Chapter 12
• Whisper of the Trees •
For a long time, Gwyl made Stray hide in the clearing because when he let her out the next day birds came from all around pestering them. It scared Gwyl that they were trying to fly away with her, there were certainly enough of them. Gwyl pulled her away from them and took her back into the clearing again, and they all got confused and couldn't find her. Determined to make sure that they couldn't steal her, Gwyl only went out by himself and made Silver stand guard to keep people from coming in or Stray from leaving. She certainly didn't want to leave either, the birds frightened her a lot, but she was still curious about the outside.
It was almost a week after Stray had first come with him that Gwyl found a human who had wandered too far into the forest. He was an older human, his hair was getting gray, but not real silver like Stray's had been. He was alone except for a dog, who was sniffing the ground and leading the man.
Gwyl didn't like the man or what the dog was doing, so he moved away from them and sent up a warning howl. The response was immediate, the wolves howled back, and Gwyl returned to find the stranger looking around in desperation, trying to determine exactly where the howls were coming from. The wolves were split though, and their howls were coming from multiple directions, so the man didn't seem to know what to do.
Finally, the man said something to the dog, and the dog bowed, cautiously, and started sniffing the ground again. Gwyl growled from above because he knew what the man was trying to do. He was trying to find Stray and take her away.
Dropping to the ground, he darted forward and howled at the dog, who whimpered and turned away, disappearing back into the forest, headed towards the town that was where they had likely come from. "Please," the man begged as Gwyl approached him, "she's my daughter, please bring her back to me."
Something about the way he was begging reminded him of a memory he'd lost a long time ago, and he paused as he heard a woman's voice begging in the background. It scared him, and he backed away, not wanting to hear it again. The woman said his name, and her voice seemed so familiar to him, but he shook his head and backed away a few more steps.
The man had a wand-stick out when Gwyl was focused again, and he was pointing it at Gwyl. "You tell me where she is, you tell me now!" he demanded. His voice no longer sounded like the distant voice he'd heard in his head, but it did sound like another familiar voice, one that he'd forgotten until that moment. Vernon Dursley was in front of him again, snarling, trying to take away something of his.
Gwyl snarled and leapt forward, only to find himself hanging in mid-air. When he fell a few seconds later, he scrambled away from the wand-stick, trying to avoid the magic it made.
"She die," he said from behind a tree, trying to make the man go away.
The man howled with some sort of hate and ran towards the tree that Gwyl was climbing. Some of the pack appeared though, and he was forced to back away with his wand-stick held out towards them.
Once Gwyl was up above the man and recovered from the surprise of being stuck in the air without anything to grab, he growled orders to the wolves. "Leave," he told the man angrily. "You die too," he added when the man didn't seem to want to leave. "Pack not like strangers. Forest not for man, leave. Not come back."
It seemed impossible to get the man to leave until the rest of the pack showed up. It seemed that, while he'd try to deal with a dozen wolves, he wasn't about to deal with forty of them.
At the clearing, Stray was waiting anxiously for Gwyl, who was far later than usual. He first offered her some food, meet from a kill he'd helped the wolves catch, and then he told her about the man who'd come too far into the forest. He didn't mention the man had said Stray was his daughter though, he just told her that he'd made him go away. Humans weren't supposed to be in the forest, she knew that, and she wondered why he was there. Gwyl told her he was trying to steal from the forest, and that seemed good enough for her.
That night, as Stray slept cuddled up to Gwyl, he felt frightened of losing her. When he finally did fall asleep, he remembered things from before, and he imagined having to be taken back to the humans he had lived with. He awoke in a cold sweat, holding Stray as if someone was trying to pull her away from him. She didn't wake at all, but Gwyl stayed up the rest of the night, frightened of his dreams, as he hadn't been since he first came into the forest. He'd almost forgotten what true fear was until the man had come.
Gwyl determined then if the man came again, he wouldn't leave; no one was going to take Stray away from him. No one was going to make him be human again.
More humans came into the forest, but Gwyl did not see them, the spiders did and told him. They seemed to be enjoying it because a few of the humans wandered too close to their lair and were taken. When Gwyl finally did go and check to see if humans were coming, he found the forest as empty of humans as before. Stray was even able to go out without the birds finding her. The birds still came around though, big ones and usually at night, but they always kept going past Gwyl and Stray without even going down to peck at them.
To Gwyl it was a good sign; he thought that maybe they had forgotten about her. After all, humans didn't care for people long, especially in his case. Humans always hurt other humans, and he wanted to make sure Stray was never hurt by any of them.
Still, for several more weeks she stayed in the clearing learning about the forest and the pack. Gwyl took her out in the forest occasionally to show her how things worked, and was always keeping Dog or Silver out making sure no one got near them. Gwyl didn't dare take Stray close enough to the village to see other humans because he feared that she might remember the things and leave him to go back.
