Pluck (The Woodswalker Novels)

by Emilia S. Morrow

  “I think that’s your fox talking. It kind of sucks down here.” she said.

  The cold made itself comfortable in her bones. Her muddy clothes hung heavy on her shaky frame. She tried to put it out of her mind to sleep. The cold was as familiar to her as her own name. There was no putting it out of her mind.

  The fox boy was curled up, facing away from her. She was not sure if he was still awake or not. His breathing was very delicate, hardly moving his body.

  “Eric?” she said.

  “Yes?” he said without turning around. His voice was as if he was still in a dream.

  “Don’t look, okay?” she asked. Without looking he slipped into his fox skin.

  She awkwardly contorted out of her clothing. There was hardly an opportunity for them to get dry down here, crumpled up in the space beside her. She regretted not taking them off above ground.

  She turned away from him, curling into a fetal position in the cramped space to get warm. She tried to get warm, to sleep, but it would not come. Her shivering set her mind on edge. She could not stop thinking of the dirt above them.

  The fox took pity on her condition and made a quiet growl. He walked across the muddy ground to face her. Although the earth around them was pitch black, she covered her body as best she could. He stared down at her with a question in his eyes. She nodded.

  He turned in a circle in front of her before burrowing underneath her arm. His body was so hot, hotter than she had imagined it would be. She had the urge to grab onto his soft fur, but she kept herself still. She didn’t want to scare him away.

  ***

  Briar woke up first, still curled up around his comforting warmth. She did not want to disturb him, so she laid there for a few more hours. There were too many thoughts bouncing around in her skull to keep her eyes closed.

  When he did wake he stretched against her naked flesh. She shivered at the feel of the fur brushing against her. There was something to be said about the difference between a living creature and a pile of dead skins. She moved her arm to let him get up fully. He jumped over her and transformed in one smooth motion.

  “Good morning,” he said with a yawn.

  He was more than a little embarrassed about last night. She could tell, he did not want to look at her. She assumed if he was living as a human he would be just as uncomfortable with nudity as she was.

  Briar grabbed her clothes and crawled out of the den. At this point they were dry enough to wear, but still damp on one side. The physical activity would dry them off eventually. Briar was still squinting from the new light as he squirmed his way out of the hole. She made a show of covering her eyes as he wrangled his clothes from the tree to put them back on.

  It had rained heavily in the night. The boom of thunder did not touch them in their deep sleep. The world around them was slick with mud. Standing pools of water still dot the forest. Everything around them was vibrant green. The trees that towered above them seemed safer.

  Physically things were worse than ever, but they were closer than before. She wasn’t sure what it was but she felt she was close to where she needed to be. Sometimes the trees would part and she would see a view of the mountain range and think ‘I’ve seen that view before!’

  “Are we there yet?” she joked, her voice high and childish. Eric smiled, shoving her playfully on the shoulder.

  “Maybe? We are definitely closer than we were. We should run across a trail soon,” he said.

  She was hopeful, he felt it too. They were where they needed to be. It would not be long now, she thought. Soon there would be clean clothes and showers and coffee.

  “What is the first thing you will do when you get home?” she asked, in good spirits. He thought for a moment before smiling a toothy grin.

  “I’m going to eat.” Eric said. She laughed. It was a pretty good answer. Even now her stomach felt like a vast cavern within her.

  “Eat what?” she asked

  “Everything. Anything. Anything but rats,” he said. She still felt monstrous from that night. She did not know if she would ever get over it. Nor should she, she thought.

  “I don’t know if I can ever eat meat again after all of this is over,” she admitted.

  “Oh come on, I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,” he said. Briar realized he didn’t know.

  “You know the woodswalker friend I told you helped me get information?” Briar said. Her voice cracked as she tried to steady herself.

  “Yeah, why?” he asked.

  “The owl fed her to me,” Briar said. She tried to continue walking so she would not stop altogether.

  “That’s horrific,” he said.

  Briar did not want to continue the conversation. With any luck, it would all be over within a few days. She needed to practice her denial.

  “Speaking of food,” Briar said with a grimace. “Could you hunt us up something?” she asked. The fish had invigorated her. But today was a new day, and damn was she hungry.

  “I’ll try,” he offered with a shrug.

  He began to pull off his sweater. He looked at her for a moment before giving her a light shove. “Turn around!”

  She blushed and followed orders. She thought they would be over that after naked cuddling last night but it seemed to have made him even more shy about it. Her vision went dark as he threw his clothes on her head. She laughed. His fur brushed past her leg as he sprinted off ahead of her.

  “I’ll wait here!” She called after him, sitting down on a fallen log nearby. She would just scare away all of the food.

  It’s amazing how short her attention span was. She spent time examining the dirt under her fingernails, trying to count the mushrooms on her log, staring off into the distance, and trying to scratch an itch on her back.

  It must have been over a month since she has lived in the forest. It has not taught her patience, or the beauty of silence. She wanted to get the hell home and fill her life with true choice again.

  ***

  A series of short panicked barks come from somewhere in the distance. Briar stood quickly. She grabbed the hunting knife from her waistband and tried to run in the direction of the sound.

