Stella:

"What is that?"

A strange shape caught her attention after almost an hour of walking through the woods. At that point, the girl silently begged for rest, but Lien kept strutting like this was a walk in the park. Stella's jealousy towards the creature increased by the second.

Back to the strange shape, Stella squinted her eyes to see the weird tree, building, or whatever that was. After five more minutes of walking, she reached a conclusion, it was a freaking giant mushroom.

The human was so focused on it that she didn't even pay much attention to the river that divided the woods and the forest of mushrooms.

Oh yeah, it was a whole forest of these things! All of them had a white stem, but they varied in color on their cap. Red, blue, green, purple, the whole rainbow! Coupled with the clear blue sky and the sun shining upon the landscape, it made for quite a beautiful sight, coming straight out of a fairytale.

The most fascinating detail in that "forest" was that a blue filter was spread throughout that area. On the other side of the river, that did not apply. Stella's eyes widened, and her mind went wild with wonder.

Her trance was broken by Lien's excited voice. "There it is! Now, we must go to our right and follow the river. Soon, we'll get out of the Lads' territory."

Stella deflated with disappointment. "So we're not going to the giant mushrooms, then?" She liked the idea of escaping those Ogres, but... giant colored mushrooms.

Her comment threw Lien for a loop. "Giant? Have you ever seen smaller mushrooms?"

"Yeah, actually," Stella explained. "From where I come from, these things are actually small. Like, miniscule!"

Lien chuckled in response. "Your home is weird!"

Stella just stood awkwardly and nodded. "I suppose..." No use trying to use logic in this place. Better go with the flow.

The human started walking to her right, as instructed. But Lien remained in place, scratching her neck. "Hey! Mind if I take a quick dip in the river?"

Stella shuffled her body sluggishly due to her fatigue. She took a while to understand what Lien was saying, but when she did, her demeanor went 180°. Finally, a break!

"Of course! Take as much time as you need!"

Stella barely finished her sentence when Lien quickly darted towards the streaming body of water. She didn't bother taking off any clothing and cannonballed on the river, making an impressive splash of water.

The human watched her furry companion swim and play in the water with a bright smile on her face through it all. She sat on the ground, rested her head on a tree, and let her body finally recover.

At that moment, Lien's eagerness and energetic personality became quite endearing for Stella. She didn't know why, probably because it was a change of pace from what she had in life, most of the time. There maybe was some jealousy involved. Stella always wished to be a dumb kid who could do all those crazy stunts and be fine at the end of the day.

Alas, one of many privileges she did not have access to...

And now, Stella was sad. She huffed and frowned at herself.

"Get yourself together, girl. I'm here to escape that crap"

Then Stella lay on the ground to avoid any more bad thoughts, resting her head in her own backpack. She closed her eyes, focusing on the sounds of the splashing water to relax her mind.

Until it stopped.

Well, that was odd. Did Lien already get tired from "bathing"?

Stella opened her eyes and went back to sitting. "Lien?"

No one was there. The river was peacefully remaining on its course. Stella was getting worried.

"Lien! Where are you?!"

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She got up and ran closer to the river. Her eyes searched in every direction, including the mushroom area. She walked in circles while calling for her companion.

"Where are you?! Lien!"

Her feet were almost touching the water. She had half a mind to cross the body of water.

"LIEN!"

SPLASH! Something came from underwater, right in front of her!

The girl stumbled back a couple feet, terrified at something supposedly ambushing her from underwater, like a crocodile.

Thankfully, it was no crocodile, it was Lien, with an impressive-looking fish in her mouth. Deep down a part of Stella was relieved, but it was drowned out by her heart, that pounded like a drum.

She sat on the ground until her breathing and heartbeat stabilized. When that happened, she became very pissed at Lien. "What the hell! I was worried that you drowned!"

Lien launched the fish, and it landed right next to Stella. It was wildly flailing until Lien jumped from the river and landed on the fish. Her strength, coupled with the momentum, made it so the fish could stop moving. Permanently.

"There's our snack!" Lien announced. "Do you want to eat it now or later?"

Stella looked at the creature, dumbfounded. She completely ignored her complaint with that river stunt. However, the girl knew better than to piss off someone faster, who could jump much higher than her, and had some sharp teeth to do some nasty damage. Besides, it didn't look like she did it on purpose, so she let it slide.

