Chapter V: The Forbidden Forest Part I

“So, Zara where exactly are we going again?” Ajani nervously asked his best friend as they walked towards THAT place.
Jahzara whispers in his ear “The Forbidden Forest” She smirks as she sees the look of fear on her friend’s face
“But… Malik and Raza say never go to there unless you know what you’re doing” he replies.
“What if something happens to you and Raza doesn’t rescue you. Last time I checked you don’t know what your doing.”
Jahzara groans “Will you quit whining and come on! I overheard someone say there’s strange things there. I wanna see what they are. Or would you rather be a scaredy wolf and stay all alone by yourself!”
Ajani gives a soft whine and continues to follow Jahzara. The closer they get to the forest, the more fear he feels in his stomach. There is a reason Malik doesn’t allow anyone near there without them knowing what to do. Many go into the forest, few ever return.

Back at the den, Raza is pacing in front of Malik, furious “So you’re telling me you just let Jahzara and Ajani go off by themselves to the forbidden forest and you didn’t even try to stop them?!”
“I would have Raza, but we had important guests round. Royalty to be exa-”
“Bullshit! So what about you caring so much about the pack and not wanting any of us to die huh?” Raza interrupts, his nostrils flaring in anger “You know as well as I do that Jahzara is one of the few pups in this pack who will continue our species. One day she will have pups of her own and boost our numbers. You’re telling me some stupid guests are more important than your own pack?! How long ago did they leave?”
Malik thought for a bit “Shortly after you left for your hunt. The guests were Queen Rani and Prince Kion of the Tree of Life. They came talking about-”
“I don’t give a shit who the quests were! I’m going after my sister before she gets killed! If she dies, it will be on you!”
“WATCH YOUR TONE RAZA!” Malik barks, standing up and glaring at him “You may be worried about her, but just remember who you are talking to and what power I hold!”
“Whatever” Raza replies before leaving the cave and beginning the sprint towards Jahzara.

About 5 miles away, Jahzara and Ajani are on the edge of the forbidden forest. Large trees towered into the sky, the place having an eerie silence to it.
Jahzara felt Ajani whimper and get closer to her “Your scared of some trees?” she says, smirking.
Ajani simply moves even closer to her “It’s not the trees, its what’s in there. Do you even know what’s in there?”
“Not really. I’ve heard rumours from others that there are these strange things on the floor. What’s in there?”
“H-humans…” Ajani replies, whimpering.
Jahzara starts walking forward “Woah! I’ve never seen them before!”
“Zara no!” Ajani cries out and holds her back, grabbing her tail “Remember what Raza says about humans! They are big and scary and hurt everything! I really don’t want to see you get hurt!”
Jahzara simply puts a paw on Ajani’s shoulder “AJ we’ll be fine! It’s all just rumours and stories we were told as pups to scare us. Nothing will happen to us”
“Promise?” Ajani asks, his voice having a slight questioning tone to it.
“Promise!” Jahzara replies, nuzzling him quickly before moving into the woods, leaving Ajani blushing. Realising she was already heading towards the woods he hastily took off after her.

