Finally, after a minute or two, the house took shape in front of you in the clearing. 

As you parked the U-Haul and stepped out, you were greeted by a.. large red fox with black markings sitting on the steps that lead to your front porch.

For some reasons, you didn’t feel fear when seeing the canine, and they didn't seem to mind you, even tilting their head at you curiously.

“Hey there,” You greeted softly, crouching to the ground and stretching out your hand with the palm up as they backed away some but did not flee. “Aren’t you gorgeous. Beautiful patterns and a magnificent coat.” You muttered softly to yourself.

This brought the fox in, stepping over to you hesitantly, and then sniffing your hand, which was then that you saw two things. One being they had a duo of scars on their and the second being a glimmer from under their lips, which drew a surprised gasp to leave you, making the fox jump back.

“Oh, you poor thing..” You muttered, gently drawing them closer.

The small fox seemed to have calmed, gently setting their chin onto your hand as you brought the other up to pet them gently, your soft gaze connected with their -now- relaxed gaze, soon gently caressing their ear as your thumb came close to the top of their scar, before a loud call of a bird broke the serenity and the fox's’ head shot up and they quickly disappeared into the forest, but not before a large bird-like shadow crossed over the ground in the moonlight, making you look up in confusion.

Shaking your head some to clear your groggy mind, you stood and headed for the door, a key in hand to unlock the house. As you inserted the key, you heard a creaking from above on the roof, turning around some with furrowed brows.

Probably just a bird. After all, the call you heard told you so.

As the door clicked open, you stepped inside, having to give yourself a moment to cough from the accumulated dust from the house having not been used in quite a bit.

As your eyes adjusted to the dark, you couldn’t help but be a bit surprised upon seeing some cloth covered furniture already here -none of which was yours. 

“Huh,” You muttered in a small laugh. “Someone gift these to me or are they haunted had the previous owners didn't want any spirits coming with them?” 

With a light smile, you went to the wall to  switch on the light, only to near shriek as you felt a mass of fur brush against your leg out of no where.

Quickly flipping on the light and whipping your head around to stare at the floor, you felt your suddenly high nerves calming as you saw a one eyed black puff ball of a cat.

“Aw, hey there sweetie.” You greeted, crouching down to be level with the cat, holding out your hand for them to sniff, resulting in the cat taking a small whiff before nuzzling the backs of your fingers.

“Aren’t you just a darling?” You cooed softly, gently petting the cats head, before your eyes caught on a reflective glimmer from the tree line a few yards away from you porch.

Standing, you then grabbed your keys for some sort of weapon and walked out onto the porch.

“Hello?” You called out loud enough to be heard, but not enough to disturb the sleeping ecosystem. “Is this your cat? I didn’t know. I just moved into this house.” You explained to the night, waiting a few seconds before a light smile cracked your lips. “Maybe leaving the city was good for me.. I’m pretty much talking to myself, aren’t I Little Kage?” You whispered, crouching down to the cat once again, petting them once again, before both your heads shot up at the sound of quiet hissing.

They, however, seemed to calm and instead take interest in the looped chain of the house key held loosely in your hand.

“Oh? Like the key, do you?” You asked with a light laugh, slowly turning your attenuation to the cat once again. “Beautifully crafted, isn’t it? I heard it’s made from steel and a hint of brass and titanium. You’ve a nice taste.” You commented, tilting your wrist down so the key caught and glimmer in the moonlight. However, before you can react, the cat was running off into the forest, your hand suddenly bare from the metal shape.

Looking down at your empty hand, then your gaze going up to follow the mischievous glint in the cats eyes as they glanced over their shoulder with your key hung from their mouth, before leaping off into the forest.

“H-Hey! I need that! Get back you thief!” You yelled, getting up and sprinting off after the reason black cats can be called bad luck.

After a good ten minutes of running and effectively loosing the cat, your body decided it needed a break and bent over, panting heavily as you felt nauseous from all the running. 

Your gaze, however, shot up when you heard a lot of rustling from a bush a few yards in front of you. This wasn’t what put under a terrified freeze. The sight of ruby red eyes stared back into yours, a few inches taller than what you would be standing up. 

The piercing red had you pinned in place as the orbs seemed to have a mist surrounding them. The way they seemed to radiate anger, danger, and.. hunger finally made your body move with a fearful shudder.

You immediately took off once again, a new rush of adrenaline filling you and pushing aside the feeling of sick. 

Behind you, you could hear whatever that was chasing you, gaining quickly at inhuman speed.

Soon, however, you tripped over an uprooted tree root, falling and rolling down a slope. After gathering yourself, you sat up, only to have three pairs of glowing eyes of three large shadowed figures staring down at you.

One was a dark orange speckled with blurs of yellow and brown which held some concern, one a light wine red which had irritation, and the last had a large red one with a tiny flickering second and held a desperate hunger. All of them, however, had shock in their gazes, as if you had stumbled in on a secret meeting that wasn’t supposed to be known about.

It was then that your ears heard the deep hissing above you from where you fell. The glowing red eyes stared down at you with seemingly hatred. 

This was all you needed to clamber up and to run once again, pushing passed the full pair of red and orange eyes, and bolt once again.

There was no way you could fight whatever these were. Were these the forest spirits that teens had talked about after they came out traumatized and scared, wide eyed and once the bad kid now turned silent? 

Ether way, you had to get out of the forest and back to your place. Screw that cat! If it wasn’t for them, you wouldn’t have to be chased down by angry creatures that seemed to want to kill you!

