That rascally little scamp!

THE OUTER FORESTS OF TSUBAR


The dirt trails and tracks had signs of repeated use over many years. The signs and route markers showed the paths of the hiking path that were set for the public use. There were even occasional small canteen shops meant for people to buy refreshments from. Wherever there will be people, there will always be refreshments too. And the occasional outhouse, of course. you can't go wrong with a bathroom for people taking a hike! And to accomodate for people buying refreshments, there were dustbins set along the path as well. The outer forests of Tsubar were a scenic view nonetheless, and it was said the view and scenery was so beautiful it could even extend the life of the elderly. Whether anyone believed that or not, was up to them.

Garzah herself was skeptical of it. But frankly, she believed it could be true. The elderly never meant harm to the woods, and she couldn't see why the forest wouldn't have some pity on the elderly. But then maybe she was being too hopeful. She wasn't sure what the forests of Tsubar were like, she just knew they were quite different from the pine forests of her homeland of Gorgoth. Or at least, the forests around the region she lived in. How different the forest was in mentality was something she wasn't sure on, she wasn't a theurgist or a druid. She was half walking, half skipping along the dirt grass track that was set on her way. She hummed an ancient poem that had gone along many a generation of Gorgoth's people. Garzah didn't remember what the poem was about but she liked how it sounded, it had a nice ring to it.

Her poofy looking dress that reached all the way down to her feet had very poofy looking sleeves going with it. The top parts of it were white, while the lower half of the dress was brown with flower patterns sewn in. The ends of her sleeves had white lacing that gave a vine look to her sleeve ends. Garzah's green skin was in stark contrast to her dress's white where it met with her neck, and her face still had the red tribal paint marks that she always had on her face. She looked about, skip-walking down the path, as she stopped in front of a sight that caught her attention.

"OOOH! Cute flowers!" she said, hunching down over to the sight of some flowers with pink and blue petals. Their stalks with green yellow, and they had the most pleasant smell. She looked at the pretty flowers, taking the time to take in their beautiful smell and just sit there on her knees with the flowers.

Watching the people-things were always so interesting. They always seemed to come here to the well-walked path where only the smallest of weeds sprung forth/from the packed dirt in a rebellious nature, as they were like to do. They migrated in droves, venturing into the forests where they would become lost and wander the forest for a while until they eventually found their way out. Faye almost felt pity for them, unsure how anyone could lose their way when the path was so obvious. Still, they would come and look through the trees and click-clack with their boxes and shine their light sticks with no real bearing of where they were going. She sometimes would help them along, because she was so nice, by swatting their backsides with low-hanging branches or asking the rocks on the ridge to come rolling down to guide them. They always found their way out quickly when she convinced the rocks to help.

There had been many pink people-things today. All shapes and sizes. She liked the ones with the longest vines on their heads, especially when they were brightly colored. The real thing to look for was their carry sacks. They would keep all the best of things in there. Shiny bits and chew bags. She was especially interested in the chew bags today, once she peeled them off the bag skin, she could have all of the little crunchy things inside. They were like beetles, but dry and with a tangy orange powder that stuck to her fingers even after she licked them clean. She liked the powder the most, even if it made her sneeze if it got up her smeller.

Something had caught her attention. An old harmony that sounded on her wiggling ears like oldness. So she has scampering through the undergrowth and up along trees. Her skin was a cloak of shifting hues as she traversed from place to place, cutting through the foliage to find the source. She skittered up a tree taking a corkscrewing path and crawled across a high solid branch to peer down at a green person-thing. Her head cocked curiously to the side, nearly forming a right angle. They had a long blanket on that billowed, and flowers worked into the fabric. Was it soft? It looked like it should be. She wanted to touch it, especially when its folds flared outward. The old song wasn’t as interesting anymore.

She had followed the green person-thing for a time. They had an odd way of traveling with small springy steps and the breeze made her blanket swish around even more. When they had come to a stop at some brightly colored flowers, Faye was there in the brushes, body washed with spiraling greens to make her blend in seamlessly as her sharp eyes watched. This person-thing seemed too perfect. They were green, wore fun blankets, and even had old music in their heart. Surely when it knelt it would do something to the flowers. Step on them, pluck them, insult them maybe? No… she just sniffed them with her smeller and seemed pleased with what she found. Had she found a new friend? A perfect people-person-thing that liked all the things she liked and made all the good noises? It was too soon to tell. She had to test.

Faye whispered to the forest, ears flicking back to listen in return. The gentle breeze, the sway of tree branches, the sunlight dancing over grass, and even the stillness of rocks, all spoke to her. Her lips stretched back in a wide Cheshire cat smile as her amber eyes sunk back into the shadows vanishing fully from sight.