Eventually he'd let her do whatever she wanted, but not until he'd taught her about the forest, and she was turned to pack. That was going to take a lot of time, and Gwyl knew it, but he didn't mind, he was happy. She was making tremendous progress though, much faster than Gwyl had when he'd first come. She couldn't move through the trees with whisper-like ease as Gwyl could, but she could was beginning to get much better at it. Her hands seemed to adapt to it too, which Gwyl found quite odd. The hands that had been smaller than his lengthened out more, and she seemed to have a different sort of balance than she had first displayed. He didn't feel bothered with it though, it only made it easier for her to learn.
Silver growled below them, and Gwyl stopped immediately, turning to see who was coming. He didn't expect anyone to come around, especially so far out in the forest.
There was a slight trot that Gwyl could hear in a moment, and he held out his hand to Stray. "Listen," he whispered, hoping she would hear it. Her hearing was something that had developed fastest, and he was happy about that too because it meant she had more time to hide when danger came around.
"Horses?" she asked, with a whisper, and Gwyl shook his head, the horses that were in the forest didn't come around very much, and they were swift and silent most of the time. In fact, Gwyl wasn't sure, but he didn't think they were horses at all. He thought that they were something that Stray had once shown him a long time ago, when they'd played in the dark.
"Centaur," Gwyl responded after he'd listened for a few moments longer. He wasn't sure who it was though. It wasn't Firenze, he was sure of that. Firenze had a certain oddity in his step that Gwyl had noticed ages ago. No, whoever it was wasn't good at trying to hide their presence either.
It took a few minutes before Gwyl saw who had come, and it surprised him a little. Dia was marching purposefully in their direction even though she didn't seem to know where it was she was going. Silver straightened, she hadn't known it was Dia until she was in view; the wind was blowing the other direction.
When Dia saw Silver, she was a little surprised, but looked around and continued forward until she was standing next to Silver. "Gwyl?" she called out looking around again.
Gwyl sighed and dropped from the tree above, landing deftly next to the little centaur. "Hello," he said giving her a smile. He was more interested in getting her to leave at the moment so he could teach Stray more about being pack, but Stray seemed to want to meet the centaur, and she slid down the trunk of the tree and stood next to Gwyl smiling as well.
Dia wasn't ready for Stray and took a few startled steps back. "Who is she?" Dia asked when she'd calmed a moment later.
"Stray," Gwyl said quickly, "she pack too. She is friend of Gwyl."
"Oh, well then hello. My name is Dia," she said, bowing slightly to Stray. "It is nice to meet a friend of Gwyl's. But I didn't know there were anymore Wolf-Demons in the forest."
"Not Wolf-Demon yet," Gwyl said with a smile. "Still teaching," he added happily.
Stray nodded, but was very quiet. She didn't know anything other than Gwyl and she was a little frightened of this Dia, Gwyl could feel it. "Dia friend too," Gwyl said, trying to make Stray feel a less shy. "She play games too!" he exclaimed, remembering that she'd been throwing knives and had a sling.
When Gwyl announced this, Stray brightened up a little. "Really?" she asked still a little shy about it. "Gwyl says I am really good at whip, but I am still learning knives."
"A whip?" asked Dia, and Stray produced the whip that Firenze had given Gwyl. It was strapped to her back using some of the clothing that Gwyl had torn up. Stray wore more than he did – but only because she hadn't gotten used to the temperature changes yet. Her clothing had been changed a bit though. Gwyl had made it more accessible and easier to move in so that she did not become tangled when they were in the trees.
"I brought some throwing dirks... knives," Dia said, pulling off a belt that had been thrown over her shoulder. "So that we could practice, and maybe so that you could keep them for me, they keep getting taken away when I try and hide them."
Stray watched, fascinated, as Dia pulled a knife from the sheaths that lined the belt and held it out to Gwyl to inspect. "They're old ones, but they still have good balance." Dia said as she let Gwyl examine it. "I brought something else for you too," she added and produced a sling that was almost exactly the same as the one Firenze had given him except it had a painting on it, a crude wolf that was all black but there were two green dots for the eyes.
"It's you," she explained, "Shepaud says it's your animal form."
Gwyl wasn't sure he actually looked so similar to a wolf; it would mean he couldn't move through the trees quite so easily, but he took it all the same. His other sling was still lost and he suspected one of the humans had found it and already taken it. Now he had another one and he could teach Stray how to use it properly. She was already learning quickly, and she seemed to have a knack for the whip that Gwyl couldn't quite figure out. All Gwyl had to do now was get her a knife of her own. Firenze would help him when he got back, Gwyl was sure of it.
"Firenze return?" Gwyl asked as he let Stray examine the sling.
Unfortunately, he hadn't, and Gwyl frowned when Dia shook her head. Firenze had been gone for a long time, and the centaurs said they would bring him back. How far had he gone? Gwyl wondered, but there was no answer.
