Aidux's tufted ears turned first, leading his head behind them like reins on a horse.

“Did you hear that?” the cat mumbled, stopping to sniff at the air.

Confused, Nevin followed his gaze through the trees. The twitter of songbird surrounded the two, but the playful quality had been replaced with an odd tension, a hesitancy to turn their full attention to one another and ignore the day's unusual events. Nothing moved beneath the endless sea of ferns, but considering the close proximity of one carnivorous feline, he expected nothing less from the forest's more timid denizens.

Nevin rubbed his forehead and sighed. While his friend's fine-tuned senses were far more capable than his own at picking up on subtle changes in the environment, it was possible the cat was just detecting the movements of an incautious rabbit or a branch damaged by the recent storms finally answering the call of gravity.

No, the real problem was currently secured on his hip: the brass canteen and everything it represented. As the brewer responsible for the majority of Elbin's alcohol, Dalen had managed to ingratiate himself with practically every man and woman of age in the village. Men, dirty and ill-mannered, regularly sought his company at the orchard, and their raucous parties would wine away the day and deep into the night. And while these men were fairly well-behaved during daylight hours, their increasing boredom, inebriation, and proximity to Dalen sometimes created trouble for Nevin.

He'd long since learned to make himself scarce whenever he suspected such a party on the horizon, usually around the completion of a new batch of wine. He would gather up the barest of necessities and set off into the wilds with Aidux for an impromptu camping session. The lynx was none the wiser to the real reason behind their excursions, happy only for the uninterrupted company of his closest friend. Nevin would wait out the parties and the hangovers, returning just in time to help clean up the mess.

He worked hard not to give Dalen a reason to be cross with him, but if he'd succeeded in actually hurting the old drunk for once, he suspected there would be nowhere in the Traagen Woods he could find safety from the old drunk and his friends.

Somewhere in the woods, a sudden sound startled him from his thoughts. This time, they both heard it, sweeping through the trees like a macabre zephyr.

They both heard it, only Nevin recognized it for what it was.

The cry of death.

“Did you...” Nevin trailed off, staring intently off into the distant trees. The Waking had brought with it warmer weather and plentiful rains, stirring the dormant foliage from its Langour hibernation. Leaves sprouted into a verdant ceiling, and a tightly woven carpet of hungry ferns had emerged to squabble over the unclaimed scraps of sunlight that managed to steal through the canopy. A cavernous room with no walls and no end, stabilized by countless pillars of gnarled, tenebrous wood.

Aidux nodded, watching Nevin with his eyes, the forest with his ears. “That's what I've been trying to tell you. Something's wrong. That wasn't the first scream I've heard today.”

Though he didn't see anyone in the distance, he knew those two soldiers couldn't have made it far in the last few minutes. As intimidating as Aidux may be, he doubted a pair of trained soldiers would shy away from a second encounter with the feline, especially now that they knew to expect him. Would the two circle about and come back for the boy and his cat? Or would they first seek out reinforcements? Would they even return at all?

Without knowing the soldiers' purpose in Elbin, Nevin could only speculate, but he did know that should they indeed decide to double back, he wanted Aidux and himself to be as far away as possible when they arrived.

“What a weird morning,” he said, ruffling the fur between the cat's ears before hefting the pack onto his shoulder. “Come on. I don't ever want to see this tree again.”

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Despite the presence of the nearly hundred pound apex predator passing through their domain, the birds of the Traagen cautiously sank back into habit, their overlapping songs a playful contrast to the strained tone of the day. Occasionally, the drooping ferns ahead of them would jerk and sway; no doubt some unseen critter beating a hasty retreat away from the two friends' intended path. A brown hare stared at them from behind a high-arch root, counting each step with wide, quavering eyes. To Nevin's surprise, Aidux hardly seemed to notice. The cat merely peered ahead as the two picked their way through the undergrowth.

“I need to tell you something, Nevin, but I don't think you're gonna like it.”

The young man cocked an eyebrow. “That bad, huh?”

“Maybe. I don't know...it's been an weird morning for me, too.”

“Alright, then walk me through it.”

The cat shot him a look. “Promise you won't get mad?”

Uh oh. “Just...start at the beginning. We'll go from there.”

Aidux huffed. “I almost had him, Nevin. I almost had that stupid fox. Two months of dog pee and half-eaten rabbits. The whole thing's got me so irritated.”

This was the Aidux he needed right now. “What's wrong with dog pee?”

“You know I can't stand that smell.” The cat’s face twisted in disgust. “It was everywhere. Rocks, bushes, trees…That’s why it took me so long to find him. It’s like he just ran around all day, peeing on anything and everything in sight. I was beginning to think a whole family of the darn things had in…in…” The cat paused, searching for the right word.

“Invaded.”

He shook his mane. “That doesn't sound right.”

“It is.”

He paused again, mouthing the strange word over and over like he was trying to place an unfamiliar taste. “Okay, I like that one. Like a whole buncha foxes invaded my woods. Anyway, yeah, the stuff was everywhere. I was starting to get worried. You know, one fox I can handle, but a whole flock?”

Nevin bit his lip, fighting a smile. “A skulk?”

“That's what I said,” the cat continued, barely pausing. “So I kept looking, and searching, and sniffing, and today, I got lucky.”

“You found him?”

“Well, no, I didn’t. I mean, I did get lucky, but not with that.” He huffed again. “My belly had been making sounds all night, but I was so focused on getting that stupid fox, I'd pretty much just ignored it. I don't particularly enjoy the taste of dog, but everything tastes better when you're hungry, and I was so close.

“I tracked him to an area just off the road leading into town, and right there, just laying in a circle of trampled ferns, was this freshly killed rabbit. That stupid fox's scent was all over it, so I figured I probably scared him off mid-meal, but the rabbit was barely warm. Been dead for a bit. Odd, but I wasn't going to turn down a free meal, you know?”

The cat smiled up at him, a mouth brimming with daggers and nightmares. Nevin just nodded, unfazed by a sight that would cause most men to wet themselves.

Satisfied, he continued. “I had a mouthful of hindquarter when the wind shifted and my nose caught another scent – men and horses. Now, I was hunkered down in the ferns, so I wasn't worried about being seen, and I was right off the road, so I wasn't especially surprised. But horses? Only a couple of those in the whole of Elbin, so...”

“Aidux...”

“It was only out of both concern and curiosity-”

Nevin shot him a pointed look. “Aidux! You know better than that. What if you'd been seen? These people would turn you into a rug, and then where would I be?”

He hated feeling like this, feeling angry with his closest friend, but he had to be sure Aidux understood the dangers of getting too curious of the men of Elbin.

(Continued in part 2)