Stolen Truth

5

New year. New chapter.

(It's 2020 in Aus now anyway)

The thing about woodland creatures is that they make quite a lot of noise. In normal circumstances I would've found this noise annoying, unbearable even, but when I'm running away in the middle of the night the noise covered the sound of my steps. The thing I particularly dislike about woodland creatures is their innate curiosity.

Small animals ran around my feet, trying to sniff and nip at me as I attempted to sneak away, birds flew above me and swooped down to get a better look. I accidentally kicked some sort of mouse and it screeched so loudly that I feared it would wake someone up. It was only when I reached a narrow stretch of path that I managed to escape them.

The path I was now on was completely shaded by trees, an archway of sorts was created by the branches that stretched across the sky. I slowed my run down to a walk, attempting to get my breath back and trying to convince myself that no one would find me. I had spent another week in there, trying to find my 'purpose' but no matter how hard I tried there was no purpose to be found. So I decided to run, they didn't really need me anyway, other than that one time with the fire, I was basically useless and I couldn't do much, I wasn't going to make that much of a difference.

I reached a clearing that I figured was far enough away from the camp that I could spend the night without being caught. I lied down on a nearby log, and I was trying to get comfortable I noticed a silhouette making its way out from behind the trees. I quickly jumped up and grabbed a stick, pointing it at the dark figure.

"Who are you?" I asked, jabbing the stick in their direction.

"Can you really not recognise me?" The person scoffed.

"Viper?" I asked, lowering the stick slightly.

"Yeah," she said, "Fancy dropping the stick?"

"No," I said, "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I asked first," I insisted, backing away from her.

"I got tipped off about you running away."

"By whom?"

"Owl," she shrugged, "I asked him to check up on you."

"You asked Owl to read my mind?" I exclaimed, appalled.

"Yes, because I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"You could've just asked me!"

"Would you have told the truth?"

"Maybe! But whether or not I'm honest does not give anyone the right to pick through my brain! You are just as bad as the blanks when you try to control people and when you try to look at what goes through their head like it's a free for all!"

"I'm sorry, okay?" Viper said, holding her hands up in surrender.

"How did you even follow me here?"

"I shifted," Viper said simply, "Night is the only time most of us can because the darkness hides us."

"Cool," I said, "Well if you don't mind, I'm just gonna head off and..."

"Nice try," Viper said, grabbing my arm, "But you're coming back with me."

"You can't just make me go back there," I said, pulling myself from her grip.

"We can practise shifting so you can fly back with me."

"What if I don't want to?"

"You do, though."