Father raised his axe above his head in a motion he must have done thousands of time by now and—
*Thwack!*
He swift brought it down and made another deep cut into the felled tree he was working on right now.
Then he raised his axe 2 more times and swung it down before lobbing a large chunk of the tree’s trunk off to the side before moving onto the next chunk and started swinging his axe again.
Though, I wasn’t paying much attention to what he was doing as watching him do whatever a lumberjack did had stopped being entertaining to me a few years ago.
And, normally, we would talk and joke to each other so I wouldn’t really get that bored even though he was mostly focusing on his work but... today there was just a tense silence in the air, occasionally cut up by the sound of his axe hitting the tree’s trunk.
*Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!*
“Hoo... Milena, can you pass me the water flask?” Dad asked after he stopped working for a moment, and I quickly did so, reaching down from the tree stump I was sitting on, grabbing the flask, and walking a bit before handing it to him.
“Thanks.” He said sat down on the felled tree he was working on a few moments ago, and started taking a few sips from the flask.
“Umm...” I started talking in a low voice, but couldn’t really find the words to speak, so I just, stood there, fidgeting in my place.
“What is it Milena?” Dad asked as he turned his head towards me, and saw me playing with my fingers.
And, after a few more seconds of fidgeting in my place, I stopped and asked him if we were going to talk about tomorrow.
“Ah... that... I was planning on talking about that after I had a bit more to mull over it but, sure, let’s talk about it now.” He said, and took another sip from the flask before closing it.
“N-now?”
“Yes, now. Why? You don’t want to talk about it yet?”
“N-no, I do, but... it just feels a bit weird for you to suddenly ask about it after being silent for so long.”
“...Sorry for that, but like I said, I was just mulling over what happened yesterday a bit more. It just feels... surreal that a monster so intelligent and friendly exists so close to us—existed so close to us without us ever realising... well, except you of course.”
“Huh? Friendly?”
“Hmm? Didn’t you realise it? When I encountered it, it just stood there, leaving itself open for an attack so I would feel safer, and after you grabbed onto its leg, it realised my worry for you, or either knew that I was your father beforehand or realised it then, and carefully took you off of itself before gently putting you down, and going deep into the forest off of its own will so we would feel safer.
“I heard tales of intelligent monsters from your grandpa, but... seeing one with my very own eyes, a friendly one at that, feels just so... surreal.
“The weirder thing is that it didn’t even look like it was that strong, so was it hiding its true strength? Or did it just develop intelligence through some other way than simply ranking and levelling up to an absurd degree...” Father said, starting to murmur towards himself towards the end, but quickly caught himself after a few seconds and focused on me again.
“Sorry for that. Now, tell me what happened yesterday.
“Why did you go to the forest and where and how did you find that monster?” He asked and I started telling my story.
“Well, yesterday, after I was done with helping mom with chores around the house, I went out and saw one of those walking bushes walking by—” I started talking, but father cut me off a few seconds after.
“One of them? So, that deer monster we saw yesterday wasn’t the only one?” He asked, and I nodded.
“Yes, but it was the biggest one I’ve seen so far. The other’s I’ve seen range from the size of a squirrel to the size of a fox. Nothing as big as that deer though.”
“Hmm...” He hummed thoughtfully before telling me to continue.
“Then I thought I could quickly go into the forest and catch it and bring it back to show to you and mom, but when I turned around to look at where it was—it had already gone away!
“I remembered it going east, and went direction for 10 minutes, before deciding that I had lost the walking bush’s trail, and turning back, towards west, but after another 10 minutes of running, I realised that I was lost as I was still deep in the forest.
“Then, I started looking for a clearing in the forest, so I could look at where the sun was, and make a rough estimate as to where I should go to find the village. But, in the first clearing I found, I saw that big deer-like walking bush resting on top of a wide rock, that was next to a large pond of water, and I watched it from afar for a few minutes before it got off of its stone.
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“And, after it got off, it started going towards the treeline, and after reaching it, stopped, and turned it head towards me to motion me to follow it, and then disappeared into the forest.
“I tried to see if I could see the sun from the clearing it was laying in but... I couldn’t, so, I decided to follow as it as I didn’t really have any other options, and after a few minutes, decided that I’d try and catch it, as I didn’t see how an animal made of branches and leaves could be strong enough to resist me—I mean, look at my arms!” I said, and pulled my sleeve back a bit, and flexed my arm, and my muscles became pronounced, and my dad smiled at me laughed a bit.
“Haha~
“You are right, who rival my daughter in power! But do you remember what I told you about animals?”
“Umm... which one?”
“The one about how to tell which animals are stronger than you at a glance, and which are weaker?”
“Oh, yes! You said that the smaller an animal is, the weaker it is and the more predatory they look, the more dangerous they are.”
“And was the monster we saw yesterday bigger, or smaller than you?”
“It was... bigger, but, in my defence, it was made from literal leaves! How could something like that be stronger than me!”
“Milena, haven’t I told you about your grandpa’s adventures? Or the ones I heard from the guards in big cities? The weirder a monster or an animal looks, the more dangerous they are.
