Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The girl from the woods
On a remote mountain region, with three peaks highlighting the valley below, a flock of winged animals launched themselves into the air.
They were trying to catch the warm currents left of the midday sun to try and soar beyond and find food; and once at the right altitude they began to glide away from the rocky environment and into the empty valley below. Barely flapping their wings, the animals glided for miles, until something in their path caught their attention. A group of furry mammals called Woffs were also taking flight… somehow.
The two flocks soon joined and together soared the skies as the immense grasslands turned into dense coniferous forests, in which the cries and bellows of a different variety of animals could be heard; as the immense group reached a riverbank, the winged animals peeled off and followed it while the Woffs carried on, with seemingly no idea of where to go.
The sun was just beginning to drop from the top of the sky and vast groups of Woffs descended from the sky to gather around and have a drink. By this time many of them had traveled for miles beyond the grasslands and mountains that surrounded the area, and a few of them now had some helpful passengers on board.
The lake they chose to quench their thirst was a huge one, stretching to the horizon from their point of view; the flock soon began to pile up to rest after they drank as much as they could, and that’s when they saw them: a group of dozens, all large, with horns and moving along with their young.
A pup decided to peel off and investigate on its own, and when he got close, the strange herd became curious towards it. This herd was more used to creatures like them, whether they were large or small, carnivorous or herbivorous, like them, scaly or feathered; and the furry animals were something new for them.
As the herd inspected the Woff pup, another animal popped into view, this one however was much smaller and covered in feathers, and it darted straight for the pup; when it caught up to it, however, it simply plucked a strand of fur off and ran away into the woods.
As the hours passed and both species quenched their thirst, the herd of horned animals moved on, following the edge of the lake and keeping their young in the middle to protect them; meanwhile, the Woffs began to pile up to rest before taking off again in the night.
While the flock cuddled together, something became aware of their presence, something… big. Its eyes soon fixed on the tiny pup, and began to silently approach the herd; the Woffs were beginning to feel sleepy and dropped their guard, allowing the pup to escape and try to explore the lakeside. It soon followed a small butterfly that was feeding on a nearby flower and hopped all the way to the forest edge.
The hunter soon stopped moving as the pup began to approach it, and when the moment was right, it quickly snapped its jaw to catch it, but missed by a few centimeters.
In a desperate move, the pup flew away from the forest and into the open, with the predator on pursuit; one adult Woff soon noticed the large animal running at them and immediately howled in alert, waking up the entire flock; the predator then switched target and as the flock flew away, it snatched an adult by the tail and brought it down to its level to deliver a finishing blow.
The flock hurried away with the pup on toe, and while the pup may have survived the attack, the flock had lost a member who now became food for a hunter who announced its triumph with a roar.
Late afternoon…
On a small wood cabin outside the woods, a young mother is waiting for her daughter to return. The sun was already setting over the mountains and the calls of birds that were heard all day began to fade as the noise of insects started to warm up, her vision was headed towards the forest, on the darkest part of the foliage.
She was waiting to hear that particular noise from her daughter’s deerfox, a sign that the two of them were nearly there, but as the sun finished setting, she began to get a bit worried.
Just as she was about to go back inside to get her coat and look for her daughter, the bark of an animal changed her mood; the deerfox was back, and behind it, a blue haired girl, with a smile on her face.
"Mom! I’m back!" she yelled as she ran out of the woods behind her deerfox friend; "Oh Hilda" the mum replied back as her daughter leapt in for a hug "what took you so long this time?", "Oh, I took a little bit longer to finish a small sketch and lost track of time" she replied as they both went inside.
"So how was your day out?" she asked her daughter as she served her a cup of peppermint tea, "well, I only encountered a water spirit, and did a couple of drawings, but besides that Twig and I did nothing but stroll around in the woods" she replied. "ounds like you had a good day" she replied "I’ve only managed to do one or two sketches for a logo on the city; the owner isn’t that fuzzy to convince however, I sent him my early concept and he did seem to like it", "That does sound great, mom!" Hilda replied.