  “Keep talking so I can find you!” She called out. Now that she was without a guide she was terrified of the forest shifting on her. She’s been down this road before, running after a voice in the woods a second time. She did not learn much of anything, apparently.

  She followed in the direction of the sound, dodging tree trunks and brambles. It was not long before she came across her companion. He was panicked, circling a mound of mud. When he saw her he let out a loud bark.

  “I don’t know what you want, could you please come back to me?” she asked. He backed up and finally changed. His eyes were wild, and he did not speak. He was still crouched in the mud on the balls of his feet.

  She got down on her knees in front of him. Her pants were coated in cold mud.

  “What did you see?” She began to ask, but something caught her eye.

  Nestled in the mud was a shriveled human hand. Briar stared at it dumbly. It did not register as a real situation. She reached out a hand to touch it, stopping a few inches from its putrid flesh. It hit her all at once, the quiet stench of rot.

  “Oh.” She said simply. “Oh.” She repeated, more aware. “Fuck.” She turned to vomit up the stinging bile in her stomach.

  Eric had not removed his eyes from the hand. Briar took off her pack and handed him his clothes. He still did not look at her.

  The clothes sat on a pile in his lap, untouched.

  Briar knelt beside the body, sweeping the mud from the corpse.

  She had to know.

  The smell was not pungent, fresh rot. It smelled like finding a long dead opossum trapped in the wall. It had to at least be a few weeks since the person died.

  “What the fuck do we do?” He asked out loud, clearly out of his element.

  He kept rocking back on his heels, his brow furrowed. She was glad that at least he wasn�
�t permanently frozen. She could only handle one corpse at a time.

  She felt a strange feeling in her chest. It was as if she were a child again, knowing she was in trouble before her father opened his mouth to speak.

  Briar ignored him until she had revealed the whole body. Or what was left of it. There were deep shreds in the cloth and flesh. It was harder to tell where mud ended and flesh began. She should have read more murder mysteries, less romance. She could not tell what were the elements and what was the cause of death.

  “What the fuck do we do?” He repeated, still holding his clothes in his hands.

  She leaned down, face to face with the corpse. Even with the features mushed and eaten the resemblance was still there. It was Aster. She could feel it, the aching reality. No one had known where to look, because Aster could not tell them.

  She wondered exactly why her cousin met her end. She could not fathom how her friend went from snapping photos in the meadow to haphazardly buried in the mud. There are probably no coincidences in this life.

  “She doesn’t have her glasses,” Briar muttered. Her hand hovered a few inches from her sunken cheekbone. She must have been so scared, running in these woods blind.

  She must have been who the bat talked about. Aster resisted, and escaped. But she didn’t get far. It was just like her to resist the advances of an owl man she just met. Aster was always the smarter of the two of them. Or at the very least, more picky. Her boyfriend would at least have solace in that.

  “This is my cousin Aster,” she said, voice cracking. Although the face was misshapen she spent most of her life looking at her. She could probably identify her by her feet, if necessary.

  “Nice to meet you,” Eric said. It was so out of left field. She turned to him, unable to process what he said.

  Until finally, she broke. She laughed and laughed until her laughs turned to deep anguished sobs. Tears fell from her face freely. She fell away from the body with a thick slap in the mud. Everything that she had suppressed this whole time was coming out. She cried and cried in the mud until she ran out of tears to give.

  “What do we do?” she asked this time as she came up for air. There were no tears left, but her chest spasmed into sobs all the same. If she didn’t stop soon, she would hyperventilate.

  “We get the fuck out of this forest. And when you find the authorities you tell them where we found her body and they find her,” he said soothingly. Or, as soothingly as a naked man next to a dead body can be. “There isn’t anything else we can do for her.”

  She got back on her knees to begin covering the body up with mud. It wouldn’t do much to stop scavengers but there would maybe be more of a chance of finding parts later. She stood on wobbling legs. It didn’t seem right to leave her like this.

  Briar took off her pack, rooting around in it until she found the stones she took from the creek. She placed them in a small pile above where her heart might still be. As she went to zip up the pack she noticed the novel she had thought to bring.

  There were probably no coincidences in this life, she thought as she gripped the well-worn cover. It was probably the very same copy Aster brought with her. She placed it on the body next to the stones, afterall, it was hers. Briar began to cry all over again. She still hadn’t finished reading it. But he was right, they had to get out of there.

  She stood once more, taking a look around. She doubted that she will be able to lead anyone back here for her body. It was a nice sentiment, but her parents will have to take her word for it. They continued their hike. Briar could not see the ground below through her tears, tripping on every root and rock in her way. The fox boy remained silent. He was out of funny thoughts.

  She was murdered by him. Briar could feel it, the knowledge worming its way into her heart. If she did make it out of here she promised she would never return. She had seen so much beauty this past month. On more than one occasion the beauty of the forest took her breath away. It would be sad to lose such a big part of her life, but she cannot risk coming back here.

