komorebi

three

heavy panting was heard, along with the familair voice from before, which was laced with clear concern. though, only a few seconds later, as soon as her light grey eyes closed... they didn't open back up, and her body fell completely limp.

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when her eyes opened again, she was immediately hit by the bright sun, blinding her and forcing her to close her eyes. which remained closed for a few more seconds, before opening.

she was confused by what she saw around her, big, tall trees... where was she, in a forest...?

she was.

she wondered why she was here, before remembering what had happened. being found by the predator, and by the looks of it she had been taken to their den, or whatever they called their home...

but then, how was she still alive...? She was sure that she woild of bleed out by now, but clearly she hadn't. she tried to sit up, and managed to succeed in doing so. she then looked at her leg in confusion... and her breath hitched at what she saw.

her leg was patched up, wrapped around with some leaves and a stick, someone had fixed it for her. but, who...? had she been rescued by someone? but... that wasn't likely, when somebody was caught ─ they were always left for dead, even by those who they trusted dearly.

though, then why was it different for her...?

"oh, you're awake, i almost thought that i put that stuff on your leg for nothing..."

hearing a voice, more specifically that voice, she flinched, and her eyes widened. her body quickly began to shake in fear, as she slowly turned her head to see the exact same figure that she had spotted before, the predator. Her first thoughts were right, she had been brought to their den to be feasted upon.

but... what they said, confused her.

still, she was scared, terrified even. she turned around before moving back. the predator who had captured her as their prey, was a wolf, a rather small and young looking one, too. around her age, she guessed.

dark brown hair that she had almost mistaken for black that was in the middle of chin length and shoulder length, they ─ or she, as judging by appearence and voice. had sickly pale skin, the palest that she had ever seen on an animal before, and had hazel eyes with big dark bags underneath them.

like her, the lower part of her body was that of a wolf (including the tail), while she also had the claws and ears of a wolf. if her eyes weren't playing tricks, in her expression was... worry, concern and... confusion, confusion was mostly taking over but she still couldn't help but notice the worry.

"hey, hey, uh... i'm not going to hurt you," she reassured, hands out infront of her as she slowly took a few steps closer. of course, she wasn't trusted, as the deer moved back while keeping direct eye-contact, her eyes fill with fear.

"h-how do i know that?" she spoke back in a shaky voice that she tried to sound more confident, but failed. slightly narrowing her eyes as she continued to move further away from the wolf, until she hit the wall. she had backed into a cave, a rather large and seemingly dark one, though unfortunately not dark enough so she would be able to hide within it.

the wolf hesitantly and slowly walked over to her, worry still laced in her expression. "because, uh..." she trailed off, slowing down to a stop as she appeared to be thinking. taking the opportunity, the deer quickly got up and ran straight past the wolf, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"h-hey!" the deer kept on running, but... it wasn't long at all until she felt the aching pain in her leg. she thought that it healed, and it had, but not entirely. not enough to run away from a predator, especially from a wolf. it felt like it was going to start bleeding again if she continued running, and while she didn't want that to happen ─ she also didn't want to get caught.

though, she didn't really have to choose to stop, because she was forced. her eyes widened, her breath hitched, and when she tried to stop she kicked up dust. standing right before her, was the wolf from before... she thought that she had managed to make it far, and was running fast enough to get rid of the wolf─

maybe she could of, if she didn't have an injured leg slowing her down.

she knew that she should of stayed, that it was way too risky running off like that, but she did it anyways. now, she was certain that there was no way she was going to make it out alive, if she even had the chance to before.

she slowly backed away, but she tripped over something and fell back, causing more dust to come up. the wolf walked over to her, then started coughing because of the dust. the deer's body shook in fear, to the point of where she felt tears threatening to fall.

this really was the end, she wasn't going to be able to make it back home, she wouldn't see so many familair faces ever again. She closed her eyes tight, waiting for the pain to hit her and that would it. everything would be over in a second.

though, for some reason... the pain never came. "h-hey, i said i wasn't going to hurt you... remember, so why did you run away?" the dust disapearing, the wolf stopped coughing and stood in front of her, looking down at her with her lips pursed into a frown and a confused look stuck to her face.

the deer couldn't believe what she had heard, she had to be lying... right? or telling a trick, making her think that she was harmless when actually, she was just waiting for the right time to strike. Though, when she heard those words, they... didn't sound like that at all.

instead, they sounded like she was actually confused as to why she had ran away, as if she didn't realize how dangerous she was. hesitantly, she slowly opened her eyes and stared at her looming figure standing over her... tears staining her eyes which she blinked away.

"why... why didn't you attack me...?"