The woods is a safe place, a place to wander and to explore, a place to live in, and a place to practically lead. I'm not of importance to the grand scheme of things here, as Ame is more renowned, more honored than I am. I prefer the quietness of solitude, of solo adventures.
Usually that means privacy, privacy to feel, privacy to think, and privacy to just be. But there's that smell of the human boy again, Souhei. Once the smell hits me, and I move to avoid it, I finally hear the crunch of fallen leaves beneath his feet.
And then I can finally see him, he's moving steadily through the woods, not really looking around him, treating it very familiarly, as if he lives here or has some sense of control over the place. How foolish of him. Doesn't he know that any number of creatures out here can leave him for dead far sooner than he can think through how to fight them off exactly?
I sigh, russet fur ruffling. It's hard to imagine a human so stubbornly reckless. I almost want to follow, but I can tell where he's headed. He's making his way back to my river, as if it were a calling card, a way to find me. Hopefully, he's not that foolish.
I turn around and run into the woods, to feel the burn of speed push through my four legs, to go so far away, that Souhei won't think to look for me. It's safer the further away I get. He won't have a chance to think of me as anything more than a dream or to figure out or puzzle over exactly what I am.
I won't let him.
As leaves break beneath my paws, I finally make it home. It's quiet here. There's a small lake nestled nearby, where Mom chooses to spend her time. It's deep enough to live in, unlike the river, and quiet enough that few humans have discovered it.
She's a freshwater mermaid, so to speak. I'm sure that she's made deeper rivers home, just as she's made this lake into a home of sorts. Ame, my younger brother, had fled to take over control of the forest several years ago, and now, he lives his life almost entirely as a wolf. We rarely see him anymore.
I discard the fur, feeling it become scales. My body feels as if it's cooling. Fur to scales is always such a stark contrast, that sometimes when I feel like taking my time, I'd pause to be human in between both mer and wolf, to let myself be at a happy medium for a moment. Today, I am taking no chances.
My mostly mer form makes me shiver. The dark green scales don't keep me as warm as the cooling air makes me long for. I sometimes feel as if I'm constantly living between two extremes, and most of the time there's a tell to my mer form, that lets one know that I am not a beautiful mermaid, like my mother is.
I am both wolf and mer, and it shows most of the time. Every now and again, I lose the right balance in my wolf form, and something changes awkwardly, like a snapshot in motion, I become the mermaid equivalent of a wolf.
I slip into the lake, letting my scales soak in the water, that still holds some of the warmth from earlier in the day. As I dive deep enough to enter the tiny underwater cave, Mom and I call home, a deep comfort seems to come over me.
I've avoided the curiosity of the man today, and returned home, far away from whatever questions he'd ask next or whatever odd thought fuels his mind. I'm not the human girl he expected to see that day, that would have probably made him a hero, since humans don't breathe under water.
Besides, I'll hopefully just be a nightmare for him to occasionally remember.