she moved to calm both of us down. I fell asleep mumbling "sorry" while cuddling her.

The following day we had a through discussion on each other's boundaries. She told me she had lost family before and the thought of me going to known dangerous places where I have previously almost died triggered her. I told her about all the yelling in the home I grew up in, and how I can't handle people being angry in general more so if its directed at me.

I promised to let her know before I headed out to potentially dangerous places like the forest's edge and grumpy bear's cave. Also that I couldn't say no to her tagging along if she needed to when going there. On her end she promised to avoid getting angry near me. There was a bit of hugging and face licking involved from both parties after that. Maybe I should stop taking social cues from a wolf, or not since it is kinda fun.

I was glad to be her daughter. Definitely a step up from my old parents.

The rest of that day wasn't all that exciting. I did get another flower for my hair, the new one was red. A bee hanging around there did come at my face trying to get at the flower. Fun fact bugs are really weird to talk too. The way they think is so alien that I had a hard time understanding them. I'd kind of avoided talking to bugs, since I think they are pretty gross. Funny enough I hadn't been bothered by fleas, ticks, or mosquitos. I guess my 'be nice to me' aura affects bugs too.

I hoped the next day would be uneventful. It wasn't. A little before noon I noticed a few big things out on the forest's edge. A bit of mental focus later and yup, the hunter was in the forest and he had friends. It had been 2 months since I had encountered him, hopefully he forgot about me and this wasn't a super long awaited revenge for flashing him. He did check on those traps I found, well he looked around for them, but I had made them hard to retrieve.  Ya know, out of spite for both him and his traps.

The odd part was after he gave up on the traps he lead them further into the woods. I didn't have as much tree surveillance further in. Most of my tree connections away from the edge were for teleporting, thus spaced pretty far out. I tracked down wolf mom who was patrolling her territory and let her know the hunter and some dangerous people were in the woods. I jumped over to the foxes den to warn them about the uninvited guests.

I jumped back to wolf mom and panicked on what to do. Should we hide, look for them, run away? I didn't want either of us to get hurt again, or worse. I also didn't want them hurting any of my friends. Why are they even in the forest.

Wolf mom was the one who came up with an idea. I was starting to think I was having an impact on her overall intelligence. Cause she suggested I sense share with a bird and use them to keep an eye on the people, that way we can make more informed choices. It made a lot of sense, so I called out for any nearby birds. I used to have blue bird nearby all the time but he seemed to be busy trying to have chicks with his husband.

A brown bird a bit bigger than blue bird answered my call. I didn't know her but she was cool, rather timid but still cool. I sense shared and then chatted with her while she looked around the forest. I had to close my eyes to better focus, luckily a certain wolf was watching my back.

It took a bit but between their last location, what direction they went in, and my knowledge of the forest I found them. They were headed due west, they'd likely pass right by the watering hole, but unless they changed course they'd miss our den by more than enough.

The group had four people from what I could now see. There was the grey bearded hunter with leather armor, his stupid longbow, and a backpack full of supplies. Next was a tall brawny guy in clanky metal armor from the waste up. He was fair skinned which stood out compared to the townsfolk being moderately tan. He was armed with a sword and shield. Next was the elf, they? I had a hard time telling from appearance. The elf had coppery colored skin long pointy ears, a side shave and wore leathers similar to the hunter. Their weapons of choice seemed to be a spear and knives. The last was a stout woman with short blond hair wearing vestments with chainmail over them. She had a mace in hand.

They almost certainly weren't gonna encounter animals with how much noise they were making. Knowing that let me sigh in relief.

Everything was great till they made it to the watering hole. Shy bird had kept an eye on them from a distance, but the elf kept sneaking glances at her. They took a small break at the watering hole and the elf had a chat with the hunter. I knew something was up when the hunter narrowed his eyes and the two of them looked towards shy bird.

It told her to get some distance, but before she could the hunter drew his bow. I had a few tree friends near the watering hole, so I had one of them trip him with its roots. Shy bird got away but there was no way they didn't knew something was up. Worst part was I lost my ability to track them remotely.

I turned to wolf mom unsure of what to do now. I didn't want to risk another animal friend being in danger from the stupid hunter. Wolf mom suggested we head back to the den and keep an ear out for them. I didn't have any ideas so we headed back.

Unfortunately, we had been at the spot I found wolf mom on patrol. Which meant we had to cross the path they were originally headed on. Oh and did I mention that wolf mom refuses to teleport with me. What I'm trying to say is that we definitely ran into them.