The forest on the other side of the stream lacked the thick blanket of moss that covered anything lower than a meter above the ground. The roots and thick tree trunks gave way for smaller trees and knee high bushes grew a plenty. This made moving fast through this part of the forest much harder than within the deep part of the Pines, something Rowan was now painfully aware of.

His lung burned as he slowly but surely lost the energy to keep running. With his hands on his knees, Rowan took a moment to just catch his breath. The way he wheezed and felt his skin burn from the run had him feeling embarrassed for some reason. Hadn’t he ran all the way out here at full speed last night? Surely his wolf side hadn’t been left gasping for breath like a fat noble after a flight of stairs. The thought put a smile on his face, then made him chuckle.

“As if” he snickered to himself.

Rowan closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, then straightened back up and leaned back against a pine with a trunk thicker than he was wide. The drumming of his heart slowly faded back down and left his hearing clear and quiet once more. A quiet whisper rustled through the branches high above as the wind picked up.

For a moment he just stood there, looking at the forest all around him, and listening to the distant noises of life. Peaceful, that was the word, a rare thing to call the Pines he felt, but no other word quite described the quiet of the forest better than ‘peaceful’. It was a deceptive way to see the forest, no matter how true it could feel those rare moments. Rowan took another deep breath and leaned back against the tree, content to just appreciate this moment before it passed. When it did, it was with a sudden crash as fully grown bear with fur the color of coal came crashing down from the same tree Rowan was leaning against.

It slammed into the ground with a thud that sent tremors through man and trees alike, making both shiver and shake at the sudden mini earthquake. Rowan flew back on pure reflex, the bear having landed a mere meter or so away from him after having stayed quiet up in the pine’s branches for gods know how long. As he stumbled back the bear turned its massive head and blinked at him, confused for just a moment, then a deep rumble filled its chest as it lurched towards him with jaws wide open.

The sound it made sent Rowan’s hair standing on end and his body tensing up with fear. The predator was at least twice his size and not at all happy to find a human standing next to it. In true animalistic fashion it completely ignored that fact that it was the one that had approached, not the other way around, and it showed its displeasure at this by raising a paw the size of Rowan’s head, then swung it towards him with enough force to break a small tree. Rowan fell back in his haste to get away from the paw, ground hitting his back hard enough to force the air out of his lungs. The blow went wide of his head, but with enough force to send a woosh of air past him that tugged at his hair and had his heart jump in his chest.

The bear roared in outrage at the miss, then planted its front on the ground, pushed off so that it reared up above Rowan, and fell down upon him with the intent to crush his chest beneath the flat palms of its paws. Rowan had other plans. With a surge of adrenaline and his heart in his throat he threw himself to the side, just barely managing to roll away from certain death. He only just flung his hands down to push himself up and away when he felt something dig into his shoulder and chest. The left side of his torso and upper arm went numb and useless as the bear bit down, but the distant feeling of bones crunching still reached past the shock numbing his sense of pain. It would catch up to him soon, no doubt, but for now the only thing that managed to overpower the shock was pure, primal, fear. Rowan howled and reached back with his right arm, desperately clawing at anything he could reach to get the beast off of him.

His fingers found thick folds of fur and skin where they grasped, then the wet hollow of the bear’s eye. It shook its head once, lightly, as he clawed at its face, mostly in annoyance, but then as he found its eye and sunk his fingers into the squishy orb and socket the bear howled and threw its entire body back, pulling Rowan with it like a ragdoll. He felt something tear, then cold and wetness as trees flew past him and the ground greeted him with brutal enthusiasm.

He rolled several meters, bushes and branches giving way and scraping his body as he went past then slowed down into a bleeding pile of limbs. Rowan’s breathing came out quick and uneven, shock, fear, and pain all fighting and sending his mind into chaos. A wave of white hot anger surged up from his gut, through his chest, and out his lungs as he spasmed to the side. He could hear the bear whuffing and stomping around in a rage before it shook itself and looked around for where he went.

Rowan gasped and wept as the previously numb shoulder flared to life, painful and torn with enough blood gushing out of the savaged muscles to make his right arm slick and slippery as he clutched at the injury. He felt bones creak and object as something within him pushed and set a new wave of agonizing pain flowing through the torn flesh. Muscles moved and twisted like newly awoken snakes beneath his skin, fully visible where the bear had torn him open. His left arm was just barely attached to him still, dangling uselessly from torn bones and persistent strips of muscles. For a moment Rowan forgot the bear, head too clouded by the pain and sight before him as something red and quivering moved beneath the sludge of torn skin and blood, twisting and turning before homing in on each other to bridge the gap the wound made between his arm and back. He watched with morbid fascination as muscle surged back into each other like clay, red threads reattaching and pulling to push the bones of his arm back into place. His brain barely registered the sound of the bear charging through the underbrush towards him, mouth open into another crazed roar that sent spittle clots of blood from its eye flying all over.

