Niv’s stomach rumbled loudly enough that she could feel the vibration through her ribs.
She paused where she stood between two trees, one clawed hand resting against the rough bark as she tilted her head down and looked at her own belly with mild irritation. The sound came again, long and hollow, the kind of noise that meant she had waited too long between meals.
Three whole days since she had eaten properly, and that simply would not do. Niv could go longer if she had to, she had done so before during the cold times when prey became scarce and the forest grew quiet and thin, but she did not enjoy it in the slightest. Hunger made her limbs feel sluggish and her thoughts wander toward unhelpful places, and worst of all it made her imagine the taste of things she did not actually have.
It was the warm times now, which meant there should have been plenty of prey moving through the forest, but it also meant that when she finally did catch something she could not make it last very long. Meat spoiled quickly when the air was warm, and the flies came buzzing almost immediately if she did not eat most of it straight away.
If only she could make the cold whenever she wanted.
Apparently the humans could do that.
The humans could make the hot cold and the cold hot. That was something the Mother had said once when Niv was still very small, back when her antlers were only little bumps and her legs were too long for her to run properly without tripping over roots and stones.
Niv had never been entirely sure she believed that part. It sounded very much like something that was made up to make humans sound more impressive than they really were. Still, she had never gone close enough to a human place to find out if it was true.
The Mother had been very clear about that.
Humans were dangerous.
Humans were clever.
Humans were not to be hunted.
Not even if you were very hungry.
Not even if they looked weak.
Not even if they were alone.
They also tasted bad, according to the Mother’s Mother, which Niv had always thought was a strange detail to include, but she supposed it helped make the rule easier to follow.
The first time Niv had ever seen a human had been not long before she was old enough to wander the forest alone.
The Mother had been there of course, towering beside her, and she had pressed a large claw gently but firmly against Niv’s back to make her crouch low behind a fallen tree while they watched the strange little creature walk along a narrow dirt path through the woods.
The human had been so small.
Small and soft looking, with no fur and no claws and nothing sharp anywhere that Niv could see. It had made odd noises while it walked and swung its arms in a strange rhythm, completely unaware that two enormous predators were watching from the trees.
When they had returned to the den afterward Niv had been unable to keep the thought to herself.
She had proudly announced that she could probably hunt one.
The Mother had looked at her for a very long moment, her large eyes thoughtful.
Then she had asked if Niv could take two at once.
Niv had puffed herself up proudly and said of course she could. If one was weak then two could not possibly be that much harder.
The Mother had asked if she could fight five.
That had been the moment Niv started to feel that uncomfortable creeping uncertainty in her chest, the sort of feeling that meant a lesson was about to happen whether she liked it or not.
She had learned the point of the lesson not long after.
The Mother’s sibling son had decided that he wanted to hunt a human.
He had been successful too.
At first.
But then the other humans had come.
Many, many more humans.
They had come with loud sticks that cracked the air like thunder, and when it was over the Mother’s sibling son had not gotten up again.
After that Niv had taken the rule about humans very seriously.
She moved now through the forest with long, smooth strides, her powerful digitigrade legs carrying her easily over roots and fallen branches as she dashed between the trees. The forest floor passed beneath her claws in a blur while she sniffed the air and the ground both, her nose twitching constantly as she searched for any hint of prey.
Hunting was her favorite thing.
There was a particular kind of thrill that came with it, something that started as a quiet little spark in the back of her mind when she first caught the scent and grew into a warm buzzing excitement by the time she was stalking close enough to pounce.
Tracking.
Stalking.
Ambushing.
It made her feel clever and strong and alive all at the same time.
The best prey were the ones that ate the yucky plants. They always tasted sweeter and softer and full of rich fat that filled her belly properly. The ones that hunted other animals tended to taste stringy and bitter and were not nearly as satisfying.
Her nose twitched again.
Then it froze.
There, a scent!
Her mouth filled with saliva immediately.
Antler prey.
The best kind.
They were large and heavy and full of meat, especially during the warm times when they had eaten plenty and grown nice and round. If she caught one of those, she could eat very well tonight and tomorrow too.
Niv slowed her pace at once, her steps becoming careful and deliberate as she slipped deeper into the shadows between the trees.
She moved with quiet confidence, dashing between trunks and leaping gracefully over low bushes, always mindful of the branches above so that her antlers did not snag on anything. She was big, that much was certainly true, but she had been taught well.
The Mother had made absolutely sure of that.
As she moved she found herself thinking that perhaps she could make the long walk to visit the Mother again sometime soon. It had been several moons since the last time, and although Niv enjoyed her independence very much there were still moments when she missed the comforting weight of the Mother’s presence.
She especially missed the nuzzles.
The memory made her ears flick fondly.
Then she heard it.
A faint snapping sound.
A twig breaking under weight.
And beneath that, the slow grinding noise of teeth chewing through plants.
Niv’s eyes brightened immediately.
She crept forward through a curtain of leaves until she could see the brown shape standing in a small clearing ahead of her.
The antler prey stood there calmly, chewing mouthfuls of greenery with complete confidence, completely unaware that its delicious, tasty, mouthwatering death was only moments away.
Niv crouched low, lowering herself until she was almost sitting on her haunches, muscles coiling beneath her fur as she prepared to launch herself forward in a powerful pounce.
“When you’re gone, how I can even try, to go ooon!”
Niv blinked.
And in that single moment of distraction, the antler prey lifted its head, twitched its ears, and bolted away into the trees with a crash of hooves and snapping branches.
Niv stared after it, stunned.