  Every once in a while, Eric would look over at her as if he was worried she would fade away while he wasn’t looking. But she persisted. She persisted over stream, through brambles, over boulders. She persisted even though she didn’t know why anymore. Continuing felt like a whole lot of work.

  “It’s getting late. We should start trying to find shelter,” he said, looking over his shoulder. Briars heart beat faster.

  “I don’t want to spend another night in this forest.” Briar said. That much she was sure of.

  “If we stay out at night he could find us.” Eric said, stopping in her path. She pushed past him to continue. His arm goes out to stop her but she brushed him off. She was stronger.

  “If we stay in this forest, he will find us,” she said.

  He looked after her, trying to decide what to do. As she got a few feet away, he sighed and followed.

  Sharp Enough

  The sun came up just enough for the forest to become a sickly grey. Briars focus bobbed in and out, unable to truly comprehend the world around her. Weak hands envelope her, stopping her from moving any further. Her dried mud covered boots dig into the soft ground without purchase.

  “It’s enough,” Eric whispered, his voice raw with thick spit.

  Briar had no protest left to give but one singular, shudder of breath. They began slowing down, looking for anything that could conceal them enough from the air. The relatively flat land before them was bordered harshly on one side by a much steeper cliff.

  She collapsed hard against the cliffside, scraping her side on the way down. Eric let out a sharp breath, grasping her arms and attempting to pull. He was not strong like the owl, and she remained on the floor where she belonged.

  Without her permission her mind went to him once more. After everything she could not help but think of the warmth of his arms. She sobbed angry tears until he let her arms rest.

  “I can’t.” She gasped between sobs. “Leave me alone.”

  He pushed her back up against the surrounding rock, placing his body to conceal hers. If someone was walking or flying by quickly they may not notice the human shaped bump against the wall. If they were stupid, maybe. It was hardly enough to remain hidden, but the gesture was enough to draw more tears from the well.

  “Can I hold you?” he asked, not looking directly in her eyes. She could not respond, burrowing her head into his scratchy wool sweater. He took this as permission, grasping her to him so she would not break apart.

  “It should have been me,” she blubbered, trying not to get too much snot on his clothes. “People like Aster.”

  “If it had been you who would have let me go?” he asked, rubbing her back. She did not feel like she deserved the comfort, but she clung closer to him all the same.

  “If I wasn’t alive, you wouldn’t have seen me. So you wouldn’t be caught.” Briar said against his chest.

  “True,” he said. Her tears began anew. Eric sighed. “I don’t know about you but I’m going to forget about everything that happened here. Clean slate when we get rescued.”

  “Promise?” she asked.

  “Promise.” he said. “I don’t think it would do us any good to hold on to this.”

  They had walked through an entire day, and most of the night. Her body was weak, but thoughts rattled around in her skull like a bird trapped inside a building. Sleep tried to drag her down but she fought hard against it.

  “Why do you think the woodswalkers lost their true skins?” she asked. “Why do you think I’m empty?”

  “That’s just some silly story,” he said. “No one knows why.”

  “Please?” she asked.

  The fox groaned quietly against the top of her head.

  “My parents told me a lioness and a gazelle fell in love.” He looked a little embarrassed to say.

  “They could not be together when they were in their true skins, fearing their instincts would take over. They built a home fit for their hu
man lives, keeping to them at all times. The child they have is neither lion nor gazelle, but a human with no second skin.”

  “That’s pretty,” she said with dreams in her voice.

  “Briar?” he asked. She mumbled against his chest. “You aren’t empty.”

  ***

  Briar awoke so slowly she scarcely noticed she was conscious. She still felt trapped in a dream, uncomfortably drifting from one jumbled landscape to the next in her mind. The sun was still high above, casting long shadows over their makeshift shelter. Despite the weakness in her muscles she was done sleeping. Looking out ahead she could see Eric’s thin frame sitting up against a tree.

  “Hey.” She tries to call out, but finds her voice uncooperative. She reached out to grasp a small pebble and lob it at his front.

  He grunted as it bounced off his collar bone. “Good morning to you too.” He crossed the space between them. His brow furrowed. “You look like shit.”

  She tried a few times to speak. “Water,” she begged.

  “Water, what?” he said with a grin.

  “Please.” She shoved him weakly.

  He removed the empty bottle from her pack. “If you need me, scream. It shouldn’t be that far,” he said. Her eyes narrowed to slits. “Oh, right. Just don’t need me then.”

  She definitely couldn’t have done this without Eric. If he had not invited himself to her escape attempt she was sure she would be gone by now. She wouldn’t have been able to shelter with the bear, she wouldn’t have been able to dig her own den.

  They sat in silence as she downed as much water as she could fit in her stomach.

  “I know we have to go,” she said, seeing the way he drummed his fingers against the floor. “I just need a moment.”

  “I’m so excited to get the hell out of here,” he said.

  “So what were you doing in the forest to begin with?” Briar asked. “You don’t seem to like it here.”

  “My family on my father's side has been playing human since before this country was a thing,” he said with pride in his voice. “Whenever a kit in my family becomes an adult they are given the choice to live as a true fox. They come back with a wild mate, or they stay in the woods forever.”