Shadewood the wood's labyrinth

There, just out of sight, his ears flexed backward, the tiniest breath that tasted like relief slipping through his teeth. He wasn't at ease yet, but more than he had been the moment before - it wasn't the haunting mirage he had been expecting it to be. A good fortune he wasn't sure he deserved. 

He stepped down from the root, rolling words over in his head. He hesitated a second time, one hindleg frozen in motion while the other remained anchored to the bark beneath.

A friend, came Cormorant's simple reply - far less hurried than his first utterance. He stepped away from the root completely, tilting his head, trying to glimpse the shape of the other. Worse, he had the thought that maybe there were yet more in the woods around him, and his shoulders tensed. 

Paws still carried him forward, albeit at a slower clip. A bitter curiosity too unwilling to falter beneath caution, he offered to the faceless, If that suits us.