Chapter 3: Into the woods.

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Three and a half more years creep by, eight years feels too long to be kept hidden away from the world. Commoner males of my race would be striking out on their own by now in search of adventure, work….women.

“OUch!”

What just, waaaaah it’s cold!

I have no trouble in the dim candlelight of my room finding my blanket and pull it back over me. The source of the pain in my ribs is revealed.

Red is hugging my tail, legs kicking in her sleep. She still does this on occasion whenever she’s nervous or upset. It’s happened less since two years ago when we got our own rooms finally.

I pinch the ankle of the offending foot, she wakes with another kick. This one sending me over the edge and onto the hardwood floor.

“You know sister, you have your own bed. Remember? It’s in that room on the side of the hallway with windows. The room which you chased older brother around the entire cave making scary faces until he gave it up.”

A cute girl with short, layered red hair and small red fox ears sticks her head over the side of the bed to look at me on the floor.

Her eyebrows narrow, “I wasn’t making scary faces! I was trying to breath fire!”

….Is that so.

I get up and dive back onto the bed, “I must have dozed off in the lesson about fire breathing foxes.”

She puffs her cheeks, “When aren’t you asleep in class? But no, I saw mother do it! She turned into a fox with two tails and blew little rings of fire!”

Well I wouldn’t put anything past mother, but I think she’s thinking of the smoke rings from mother’s pipe.

While fixing my blankets, “You don’t think you’re getting a bit old to be sneaking into my bed still?”

Red steals the thicker top blanket and wraps herself up in it, “My room is cold, your tail is warm. Why, could it be you feel nervous sharing a bed with the beautiful girl I’m becoming?”

More like I fear waking up with broken ribs, “Hardly sister, besides, you’re tall as some adults, stronger than most of them, and flat as a …”

——–

A knocking wakes me up, must be the throbbing in my head.

Mother walks in my door, she’s upside down… I’m upside down.

She pulls me up by the arm, “Did you sleep like that all night, no, nice black eye darling.”

“Sister seems … to dislike comments about her chest.”

The noble, living goddess, Madam Inari plops onto my bed and snatches up my pillow to sulk into, “My little pups are growing too fast. Look at you, you’re tall as the guards already. Where did my grumpy, little black fuzz ball go?”

I recall the instructor saying something about our race grows larger depending on our individual strength. I’m taller than all the other pups except my siblings. Grey barely beats me but Red is quite ahead.

Sitting on my bed side, mother looks me over. Her arm length pipe sending smoke to my ceiling, I can faintly smell cherries. I like the silver clouds design on the pinkish wood.

She flicks my nose, “Your fine, hurry downstairs, well, don’t hurry, you did hit your head. Just get going, you’re the last pup we’re waiting on.”

Ah! The hunt!

I grab my equipment and stuff it in a pack along with the extra snacks I snuck from the kitchen last night.

Mother watches this from my bed with a grin, I hug her before dashing out into the hallway.

Out in the courtyard the large group of pups stand waiting.

Just as a couple were about to comment they seeme to notice my eye. All the pups look at Red.

She reels back, “He deserved it!”

Red folds her arms as if to say that’s the end of it. I see Older Brother roll his eyes and turn to face the large male in front.

Ptah in his usual blacksmith attire addresses the group, “Alright, now that we’re all here, today as you well know is your final test to earn your names.”

He pauses to look at the excitement in the pups, “You will be moving out in teams of three…”

I’m sure he’s going to go on for a bit, I should give my equipment a check.

“…been sighted a bit west of here, be wary of their markings on the gigapines..”

I quickly glance at the menacing, giant black pine trees that tower into the sky, blocking nearly all light. The den, the gate, the furniture in my room, even the shaft of my spear is carved from the dark wood.

“Lastly, remember that you must be back by evening tomorrow. Any way I won’t delay you anymore, first group step forward.”

Oh? Well that’s a first.

The groups make their way forward from the gate, Ptah holds them until the previous group is out of sight and sends the next one in a new direction.