"We play now," Gwyl said confidently. "Dia, we teach Stray how to play?"
Dia seemed to take to the idea quite well and fully understood what Gwyl was asking. "How much does she know?" she asked Gwyl as Stray uncoiled the whip carefully.
"Good at whip," Gwyl said, "much better than Gwyl. No sling to teach, but knives alright. Want her to learn fast, she new."
"New?" asked Dia, staring as Stray did some odd stretching with her hands. Gwyl just ignored the stretching; she always did it even though he didn't know why.
The thought of explaining her without giving away where she'd come from hadn't occurred to Gwyl and he paused for a minute. "Stray like Gwyl," he said, completely unable to come up with anything. He wasn't creative, he was direct, and though he wanted to avoid talking about where she had come from he didn't know what to say.
Somehow, the explanation seemed enough for Dia. She actually nodded sullenly, and then pulled another sling out. "We can teach her to play then." Dia said happily. "Can she be my friend too?"
Gwyl looked from Stray to Dia and then shrugged, "If she want. Stray want to be friends with Dia?" he asked as he looked to Stray.
Stray didn't even miss a beat, she was shy, but she still saw that Dia could be a good friend, and besides, she was friends with Gwyl and Silver, and to Stray that meant a lot. Nodding, she stepped forward with a smile, "we can be friends," she said happily.
Dia seemed to notice the difference in speech, but didn't mention it at all.
For months, there was nothing but playing. Gwyl did it because he wanted Stray to be an animal not like the humans. When she would do something wrong, he would just tell her it was how humans did it. After a while, she started to understand it was a sort of insult, and so she would avoid doing things like humans.
When Dia was helping Stray play, Gwyl would often disappear and go catch food. He missed hunting and did it as often as possible, but he knew that he had to wait and he was patient. Ink was always skulking around when Gwyl was unable to hunt for himself, bringing food. Dog stayed around Gwyl most of the time, but Silver disappeared at sporadic times for hours at a time.
In the mornings when they would run, Gwyl found himself beginning to feel the forest again. At first, when Stray had been around him, it was as if the feeling had been missing. He'd missed it, of course, and wondered if it was because of Stray that the forest didn't speak with him, but he wanted her more than the feeling of the forest. Now it was coming back, and Gwyl was overjoyed.
"Is like whispers in head," Gwyl explained one morning as they sat high in the trees. He held Stray's hand to the tree and closed his eyes. "Says things when listen." He shuddered as a happy feeling spread over him; the tree was content.
It took weeks and weeks of explaining before Stray seemed to feel it to, but she did. "It's sad!" she said one morning as Gwyl pressed her hand against the tree. Harry nodded; he'd picked this particular tree because he knew it had strong feeling it put off.
"Dying." Harry answered back to her. It was one of the trees that seemed to barely survive. He couldn't discover why but it was slowly dwindling away. "Likes when we touch it," he added.
Stray nodded and listened for a few minutes longer until it was time to leave. She whispered goodbye to the tree before they moved on. Gwyl didn't really understand why, the trees couldn't understand her but he just ignored it as one of Stray's quirks. She had many little oddities – like the way her ears had grown taller before she could hear well.
Dia was waiting for them where she usually was. Gwyl was happy she'd been able to come out today and wondered if Shepaud was watching. He was in charge of Dia because Dia's father had gone to find Firenze. Since Dia was here, Gwyl was almost certain that Firenze was still gone, and he was slightly saddened; it had been a long time.
"Shepaud has found something for Stray," Dia announced as Gwyl and Stray dropped into the middle of the clearing next to her. Dog and Silver entered soon after, having had trouble keeping up with the two. Stray could run through the trees now, but still wasn't good on the ground yet. Silver carried her when they had to go fast.
Smiling, Dia handed Stray an odd-looking thing. It had three leather straps attached in the middle and on the end of each of the straps was a small dark ball. "Shepaud isn't sure what it's called, but he knows how it's used. He showed me," Dia said as she took the thing from Stray again. "Watch how."
The leather straps swung around in the air a few times, and then released. Instead of the sling, which only one end was let go, the whole thing went flying through the air, hitting a branch not far away with a loud thunk. Gwyl thought it was a strange weapon, until Dia apologized, retrieving it explaining she hadn't gotten it right. It took Dia six tries to get it right, and Gwyl was even more confused when the leather wrapped around the limb it had struck.
It didn't matter to Stray; she liked it. Still, Dia explained. "It's for hunting, for making the kill fall. If you throw it right it will wrap around their legs and trip them."
Gwyl perked up; it was more interesting now. There were sometimes he wished he could make something he was hunting quit running. Both Gwyl and Stray practiced with it for the rest of the day, but it was Strays and she tucked it into her belt when they left Dia to go home.
