Tightening my hold on Suticat, I forcefully brought his head around towards me…OWW. I glanced down to my hand in surprise noting the bite marks on the skin. The skin hadn’t been pierced but it was painful enough to startle me. Taking advantage of my momentary loosening, the fox quickly struggled free of my loosened hold. Sprinting a few steps awake, he finally stopped and sent what I could only assume was a resentful look…ah, I had been a bit too rushed and excited- and too forceful…I might of accidently hurt him as well.

Putting on my most pitiful look, I beckoned towards him. Come here little fox, come on, I didn’t mean to do that. I’m sorry. I screamed my thoughts urging him to come back at me and as if realising I had calmed down, he cautiously crept back towards me. We had a history with each other so something little like that would not have a lasting impact on our relationship. I wondered for a moment why the other two had not commented but I quickly realised why. I could faintly hear a heated discussion between the two girls as they stood still in their previous positions.

Now, how was I going to convey my message? I had long forgotten any hunting signal my parents may or may not have ever mentioned and so I could only resort to the basics…miming. Coming to that conclusion, I started to bite down on my jaw and perform chewing motions…but the only response was curious tilt of his head. He had no idea what I was on about.

Uh…ah! This would be embarrassing but perhaps he would understand me better. With a quick peak, I checked that Sarra and Shiara were still focused on their own private conversation before slowly getting on all fours and lowering myself. Looking around, I could only see the tall grass all around me. Hoping that Suticat could still see me, I then started to mimic the prowling motion I had once seen him use before performing a sudden leap.

“GRAAHHH!” I felt my face blush at the pathetic growling sound I had tried to make.

“AH! What are you doing?!” Hearing Shiara’s shout, my ears rapidly warmed up as I noticed my prowling and leaping had somehow brought me in front of the two.

“We lost sight of you and your fox before so we decided to hurry in your direction. I didn’t expect you to be…” “Oh, uh, I was just- just trying to communicate to Suticat.” Seeing princess Sarratina’s wide grin as she left her sentence unfinished, I knew I would never live down this moment–that is if we made it out of this jungle alive and whole.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

CREOW!

Hearing the sharp bark, I glanced towards Suticat. He sniffed the air twice, ears twitching and circled around twice before slinking forwards into the tall grass before stopping to gaze back. He understood my message! Seeing him like this I also dropped to a crouch.

“Psss, crouch and be quiet, just copy and follow me.”

Seeing him slowly wade through the grass, I quickly followed him. This time, I made sure to check which direction we were heading in before dropping down.

…

The sun was about to set when Suticat finally stopped moving. My knees were killing me and I had long lost most of my feeling in them. The other two were surely waiting to grumble to me, but they immediately froze as they caught up to me. I too had let out a silent gasp when I finally caught up to Suticat; because in the small clearing in front of us, stood not one, but two toukou birds.

The other two looked towards me for directions, saliva already dribbling from the edges of Shiara’s face, but honestly I had no clue. The act of stringing and nocking a bow normally wouldn’t be that loud, but any noise at this point would reveal us. The two birds had somehow managed to land directly down wind of us, and so had no clue of our presence yet. Seeing Suticat continue to prowl forwards, I decided to just watch on and leave it to him. There was nothing to do, but to silently hold my breath and stay hidden.

With the other two mimicking me, we watched as he slowly snuck up…eight meters…seven meters…he stopped as the two birds suddenly both looked in our direction. Suddenly the two birds made a dash north away from us as Suticat burst out and started to chase them.

“WAIT!” My shout fell on deaf ears as Suticat rushed away, already too enthralled on the chase. It was clear the toukou birds were way faster than the fox just from their initial speed, but the birds only ran as far as needed be, slowing down once their distance between the two increased.

The other two stood up as well. “So do we follow-“ “Yes, but don’t pass me, especially if you see me suddenly stop” With that, I made a mad dash after them.

It wasn’t long before I saw Suticat, sitting on his hindquarters staring ahead. Puzzled, I looked in the same direction, only to realise that behind a bit of undergrowth lay an overgrown apple orchard. Ah, we had accidently moved a bit closer to the centre of the jungle- this should have been one of the old cultivated orchards that had continued to thrive without human maintenance. The toukou birds were nowhere to be seen.

“Hah…hahhhh…slow down.”

“So, what’s this? Did we lose them?-“ “-Ah apples! -OWW”

I quickly yanked Shiara’s hair as she made a dash forwards. “Hold your horses, do you see those little circular things on the tree.”

“-What was that for- Where? You don’t mean the apples right?”

“Below them you dummy!” Sarra turned to me with a knowing smile. “Let me guess, monsters?”

Yeah. I had previously considered coming here for food, but I didn’t want to deal with them, because after all they’re “Warnet hives”