When Grey’s turn is next, the wild white twin leans over to me and plants a kiss on my cheek, “Good luck Fuzzy.”

She almost skips to catch up with my silent brother. I’m doing my best not to laugh at the annoyed glance he gave me as he ignored Ptah and immediately turned west out the gate.

“Black,” Sister looks in the same mood as Grey, “your tail is wagging.”

“Pardon me for trying to enjoy my day despite waking up on the floor because of a certain someone’s temper.”

Her body goes rigid, “I do Not have a temper!”

Says the girl with flickers of red flames in her hair. I pat them out and she seems to relax a bit. Just in time for our turn.

Ptah pulls a black and tan furred boy from the group of remaining pups, “Black, take my nephew with you two. Head directly north, don’t bother hunting till tomorrow, the further you go the better chances of finding something to compete with what your brother is after. Just don’t be late or get your group killed. Your mother and my family will torture me till the end of my days.”

The jackal tribesmen doesn’t seem to be kidding.

Whatever, I do a last mental check of my gear. Spear, jacket, rope, blanket, knives, food, everything I need to get lost for one night.

We set off straight ahead. The dark woods welcoming us like death itself. The enormous black pines barely allow a few snowflakes to make it to the ground. What new adventure awaits us? What danger lurks…

“So are you gonna marry my cousin?” Jackal boy asks.

The dangerous look from Red is not quite what I had in mind.

She snaps at him, “You! What are you talking about?”

His tail wags at my sister’s attention, trust me buddy, it isn’t a good thing.

He puffs out his chest, “Call me Copper, and I heard my uncle talking to the Inari about it at dinner. They said Black here will get Ptah’s daughter for a wife.”

Ohh, “Is she cute?”

Red immediately punches my shoulder, I nearly trip over a branch.

Sister is too selfish, “Red, let’s not injure your nice older brother before we even make camp.”

She lets out a single laugh, “Nice? Who was it that spent a whole week bursting from shadows to scare Instructor Ragna? Or how about when you poured honey into eldest brother’s pillow.”

Copper adds in, “Uncle told me you once hid a fish in the forge, he said the stench lasted for a month.”

“Wasn’t me.”

A flat lie. Both of them stop to look back at me.

I let out a sigh, “We’ve been holed up in the den for years, pardon me for getting bored.”

Red stretches her arms as she continues ahead, “You’re always bored brother.”

Jackal boy asks me in a whisper, “Do think she’ll be happy if we find something fantastic to hunt?”

This little…, “Oh yes, Red won’t be satisfied unless we bring home at least three bears.”

I see her smile back as she slightly glances at me.

Copper grips his spear tighter, he’s either motivated or nervous…probably both.

From Red up front, “I wonder if there are dragons in these woods?”

The Jackal pup trips on a stick and his face hits the dirt.

The trek is completely and disappointingly uneventful. After setting up camp and a few awkwardly horrible joke attempts from Copper over dinner, we call it a night and I drift off to sleep…

I’m falling, plummeting from a cold night sky. The stars light up the endless snowy mountain tops below. The white capped trees below look like spikes waiting to embrace me. The icy wind chills my every bone.

Just as I see the outline of something large flying off a cliff below me into the trees a voice echoes in my mind, sweet and alluring.

“Wake up my toy, we’ve so fun much ahead.”

Fun?

A giggle, the snow surrounds me and all fades to black.

My eyes snap open, above me is the canvas I stretched over the two large tree roots we’re sleeping between. The dim light of the all but burnt out fire lets me watch the smoke crawl along the cloth until exiting out the gap in the back at the base of the great black pine tree.

At the crackle of the embers I look around, Jackal boy is nestled opposite the fire, Red is snuggled with my tail behind me. I slowly wave my hand through the small wafts of black clouds emanating from my frizzy tail fur. Small sparks tickle the back of my hand, a humid warmth, she’s always liked it.

