Alone in the Woods

Chapter 4 - The Grove

Wolf mom kept a closer eye on me the next few days. I didn't mind since I was still shaken after that mess with the hunter and bear trap. In my old life I'd never had never dealt with life and death situations. Heck my worst injury was a sprained ankle back when I was in elementary school.

The fact that I was a grown ass person, being treated like a troublemaking child was weirdly normal feeling. I'd never been good at the adulting stuff. At least I didn't have to worry about my social anxiety out here.

Around 3 days in to my "grounding" I had grown restless. I was free of my old burdens and had a world that I could explore at my own pace. Fear wasn't going to hold me for long. Fear was just going to remind me to be careful, well fear and my giant wolf mom.

Though I did not actually know which way was north or south, I liked to think of the den as the center and the watering hole to the east. That meant that the edge of the woods was in the far east, and the monster infested part was far west. The spot that I awoke in was a bit south, and I hadn't gone too much further than that, and north was likewise un explored.

I decided to head south, and gave wolf mom a heads up before I left. She was not thrilled and asked to come with me. I didn't mind, but told her I'd likely be out most of the day and she probably wouldn't be able to hunt or patrol her territory.

I told her I'd ask blue bird and my fox friend to come with. Knowing that I had company made her lighten up enough that she decided to stay back. Lucky enough blue bird and fox both were down to hang out.

My eyes paid attention to the ground a little more strongly than they used to.

I tried to track down the spot where I woke up, but unfortunately there weren't any land marks, and I didn't talk to the trees around here to many days later. After giving up on that futile effort I pushed further into the unknown.

Blue bird sang a very cute mating call which made the hike rather pleasant. To think he tried to claim he hadn't found a mate yet. Fox periodically asked to stop for scritches. His thoughts on scritches were rather colorful, and I couldn't help but smile at how nuanced and comical they were. If fox knew how to speak a language he'd be a natural poet.

The level of thought, emotion, and creativity from some of the animals around me left me wondering. Were they always this intelligent or was my animal speak making them smarter? It didn't feel like they got smarter the more I hung out with them, and they all certainly still acted like animals. Maybe this worlds animals are just naturally smarter.

My mind snapped to attention as I got goosebumps on my arms. There was something different about the air around here. It didn't smell different, so it probably wasn't a gas. My companions told me they felt no different, but I swear there was something off about this area. Just not necessarily a bad off-ness.

The area around here had noticeably more large standing rocks than other parts of the wood, the trees grew less straight, and the underbrush was far more colorful. Hmmmm. I asked the trees and when they communicated with me it was a language, not one I knew but that didn't prevent me from understanding the meaning of its words.

This was a place of life. I could have sworn it used the words world soul, despite it not being English. The trees here were noticeably more cognizant like an animal rather than the other plants of the wood. This had to be a place of magic. MY kind of magic, the naturey stuff.

I wonder if meditating here would boost my magic. On second thought, how does one meditate? Every piece of media always showed a person sitting cross-legged and sometimes humming. There had to be more to it than that but I lacked internet access to learn more.

I let my companions know what was going on with the magic, and neither seemed to really get it all that well. To them this felt like any other part of the forest. At least they seemed content to let me mess around here without complaining.

As I wandered the magic filled area I found the spot where it felt strongest. A small clearing surrounded by moss covered standing stones with a smooth flat stone that looked perfect for meditating on in the middle. Yup totally a druid/shaman place of power. Probably full of ancient wisdom or something.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel like sitting my naked ass down on the big rock. My nudity rarely came to mind these days. I mostly forgot about it till I run into something like this were it just seems like it'd be unpleasant. I thought back to the hunter. Was that it? Was he just a massive prude? I guess it doesn't matter, next time he shows his face in this forest, wolf mom is gonna rip him to shreds.

It was getting late and my companions were getting a bit bored, so I decided to start making my way back. I bid the plants of the grove farewell and they did likewise. They weren't the only ones however. One of the stones outside the circle moved and they uh waved. With like an arm of smaller rocks.

I got freaked out and ran. My companions were likewise startled and running with me, or in blue bird's case flying.

By the time I parted with blue bird and fox and started heading to the den, I realized that was probably an elemental. They were also probably just being friendly. Elementals were a nature thing, and naturey things tended to like me. My logic was flawless, and a proof that my college education was not wasted.

I gave wolf mom a sanitized version of my travels and discovery. I didn't want her saying I couldn't go back because of the elemental being dangerous. After I finished we tore into a deer carcass I did not recognize, and then cuddled to sleep.