The toaster soon popped some bread up while the mom chopped a cucumber and her daughter soon turned on the television to watch some news, and the moment she did, a special report started to play:
"Since 1995, the discovery of fossilized DNA has changed the route of science forever, but people filled with greed exploited it to their “maximum potential” twice; with the latter attempt now ending with a much bigger problem than just a failure. Now, these genetically created creatures roam all over the world, whether is in the air, the land or the sea, we are all now trying to co-exist with these animals; and while almost the majority of the population around the world wants to get rid of them, all of us must ask ourselves: now that we have created these animals, is it our responsibility to learn how to live alongside them?"
"We probably won’t have to" said Hilda as she turned off the television in her house and went to check up on her mom, "Oh Hilda, we live alongside a lot of wild creatures and you think what the news is saying isn’t going to happen?" her mother stated as she finished making some more peppermint tea for her daughter.
"Well, if what those people were saying was true, we would’ve seen a few of them already" Hilda argued "but since we haven’t I’m not sure if they’re really telling the truth."
Her daughter had a point: ever since that event supposedly happened, she had become more cautious when her daughter went exploring in the forest with her little furry friend, but like she stated, nothing bad had happened in the last two years.
That however didn’t mean that she was going to become less worried about her safety, the forest was still filled with deadly creatures: from large wolves and cunning foxes, to the large beasts known as trolls who simply wanted to be left alone; however, most of these animals always came out at night, so her daughter usually went to explore during daylight, but now that the day had ended, it was better to stay at home and have a little chat before a game of “Dragon panic” ‘til they fell asleep on the couch.
"I wouldn’t consider it a lie" said a small, wooden creature as he entered the room, "Oh, Hilda, you let the Woodman in again" her mom said as she took the tray with cups back to the kitchen, giving space for the Woodman to lie next to the chimney, "What do you mean by “it’s not a lie”?" Hilda asked him, "Well, everything has their roots" the Woodman stated "you sometimes have to dig deeper to find the truth".
As Hilda placed some more logs on the chimney, her mum served her another round of Peppermint tea and the Woodman began to read a small, dirty pamphlet he found on the woods; Hilda then decided to give a closer look at the pamphlet the Woodman was reading and noticed an odd logo in the front page.
"You know spying on others is rude, right?" the Woodman stated, "Where did you find that?" Hilda asked, "Somewhere" the Woodman replied. Hilda’s mum also picked interest in that pamphlet, and having turned on the computer to check on the reply of the shop owner, she decided to look up the logo on the cover, "That pamphlet seems to be very old by the looks of it" she stated "it apparently was printed around 2015."
"One can’t read something without being spied on, can’t I?" said the Woodman as he stood up and left the house for the night.
A few hours later, after Hilda’s mum beat her on the board game, both decided to eat dinner and go to sleep; her mom and the deerfox managed to sleep easily, but Hilda couldn’t fall asleep.
She was thinking about an encounter she faced a few weeks ago, in which somehow, a hairy creature appeared agonizing from a bite mark. Its cries of pain still rumbled on her head, and the steaming liquid from the injury was a present picture all around her mind; suddenly, all of those thoughts vanished as she heard the window of her room swiftly open and close, and all the objects on her shelf began to move, as if someone was looking for cover.
"Who’s there?" she silently stated as she grabbed her pillow, "Human, please!" a voice yelled "I mean no harm! I just want to hide", "From what?" she asked, and her question soon was answered: outside the window, a strange, feathered creature was looking in her direction.
It tried to peck the window, as if to signal its intentions, but it was too small to cause damage. Hilda, however, seemed intrigued by the new discovery, and decided to get closer to look at it.
"This thing is chasing you?" she asked as she opened the window and let it in, "DON’T BE FOOLED HUMAN!!!" the voice yelled in panic "that THING and its other friends have been causing a massive slaughter!"
The small animal soon took focus on the “thing” that was making that voice, and leapt off Hilda’s hand and onto the shelf, chasing whatever it was out of its hiding spot.
"OK, I think that’s enough" said Hilda as she grabbed the tiny animal and placed it outside her window "why is that thing after you anyway?", "I don’t know" said the voice "that thing just appeared out of nowhere."
