Mono wasn't sure how the hell Six did it, but here she was with another stray birds' nest filled with eggs in her tiny jaws despite its bigger size, smiling both cutely and victoriously as she climbed back down the tree and walked over to him. The short-haired girl grinned even wider as she set the nest down in front of Mono then looked back at his face smugly, a look that told the little boy she was winning this round. It happened for a couple seconds before she ran off from him and climbed another tree, disappearing from his sights completely.
Mono stared at the spot Six was once before shutting his blue eyes and shaking his head, snapping him out of his haze and making his once surprised face turn into one of angry determination and he sprinted toward the tree Six had climbed up, grabbing hold of the trunk and using all the strength in his tiny muscles to pull himself up as best as he could. Despite his new abilities that made everything easier to hunt prey, Mono almost fell out of the tree more times then he expected himself to.
Two times in a row, the bark of the tree snapped under his weight and he almost tumbled onto the ground only for his legs to wrap around the trunk, saving him from crashing into the Earth. It took the boy much longer than he would've wanted for him to reach his arms upwards to grab the side of the tree and pull himself up then focus on climbing back up. Mono felt his once angry, determined facial expression shift to one of fear as he felt his small hands break the hard bark from its place on the tree's trunk causing the little boy to slip out of the tree once again till he gathered his bearings and grabbed hold of the trunk so he could continue climbing and join Six soon enough.
Six poked her head out from the trees she was climbing and glanced down at her friend, who was struggling to climb the tree despite him having claws that would help scale it better. His usually neutral face was now full of unease and frustration, probably from nearly falling out of the tree a few times. The girl crawled out of her hiding place, putting a hand to her face in exasperation though she wasn't able to keep a growing smile off her face as she approached the end of the tree where her friend was struggling to get up.
She offered one of her hands out to her friend and when he noticed Six's offer, Mono took it immediately and she helped him up. When the boy was finally up on the tree branch, his hands dropped onto his knees as he panted heavily from using so much of his energy. His eyes shut tightly, sweat dripping from his brow and his tongue hung out of his mouth, drool dropping to the barked ground. Good God, that was quite a workout, which was something in life that Mono was both used to and not used to at the same time.
Used to because running like you were a champion runner in a race was just a part of the life of a child in a nightmarish world like this. As much as they sometimes hated doing this kind of workout, it was just a part of their lives, it was a part of surviving in this world and getting away from the nightmares that plagued the Pale City besides finding food and a safe place to hide, take that away from the mental checklist of how to survive and there would be more casualties than anyone would want.
Not used to it because climbing trees had never been a part of Mono's places to search when he was still at the House with the other children of his pack before shit hit the fan. Almost every time Mono was sent out to search for food, he and whatever group of kids he was with would stick to the ground, sometimes jumping into pools of water to grab fish if necessary. They never had to climb trees, that was always left up to the older kids who knew tree climbing like the back of their hands.
So, to put it bluntly, Mono had no idea how to climb a tree properly, not like Six knew apparently. It was a new experience to be sure, but he was certain that it could be a useful skill to learn so he could also hunt from the trees and not let Six do all the work. As Mono finally caught his breath, he felt Six playfully shove his arm, giggling all the while. The boy looked up at her as she covered her mouth with both her hands, giving him another playful shove as if to tease him about his tree climbing skills.
Mono smiled at her sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders, giving a soft nervous laugh as he scratched the back of his neck. In his defense, Mono had never had any experience with climbing trees before. When Six stopped laughing, she held out one of her hands to Mono much like how he did back in the Hunter's cabin, who took it and followed the girl as she carefully walked across the branches of the tree she had chosen to hunt from. Mono was very grateful for Six taking his hand as he wobbled and trembled while walking. He bit his lower lip but not to the point it bled, eyes focusing on the back of Six's head so he didn't think to look down at the Earth below.
That wouldn't be a good thing for him to fall out of the tree and take Six with him, so he couldn't look down. It was hard to resist the urge, but it had to be done. Thankfully, the impatient tugging Six was giving his arm snapped the boy back to reality everytime. Mono took a deep breath to steady his nerves, he carefully positioned both his feet on the tree branch then followed after Six, upping his pace but not too much as falling out of the tree wasn't on Mono and Six's mental hunting checklist.
Despite Mono's fear of heights which was something Mono had never feared until now, the boy had to admit to himself that the view up here was amazing even though it was probably only a few feet off the ground. The two children could see more of the forest clearly then when they were on the ground, in fact they could see a small hollowed out tree in the distance next to a small pond filled with the freshest water Mono had ever seen before in his entire life.
The two couldn't see the Hunter or any nearby prey from here like rabbits or deer, but Mono figured that if they kept moving along the branches, they could find more prey and the eggs Six wanted to find. Speaking of eggs, the nests Six had managed to find in just a few seconds were sitting off the path in a set of bushes so no one like other runaway children would steal them. Though they were hidden away, Mono could still catch a glance of the twigs and straw that made up the tiny homes of the birds.
