The Forest Lives

Vajor and Tunda continue through the forest until they hear a strange sound crunching in the distance. Tunda knew what the sound was from without needing to look.

TUNDA:

"Homunculi?? It's not that spark out yet. They must have found a carcass."

VAJOR:

"If it's homunculi, I wonder if its creator is nearby too. We should be careful."

TUNDA:

"Aye. They're a good 30 or so units that way. So best to stay clear of that side of the woods."

Tunda starts walking in the opposite direction of the sound with Vajor following behind. Tunda and Vajor circle around the camp's main location. A few large rabbits and another deer later, Tunda and Vajor return to the camp to meet with Aktlass and Karma. Vajor looks around the camp for Sarale.

VAJOR:

"Where's Dove?"

KARMA:(playful)

"She left to play with the wildlife cuz we were being 'too mean to her.'"

TUNDA:(scowl)

"What the hell did you two do? We just got her to calm down from her depression!"

KARMA:(Irritated*Tail ticking*)

"Hey, it ain't our fault she doesn't like getting called out for being cute."

VAJOR:(chuckles*shakes head*)

"She'll be alright."

Vajor strings up the deer by a tree and starts cleaning it.

VAJOR:

"She probably just needs some time alone… While we're out, we should probably get rid of that body."

TUNDA:

"What body?"

AKTLASS:

"Oh right. That."

KARMA:

"What are you guys talking about?"

VAJOR:

"Back at the first tavern after I joined ya. Aktlass had an assassin after him. He, lendral, and I took care of it, but we had to hide the body, so we shoved it in the bag dove let me borrow. It's kinda~ been fermentin' there ever since."

Tunda: (cringe)

"Gross. Can I have it?"

VAJOR:(disgust)

"I mean… Sure?"

TUNDA:

"Awesome. Hand that over."

Vajor reaches into the bag of holding and pulls out a slimy, decaying corpse and drops it on the ground with a nasty plop. The look on Vajor's face is one of disgust as he looks at his hand then glances around to find something to wipe it on. Tunda summons Loonu and sends her to Vajor to lick his hand clean and grab the body to drag it out of the camp into the woods to eat.

Vajor shakes his head and wipes the saliva off his hand onto his clothes and goes back to cleaning the deer.

VAJOR:(chuckles)

"Thanks. She's cute."

TUNDA:

"Yeh. Had that girl since I became part of the hunters guild."

VAJOR:

"I never seen anythin' like her. What exactly is she?"

TUNDA:

"Loonu's a Moorbounder. Big cat-pig that unusually live in the mountain ranges."

VAJOR:

"That would explain why I've never seen one. I was either under the mountain or in a forest. She really is a pretty cat."

TUNDA:

"Thank you."

VAJOR:

"Yer welcome."

Vajor finishes cleaning the deer and looks back into the forest, his ears folding back from worry.

VAJOR:

"Dove's been gone an awful good while. I hope she's okay."

TUNDA:

"Should I go look?"

VAJOR:

"I was 'bout to say I'd go, but sure. I can finish up skinning these and get 'em cookin' if ya don' mind lookin' fer her."

TUNDA:

"Yeh. Hey, karma, which way'd she go?"

KARMA:

"She went east. Been gone for almost as long as you two."

TUNDA:

"Got it. Be right back whicha lovely dove, Vajor."

Tunda rushes off into the forest, keeping his sling ready.

In the forest, Sarale sits with her back against a tree, a few birds pecking at the ground nearby where a collection of firewood is stacked neatly. Sarale strokes the fur of a large gray dire wolf as he rests his head in her lap. The wolf's eyes are closed as she hums to him quietly, one of the birds hops closer and flies to her knee, chirping happily as she scratches the bird's head. The wolf opens his yellow eyes and watches the bird with disinterest as he yawns and adjusts his head, closing his eyes again.

One of the nearby birds looks into the forest and flies off to land on Tunda's head.

TUNDA:

"Aye! Watch the talon, chickadee."

Tunda steps out of the forest and finds Sarale in her place with the dire wolf.

TUNDA:

"There you are, sis."

The dire wolf looks up at Tunda twitching his ears forward before laying back down over Sarale's lap lazily. Another bird starts pecking at his fur and he growls causing the bird to fly on to Sarale's shoulder. Sarale scratches the dire wolf's ear as she looks at Tunda.

SARALE:

"Everything alright?"

TUNDA:

"Yeh. Your future husband is asking for ya."

Tunda sweeps the bird off his head, making it fly off only to return to his shoulder.

TUNDA:

"Whatcha up to?"

SARALE:(Shrugs)

"I was collecting firewood when I found this beauty."

Sarale plays with the dire wolf's ear making them twitch before snapping at her playfully. The dire wolf's tongue lolls out in a wolfy grin. Sarale ruffles the dire wolf's fur, earning a lick to her hand. The dire wolf stands and bumps his forehead with Sarale's as he stretches and plops back down nearly on top of her.

Tunda chuckles then picks up on a sound racing through the forest near them and soft humming in the distance.

