Into The Woods

Chapter 22 (Part One)

Hi guys! I'm splitting this chapter into two parts because i had it scheduled to be finished today but I got some dental work done and my jaw hurts and i'm tired and i honestly can't write the second half today. But I wanted to post the first half, so here it is!

Chass had hunted on his own since he was big enough to take down his own prey. He'd never been lonely on a hunt, and he'd never minded the solitude.

This time, however, he didn't enjoy it. Nash was staying at his dwelling, keeping an eye out for more intruders, so Chass had to go find food without him. It made the whole experience much less enjoyable. Even the thriving forest didn't make Chass feel less irritated with the absence of Nash.

The foliage around him was distinctly more red, yellow, and orange than it was just a week before. Bird calls and insect noises were thrumming through the air, and the forest smelled like soil. He slithered his way through it all, fast and impatient.

Since Nash's dwelling had been invaded twice now, the plan was for Chass to go digest at his den, where he'd be safer from prying eyes. But that meant spending two nights away from Nash, and Chass had gotten used to sleeping curled around his human surprisingly fast. It would be cold without him.

Not only that, but Nash had insisted that he had something very important to talk to Chass about once he got home from hunting. He'd said it could wait until Chass was fed, but it was serious.

Chass was really hoping Nash wanted to talk about having sex again. That was important, wasn't it?

Chass got pulled from his musings when he heard a distressed animal call, one that didn't belong in the forest. It was off to the east, if he was hearing right. He tilted his head curiously and changed course, deciding to investigate. After some speedy travel, Chass came upon a glen of late-blooming autumn weed flowers and tall grass. Near the opposite edge of the glade, a goat bleated in distress as it struggled to free itself from a strange contraption around its belly that kept it suspended off the ground, hanging from a thick tree bough.

Immediately, Chass lowered himself down and coiled tight, disguising his form with his camouflage. He fell still, frozen.

Nash's words came back to him vividly. The humans thought Chass was a beast, like a boar. The humans thought they were more clever, and more cunning. This was a trap.

Slowly, carefully, Chass studied his surroundings. His heart raced and his claws were clenched on one of his coils, but he felt strangely calm. His mind had absorbed some of Nash's tactics, and now Chass knew what to do.

With liquid grace, Chass slid over his coiled body and moved around the edge of the meadow, dipping into the trees occasionally to scent the air for humans, but finding nothing. He was methodical, he was slow, he was driving himself mad with his own plodding pace, but he was practicing strategy.

He kept himself so low to the ground that the grass beneath him brushed his cheeks and chest, but for once it didn't infuriate him. It wasn't weakness to hide, he reminded himself, it was strategy. Nash would do it, too.

Despite the thick foliage, Chass could use his second vision - his heat sensing vision - to look for humans hiding in the bushes. But other than the goat, nothing was around.

The hunters aren't lying in wait to shoot me with a bow, Chass realized. They think the trap will hold me on its own. Which means I must be very careful.

Gliding closer to the bleating, screaming goat - the lure for the trap, no doubt - Chass studied the contraption. He paused when he saw some chains right under his nose, and he brushed the leaves away to reveal a hastily buried net of metal links interspersed with wicked looking spikes. It was spread beneath the bait, and Chass's eyes traced the ropes up the sides of the trees to the top of the trap, where a pulley was waiting, likely spring-loaded like the bear trap had been, to wrap Chass in the net as soon as he pulled too hard on the goat's harness.