It wasn’t only then that you realized you were going up hill. The only hill around was the cliff that overlooked the forest on all sides except the one you were scaling. However, it was way too late to turn back now as it seemed the red eyed hissing spirit had been swapped for the flickering eye spirit, deep growling and panting coming from them as their gaze stayed locked on you, freezing you to the core with cold terror.

It wasn’t very long until you were shoved to the ground with the massive snarling spirit above you, finally being able to see their face.

They were a rather masculine skeleton with a large build, huge sharp canines or teeth in general, and a broken skull. He also had a single torn blood red wolf ear. But what surprised you the most was the desperate look as he suddenly buried his face against your neck and took a deep, shuddering breath, seeming to visibly relax... Before suddenly getting thrown off of you. 

Towering over you now stood a shorter, leaner skeleton with an agitated look. “You fucking idiot!” The skeleton shrieked, his attention completely on the other who he’d pushed off of you. The idiot was on his lower arms and knees, seeming in a trace as he stared wide eyed at the ground, saliva dripping from his jaws as his gaze slowly lifted to you.

Your gaze, however, was on the newer skeleton. He had a dark brown colored feather wings from his wrists to his lower back, also having a slight beak-like jaw that came out some and had a gold-like tint. He seemed to have a light orange-red shoulder feather.

Your attention was soon snapped from him as a tall and lanky skeleton gently tugged you up. “Human? Are you alright?” He asked in concern, but you recognized the rust-like magic color. He was the one who towered above you along side the flicker magic skeleton after you fell getting chased by the first spirit -who you could guess was also a skeleton. 

Rusty helped you stand as Feathers tried to keep Flickers attention off of you, which seemed impossible as he stared right through the smaller skeleton and straight at you with desperation, need, hunger, and fear. 

It only took a second, before both Feathers and Rust were pushed down and Flicker was after you once again. 

You bolted once again, like a scared rabbit. Little did you know you were headed for the three-way cliff.

A yell from Flicker was all it took for you to loose focus and take a run off the cliff.

Was this how you died?

Trying to settle alone? Getting hunted by monster forest spirits? 

As some tears filled you eyes as you braced yourself for the ground which was hundreds of feet away, the world jolted as wind -instead of coming from below- gently whispered passed your face as a deep voice grumbled curses.

After all the excitement, a small glance up at a grey-white face with blue eyes was all it took before your mind went black, as did your sight as consciousness slipped your mind.

.

.

.

The sun gently filtered through the windows and onto you through the fluttering blankets that replaced curtain.

As you sat up, you winced as you held your side.

Looking down after lifting your shirt, you saw a large bruise. 

It was then you saw the bottle of water and pill bottle beside it, rested by a folded note with.. animal parts surrounding it?

You wondered what each of these could be used for, before a headache hit you and you quickly downed the pills and started to read.

‘Dear new owner, I’m sorry for all the excitement last night. Some of us were excited to meet you, others upset at your arrival. Try to be more careful when entering the forest. Some parts are off limits. Don’t bother trying to tell anyone about what happened. No one would believe you. -Mono’ This part unnerved you, despite the carefully placed and neat writing, but the small round deep blue stone lined with black and white veins held a sense of security.

‘Hello human! I am excited to meet you, but glad the others had got to do so! Don’t be afraid to ever find me! -Talie’ This writing was slim, but sort of bold, bigger than the previous one. Despite the short pair of lines, a small smile was brought to your lips. This was paired with a small cream colored shell, the cream paired with a soft brown speckled with red and sandy yellow.

‘Greetings human! I hope we can meet in person soon! You are a rather magnificent being! Very, very pretty! -Invei’ Despite the handwriting that was a bit shaky and curved, this made you on edge. Who was this? Who had seen you enough to analyze your face? Despite this, a soft blue pearl was in duo with this part. 

‘Hey human. Hows your knee? You fell pretty hard last night. Careful when you come into the trees. Call my name when you hold a clover. I’ll guide you safely for whatever you want up until you leave. -Al’ The loosely drawn letters with such an uneven pattern gave you a bit more ease than the actual words. A unlike all the other writings, this held no gift.

‘Human, I apologize for chasing you last night. I simply didn’t like you naming my cat nor touching him. However, you moved into the house he was staying, so it wa-’ At this point you lost interest in this part as it irritated you. You did however, look at the name ‘-Viper’ Paired with Vipers note was your house key!

‘What’s up human? Ya like the dirt do much you fell for it? That’s not alright y’know. Rather filthy, dirty even. -Domni’ Your nose wrinkled some from the jokes as a small sigh left your mouth. A red scale was settled next to this section.

‘How stupid can you get?! Why would you ever go into the woods known for traumatization, disappearances, and death?! Humans are still stupid after all this time? Next time don’t go jumping off cliffs! You’re lucky Mono had been there to save your ass! -Centri’ Not gonna lie, Centri sounded like a dick, but it was better than him not caring, you guessed. He had a feather with his note, starting with black and fading to the rusty red coloring half way to the tip.

‘Are you alright human? Ren hit you hard. Are you hurt? Good. Maybe you’ll learn to stay away from my brothers nesting peak! He’s the only reason you aren’t torn apart and eaten! But’ a spacing. Hesitation, maybe? ‘try to be more careful. Thank you for being kind to me. -Relia’ There was a tuft of black and red fur with this. Odd.. reminds you of the large fox you’d encountered.

‘Hello new friend! I am writing on the behalf of my brother. He wants to apologize for the actions he undertook last night. He was rather hungry last night and the others have constantly moved prey out of our land so you can surely understand what happened lest night. I can’t wait to meet you! In fact, let’s meet tomorrow! -Inten + Ren’ Duo with this font was a co-dominant red and white rose head with a small fluffy black feather curled around the side.