Upon entering the woods, the two wolves are greeted by a seemingly never-ending sea of tree trunks and forest, the fallen leaves crinkling under their paws. Jahzara looks over and sees Ajani whimper as the sunlight begins to fade due to the thick leaves and branches above. His ears going down against his head. Jahzara comes to a stop and looks around for a moment, thinking where to go.
“So where now?” she hears Ajani say.
“Hmm…” she ponders and looks around, every direction she looks is the same. She takes a big sniff, hoping to smell anything interesting. To her delight, she catches a whiff of something she’s smelt before. She hears sniffing and looks to her side to see AJ smelling too.
“You smell that?” he asks.
“Yep! Wanna see what it is? I think its food”
AJs belly growls “We could. Though… I still think this is a bad idea and should go back”
Jahzara gives another frustrated growl “For fuck’s sake AJ! Your either with me or not with me! Which will it be!”
AJ looked at the friend he’s known all his life. On the one paw, he is NOT comfortable being here in the slightest. On the other paw, Jahzara is his best friend, and he’d never forgive himself if she got hurt, lost or worse and he didn’t take the chance to prevent it.
Taking a deep breath, he replies as seriously and as grown up as he can. “Jahzara, I am not comfortable here at all, but as your best friend, I have a duty to be there for you through thick and thin just like you are always there for me” he holds out his paw in a paw shake “I’ll stay as long as we don’t leave each other’s sides. Agreed?”
Jahzara takes a step back, momentarily stunned as she listens to her best friend who has always been quiet and submissive to her. This side of AJ she’s never seen before. Bringing her paw into his in a paw shake she replies “Agreed. You should be like this more often. It really shows that you have potential to be a big strong grown-up wolf and not a scaredy pup” She smirks and gives him a playful nudge
“Har Har very funny Zara. Last I checked you have your own fears too!” AJ replies, making Jahzara glare at him.
She growls and suddenly pins him to the floor, sitting on his belly “Don’t you DARE say it!”
“Hmm… would it be…” he slowly says, smirking at the female wolf on top of him.
Jahzara’s glare grows as she raises her paw, her paw toes wiggling “I wonder what would happen if my paw touches your belly. Will you keep that muzzle of yours shut?”
Ajani looks up at her with a confident smirk “You don’t know me as well as you think! I have no weakness!”
Jahzara doesn’t seem impressed and slowly lowers her paw, hovering it over his belly “are you sure Ajani? I’ve known you all my life and I know this belly of yours is very… sensitive”
Ajani gives a slightly scared look “Ok Zara that’s enough. I won’t say it!”
“Hmm… I’m not convinced” she says as her paw rests on his belly, tapping her paw toes on it. “Last chance AJ”
“Alright! Alright! I surrender you win! I promise never to say your fear! Happy?”
Jahzara grins and lets him up “Now I am. I always win. Remember that next time you think about being smart. That’s my job You know I’m the only one who can get into that empty skull of yours”
“Yes Jahzara” Ajani replies as he gets up and shakes, a blush faint on his face.

After their little engagement the pair begin to walk in a random direction. The deeper they go the more the surrounding trees begin to look the same. Hopping up on a fallen tree Jahzara looks around for anything different.
“Zara are we lost?” she hears her best friend say from the forest floor.
“No. I’m just looking around for anything different we can go look at!” she replies. She takes a big sniff and smells the same smell she smelt earlier. “Why don’t we go to that smell we smelt?”
Ajani sniffed the air and noticed the smell is stronger and made his stomach growl “Sure as long as we don’t get distracted again”
“AJ, we only got distracted because you were being a scaredy wolf!” she replies, rolling her eyes.
“Yeah, your right. Let’s go see what this smell is” he replies as they both head off towards the smell.

After traveling deeper into the forest, the smell of food gets stronger and stronger. Going through a bush the pair of wolves see a piece of meat in the open. 
“See I told you there was food there!” Jahzara whispers to Ajani “wanna see me do a pounce like Raza taught me?”
Whilse also interested by the food, Ajani was also nervous and confused about why a piece of meat was simply left out in the open “Zara I know I’m sounding like a scaredy wolf again but don’t you think it’s a little strange that there’s just a random piece of meat in the middle of the forest everyone says not to go into unless you know what you’re doing? Maybe it’s a predator wanting someone to go towards the meat and then they attack? What if its humans? What-”
He's silenced as Jahzara places a paw on his mouth “AJ! Stop worrying again! Its meat. Unless its rotting meat nothing is wrong with it”
“O-ok” Ajani replies, still not convinced that this is safe. Looking next to him, he sees Jahzara whispering to herself as she lines up to deliver a pounce just like Raza has been teaching her. She manoeuvres herself downwind of the meat, pretending that piece of meat was a real animal. Ajani looked on with an amused look as he watches Jahzara look down at her paws and legs, making sure she positioned just like Raza taught her. He watches her crouch down, her rear legs tensing up as she prepares to deliver, in her mind, the perfect pounce. 
No sooner does Jahzara’s legs tense up does she lunge forward at the meat, putting her all into it. Flying through the air, she opens her mouth wide and prepares to bite. Unfortunately, she isn’t met with the sweet taste of meat, but instead a mouthful of dirt and leaves. Due to the momentum, she lands on the forest floor with a grunt, rolling and sliding a few feet before coming to a stop. The meat getting covered in dirt.