“Sure, a bear is a bear, and it will be stronger than a single man, but no matter how hard it may try, 3-5 people will always be able to take it down.
“But a rabbit with a horn? Deer with vines growing out of them? A wolf that looks as dark as shadows? Anyone could tell that those things would be many times more dangerous than their more normal counterparts!
“Even more so if the thing you are looking out seems to be entirely made out of plants! And you should’ve been able to tell that a deer made entirely out of plants was definitely a monster that you should’ve avoided at all costs, and have informed an adult when you saw one.” Father started lecturing me, but whenever I tried to talk to him, or mom, about the monsters I’d see in the forest, they’d just look a few seconds too late, and miss the monster!
“But I did! And you didn’t believe me!” I yelled out, and he stopped for a few moments before talking again.
“For that, the blame is mine. I’ll admit. I should’ve trusted your word more I did, and checked it out whenever you said you saw a weird looking animal in the forest.
“On that note, have you seen any of those walking bushes today?” He asked, and I immediately opened my mouth to say yes—but then stopped.
“...Wait, I didn’t see any today?” I muttered in surprise, as by this time, I would’ve at least seen one passing by.
They’d never stray too close, and would try to hide themselves between real bushes and other greenery in the forest, but there’d be times when they would have to dash from bush to bush, where they’d reveal themselves, and those were the times I realised that they were there the most.
And, over the course of a day, you’d just notice a few of them passing by as you looked at the forest a few times, being more cautious of sudden noises in the forest or the plants swaying in weird ways.
But today? None of that happened.
No weird noises. No bushes and other foliage on the ground moving weirdly. And most definitely no walking bushes dashing from bush to bush.
“Hmm... from your reaction, I assume you normally see more than a few every day?”
“Well... I at least see 1 or 2 of them a day. But today? I haven’t seen any. Which is... weird.
“They are not easy to spot by any means, but once you learn their tells and all, they are actually quite obvious to see!” I told him, and he hummed in thought for a few seconds, sweeping his gaze over the forest surrounding us as he did so.
“Well... that is most certainly interesting... so, they are most definitely not normal animals are monsters as, no matter how strong animals and monsters are, or how numerous they are, they never, ever, come close to even the smallest settlements, unless they are starving, which I doubt these “Walking Bushes” as you call them are...” Father muttered, and tossed the water flask next to him as he got up.
“Well, I better finish up quickly. Wouldn’t want to make your mother worry again by being late now, would we?” Father said as he picked up his axe again and prepared to continue processing the felled tree.
“Wait!” I then said, and he lowered his axe, and turned towards me.
“What are we going to do about the walking bushes?” I asked, dad, and, while at first, he was interested in hearing what I was going to say, he quickly lost his interest as I asked my question.
“Ah, that? Well, nothing.” He answered nonchalantly.
“W-what?!” I screamed, not being able to contain my surprise, then he fully turned towards me, and leaned a bit against the felled tree.
“Well, what would you say that we do Milena?”
“I... don’t know?”
“Then, tell me everything you know about these walking bushes, and how they act.”
“Well... they keep to the forest, are intelligent and friend—oh, I see what you mean.”
“Right. So, what do you think would happen if I ran to the militia commander, screaming and crying, telling him about this new type of monsters that suddenly appeared in the forest that seems to only stick to the forest, save our children when they get lost, can reason to some degree, and have been friendly so far?
“The first thing he’d do would be to beat me—though he would do that no matter the reason I came to him for, but this beating would be more than reasonable as I would be screaming utter nonsense. Then he’d inform our ever so noble priest, who’d say that I have demons of the mind or some other stupid stuff and demand an exorbitant price to cure me, and if I rejected his cure, he would deem me a heretic, and confiscate, or steal, our stuff until he got the money he asked for, and then he would leave after “curing” me.
“And at the end of the day, no matter what route I took with the priest, everyone would just start calling me crazy, and I would become a social outcast. Which would be bad news—both for the village and for us as the village just doesn’t have that many lumberjacks and not buying from us would mean that they’d quickly run out of fire wood, and wood for repairs and construction, and our competitors would start charging more for the wood they produce, knowing that the village didn’t have enough money to call in a trade caravan, and that our village was too small for any trader, other than some wandering merchants selling an odd trinket or two, to visit.”
“O-ohh...” I muttered after father was done with his rant, and looked down at the ground, wondering why had I even tried to capture one of the walking bushes if nothing was going to be done about them?
“...Haahh.” Then father suddenly sighed, which drew my attention towards him.
He had already turned his back to me, and was facing the felled tree, but it seemed he had something else to say.
“...Mileva said that you wanted to go to the village soon, right?”
“Umm... yes?”
“...I’ll... try to get your mother to agree to allow me to bring you to the village tomorrow, and then you can play with the other kids while your mother watches over you and I do some business—but no running off into the forest this time, okay?”
“Y-yes!” I yelled out in excitement at the opportunity to play with the other kids again as it been nearly a week since the last time I went out to the village, then my father started working on the tree again, and there was a silence between us.
But this time, it didn’t feel as tense as before.