CHAPTER 2: AN UNLIKELY ENCOUNTER

Luckily the next day I was feeling a lot better. Still a little tired, but hey, don't we all always feel tired no matter how much sleep we get? It's crazy how that works…

I was currently sitting on the couch, not passed out on it this time, just watching whatever was on TV. I'd seen talk of a few things going on in the area recently, but none of them interested me. I didn't really go out out these days because of Meg having Alexis, the furthest I'd ever go is before the end of Feral Forest, so anything going on outside the area I essentially trap myself inside isn't a concern for me. My concentration on the TV was broken by Joss coming into the house, presumably looking for something or someone.

"Hey Elias, where's Megan?"

"I dunno, she said she was going out with Alexis, she went out of Feral Forest so it's obviously important."

"Must have taken her to a doctor's appointment. Why didn't you go with her? You're still following that little rule of yours that you're not going outside of Feral Forest?"

"Yup."

"Right, I see. Say, what are you watching?" He came over, looking at it with curiosity. It was some news story about a concert coming to the local stadium in the next town over tonight and how it was rumored to be the biggest one ever held there with the stadium being fully sold out for the night.

"Interesting… I've never seen an artist sell out that stadium fully before. Who do you reckon they are? Did they say the name?"

"They probably did, I wasn't paying enough attention to get the name of the artist. Seems interesting though, maybe this'll bring some new faces here."

"Yeah, you could do with some friends."

"Wow, thanks." I suppose he was right, I didn't actually have any friends, just him, and even then that was only because he's my father-in-law.

"You're welcome. Now, I think you should go outside yourself. It's a nice day, you shouldn't be sitting in. Go actually do something productive."

"Fiiiiiiiinnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee." I begrudgingly got up off the couch, turning off the TV, and grabbed my axe. I still had to make up for missing my quota yesterday because of my unexpected nap, so I decided I'd just do it now, get it over and done with and start with a clean slate. I walked out of the house, leaving Joss to do whatever he was gonna do inside the house, and went off into the woods to begin picking up from where I left off yesterday, and actually got an impressive amount of work done before I sat down in the long grass to take a smoke break. It actually felt kind of peaceful, just sitting there with my cigarette, admiring the view and soaking in the sun of the afternoon. Maybe this life wasn't as bad as I was making it out to be…

I wouldn't get to finish that daydream as I became aware of a noise behind me, almost like someone had stepped on a branch. I quickly whipped my head around, that was too loud for it to be a wild rabbit or another kind of animal. Was someone watching me? I quickly stood up, paranoid, and slowly grabbed my axe, looking around attentively to see if I could see the person watching me. It took me a few moments to see them, only seeing their tail sticking out from behind one of the old, large trees to my left.

"Hey-!" As soon as I called out, the person was gone, dashing away. Ok yeah, they were definitely spying. Not wanting to let them get away with this, I chased after them, axe in hand. I wasn't going to actually use it as a weapon against them… Maybe only as a threat tactic.

Eventually I managed to catch up to them, albeit going outside of Feral Forest. They had tripped on an exposed tree root and fell over, I can only assume that as I heard their exclaim of pain, and was ready to come out of the bushes and expose myself to get the answers I wanted out of them as to why they were spying on me.

"Who goes there?!" I called out threateningly, stepping out from behind the bush, axe firm in hand. "Show yourself, immediately-!" I stopped, looking at who it was infront of me.

It was a girl, on the ground, cowering in fear from me, holding her hand up to her face to try and defend herself from me. She didn't seem like she was trying to spy on me for anyone. Now less paranoid, I slowly brought my axe down to my side, before starting to talk. "Hey…"

She took her hand away from her face, looking up at me properly, and looked very surprised. She definitely knew who I was, but still spoke out sort of hesitantly. "Hi…"

"Are you alright? I heard you trip and fall on a tree root, those things can be serious ankle breakers so I wanna make sure you're good."

"I'm fine… I think." She got herself up, standing on both feet to make sure that she wasn't hurt at all.

"Ok, good, great. I… Should probably apologize for chasing you down, I just thought that you were someone spying on me."

"It's fine, it's fine, I can understand why you thought I was spying. I was just exploring the area and saw you. I stepped on a branch by accident and it caught your attention and I saw you grab the axe, so I got scared and… Hid, and then ran when you called out to me. Say, you're…?"

"Yeah, I'm Elias, that abdicated king that everyone hates. I assumed you knew by the way you looked at me when you first saw me."

"Mhm, I knew you were him. I didn't know you were living out here in Feral Forest, everyone said that you kind of just… Disappeared, after you abdicated, apparently anyways, I don't really keep up with the royal family drama. Also, you're not hated per se… A lot of people just disagree with what you did."

"You don't have to sugarcoat it, I know people hate me for what I did, I've accepted it at this point."

"I don't hate you. I can understand why you did what you did. You have a right to live your life in whatever way you choose, that's basically my motto for my own life at this point." Ok, I really like this girl. A person who doesn't hate me for what I did? She's instantly in my good books. Because of what she said, I just knew I had to get to get to know her better, see what she's really like and why she's even in the area to begin with.

"Say, why don't you… Come with me? Back to the main area of the forest, I could show you around the place and maybe we could… Get to know each other better."

"Hmm, let me see…" She quickly pulled back the cuff of her glove, looking at a watch on her wrist. "Yeah, sure! I've got some time before I need to be back to my friends, lead the way!"

"Alright, good! Come with me, then. I'll show you the safest route back, there's a lot of thorns and nettles around this area so be extra careful." She nodded, and so we began our journey back to the main part of Feral Forest. I didn't even know this girl's name yet, but I already knew I wanted her to be my friend. Huh, looks like Joss was right again, coming outside today was actually beneficial, I was hopefully going to make a friend today because of him.