The dried leaves made loud crunches beneath my boots. The constant sound of them beneath my feet was a good distraction from my mind.

I was walking through a large forest. I was on no path, no actual road, but I had one in mind. Or rather, I had a destination… and this was just the quickest point to it.

And it kept me from stepping onto the roads. The human ones. The non-human ones.

The ones that led back to her. And her stupid Society.

“Come on!” I groaned at myself, as I realized I had once again thought of the Society.

What was wrong with me? I was acting worse than I had when I left that adorable little librarian in that port city…

It was as if I had left behind the greatest lover I’d ever known. Yet instead all I had left behind was a headache. A curse. A burden.

And yet her glowing eyes haunted the back of my mind, tugging at me relentlessly.

Taking a deep breath, I sighed out the autumn air. It was fresh, and a little cold… if but a little damp.

Damp…

Looking down at the layer of crumbling leaves, I wondered how they were so crunchy even though it had been raining so often lately. Even the air smelled damp and musky. I could smell the mold and moss everywhere. Yet… the crunch of the leaves was clear. And it wasn’t just because of how heavy I was.

“I need a distraction,” I mumbled to myself. I really did. Yet… none had worked.

It’s been months since I had left Telmik. Leaving Celine, Lilly, and all the others behind. I’d not returned there since… even though sometimes I realized I had begun to walk back there.

I didn’t actually want to join that Society. Did I? Really?

Why? Just to burden myself with a bunch of idiots? They were basically a cult. And that woman… that Saint… she was the worst kind of person for me to associate with.

Between her crazy fantasies and those prophecies, all being with her would accomplish was either my death or terrible pain and suffering.

Nothing I wanted anything to do with.

Yet…

A root crunched beneath my foot, and I wondered if these Monarch Sisters up north would be a good enough distraction.

They were supposedly powerful. Overbearing. Towering. Giant creatures that bent reason and reality to their whim.

The perfect things to dedicate my mind and wrath at, to distract me from the tugging responsibility I was running from.

If those Monarchs didn’t work… then…

Well…

Maybe I’d run back to the islands.

Can’t find me, or bother me, if a giant ocean separated us. One not even I could swim across without suffering…

“Though I probably could, huh?” I said as I realized I probably could swim across that ocean. It honestly hadn’t been as far as I had thought. It hadn’t taken long for that ship to reach the mainland…

But that was just it, wasn’t it.

I was that strong. That powerful.

I didn’t need to fear the deep.

I didn’t need to fear the lack of fresh water, or food. Or even becoming food, to the creatures that swum beneath.

Just as I didn’t need to fear anything on land either. No beast in this forest. No creature…

Hell, even those Monarchs. The things that were seen as gods, and things unbeatable… I was not seeing them as something beyond me, but instead as something to distract me. From an annoying thought and memory.

I treated gods the same way a man would treat a squeaky door. Something to fix, and dedicate an afternoon to. Nothing too important, but yet a good thing to waste time on.

“I’m a waste of air,” I said softly.

I didn’t need help. I never needed help.

I wasn’t like Lilly… who was now alone. Who was now dedicating her whole self so as to one day get revenge… and stop anyone else from suffering as she had. To wage war against those who had wronged her and her family.

I wasn’t like that scarred woman. The heretic, Wincy, who had hurt herself so greatly that now half her face was covered in a gnarly scar… just so she had a chance to blend in and be seen as normal. Nor was I desperate like her… to find someone to love, and be loved by.

I wasn’t like Celine. The Saint who was sacrificing her whole existence for a group of people she pitied… even though she was just as weak and feeble as they.

I wasn’t like any of them. Who had to band together just for a mere hope of semblance of safety. I wasn’t like those people in that Society, who would scatter from a harsh breeze the moment it banged against the window.

Compared to them… I was…

So strong.

But what did I do? What do I do?

I don’t have children. I don’t have a purpose. Not a real one. I simply… lived. I breathed. I ate. I drank. I walked. Sometimes I killed, or played along with those I met along my journey… but…

Compared to my past…

“I’ve already done my part… haven’t I?” I asked the world, and myself.

“Oh my! Is that a predator I see?”

Stopping… I frowned as the weirdly… tiny voice, echoed in my ear.

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Turning, I scanned the forest around me. The trees and their naked limbs… showed nothing. The forest was relatively empty, all things considered. Some bushes. Some foliage. A few flowers…

Then I found the source. A few dozen feet to my right… on a small stump… was…

I gulped at the thing, and shifted. “Excuse me?” I asked the little hedgehog.

“Eh? Hm! Aren’t you? You’re definitely not human…! But… why… My!” The tiny hedgehog began to sniff the air. Its tiny little nose wiggled something fierce as it stood up on its tiny legs, smelling for something that didn’t exist. “Wow! What are you? How fascinating! You have no scent to be smelled!” it squeaked in pleasant surprise.

I couldn’t help it. I admit it.

I was absolutely dumbfounded.

The thing was definitely talking. Its tiny little voice sounded adorable… but there was a certain deepness to it. The kind that told me it was a male. Yet…

Taking a few steps towards the stump… and glanced around for any sign of… well… more. More anything.

After not finding anything… I finally stopped a mere step away from the stump, and stared down at the thing upon it.

Yes. It was definitely a hedgehog. A tiny little creature with spines. They were actually a little colorful. Part white, and black with red at the tips. As if it had rolled in a batch of berries or something, staining them.

“I… had not known animals could talk,” I said softly.

“Ha! Be dumbfounded! Be amazed! Praise me! But… firstly! May I possibly get you to aid me? A little moment, is all I beg of you!” the little thing squeaked as it raised up a little higher… as if to somehow meet me eye to eye.

Gulping, I felt… ridiculous as I knelt down. To become a little more eye level with the creature.