Feeling the chill of the night I put another chunk of wood on the fire with some sticks. I’m not sure I want Copper to see my sister like this.

I look out the open front of our shelter, the tree we chose is growing at the edge of a small rock outcropping on a hill side. I can see by the light of the stars, distant pines, normal ones. As a few snowflakes drift past the entry I can’t help but shudder.

The dim light of the sun begins to creep into the sky off in the far distance.

With a flick to Red’s ear, “Wake up sister, let’s get this done and go back to our cave….I don’t like it here.”

She instead gives a very uncharming grunt and rolls over, my tail still in her arms, I get dragged on top of her.

Red opens her eyes and gives a small yip at me being on top of her.

Copper wakes up, “What’s all the fuss….I’m sorry, I’ll wait outside while you two finish.”

“Ah! No…Red stop turning all red!”

Her embarrassed face is not helping here!

I hop up, head hitting the canvas, “Don’t be saying stuff like that Copper! She’s my sister and furthermore I have no interest in a girl without any brea.. OOMpf!”

Red kicked my legs out from under me….something smells like burning, “MY TAIL!!!”

I had landed in the smoldering fire, once more I jump up and pat out my singed tail fur.

Red hands me a biscuit, “Stop fussing brother, your tail is so frizzy from your own sparks that you can’t even tell where it was burnt.”

Clutching it in my arms I stare her down, “Suppose I’ll just send a few of those sparks at your tail then we can match.”

I point at her silky red tail with it’s slightly blackened tip.

The sharpness of her gaze cuts me to the core, “Do and I’ll rip yours off your ass, you should be happy brother, I won’t need to sneak into your bed anymore.”

Copper is now sitting on the large root behind her, unsure what to say, only to stutter, “Y-You can use my t-tail if you want Red.”

She doesn’t even look at him as she punches the root with enough force to make a dent and shake him off of it.

He stumbles to land proper but instead falls on his face.

A small, icy gust blows through our site and I look back out at the ravine. The sun has begun to peek over the horizon from under the grey clouds. The light reflects from the snow covered trees below.

“Seriously, I don’t like it here let’s get hunting already. We’re at the edge of The Black Wood like Ptah instructed, this should be the primary territory of the dominant animals.”

Red gets a glimmer in her eyes, “We’re looking for something big right?! Like a dire bear or a lion!”

Copper, “Of course! We’ll bring back something so that Uncle will declare us the best hunters in the den!”

Sister raises an eyebrow at him, he corrects himself, “That you’re the best hunter Red.”

Wimp, I laugh, “You won’t be taking my credit dear sister, but Copper if that is your stance I don’t mind letting you carry our packs for us.”

While Red pounds her fist into her palm thinking it’s a great idea, Copper raises his arms to decline the offer…only to have sister’s pack placed in them. Too late fella, you asked for it, once she sees you as an underling you’re stuck with it.

We head along the ridge line, the edge of the gigapines. Anything large enough to be an alpha beast would hunt in the normal forest but still make it’s home in the large pines.

It’s odd that the great black pines don’t bother me like the normal ones down the hill. I suppose it’s because all I can really see of them is their trunks. The branches and needles are far above us, blocking out the sky.

Hopefully if we keep along here we find something good before too long. Ptah sent us out this far, it would suck to head back empty handed just because we ran out of time.

Crack.

A snap of a twig from behind me.

Copper is holding twigs in his hands….

Whispering in anger, “This isn’t play time, we won’t get anything if you’re banging sticks around!”

That’s really not as satisfying as just yelling, maybe I should copy sister and just hit him next time. He puts his hands together and bows his head silently to apologize. Red shrugs so I let it be.

Turning back around I take one step.

Crack! Far louder than before.

Rehearsing to the ground in front of me, “Alright, I’m sorry Ptah, Copper tripped and fell, he landed really awkward. A broken arm will mend in no time.”

