[open quest] if you go down in the woods today...

[Anuya]

Something is different, and Anuya doesn’t just mean because she’s wearing clothes for the first time in her life. She collapses to the ground with pain, her bones shifting and reforming into slightly-different shapes. Which doesn’t sound too bad, I know, but it certainly feels bad while it’s happening. When she goes to stand, she’s aware that her hind end is significantly higher than her front and her gait is all awkward. Everything feels super off.

Until she rears/stands up and discovers things make a little more sense on two legs than one.

She’s walked on two legs before, but it’s been a few years and also those were bird feet. Not these black-booted monstrosities. She twists around, discovering her lovely dusk-sky coat has been replaced with brown and black and red and she's got this weird yellow racing stripe down the side which is almost as confusing as the weird bulge around her hips.

The scent of maple is also nauseatingly thick. What was she, a Canadian $100 bill? This was a little ridiculous. And worse, she can’t even use her telekinesis anymore. Something she discovers when she tries to move a branch out of the way only for it to remain stationary and she walks right into it.

“Trees are disgusting.” Anuya remarks as she detangles herself clumsily.

Maybe she would have made it through the forest without incident if she had not made that little comment, maybe not. But the trees seem to rotate to follow her progress. There are few maples here, but the others don't like being reminded about those rather sweet, superior trees. Especially not by someone who just insulted them.

It takes her a little while to realize she's being followed, and a little longer to notice that the path she's been following keeps disappearing and changing as the trees shuffle around. When she stops to scowl and re-evaluate, wooden limbs grab at her. A loud, undignified shriek escapes her and she snaps a few of those finger-like appendages trying to escape. Now, finally, she notices that the trees all around her seem very, very sentient. And very pissed. But what do you say to that? They have her maple-scent now and she becomes very aware of the fact that they will hunt her wherever she goes. She returns to the direction she had been heading with more determination, scratches raking down her cheeks and neck as she tries to shove her way through brambles and thorns. Those puffy hips snag and tear and she nearly loses her hat - but manages to hold onto it. Some instinct tells Anuya that if she loses her hat, she'll just be a loser in a red coat.

And she definitely does not want to be that.

The once-fae-now-mountie makes some headway before the branches and vines grasp her again, twigs like claws digging at her. But her blood is even more maple scented and that just seems to make things work. She should be scared, she really should be, but this whole thing is just so damn weird she can't even get to being scared. She screams, because that seems like something she should do, and hears a strange bellow come from deeper in the woods. That bellow seems to give the trees pause, and they appear to share glances with their non-faces. Everything seems to freeze for a few of Anuya's rapid heartbeats until she starts to hear the sound of trees very quickly moving out of the way. Which sounds like nothing, really, if you're curious.

Suddenly the trees immediately around her move and a giant bull moose is there. Anuya has never seen a moose before. You would think that being around various types of horses her whole life would prepare her for seeing one but it has not. Maybe it's the weird shape she's in, maybe it's that this day is already so weird, but she just... she just did not expect it to be so god damn big. The moose pauses and snorts at her, so she scrambles back to her feet, and then it continues to barrel its way forward - shredding the animated trees like paper.

Once the trees give up, liking their bark and limbs attached more than they hate maples, the moose just turns away without a word. The nerve, right? Just leaves her standing on the edge of the river, in the dark, when it could've given her a ride over! She's dressed for it and everything.

There's really only one thing left to do in the sudden absence of her savior - so Anuya very gracefully doggy paddles across the river, slipping a little downstream and inhaling a lot of dark water in the process - and climbs out on the other side absolutely soaked down to the skin. All she can think is she might as well continue, this is already one wild dream - she wants to know how it ends so she can tell her sister all about it. So she makes her way to the base of the mountain before she sits unceremoniously on the ground and takes a break. There is a path that seems to go down into a cave but Anuya has her sights on another - one that will take her up and keep her in the air. Which sounds like the much better option when you're smelling as sweet as she is.

Anuya