TUNDA:(mutter)

"... what the fuck?"

The dire wolf raises his head with his ears high and a low growl rumbling in his chest. Sarale looks to where the sound came from.

SARALE:(softly)

"It's that creepy singing again… and something… running?"

The bird on Tunda's shoulder fluffs up and takes off towards the singing. Thunda watches the bird, letting his eyes follow it to a lanky, tall figure that was stepping slowly to the song. Tunda's eyes follow the direction the figure faced and spots a bandit racing through the trees in fear. Tunda's eyes grow wide in discomfort as an unnatural smile creeps across his face.

TUNDA:(softly)

"We need to go."

The dire wolf stands and grabs Sarale's hand to pull her away from the singing and towards Tunda while Sarale's gaze is locked on the figure. She grabs Tunda and he, the dire wolf, and Sarale rush through the forest, not daring to make a sound.

As the song comes to a climax, the bandit screams as the trees rustle. He can hear the roots of the trees moving behind them as the bandit screams for help as the echo of cracking bones and twisting vines hollow out the song's end. The bandit's screaming comes to an abrupt stop as the last line is sung. Tunda and Sarale make it to the camp with the wolf and Tunda leans against his legs out of breath.

TUNDA:

"Haa~...! Shit. Shit shit. Jus- noo~. Hurgh..."

SARALE:(panting)

"Fuck that. Fuck this. We need to leave, pack up camp. We aren't fucking staying in these woods with whatever That was. And everyone thought I was fucking creepy."

Tunda rushes to Loonu who was whimpering as if she wanted to follow the song.

TUNDA:

"C'ere, pretty girl. We need to leave."

Karma and Aktlass look at them in disbelief as they had just unpacked the cooking utensils.

KARMA:

"... Are you fucking shittin' me?"

Sarale helps them repack the items.

SARALE:

"We're not fucking alone here. I knew something was wrong with this place. It felt off and that creepy fucking singing. Nope. Mn-mn. If we stay here, we're going to die."

Vajor approaches Sarale and places a hand on her shoulder as he looks at her with concern.

VAJOR:

"Dove, Calm down an' talk to us. What happened?"

Tunda Rushes to Aktlass and Karma and helps pack up.

TUNDA:

"A fucking lunatic is stalkin' dese neck o'da' woods, dat's what 'appened."

KARMA:(mutters)

"The accent is strong with this one."

Aktlass quickly stokes the fire that had grown a bit while everyone moved about. The voice suddenly echoed through the trees and everyone could hear it. The air grew cold and the sky fell darker as if a cloud had casted over the camp. The dire wolf whimpers and hides behind Sarale with his ears flat and his head low.

SARALE:

"Fuck. fuck. Fuck. T-the forest came to life. They must be a druid of some kind. What he might be to have this much power over the forest I dunno."

The dire wolf whimpers and cowares as he stares into the forest. Everyone stares in the direction of the singing.

SARALE:

"Do we run? Or stand our ground?"

VAJOR:

"I might be a barbarian, bu' not even I'm dumb enough to stick around wi' 'at."

Loonu rushes to Tunda as soon as he finishes helping and he hops onto her.

TUNDA:

"Grab your horses and let's get the hell goin'."

AKTLASS:

"Moving!"

Aktlass grabs Karma, who was holding on to the backpack for dear life, and rushes to the horse who seemed to be in slight panic. Aktlass is able to calm their horse down and helps Karma onto the horse before hopping on himself. Vajor grabs Sarale around the waist and yanks her back, snapping her out of her panicked trance. She scrambles to the horse and gets it under control enough for Vajor to climb on its back, when the snapping of tree limbs causes the horse to dart away without her. Vajor just barely misses her hand as they pass through the trees of the clearing, the horse taking him with it. Sarale can feel the chill in the air grow as she's grabbed around the wrist by the wolf and tossed onto his back. She catches his scruff and hugs tightly to his back as he bolts after Vajor. Everyone races after them and forces their way through the new found darkness of the forest.

The party was miles gone now. A tall lanky boy enters the camp that was left behind and looks around. He notices the traps that were once intact from his last visit to this camp had been disabled. The fire that he left as small embers was completely snuffed but still smoking. A rogue bandit follows after the boy and kneels behind him.

ROGUE:

"The traitor has been fed to the forest, sir… What's wrong?"

BOY:

"... we got visitors."

The boy finds the horse tracks heading north-west.

BOY:

"Don't follow them and just lay low. We don't know what their intentions are yet."

ROGUE:

"Yes, sir!"

The rogue leaves the boy in the camp on his own. The bird that had followed him earlier lands on his shoulder. It chirps and peeps in his ear and his eyes glow a cold, Icy blue in the darkness.

BOY:

"... new wild friends… You like them, huh?"

He picks up the bird in his claw-like hand.

BOY:

"Wanna play hunter in this game of hide and seek, little chickadee? You and I can be hunters together. Whoever finds them first, gets to make the first call… Whether they're your team or my prey…"

The bird flies off and quickly makes its way through the forest to find the party.

BOY:

"Let's see how you play along, visitors."