Turning around reveals a surprise. Copper is looking rather confused at the twigs in his hands. Behind him is a black creature similar to a deer, looking equally confused. It’s large, easily bigger than any ox or horse from the den, and it seems out of breath.

Red yells, “It’s an Alce!”

As Copper turns around in shock, I yell, “Who cares, Kill It!”

The Alce no longer standing still in shocked fear, turns to run.

Copper barely manages to leap after it, the tip of his spear barely making a small cut on the rear of the large beast. It reacts by kicking out with its hind legs to hit Copper square in the chest.

He flies back against a nearby root clutching his chest and slumping over onto the ground.

Red single mindedly jumps after the Alce but I call her back.

“Stop!”

She looks back at me angrily and then sees the injured jackal boy.

With a sigh she says, “I want to hunt something more impressive anyway.”

Helping Copper to sit up, I can feel that he surely has at least a couple broken ribs.

The ground begins to shake, like the rumble of distant thunder we can hear something coming towards us from the direction the Alce ran.

Louder by as each moment the booming rumbling is getting closer and will reach us soon. Red and I move Copper into a knot of the large root.

I barely toss down my gear and grip my spear when it charges into view.

A black bull Alce is a tower of a beast, large enough to feed off the pine branches which would extend over even the watchtower of the den.

The size of his antlers is such that I wonder how it even navigates between trees. The flat center is bordered by countless white spikes, some with red stains.

But this is no time to be messing around, it clearly is charging directly at us.

Copper mutters, “that must have been it’s pup we just attacked.”

“I don’t think they’re called pups…Whatever, get ready Red, here’s our great prize.”

The fearless grin appearing on her face gives away the excitement she has to match my own.

She cracks her knuckles and dashes to the nearest pine. As she starts to furiously climb, claws digging into the bark as if it was mud, wood chips scatter in her wake. I steady my breath and stare down the approaching threat.

Closer, the thunder of his hooves beating the forest floor is almost deafening.

Closer, I can see the movement in his muscles with his heavy breathing as he charges.

I point my spear at his muzzle, Mother would kill me if she saw this.

Closer, I can see my reflection in his enormous brown eyes.

The moment that would see me crushed into dog mush instead I burst into a black fog.

He rears up his head in fury, I reform on top his head between the antlers.

Red dives from the tree landing on his left antler and running to meet me atop his skull.

I stab down with my spear, point barely piercing the flesh before making contact with rock hard bone.

He whips his head right as if to shake off a fly, throwing me loose.

Red has no choice but to dive forward from the upturned antler, her arm is coated in flickering red flames as she manages to punch him in the left eye.

She catches onto the coarse black fur of its muzzle, arms still alight.

My fog breaks my fall, the beating in my chest makes my blood scream with excitement as I roll away from his front hooves as he bucks.

He rears his head one more time, successfully tossing Red back up into the trees. It would be impossible to miss her laughter echoing as she disappears into the pine needle branches.

The bull takes a stance to stare me down with his one open eye, the smell of burnt hair in the air.

With a snort he lunges, scooping his antlers to impale me on one of the hundred points.

The air around me crackles with energy, jumping I land on the antler and begin to charge up the flat center as he lifts me up, time seems to slow as I take my leap towards his right eye.

It’s strange to watch my own reflection in the black center of his eye as big as me.

I land with my spear in dead center, kicking off to get clear before he can thrash his head from side to side in utter fury and pain.

The big, bad, Alce is now almost completely blind, my spear deep in his right, the left constantly blinking from Red’s fiery claws.

She drops from the high canopy, arms in a full coat of red fire. Her hair ablaze, flickering off the tip of her fox ears. Her tail leaving a trail of embers as she lands on the monster’s back.

He bucks and kicks, chunks of wood flying everywhere as the nearby pines have their trunks destroyed by his hooves.

Flames and smoke can be seen all along his back as Red claws about, digging into his flesh in order not to be thrown off. Barrels worth of blood seems to be raining from the wounds she’s carving out.

It barely catches sight of me and makes one more attempt at a head butt.

