1 Baby Squirrel

~•Amara•~

Humans can be weird at times. They always talk about love, but do they actually love? Or is it just their hormones going crazy, making them think that they are in love? Well, it's a mystery to me as well just like it's to them. Maybe, we will never know the answer to it. And as long as they are happy with believing whatever they want to, then the answer doesn't even matter. 

'Beep...Beep...Beep!'

I heard my phone's alarm going off, pulling me out of my thoughts. I forced myself to move out of the covers and look for the phone. 'Where did I put it?' I searched for it, moving the covers and my fluffy pillow. I wanted to turn it off as soon as possible or my roommate would go crazy on me. I still remembered her words from the previous day as clear as a cloudless sky on a bright, sunny day. 

"No matter what happens, do not disturb my sleep." She had sternly added while giving me a list of rules that I needed to follow if I wanted to stay with her in the room. It's not like I could blame her for her tone, I would have done the same thing if I was forced to live with a transfer, that too in the last year of my college. 

After searching through hell and back, I was finally able to find my phone under the folds of my cover and quickly turned off the alarm. I heaved out a frustrated sigh as my eyes lingered over the screen. 

5:00 a.m.

That was how my normal routine started with me getting up at this hour, changing into some plain black sportswear, and going out for a run. And my first day here was going to start with the same boring routine.

I stepped out of the dorms and thought about going for a run in the forest which was situated right beside the college campus. My feet started to run in the direction before my mind could even decide on where to run. Shaking my head off at the weird feeling I was getting, I decided to follow down the path my feet were taking me to. 

Once I was deep inside the forest, I decided to finally let go of myself, my strength. With each of my steps, my speed continued to increase until it reached the threshold of what my body could manage. I was lost in enjoying the feeling of the gusting wind as it brushed my skin when I felt something moving in my peripheral view. My steps came to a sudden stop when something jumped into my path.

"Ouch!" I yelped in shock as I stumbled over a cut down tree, landing into the heap of dry leaves and sticks which was resting peacefully by the side of the trail. "Damn! Are you crazy?" I spoke to the little creature which decided to ruin my morning run with its mischievousness.

"Hey, are you okay?" I carefully picked it up in between my palms as my eyes moved over its body to make sure that the little being was fine. "You need to learn to watch where you are going, little one. What if it was some stupid human instead of me?" I scolded the baby squirrel with an unpleasant expression. 

I dusted off the little being, making sure that not a hair was out of place before I started focusing on my surroundings, trying to pick up the lightest of movements around me using my super hearing sense. What was I calling it super? Because I am not an ordinary human. I wasn't even human to begin with. 

"Let's get you back to your home." I muttered to the little being in my palms and started to walk leisurely to my right as my ears picked up some squeaking sounds. Walking my way through the thick forest as I went off the tracking trail, I carried it to where it's family was. With each step in the direction, I felt the squeaking sounds growing louder and in the next two minutes, I was able to locate the source. 

They were coming from a shaved off tree which barely had a couple of leaves dangling from it's dried up branches. There was a hole in the hollowed trunk, next to one of the top branches. My eyes landed on the squirrel which was sitting on the same branch, right outside the entrance of the hole. 

"I brought your baby back, safe and sound." I added with a faint smile as I securely held the baby squirrel in my right palm. Using my free hand, I held on to one of the branches as I jumped. I could have easily made it to the top branch with a single jump, but that would have been hard for the little being in my palm. From one branch to the other, I continued to move up and only stopped when I was where I needed to be, the branch adjacent to the one where mama or papa squirrel was sitting.

"Don't let him wander around. He could have become breakfast for some predator if it wasn't for me." I added sternly seeing the reunion of the parent and kid as I placed the little being right next to the older one.

If you are thinking that I can talk to animals and it's one of my powers, then you are so wrong. I just like to talk to them. I will always prefer talking to these harmless little creatures than living and talking human beings. 

I could feel the corners of my lips turning upwards as I saw a couple of other baby squirrels coming out of the hole and clinging to the duo. "You guys take care. I am going to..." The remaining words of my sentence turned into a loud shriek as the branch I was holding onto chipped off, resulting in me landing on a bunch of dead leaves and sticks, again.

'What a great way to start your first day here, Amara!' 

I scoffed at myself for being so careless, which reminds me that I forgot to introduce myself. I am Amara. And I don't have a middle name, or a last one. It's just Amara. 

I got up from the ground with a jump and began to take out the leaves stuck in my hair as I headed back to the dorms.