ᴍᴀɴɪᴘᴜʟᴀᴛᴇᴅ, ᴡɪʟʙᴜʀ sᴏᴏᴛ

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

TWO WEEKS LATER

???'s POV:

The sun rose from its slumber, peaking over the hilly mountains in the distance. Orange, pinks and purples stretched across the early morning sky, greeting me with a smile. The smell of oak bark and moss consumed my nostrils, a strong breeze pushing back my hair. I bring my hand up to my beanie trying to stop it from being carried away by the wind. Everything looked quite peaceful out here, no one seemed to live around here.

The woods listened to the start of its inhabitants days, birds feeding their young ones and critters waking up from their night sleep. I watched birds sing to one another, communicating with each other about daily routines to come. A simple and repetitive life they lived, one that I could appreciate and enjoy from a distance.

Life. That was something new to me, only having woken up two weeks ago in a hole a long way away from where I stand now. This place was much nicer than there, it had more life. I love life, everything about it is fascinating to me. I can't wait to experience it more!

The soft crunching of leaves and sticks behind me catches my attention, turning around to see who the noise belonged to. A smile forms on my lips at the familiar sight.

"Friend! Did you enjoy you're walk?"

The fluffy exterior of Friend greeted me with its lead in hand, Friend always liked to go on self walks. The sheeps blue wool shook off the dirt and dust that it accumulated from their walk, a soft 'bah' in response. I take the lead from Friend's mouth and lead us on our way. I don't know where we are going but I'm excited to see wherever we find ourselves at, my yellow sleeves lightly swinging at my sides.

I walk alongside Friend in the morning air, enjoying the sun shining down on us even though I can't feel it. But that won't stop me from enjoying it. The more we walked, the more I took in about our surroundings and one particular thing caught my eye.

A man was walking away from a hill a few hundred meters in front of us, he wore a particularly strange white mask on his face. He was carrying a weapon in his hand and looked very intense, intimidating even. Leading Friend behind a large rock to hide ourselves from the possibility of this strange man seeing us, I watch him disappear into the trees ahead of him. Weird.

Making sure the man was gone, I walk out from behind the rock with Friend and head towards where the man had come from. I couldn't help but be curious about where he came from, a strange feeling telling me to go there. This unknown feeling was like it was pulling me towards this unfamiliar place, I can't figure out what it means.

Eventually I make it to where he had come from, taking Friends lead and tying it to a tree close by incase it takes awhile to explore. I walk around the area he came from and look around for a hole or something, nothing seeming out of the 'ordinary', at least to me. There was a hill covering most of the surrounding area, maybe he came from inside the hill?

I start to feel around dirt from the top of the hill, maybe there's a trap door somewhere around here. Not finding anything in the grass part of the hill, I sit down on the floor wondering where he came from. Looking over to the moss and contemplating digging around in it, finally deciding 'why not'.

I feel around the top of it, the moss brushing my hands and feeling a slightly leveled section of moss. Found it! Taking the area of moss and making my body faze through the floor under it, making contact with a stone floor below. That took a lot of concentration. It was very dark in the space here, how did that man see in here?