The fox carefully trailed behind the humans. It had been a risk to attack the snake, but hopefully it showed them that he wasn’t their enemy. He had seen human bo his parents’ den before he fled, so he assumed that the humans thought that he was a threat. Hopefully his as ged their minds.

  The biggest human had saved him in the fight with the immense lizard-beast so hopefully that meant good things. Oher hand, fights did get chaotic, so it might not have been iional.

  As he thought these things, the humans emerged into the clearing with the cut down trees, so he stayed ba the forest out of sight, more carefully this time to avoid being seen by those with the loud horns.

  His ears twitched as he listeo the humans making each other, though he was uo uand what it meant, he retty certain they were unig. He didn’t have mu the way of ability to unicate himself, mostly a few specific ideas he could shout or whisper, and a few cepts he could pass on with body nguage or st.

  As he pohe difficulty of attempting to unicate, the st of the humans he had been followihe camp, so he slunk around the edge and into the tall grass of the pins to follow as well, at a signifitly farther pace, relying on his hearing to follow them.

  The human who had stopped at the camp tinued past the injured one and the biggest, but he did not want to risk being spotted, so he stayed back with the slroup. This proved to be a wise decision, as it kept him moving slower a him spot the watchtowers around the vilge before they could spot him, going into a croud slinking forward even slower.

  After a short while of sneaking, he was as close as he felt it safe to get, and was able to hear the bustle of humans iheir immehering, ears twitg this way and that as they focused on one new sound after another. He even heard other animals, including what almost sounded like boar.

  In addition to all the sounds, he smelled a great many things, though he was uo identify anything besides the smoke, which overpowered everything else.

  Ag on a passing thought, he tried pushing with the part of his mind that had been itg before, feeling something move outside of himself, somehow able to feel with it as if it art of his body. After a bit of struggle, he mao get this feeling to move in front of himself, only to see nothing at all ge. He wasn’t sure what, but something about the area felt wrong to him, as if it was dead, so he pulled on the new seil it felt snuggly back within himself.

  Deg he wouldn’t be able to get much else use out of beihe vilge, he began to sneak away. During this time, however, he heard the gate open, hearing two of the humans leaving again back towards him. To avoid risk of being spotted, he simply y on the ground until well after they had left.

  Resuming his retreat from the vilge, he sidered for a moment the fact that the watchtowers were only on this side. With the towers only he forest, he pondered if he should try to bypass them. After a moment of thought, he decided on it, making a very wide circle around them to the far side of the vilge.

  As he approached the other side of the vilge, he heard a number of humans running around. Finding a hill nearby, he climbed it to try to get a better view. From his new vantage point, he was able to spot a rge number of smaller humans pying around like kits would, so he assumed them to be human children.

  He sat upon the hill, listening with his full focus hoping he could start to uand them eventually. After a while, however, one of the humans looked right at him and started walking his way. He agai something itg at the back of his mind, and promptly decided running away was the best option. After all, there were a ton of humans nearby, and he had struggled to avoid three on their own outside their domain.

  He fled back to his den, pausing momentarily at the rge trail of bare soil that he had spotted before, curious as to what had caused it. He couldn’t help but notice it curved towards the vilge, then he tinued on. Once baear his home, he helped himself to a number of nuts and berries in the nearby area before heading io rest after his long and dangerous day.

  Waking up again shortly before dawn, he headed out of his den and into the forest a short distanbsp; Once he was out of sight of his deried pushing that odd feeling in his head outward again into a small bubble around himself. It took many tries before he ma successfully, leaving him mentally exhausted, but he had succeeded in the end. He closed his eyes and focused on the sensation, notig how he could evehe swaying of pnts in the breeze. Additionally, u the human vilge, it didn’t feel dead.

  Having exhausted himself, he rexed, pulling back towards his mind, feeling the sensation follow. Unlike what he expected though, it felt like something else flowed inward as well. The previously quiet sense of danger flickered for a moment before vanishing again.

  Experimentation finished, he headed further into the forest in search of something to eat. After a short hunt he found a squirrel foolishly on the ground and raced after it. Unfortunately for him, the squirrel proved to be fast enough to reach a nearby tree and scurried up it before he could reach it. Feeling annoyed, he simply snacked on some nearby nuts before leaving.

  Deg to tinue his exploration of the vilge, he headed back out of the forest and towards the humans’ domain. This time, he stayed away from the forest as he approached, avoiding the watchtowers and those within them. Cirg even further around the vilge, he saw that there was a grid of barren soil taining fields of straall grass he hadn’t seen before.

  After taking a quick look around to make sure that there was no one looking, he darted into the field to look around. Expl it a bit, he found a rge building nearby, but no humans. However, he did notice a number of mice running around. He quickly pounced on one, sending the rest rag away in a squeaking mass. With a quick bite to the head, his prey stopped struggling and he began to eat it, trying to do so without making a mess. As he ate, once again the sense of danger returhough it was extremely faint, so he ig.

  Upon finishing his meal, he dug a small hole to bury the remains in, hoping that would avoid any human attention. Making a mental hat this area had easily caught prey, he headed back towards the far side of the vilge. Along the way, he paused as he saw a strange bird fly out of the walled area, headed deeper into the pins.

  Once again, he saw the human children at py as he he back gate of the vilge. Finding a spot near a hill again, he id down to rest as he tried to uand what he was looking at and hearing. The children seemed to py simir to fox kits, but differently at the same time. And they made more of the same strange he adults did. He attempted to make sense of the odd noises, eventually notig patterns, but still uo make out any meaning. After a while, he noticed the same one as yesterday looked over at him, that odd itg beginning again.

  U time though, after a moment they looked away, so he didn’t run off this time. He was still quite wary of them, doing the mental shake that disrupted the itch, and tinuing to watch the children. As it began to get brighter outside, he returowards his den, stopping again at the barren trail, this time following it a ways into the pins where it ended in a massive scorched skeleton. Curiosity satisfied, he headed back towards his den for a ernoon of sleep.