Despite the pain, Rowan still felt a unbidden surge of pleasure shoot through his nerves as his cursed blood woke up further, healing and pushing his mind into distant places where the delusion of tearing the bear apart felt much more real than it had any right to be. Laughter billowed up from his lungs, along with a mouthful of blood as he felt feeling return to his left arm. He was just about to howl a taunt at the charging bear, closing in on him as it was, when he saw a arrow sprout from the side of its head.

The sight confused him in his drunk haze of pain and curse craving to run amok. He could already feel the itch of his hair standing on end, growing longer and looser as new strands of fur deep beneath his skin prepared to push his dreadlocks out and loose from his scalp so the thick fur of his wolf form could replace it. His teeth felt longer and tight, as if they didn’t fit in his mouth and were just about to push free of their prison. He could feel the change, so close to the surface that he only needed to give it a few more seconds to grab hold of him.

“STAY DOWN!”

The shout came from his side, but Rowan had no focus left to direct at will. His head still swam and all he had eyes for was the bear, reared up on its hind legs and thrashing wildly in pain, not yet dead, and far from accepting its defeat. A second arrow joined the first, this time hitting the bear slightly below the jaw where the thick folds of skin and fur protected its throat and bones. It let out a sound close to a scream, then fell forwards and down onto its forepaws once more, sending another tremor through the ground that shook Rowan’s bones from where he lay just a few leaps away from it. A few more steps and it would have gotten him. The thought sent a shiver through his body that drew out a sound he shouldn’t quite have been making in this situation.

The change was messing with his head. Rowan grit his teeth and pushed it back as best he could, meanwhile the bear turned and made to leap at whoever had shot at it. It made it only a few steps before a man with a spear charged it from the other side. He thrust the long weapon into the back of the beast’s skull, which only earned him another outraged roar as it tried to turn back to bite him. A third arrow struck its head just as it turned, which dragged its attention back to the other side and away from the man with the spear. Rowan watched groggily as the spearman let out a roar and pushed. The spear sunk down then up as the man pushed it in under the bear’s head, then threw his entire weight down on the spear’s length to force the other end up. A wet tearing sound was heard as the bear gave one last defiant gurgle, then fell still as its head was torn halfway off its body.

Rowan blinked numbly at the scene, then rolled over onto his stomach to try and push himself up. The gnawing need of the change was still trying to push its way into his head, but he had it forced back to the back of his mind now, enough so to make his hair and teeth stop itching. Sounds slowly grew normal again around him as his head stopped spinning, just in time for him to notice the heavy boots striding up to him, then over him as whoever had walked up stood above him, one foot on each side of his lower back. He felt a sharp tip of something be pushed against the back of his head, along with a strong hand grabbing a handful of his hair at their base and tug. His face was forced up painfully so that he couldn’t move. A gruff and suspicious voice spoke up above him as he bit back an oath.

“Stay still. Are you human?”

“Do you have to ask? Guy’s naked and unharmed. That’s a changeling.”

Rowan’s breath caught as he heard the spear guy object to the other’s question. The one holding him down, the bowman Rowan assumed, or crossbow, gave a unamused grunt then snapped back to his companion. Rowan could see neither of them from his position on the ground with the bear and spearman behind him and the bowman above his back.

“Oh ease down Shaun. Pine does nasty things to anyone. Could just be some unlucky sod getting caught up in it.”

Shaun, the man with the spear, spat, but didn’t object. The bowman gave another tug to Rowan’s hair then croaked

“Well?”

“Human. I’m human” Rowan croaked. Shaun spat again.

“And your clothes? Where are they?”

The bowman continued asking despite Shaun’s impatient grunt. Rowan’s mind raced. What could he say? Grasping for straws, he said the only thing he could think of.

“There was a woman- she… uh…”

“Tricked you?” Shaun suggested.

“Shut up and let him speak. What’d she look like?”

Rowan’s neck ached as he spoke, the sharp tip of what he suspected was an arrow still planted against the back of his head. Crossbow, it had to be a crossbow if the man only needed one hand to fire it. Unless he planned on stabbing him with a normal arrow.