She hears paw steps rushing towards her as she opens her eyes and sees an orange blur quickly approaching.
“Jahzara!” the orange blur shouts out as it skids to a stop next to her panting quickly. “Are you ok?! Please tell me you’re ok!”
Jahzara groans and slowly begins to come to her senses. She quickly realises the orange blur is franticly brushing dirt and leaves off her fur. She opens her mouth as a pile of leaves, dirt and mud fall out of her mouth, a disgusting taste still lingering in her mouth making her gag. 
Realising who the orange blur is she calls out softly “AJ?”
The orange blur replies quickly, panic evident in its voice. “Jahzara! Are you ok? Are you hurt? Is anything broken? Do you need me to carry you? Do yo-”
He cuts himself off mid-sentence and gasps as he sees his best friend slowly trying to sit up. Looking up and down her body he sees her front right leg bent at an odd angle. He looks into Jahzara’s eyes and sees pain, sadness but worst of all, humiliation and embarrassment. 
Not knowing what to do he simply walks up and gives her a soft hug, being careful of her damaged front leg. A few moments later, she does something he’s never seen her do before. She buries her snout into the crook of his neck and begins to sob.
“Zara are you ok?” he asks softly, wrapping his paws around her.
Jahzara looks up at him with a tear-stained face, all traces of the normal Jahzara gone “I…I fucked up! I tried my best and I still fucked up!”
Ajani thinks for a moment. This being the first time he’s ever seen his best friend in this state. He chooses his next words very carefully “Jahzara you didn’t mess up at all. You’re still learning just like everyone is-”
“But Raza-”
“Raza has made loads of mistakes just like you and I going to make lots more mistakes. The important thing to do is focus on learning from your mistake, improve next time and picking yourself back up again” Ajani replies, looking down at her. “What do you think he’ll be prouder of you for? Messing up and being a moody wolf or messing up and looking at how you can improve next time!”
Again, shocked at how confident Ajani is, Jahzara looks up at him. Looking up at him, her nose suddenly presses against his nose, their lips mere millimetres apart. Her eyes widen and look into his wide eyes.
“Uuuh” Ajani replies, blushing like crazy.
Jahzara simply looks up into his eyes, equally blushing “AJ you’re forgetting one important thing” she looks back down to her injured leg before looking back at him, smirking “I can’t exactly pick myself up right now”
Ajani looked to her damaged leg “Right… wait here” he says as he runs off, looking around for something. A few minutes later he comes back with 2 sticks and some vines “I think its best we try and put the leg in a splint so it gets better quicker”
“Ok AJ” Jahzara says quietly as she slowly stretches her leg toward him. 
Taking her leg, Ajani gently begins to pull it straight causing her to tear up “shh shh its ok. I know it hurts but we have to keep it straight so it heals right” he softly says to her as he licks a tear away from her cheek without even thinking. Keeping the leg straight, he then proceeds to place two sticks on either side of the leg before using the vines to tightly wrap them together, making a splint.
Letting her leg down gently, she proceeds to hug him “Thanks AJ. Where did you learn that?
Hugging back, Ajani replies “Raza obviously” he begins to blush “I told him I wanted to know how to help you if you ever got hurt so he taught me some stuff”
“That’s smart” she said before trying to take a step, pain shooting up her recently splinted leg causing her to yelp.
“I’m guessing you want a lift then?” Ajani asks
“If I’m not orange you get a day off” she replies
Ajani looks at her, quickly smirking “Well… you were orange this morning but… you got some dirt on you making you a little brown, so I think I get a day off today”
“Ajani come on!” she wines, in obvious pain “Look at me! You know damn well I’m orange! Now be my lift or… I’ll tell Raza you tried to kiss me!”
“You… you wouldn’t!”  Ajani says, blushing even more “We haven’t kissed yet!”
“Yet?” she smirks at him.
“FINE ILL CARRY YOU! God I hate you sometimes!” he wines at her, defensively yet not aggressive in any way.
Jahzara’s smirk turns into an even more mischievous grin “You love me really”
At that sentence she sees Ajani tense up, his blush growing even more “a-as your b-best friend yeah!”
“That’s not what that blush says” she replies, blushing just as much as he is.
“Well, you’re blushing too! – you know what, let’s just get going!” he remarks, doing his best to move on from this topic before crouching down on his belly “you want your lift or what?”
Jahzara chuckles again before lying on her best friends back “let’s get out here and go home AJ. No point in exploring when I can’t walk”
“Good idea Zara. See! Maybe my scaredy wolf-ness is rubbing off on you a little”
Jahzara brings her good front leg up and cuffs him round the ear “shut it or I tell Raza!”
“Yes Zara” Ajani replies going back to his former self, wincing at the hit before looking around “Um… you wouldn’t happen to know how we get out do you?”
Jahzara looks around, her ears slowly going down to her head. Coming to the hard truth, she finally confesses “Um… no”
Ajani closes his eyes and gives a soft wine before looking up and around “Ok. Let’s… let’s just pick a direction and go that way in as straight a line as we can”
“Sure. You’re my lift anyway and I can’t go anywhere without you"
 