Hilda took another look at the window and saw two more of those creatures in the open, seemingly hunting whatever that voice was. "Are you sure I am not dreaming?" Hilda suddenly questioned herself, "I can assure you’re not" the voice said "but I’m afraid you won’t be able to see me unless you sign some contracts", "Why did this situation turn into some policy stuff all of a sudden?" she said to herself.
Hilda had to sign almost twenty-two contracts before the author of the voice popped into her view: a small, white person with a red cone hat, "Hello!" the guy said as he popped from Hilda’s ear, "You’re very small" she claimed "I thought you’d be a bit bigger", "Hey, I am on the bigger side for elf standards" the guy said "my name is Alfur by the way."
"So… Alfur, how big is that “massacre”?" Hilda asked, "I think you should see it for yourself" Alfur replied; Hilda soon took another peek out of her window and saw the scale of the attack: those creatures were flipping houses over and killing any elf who came out of it. "We need your help human!" Alfur then stated "help us drive those beasts away!"
Hilda soon went downstairs, and with a pillow in her hands, she slowly opened the door and charged at the creatures, the animals soon faced towards her and jumped backwards to avoid being smacked, "Afraid to attack little buggers?" she stated as she swung the pillow left and right repeatedly; soon, the animals backed off, and Hilda took a breath of air as she saw her work done, but the elves around her gave her a scared face. "Fear not guys" Alfur stated as he jumped off Hilda "I brought some help", but the elves weren’t gasping at Hilda, but rather at something behind her.
Hilda slowly turned around and she saw a bigger creature behind her. it was almost her size, and had a pair of blue stripes around its sides; she slowly tried to back off but the creature had its sights on her. It then slowly inched forwards, giving her a menacing look, seemingly hissing at her.
In a panic move, Hilda tripped and fell on her back. The elves made a run for cover while Hilda tried to crawl away from the creature, the animal, however, caught up with her and placed its feet on her chest, the second toe showing a razor, sharp claw. Hilda silently screamed, hoping it didn’t alert her mom nor her deerfox friend, but also because she was extremely scared of that creature using that weapon to rip through and disembowel her.
The animal bowed its head at her to inspect her up close, but in a last second decision it simply stepped on her and bolted away; the elves soon came out of their houses to try and console Hilda, who was mere moments from crying from trauma.
"DID YOU GUYS SET ME UP?!" She yelled at them, but the elves were as confused as she was, after all, not even they saw that animal coming; "We only were attacked by those other smaller ones" an elf stated, "they are everywhere now" another one stated while holding a letter "I have a cousin who lives near a waterfall and saw more of them there", "We need your help" a third elf stated "those animals will keep coming night after night, and who knows how big the slaughter…", "And lose my life in the process?! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!" she yelled as she ran back into her house and shut the door.
Alfur tried to follow her by climbing a pipe near the roof, but when he tried to open the window, he noticed it was locked. "Get out of here, Alfur" Hilda warned him as she hid beneath her blanket, "Hilda, I know it looked like a set up" Alfur stated "but I am not kidding when I say they’re everywhere…", "You and your other elf friends probably made that up too" she stated as she curled tighter inside the blanket, "Look, I know it sounds like it has to do with us hating you because we want you gone" Alfur stated "but trust me when I say I have no intensions of seeing you go". Hilda finally peered off the blanket, and looked directly at the tiny elf on the window.
"I am interested in your kind, human" Alfur reassured her "I really wish I could learn about your culture"; Hilda didn’t fully take that for granted, but it was enough for her to get out of the bed and open the window for Alfur to get in.
"So… what do you exactly want to learn about me and my mum?" she asked.
The next morning, Hilda woke up late, having suffered trauma and venting a bit of it out to Alfur along with telling him some stuff about herself took “some” hours, but at least she had forgotten about the incident… for the most part.
"Good morning Hilda!" her mom greeted her as she came down to eat breakfast, "Hi mom" she replied with a deep, depressed voice, and her mom took quick notice of it.
"Oh dear, did you not sleep well last night?" she asked. How was she supposed to tell her that she nearly got disemboweled by some animal while protecting some invisible elves?