However, her patience was being tested when Lien started to shake her body, expelling the water from her drenched fur. Still, the human took a deep breath and didn't lash out. These clothes were not in a pristine state anyway.

Stella answered the creature's question. "Sure! Can you make a bonfire?"

"Oh," Lien spoke with a slight tone of disappointment. Stella went for her backpack, and the creature closely followed her. "I mean, I'm more of an 'eating raw' kinda Monoke. It's much faster that way."

Stella scrunched up her face at Lien's words. "Ew." Then she opened her bag and picked up a water bottle. She went to the river and filled her bottle with crystal-clear water. When she chugged the whole thing, it felt like her throat was purified.

Stella exhaled with satisfaction. "I needed that. Damn, this water is good!"

Lien was stretching while Stella enjoyed the river water. "You sound like you never drank here."

The girl screwed the bottle cap tight after filling the bottle with more water for posteriority. "It's because I didn't. The river near home is notorious for being basically a liquid dump. You wouldn't last a day near it with that nose of yours."

"Huh, your home sucks!" Lien said with no ill intent. Stella chuckled at her words. She was forward, and it was a breath of fresh air.

"Yep, it does. That's why I came here." She walked towards the tree where she had rested earlier, and Lien followed her there.

"Want to get a break from home, huh? I can relate." Lien rested against a tree beside Stella. The creature's right foot kept tapping the ground constantly, and her tail looked like it had a conscience.

"Can you?" The girl became curious. "Your home is also awful?"

Lien scoffed. "What? No! Pantsti is great! It's just... the people there get too protective of me."

Stella scoffed back. "That's it? I can think of worse stuff a kid could go through."

She half-expected for the furry creature to get on the defensive, but Lien only chuckled in response. "I suppose! Don't get me wrong, I love my mother and the other Wolves who keep an eye on me. But they look at me like I could get hurt when they're not looking!" She sighed. "I just want a bit of freedom sometimes."

Stella could start a speech about how she was lucky that she even had a mother. She could use her experiences to tell her companion about the many orphaned children she met. But what was the point? The girl didn't feel like she should dump all that heavy stuff into someone who had nothing to do with her problems. She would only be a jerk by doing that, nothing more.

"Yeah, I feel you." That was the only thing the girl was willing to say. She decided to lie back and enjoy the peaceful landscape with the weird Wolf girl.

Until her peaceful state of mind was interrupted again by an internal factor. A sharp sensation came from between her legs. She probably drank too much water.

"Of all of the fucking moments..."

Stella cleared her throat. "Uh, can you wait here while I go to a bush? I need to-"

A loud, sinister sound appeared from out of nowhere. After Stella took some time to pinpoint what it was, and when she did, she was so confused. It was a meow. A very scary one, at that.

The girl suddenly forgot about her biological needs and tried her best to not let her fear overtake her. She saw Lien, who was uncharacteristically terrified. The Wolf was trembling, her fur bristled. She got to her feet in a flash and started to use her nose to sniff something, walking left and right frantically.

Stella was disturbed by the situation, and her body was almost yielding to terror. To remedy that, the girl tried to lighten the mood the best she could.

"So! When you said scaredy cats, you actually meant-"

Lien's face pointed in a specific direction, and she kept focusing for a few seconds. Before Stella could ask further questions, the Wolf grabbed the now dead fish with her teeth again and tried to say something to the girl, but it was muffled due to her mouth being occupied. However, Stella understood the idea of what she meant. "We have to go. Now!"

The girl didn't ask further questions and followed the Wolf in the direction they were going in the first place. But after a few seconds of running, Stella noticed something big forcing their way through the woods, though she couldn't see what it was.

Stella was terrified. How many times would her life be in danger in this damned place! That could be it! This could be how her story would end!

She wasn't ready, not like this!

Her desperation reached peak levels when their escape was blocked by a massive black figure! Stella stumbled back and fell to the ground. When she looked slightly upwards, she saw the creature. A black cat, the size of a house, with yellow eyes. The girl couldn't quite believe what she saw, yet she thought she couldn't be more surprised.

She instinctively said. "What the f-"

"Jólakötturinn!" Lien shouted.