Six caught her friend's gaze and followed it to the nests of eggs she and Mono had collected, she gave a gleeful grin when she noticed that their later lunch was still safe then tugged on Mono's arm to pull him along to the top of the tree. Mono, who wasn't paying attention, nearly jumped out of his skin as he felt himself being pulled from the branch he was standing on and toward the top in just a few seconds.
The boy let out a sharp gasp as he was pulled up and toward a higher place in the tree, his feet moved almost on their own on the tree before he had managed to catch himself and stand up straight on the long branch. He let out both a sigh and a huff, the latter noise filled with annoyance at both Six's impatience and his negligence to pay attention to his surroundings more closely. One of the rules of the House and this twisted world as a whole was paying attention to your surroundings, every kid knew this rule better than the back of their hands as not paying attention to everything around them could get them killed.
In fact, this rule was nearly at the top of the House's mental list of rules to survive beside having patience and being quiet when you went out hunting as loud noises could scare off prey and attract any attention of the monsters who would wander in wherever kids would be living in and going in groups of three or four whenever they had to out since large groups of kids were easier to see and made more noises. It wasn't a real paper list as most of the kids couldn't write well, but a mental checklist of instructions kids have learned over the years surviving in this world and passed down to others.
But still, it was an important list to follow and to this day, whenever kids who have survived out here the longest came across a newcomer, they would give them a breakdown of what to expect and the rules of how to survive then left them to their devices or allowed them to join their group if they needed help and proved to be trustworthy. It wasn't the greatest thing they could do to keep themselves alive, but it was the best they could or rather, the only thing they could do.
When Mono had his senses cleared, he glanced at Six who was looking around the forest while leaning on a branch, no doubt looking for other nests. She turned her attention back to Mono who was shooting her a deadpan look, she shot him an apologetic look and shrugged. Mono continued staring her down, crossing his arms over his chest as if to tell her 'it wasn't necessary to drag me along, but honestly it was kind of my fault for not paying attention.' Finally, the boy let out a sigh and patted Six's back with a hand as he walked toward her to see what she was looking at.
Admittedly, despite Mono being scared out of his mind from being up here, the view was amazing. The forest looked so much smaller compared to Mono and Six, at least from up here. The paths, the lower trees, even the birds' nests that were resting a few branches away from them. Six and Mono gasped in shock and glee as the two children took notice of the nests that were, thankfully filled with eggs, the things they were looking for.
Mono sighed in relief at the sight as he secretly wanted to beat Six to a nest like she had been doing to him for the last two ones, get their next meal up and learn some new skills. Six turned her gaze back to the trench coat boy, clearly she had seen the nest too. She flashed Mono a smug grin, showing off all of her gleaming, sharp teeth still stained with blood that had turned a dark crusty brown by this point. Mono caught this in an instant and gave Six an angry glare, baring his fangs at her. Six didn't look the slightest bit fazed and simply jumped from her place, charging down a thick, sturdy branch that headed in the direction of the tree that held the nest.
Mono caught on to this and charged after her, jumping onto another thick branch that was slightly raised upwards away from Six but still heading toward the same location. Running on a thick tree branch was much like running on a straight dirt path except more awkward as despite there still being a bit of space on both of his sides. For one, the route was rough since the bark was made out of a different material then what Mono was used to and left small pieces of bark on the boy's feet.
It felt like the wood back at the Hunter's cabin, but more natural and uneven, often having uprooted pieces of wood that acted as tripping hazards, something that Mono had to look out for. Tripping up here even if it was once would result with him falling to the ground and he wasn't certain if his new powers would keep him alive if that happened. For second, as he ran like a maniac, the branch was slowly starting to thin out, forcing the boy to bring his legs closer together so not even his toes leaned over the edge of the shrinking branch of the tree. Easier said than done as despite his efforts, Mono's feet brushed past the air surrounding the little boy and awkwardly hung over the branch, heading in different directions.
Mono let out a fearful gasp then a cry as he stumbled on the tree branch's bark before he forced himself to regain his composure as quickly as he could and continue running. But not as recklessly fast as Six who was beside him, her branch heading upwards but thinning out much like his own. Unlike Mono, Six was doing much better at running on the branch then he was. She tore freely along the bark, kicking up pieces of bark and yeeting them to the side to fall to the ground.
She grabbed hold of the branches that were sticking out from the branch and with speed and skill that Mono had hardly seen from her, threw herself forward a few feet into the air before landing on her feet with a grunt. She paused for a bit to regain her footing before taking off at full speed. Mono felt his jaw hang open as he tilted his gaze from ahead of him to glance at Six, impressed and jealous at her skills and movements. In comparison to him, Six moved like a true predator with speed and determination that would make a predator like the Hunter jealous despite his advantages over both Mono and Six.
The boy shouldn't have tore his gaze off where he was running on to look at Six as that would not only put himself in danger of running into a branch or tripping over an uprooted bark, it would also cause his movements to falter and that would allow Six to run a few feet ahead of him so she could reach the nest first. But he couldn't help himself. Her movements, which were so simple and reckless as it was, were so amazing and admittedly beautiful unlike anything Mono had seen before. Despite being a predator, Six looked so beautiful even with her disheveled and bloody appearance from living out on her own within the areas surrounding the Pale City and the ones beyond.
