#bitbraver

               ❝ So that is a chimera ?? I imagined they would be... bigger. ❞

      She wasn’t loud, per se. But she had a squeaky sounding voice, and those sorts of voices tended to carry well. Whatever the case, Grover could probably hear Juniper shrieking from across the camp. 

      The nymph sprinted towards him at top speed-- she had to be fast, what with the reputation of her kind getting kidnapped by pervy old gods! There was something curled up in her hands, which were cupped and held protectively up to her chest. 

     “Gro-veeer!” Juniper squealed, nearly crashing into the satyr. “I found! I found a-- a--” She held out what she carried. There was a tiny baby squirrel which was clearly injured; it trembled in fear, a gash on its side oozing and prone to infection. 

       His senses must have been deceiving him. Old age may have finally taken its grip - that couldn’t have been what he thought it was. He didn’t catch the scent of his descendants coming from a child, that wouldn’t make sense. Hesitant curiosity gripped the deity, urging muted steps forward. He would make sure not to scare the youth, to be gentle in delivery - oh, he wasn’t good with delicate questions. 

              ❝ Excuse me, but are you - er - are you familiar with this area ?? ❞ And he’d backed out, abandoning his dying question in favor of a blatant statement. 

       I’m such a coward. 

Despite having a real place he could call home and be safe in years and a pack to command, there were times when the woods called to him, whispered to him about how much he missed being the lone wolf, the quiet of the forest at dawn when everyone else was still asleep. But this morning, it seemed, he wasn’t the only early bird among the trees, his attention drawn to the sound of a bipedal creature moving through the underbrush, too faint for a normal human to hear.