Creeping through the grass along the bed of flowers a green-brown bine slithered like a snake. It moved with purpose just outside Garzah’s peripheral vision as it slowly encroached upon her personal space. Without warning it sprang from the flowers in a violent lash, attempting to wrap itself around one of her ankles. If it had managed to coil around her leg, it suddenly withdrew into the forest at a feverish pace, attempting to drag the orcish woman off the beaten path into the deeper darker bits of the forest past the peering blinkers of any other passersby.

Garzah smelled the flowers, taking in their neato fragrance that was oddly enticing. She even waved a hand motion as if trying to make it flow into her nostrils better. She often didn't stop to appreciate the fragrant beauties of the world around her, so these flowers were quite a nice way for herself to ground to realize this. It also made her oblivious to the one who was about to spring her.

So busy she was mesmerized by good fragrance that she didn't realize the little thing wrapping itself around her ankle and was pulling at her. Except the vines had completely underestimated Garzah's weight and size, because Garzah barely budged, even her ankle didn't move an inch, just a few centimeters. Garzah was completely oblivious to the attempt at abducting her, too busy with smelling flowers, until she realized her ankle was itching. She lowered a hand to itch...and scratched something else that was clearly not her ankle.

Her eyes widened in surprise, as she turned her head to look at what was that. She saw something greenish wrapped her around her leg, matching the color of the grass around her. She looked up and looked around, as if trying to pinpoint what was the thing attached to. It looked like a vine to her, but it had snaked and wrapped along so Garzah wondered if there was an animal or a mage nearby.

She asked "Is someone there?" before looking at the vine, asking "What is this?" as she pulled at the vine, completely pulling it off her ankles and lifting it into the air, observing it. She noticed it led to something, and decided the best course of action would be to follow the suspicious vines. She stood up, following the vines and pulling them, keeping track of where it was leading as she walked off the beaten path and along wherever the vines led to.

The vine was surprisingly resilient to being dislodged but with Garzah’s strength, she would be able to pry the snakelish plant from her ankle. The stiffness that had tried to constrict her limb was no longer there as it remained limp in her hands. As she ventured growth through into the forest, she would find it never seemed to build up any slack, withdrawing at a pace that matched the orc’s so her hands were only ever full of whatever she grasped for.  The canopy grew thicker, shading the forest in deep pockets of shadow.

One of which has a pair of eyes floating in it, watching as the green person-thing came into view. Its footfalls made no sound, the plants beneath her feet and palm shifting to cushion her every movement keeping her secrets for her. Faye would slip from the shadows, the pitch black pigmentation in her skin that made her appear as nothing more than a silhouette drained from her leaving only her hair a thick raven black. As for the rest of her, the vibrant complexion of varied hues that normally comprised her body had shifted to a pale green, a shade lighter than Garzah’s own tone.

Claws had withdrawn to appear as normal nails and the thick tail which would often swish behind her has vanished, drawn into her body. All that remained of her otherworldly nature was those amber eyes that caught the dim light and seemed to glow with thin reptilian pupils. She began walking behind Garzah, hopping from step to step the heavy woman left imprinted in the soil. As Faye’s feet left them though, the grass sprang back up revitilized as if no one had trampled it. As they followed the vine together, Faye reached out a hand, playfully batting at the billowing skirts of the larger woman’s dress.

Garzah kept following the vines, as they took her further down the path. As it went on, she didn't realize that the remaining vines weren't shortening like a rope laying on the ground, but rather like a measuring tape that was being withdrawn and she was holding the end. All that she thought was "Man this is a long vine... how did it wrap around my ankles?"

So into her thoughts and the vines she was, that she didn't notice the tiny figure slip behind her into her footsteps, that just so happened to be covering and hiding her tracks, like as if Garzah hadn't just been lured off the beaten path like an idiot. The being following her, that was now morphing into an uncanny mockery of Garzah, was now playing with Garzah's poofy dressing trailing behind her that Garzah didn't realize.

The trail went on, and Garzah kept walking along down the path into a darker part of the forest, till it finally clicked to her.

She came to a dead halt as she said, "Wait a second. Is someone leading me out here?" She looked up straight, her eyes narrowing in realization.

As Garzah continued to wander far from the worn forest path, Faye was content to follow, playing with the hem of the semi-oblivious woman’s skirts, admiring the flower stitching, and really wanting to touch the poofy arm bits but every time she reached for them the orcish woman took a step and they slipped just past her reach. It wasn’t until the woman stopped and Faye inadvertently bumped into her back that the creature from the wilds unintentionally made herself known.

Faye took a small hop back to stand before Garzah when she likely turned around. She had seen the way the people-things worked, where the big ones would carry the smaller ones about in colorful swaddling. The green person-thing didn’t appear to have any of that but the difference in size was immediately apparent. She was short and lith, proportions that made her appear to be a thin sprightly young girl. Garbbed only in tribal rags and some small shiny knick-knacks string along twin-like jewelry.

