The woods were still that day. Silent, too. There was hardly a breeze in the air, as if time had stopped altogether and let the air grow thick. The leaves, bright with springtime, were completely still as Alexei ducked under their branches, careful to tuck his head enough that his antlers wouldn’t tangle in them.
Alexei anticipated a storm would roll in eventually, but all there was to show for it so far was a layer of clouds, heavy and gray and threatening to rip open at any given moment. Beyond that, they seemed to be waiting.
Even the spirits he usually saw in those parts of the woods seemed to have fallen silent. They, too, were waiting. Alexei kept making his rounds, looking for anything he might find out of place, up to and including the turkey hunters he occasionally asked to turn back due to the ground not being stable or some other geological lie he could get his sister to make that sounded serious enough. It was mostly lies.
The only sign of intelligence Alexei could find that afternoon hid far under his usual line of sight. However, he could immediately tell that he wasn’t in the presence of a human. Toddlers typically didn’t blend in this well. On the other end, stray goats almost never came this far into the woods.
He took a few cautious steps toward the shape he saw through the bush. If there was an intelligent creature on the other side, then he might be able to help. If it really was just a stray goat or a fawn, then he’d be thankful that nobody else was around to see him embarrass himself.
He squatted in an attempt to make himself look less intimidating to the little one. “Are you lost?”
