Author’s Notes: Sooo sorry for being this late but I haven’t been home (It’s summer and all). This will be the second chapter… I hope it doesn’t show that I’m that much of an amateur.

Thanks for reading…

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Chapter 2

*howl*

“Ahhhh! Who the freaking hell makes so much noise in the middle… so early in the morning.”

The howl of the wolf was loud enough to wake the entire part of the forest, if there had been anything on that part that is.

“Who’s the idiot that actually dares to come to this place?”

The voice was deep, rough and angry, very angry. It wasn’t enough to get stuck in this place but he even had to be disturbed.

However, curiosity took over soon. Nothing interesting had happened for a few hundred years but here was some idiot dog that had actually entered this place, alone.

There could be only one explanation: he was probably following something.

Approaching the noise silently (he did this without even trying to), the man’s eyes caught first the wolf and then its prey.

It was a human, a puny human child, bloodied all over, barely breathing and… with that face.

“Now that is a nice face,” said the man somehow mockingly looking at the kid as his face was distorted by fear, no, terror and his eyes looked as if the “grim reaper” stood before him.

*howl*

“Shut up…” he shouted angrily (he wasn’t heard) but after some thought he talked again. “No…Better, keep it up. Let that puny kid see true fear”

The sounded like he was having fun but in his voice there was a hint of disgust, disgust for the weak human. The first human in so many years was no different from the ones before, an insect so easily crushed.

That disgust, however, was soon changed, first changed into a bemused expression then a look of surprise. That small human’s eyes had apparently gained some determination.

With new found curiosity the man took another look at the child.

Dirty shoulder-long and badly-cut silver-blonde hair. Even more dirty bruised face. Even more bruised and the most dirty of all, the body and clothes (if those rags could be called clothes). The only thing one could see were the unusually bright green eyes, though clouded and bloodshot.

And here was something he had noticed before but hadn’t given it too much thought.

‘‘Why is the kid so bloodied? There’s no way anything else entered the forest to attack the kid (except the idiot dog) so why is he… and that’s not his blood.’’ (careful observation)

While thinking the man saw the wolf hit the child and slammed him into the tree.

“…”

“…Sigh… He didn’t look like such a bad kid. Such a shame he died so young.” He said this looking a little sad for whatever reason but sounding a little indifferent if not to say fake.

It’s true after all. He didn’t care about the human child at all, though it had been a nice change… a human that had actually tried to fight. It put the others before him to shame, a five-six years old that had tried to survive. That thought made him laugh.

He turned his back at the scene and went away (as silently as he approached). He lost interest pretty soon in whatever had happened and didn’t intend to think about it… that is until he heard it again.

*howl*

It sounded angry. It wasn’t even a proper howl of a wolf more like a scream but it made him turn back and approach the noise once more.

The kid moved. He was alive and not even that he had managed to attack, fight back, leaving the wolf with an eye less.

The human child was bleeding. It definitely hurt but he stood on his feet with teary eyes, teeth clenching and hands holding some thin tree branches.

Now this was something to be amazed at normally, but if he didn’t survive it would become meaningless.

The unexpected happened again though, and it took the man by surprise once again.

The child pierced through the wolf’s throat from inside and killed him.

“Now that’s a lucky kid…” said the man somewhat thoughtfully and waited for what came next.

For a few moments the child was motionless and stared into nothingness.

“He died?”

That state of him however didn’t last because after a while he started laughing loudly… too loudly.

“Or he went crazy. Hey kid, shut up! Tch… He can’t hear me. No choice then.”

…

“Hey… HEY!”

The child at the direction the voice was coming… His face went immediately pale.

“Can you her me now, brat?”

Before him… well, above him, a few meters away stood/floated a semi-transparent man with rogue-ish features and an angry look.

“…”

“Are you answering me any time soon or not, you puny thing?”

Being a not very patient type the man’s face got angrier by the moment, until the child finally spoke some words with half a voice and somewhat resigned though not exactly what he should have said.

“… Now a ghost. Sigh, I finally went crazy.”

The man snapped.

“You little brat. And here I wanted to warn you. You can stay here and die for all I care.”

At the word “die” the child jumped a little. He looked at the ghost again confused and then looked at himself.

He was bleeding, his body ached all over, his lungs couldn’t take enough air. He was in a sorry state no matter how one looked at it and if he didn’t do anything he would die soon with or without a ghost warning him, so what did the man-ghost really want?

It didn’t matter. For all he knew he might have gone crazy but that wasn’t the problem right now. He was still clinging to life and if he didn’t want it to end he had to get away from there before something else came.

Thus the child stood up clenching his teeth, with one hand trying to support himself and the other keeping it against his wounds to try stop the bleeding for a while.

The man-ghost watched him walk so slowly it was getting on his nerves, but with no other choice he followed the kid.

After walking few steps he stopped, putting one hand against a tree to hold himself up and trying to breathe a little more regularly. Then he turned once again at the man-ghost.

“Can you talk to me?” he asked sounding somewhat shy.

The man looked at him surprised.

“Now you’re asking me to talk. Weren’t you ignoring me?”

“…Talk to me please?” This was said as half a question.

“…What do you want me to say?”

