The boy kept walking through the forest, snow starting to fall upon him, building up on Tyler's head and shoulders. He was silently humming to himself. The suns rays were starting to dissolve behind the trees as Tyler walked deeper into the woods, the trees seemed to multiply.
luckily, he'd packed a spare tent in his burgeon in case he needed it, it was just the worry of finding a good place to set up, and making a fire, as everything around the boy started to grow ever more whiter with snow and frost.
Tyler stopped in his tracks, as he intently listened to everything around him, focusing on even the little noises made by small critters. whatever it was that was stalking him, had probably stopped in it's tracks or had wandered off somewhere else.
But, as he stood there, Tyler thought back to that close encounter with that monster, as he replay'ed it in his head, he couldn't believe what he was trying to come up with.
some other beast that lived in these woods had come by, and actually saved him.
"Wait, those things, weren't they the kind of things Jeremy said about, before we came here?" Tyler said to himself, as he remembered back to when Jeremy talked about the tales of native wolves that bonded and lived alongside the american native's.
"Maybe he was telling the truth after all"
from behind the overgrowth, 2 figures were watching the lost boy intently, discussing on what to do.
"Maybe you should approach him first" a gruff male voice said to the other beast.
a light female voice replied, "what!, why?, after what happened to him and his friends i don't think he'd be friendly to something like me"
"I know you, you're very motherly to even the other animals of the woods, i think he'd warm up to you more quickly than me" the male voice replied back,
"Yeah, but you were the one that fought that nasty creature and saved him, surely he'd thank you for it"
"Yeah, but you know how bad i am with humans, remember that little human girl that you nursed back to health and took back to it's family, so that's why i'm saying you'd be more successful".
The female beast thought about it for a moment, and realised that the male beast was right, she was very good with children, she had helped with her siblings, and she was the best when it came to comforting pups, but the fear of doing the same to the boy still hung in her mind.
Finally, the female beast looked the male beast in the eyes and said,
"Okay, i'll do it, but, i will do it when he has settled down, and is calm, deal?"
"deal" the duo agreed and continued on following the boy.
It was completely pitch black now, thankfully, the M4 had a flashlight attached to the side rail, with some spare batteries for it. The torch's light gleaming ahead of where Tyler was walking, the circle of light being the only thing Tyler could see, with everything else out of the flashlight's glare completely devoid and black. eventually, Tyler found a large empty area, a perfect place to put up his tent and set up camp for the night.
First he needed to light a fire, the temperature had drooped down to what felt like below freezing, and a fire was more important than making a tent, also, he needed some more light than just a torch that could run out of batteries quite quickly if Tyler used it too much.
he took off is burgeon, pulling out one of his ration packs, opening it up and grabbing the waterproof matches in it. He dug round in his burgeon and found that weird block used for the cooker, he couldn't remember what it was called, the paper wrap having been teared in quick succession.
He set up a bunch of sticks and branch's, making sure they were dry enough so that they didn't put the fire out. placing a piece of the white block under the pile, gagging at the way it smelled like rotten fish, grabbing a match and lighting it, setting a piece of the wrap, watching it grow bigger and placing it next to the block under the stick pile.
The fire took a few seconds to grow, but soon it turned into a nice large fireplace, it provided Tyler with warmth and it managed to light up a good portion of the area around him, giving a clear view of his surroundings.
Tyler began pulling out his tent and setting it up, the boy sending an occasional glance around him and behind him, making sure something wasn't sneaking up behind him. It was quite a big tent, so he would have enough room for him and his stuff, he would have had Mitchell with him, but Tyler was sure he was gone at this point, like everyone else, he was the only human in the desolate forest, besides the monsters wanting to munch on him.
once he'd finished building his tent and throwing more scraps of paper and twigs onto the fire, he started checking the stuff he'd grabbed, also looking over his rifle, seeing a piece of writing on the mag-well reading:
"Colt 5.56mm"
" At least i have some protection from the normal animals out here, it didn't seem to do anything to that strange wolf thing, i don't think it even felt it"
Tyler counted the extra magazines he had for it, while he definitely had enough to last him in case of a some cougar or bear got too curious, but anything like the "thing" and he wouldn't stand a chance, Tyler shoved the rounds into one of his parka pockets.
He sat himself down in front of the fire with the tent at his back, his rifle in his lap, at the ready. He pulled out his small sketchbook out of his back-pocket with a pencil and continued with his drawing.
However, outside of Tyler's peripheral view, a big creature was kneeling next to a stump, many thoughts flying round in it's head. Luckily for Tyler, this one, was a warm and lovely creature that wanted to protect the boy, and help him.
"I think now is the time to introduce myself, i just hope he won't be afraid" The thing said to itself, getting up from it's hiding spot and walking toward the fire's glow.