A rustle of fabric followed by the sound of feet hitting a wooden floor beneath filled the morning air. A kid wearing a diaper, what looked like bandages around his head with a couple of feathers poking from within, stretched his tired limbs and gave a long yawn, scratching his back as he finally woke up from his sleep. The toddler rubbed his eyes and walked carefully from his and his guardian's beds over to his bag of supplies, it was nearly empty besides some few stray raspberries much to his dismay. The toddler sighed and put a hand to his face as he knew he had to head out into the dangerous woods to gather food.
Truthfully despite the amount of times he had done this before and how long he and his guardian had been living in the Wilderness, going out to find food when the stock got low was kinda his least favorite thing to do even under good circumstances. It wasn't just because of the natural dangers the forest had to offer but also because the Hunter was wandering the woods, who was a crack shot and barely missed his target with his weapon of choice: the shotgun even if his target in question was a child.
The toddler had several close calls with the Hunter before and escaped only by the skin of his teeth while out on treks to collect more food far from the wooded walls of his home and it seemed like today was going to be one of those days. Honestly, his guardian and the toddler had so many encounters with the Hunter, he was both surprised and not surprised that he hadn't gotten used to the Hunter's presence in the Wilderness.
He had gotten used to the presence of the wild animals who lived and played under the protection of the trees, even had a few close encounters with them and came out without a scratch. So, why hadn't he gotten used to the Hunter's presence? Maybe because he was a walking, breathing monster who wasn't always around and whenever he was, it was one hell of a scary encounter. Actually, almost all the adults in the Pale City were scary, but the Hunter to the toddler, was the scariest.
So, grabbing hold of his stick with a piece of red fabric containing supplies to collect food, the toddler checked on his guardian then walked toward the front door of his tree house, opened the door and stepped outside. A blast of warm air and bright rays of sunlight were the first things that greeted the toddler as he stepped outside his home and shut the door behind him. This was a bit unusual as the Wilderness was usually cloaked in a light fog or rain clouds if stray kids were really unlucky, but honestly he wasn't going to complain, the nice weather was welcomed. Nice days were rare to get so he might as well take full advantage of it and gather his supply of food.
Taking a deep breath, the toddler pulled out a map from within his diaper and opened it up, making a mental map in his head on where to go then folding it up and setting it back in his diaper before he walked down a paved trail that was probably used by the former residents of the Pale City before the Signal Tower took over the city. The path was straight for a couple miles then took a left turn, passing by trees, bushes and other plant life in the process. A few animals who were out on their little trek before they had to go into hiding when the Hunter came for his daily catches took notice of the child then scattered back from where they came from.
The toddler only noticed them for a second before resuming his walk, his bag of contents moving in rhythm to his steps. It wasn't much, just a couple paper bags for berries, a fishing hook connected to a long piece of string, a piece of blade broken off from a hunting knife most likely from a knife the Hunter carried on him and finally some rope just in case he needed to get up to higher places then he was currently. He might've been a young child still in diapers, but he was far from being the dumbest child in this world or the youngest for that matter and trust him, he had seen a lot of children below the normal ages of ten to thirteen one would expect from the children in this world while traveling the Pale City.
Hell, he was once in one of those groups of children before getting adopted by his now guardian and going off into the deep Wilderness. Though their intelligence wasn't always the best at times, they were still able to demonstrate the most basic survival skills that even a moron could get to stay alive against the onslaught of monsters that still remained within the Pale City. But it had been a long time since the toddler had seen any more children or any of the children from his group, so he wasn't certain if any of them were still alive, if any were.
The toddler shook his head hard to clear himself of his thoughts as he nearly missed a very important turn he had to make for this was the primary place he and his guardian got food from. The toddler looked off in the left direction where he intended to go, hearing the sound of rushing water even from that distance. With a huff, the toddler followed the path, the bag bouncing on his back with each step he took. The dirt from the path stuck to his bare feet, turning them from pale white the rest of his body was to light brown like that of a big brown bear.
However, the toddler didn't pay too much attention to that as his attention was more focused on getting to his destination. Around the toddler, the bushes and leaves in the trees rustled as animals darted around the forest, some completely ignoring him or stopping in their tracks to look at him, probably to ensure he wasn't a predator like a wolf or the Hunter. Since, it was just harmless forest creatures like rabbits, deer etc, the toddler wasn't too concerned about them. The only thing he was the most concerned about was the Hunter.
He already knew the other dangers of the forest and how to avoid them, so the only danger within the Wilderness was the Hunter. The toddler hadn't seen the Hunter in the past few minutes of his trek, which was good, but that didn't mean he wasn't around and for all the child knew, he could be hiding in plain sight, so he kept an eye and ear out for anything that could go awry. A few more minutes of quiet walking passed and the young child came across a set of bushes that stood much taller then he was at the moment.