“Pale, no, not pale, just uh, the hands. Arms. Long black hair, weird dark eyes. Talked weird.”

“That’s the rå” the bowman said.

“Oh come off it Trevor. Still doesn’t explain him being without a scratch with all that blood” Shaun objected. “You can’t expect every odd sod in the woods to be some unfortunate wanderer that you can save-”

“We’re not the only idiots going into the woods Shaun. Cut him up yourself if you’re so convinced.”

Rowan felt himself go pale as he heard Shaun wrench the spear free from the bear, then walk closer.

“Oi not the fucking spea-”

Trevor was cut off as Rowan felt the spear grace his thigh, sharp edge digging a shallow groove that quickly started weeping blood. He felt the tingle of the curse trying to push forth to heal him and had to put every ounce of focus he had into forcing it back so that the wound would remain open. For a moment he feared he would fail as all three kept still, waiting to see what would happen. After a few more seconds Shaun finally grunted and stepped back again.

“Ain’t mean he’s not a changeling” Shaun said, still suspicious despite the wound remaining normal. Trevor countered back.

“He said he’s human, so he’s not one of those that can’t lie, and he bleeds like us. The rå’s a reputation of tricking people, Shaun. Wouldn’t be the first guy she’s lured naked out here.”

“Awfully light prank for her style though” Shaun said.

“Explains the bear. Tried to gut him when she got done I bet” Trevor countered.

Shaun and Trevor kept arguing back and forth, all the while Rowan remained tense and halfway to panic on the ground with his teeth gritted and the wound itching. At times like this he really hated his fast healing. Not once in his life had a wound taken more than a day to disappear unless he made a conscious effort to keep the curse at bay. Sure, at times it was a blessing that had kept him alive when a human would have perished, but it was also the biggest tell that he wasn’t human whenever he wasn’t wearing fur. A small part of his mind loved the idea that it would take nothing less of a small army or a elite adventuring team to take him down. Or a priest with Katrina’s favor. Rowan had the creeping suspicion that anything affected by the goddess of mankind would cut deeper than tools without that divine touch. Katrina was well known for her distaste for Ilo’s creatures, but the deity in question was also the reason why Katrina wouldn’t actively hunt them down.

The gods had a sort of truce going on from what Rowan could understand. They would leave each others possessions alone unless agitated, which meant that as long as Ilo’s man eating monstrosities stayed discreet and far away, Katrina would turn a blind eye to them or something. Rowan felt like there was more to it, but seeking out a priest to find out would go against his ‘avoid the holy people whenever possible’ policy. Katrina might not have noticed him yet, or she just didn’t deem him a big enough threat to act, but approaching her beloved priests would definitely set the possessive goddess off. He had no doubt about it.

A rough hand on his neck pulled Rowan away from his drifting thoughts just as effectively as Trevor pulled him up from the ground. The man was strong. Rowan stumbled and nearly fell over again as he was roughly dragged to his feet and made to face his saviours. Hopefully they wouldn’t turn from saviours to executioners. Focus Rowan, keep the wound open and don’t act suspicious. He nearly choked when he saw Trevor’s face. Great first impression.

Trevor was a tall and somewhat thin man, despite his obvious strength. He had a sort of wiry look to his long limbs, as if instead of building up, his muscles had decided to simply compress instead. But what really set him apart from others was his face. The man had old faded scars that had left his face deformed and torn. Chunks of both ears were missing, leaving them to look more like scraps of skin slapped on his head as an afterthought. Long scars that looked to be from carefully placed knife cuts crossed his eyelids and brows several times without actually harming the eyes. Someone had taken great care to cut him up so that his face would look like a patchwork quilt rather than a human face. Shaggy, light brown hair framed his face in a mess of tufts trying their best to hide the crisscross of scars reaching past his face and onto his scalp. More scars warped the shape of his mouth, making it look uneven. The scars on his chin barely managed to divide the fuzz of a few days without shaving. His crossbow hung from a sling over his back, along with a quiver full of bolts.

Rowan blinked and stood frozen as the elf child watched him in turn. Trevor’s startlingly light blue eyes held a intense light to them, speaking of a sharp intellect and a observant wit befitting a hunter of the Pines. Trevor’s face remained icy and judging for just a moment more, then he broke out into a laugh. Shaun sighed next to him.

“Alright alright you halfwit. It ain’t that funny, Trevor. They all react that way, come on!” Shaun didn’t seem anywhere as amused as Trevor.

