Denise looked around, trying to find what exactly had caused such a short lived earthquake earlier but she only saw the tiny creature on the ground, looking up at her. Denise didn't want to let herself, even for a second, believe that that thing could be harmless.
So when she saw it's tiny feet shuffling towards her, she shot at it, "don't move! Don't you dare move."
It continued to move towards her. It suddenly leaped up into the air and went crashing into the ground. The impact caused a crack in the ground that was followed by a loud bang.
Denise rolled her eyes, "of course! Of course the tiny creature would have that sort of power," she added some laughter, "why is everything so obvious?"
(A/N; as the author, I am offended)
It leaped up again and hit the same place, causing a deeper crack. Denise was perplexed about its true intension for causing cracks until she felt the tree tilt to the side.
Her lips made a０and she burst out laughing.
"That stupid wolf took time making an entire trap but this tiny thing didn't even look at the trap before overpowering it," she commented.
At least her eyes didn't feel swollen and tongue didn't feel numb over nothing. At least his stupid plan failed before it could start.
"WOLLLLLLLLLFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!" she raised her head and called out in panic.
The amusement had quickly washed away from her face and leaving her anxiety. She couldn't brush off the fact that as soon as she hit the ground, she would become chowder.
"Aii! Why are you shouting so loudly?" the wolf calmly walked in.
The tiny creature only gave him a glance before continuing to slam down on the ground. Clearly unfazed by the wolf's arrival.
He looked at her, "pups don't have the strength to fight such beasts, you know." He still recalled her comment about him being a pup scared by the dark.
"Anyone with brains wouldn't hung a human up as bait," she didn't forget to complain, "get me down from here."
The wolf looked back at the tiny creature while he said to Denise, "you look better tied up."
He launched himself at the creature before she could say anything (not that she had anything to say, her mouth just stayed wide open). Just as he reached it, it shot its incredibly thick warty tongue out of its mouth at the wolf. He had to jump to the side in order to avoid it.
He launched himself again, claws and teeth ready to land a vital blow but the tiny creature jumped out of the way and landed with force that caused the ground to shake. The wolf easily regained his stability and took that moment to strike but was blocked when the tiny creature suddenly expanded into a monstrosity.
Denise who had been left to watch the show put all her money on the tiny thing. She dangled freely and reveled in the fact that the wolf might lose, not taking into account that she would die if that happened.
It seemed that since the creature had grown bigger, it couldn't launch its tongue anymore and neither could it cause the ground to crack. The advantage was that all the attacks from the wolf became invalid. It was almost like the wolf was playing with a big ball or on a trampoline.
Even when he tried to bite, claw or tip the monster over, he would just bounce right off.
"Must be fun playing around with a squishy toy," Denise commented.
When the wolf had tried biting the monster, it looked like he was biting on a super sized squishy. Denise soon gathered that maybe the wolf just liked to play with the giant squishy. He had even come up with such a low grade plan to attract it.
"So much for summoning a god!" she mumbled and thought that maybe all dogs viewed squishy toys as gods especially since the toys couldn't be harmed.
The fierce battle between the prehistoric squishy and the wolf went on and on until squishy couldn't take it anymore and bounced away from the forest. But that was not before it struck the wolf with its tongue.
The yearning in his eyes to chase after the squishy was clearly visible to Denise. She eyed the spot where he had been struck. It was quickly expanding and the skin was turning from normal to deep shapes of pink. He had clearly been poisoned.
"Your friends are toxic!" she commented, already coping with the fact that she had been bait for a play date, "now put me down."
Denise barely had time to do anything that day. When they got back, she only had time to roast some potato and make a single huge fire before going inside.
She was tired and sleepy from all that she had done during day but she persevered, holding up her torch to ensure her safety.
Unlike the days before where she wouldn't hear a sound, this time around, it was just as clear as it had been when she had first met the fog's companion.
She heard the claws scratching against the wood of the tree. The scratching went on for long before animal sounds joined in. Denise expected a bit of banging but that never came.
"Hello again, love." a familiar voice sounded right next to her ear.
Denise freaked out and tried to turn to make sure that she really was alone in the tree hole and the fog's companion still could not get into the tree hole.
"Don't look!"
A force stopped her head from turning.
"I'm right behind you... just so you know."
Denise; yeah thanks! That totally calmed me down.
She tried not to be scared. She tried not to listen to her emotions freaking out. But the fact that her voice was still stuck in her throat told her that she was already scared and already listening to her emotions freaking out.
"What a treat! You didn't light up the entire forest today. I was actually thinking that I should burn this stupid tree down today. But I guess it got lucky today."
Burn! Denise's eyes widened at the confession. The thing had just confessed to attempting arson. How was she supposed to be at ease?
"It has been such a long time since we last saw each other. I was beginning to think you must have been just a fragment of my imagination. Seeing the fire around every night- it was the very thing that told me I couldn't have been dreaming. Yet it was also the thing that kept us apart."
Denise made a mental note to use a lot more fire in the future. She was also curious as to why the thing spoke like they had known each other intimately for a longer time than she thought.
"I've been coming a little earlier these days. I hope you noticed."
Denise; stop talking.
"Are you not going to speak to me?... I know you can hear me."
Denise wondered what would happen if she didn't respond.
"I long to hear your voice, my darling. I think the sound of your chatting must be better than the sound of your screams."
Denise felt her blood run cold and almost heard her own awkward laughter. That statement was just so twisted, her insides actually curled into fine knots. Was the statement supposed to be a good thing? Was it supposed to be encouraging?
"A bundle of myrrh is your sweet talking voice to me, you're like a cluster of henna blooms in the finest vineyards, the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys... Lo, winter is far from come, the rain is over, the time for singing has come and the voice of a turtledove, I long to hear. Shall you not speak, my precious one?"
Denise; !?(･_･;? What is going on?
"My beloved is mine and your voice is mine. I will feed my flock among your lilies. Among the trees in the woods, your shade alone is where I rest, with great delight. I will spoil the vines, for your vines have tender grapes. Your voice, like your fruit, is sweet to my taste. I-."
"Stop talking," Denise shot. She could literally feel her skin crawl in all kinds of ways for all kinds of reasons.
First, it wasn't helping her that the thing was close to her, really close. There was no word it said that escaped her ears. Second, all the words it said were unsettling.
She had thought that pretending not to hear would cause it to walk away or get violent. Who knew it would apply such a unnerving method, pulling out lines from who knew what century?
"Finally, you speak," glee was evident in the voice.
How wouldn't she when it kept on being a creep? Talking about lilies and flocks eating lilies? What the hell was that?
"What are you going on about?" was all she could think to say.
Unlike when she was with the wolf, she couldn't burst out saying anything that she wanted thinking that she would only get an 'or else I'll kill you.' This one was actually ready to kill her. So she had to be careful with her words.
When they had first met, it had done things to her that she couldn't recall. She wasn't even aware of what exactly it could do. After she saw the fog make easy work of that ant, she wasn't ready to take matters with the fog's companion easily.
"Haha! Such fun. Speak to me again. You hear me very well too."
(A/N; I updated two chapters today because I saw a comment asking me to update (more). I just had to take some time off to write this up. I hope the reader is happier.
finally! A character that talks more. I've been dying to add extra characters and we will see more of this one in the coming chapters, so a lot more explanations. Then we can kick this arc bye bye. Then we will have another arc and my fav character will appear in the third. Oh hohoho!
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