- listen to the song of songbirds

Garofița woke up to a warm, foul breath against her face. It smelled like cut grass and unwashed teeth. She opened her eyes to see a pale pink snout right in front of her, topped with two beady black eyes.

She blew air back on his nose, and he wrinkled like a sphinx cat.

To start the day she brushed her hair and then her teeth, spitting the foam out on the ground outside, over the fence surrounding the house. If she leaned on it too hard, it would fall down and probably disintegrate into a cloud of rust.

"Who lived here before?" She asked the creature as if it could answer. At most it made grunts like a piglet or whines like a small dog.

The house she was squatting in was old and crumbling, abandoned by whoever last owned it. Old folk dying and younger folk forgetting the place exists, or not being able to afford fixing it. She heard adults complain about it all the time. It was on the edge of the town, with other forgotten structures, piling trash and overgrown weeds.

She had been waking up early since she arrived. The sky was purple-blue, birds were already busy singing, and it would be a couple hours before there was a continuous stream of cars on the roads. Thankfully, from her new house they were only an echo in the distance.

In the woods behind the house, to her delight, she could see blackbirds and titmice flying between the thicket of branches. She heard them sing through her sleep too, when it was still dark, tune after tune.

- find a big stick and explore the land

Closer to town, the trees neatly aligned in rows, at even distances. The deeper she stepped into the woods, the wilder they grew, hugging against each-other, bushes cutting off her path, fallen logs like gates and benches. Everywhere she looked it was green. As the sun rose in the sky, it filtered through the gaps in the ceiling of leaves. Birds sang and bugs buzzed around her, tiny blue butterflies and bees. She could feel every worry melt away.

A wall of blackberry bushes stood by a small clearing, like a tangled ball of barbed wire. It was too tall to see how far it went. There must have been thousands of berries completely inaccessible. Garofița set her stick against a tree and picked all the ones she could reach, putting them straight in her mouth. If her hand and a bee reached for the same branch, she let it pass first.

"Pss-pss! Come here!" She called for the creature. He was sniffing the grass nearby. When he saw the blackberries gathered in her palms, he dashed to her side. Her hands and both of their mouths were stained dark red. She picked a leaf and tried to wipe, but the juice wouldn't budge. He licked her palms, but that didn't work either.

"It's fine. We'll wash later, buddy." She pet his head with the back of her hand. "Can I call you my Buddy?"

There was a rustling and the sound of human voices coming their way. Garofița froze. Buddy breathed hard and loud.

"Just don't pick the ones close to ground, cuz animals can pee on those."

"Okie-dokie."

Garofița ran to hide behind a tree. Two older girls from the town were coming to pick berries, armed with buckets and big sticks of their own. Their conversation abruptly stopped when they saw Buddy standing by the blackberries: a hairless four-legged thing, deep ravines between each rib, nasty tufts of fuzz in random places, deer-like legs but a canine head. It was breathing loudly and making gross phlegmy sounds, almost like a purr.

Garofița heard the girls run away, buckets clanking in their hands, and peeked from behind the tree. Buddy too was checking if they left, breathing normally and no longer sitting so stiff. He even stopped sucking in his stomach.

"You're so smart!!" She pet him again.

Some leaves were smooth, others sticky, others had fine hair-like spikes. Tree bark was rough and dry on most trees. Moss was lovely, as expected. The ground became wet under her shoes and she almost slipped on the drenched grass. She glanced behind to see if Buddy saw it. She couldn’t read his reaction, if he had any.

There were tiny streams of water like threads, sprouting forget-me-nots and mud. Sadly, they had no perfume. Buddy stepped through the wet ground without a care, only flicking his paws a little bit. If Garofița got her pants or sleeves wet, she'd get yelled at.

She remembered there was nobody to yell at her.

After a pause, she childishly slapped her hands against the water, spooking Buddy, and dug her fingers into the mud. It had the texture of chocolate cake.

- hydrate rocks, they get thirsty too

They followed the water as the threads converged into a slightly bigger stream with sandy edges. There was a boulder nearby, surrounded by forget-me-nots and dragon-mouths. It would take a big jump to get to the other side of the small river, and under the clear water there were many rocks, brown and grey and red. Garofița washed her hands. It was very cold. Her stains were now pink, as if she had a rash. She washed her lips too, while Buddy had a drink.

