Haunted Wood follow alice

Awaiting rescue party! @Allure II @Swift We'll say they have to hang out here for several days to account for the time gap.

Despite looking like a tangled nest of spiders crossed with a smoke machine, the Haunted Woods made the ideal hiding place. It was dense and dark, cluttered with hanging vines and grey moss that clung to every exposed surface. Bazi ushered her daughter into the tangle and followed with her son, who was on the verge of slipping from her grasp yet again. Behind them, the bears were close enuogh for their ragged breaths to be heard. They were tired, but just as irritated.

The sun was beginning to rise. The light was cold and grey, glaring feebly, angrily at the misty ground. Bazi thanked their lucky stars for the poor visiblity; she and Swift melted into the background like milk into cream.

The three wolves scrambled into the forest and out of sight. Bazi pushed them as far into the unknown woods as she dared, stopping to hoist Swift - with Allure's help - over roots and drag him through the narrow passageways created by an overcrowding of trees. Eventually, the grunting huff-huff of Morran's labouring lungs grew dim, and the Grove's matriarch dared to slow down - and stop.

He had no track of the hours, of the distance. He had been focused entirely on the sound of the bears chasing on them, haunted by their macabre images and desperately hoping he'd never see the again, while believing they were all as good as dead. "No," he would whine, time and time again as if trapped in a nightmare from which he could not awaken. "No..." Indeed, it certainly felt like that to him.

Eventually, the family stopped. He still hung from his mother's mouth, his remaining eye flitting about the dark woods in search of the sinister glint of fangs and the evil burn of a predator's stare. It was a useless effort. A voice in his head spoke cruelly to him, taunting him, that he would never see such detail again. He could separate the white of his mother's coat from the blurred brown and deep green shades of the forest, but his sister almost disappeared in them, were it not for the white that she also sported.

"They're going to keep chasing us," he sobbed.

Quick lil' post, shouldn't mess things up for Rach. :D

The back of Bazi's neck burned with the effort of carrying her son - something she only became aware of when they had stopped, huddled together in a dark little knot of foliage. To Swift's sobbed fears she could only shake her head, mouth agape around gasp after gasp of close, dank-smelling air.

Slowly, the pain caught up with her. Every muscle ached and throbbed, and she was slowly coming round to the fact that her own face had not escaped Jade Fern Grove unscathed. The tip of Morran's claw - the very same that had gouged out Swift's eye - had cut a triangle of flesh out of Bazi's upper lip. The root of a long, yellowed canine was visible next to pink of a fresh wound, and she had the suspicion that the bear's weapon had done something similar to her ear. The blood had long since stopped flowing, but she could feel the hot ache of exposed nerves near the top of her head.

"They.." she huffed, sagging to the floor next to Swift. Her eyes scanned the dark forest wildly, searching for Allure. ".. they can't.. get in." Exhaustion made her wound quite convincing. If Morran followed them into the forest, it would be the end - and Bazi was simply not ready for that to happen.

Slower than her mother who could no longer carry her, Allure came in to view once more, though her muzzle pointed in the direction behind them most of the time – searching for their attackers.

Swift’s sobbed words were not missed, but she could barely fathom Bazi’s response. Disbelieving that the bears could not get in, she quickened her pace, pressing her muzzle to the side of her brother gently, hoping to not startle him as he could no longer see.

She stayed quiet, attempting to press her fear away so she could be strong for her family. In reality, there was nothing to say. She wanted to go home – but so did everyone else. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare, but that would never happen. All they could do was wait.. and hope that the bears would lose interest and move on.

He wanted to believe his mother; but he found he could not. He wanted to. So desperately he wanted to believe that the bears could not get in. But he believed them to be indestructible beasts of unfathomable power. He believed they could uproot the entirety of the forest in one fell swipe of their claws. He was terrified, and that piercing fear was not going to leave anytime soon. In fact, it would never leave him at all for a sharp dagger, a phobia for those demons, had been thrust into his heart and soul.