Maybe I was going insane. Maybe I had gone insane on those islands… and all of this had been a dream. A hallucination.

Maybe I’d wake… on that sandy beach, half naked… and…

“You need my help?” I asked the adorable creature, just in case it wasn’t a fever dream.

“I do! Desperately so!” it begged.

“Sure… how can I help?” I offered the tiny thing my spear, without hesitation.

It let out a tiny squeak of pure delight, and stepped forward quickly. Nearly reaching the edge of the stump, I arched forward a little… just in case I had to catch it in case it fell off. “Oh, really! Really, really?” it asked.

I nodded. “Sure…”

“Oh! Then do follow! Quickly! Please!” it turned, and then without waiting or saying more… it ran off the stump. Heading deeper into the forest.

I wasted no time in following the thing.

Following after the little thing… I was actually forced to pick up the pace and nearly break into a small trot. The thing was fast. Far faster than I thought possible. Especially since it had so much foliage and leaves to clamber over as it ran.

The thing squeaked, but didn’t say anything else, as it led me ever deeper into the forest. The trees started to become thicker… the canopies of the trees above us became heavier, starting to block out the hazy sun already covered by clouds and mist.

For a good while I was on edge… unsure of what I was doing or where I was going. Or why. But… after a short while, I calmed down and just let it happen.

So what if I was following a hedgehog into the unknown? Who hasn’t done that once or twice?

Then finally, after what felt like nearly an hour, the hedgehog came to a stop… before a fallen tree.

It was huge. Likely one of the biggest trees in this forest. Or at least, it had been.

I glanced around as I neared it, and the hedgehog ran up to one section of the fallen tree. It dug at a spot that… was very obviously somewhere it had been digging at before. All of the leaves and foliage around that spot had been moved. And there were clumps of dirt and soil everywhere, from obvious attempts at digging past… what were those? Roots?

“My den. My den! The tree fell. Termites. Nasty, foul, yet scrumptious, things broke it! I didn’t pay attention. I usually do. I should have… yet…!” the hedgehog started to speak again. Its tiny voice full of squeaks as it did and… I realized something very important.

Those squeaks… those weren’t just because of what it was.

Those were cries. Sobs. It was weeping…

I stepped forward, and with an uneasy cough I looked around. “You uh… want me to lift the tree?” I asked it.

“I’ve been trying to dig into the den…! But lo’! In our wisdom we chose a great spot! One with firm roots and stone…!” the thing cried as it turned to me, and stood up again on its hind legs.

Yes… I understood. They had chosen this spot because it had been safe. Safe from other predators. A safe place to call home.

Yet with the tree blocking the entrance…

“Careful little one. I’ll move it, but I don’t know if it will break or shift,” I gave the little creature a warning as I stepped forward to the tree. I made sure not to step too close to the little one, as I bent down to get my hands under the large log.

“Oh! Be careful! Do be so!” it warned me, but I knew it wasn’t doing so out of concern for me or him.

It was worried for its nest… or rather…

With a small breath, I forced the tree up. Then with as quick, and careful, movements as I could… I got myself under the log. I rolled it up onto a shoulder, and started to step away. The tree was so big that I hadn’t actually lifted it entirely off the ground. Off in the distance, one side of it was still on the ground… so all I did was basically shift its angle, and directed it away.

“Oh!” the little thing squeaked in joy as I did so, but I didn’t wait or check on it. I instead kept carrying the tree away… just in case.

Stepping several dozen feet away, I carried the tree away until I felt it bump into something else. Likely another tree.

I didn’t want to knock that tree over, or others, so I just lowered the log here. It was far enough away now… and likely wouldn’t roll back over its nest or den anytime soon and…

Letting the tree roll off my shoulders, and to the ground… I let out a small sigh as it thumped against the forest floor, and for the tiniest moment the whole world shook. Birds made noise. Trees rustled. Branches broke.

Glancing around, I quickly found the spot I had left the little hedgehog in. Near his little…

He was in the hole. I could just barely make out his little red spines from here… and…

Was… was he not moving?

I hurried over, and wondered if maybe I had accidentally stepped on him or something… but I had been so careful! And…!

But no. He was fine. He was just…

“Little guy…? Is… is everything okay?” I asked carefully as I knelt down next to the hole. It looked collapsed within itself… but by removing the tree, something became visible.

Sticking out from the dirt… bent oddly, and not moving… were tiny little feet.

Little hedgehog feet.

Taking a deep breath, I felt oddly small… smaller even than the tiny hedgehog that was curled up right next to the buried one. He was weeping, squeaking as his tiny little spines trembled.

“My lovely spines… gone! Gone forever…! Ah…!” the thing wept.

It… it had a mate. Or a family even.

Had it… had it not realized this was possible? That tree had made an actual indent into the ground. We were sitting in at least a foot deep groove, thanks to it…

But no… even if it had realized…

While the tiny little thing wept, I wondered what to say. What to do.

There was nothing I could do. Even if the thing had survived the tree… it had no chance of surviving the injuries, or the suffocation it had brought.

Did I… did I offer to bury them? Did I say something? Did I pet the thing…?

Jeez… what did one do? The poor thing’s soul was broken, breaking right now… as I watched.

Feeling useless… I just remained there. Sitting kneeled next to the small creature as it cried for its mate, weeping uncontrollably.

As I stared at it, and the tiny little feet poking out of the dirt… I realized something terrible important.

This little creature. So tiny. So small. So insignificant…

Yet it could feel this strongly. It could weep this mightily.

And…

And......

My strength had done nothing for it. Could do nothing for it.

If I couldn’t even help something as tiny as this… how did Celine think I could help an entire race?

“Forgive me…” the little thing sobbed, and I bowed my head. To join it in its sorrow.