The sound of rushing water coming from a flowing river echoed from behind the bushes as if there was a river larger than any child or adult in this world a few steps away. The toddler smiled to himself as he stepped more forward, lifting a hand up to push away the mess of branches and leaves so he could have more room to walk through the bushes. There were no thorns attached to the branches of the bush, but he still held the branches back with his arms and bag so none of them would hit him in the face.
The bushes themselves weren't very thick, surprisingly, they just acted as a thin barrier against the creatures and children who were looking for a spot to rest or hide out from the Hunter. But the things were still a pain in the ass to get through if you were a tiny child like the toddler as the branches were big and the leaves were thick and could cover your face with one leaf and those facts alone could deter any runaway child from coming here. However, to the toddler, the bushes weren't anything to him and he could get through them without much trouble.
Finally, the toddler burst through the bushes and paused at the sight of the rocky rivershore still surrounded by the forest in almost every direction. The river that was still filled with food was still flowing just as strongly as the other times he had visited the river. The toddler smiled softly as he walked up to the river, almost soaking his toes and removing some of the dirt from off his toes. The toddler dropped his bag of supplies on the ground and untied the knot that held it on the stick the child carried around.
Opening the cloth, the toddler reached inside and pulled out his hook and string. He looked to a stone that was overturned from his last trip to the river and picked up a torn apart worm that he set up for bait, placed it on the hook and casted it out onto the water. It made a small splash on the water, rippled for a few seconds then went still. It was a back to back routine that he repeatedly had done whenever he or his guardian had to fish, so it was simply second nature for him to wait for a while then pull on the string when a fish foolishly grabbed onto the hook.
The water splashed up, almost completely soaking the toddler in the cool water as the child used all the strength in his tiny muscles to pull up the large fish he managed to catch. The fish flopped around on the rocks for a full minute before dying. The toddler carefully approached the fish, pulled the hook free from its lips before examining it, finding it was a much bigger catch than he expected it to be, this one fish could supply both his guardian him with enough food for the rest of the month.
But despite this, the toddler still casted his hook back onto the water with fresh bait on the hook to catch four more fish just in case. Reaching back inside his cloth, the toddler pulled free the rope and walked over to the pile of fish he had collected and tied them up tightly. Once he made sure they were secure, he repacked his stuff, loaded the fish onto his back then set off back to his home, squeezing through the thin bush barrier.
It was a bit difficult for the toddler to walk with five rather heavy fish on his back along with his bag of supplies, but he managed to carry everything back to his tree home and set it inside in a safe place away from his sleeping guardian since that would be quite rude. Heading back outside, the toddler took a right turn, opposite the direction where the river was. This one was much shorter than the last one and didn't have that many turns, it didn't have a river at the end but what it did have was a clearing and the toddler's next goal and source of food: a giant big blackberry bush far from the raspberry bush his guardian had found a week before.
With a grin, the young child quickly ran up to the blackberry bush and set his bag of supplies down, undid the knot to the bag, opened it up and pulled out one of the paper bags he carried with him. He then walked up to the bush and picked several, he needed these so he made sure to collect a lot of them. The bush was nearly free of berries by the time the toddler was done picking berries. When he finished setting his supplies into the brown paper bags, he found it odd that the bush was missing a chunk of berries then the last time he came. The toddler scratched his head, raising his brow under his bandages as he made his way back to his home.
He thought about the answer for a few seconds before shrugging his shoulders, figuring it was probably just the plant-eating animals who lived alongside him in the Wilderness. Perhaps they came across the bushes and ate some of the berries before he came here. He would've suspected other children as being the cause as they were known to pass by here and his guardian's home before heading out to the Pale City, but he hadn't seen any other children for a long time within the Wilderness, so he couldn't be too certain but he wouldn't doubt that although very unlikely possibility.
The routine he did with the berries was the same he did with the fish beforehand. Finally, the toddler took a straight route, heading much deeper into the forest. The trees and bushes started to surround him much thicker than before, making the woods around him seem much darker than they once were. The toddler gave a harsh swallow, feeling a cold sweat start to form on his forehead that he had to wipe away with his free hand that wasn't carrying his bag of supplies.
Was it just him or was his entire spine becoming cold? Maybe it was just him, but he was starting to get the feeling he was being watched, not just by the Hunter who could possibly be right beside him in the woods but by something much bigger and more dangerous than the toddler first thought. But what this was, was something the young child didn't know the answer to and he wasn't too sure if he wanted to know. Even though the forest was quiet, maybe a bit too quiet for comfort, the toddler had a bad feeling that shit was going to hit the fan and he should get the hell away from this place as fast as he could.
These instincts were nothing new to the toddler, having gotten these a few times while wandering the forest and that was when he was walking close or mere inches away from the Hunter. But this instinct was far more stronger than the other gut feelings he had gotten before, it was like a bubbling hot lava of wrongness inside his gut, it almost hurt. But the toddler continued on through the woods, sticking on the path he was walking on instead of turning around, heading back to his tree home and snuggling into his guardian's chest.
