Lily hummed and skipped as she went through the paths of the forest, a winding, twisting trail that seemed endless and aimless. She moved along happily, never once questioning her choice of direction or aim, even as Gux followed along, getting tangled in vines and low shrubs and feeling hopelessly lost.
He had been a tracker when with the pack, able to find the best ways around the plains and forests of his home… her path seemed to go over itself a lot, yet he never recognized anywhere. “Lily! Stop!” He called out, wanting her to quit her moving, but she just laughed.
“Not yet! We’ll stop when we’re there!” She only ever seemed to pick up speed, until he was sprinting at full speed, panting heavily, with drool leaking out of his tongue in an attempt to calm down. He felt a thrill, and chase… and in it, a twinge of that feral hunger, but he quashed it down.
He didn’t know precisely where he passed the barrier, or what it even was made of, but soon he sensed a distinct change in the air. Everything felt more… alive. More vibrant, and all the sounds of nature were much louder, singing safely wherever they were. He stopped, looking around, hearing Lily’s giggles disappearing into the distance… only for her to drop down from a branch right in front of him. “Silly, you can’t stop like that, Gux. You’ll get lost.”
“You so fast… No keep up.” She laughed, booping him on the nose.
“You can do it. I believe.” She swung out of the tree, and he hurried behind her, her kind words driving him forward once more.
Eventually they came through a large bush, which she dived through effortlessly, but he crashed through clumsily, even though it knitted itself back together behind him. In front of him a waterfall cascaded down into a pool, with a river running off in one direction over another ledge, while in the center, a house stood on poles just over the water level, wooden bridges made of living limbs and vines connecting between buildings that seemed grown from the ground up.
Gux approached the building slowly, the natural construction familiar, but so much more… alive than anything the tribe ever did. He looked over the second waterfall, seeing many more buildings below, all of them nestled in the landscape and grown of the trees themselves, so that if he hadn’t been looking at one house, he might have missed all of them.
He turned around to see Lily right behind him, and leaped back out of fright over the cliff’s edge, only to be caught by a large leaf that deposited him safely on the ground. Lily’s hand stopped glowing green. “You’re really predictable… in a fun way. Anyway, welcome to my house!” She showed off the building, while he stared at her.
“This your tribe? You live… so far from tribe? Have own tent?”
She looked at him curiously. “Yep! This is the commune! Though, you didn’t have your own house? Did you not have shelter in the rain?”
Gux shook his head. “If you no good, you sleep like slave. Rain beating down, sick die off, leave tribe strong.” He growled. “Help sick, get hit… Free slave, sleep forever.” His big paws clenched with anger at the memory returning, though once more that pitiful whine sounded, rather than an angry growl.
She walked over to him, touching his arm, and he flinched, but when she was soothing, he stopped, looking at her with pained eyes. “It’s okay. The tribe isn’t there now… And you might not have your own house yet either, but… well, come in.” She went up to it, before she stopped. “Actually… You’re a mess, dear. Hop under the waterfall and scrub up a bit?”
He whined at the idea of water, but when she looked unpersuadable, he agreed. He took off what little clothes he had, just a few leather bands that were hunting trophies and a cloth stolen from a caravan to hide his genital sheath. He left them near the water, then slowly waded into the cold, yelping at the sensation. He stopped there, his waist just above water, and she waved at him to go further, pointing at the waterfall.
He swam out under it awkwardly, but without fear of drowning, though the water pounding down on him made him feel drowned as it was. However, soon he could feel the dirt loosening from his fur, the tangles unknotting and his fur slowly falling in line. Soon, his spotted hide was visible in its greys and browns, the tan underneath bright, and the ridge of his natural small mohawk was forming of its own, if only when enough water slipped away.
He pulled himself from the lake, shaking on the shore, before he noticed his clothes were gone. The leathers seemed to have sunk into the earth, leaving small flower indents where they had been, and the cloth was replaced by… well, a very similar one, but this one a light green color. He took it, a little sad that his hunting trophies were gone, but… that life was behind him now. He tied on the loincloth, walking inside. “Flowers bloomed from trophies… why?”
She smiled. “Returning those poor creatures to the earth to let their cycle finish. As for you… yours has just begun.” The interior of her house was entirely decorated with plants, some potted, some growing… and some glowing, providing the light that bathed the area, the crystalline bulbs that glowed seeming both perfectly natural and clearly magical in origin.
On her table, seemingly grown straight from a knot in an ancient tree that had been lifted up and given body, there was a small plant in a clay pot. She gestured to it. “Grow this. Turn it into something that bears fruit, and we can move on. Until then, you are to remain in my house and the clearing around it unless I give you permission. Understand?”
He looked at the plant, not even sure what kind it was, or how one did that… he’d seen farms before, but normally on fire as the tribe ran through consuming everything. “Am I slave? Grow plants or be hurt?”
She looked offended at the idea. “No… I’m giving you a chance to join the commune… to join my tribe. And even if you don’t want to do that… I am giving you a chance to find yourself and make yourself free. I am the opposite of a slaver.” She then leaned on the table. “The rules are there to show your commitment. You break them, you might as well say goodbye to ever seeing me again.
Gux didn’t know why the idea panicked him so much. “No! I stay. I learn.” He took the clay pot, then stood awkwardly. “What… first steps?”
“Step one is accept the task at hand and focus on it. Step two is asking for help… you’re already doing well.”
His huge grin returned once more as she began to explain what his berry bush was and how to take care of it, and her grin grew as she watched the intensity of his look, trying to learn it all.
He was going to make a great student.
