Meeting a Wrecker of Homes wrote:It was unusual at most and worrying at worst how the tres swayed in the wind.
To have branches move was one thing, but Antonio swore the tres were leaning starting from where the trunk came out of the ground.
And he wouldn't be suprised if so was the case, the leaves and wood of his own old shack seemed ready to fly off at any given time. Not ideal to shelter in friends animals but he coudn't think of another safe place for fawns and chicks not old enough to fly.
Not that they could fly away anyways. He had seen too many birds try that, only to have gusts of wind slamming them down into the branches.
It had been days since it started, and he saw no soon end to it.
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"Darling Beatrice-" He had to stop talking to get out some of his hair out of his mouth. The wind just kept blowing and blowing and it seriously was making him consider cutting it short until it passed,
"My wolf friends have taken to the caves. The comrades bears have agreed to stay with them, on peaceful terms. However, you simply cannot take your children there as well!"
Beatrice, who was a deer, just gave him a blank stare.
Not getting a response never made Antonio shut up, however,
"It's for all of your family's sake. Something awful could happen. They're still too young to be around those that could eat their fellow deerkind."
Again, the doe gave no answer. Perhaps not understanding or not wanting to-
Yet, she made no noise as she walked into the shelter, to huddle in a corner with three almost grown fawns. Birds of all sorts and too many bugs to count already laid around, making the already small shack feel smaller and smaller.
Antonio sighed, taking bottles and pouches down from high shelves, in order to let smaller animals find a spot up there. Some still had herbs and liquid inside, Antonio having long forgotten when he made them and for what.
"I am going out one last time. Perhaps some one is still out there," He announced before walking out, to no one's reply.
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The cold winds did not made a pleasant experience to go out but a job Antonio had, and a job Antonio would do. Sometimes, neddles and peebles would fly up, picked up by the same gusts at high speeds, to then be hurled at him.
Not always, though. Just when he was in the unfortunate path of one of those strongest winds.
Grey skies full of swirling clouds above would catch his eyes from time to time, however, no bird was in sight.
No deer running through bushes, no squirrel clinging to tres, no bear lost.
And he still saw a future where he and someone met out there.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Without anyone in sight, walking while peering into the futures was an easier task. Only bumping into vegetation and the occassional winds made Antonio snap put of it.
His feet followed whatever path, it didn't seem to matter much as the futures remained relatively unchanged. Salve the ones where he turned around to the shack.
If he did turn around right now, he'd see as the winds only picked up more and more.
Antonio would make it back safely to the shack, no one else to left to find shelter for the night, and all would sleep as best as they could, hoping to wake up to a still forest.But the problem was the lack of
waking up. As much as he kept peering into that future over and over it seemed to go nowhere afterwards.
And no future only could mean a
wrong future.
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Near the edge of the forest he hear something!
There was a horse! Antonio saw a horse!
Black as coal, and sort of thin.
It reminded Antonio of himself.The vision was cut short when he felt his body slam into the ground. He had started to run without even realizing it.
"Ah! Horse friend, you must come with haste!" Antonio yelled as he get back up on his feet to run through the wood to get quickly to the edge, not bothering to clean his face not hair from dirt and leaves.
And indeed there was a horse, dark as coal! The familiar feeling of a fullfilled future made him crack a smile.
That was until he noticed a...
thing standing next to the horse, holding something that the horse wore around it's muzzle.
It really wasn't until the other being's face twisted into one of horror that he realized...It reminded Antonio of himself.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬"Oh no, no, no, no, no," Antonio's ears perked up once the thing mumble,
"Oh, no, I had no idea there were people here. Oh s-"
The futures started to look...foggy. Cut. Only as snapshots, not full paths.
That, although he had never seen it, sent a chill down Antonio's spine.
"You too must come! It is dangerous to be here!" Antonio yelled again, the winds picking up so loudly it hurt his ears.
Grass and branches swirled in the air, from both the forest and the open hills beyond it's edge.
It had been quite a while since Antonio last put a foot out of his woods, but he definitely didn't remember the grass being that tall.
The other thing had already jumped onto the horses' back while Antonio stared off into the grass. It was a neigh from the equine that brough him back from his thoughts.
"Ah! No, you must come with me, I know of a shelter!""I just said I can't stay!" The thing yelled back, and then its horse took off into the hills.
"Please, it is absolutely unsafe!" Antonio took off after the horse.
But he would come to realice that horses are...pretty fast.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬However! That did not stop him from running all night.
Ad ridiculous as it sounded, Antonio found himself still going after hours though the grass, following the path a future showed.
A future where indeed he would find the horse again!
And the other too, of course.
The wind seemed to calm down, perhaps it was the distance they've put between them and the forest.
And with that calm, the horse seemed to slow down as well.
It went up a hill and Antonio saw it stop, then the rider jumped down.
Above the grass line, he could see the sun slowly creeping up through a sky clear fom clouds.
The thing sat down, and the horse laid down next to it. Both of them had their gazes on the horizon.
After a sigh, the thing talked, "We really screwed up, didn't we, Rusty?"
Antonio heard a soft but affirmative reply from the horse-from Rust.▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Rather than feeling the satisfaction from seeing a future before it happen when it happened, Antonio had a slightly sour feeling when the thing sighed.
For a momento. He considered heading back home
To none. Snapped tres laid on top of one another.
Wolves and deer were running, birds able to fly above them. But they are were leaving, exiting the forest.
Antonio caught sight of the shetlter. A fallen tree having crushed some of it.As he snapped out of that future, he must've made some noise or tumbled down the hill, because both the thing and horse turned around to see him.
"My forest!" Antonio gripped his hair, his breathing quickeing to the point it was hard to breath,
"My home! My friends! My place!"The thing said something, but it was drowned out as the wind picked up.
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