Both teens slowly make their way in a random direction in the hope they’d somehow find their way out. The further they go in, the thicker the forest gets. After some time, Ajani is jumping from log to stump, stump to rock, and back to a log. Jahzara clings onto his neck as he leaps around, admiring how strong he is. Before long they come to a clearing in the forest, the forest eerily quiet. Slowly lowing himself down and allowing Jahzara to climb off, Ajani looks around “So what now? I think we’re truly lost.”
Jahzara gets up and hops around the small clearing “yeah” she takes a deep breath “how do you think we get out?”
“I dunno” Ajani replies, also walking around the edge of the clearing. Jahzara seeing his nose flaring, indicating he’s sniffing.  
“Anything?”
Ajani gives her a sad look “Nothing.”

As he starts to walk back to Jahzara, his rear paw brushing something different to the forest floor. Turning around, he looks down and sees a small loop of rope on the floor covered with leaves “hey Zara come check this out!” he calls out.
Jahzara hops over on three legs to see what Ajani has found “woah! What is it?”
“No clue” he replies, carefully brushing some leaves off it “I’ve never seen anything like this before”
“Do you think its safe?” Jahzara ask, leaning down and sniffing it.
Ajani looks at Jahzara with an amused smirk “You checking if something is safe? My scaredy wolfism must be contagious. Though we are in the forest that we’ve been told since we were pups is very dangerous to go in without knowledge like Raza. If he was here I’m sure he’d know”
Sniffing around some more, Ajani smells a new metallic smell. Following his nose, it leads him to a patch of covered leaves a few feet from the other mystery item. He carefully brushes the leaves away and gasps as he sees a circular metal device with sharp jagged teeth in it “hey Zara check this one out!” 
Jahzara again hops over to her best friend and looks at what new thing he’s found “woah... that looks even cooler than the other thingy! It’s so shiny!”
“What do you think it does?”
“My guess is as good as yours” she answers.

Jahzara gets closer to the metal object and sniffs it again, trying to figure out what it is and how it works. Whilse she’s is doing that Ajani is sniffing the air. Suddenly he hears some sounds unfamiliar to him. Straining his ears, he hears what sounds like an animal he’s never heard before. Looking to the direction of the sound he sees something that makes his blood run cold. “Zara!” he hisses to his friend who doesn’t hear him “JAHZARA!”
“Yeah AJ?” she calls back, unaware of what Ajani can hear and see. Turning, she sees her best friend with a terrified expression “AJ what’s wrong? Don’t tell me your being a scaredy wolf again about these things we found”
Seeing there was little time, Ajani quickly rushes to Jahzara and puts her on his back before darting into a bush. Letting her off his back she cuffs him round the ear “what the fuck was that for?!”
Ajani whispers something she can’t hear.
“What?”
“Humans” he whispers louder “I saw humans!”
Jahzara gives her friend an annoyed look “Really AJ? Seriously you need to stop worrying about them. You don’t even know what they look like! How can you tell they are humans?”
“I’ve seen paintings on stones of them. They are tall and walk on their hind legs. Raza says they have no fur and the only fur they have is on top of their heads. He says some humans are pale and some are dark skinned, and they hurt everything they see and destroy it”

As Ajani explains to Jahzara what humans are like he sees Jahzara’s eyes begin to light up “Zara...”
Jahzara looks back at her best friend with a certain look.
“Zara no! I know that look!” Ajani hisses.
“Wanna see them up close?” she asks, a smirk forming on her muzzle.
Ajani just gives a tired sigh “Your not going to take no for an answer and your going to ignore Raza and Malik’s warning and I can’t let you go alone so I guess so”
“Correct answer” she replies, nuzzling him before hopping on 3 legs out bush they are in.  Giving a worried wine, Ajani followed her out the bush and back into the clearing. Getting into the clearing, Jahzara crouches down and looks behind her for Ajani. Her best friend nervously sneaks in beside her. A few moments later they see 10 humans all in a group walking near them just a few meters away “Woah!” Jahzara whispers as they get closer. “There’s a whole pack of them!”
Whimpering, Ajani slowly starts to back up “Zara I really don’t think this is a good idea”
Giving a frustrated sigh, Jahzara looks back to her friend before widening her eyes “AJ stop!” but it was too late.