Her ears slowly turned toward the source of the noise.
Was that… human sounds?
“When you’re gone, though I try, how can I carry on!”
The voice was loud, but there was something about it that made the unfurred parts of Niv’s skin prickle in a strange and pleasant way.
Those were definitely sounds.
But they were not the usual human sounds she remembered hearing from a distance.
“You seem so faaar away though you are standing near! You made me feel alive but something died I fear!”
Niv’s ears twitched again.
She probably should run. Everything the Mother had ever taught her said to stay far away from humans… But the Mother had never said that humans could make sounds that were better than the flying prey.
Niv hesitated, shifting slightly behind her tree.
Maybe… just a look.
She would not attack.
She absolutely would not attack.
She would only look. Just to make sure there was not a whole group of humans nearby. Yes, that was a very good reason to look.
She followed the pleasant sounds carefully through the trees, keeping her body low and her steps slow and deliberate as she moved between the shadows. The voice drifted through the forest ahead of her, floating between the trunks and branches in a way that made her ears twitch with interest.
Before long she came across one of the big trails the humans liked to use.
The ground there was flat and packed down from many feet walking over it again and again. The plants that usually grew thick along the forest floor were mostly gone, crushed into the dirt, and the trees nearby had been cut back in places so that the path stayed open and easy to walk.
Niv stopped just before the edge of it.
She had seen these trails before during her wandering. The Mother had explained them when Niv was younger, telling her that humans liked to move through the forest in groups along paths like this because they were not very good at walking through wild brush and tangled plants.
Niv herself had never stepped on one.
Being seen would be dangerous.
Very dangerous.
So she stayed safely within the shadows of the trees, the soft moss and fallen leaves quiet beneath her clawed feet as she continued to creep forward beside the trail instead of onto it.
The voice grew louder.
“So when you’re near me, darling, can’t you hear me? S.O.S!”
Niv froze instantly.
Her muscles locked tight as she crouched behind the thick trunk of a tree, her ears standing straight out from the sides of her head as her eyes widened.
Did the human know she was there?
Her mind raced through the sounds she had just heard. She knew many human words because the Mother had made sure to teach them carefully when Niv was still a spawnling. It was important to understand their sounds, the Mother had said, because if you knew what humans were saying it was easier to know when they were angry or scared or calling for others.
Niv held very still, barely even breathing as she listened.
The voice continued.
She slowly leaned forward and crept closer again, her claws gently pressing into the soft earth as she slipped between the trees until she could finally see the source of the sound.
The human was walking along the trail just ahead of her.
It looked very much like the one she had seen long ago when the Mother had first shown her what humans looked like.
It had coverings wrapped around its body, strange layered things made from woven materials that hid its skin from the air. The coverings moved slightly as it walked, rustling softly with every step. Its arms swung back and forth in a comfortable rhythm, and on its feet were strange thick objects that seemed to protect the bottoms of them from rocks and roots.
Like the other human she remembered, this one had almost no fur.
Only a short crop of it grew from the top of its head, slick and soft looking, shifting slightly whenever the wind passed through the trees.
Niv watched quietly for a moment, her nose twitching as she took in the unfamiliar scent of the human. It smelled strange. Not unpleasant exactly, but certainly not like anything she would ever consider eating. She didn’t know why the Mother’s sibling son would want to hunt them.
She moved ahead through the forest so she could see the human from the front instead of just the back, slipping between bushes and low branches with careful steps while the human continued walking along the path without the slightest sign that it noticed her presence.
All the while it kept making those beautiful sounds.
Something Niv had always found strange about humans was how similar their faces were to her own people.
The shapes were almost the same. Eyes placed in the same position, with a similar nose in the middle and a mouth just below. But the details were different. Humans had bright whites in their eyes instead of the deep dark ones her kind possessed, and their mouths were much smaller, filled with flat plant-prey teeth instead of the long sharp ones that lined Niv’s jaws.
“And the love you gave me, nothing else can save me, S.O.S!”
Niv froze again and her ears slowly rotated toward the human. Maybe it did know she was here. Perhaps humans had better senses than she thought.
“When you’re gone, how can I even try to go on?”
Niv blinked slowly.
Her head tilted slightly to one side.
Was it… courting her?
The thought made her ears twitch in confusion.
The human kept making the sounds while it walked, its voice echoing gently through the trees as it moved along the trail.
It definitely knew she was here.
Niv was almost certain of it now. It was clearly just trying to be unthreatening to her.
She slowly moved deeper into the forest, putting more trees between herself and the path while still keeping the human in sight through the branches.
She knew she should run.
Running would be the safest choice.
The Mother would absolutely say to run.
But instead she kept following the human at a greater distance than before.
Curiosity tugged at her far more strongly than caution.
Eventually the human stopped making the beautiful sounds and began making other noises instead. They were faster and more uneven, little bursts of speech that did not follow the same pleasing rhythm as the earlier ones. Niv could recognise some of the words but not enough to understand what the human was actually saying.
She continued to trail along behind it regardless.
Slowly the sky began to dim as the light of the day weakened and the long shadows of the trees stretched farther across the ground.
Still Niv followed.
And eventually, after a very long walk, the human reached the edge of the forest.
Niv kept to the treeline and watched as the human walked off towards the den-collection.
It was almost dark time. There were not many humans around.
She would wait for a bit longer, then maybe she could figure out where the human's den was. Maybe… she could… return the courting. The human was very pleasant to look at… no, that was a terrible idea. She was going to go back to her den and forget about the pretty human with the pretty human sounds.
That was the best idea.