On their way, Gwyl smelled the great cats nearby and so did Stray; she just didn't know who they were. She had met some of the animals, like the wolves, though not formally yet. But the cats had kept hidden away since she'd come to the forest. Gwyl wondered where they'd been and decided to introduce Stray.
With a quick bark, Gwyl turned sharply, and Stray followed. She knew the basics of the speech Gwyl used most of the time and she was getting the hang of commanding Silver and Dog around, though she still wasn't persistent enough, and they only did it because of the friendship they'd grown to have. Gwyl knew she'd have to prove herself dominant before they would listen without question.
The great cats were slinking through the trees lazily, and Gwyl could smell blood on them, they'd fed recently. They stopped when they heard Gwyl behind them and both turned to him. Stray gasped behind him, and he could hear her say a word. Leopards.
So that was what they were called. Gwyl knew that Stray remembered things from before, and he just assumed that since she'd been to the zoo she knew what the cats where. "They friends," Gwyl said calmly as he approached slowly. A third leopard appeared from beyond and Gwyl blinked, he didn't remember a third following him. There had been five that he'd let go, but only two who'd followed. Still it was quite a surprise to see another.
The closest cat made a deep clicking sound in its throat and walked forward to Gwyl. Once it had sniffed his hand, it rubbed up against him and the other two cats moved forward. Stray stayed in the background until Gwyl held out his hand to her. The cat smelled her, and purred then curled up next to her on the branch. "See, not pack, but friend. Like spiders, not always good, but good to Gwyl and pack."
That was all Stray needed to know. She was smiling and stroking the cats while they purred furiously. The third cat was a bit more cautious, but seemed to recognize Gwyl's scent, and licked his hand playfully. "Where do they live?" Stray asked when she'd befriended all of them.
Gwyl shrugged. They moved all over the forest; he wasn't even sure if they had a home. When Gwyl and Stay moved towards the shelter, the leopards followed lazily. Gwyl wondered if they'd follow the whole way, and waited for them once they'd dropped into their clearing. It took a while but the cats did follow, though for some reason they stayed at the edge. It was Stray who figured out why. "Can they come in?" she asked, "Maybe they are waiting for permission." she said when she noticed Gwyl was watching them.
"They can come," Gwyl replied and almost instantly, one of them jumped down from the tree into the clearing. The other two followed, they paced the clearing, and then found the shelter. After they'd examined it, they found a place in a short tree at the edge of the clearing and then curled up, falling asleep. Their presence disturbed Gwyl for a while, he was only used to the pack and Stray, but after a day or two of them moving in and out, and he got used to it. He even wondered if he should name them, but he wanted to wait, they where guests at the moment, but if they became residents, he'd name them or have Stray do it.
The leopards were soon as much a part of the clearing as the two wolves. Stray found them fascinating, and would often try to talk to them, fairly unsuccessfully. Gwyl knew a few words, commands, but nothing more. The summer drifted away into autumn, and the forest began to cool.
Gwyl found it even colder than normal and began wearing his cloak again with the white belt around the outside. It was beat up and holes, but it was warmer than wearing nothing. Stray wore the cloak she'd come into the forest wearing, but after the months of playing and changing it didn't fit right and she had to cut it up so that it would stay on and she could be comfortable in it. Gwyl showed her the extraordinary little potatoes – which she called gnomes – and how to use them to patch the cloaks up. She didn't seem to like the taste as much as she liked most of the other food, but she ate it; she ate anything that Gwyl offered her. He had also weaned her off the cooked food without telling her and now she too ate her meat raw and agreed with Gwyl – it was much better before it was heated.
Shepaud came around occasionally, along with Dia. Stray met him happily once Silver told her it was alright. He also brought presents. "It's a knife and belt sheath," Shepaud said one afternoon when he met the pair. Dia wasn't present which was rather unexpected, but she didn't always come. "I added a small leather strap to hold your whip," then he proceeded to show her how to attach the whip to the belt instead of putting it over her shoulder. It stuck out a little, but she liked it anyway.
There was also a place to put her other weapon which Gwyl and Stray had taken to calling 'the wrap' because of the way it was used. It was a small pouch that was designed specifically for the wrap. Stray carefully strapped it around her waist and added the wrap to the assembly. The knife wasn't white like Gwyl's, but it was beautifully made and Gwyl liked it as much as Stray did.
"It fits," Stray said triumphantly as she cinched the belt closed. "Of course," Shepaud said bowing slightly. "The centaurs know much about leather craft. It is a gift to the mate of Gwyl."
"Mate?" asked Gwyl, the word meant something to him, something he'd forgotten but it came back. Friend, it meant friend. Shepaud was right, Stray was his friend, and he nodded proudly.
"Will be pack too," he said, just as proud at how much she'd changed since she first came to the forest.
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