Cupping the water in her hands, dripping everywhere, she poured it over the boulder. It turned a darker shade of grey, and she could almost hear it sigh in relief.

A twig snapped. Both Garofița and Buddy's heads spun in that direction. Garofița blindly reached for her stick.

On the other side of the stream was a fox with dark orange fur and doll-like eyes. Garofița never saw one in real life before. She relaxed her grip for a moment. It walked through the grass, when it bumped its head against a tree like it didn’t see it. It paused and giggled, then did it again, harder. It giggled louder, then did it again and again.

Garofița and Buddy both ran away.

- check the outhouse

She panted with her hands against her knees, stick fallen at her side. Buddy seemed fine, but kept looking back.

"I don't wanna know what that was…" She swallowed and glanced around. The street of her house was still empty, save for birds. The sky was bright blue and peppered with clouds. In the distance there was an ambulance siren, and smoke rising from chimneys.

Within her own yard was a dilapidated outhouse. When she needed to go, she did it in the woods or public bathrooms. She hadn't thought to check it yet.

When her heart calmed down, she picked her stick back up and walked towards it. Buddy followed, stalking at her side.

Garofița pushed the door open with the stick, careful not to make it fall over her. The wood groaned and creaked terribly loud. She and Buddy stretched their necks to look inside.

The wooden seat was gone, the lighter shade of the wood indicating where it once was.

"Someone stole the toilet!!"

- harass the local wildlife (with caution)

She didn't want to go into town yet, and she wasn't hungry. She picked a different direction and ventured into the woods again.

A swallow flew above her head, dipping down then soaring back up, disappearing above the trees' crowns. It was probably safe.

At the base of a large tree the ground was exposed. Lines were visible where hooves dug through, the earth dark brown and soft. Garofița turned heel and Buddy followed.

She was unsure which were more dangerous, regular wild animals or creepy wild animals. A boar will fuck you up no matter what you are. They have no chill.

The creepy beasts were too many to count, with contradictory rules. If one she could keep away by being loud and flailing like a maniac, another would be brought upon her by making that noise. She knew more about creatures in America and Asia than her own country, it was embarrassing. She should have prepared more. She saw a library in town, she will prepare properly now. It's fine.

Eastern Europe sucked so much too! Other regions got gnomes and little house helpers and silly little critters, like the axe-handle hound or the cactus cat. Meanwhile she has to deal with witches with iron teeth, blood suckers and body thieves. The universal advice given by books and online was "stay away". Yeah, no shit. She read that in some countries it was illegal to touch or pet them. How do you verify that?

She could remember one time being in the car, driving through a forest at night. On the side of the road was a naked man-like figure, with their back facing the car. He was sickly pale and gaunt, and dirty, almost as if grass and moss were growing out of his skin. Garofița watched from the backseat window, deeply curious, then felt her heart seize when he stood up. The car was going too fast for him to catch up, and he didn’t seem to follow, but what if he was one of the ones that could keep up with a car??

If she encountered one of those, she would be so screwed. But she won't, she won't. It was the middle of the day, and very bright. Most of them are nocturnal anyway, and they learned to avoid humans like other animals do. She could see the smoke from the town and even the peaks of some buildings over the top of the trees. As soon as it got dark she hid in her house and was careful to be quiet. She will be fine.

Maybe that fox had rabies and was going crazy from it? Most creatures that mimic others are bad at it. The trick only works at night, when you can't see the details and that's how they get you. Some don't even bother looking like anything, creepy bastards.

Not Buddy of course. Buddy is her silly little friend. She pet him and he leaned full-body against her. She would die for him.

On a log with yellow-green moss there was a rhinoceros beetle. She poked its butt with her finger and it moved away a couple steps.

"You're cute!" She told it.

It opened its wings and flew away heavily, sounding like a little engine.

Two doves flew together on a tree branch, their silver feathers standing out against the green background.

"Hello!" Garofița said as she walked under them. "Good day!" Best to be polite.

A salamander was scuttling on the ground, emerging from under a large leaf and licking its own eye.

"What's up, mamacita!" She poked its butt. It dashed away like a projectile.

- pray to your god

There was a miniature altar in the woods! Garofița reached a man-made path, brown battered earth cutting through the green. On the side of it was a very old bench, and a little house open on one side. The paint was all chipped. Inside was a wooden crucifix, a small shelf, dried up sticks that were once flowers, and a metal tin that was once a tealight candle.

