The fox carefully trailed behind the humans. It had been a risk to attack the snake, but hopefully it showed them that he wasn’t their enemy. He had seen human bones at his parents’ den before he fled, so he assumed that the humans thought that he was a threat. Hopefully his actions changed their minds.
The biggest human had saved him in the fight with the immense lizard-beast so hopefully that meant good things. On the other hand, fights did get chaotic, so it might not have been intentional.
As he thought these things, the humans emerged into the clearing with the cut down trees, so he stayed back in the forest out of sight, more carefully this time to avoid being seen by those with the loud horns.
His ears twitched as he listened to the humans making noise at each other, though he was unable to understand what it meant, he was pretty certain they were communicating. He didn’t have much in the way of ability to communicate himself, mostly a few specific ideas he could shout or whisper, and a few concepts he could pass on with body language or scent.
As he pondered the difficulty of attempting to communicate, the last of the humans he had been following left the camp, so he slunk around the edge and into the tall grass of the plains to follow as well, at a significantly farther pace, relying on his hearing to follow them.
The human who had stopped at the camp continued past the injured one and the biggest, but he did not want to risk being spotted, so he stayed back with the slower group. This proved to be a wise decision, as it kept him moving slower and let him spot the watchtowers around the village before they could spot him, going into a crouch and slinking forward even slower.
After a short while of sneaking, he was as close as he felt it safe to get, and was able to hear the bustle of humans inside their immense gathering, ears twitching this way and that as they focused on one new sound after another. He even heard other animals, including what almost sounded like boar.
In addition to all the sounds, he smelled a great many things, though he was unable to identify anything besides the smoke, which overpowered everything else.
Acting on a passing thought, he tried pushing with the part of his mind that had been itching before, feeling something move outside of himself, somehow able to feel with it as if it was part of his body. After a bit of struggle, he managed to get this feeling to move in front of himself, only to see nothing at all change. He wasn’t sure what, but something about the area felt wrong to him, as if it was dead, so he pulled on the new sense until it felt snuggly back within himself.
Deciding he wouldn’t be able to get much else use out of being near the village, he began to sneak away. During this time, however, he heard the gate open, hearing two of the humans leaving again back towards him. To avoid risk of being spotted, he simply lay on the ground until well after they had left.
Resuming his retreat from the village, he considered for a moment the fact that the watchtowers were only on this side. With the towers only nearest the forest, he pondered if he should try to bypass them. After a moment of thought, he decided on it, making a very wide circle around them to the far side of the village.
As he approached the other side of the village, he heard a number of humans running around. Finding a hill nearby, he climbed it to try to get a better view. From his new vantage point, he was able to spot a large number of smaller humans playing around like kits would, so he assumed them to be human children.
He sat upon the hill, listening with his full focus hoping he could start to understand them eventually. After a while, however, one of the humans looked right at him and started walking his way. He again felt something itching at the back of his mind, and promptly decided running away was the best option. After all, there were a ton of humans nearby, and he had struggled to avoid three on their own outside their domain.
He fled back to his den, pausing momentarily at the large trail of bare soil that he had spotted before, curious as to what had caused it. He couldn’t help but notice it curved towards the village, then he continued on. Once back near his home, he helped himself to a number of nuts and berries in the nearby area before heading inside to rest after his long and dangerous day.
Waking up again shortly before dawn, he headed out of his den and into the forest a short distance. Once he was out of sight of his den, he tried pushing that odd feeling in his head outward again into a small bubble around himself. It took many tries before he managed it successfully, leaving him mentally exhausted, but he had succeeded in the end. He closed his eyes and focused on the sensation, noticing how he could even feel the swaying of plants in the breeze. Additionally, unlike at the human village, it didn’t feel dead.
Having exhausted himself, he relaxed, pulling back towards his mind, feeling the sensation follow. Unlike what he expected though, it felt like something else flowed inward as well. The previously quiet sense of danger flickered for a moment before vanishing again.
Experimentation finished, he headed further into the forest in search of something to eat. After a short hunt he found a squirrel foolishly on the ground and raced after it. Unfortunately for him, the squirrel proved to be fast enough to reach a nearby tree and scurried up it before he could reach it. Feeling annoyed, he simply snacked on some nearby nuts before leaving.
Deciding to continue his exploration of the village, he headed back out of the forest and towards the humans’ domain. This time, he stayed away from the forest as he approached, avoiding the watchtowers and those within them. Circling even further around the village, he saw that there was a grid of barren soil containing fields of strange tall grass he hadn’t seen before.
After taking a quick look around to make sure that there was no one looking, he darted into the field to look around. Exploring it a bit, he found a large building nearby, but no humans. However, he did notice a number of mice running around. He quickly pounced on one, sending the rest racing away in a squeaking mass. With a quick bite to the head, his prey stopped struggling and he began to eat it, trying to do so without making a mess. As he ate, once again the sense of danger returned, though it was extremely faint, so he ignored it.
Upon finishing his meal, he dug a small hole to bury the remains in, hoping that would avoid any human attention. Making a mental note that this area had easily caught prey, he headed back towards the far side of the village. Along the way, he paused as he saw a strange bird fly out of the walled area, headed deeper into the plains.
Once again, he saw the human children at play as he neared the back gate of the village. Finding a spot near a hill again, he laid down to rest as he tried to understand what he was looking at and hearing. The children seemed to play similar to fox kits, but differently at the same time. And they made more of the same strange noises the adults did. He attempted to make sense of the odd noises, eventually noticing patterns, but still unable to make out any meaning. After a while, he noticed the same one as yesterday looked over at him, that odd itching beginning again.
Unlike last time though, after a moment they looked away, so he didn’t run off this time. He was still quite wary of them, doing the mental shake that disrupted the itch, and continuing to watch the children. As it began to get brighter outside, he returned towards his den, stopping again at the barren trail, this time following it a ways into the plains where it ended in a massive scorched skeleton. Curiosity satisfied, he headed back towards his den for a nice afternoon of sleep.