Scruffy’s Adventure

Written by Scruffy–hime

Edited by Luciferia

Chapter 5: Searching for Shelter

Scruffy managed to not trip or stumble on anything as they made the short walk back to the fire. But when they returned they both noticed that their camp was in disarray and a large bite had been taking out of the corpse.

Scruffy turned and put his index finger over his lips signaling for Airi to remain quiet. He then proceeded to look around to see if he could find what had taken such a large chunk out of the creature. When he walked closer to the tree he caught the sound of low but heavy breathing coming from within it. He climbed up to peek inside and saw a massive creature curled up inside. The creature had large ears, massive paws, and a long coat of thick dark blue fur covering its body. The beast filled almost the entire area inside the tree. It had large fangs protruding from it giant maw, and dried splashes of blood along its face and body.

Scruffy turned and was startled slightly by Airi, who he had not heard come up behind him. He motioned for her to look inside while remaining silent. She climbed up and took a quick peek as the beast made a deep growl and stirred in its sleep. She flinched and hopped down from the tree, landing silently with a terrified look on her face. She began motioning that she wanted to leave. Agreeing, Scruffy quickly kicked dirt over the fire and moved some rocks onto it as well, trying to put it out before following after Airi.

After they walked a good distance away from the beast, the frightened woman let out a large sigh and drooped her ears, “Well I guess we know whose home that was.”

“Yea… Well, should we just look around some more?”

“May as well.”

The pair began wandering through the forest again, Scruffy trying his best not to stumble over too many things, but ended up falling several times causing Airi to softly laugh at him.

The night grew colder as the pair walked blindly through the dense forest. They eventually found themselves back at the river but much further upstream than where they had been camped.

“Should we just follow this and hope for the best?” Airi asked as she knelt down to take a sip.

“I guess so.” Scruffy replied after a moment of thought.

After they both took a few more sips out of the river they began walking again. Listening carefully to the wildlife in fear of hearing any growling or other menacing noises.

They walked in silence for another hour before seeing a dim glow far in the distance.

“Looks like there might be more people out here after all.” Scruffy commented in relief.

“Aw, tired of being alone with me already?” Airi teased causing Scruffy’s face to grow hot with embarrassment.

“No I uh… I just meant maybe there could be people who might help us.”

“I know.” Airi laughed again before continuing, “You need to lighten up, being embarrassed all the time will make you less attractive eventually.”

Scruffy blushed even harder after hearing that and chose to remain silent as they walked toward the distant glow again.

It took the pair another half hour to reach where they were headed. When they closed in on what seemed to be a small town they noticed the borders were surrounded by a wall of large logs that tapered into vicious points at the top. They were stacked so close together that they couldn’t see between the cracks. After a moment, they decided they would have to find the front gate if they were to get inside. Walking a few minutes while following the wall, they came to what appeared to be the gate surrounded by more of the large pointed logs placed at various angles and gave off a menacing feel.

They stopped abruptly when an arrow was shot and landed between Scruffy’s feet.

“Who are you?” a female voice demanded from atop the wall.

Airi replied to the woman in a pleading tone, “I’m Airi and this is Scruffy, we’ve been wandering through the forest for a long time and wanted to know if you could help us or at least tell us where we are.”

“This is Ensiry, and we call that forest Astal, but we don’t allow strangers into our village, you should find somewhere else to go.”

“But we don’t know where to go!” Airi huffed in frustration, “We only found this place by chance, can you tell us anywhere nearby that we could go?”

Sighing, the woman replied irritably and pointed off in the distance, “There is a small tribe to the south of here, you could probably get there in a few hours if you go straight that way.”

Airi let out a frustrated sigh, lowering her ears as the pair turned to leave, “Alright, thanks.”

After walking a good distance from the small village Airi stopped for a moment, “I wish we could have at least rested there, I got to sleep for a few hours but you’ve been awake this whole time.”

“Don’t worry about me, I feel fine.” Scruffy reassured her, “But I won’t deny that I would at least have liked something to eat. I’m starting to get hungry already, what about you?”

“No I’m fine. Well, should we try to find this tribe she mentioned?”

“Do we have any other option?” Scruffy countered dryly, “I for one don’t want to camp out in the forest again only to find more beasts to deal with.”

“Guess your right…” Airi replied, sounding depressed.

The pair started walking again. The forest seemed thinner here, so Scruffy had an easier time not stumbling over everything as they made their way through. They remained silent for the most part so they wouldn’t draw unwanted attention.

After a couple hours, the pair found a small creek running in the direction they were heading and after pausing to get a small drink.

They both froze in place when they heard a loud deep growl come from behind them, Airi’s ears twitched back in reaction to the sound. They both simultaneously turned to face the owner of the noise and were faced with a massive beast, it looked similar to the one that they had seen curled up in the tree but it was larger and had scars running along its arms and legs. They both shot to their feet and Airi let out a small whimper as they tried to slowly back away. Almost as soon as they started moving the creature swung at an astounding speed with one paw, hitting Scruffy’s side and sending him flying several feet away. Airi took the chance to grab a rock and tried to throw it at the beast but it seemed as though it didn’t even notice her as it turned toward where Scruffy had landed and charge him.

Dizzy, Scruffy scrambled to his feet and dove out of the way of the charging beast, rolling into the creek. The icy water stunned Scruffy and he paused for a moment to let out a small groan then quickly got to his feet and turned to face the beast again. Airi grabbed a larger rock and threw it at the beast, hitting him straight in the eye causing and the beast to shriek in pain, gaining its full attention.

The beast charged Airi but she dove to the side. However, as she did that, the beast stopped, turned, and landed a hard blow to Airi’s lower body. The loud thud caused Scruffy to worry if she was alright. Panicked, Scruffy grabbed a sharp rock out of the creek he had landed in and ran over to help her.

Scruffy jumped onto the Beast's back and clung to its long fur. Infuriated, the beast started thrashing around trying to shake him off. After a moment, he got a good enough grip to thrust the rock into the throat of the beast.

The beast let out a disgusting, gurgling screech and then ran off back into the forest. Several moments later they heard a long, loud howl that stopped abruptly. Several small howls and shrieks followed, making Scruffy’s stomach sink with dread.