Mono bit his lip as he watched Six like he was watching an amazing movie, a pink almost red blush appearing on his face in the process. Who knew that the little girl could look so beautiful by performing such reckless movements? Was he in love? Maybe he was as he wasn't able to take notice of the large branch sticking out at him till he ran straight into it. Mono let out a startled gasp as one of his feet caught on something causing the boy to fall forward and hit the thick, soon to be thin branch with a grunt and a thud.
The short fall didn't hurt him but it did temporarily stun him, long enough for Six to take advantage of the distraction and dart ahead till she fully disappeared from sight. Mono noticed this and stood to his feet, recovering much faster than he thought was possible and charging after his friend as fast as he could. The branch before the boy had thinned out to it's limit and was little more than a stick and that made running on the thing more harder as the boy's feet barely touched the wood.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the twig was now ending as evident by the drop resting at the end. Unlike the previous trip, this fall was much longer and would no doubt cause some kind of damage to him if he fell. If he wanted to make it to the other side, he had to jump. It was a risky move to make given how far the next tree branch was from him, but between this and possibly dying on the ground alone, one choice was clearly the better one and he knew which one.
As the end of the stick came up, Mono took a deep breath, shut his eyes and sprinted as fast as he could with all the strength and speed in his legs then faster than anyone could blink, Mono bent his legs and made the greatest jump any boy would make. Six panted heavily as she resisted the urge to fall onto her knees, she didn't fall but she did grab her knees as her spine arched, dropping into a crouching position as she took several deep breaths. Despite her body having lots of energy from breakfast, a run like that still took a lot out of her, a break was necessary.
But not for long, Mono was still behind her, no doubt catching up to her. She had seen the boy run on a branch much like her, so he still had to be coming. So, Six stood up straighter and made her way toward the nest. Six halted her process when a body covered in brown crashed into the middle of the nest, sending some eggs flying out. Six barely snapped herself out of her trance and charged forward, surprised that her legs still had energy after that run as she managed to catch every falling egg before it hit the ground in less than a few seconds.
She let out a sigh of relief at her fast thinking and faster reflexes, normally reacting without thinking got her into trouble but for once, it saved her food. But somehow, the eggs were the least of her concerns, what mattered was poor Mono, her Mono. In a few quick movements, Six made it to the nest, set the eggs inside and peered into the home of sticks and leaves to make sure Mono was okay. Speaking of Mono, the boy was lying on his back in the middle of the nest, legs up in the air, arms resting on either side of him, hands gripping the twigs and leaves that were sticking out of the nest as if to attempt to get himself up.
A surprised and dazed look was printed onto his face, his blue eyes were wide almost to the size of dinner plates, icy blue irises shrunk down the size of Six's a minute ago, the pupils were nearly pinpricks and more slitted then usual. Mono's messy brown hair was even more messy than before, some bits hung over his shoulders while more hung into his face, hiding his eyes from sight but Six still managed to see them. The second Mono saw Six, the boy stretched out on his back then rolled over onto his stomach, placing his elbows on the bottom. Mono pushed himself off the nest floor and into a sitting position.
The second he was up, Six wrapped her arms around the boy's waist and pulled him from the nest then patted him down, making sure he wasn't hurt or something like that. Thankfully for her, Mono was fine besides some cuts on his feet and a dazed mind from his mild crash that Mono managed to recover from. When she finished checking her boy, the little girl wrapped her arms around Mono and pulled him into a hug causing the boy to cry in surprise and his eyes narrowed in concern at Six but finally he hugged her back, patting her back to let her know he was okay.
When the two pulled apart, Six shot Mono a scolding look, probably giving him a mental lecture about being reckless before she shook her head and put a hand to her face. Mono couldn't fully read facial expressions but his guess was she was silently scolding herself for being reckless herself but there was no way to tell fully. She took a deep breath, pulled her hand away from her face and flashed Mono a soft, apologetic look, something that the boy had barely seen on Six's face and she pulled him into another hug, this one much looser than the last one.
Six nuzzled her head into Mono's chest, the boy nuzzled his head into the girl's messy, tangled black hair, his hands ran themselves up and down her back, getting a calm, adorable purr from the smaller girl, she smiled sweetly to herself, it was faint and didn't show any of her teeth but it was still there. Mono took notice of this and smiled a similar smile to his girl's. The two children stayed like that for a few more seconds before the sound of a shotgun rang through the forest, echoing into the two Wendigo children's ears causing them to jump.
Mono and Six didn't need to be a genius to know what that sound was and where and who it came from. Six tensed up, Mono's eyes widened with terror. Both children shot each other a look then the two grabbed each other's hand and the nest somehow before running as fast as they could into the forest, wanting to put as much distance between them and the Hunter as possible. However, as the two children made their way across a thinner branch, another gunshot echoed through the air, this time both children jumped and their feet touched the air instead of the rough wood of the tree.
The world went by so fast that neither Mono or Six didn't have time for the terrified screams they wanted to make as they neared the ground.