He only had one more thing to do and then he could go home and never have to see the Hunter's ugly face till the next time he had to go out to collect more food. The words weren't entirely exact or confident or reassuring within the toddler's head, but they were enough to have the child continue on through the much thicker parts of the Wilderness, looking at each tree individually, trying to find one with a free nest that was filled with eggs and not birds. It wouldn't help him to get pecked by the birds who lived in the forest.
None that he could see in plain sight, but not being able to see something in plain sight did not mean it wasn't there. The toddler knew this from months of living alone in the Wilderness with only his cunning to guide him through his life. There were eggs resting on the branches of the trees, but just because the eggs were in little nests resting on branches didn't mean they were in the toddler's open eyes despite them being covered by long bandages. The mothers were pretty protective of their eggs and so would hide their nests deep within the trees, somewhere no one else but the toddler would think to look.
Well, the very few children who would decide to live in the Wilderness since it was one of the more safer places in the Signal Tower corrupted world, more so then the Maw, the rest of the Pale City and the Nest as there was a bunch of harmless animals, plenty of natural food and only one adult to deal with. One who could easily be avoided if the children were smart like the toddler and knew where the safest places were, the places that the Hunter would never think to look.
That was beside the point, but regardless the toddler kept walking, his focus now swapping from the feeling in his gut to the question of what tree would be the best for hiding eggs. The toddler tilted his head, narrowed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders at every tree he came across before deciding the thickest, largest tree would be the best place to hide eyes. So, he started toward the base of the trunk and shifted his shoulder that was holding his bag up, ready to drop the bag onto the ground to retrieve the rope he had gotten back from the fish earlier in the day to use so he could use it to get up the tree.
However, the sound of heavy footsteps from somewhere or rather one of the paths in front of him within the forest. The toddler paused in his tracks, jolting in surprise at the unexpected and at the same time expected noise, one the young child was afraid of hearing the whole time he was gathering his supplies earlier, the Hunter's boots on the ground, something that almost every child feared as much as the Lady of the Maw or the Boardcaster of the Pale City.
The toddler silently swallowed down a ten pound rock in his throat that made his entire body heavier and whipped his head around in a full circle, trying to find where the Hunter was only to find the man in question a few feet away from him, looking around the Wilderness. In about five seconds, the toddler's entire body went stiff and still, almost frozen like he was encased in a block of ice and he nearly dropped his bag of supplies on the ground in shock. It was the Hunter, he had come out into the Wilderness to hunt and for what wasn't something the toddler knew.
The sight of the bloodthirsty monster with a shotgun capable of killing anyone even from a distance, something that no other monster in this world, beside the Lady with her shadow powers, could do, almost freaked the shit out of the toddler enough to create a giant rock in his diaper that, right now, he was very grateful to be wearing at the moment to the point that he almost fainted or turn tail then run like hell. But he didn't, not right now as despite the fear and adrenaline rushing through his veins, he couldn't move a muscle.
He didn't know whether it was because he was frozen in fear and shock at seeing one of the Pale City's monsters almost in front of him or something else that was bubbling around inside his head that he couldn't identity at first because his brain was heading into overdrive panic mode many would get if they ever encountered one of the monsters unexpectedly. But as he stood still where he was, taking in deep, yet soft breaths so he could calm his mind enough so he didn't do something stupid and attract the attention of the Hunter.
An odd feeling that the toddler couldn't shake away even if he wanted to, crept into his brain. It never happened to the toddler once while he wandered in the Wilderness even after several times of encountering the Hunter, so why was he getting this feeling now? Against himself, the toddler quietly crept over to the set of bushes that kept him covered from the one-eyed gaze of the Hunter, watching him from a hole in the bushes as he walked around. He raised a covered eyebrow as he watched and readjusted his position to a running stance just in case he needed to run in an unlikely worse case situation should he be spotted.
The toddler doubted he would, given the Hunter's possible damages to his eyes, but there was no harm in being careful. It was necessary to be careful in a world like this, it was how children stayed alive. It was weird to watch the Hunter, one of the crackshot dangers of this world, wander around the Wilderness without a plan in mind as if he was searching for something. It made the toddler think, what the hell was he looking for? It was a question that the toddler never thought he would ask himself ever and it made him wonder if the Hunter wasn't as monstrous as he thought he was.
That is until the Hunter raised his shotgun to the trees and began firing rounds, the sounds that always haunted the toddler's nightmares ever since he came to the Wilderness snapped the poor boy back to reality. At this point, the toddler decided to say screw the questions he had and everything else, he overstayed his welcome and it was time to bait. So, that's what he did, he turned around and darted back the way he came, never daring to look back lest he got shot himself.