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The forests were rarely kind, but it was always better than the city. Oh, how she hated the city… humans and their stupid weapons made only to hunt for amusement.
Her skin crawled with fury as she limped her way through the woods, desperate for any sort of shelter from those disgusting “hunters”. They were nothing more than a sick pack of homosapiens who shot the inhabitants of the wild dead and used their carcass as display, never using the flesh, meat nor organs. The forest was nothing like it, everything you hunt, you use the whole thing. The meat you use to fill your stomach, the bones you use to make tools and weapons, the hide you use to combat the chill.
Teto despised those prideful creatures, they did nothing more than take pleasure from the suffering of others. She had seen many forests and human habitats burnt to a crisp, dark and crumbled, the wood turned into charcoal they never used, never thrown into the furnaces they had to fight the bite of winter.
She was a victim of such hunters, the dripping of scarlet blood from where an arrow was buried in her talon spoke much more than her words. She had only been out hunting when she was spotted by an armed human. It had immediately shot the crossbow when it saw her, fleeing once the bolt hit its target. She left as quickly as she could, in the case the human was finding backup to exterminate her.
Her eyes blurred with every step, her balance faltering. How long had she been walking? Maybe an hour, maybe more. She really needed to find a place to hide in, lest she want her efforts to go to waste.
She took another step, but a sharp pain shot up her leg like electricity, causing her to lurch forward and collapse onto the dry ground. She heaved, her lungs really hurt from running with an injured leg for hours. She couldn't muster the strength to get up and run, she was too tired.
She laid on her ground, she didn't want to give up, but she couldn't find it in herself to move, to get away from her fate. She curled up on the dirt, all hope seemingly lost.
Thunder roared in the background, evidence of the storm that was to come. A single drop of rain fell from the sky, as if the clouds took pity and were crying for her. She scoffed, even the heavens above believed her fate was in the hands of the humans, how miserable could her ending get?
The rain shower soon followed, the pattering of raindrops played their song to Teto, like a final goodbye before she was returned to earth. Or maybe her carcass would be used as decoration, not even a single cutlet of meat eaten from her corpse. She really hoped it wasn't the latter.
Tired, her eyes felt heavy. It only made sense, the amount of blood she lost contributed to the exhaustion. She relaxed all her muscles, letting her eyes shut and praying that she wouldn't be used as mindless decor.
She heard footsteps approaching her resting spot. Her prayer wouldn't come true after all.
She woke up. What a pleasant surprise.
Her muscles felt stiff, almost like heavy stone. Where was she?
She looked around, wooden logs made up the many walls around her. Underneath her was a soft bed, obviously hinting she wasn't in the wild anymore. This was a human settlement.
Great. The human kept her alive to butcher her later.
But at least her energy was back and she could move, maybe she could escape in time. She moved to stand up, but she noticed a white cloth-like item wrapped around her leg where the crossbow bolt had hit her. She tilted her head but shook off her confusion to escape.
The door creaked open. Shit.
“Hello?” A young lady with teal hair looked out from the back of the door. “Ah, you're awake!” She closed the door behind her and walked towards the bed where Teto was sitting.
Teto hissed, feathers standing erect as she raised both arms to seem bigger and more dangerous.
“Woah woah, I'm not gonna hurt you!” The woman held her arms in the air, showing no weapons on hand. Teto hesitantly backed down, still on edge in case the stranger tried something. “Could I check your bandages?” She pointed to Teto's leg. A bandage, so that's what it's called. She nodded. “Cool! You can call me Miku by the way,”
Miku walked up to her and kneeled down to look at her leg. Teto felt all her muscles constrict, readying for the moment this human took out a knife and stabbed it into her. But instead, she unwrapped the bandages and took out a fresh roll from a small white box and secured it around the wound.
“That's better, isn't it?” she patted Teto's thigh as she inspected her handiwork.
The chimera only kept silent, mumbling under her breath. “Why?” She finally asked out loud.
“Why what?”
“Why aren't you killing me?” She growled, her feathers fluffing up in agitation. “You must have some sort of weapon with you, a knife, gun— hell, even a pencil would be enough to injure me, so why aren't you taking any action?”
“... I don't see why I would need to,” the teal haired lady shrugged, moving to the side to grab a basket off the desk. “Here, I gathered more than enough to share,” she handed out the basket, revealing the multitude of berries collected.
Teto wanted to pounce on her and take the berries for herself but she restrained her movement and slowly took a berry to inspect it. The berry showed no signs of being tampered with so she carefully placed it in her mouth and was pleasantly surprised by the sweetness of the berry, it was obviously carefully picked. She stuffed her mouth with more, she didn't care about poison anymore, she was too hungry to care.
“You're pretty hungry aren't you?” Hungry was an understatement, she was starving.
In the corner of her eye, she saw a deer but it stayed immobile. So this human was no better, huh?
Noticing her eyes wandering, Miku turned to where the display was. “Oh! That's a deer I hunted. What? I have to eat! Besides, its organs sold well,” she shrugged. Teto relaxed, so this one didn't hunt for sport.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Why not?”
“You're human”
“And I don't see how that correlates with me helping you,” she huffed, shaking her head.
Annoying. This human must have an ulterior motive for taking care of her. But why was she taking so long, she could have finished the job by now.
“you should be doing fine now, you can go if you want!” Teto was skeptical, but the girl hadn't done anything yet. Miku opened the door, gesturing for Teto to exit the house.
Before the woman could say anything more, Teto dashed out of the house, ignoring the jolt of pain that spiked in her leg. She sprinted into the forest, slight confusion still clouding her mind. She needed to get back to her nest to figure things out.
What a strange human…