"I don’t blame you. I had to wake up early because there was this weird earthquake" she replied "and also some loud bellows", "I must be still dreaming" she said to herself as she sat down the table and ate her bowl of oatmeal. "Are you sure you don’t want to say what’s going on?" her mom persisted, "It’s really nothing, mom" Hilda lied "I just didn’t had a good sleep". Her mom then started to make her own breakfast, and that’s when Hilda decided to “tell” her about it.
"Last night…" she stated "I was… awoken by… a noise", "Was it the tremor?" her mom tried to guess, "No- she replied, almost sobbing "I was… scared by something"; "What happened?" she asked her; the feeling that she had a nightmare was beginning to swoop over her head. "I… was alone on the woods" she began to narrate "I… I didn’t knew where I was… and then… something came up to me..."
Her mom went up to Hilda and gave her a warm hug. "It’s OK" she told her as she gave her a kiss on the forehead "you know you can count on me if you need it", "Thanks mom" Hilda replied as she started sobbing, she still felt that telling her about the creature would drive her mad, but at least by telling her about it as a nightmare brought in some comfort.
As her mom also sat down to eat a sandwich, a trumpet-like call was heard from outside, "What was that?" Alfur stated as he hid behind Hilda’s ear, "Who said that?" Hilda’s mom asked as she also heard the voice of the invisible elf.
Her mom then went to peek out of the window, with Hilda sweating and pleading it wasn’t the creature from yesterday, but instead her mom was in awe as she noticed some large, crested creatures.
"Hilda, come look at this!" her mom told her, she was rather hesitant about it, but eventually she had enough confidence to go to her side; once there, however, the view was wonderful: a herd of almost seven of those animals were wondering near the forest edge.
"What are they?" Hilda asked, "I have no idea, to be honest" her mom replied; the deerfox tried to climb to see the creatures, but Hilda decided to go outside to see them up close.
"Hilda, don’t go outside!" her mom warned her "we don’t know if they’re dangerous!".
Her mom had a point: everything new had to be approached with caution, and after that encounter last night, she felt like it was better to be more cautious and weary of her surroundings; and so she and her mom went out together to check on the animals but not that far from the house, in case whatever those things were decided to attack.
The animals seemed to be eating bushes, as well as socializing with each other; Hilda decided to make a drawing of one of the youngest individuals, who had white and blue stripes, that had made eye contact with her. The young herbivore suddenly approached towards her with caution, its muscles tense in case it needed to escape. Hilda, however, was the one wanting to back up, after that first encounter, anything that seemed scaly was terrifying for her.
"What on elf’s land are these things?" Alfur whispered to Hilda, "I have no idea" she silently replied as the creature looked at her in the eyes.
All of a sudden, a bellow alerted the herd, and they soon began to move frurther away from the forest; out of the trees now came a giant, and not the kind Hilda was used to see. "What is that?!" Alfur asked alarmed, as he had never seen such a gigantic animal before, and neither had Hilda or her mom.
The massive animal soon took notice of them and began to move in a different direction; as if it was trying to look for something or someone in the open. "Mom, should we go back inside?" Hilda asked nervously as the giant bellowed again, "I… I think we should" her mom replied as she pulled Hilda towards the house in a hurry.
The giant soon heard a reply to its call, and out of the forest came another giant, similar in size but different in color. The two giants soon came closer to one another, as if they knew each other, and one of them began to raise its neck first, revealing a deep red coloration underneath. The herd of crested animals soon began to move towards the house, as they knew that when two long necked animals raised necks, it meant that there would be courting.
The elves around the house ducked for cover once again, but unlike those beasts from last night, these ones seemed passive, with the occasional trample over a house that is.
Back inside the house, Hilda and the deerfox admired the presence of the animals outside their house, while her mom decided to do more research about that pamphlet Woodman had been reading last night.
At first, her initial findings were only references about a closed park on 2015, but the more and more she tried to dig into the rabbit hole, the more worried she was getting. Videos, images, and even news articles about creatures similar to the ones she and her daughter saw showed more about the aggresive side of the animals, and soon, she found an article that wasn’t going to just bring terrifying thoughts to her…
but It would make her take a drastic decision.