welcome to something new that no one asked for! i made this to procrastinate. enjoy
The forest was never anything but alive. Dangerous, loud— filled with the chittering of insects and soft paw falls of monsters that towered from afar. Compared to the sickly sweet cage of High Town, or the wasteland of the Grey Terminal, Mt. Colubo could almost be a fairytale.
One that always seemed to stare back, when Sabo risked a glance.
He wasn't entirely sure what made him so hesitant. He was faster and healthier than many of the people living in the trash; an oversized animal looking for a meal wasn't the first thing he had avoided being killed by.
Yet... he couldn't shake the feeling that there was always more. Something he missed. Something too fast, or too quiet— watching him from the foliage. At least among the trash, he was sure-footed.
Still, he paused. A sweep of the boundary, of thick roots and leaves leading into the dark, proved nothing was there. Nothing watching him. No predator crouched just beyond the grass line— at least that he could see.
I would save a lot more money if I could get food from the forest. His grip tightened until the metal of his pipe creaked from the force of it. There has to be tons of stuff I could forage— mushrooms, fruits, berries. If I get lucky enough, I wouldn't even need to enter the town anymore to buy food, or fight for it here. No one else goes into the forest. It had been over a year since he had broken out of High Town, but he could still clearly remember the various pictures and some fuzzy descriptions of natural edibles in Goa's mountains. Back from when all he could do about his freedom was read and daydream. But was it worth the risk? Worth possibly getting lost in unfamiliar territory? Worth never coming back out over a meal, or two, or three, or four—
He squared his shoulders and stepped into the tree line.
Sabo was right, it didn't take long to find food. Untouched, the forest was practically brimming with fruits he recognized. He had to remove his top hat just to fill it, packing bit after bit into anywhere he could until his pockets were nearly bursting with it. It was almost enough to forget the feeling of eyes on his back.
Almost.
Every step deeper past the tree line felt worse and worse. His back was stiff with it, pipe vice tight in his hands even if it meant harvesting any food was slower. He wasn't able to rely on hearing or sight alone. Not here, where everywhere he looked was crowded with plant life. Leaves rustling could be anything. Dirt shuffling could be anything. Wasting time panicking left him more vulnerable than he would be in trying to ignore it all. Even if he swore he just caught a flash of dark fur, or grey eyes, or–
Something growled far too close behind him and Sabo booked it.
"Nope," He grumbled, heart racing. A few fruit spilled from his hat, rolling over the confines of his arms to plod back to the forest floor. He wasn't about to let something like a couple fruit be what let whatever was watching him eat him.
The growling faded behind him, high and quiet. If Sabo had bothered to risk staying a bit longer, he might have thought it sounded confused.
He didn't stop running until he was standing with his back to the trash.
Ace watched, perplexed, as the human ran away.
"What a weirdo," he grumbled, scratching at his hind leg absentmindedly. "Doesn't he know these fruits are poisonous?" Said fruits still lay innocently on the dirt, shiny and tantalizingly red. They smelled nasty though, sour to his sensitive nose. Ace growled and swat at one just to watch it tumble into the foliage and out of sight. "Not my problem. He can die if he wants." Not that he knew whether it would kill him. He had almost bitten into one as a younger pup, but even then the fruits had a stench that just didn't agree with him. Always so bitter smelling– surely it wasn't edible? Human brats who don't know anything about the forest shouldn't try to take from it. Stupid.
Shaking out his mane of fur, Ace nosed the rest of the fruits off into the bushes. He didn't need someone to die in the middle of his territory and stank it up just because they didn't know better.
Next time, I'll tell him before the idiot can run. A human child dying here would bring more humans, wouldn't it? His grey eyes narrowed. I don't want any humans here. I don't want anyone here. The stupid bandits are enough. Ears back, he bounded back into the heart of the forest.
Sabo didn't want to go back for as long as possible. Not until he ran out of fruit, not until his stomach hurt and his eyes kept wandering to the high walls of the Terminal boundary. He tried not to think about what had been stalking him, that day, with minimal success. He didn't know what it had been, and he had no way to know– without access to books, there was no conceivable way for him to really research what was out there. Asking around the Grey Terminal got his nothing more than spooked half-answers about monsters and massive creatures and bloodthirsty predators; it was never anything new.
The only person who could give him answers was himself, Just as the only person who could feed him was himself.
Sabo took a deep breath and stepped back over the tree roots into the forest.
So far, so good.
For once, there was no sense of eyes. No ominous growling or flash of moving shadows. Just him and the trees– and all of their fruit. He immediately set to shoving what he could into his pockets, rushing to get it done quickly.
I wonder what animals I could find here? I can't just eat fruit and vegetables forever, but any scraps of meat in the Terminal are tainted... maybe tomorrow I can just spend a little bit in town––
The leaves behind him rustled quietly. Sabo froze. So did the rustling.
Shit.
Moving slowly, Sabo began to inch towards the opposite of the clearing. He didn't dare to turn. The tiniest glance didn't show anything but the plants, unassuming and harmless. No shadows, no eyes, no low growl of a hungry or angry animal. I'm just being paranoid. Please let it just be paranoia. The dirt scuffed, near-silent compared to the chirping and whistling of the forest. Sabo was completely still. Unable to stop himself, he looked over his shoulder. If he was going to die, he at least wanted to know what killed him. I'm screwed. I'm going to be eaten by whatever the hell lives here, and–
Small, black ears poked out of the brush, tilted high in his direction.
Sabo stared.
When he didn't move, the creature inched closer. Grey eyes peeked out from under the cover of leaves and shade and Sabo couldn't– wasn't––
"Those fruits are poisonous," The werewolf eventually said, and Sabo wondered if he had stopped breathing long enough to pass out and start dreaming.
