Woods of Twilight

Outdoor life had become something of a desired lifestyle for both Solmar and Fellis, something that was particularly true ever since they had come down upon Sakuramori. While they both knew that there were plenty of dangerous creatures dwelling within these woodlands, animals and monsters were on the list of things Solmar understood. They acted for simple reasons such as hunger, protecting their flock or maintaining their territory. In that sense, he knew what to expect and how to act if he wanted to make sure he wouldn't end up bothering something, and make sure that something would not end up bothering him. Every once in a while, a show of force was needed in order to keep something like a bear or a wolf at bay, though they usually did not end up bothering him as long as he made sure to put his leftovers somewhere in their territory instead of leaving it laying around his campsite.

Having made his campsite underneath a ridge that acted as a makeshift roof, he used an old bear cave as a storage room and as a place to spend the night as it was dark, dry and had only one way in or out. Thanks to his heightened senses, Solmar would pick up on anything that got even remotely close to the entrance. And if not, Fellis would with his feline hearing and his eyes that were capable of seeing quite well in the dark. Right now though, he was sitting underneath the ledge, the cave behind him as he got a fire going. Since it was getting dark, he had learned that starting a fire would keep most creatures at bay while the warmth was quite a welcome thing. With the ledge covering him, anything approached him would have to come from the front or the side, meaning his back was covered from being attacked as visibility dropped with the coming night.

"I hope you're hungry Fellis, all we have right now is deer. I know you're not overly fond of it for tasting so bland and stringy, but I've used some of the spices to make it a bit.. less bland?"

"Eh… I guess, it beats having to eat icky-slickys."

Knowing that neither he nor Fellis really liked having to eat deer due to how incredibly tough it was to chew and because one had to rub nearly an entire jar of salt and pepper into the meat to give it at least Some flavor, what Fellis said was true. Calling them icky-slickys, Solmar knew quite well that Fellis meant fish, which was the kind of food they both hated with a passion. So once the fire got big enough to keep itself going for at least thirty minutes before needing more wood, Solmar put six thick sticks into the ground along the sides of the fire, placing one long twig that had various pieces of deer meat stuck unto it on top of it so it would hang right over the fire. Keeping much of their attention on their food, they were both aware that the scent and the sight of fire might attract unwanted attention. As such, they would try to split their attention two ways, taking turns and making sure they kept one another as safe as possible. That was what friends did after all.


(558)

When the presence he had felt finally made itself known to him, it seemed that it was in fact a woman with a rather odd look about her. Not being used to seeing people who had such exotic hair colors, it felt like something he would need to get used to rather quickly as the woman spoke to him as to whether or not he would allow her the chance to sit by the fire and warm herself. Making a gesture as to allow this much, he looked her over some more to get a better idea as to who or what he was dealing with. As someone who had spent at least eleven years of his still short life traveling about on his own, at least on his own if he were to count his company as being other humans, it seemed strange to him that someone would just stroll up to someone in the middle of the forest and ask to sit by the fire like that. Of all the time he had spent in Sakuramori, he knew that the place was infested with roaming packs of wolves, counted several bears and was considered home to some rather unapologetic monsters that killed without second thought.

"Uhm.. sure, have a seat if you want. I'm cooking up some deer haunches in case you're hungry. It isn't much, and the meat is generally rather chewy and stringy and lacking flavor, though I've added some spices to make it taste like actual food."

Figuring he might as well share some of his food with this strange new person, he started processing what he was seeing, things like the skin tone that was quite a bit more tanned than his own, the purple hair color, the color of her eyes and the way in which she dressed. All of these things went to state that she was most likely not like him at all in the sense that she did not live here in the forest like the young man did, but that she could likely hold her own out here. It was either that, or she had just been completely lucky in getting to his den during dusk, which was when most of the nocturnal predators were slowly coming out from their lairs and heading out to hunt. Whether she had been in the area the other predators had come to know as Solmar's domain within that time or not wasn't something he could tell for certain, though he figured that it had at the very least helped in keeping any potential threats from attacking her this close to where he had set up his camp. And with good reason.

The very coat he was wearing right now was once a large grizzly that called this very den his home and had terrorized both Solmar and Fellis for quite some time after they had come to the forest during their travels from the east. When it had come for them a third time, Solmar had managed to manifest his magic in a way that had allowed him to murder the monster and turn his hide in at a local craftsman that fashioned it into a thick fur coat. After that, most of the other predators knew better than to fuck with him and generally kept their distance when they caught onto his scent, at least as long as he did not venture too far into their territory. Since they most likely did not know her scent, he wondered why they had let her walk if not for her being in his territory. As he pondered on these things, Fellis suddenly shot up from his seat, spread his wings and started flying in circles around the woman. After doing a few rounds, the exceed sat himself down relatively close to her and looked at her intrusively before asking her a question he seemed to have been brooding on for some time already, even though she had only just come here.

"You've got weird hair missy, though it smells nice. Do you like the meat of the deer or the icky-slickys?".

As protective as he was of the flying feline, he figured he would allow it to do as he wanted for the time being as him going in to take the flying, talking cat away from her would go to show that he did not trust her one bit, at least not yet. But that was his way, and no one could really blame him for distrusting people and not really enjoying it when he had to be around them. Due to all of the people that had died because of him, he could not really be blamed for the fact that he had a hard time adjusting to being around people. Even now, he was struggling just to keep his cool as he tried to figure out what the intentions of this woman were. Since she seemed to roughly be of his age, he wondered if she possessed some kind of magic too, and that that was why she had been able to get here in one piece. Only time would tell as he waited for the meat to properly cook and for the woman to answer him.


(877 // 1369)