She appeared to be orcish, not a pure replica of Garzah but someone that could have easily passed as a relative save for those strange amber eyes of hers. “Someone is out here?” When Faye spoke, it was Garzah’s own voice that came out. Not an imitation, but the exact delivery and intonation the orc had spoken. Faye had rearranged the words, compiling everything the big woman had said before stringing them together in an order that conveyed what she wished to say. She flashed a wide grin, her orcish tusks pointed in the wrong direction downward instead of up. “OOOH! Cute someone is there.”

Garzah felt the bump of a small figure behind her. She didn't budge, being very sturdy, but she gave a small gasp, her shoulders cringing upwards in terror.

Someone was behind her. Rather short, but it was most likely whatever had lured her out her. This was a trap. She had walked into a trap. She has let herself be lured like a fool, a easy meal, a simple minded victim, to whatever this was. She shivered in place, which came to a complete standstill when she heard her own voice talking behind her.

It sounded wrong, listening to herself. Or rather, something's completely perfect imitation of it, yet with the erroneous sentence structure, as if they were using the few words Garzah had spoken all the way back on the trail till now to make new sentences. Perhaps it was a skinwalker, or a predatory mimic, or an occultic theurgist who had appeared behind them, now stealing her voice. Perhaps they were going to steal her blood soon, or worse.

Garzah slowly turned around, feeling an agonizing dread gnawing at her stomach, that spread across her body like a tsunami. When she had turned halfway, her eyes swivelled around to see....

"....huh?"

Her head turned quickly in surprise, looking at the small...orc? She looked around, before looking down at the "child" in front of her wearing tattered rags. She narrowed her eyes as she realized the "child"...looked a disturbing lot like her. Not how she looked during her childhood, it actually looked more like a diminutive version of Garzah. Garzah, her former fear now overridden with confusion, stood still, staring at the "child", as she started to feel the uncanny valley. Small details and touches here and there were wrong, like she was staring at an imperfect mockery pretending to be something it was not. And those eyes.... Those piercing slits looking at her. She had read such behaviour was often done by certain species of mimics, and she wasn't sure about this one either. But she had never read about mimics making their own sentences.

Now fully turning to face the "child", her eyes widened, as she slowly extended a hand out, wrapping most of her fingers and leaving a single finger out towards the being. If it went further, it would boop her on the nose.

The small orc stared up at Garzah with an uncanny smile, one that reached just a bit too far at the corner of the lips and those thin slit eyes staring up at her unblinking. It had said the words, what she believed were the hood words to be making friends with. When the larger orc reached out with a finger, she watched it closely as if something important was being offered. It traveled without difficulty all the way to her nose where her eyes crossed to watch it still as it smushed the top of her nose. Only now did it blink, nose wrinkling a bit as the smaller orc looked up at Garzah and then back to the outstretched finger.

“....huh?” Mirrored in the bigger woman's voice once again. The smaller orc swayed to the side and then stepped past the outstretched arm. Popping herself onto her tippie toes she reached out, stretching to point a single finger at Garzah. In a similarly slow and deliberate motion, she would return the nose booping. This just must have been how green people-things said hello.

What was initially fear, in a moment, started to turn to wonder. What was a scared to confused expression turned into a small smile as Garzah stared at the small creature mimicking her mimic her actions. A small laugh escaped her lips as she said, "What...?" with a small grin on her face.

Overtaken now by curiosity, which seems to go hand in hand with stupidity, Garzah slowly sat on her knees to try to get to eye level with the strange creature in front of her. It was a little hard, she was quite tall herself but she managed. Getting eye to eye with the stranger, she took the finger she had booped her nose with and brought it to the small beings cheeks. If the being let it, the finger would press into her cheek, as Garzah would stick her tongue out to make a "Pffb" noise as if mimicking air leaking out of a squeaky toy.

Those glowing reptilian eyes watched Garzah as she lowered herself down to eye level, pleased by this small gesture enough to smile broadly. The small orc made no move to stop the big woman from prodding her face which was just as solid as her nose had been. Her cheek squished under the touch, making her have to squint one eye. When Garzah blew a raspberry at her, Faye jumped, startled by the strangeness of what happened, looking between the finger that poked her and her mouth trying to figure out the connection.

The small orc-looking girl had to investigate, reaching up to grab hold of Garzah’s arm, leaning in to peer curiously from finger point to bicep. She practically shoved her nose up against her green-hued skin, taking in several wafting sniffs like a dog might as she clamored down the length of Garzah’s arm. She would even try to climb onto it if the other woman didn't stop her. It all led to Garzah’s face where she would poke and prod at her, trying to pry her lips open to peer inside her mouth as if a secret was stored within. If she had been allowed to investigate to this point and turned up nothing, she would have stared at Garzah confused, giving her sad puppy dog eyes… then opened her mouth and let out the raspberry sound. It just came out of her throat. She would look to orc for answers as to the original raspberry though.