Lane in the Rushing Forest

Laurent crouched, gazing up at the treetops. Earlier, some horrifying monster was after them. Well, not them, but it did seem to want their bag and that was basically the same thing. They had wings and the monster didn't, so they'd gotten away... after smacking into a few trees. Hopefully they could get out of this wretched forest, or find a nice cave. Whichever came first.


So now, they would hide in this clump of ferns until they felt safe. Off to their right, something rustled. Laurent's ears pricked, swiveling to the noise. Nothing was the same here. They couldn't place any noises! They really had to get back to their home. Their friends could be dying without them. The rustling noise came again. Not wasting any time, they darted over to a nearby tree and shimmied up its length. The bark was rough and easy to grasp, especially with their claws. They stopped to rest at a low-hanging branch. They took the opportunity to survey the area. They couldn't see very far, with the dense foliage, but they could hear the faint sound of rushing water.

They moved to climb higher, and something tapped their head. Laurent froze in terror. Very slowly, they edged way. Above them, a white paw dangled. A bizarre, glittering orange creature dozed above them. It certainly didn't look like anything to be afraid of. They could eat it in one bite... but Laurent didn't particularly want to eat the first creature they saw that wasn't attacking them. They clung to the tree, thinking. Maybe they should wait until it woke up. While nervously trying to climb down, Laurent accidentally smacked into the creatures paw again with their horns. Again, they froze.

Laurent yelped back at the creature as it jotted into the air. They hadn't noticed faer glittering wings. How odd! Now that they had a better look at fae, fae seemed to resemble "felines" as they'd been pictured in informational scrolls. Except the wings, those were different. There seemed to be all manner of odd creatures aboveground. Laurent shuddered. They just wanted back in their cave.

The creature seemed rattled. They awkwardly tried to scoot back down the tree, bonking their head on the branch again, and pinching their tail beneath their hind foot. They scrabbled to cling on, not wanting to crash loudly out of the tree in case that weird... thing was anywhere nearby. It took a few moments for them to register that the creature was squeaking at them. Their ears swiveled to listen.

"Uh," they stammered, praying that their belly wouldn't grumble conveniently. They were hungry. Kind of. But they didn't like to hold conversations with their food. Especially food with pointy claws.

"I- uh, I usually eat rocks," they squeaked. This was true. They decided to leave out that they absolutely loved cave-crawling insects and amphibians. They had no intention of eating this weird creature, but didn't want to scare faer.

Laurent blinked, surprised, as all hostility vanished from the hovering cat. Fae sunk onto the branch above them. Maybe fae'd just been scared? It made sense. Laurent kept forgetting how big they seemed to other creatures. They were pretty small and nonthreatening as far as dragons went, so it was hard to imagine that other living things might be afraid of them.

The cat used some odd word Laurent didn't know. They tried not to appear confused by faer words. While trying not to look lost, they almost missed the creature introducing faerself.

Lane? They wouldn't have placed that name to this creature. If Laurent had to guess, they might have said Gliter. Or Puff. But Lane was as much as a name as any other. It was certainly short and easy to remember.

"Yes, I have one. A name." They said. They probably should give their name. They weren't really used to introducing themself. They'd stayed underground with the same dragons for their entire life... being outside with strange beings was a huge adjustment. But they just had to find out where they were, and get back home and it would all be through with.

"I'm Laurent," they said. "If you don't mind, I think I need to climb up higher. Earlier some weird monster was trying to get my bag," they said, gesturing with a wing to the satchel fastened around their midriff. "It might come back. I don't really know if it can smell me or not," they explained.

Laurent nodded and started to carefully ascend. They settled on a branch just above where Lane had been sleeping, carefully tucking all their limbs so that nothing dangled. Lane chattered as they climbing.

Huh, maybe things aboveground were a little different than Laurent had imagined. Their scrolls were probably outdated, they needed to fix that. Maybe one of the adults could go aboveground and get new ones. "I've never really been, um, outside," they confessed. "Like, my whole life I lived in a bunch of really big caves. So I've never really seen trees and stuff, but I have seen fish. Some live in pools and streams that run underground," they explained.

They saw Lane eyeballing their bag curiously. "Uh, just some stuff I use for healing. Like plants, rocks. I have a map of my home in there." They paused, thinking. "I have my amulet, too." They shuffled inside and drew out a small pink rock. The bottom part of it was wrapped in leather. They stuck it back in quickly.

It occurred to them that Lane might now what was going on. Fae didn't seem concerned or afraid. Maybe fae could tell them where they were, so they could get back home and tell their family about their disappearance, the scrolls, the monster and... everything else. "Hey, do you know where we are? I don't really know how I got here, and I kinda have important stuff I need to be doing. At my home, I mean." They wiggled their ears curiously at Lane.

Lane's response went over Laurent's head a little. "Well, yeah. There were lots of caves, but no sky," they explained.

They smiled at faer compliment. Their amulet was their most prized possession. They'd crafted it because it might be useful on a battlefield, but it was quite beautiful. And fae guessed they were a healer- not that they'd been hiding it- maybe faer cousins had similar kinds of tuition?

"Yes! I've been training for... four years, I think," they said, frowning. Yes, it was around four years.

Apparently Lane didn't know where they were. That was odd, didn't fae live up here? Fae would have said if fae'd been an underground creature, like they were. But faer next words were interesting. Laurent listened attentively, ears pricked. "Appeared?" They said blankly. It really would be a powerful coincidence if it wasn't just them that had popped into this weird forest.

Well the stuff was kind of important. No, really important. But Laurent didn't want to worry Lane. And they might be in trouble if they accidentally gave away band business.

"So like... did you just sort of appear here? Because that happened to me. It was really weird," they offered.

Laurent felt their body grow tense. They hadn't thought about not being able to find their way home. If Lane, who was obviously more acquainted with the overworld, didn't know how, how would they? Their tail drooped.

"It would really be that hard? I thought maybe because you could fly it might be easy, but you probably know better than me." They sat looking glum on the tree branch. They didn't like to think that their family might be hurting or dying, and they wouldn't ever be able to help.

Laurent listened carefully to what Lane said.

"I've never seen any forests besides this one, so I can't tell you anything from that." They hung from the tree, thinking.

"Have you seen any caves?" They asked suddenly. They needed to hide for a while, a cave would be really nice.