"Y-yeah?" He asked, feet solid in place. He couldn't even twitch, eyes pinned to the boy still crouched half in the foliage. He didn't look much older than Sabo, if even. Small in stature, even crouched, the only signs of civilization Sabo could see on him were ragged yellow tank top and shorts– no shoes, no signs of any other human interaction–– Sabo wasn't sure he could manage to focus his fraying brain on the black fluffy something stiff behind the boy to confirm it as a tail. Even his bare feet were clawed. If he checked, Sabo had no doubt there were more on his fingertips.
"Did you even hear me?" The boy snapped, eyes laying flat against raven hair, "Stop starin' at me!" The words were punctuated by a sharp bark, baring canines dangerous looking enough that Sabo stumbled a step back. Whatever was on his face made t back down, nearly vanishing back into the leaves. "Look, I'm just tryna– I don't want hunters to come here looking for whatever idiot died here because he was too stupid to tell 'do not eat' from 'eat'––"
"They're–" Sabo swallowed, unable to help his instinctive wince when the kid glared at him. "They're not. Poisonous, I mean." The wolf boy scrunched up his nose, brow furrowing in distaste and Sabo fumbled for one of the many fruits stuffed into his pockets. The werewolf growled at him, eyes fixed on his hand. Slowly, deliberately, Sabo pulled one of the fruits out for the werewolf to see and the boy reared his head back, nose twitching. "I ate them all last time," He mumbled. "Shouldn't you know what's edible, if you live here?"
The boy stomped further out of the undergrowth, making Sabo flinch slightly. The other child didn't even seem to notice his reaction even as the blond's eyes roved over his newly exposed features. His tanned skin was freckled and dusty, as if having tramped about in the dirt for days straight without a bath– some dirty bandages haphazardly slapped onto not even half of the various scrapes and cuts littering the wild boy's body. "It smells bad," he growled, and this close Sabo realized the other was, in fact, taller than him by maybe an inch, or a handful of generous centimeters. He wasn't exactly made more intimidating for it, with the way his fluffy black ears flicked atop his head. "They can't be good!"
Sabo hummed and bit into the fruit, raising an eyebrow from the boy yipped in alarm. "See?" He managed around the mouthful, "'S fine."
The fruit was yanked out of his hands a moment later, the werewolf boy sniffing at it delicately with a hesitant expression. Sabo gestured in vague encouragement and almost rolled his eyes when he got a glare for it, watching with renewed quiet as the boy's jagged mouthful of teeth buried themselves into the flesh of the fruit. "Hey," he tried, only half-heartedly annoyed by the loss of his fruit, and was entirely ignored for it. The other shot a considering look at the fruit as he swallowed, eyeing it critically before poking his tongue out and licking over the jagged bites. "Okay, gross," Sabo muttered. He wasn't surprised to again be ignored.
"Mm," The werewolf licked his lips twice before handing the fruit back to Sabo, only to frown when the human refused to take it. "What?" He asked, genuinely confused, "I get it, you were right, now take your shit back!"
"No way! You just slobbered all over it––"
"Slobbered?! Do you think I'm some dog?!"
"Technically–"
Sabo didn't get a chance to even finish before he was being bowled over, black paws planting themselves firmly into the meat of his shoulders to pin him into the dirt. A cold, wet nose prodded at his cheek. "I'm not a dog," The kid– werewolf, Sabo reminded himself, only a little frantically, this is a whole ass werewolf. On top of me– growled.
Sabo weakly pat a hand over one of the black paws, nearly jerking back as his fingers brushed what was undeniably claws just inches from poking through his skin. "Y-yeah," He managed, "Yeah, I believe you, okay? You're big and strong and definitely not just some dog, now can you let me up?"
"That's right," The werewolf said proudly, and Sabo huffed loudly as he sat back on his haunches right over Sabo's stomach, "I'm a werewolf! A stupid dog can't compare to me."
"Uh-huh," Sabo mumbled, busy struggling to breathe around the weight of an entire werewolf sitting on him. "I'm sure you are."
Grey eyes regarded him coolly. Sabo stilled, feeling sweat trickle down his neck. "Can you… uh," He trailed off awkwardly, stuck just staring back up at the werewolf. "Look, can you just get off me? I don't even know your name, so…" The wolf huffed, but indulgently stepped off of him to allow him to breathe. Sabo sat up immediately, frowning when he realized just how relaxed he had gotten. Falling into banter like that should have been so easy– even if this werewolf boy was the only other person he'd met his age since escaping High Town. Maybe I'm just starved for interaction. That's… terrible. "So, I guess it was you watching me, last time."
He got a snort in response.
Rolling his eyes, Sabo climbed back to his feet. "Great, thanks. Wanna tell me your name then, since you were so adamant about me not dying?" Grey eyes narrowed warily and Sabo quickly backpedaled before he could say something that would get him bitten. "My name is Sabo," He offered encouragingly. Instead of responding in kind, the werewolf only bared his teeth at him. Black paws edged back towards the undergrowth before Sabo could even step back.
"I don't care what your name is," he snarled, "It's not like we're friends! I just don't want more humans to come here– You aren't getting my name!" Without another word, the wolf bounded back into the forest, vanishing with almost a single leap. Even the sound of his paws on the dirt was quickly swallowed by the forest around them, leaving Sabo blinking and stunned.
"...I guess I'll see him around?"
i posted this at like 7am on ao3 and then fell back asleep for like 5 more hours and forgot to post it here lmao
none of this is edited, nor has a set update plan like wror. i just wanted to take a narrative break from wror tbh.