So Many Amazing Trees!

We marched straight. I had no idea which way was North, South, East, or West, so straight it was. Barry kept an eye on the path ahead, keeping lookout for any dangerous creatures looking disrupt out journey.

I asked him if he knew of any fire resistant animals or monsters in the area and his response was to tilt his head and nod, though it almost seemed like he was grinning a bit too. It was probably my imagination. Cats sometimes looked like they were smiling depending on what angle you viewed them from, they probably weren’t, but I like to imagine they were, and I’d like to imagine the opposite is true for this dog.

Besides, Ignoring any possible danger he might have been leading me into was the only way I would finally work up the courage to leave my crater, “Now or never” as they say.

It was probably fine. He kept turning his head around to check if I was still following then put his nose back to the ground while emitting an evil chuckle-like noise. There’s no way he’d try to kill me again, right?

The forest had a weird mixture of pine, elms, and sycamore, along with some multicolored trees that I couldn’t identify. It was still the winter season or close to it (probably) so the leaves of the trees should have fallen, and there were some barren trees but for the most part they seemed to still be there. Maybe the leaves feel at a different time here or their genetics kept them attached year round.

We kept walking onward. After about four hours of walking at a moderate pace, the forest began to darken. The canopy grew thicker and the tree branches grew scarcer. I stopped to study the bark which looked dark, almost like the charcoal from last night.

“You’ve been all the way out here?” We’d walked a fair ways from the crater. Where had the dog come from and why had it ventured all the way to where I’d found him? Barry ignored my question.

A cold wind blew between us. He kept walking.

I didn’t mind the hike. My father was more of an outdoorsman than me, but I joined him on a couple camping, backpacking, and hiking trips. I was definitely in better shape now than when I was this age in my previous life. I could certainly keep going for another couple hours.

“Why do you keep stopping, Jiro?”

Ryō Watanabe leaned on his walking stick, staring quizzically at his son who breathed heavily while resting his hand against a thin tree.

“I just…just can’t keep up. You walk too fast.”

Ryō smiled. He stood watching his son catch his breath.

“You need to exercise more, you’re all skin and bones.” His father taunted.

Jiro glared at Ryō, “I have school and stuff, I don’t…don’t have time for anything else. You’re retired. Ryō continued being bemused. He was a cordial man with gorgeous dark hair and a square face. Compared to his son, or any average person he was also fairly bulky. How his hiking pole could support his Jojo arms was a magic trick In itself.

He wasn’t just handsome, he was also somehow retired before the age of 40, so it was safe to say he had money, though Jiro never asked what his dad’s job had been. Ryō spent a majority of his time out and about along with Jiro’s step-mother, who worked as a city planner and spent a lot of time working from wherever Ryō whisked her off to.

Jiro wondered at times if they were actually international spies or something, but it didn’t affect him one way or the other so he let them be.

“You all good now?” His father asked. Jiro nodded, “Great! You’re going to love this view!”

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We finally exited the forest and came across an incredible sight. Barry and I stood at the edge of a large cliff face with a 150 meter drop. At the bottom was a gravel desert that went on for at least 80 km before the forest began again.

There didn’t appear to be any obvious way down. My dad had tried to goad me into free climbing a few times, to which I unequivocally refused. Despite my upgrade a drop from this height would certainly leave me in pieces.

“What now?” Barry refused stood beside me, unresponsive. His gaze was locked on the horizon. “What is that?” I squinted toward where he was staring.

A dot faded in and out on the horizon. I couldn’t tell what it was from this distance but there was a knot in my gut. I had three guesses what it could possibly be.

“You, bitch!” I sprinted away but something clamped onto my pant leg, face planting me in the dirt.

“Barry, I swear to Christ!” Hup, I lurched backward into a handstand, a maneuver that would have been the death of me in my previous life. I hammered my leg, Barry and all, mercilessly into the ground. It had such a strong impact that for a second I thought there was a shockwave.

Without missing a beat, I pushed myself up and began sprinting back into the forest.

“Roar!” It would have been a novice move to turn around, you never turn around when a monster is chasing you, it’s practically a death flag.

There was an unnaturally warm breeze at my back. I kept running at full tilt. Trees whizzed by. It would be unreasonable to think whatever it was would stop chasing me. There was always the chance that it wouldn’t follow outside it’s territory, there was also an equal chance of that being wishful thinking.

My dad might actually have been proud of my endurance during this one sided chase. One-sided because there was absolutely no chance that the flying thing would be beaten by the running thing.

I heard a branch break behind and to my right followed by the sound of barking. Barry was on my tail as well. Yes, I did literally actually have a tail now, I was being both figurative and literal. It was like 6 inches and hung limply at the top of my thick rump (“that’s what she said.”)

Centuries old television references aside, it felt like the entire world was gaining on me. The breeze was getting hotter by the second. I made a sharp right turn, hoping to juke the hound and impending fire breath.

“Woof. Grr!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I just narrowly avoided being tackled down.

This chase wouldn’t end until I was caught and/or killed by at least one of the two.

“I thought we had an understanding!” I tossed back at Barry. His paws dug into the ground in order to course correct.

The charcoal trees finally disappeared and I was back to the uneven hodgepodge forest and they were still on my tail. It felt as though the flying creature had pulled back. Maybe he really couldn’t leave his territory. Barry, however, was still on the hunt.

“That’s it!” I swung around bringing my leg out front. I knocked Barry sideways catapulting him into a tree, bringing it down in the process. The whole forest shook as the massive oak came crashing to the floor.

“Roar” The flying beast had apparently pulled back because it lost track of me in the greenery, now I heard it’s wings flapping in the distance.

“You’re such a pain, you know that? I thought dogs were man’s best friend. I used to be a man, you know? A human, I mean, but also a man.” He was my first friend since I got here and though we couldn’t actually communicate I thought we had a connection.

That hit mostly likely wasn’t enough to kill him he wouldn’t be getting back up anytime soon. I started running again. They seemed like they were working together. Cross species coordination was a huge deal. I’d thought it may have just been my own ability since I was part animal but it turns out the animals here could understand on another to some degree, or at least the monsters could.

I’d also observed, in Barry at least, that they (monsters) still had animalistic instincts, so it might be possible once the flying thing (probably a dragon or wyvern) saw the defenseless Barry that it might eat him for a snack. Despite his betrayal, he was helpful; how would I track down food without my (un)trusty monster dog.

I hit the brakes and turned back for the dumbass mutt. Who was I kidding, I needed to confront the thing anyway. Running was just delaying the inevitable. It was time to fight.