I woke up to the sound of birds chirping and crickets singing. I kept my eyes closed because I knew that the sun would blind me if I opened my eyes. Wait... I slept outside, in the winter, and I'm not even a little bit cold... What the heck?I quickly realized that I was not sleeping on the dirt ground, instead I felt a mattress under me. Even weirder a warm presents was on my left side. I hesitated to open my eyes. When I did I saw the bare back of a boy. His hair was shaved on the sides with a fluffy mess of brown and dark blue hair on the top. (Like the style of Joey Grassefa) What happened? Please tell me we didn't... Oh no.
Suddenly the boy turned over so he faced me. His eyes were closed, but I could tell he was awake from his breathing. His face was... cute? He kind of looked like my age, but shorter.
I looked down, we were definitely in a bed. The blanket we were under was a blue quilt. It kind of reminded me of a blanket my grandma had gave me. My grandma was probably the only person who was ever nice to me. She told me story's of the time when shifters, humans, and hunters lived together. I longed to live at that time. Unfortunately for us, she had a weak immune system, and nobody lives forever. I shook my head trying to forget the memories. Trying to distract myself, I looked behind me to see a beautiful headboard, I know that sounds stupid but if you saw it you would agree. It had a moon carved in the middle and under it a wolf howl to it, the detail was just great.
I looked around more, it wasn't quite what I expected. Instead of a normal room like I had expected, it looked more like a cave. Stalagmites shot up from a couple corners. Light streamed in through the only opening in the cave, vines hung over it like a curtain. It was pretty small, so you'd have to crawl through it, but it would be a comfortable squeeze.
"You're even more cute when you're awake." I turned around quickly to see the boy who was next to me sitting up. His eyes were bright green. "Shoot! Did I say that out loud?" He said obvious nervous. I sat up my mouth hung open. "Damn, I'm being more awkward than Felix!" He muttered under his breath. "W-Who are you?" I asked trying to sound tough. "Oh! Of course! I'm Caleb!" He said smiling. "Why exactly am I here?" I asked trying to keep my strong voice. "You fell in one of Felix's deer traps, so I took you here, because, Felix doesn't take kindly to tresspassers." He said smiling. "Did we do anything else...?" I asked. "No! No, no, no, no! I don't even know your name!" He said clearly upset at the thought. "It's Alex, by the way." I replied trying not to be rude to the poor guy.
"Um, where's my shirt?" I asked noticing the absence of my shirt. "It was trashed, so I washed it out by the stream. Its probably still drying. Nobody really wears shirts here anyway." He said smiling. "Not even girls?" I asked really confused. He burst out laughing. "What? Did I say something?" I asked confused. "Girls! I haven't see one in over ten years! This is the male trash forest!" He said smiling. "Trash forest...?" I murmured. "Yeah! Hunters dump unwanted shifters here!" He said calmly. "Why wouldn't they just kill them?" I asked. "Because we have extra good senses, they put us here until they need us." He explained. "I don't know why they would put you here though, hunter don't really belong here." He said seeming to get lost in thought. "How did you know I was a hunter?!" I asked suddenly realizing there was no way he could know just by looking. "You smell like a rotting skunk carcass." He said laughing. "Wow, you are so polite." I snapped rolling my eyes.
"Anyway, your brothers a jerk." He said bluntly. "How did you know about my brother? You're starting to get creepy." I said raising an eyebrow. "They only keep the shifters with the strongest senses." He said sounding kind of distant. "Anyway, let's go do something! Staying in bed is boring! Let's go get something to eat!"