Shaun was just as tall as Trevor, but there the similarities ended. Where Trevor was thin and animated, Shaun was built thick enough that Rowan thought he could snap a small tree in two with his bare hands. The gruff looking man was bald and wide in a way that spoke of strength. Like Trevor he had sunkissed skin and a few cuts and bruises here and there from his time in the woods, but none as striking as Trevor’s mangled face. They both wore leather armor over layers of dark clothing, a medium sized backpack each, and belts full of tools and weapons needed to make it through a few days in the Pines.

“If he’s a changeling he’s one hell of a skittish one! Look at that face! Could think he’d seen a ghost gaha!”

Trevor kept cackling until Shaun gently kicked him. The thinner man stumbled over, still wheezing with mirth. Rowan felt his his face heat up. Shaun sighed again.

“Don’t mind the idiot. He’s just as human as you, despite his ugly mug. The elves got him. Ain’t you seen a elf child before?”

Shaun peered at Rowan with no little amount of suspicion still. His hazel eyes looked almost yellow when light from high above the branches flickered over his face.

“Ehr- well… Not up close. Sorry I…”

Rowan felt silly as he stuttered a apology to Trevor. The thin man just grinned and waved the apology away.

“Understandable heh. We tend to keep to ourselves if possible. Huwee my lungs. Having someone we think might be a changeling go pale like a bedwetting kid at first sight. Oh my haha.”

Trevor shook his head and chuckled. Shaun gave him a disapproving scowl, then turned back to Rowan and reached for his bag.

“The idiot’s as weird as the rest. You see a lot more of them in the cities. Country bum then?”

Rowan nodded, still feeling a bit stunned over the situation. He noticed far too late that the wound on his thigh had pulled itself closed. Shaun tossed a pair of pants at him before he could figure out a way to hide it from him. The large man didn’t seem to notice.

“Figures. Country folks tend to get way up in their ass when they see elf kids. All that time alone in the plains makes folks way too paranoid. If I see you so much as consider stabbing him for it I’ll skewer you like a rabbit.”

Rowan blinked, then nodded again, feeling sillier by the second. He quickly tried to reassure Shaun while fumbling with the pants. Shaun digged up a far too large shift from his bag while Rowan did so.

“Don’t worry I’ll uh, I don’t mind. I was just surprised… Ah, thanks.”

Rowan accepted the shirt and hurriedly pulled it on. Meanwhile Trevor finally recovered from his laughing fit.

“Cut the guy some slack, Shaun. I’m a intimidating guy.”

“About as intimidating as a bird flying into a wall” Shaun grunted.

“Hey now, birds do creepy things sometimes” Trevor cut back.

Shaun just sighed and shouldered his bag again. Rowan felt slightly out of place. Trevor gave the guy a friendly light punch then grinned at Rowan again.

“Jokes aside, don’t mind the face. Elves are nasty people. Let’s get this bear cut up eh? Didn’t expect to have to take a big one like this down, but who are we to complain right? Lucky it didn’t do more than toss ya around. Bear fights can get nasty if you don’t take it by surprise.”

Trevor pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the dead bear. Rowan smiled stiffly and glanced at the corpse. A persistent urge to let the wolf take over and dig into the fresh kill had been gnawing at his mind for awhile now, and as Trevor asked him to help cut it up that thought turned into a insistant buzz. Rowan forced the thoughts away and nodded.

“Sure but eh, I’ve never skinned a bear before so…”

Trevor slapped his shoulder and pulled a large knife free from his belt with a little flourish. Shaun grunted and walked over to the bear.

“Don’t worry friend, I’ll teach you. We’ll be heading back after we’ve got the useful bits packed up. I assume you’d want us to escort you back to Harwall? Dangerous to be in the Pines alone. We’ll have you help with the bear and carry it back and we’ll call it even.”

Trevor didn’t wait for Rowan to answer. Instead he handed the knife over to Rowan, then pulled a second one and waltzed over to the other side of the bear.

At Trevor’s instructions and Shaun’s occasional comment, Rowan set about helping skin the beast. The feeling of skin giving beneath the knife and the still warm blood gushing forth did things to his mind that he didn’t quite want to acknowledge. The process kept him captivated with a instinctual fascination he partly blamed on the wolf, and partly on his eagerness to learn a new craft. He’d worked with leather before for a few pieces of furniture, but never directly from the source like this.

Happy to have earned enough trust to not be shot down on the spot, Rowan eagerly lost himself in the work. The three of them would need to keep at it for awhile before they could get going again. This was a welcome break from the solitude of the woods.It wasn’t until they were almost done cutting the last of the meat free of the carcass that they heard the bees arrive.