I stare in shock at the man who had just proposed to me, in a harsh and rough sounding approximation of my language. He sounded worse than a baby. Realizing that this man barely knows the language I point at him with one claw. As I point my claws at him I watch him tense briefly, like I was about to attack him and despite the bear's slight agreement with the idea it probably wouldn't be good to do so, since those standing behind the man are just as armed.
“Me. Join. You. Why.” I speak in a slow and clear voice like someone who can barely hear anything you are saying.
The man answers after loudly gulping. “Yes, join, tribe for…” he's speaking slowly, probably assuming I couldn't understand him fully but that's not the problem.
I hold up my hands for the man to stop speaking, which thankfully he does, it feels like my ears are slowly starting to bleed the more and more I hear him speak. Looking up to the rest of the man’s group they remain on their horses backs. Now that things have settled a little and I'm no longer tense with their arrival. I can see that the group is only about six people, not counting the man who came up to speak to me. They're all static people, what are they doing this far in the forests? Glancing through those atop their horses I speak out hoping for some semblance of understanding more than what the man before me has shown.
“Do any of you understand why this man has proposed to me?” I raise my voice but my hopes of someone to actually speak to soon are buried as they don't respond to me but begin yelling at the man before me.
I keep looking through the group, but nothing changes every time my eyes pass over all of them, but then I notice someone who I hadn't seen before. a woman who isn't static. She's leaning against a tree in the shadow that the canopy of leaves provides. I've never seen or heard of anyone like her before. I'm not even sure that she's a woman but her body roughly looks like a female shifter.
Her skin looks like dried out moss in color or what I can see. She's wearing almost full coverings over her body, some mix of robes and armor that I can tell to the best of my knowledge in what clothes can look like. She has striking purple eyes that seem to have a faint glow but that seems to go away every time I blink while looking at her. The most noticeable thing though are the horns that adorn her head. Small but smooth, they might have been around the size of my smallest claws on my hand but there were multiple around her temples like they were there to protect against just one kind of predator. Or perhaps they were used to find mates I'm not sure.
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But soon I focus back into the thing that first brought my attention to her, she's laughing, now all I can do is believe that she's actually understanding what is being said and that's why she's laughing and not just the situation.
Pointing at her and raising my voice even louder so that she can hear me. “You, uh, with the horns leaning against the tree, do you understand? If you do, please explain to me what they want.”
Her eyes immediately lock onto mine. All of the others immediately turned to face her then me, all of their bickering that had been going on that I had been ignoring had stopped. She pinches the bridge of her nose before letting out a big sigh. From the looks of it she doesn't enjoy those that she's with if she even is. She walks towards me, her legs seem shaped like a wolf's. The way she walks reminds me of the few wolf shifters I've seen.
Once she's in front of me she speaks, with an accent I've never heard before, speaking with a hiss and a slight rumbling gravely sound at the deeper tones. “I do, but I doubt these fools like me speaking with you.”
I turn my head not understanding what she means. “Why don't you travel with them, are you some sort of child who they keep from outsiders.”
She begins laughing again, a rumbling sound that brings something to focus that I hadn't noticed till now. She's barely shorter than me. I still need to look down but she stands tall, not needing to crane her head up high exposing her full neck for all to see.
“No, no, I'm not a child but I am someone of good importance for them.” She lets out another sigh as she waves off the man who had proposed to me off, and had entirely forgotten that he was still standing here.
“They're being tested really with me here and with me needing to speak to you that will certainly dock them down some points, but if they fail this whole test and I could have help that will look worse on me.” She then points to the group, who have remained quiet enough that my ears barely pick up their whispers.
“They want you to join their group for now, to be a guide. The one they brought has been worse than useless.” Laughing to herself again probably at some other failure of the man who proposed to me.
“Well, I don't have any reason to join, but I also don't have any reason to not join.” I scan the group once again not seeing any real problems that I would experience in joining. “They and you can stay here for the night. Most animals don't come here and I'll think of an answer for the offer in the morning.”
She stops laughing almost immediately composing herself very quickly as she turns and returns to the group that she's testing whatever that entails. They seem to be in a discussion for a bit before they come to an agreement to stay here as they get off their horses and begin setting up their tents, and get a fire going.
It has been weeks since I've seen a fire. The crackling of the embers and wood bring a faint smile to my face with warm memories of home. I find my way over to an opposing edge of the clearing spending a few more moments looking at them. I focus inward to find my choice of whether to join or not.