I can’t help but laugh like my sister did as I once more shift into the black fog.

He’s only helping me reach his vitals faster, I reform standing on top of my spear still deeply embedded into the eye.

I call back to Red who is just clawing her way to the top of his head, “Sorry Little Sister, but this trophy is mine!”

Feeling the surge, I discharge every spark I can muster into his eye.

The light is blinding and the spear itself becomes charred ash as the Great Alce spasms his head up, throwing me into the air.

I watch him collapse below me, face first into the dirt.

Upon landing I can see Red’s frustrated pout, she yells, “I was about to finish him!”

“I don’t think he would have died from your scratching his back a little.”

She looks about to argue but instead looks behind me in shock then fear.

A high pitched, hoarse voice cackles, “Hahaha not bad little fuzzy toy, I love free food.”

Spinning around I see a giant of a black wolf, easily the type that would have hunted such a large alce.

It narrows menacing yellow eyes at me and jumps forward, I once more shift to fog.

The enormous wolf’s front paw is too fast and I can feel myself pulled out from the cloud and pinned to the ground.

A toothy grin, “Come now don’t try to escape already… Hehe, heehehe..”

He busts into an annoyingly loud cackle mid threat, then suddenly bursts into a great black fog bank himself.

Sitting up I catch sight of it, now only slightly larger than a normal sized wolf, rolling on the ground nearby in the fog. After a moment it manages to stop and after a sigh the wolf gets up and shakes the dirt off its rugged black coat.

It whimpers, “I’m sorry mistress, I couldn’t keep a straight face.”

Looking back at me, anger in his yellow eyes he growls, “Get home fuzzy toy, your friend doesn’t look well. Leave the Grand Alce, I’ll take care of it.”

Really it is hard to take his menacing tone seriously anymore, I can see the edges of his lips struggling not to grin.

I hear him once more break into a cackling laughter as he fades into the fog.

The black fog spreads everywhere, I find Red by the flickering light of small subdued flames in her hair.

She whimpers, “What’s going on brother, where did that monster go?”

With a shrug, “Let’s just find the idiot jackal pup and get back to the den.”

As if to show the way, the black fog thins to reveal the spot we hid Copper.

Like the wolf said, he’s having a hard time breathing, his eyes shut with no sign of waking.

We carefully pick him up between us.

Sister nervously looks around, “How will we find our way….oh.”

Like a tunnel in the cave, the black fog leaves only one direction clear, she looks to me.

I guess that fellow isn’t going to eat us, “It’s not me, don’t worry let’s just get moving, we’ll be late at this rate.”

As we walk she suddenly asks, “What about my trophy!”

After sniffing the air I sigh, “Our trophy Sister, use your nose.”

She perks up in surprise, “It’s gone?! I can’t smell the blood or the charred fur!”

I don’t say anything but continue to pull her along as we carry jackal boy.

Can’t say I like this, walking blindly through the dangerous Black Woods, led by a crazy monster, our prize disappeared.

The day slips by, I can only think Red will panic if we stop to rest in this darkness.

A familiar smell hits me, “We’re home Sister.”

She perks up looking forward, true to my word the fog bank clears to reveal the front of the den only a bit ahead.

Mother is standing in the open gates and begins to walk forward, Ptah right at her heel. She waves her hand and he steps ahead of her to take Copper from us.

Red and I collapse to the dirt in exhaustion.

Mother looks behind us and smiles warmly, “A rather showy way to escort my pups home Mauggy.”

I feel the air shift as Red and I watch the great black fog that led us home quickly funnel into the form of a small black dog, a wolf pup.

It happily barks and runs past us, jumping into mother’s arms… I swear it just buried his head in mother’s chest.

She laughs and flicks his nose, “Naughty, Ulfy will punish you.”

Mother looks past us as the smell of blood fills my nose, “Not bad my pups, your father would be tickled with joy like the idiot he is.”

The Grand Alce bull carcass is laid at the edge of the woods just behind us.