The Silver Creature's Silent Plea

Story So Far

Aldric, a forest ranger, intercepted three Durn trappers dragging a silver-furred creature through the Ashenveil in a net. From the canopy, he shot the knotted rope cinching the net, the cords split, and the creature dropped and fled southwest into the undergrowth while the lead trapper drew a short sword and the others spread out below. Aldric fired a second arrow to bring down a dead limb to the northeast as a distraction, sending the hammer man and lead trapper toward the sound, then moved southwest through the upper canopy and dropped to the forest floor beyond a dense birch stand with one arrow spent.

At the edge of the birch stand, Aldric tracked disturbed moss and shallow oval footmarks ten paces to an old birch where raised roots exposed dark soil and a tight spiral of pressed moss, still warm, with a faint chime in the air and the overhead leaves turned face-down. He spoke softly to the spiral, identified himself as the ranger who cut the net, said he meant no harm, and told the creature he would return by morning. He rose and moved southwest as the nearest birch leaves turned face-up again.

Using an enchanted green cloak and quiet footing, Aldric crossed a run, climbed a ridge to check for pursuit, found none, and reached his ivy-covered stone-and-timber shelter for the night. In the morning he pulled on boots, buckled his knife, took his cloak, and started toward the split-trunked oak before stopping at the smell of green timber burning and spotting a thin grey-white smoke column rising east through the birches, roughly half a mile into the Ashenveil in the direction of the old-growth birch.

Approaching through mist, Aldric found the same three trappers at a green-branch signal fire beside a replacement net in a birch clearing. He heard the lead trapper say the creature would return to the same ground and that the last net had been cut clean by a ranger blade. Aldric pulled back unseen and planned a route south along shallow water to arc around the clearing's west side and reach the old-growth birch from the south. He first set a smoky decoy fire of wet leaves and dry bark shavings at a birch forty yards northwest of camp, crouched south in the fern, and drew the three trappers northwest while he reached the clearing's western edge with the old-growth birch ahead and the signal fire unattended.

Aldric then stripped the trappers' camp, loading the half-strung net with both water skins, the food bundle, spare cord, and a small iron pot, carried it south to the fern ridge, packed the food into his own pack, and threw the net with the remaining supplies over the far side. He moved east below the ridge with the water run on his left, circled the clearing's western edge, crouched at the old birch, and found the moss spiral altered with a second counterwinding loop and fresh soil, the leaves overhead face-down again. A single low chime sounded from the eastern undergrowth.

Following the chime east into older, thicker canopy, Aldric pushed through low fern and found a fresh long oval pressed in the moss and a birch sapling with a still-trembling bent branch pointing deeper east. He stopped and understood the creature knew he was following and had not run. He held out a strip of dried meat with open hands; the silver creature emerged from the undergrowth, made a soft sustained note, and took the meat carefully from his palm, chewing without retreating and keeping its pale eyes on him while the fern and overhead leaves stayed unnaturally still.

Aldric slowly set his longbow and hunting knife on the moss and stepped back. The creature watched the weapons, eased its stance, took more meat, sat, and made a braided two-tone sound that stirred the leaves, then looked east and gave a single low warning note toward the distant trappers to the northwest, signaling it was not alone. Aldric told the creature he was not with the trappers, pointed out the ruined camp to the northwest, and opened a hand to the east; the creature rose, stepped east, looked back, and waited as the lead trapper's voice came from the northwest. Aldric said they could go wherever the creature wanted.

The creature led Aldric east through old-growth birches, checking back repeatedly, flattening its ears and quickening when the trappers' voices drew closer, and stopped at a fused-birch arch where several chimes sounded from beyond. The lead trapper called out that there were tracks and ordered the others to fan out. The creature tapped one forepaw twice, sent a clear note through the arch, heard a lower answer, and as the moss inside the arch glowed deeper green and the roots curled outward, it stepped through. Aldric followed, stepping through the arch into warmer, sweeter air, and found five silver-furred creatures in a loose half-circle among three enormous birches. His silver creature gave a sustained note and the others answered; the smallest, dark-muzzled one stepped toward Aldric and tilted its head. Outside, the lead trapper's muffled voice said the moss was pressed and something had come through.