In the safety of the forest (wlw/gl)(fluff)

Chapter 2

The younger girl looked up with a sick expression on her face. She took a weak slow breath.

"Am I... dead?" She spoke quietly. "What are you...?"

The young faun looked at her, a terrified expression on her face. She was too scared to do anything so she just stared.

"Are you... alright?" The human spoke, her voice breaking. "I'm not... gonna hurt you... Do you have... any food?"

The older girl panicked by the human's non stop talking. She then tried to communicate with the other girl using sign language, but the younger girl just looked more confused.

"Are you... deaf? Hmm... I don't know much sign language, but I know the alphabet!" The human girl said proudly. Then she signed letters C O L E T T E. "Heh, that's my name, I'm Colette."

The faun is still a bit confused but she gets the message eventually. She then signs S O P H I A, and then she points at herself.

Colette smiles, but then winces in pain, she had forgotten how wounded she was. She signs again, this time spelling the word "food". Sophia nods and points at the dead pig. She then extends her hand gesturing Colette to stay put while she walks around gathering stuff for the fire.

The younger girl looks at the dead animal. She doesn't particularly like violence but at the moment she's too weak to think about that, she'd eat that thing raw if she had to.

Her eyes started following the faun around. Sophia clearly knows what she's doing, she looks damn confident as well. Colette starts thinking about the faun taking care of her. She blushes at the thought.

Soon the fire is set.
The older girl starts cleaning the pig, taking off its fur.

She then puts the fresh meat above the fire and walks to Colette. The younger girl blushes.

Faun smiles, reassuring she's not a threat. She checks the wounded girl's pulse and then starts gently searching for any wounds, continuously making eye contact to insure she's not overstepping any mayor boundaries. Once she gets to the back, Colette flinches. Sophie backs away and spells the word "hurt" before pointing at the human girl. Colette nods.

The faun looks rather worried. She points at herself, spells the word "heal" and then points and the wounded girl.

"You... want to heal me...?" Colette mumbles. Sophia nods.

"Wait, can you lip-read!?" The younger girl asks, fascinated by faun's quick response. Sophie nods again. "Hey Sophia. Will you teach me real sign language? It's a bit primitive and time consuming to spell every word, don't you think?"

The faun smiles, intrigued by the human's enthusiasm. She agrees to be her teacher.

A few minutes pass, the food is ready. Girls sit next to each other and start eating the pig, each one munching on their own pig leg.

They both seem more relaxed than they were half an hour ago when they first met.

"Hey Sophia!" Colette says, gently kicking the faun's leg to get her attention. Sophia looks up, her ears perked up, showing she's on alert.

"Heh, I was wondering... Can you read or write?" The human asks. Sophia nods.

Colette takes out a notebook with a leather cover. "We can write sign language into this." she says. Sophia eventually understands and takes the notebook and a piece of charcoal from the fire. She starts writing down common words and drawing hand positions above them. The younger girl watches her, still munching on the pig leg, fat and grease smudging around her lips.

Sophia notices. She chuckles and cleans Colette's face with her thumb. They both blush a little bit.

Eventually, the faun returns the notebook. Colette looks at the first four pages which were now filled with phrases and hand gestures. She smiles. She tries to say something combining a few signs. She manages to form a full sentence "Food is good", which although not groundbreaking or medal worthy, made the human very happy.

Sophia answers in sign language, it takes Colette and few minutes to desypher it, but she eventually understands that the faun said "I can lip-read", the younger girl let's out an embarrassed "oh" sound, to witch Sophia chuckes.

They continue eating and exchanging words. Hours fly by like seconds, it gets dark.

The girls realise they messed up and forgot about the shelter. Sophia quickly starts building one around her wounded friend. Eventually making a small stick tent around them.

Girls sit next to each other, then the faun breaks the silence. She points at Colette's back asking in sign language if she needs help. The younger girl nods and turns her back towards her newfound friend.

Sophia gently exposes the human's back and stares at the wounds, blushing a bit. She quickly snaps out of it and rubs some herbs with healing properties into the wounded girl's back.

Colette leans into the touch, both of them enjoying this much more than they should.

After a few minutes, Sophia finishes with healing, she signs the younger girl to go rest while she stays on alert in case of predators. They both feel awkward, yet strangely happy.

Colette lays down, her side lightly touching Sophia's knee, making each girl feel safe, although, for different reasons.

Colette felt safe because she finally was in the company of a person who wasn't using her. And Sophia felt safe because she had someone to occupy her time, take her mind away from all the awful stuff she had witnessed. Helping her think about a fresh start, a new blank sheet of paper.

Not long after, the faun feels her human friend relax, falling into peaceful sleep. Sophia thinks for a moment before finally finding the courage to gently caress the human girl's shoulder as she sleeps. Colette unconsciously leans into the touch, she's clearly a bit cold laying on the grass without a proper shelter.

Sophia finally decides to lay down next to the younger girl and wrap her arms around her. They both fall asleep cuddled up, feeling safer and more relaxed than ever before.

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Writer's note: I hope you like where the story is headed, I have a rough idea what I want to do but from now on it'll be less blood, more cuddles.

Word count: 1056