Chapter 3

The forest was cold and damp. Leaves littered the ground making Idris glad that she had stealth when hunting but also realizing she would have to depend on sight and anything could sneak on her. It had been three days since she entered the forest. Her dried meat was long gone and her water skin was almost empty. She had been eating nothing but fruits berries and herbs. She had collected a variety of poisonous ones for her arrows and the fact that they were in great abundance slightly disturbed her. Sleeping had been a great chore as she chose to sleep on treetops to avoid predators, which had seemed to work until now. She sat as still as a stone as a snake slithered across her lap to get to the other side of the enormous tree trunk. It's scales were so black they shimmered. Judging from the fangs, it was dangerously poisonous and Idris knew one slight twitch and the serpent would attack. Luckily for her the snake paid her no attention at all, because it couldn't even see her. It was like Idris and the tree trunk had become one or she had somehow become transparent. But Idris didn't know that, she just assumed she was lucky. As she shifted around the trunk trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in, she realized she needed to find or create a suitable place to stay.

When Idris opened her eyes at dawn, she found that a squirrel had gotten into her ruck sack and ate most of her fruit and destroyed the rest. "Just splendid! Now I have nothing to eat," she muttered. She swiftly jumped down and continued walking pausing at intervals to listen. From a distance she finally caught the sound of running water, in the hopes of catching some fish she picked up pace. Suddenly, her ears picked another sound. It sounded like meowling, she changed direction and started heading toward the sound. A fully grown black panther was laying on the ground. She was horrified and in the split of a second her bow and arrow were in her hands ready to shoot. Then she realized the panther was dead, seeing as a branch was lodged directly in the middle of her throat. It was a tiny little cub that was meowling, stuck on a tree too high and terrified to jump down. Idris sadly realized that the panther had probably dragged itself to get to it's cub judging from the marks on the ground. "What a fierce mother you have little cub," Idris said as she tried to find a way to get the cub down. After several attempts of trying to get the cub to jump, she decided to climb and just grab it, but the cub was obviously in distress seeing it's mother not responding and ended up swiping a claw across Idris' chin, who was just grabbing it and they ended up tumbling to the ground. The cub assuming that Idris was an enemy, planted itself in front of it's mother and let out a growl that sounded more like a squeal to Idris. She couldn't help but admire the courage and bravery of the little cub as it stood ready to defend it's mother. Trying a more different approach, Idris got on her hands and knees, looked directly into the cub's eye and said, "I don't wish to harm you more your mother. Your mother is dead, I just wished to bring you from the tree. You're free now little one." As she stared at the cub, who Stared right back at her hackles raised, green smoke appeared on her hands and moved through the ground till it was right beneath the cub. Both Idris and the cub were frozen in position for a moment until the cub's eyes glowed grey resembling Idris' eyes then turned back to their original black. "What in the name...?" Before Idris could process what was going on, her chest flared in a sharp pain that had her screaming on the ground. The pain was son intense it felt like she was on fire and somebody was stabbing her continuously. She couldn't even hear her own screams over the pain. In a few moments the pain started subsiding and as she laid there panting and on the verge of tears, she heard the cub meowling again. Only this time it sounded like it was in a lot of pain. Turning her head, she noticed the cub was on the ground writhing and twitching around. Questions ran through her mind. Did she and the cub go through the same experience? If so why? Was it a curse from the gods? As her heart finally calmed down enough and her breathing was normal, she heard over to the cub and picked it up. It was alive but weak and shaken. HUNGER. A thought popped in he head, except that wasn't her thought. She realized, shockingly. HUNGER. Again, Idris was now concerned that she was going mad until the little lump in her arms twitched and she felt it's stomach rumble. "Oh gods. I can hear the cub's thoughts!" She hurried the rest of the way to the river she had heard before and placed the cub down. She scooped water in her hands and offered it to the cub who lapped it away, after three handfuls it had had enough. The water was cool and clear but Idris couldn't see any fish. The water was inviting and she contemplated jumping in for a quick bath, when suddenly her ears picked on a familiar sound. Hoofs. She crouched low behind a rock and waited, ready with her now and arrow. The cub watched with renewed interest at what she was doing as a small herd of deers emerged from the tree line to the water. Shifting her target to the biggest one of them, she released the arrow just as the cub meowed and sent the whole herd berserk. Fortunately the arrow was faster than the deer could have reacted and it fell to the ground dead. "You almost made me miss our meal. Don't make noise when I'm hunting," she scolded the cub, who just huffed out a breath and sauntered off to the dead deer and started licking off the blood. "Seems like you're really hungry huh," Idris muttered as she gutted the deer and skinned it. she then hung the skin on a tree branch and the meat into strips onto the rock to dry a bit and left some for the cub to eat.

Finally she stripped and jumped into the river for a much needed bath. It was only when she started lathering herself that she noticed the dark lines on her chest. At first she thought it was a wound but it did not hurt at all, just felt warm. The mark was in the shape of a crescent moon right above her heart. Feeling a strong urge to touch it, she closed her eyes and in her head somehow she felt another presence. The cub's presence. Finding it hard to comprehend, she decided to forget about it for the moment and figure it out later.

She had expected the cub to be long gone after eating but she was surprised to find it asleep on her clothes. Fishing around her ruck sack for fresh clothes, she decided to gather some stick and light a fire to cook the meat. Gathering little twigs and dry brush she lit a fire and proceeded to cook the meat, wrap some in the herbs she had gathered for later. Feeding in some more sticks to the fire, she lay down on her back and stared at the sky, well a sliver of it anyway as the trees were humongous with thick canopies. The cub scooted over and placed itself squarely on her chest, curled up and went to sleep. This was off behavior to Idris as panthers aren't cuddly with humans but she assumed it was because maybe the cub thought she was it's new mother. The thought sent a warmth and a Sense of protectiveness over the cub that shocked her.

"Well since you are stuck with me in this jungle I'll have to give you a name little one," she muttered. The cub huffed as if it could understand her. "How about Squeaky? Because you squeak a lot," she said giggling. The cub lifted it's paw and swatted her chin without drawing it's claw. " Okay I get it, you don't like that. How about Twinkle?" At this the cub Swiftly turned it's back on her and ignored her for the rest of the night. Feeling content and a whole lot less alone, Idris drifted off to sleep as well.