His sister touched him, and he flinched, startled by the contact he was not expecting. But he leaned into her. Where once there was a dislike for touch there now was a need for it. Her physical presence grounded him, and he found himself shuffling to be closer while his ears flicked to and fro, to every sound that emanated from the woods.

"What if they do... what if they... get in.."

"They can't." It was easier to say that than to confirm her children's fears - that they were ask dead if the bears braved the tangled woods. They would have to go deeper - burrow into the very heart of this black, ugly place. The forest whose twists and blackness would save them.

Before the adrenaline could wear off, Bazi pushed herself to move again. They had to burrow down - find a little nook that no bear could fit into or even find.

"Come on. A little further." The tone was calm - but did not invite argument.

Maybe you guys can write out them finding their 'den' down a figurative rabbit hole of twists and bushes? :DD Please do PP!

She flinched when she realized she had scared him, but he was quick to realize it was just her and pressed against her side. Allure buried her muzzle closer to his neck, inhaling the soft scent that was Swift – but one that also held a hint of blood and fear.

Bazi verbally pushed them further, and Allure would maintain the contact with her brother, encouraging him along as they wound through the dark foliage. The family remained silent for what seemed like forever, and her eye caught upon a thicker brush of trees and bushes. Pushing Swift forward, Allure traipsed in front of him, moving to begin forging a path for her brother through the thick and tangly wood.

A bear would have a much harder time coming in here

Their mother ushered them ahead. He hesitated, but with his sister at his side and encouraging him, his paws moved to follow. His ears laid back on his skull, his head held below his shoulders as he nervously walked. Occasionally, he would bump into something on his blind side and he would whip his head toward it in fear, shoving up against his sister as he instinctively moved away from a perceived threat. He would wrinkle his muzzle when he saw it was nothing more than a tree or shrub.

They entered into a denser part of the forest. The trees here formed an almost impenetrable tangle, a knot of limbs and trunks entwined with smaller bushes and plants. He hated it. It was difficult enough to navigate with two eyes, but the loss of one eye and the damage in the other made it doubly frustrating for him. Branches tugged at his fur and stung his muzzle as he tried to follow his sister and mother, and just when he was about to scream that he had had enough of this mess, it opened up.

It was not a large space; but the earth here was bare save for a soft carpet of moss, and encircled by a tightly latticed fence of branches complete with a woven canopy. It was as good a place to hide as there could be. Exhausted, and on the edge of a meltdown, Swift dropped his rear to the earth. He would go no further.

Last post from me! One more from @Allure to finish, and then we all have 3 (I think)?

The forest obliged, and swallowed them whole.

They disappeared into the dark, where the forest grew so dense that Bazi was almost as blind as her son. It was Allure that eventually found the tangle that would become their hiding place, forging a path through the mess of foliage. Bazi followed, widening the tunnel her daughter had created so that she too could pass through it.

They ended up in a little bubble of space, padded with moss and surrounded by a natural wall of wood. From the look of the place, it was watertight - Bazi could scarcely see the sky above them. She had to stop herself from asking the question out loud, remembering just in time that Swift would not be able to answer. The word escaped in the form of a single, displaced vowel and ended in a hiss.

Bazi slumped to the ground next to Swift, and reached her nose out for her daughter. Her mind was racing, searching for wires to connect in pursuit of a plan - but it was no use. She was too tired; they all were. First and foremost, they needed to sleep.

Her pelt matted with burs and brambles -- it pulled at her with sharp tugs of pain, but she made no fuss. She could not swing her muzzle back to see how her family was doing, for the branches were far too compacted -- instead, she continued onward, stilling every so often to reassure her uneasy mind that it was them behind her.. and not a bear.

Finally, the space opened. Soft moss felt like plush velvet upon her sore and bleeding pads, and as Swift slumped down, Allure pressed herself almost on top of him, holding him as best she could. Her lithe form held him as good as any hug, and as Bazi settled beside them, Allure gently placed her muzzle upon her brothers shoulders. Sleep did not find her fitfully -- her dreams were nightmares of stinky bear breath and blood - of popping eyeballs, and screams. She would twitch and growl in her sleep, but it would be for nought -- she couldn't fight the bears, even in her dreams.