“…Just talk…”

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Every word till now had taken quite a bit of energy from him. He was barely conscious and wanted the ghost to talk even if gibberish and total bullshi*t just to keep him from fainting.

As if noticing this, the man-ghost started talking (no bullsh*t though).

“Then let’s start with the warning. You better hurry up your step.”

So the child did hurry up.

“…just not in that direction.”

“…”

Hearing that, the kid came to a sudden stop, eyed the ghost suspiciously and gave him a now-you-tell-me look. Looking at the direction the ghost was showing him, he took insecure steps at first but not for long.

“You have noticed how this part of the forest is so quiet right? There are no animals, insects or whatever, just plants. No being dares to come here. In this side of the forest the predators are the trees.

If you make too much noise you’ll ‘wake’ the trees and when they wake they ‘eat’. If the woods in here notice you aren’t plant they slowly start to devour your energy and without realizing it you become weak and slowly die leaving behind only your bones at some point and then nothing.”

Once again the child shivered at the word “die” (or death). He remembered those times he had been loud especially that mad laugh of his some moments ago. The thoughts made him hurry his steps some more.

From time to time the ghost would show him trails and paths which led who knows where but his mind got more cloudy with every passing moment so he wasn’t really able to think clearly and in way was walking blindly. If that ghost sent him to some cliff to drop him from there he probably wouldn’t do a thing (because with the way he was, he wouldn’t be able to tell what was happening).

The only thing that kept his mind and feet still going was survival instinct (more like not wanting to die or frantically trying to live) and the talking of the man-ghost (really chatty for a dead man).

“Because they feed like that their bodies grow too strong, almost like steel and because they become too dense that strength can cause the branches to break each-other. That’s the reason there are so many on the ground in the first place.

…That’s why I said you’re too lucky. If you had been in another part of the forest you would have probably met many other beasts and even if they were stupid like that idiot wolf earlier you would have never been able to actually harm that overgrown thing with mere branches.

…But seriously that dog was a real idiot. Who lets himself wide open to his enemy/prey even if it is a child.”

As for the child, his eyesight got blurrier by the moment. He would bump into things (trees) and couldn’t really be quiet even if he tried to. He wanted to cry but he didn’t have enough power to do even that.

The man-ghost kept talking all the way. From time to time he told the kid to hurry his steps, though right now he could only drag his feet and didn’t properly walk. Half the time he couldn’t even hear what the ghost said, only bits and pieces and if he actually got them is another story.

One thing he understood was that the ghost had been there when he was fighting. There where?

“…If you’re wondering how can you see me now, it’s because I’m possessing… haunting you. (what’s the right word in this case?) Normally no one can feel my presence.”

“…”

That explained a lot.

“You can rejoice…or rest. You’ll be safe here.”

This time the only word he heard was “safe”. It didn’t matter what the man told him now though. He had no more energy to take another step. He fell unconscious onto the cold stone floor (where was he?) and didn’t wake for a long time.

***

If he could, the man would have helped but he couldn’t touch the human child. (not him and not anything else) However, there was apparently no need to do so. The bleeding stopped soon and the wounds began closing at an unusual speed, not that fast but fast enough.

How?

Probably the same way he was saved the time the wolf attacked him. That time he had thought him dead and hadn’t bothered to check if this was true or not. The body of this human was special… no he might not even be human.

“The trees were draining him from his energy and his body was trying to escape. Now that they can’t reach him his body can focus on healing.” The man thought while watching the wonder before his eyes.

This was a good sign… a sign of salvation… for him too.

…

The kid had been sleeping for a day now and there was still no sign of him waking.

“I can’t believe I’ve been here thousands of years. Everyday so boring, I had thought… but compared to now… Now I’m dying of boredom and my patience is running thin. Wake uuuuup stupid kid!”

Nope, no sign of that.

…

The child woke up only after another three days.

First he sat up from his dead-sleep position and blinked a few times as if trying to adjust his view.

He was confused. When had he come here?

His surroundings had the form of a cave. It was wide but for a cave it was small (for a cave). There was nothing inside except some rocks, some moss and a lake… well, a water source (much smaller than a lake).

The ghost also wasn’t there. Had he really imagined that? No, right? He didn’t know those things about the forest… Well, no matter.

*sigh*

It was a sigh of relief. His body didn’t hurt much anymore, his wounds were still healing even now but most importantly he was alive.

Trying to survive these past few days had made him forget the nightmare of that night. It was a good thing, a really good thing.

He finally stood up to examine his state more carefully.  One look and he shuddered. One probably couldn’t get dirtier even if he wanted to. He had to clean up.

Looking at the mini-lake the child headed to it (more like run to it). First he drunk (of course he was thirsty) and then without thinking much he entered in the water.

The cold water sent a shiver through him and then a wave of calmness. He rubbed his skin hard trying to get rid of the blood. After washing his skin he started washing his clothes. They weren’t exactly in a wearable state but he didn’t have any choice.

“You’re finally awake. You bored me (not worried?) to death.”

The child jumped at the sudden voice and turned to see man-ghost he had met before.

“…”

“Kid… You were a girl?!”

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BIG SURPRISE!!! I had meant to make the character a girl since the beginning (I have a thing for strong girls :p ) that’s why I kept referring to her as the child or the kid and never as the little boy or something like that.