Vylt: The New Dawn

Side Story, Part 7: A Nice Egg In This Trying Time

My ears perked up as the wind carried a familiar sound with it. I blew on my whistle in response and picked up my basket. Food was no longer a problem for us, so my gathering wasn't quite necessary. Still, Mum insisted that I needed to learn how to take care of myself in case things took a wrong turn. The knights who visited us encouraged her idea, as long as I stuck to their rules.

Despite being official citizens, Sir Fuchs said it was important that we remained hidden, since most 'civilians' didn't know of our existence. To aid us with this, they brought us a pair of special whistles. With them humans would only hear the calls of some of the local birds, however, our hearing allowed us to tell the difference between them and the real thing. Thanks to these, Mum allowed me to explore the outside on my own. There were a few conditions to this, of course.

The most important one out of them all was that I couldn't stray too far from home. This was a given, considering humans were not the only danger in these woods. Mum told me most predators stayed away from her territory, but this didn't mean it was impossible to find some. If I did encounter something dangerous, I was supposed to climb the nearest tree and blow the whistle as hard as I could until she arrived. Doing so distorted the noise it made, which fit perfectly as an alarm. The only downside was that it hurt my ears to do so.

This communication system was only a temporary measure while the knights got us something better. Phones were the first idea, of course. Mum was even eager to try using one of them. Unfortunately, they came with their own set of problems. The biggest challenge was finding a reliable source of energy to recharge them. Being so far deep into the world's densest forest did make it a bit difficult, plus it caused a lot of signal interference. Still, the knights promised they would find a solution.

Mum trusted them. "They could've killed us if they wanted," she said back then. They outnumbered us, and I was defenceless. There was no way she would have dealt with all of them, no matter how good her magic was, or even if she used her special arrow. Fortunately for us, that never happened.

Instead of hostility, the knights brought commodities. Food, tools, clothes, books; anything we could ask for, they provided. Once they discovered I was the girl they were looking for, they patiently waited for Mum to tell her side of the story. Because of this and my own memories, it felt odd to perceive humans as a threat. And yet, I knew people weren't all good.

A sudden hiss brought me back to the present. I stopped to look ahead of me. There stood a huge lizard. It was sage green, and it looked slightly longer than my arm, though I didn't plan on getting any closer to verify. I knew better than invading a wild animal's space. It gave out another hiss and slowly backed away, limping with one leg as it did. Normally, its aggression alone would've been enough for me to turn around and take a different path. This time, however, something told me this not-so-little fellow posed no threat unless I carelessly approached it.

Feeling pity for the poor reptile, my thoughts shifted from caution into a desire to help. I knew that if I could somehow take it home, Mum could heal its wounds, just like she did with me.

"Come here, buddy," I said, squatting to look smaller.

No luck. It remained in place, watching my movements and tilting its head occasionally.

"Would you like some food?" I asked, not really expecting a reply.

I looked at my basket and dug through it in search of something to offer. It didn't strike me as a herbivore, so the plants and mushrooms I gathered previously were, most likely, not going to work. Still, I grabbed some herbs and presented them to it. Its eyes quickly glanced at my stretched hand, then back to my face. It took a step back in silence.