Garofița looked around, and picked a handful of buttercups and dandelions. She put them fresh on the altar and awkwardly made the sign of the cross.

She hadn't prayed in a long time. She prayed for things to get better and they didn't. In fact, they got worse. In her mind it burrowed the idea that her praying was causing the opposite to happen, and she was scared of doing it ever since.

"Buddy, come here!" She reached out her hand and he met it with his head, petting himself against it. "You're not evil, right?"

Buddy sniffed the altar, then didn't pay it much attention.

"I should give thanks that I got here with you!" She thought out loud. She clasped her hands together.

Tatăl nostru care ești în ceruri, sfințească-se numele tău, fie împărăția ta, facă-se voia ta, precum în cer așa și pe pământ- "wait, I think I said it wrong..."

It was very quiet on the dirt path. Birds and bugs were unperturbed. Buddy wandered nearby, sniffing through the grass, and Garofița felt even more awkward. She looked around, making sure nothing and nobody would appear again. She half-expected to see the fox.

Pâinea noastră cea de toate zilele, dă-ne-o nouă astăzi, și nu ne duce pe noi în ispită și ne izbăvește de cel rău... "...I finished it too fast. I definitely forgot something..."

Buddy coughed and spat on the ground. "You ok?" Garofița asked. He didn't answer. Too quiet again. Every gust of wind through the branches and every trill of a bird sounded too loud. Garofița kept looking over her shoulder, up and down the empty road. Nothing and nobody. There was no reason to be so nervous. She was safe from a broad category of threats when next to the Lord.

She shut her eyes tight and focused. Tatăl nostru care ești în ceruri, VIE împărăția ta, facă-se voia ta- no, shit,- don't curse while praying, idiot - sfințească-se numele tău, vie împărăția ta, facă-se voia ta, precum în cer așa și pe pământ; pâinea noastră cea de toate zilele, dă-ne-o nouă astăzi, și ne iartă greșelile noastre precum și noi iertăm greșiților noștri, și nu ne duce pe noi în ispită, și ne izbăvește de cel rău. Că a ta... uhhh... There was another thing she forgot, just before în numele Tatălui, al Fiului și al Sfântului Duh, amin. Shit.

Garofița let her hands fall against her legs. Stupid, can't even pray right. Maybe she shouldn't do it. Continue not doing it. She shouldn't have thoughts like these around a freaking altar!

She nearly shat her pants when she heard a rustling behind her. Nothing there. She kept waiting for something to reveal itself, but it wouldn't. The green forest gently swayed against the breeze, without a single worry.

"Buddy! Come! We're leaving!" She stood up and almost ran without him.

- talk to flowers and tell them your secrets (they are good at keeping them)

- climb trees and hills and mountains

"Buddy, if I fall, you catch me, ok?" She said as she climbed up the tree trunk.

Buddy paused his grass-eating and stared up at her, as if he understood.

Garofița climbed as high up as she dared and could see safe places to put her feet on. They were close to the edge of the woods again, a short way away from her house. She was walking behind old buildings with discoloured walls and dirty backyards, rusted through back doors and boarded up windows. Not quite slums, but not taken care of too much either.

As she hoped, the tree gave her a small view of the neighbourhood. The town used to be a village that grew and expanded, the edges left behind to fray. She could see her own house! At the end of the periphery neighbourhood, small and unlived. She will have to keep it looking that way, in order to hide, at least on the outside.

Garofița planted her legs firmly against two branches, leaning with the small of her back on another. It was not comfortable at all, but she could bear it for now. The town looked so sad, this neighbourhood especially. Red brick and chipped white paint, rain-stained filthy windows, fallen roof tiles, stray cats with crusty eyes, pigeon colonies, here and there a raggedy person with a scowl. She watched a person with a big coat push a shopping cart full of God knows what.

She thought she should be careful to remain clean and presentable. She washed her face and teeth with water bottles every morning, and in public bathrooms when nobody else was there, if she got the chance. Bathing will be a problem. Her hair already itched. She could buy a big pot from a thrift store, fill it with water and heat it up, wash her hair in it like in a sink. Summer was coming, she could just sit outside and wait for it to dry. Autumn and winter will suck. She'll worry about it when she gets there. She should buy a lighter and a kettle too. Noodle soup packets were pretty cheap, even though salty as all hell. You can eat them dry too, apparently. She should have packed more supplies. There wasn't time. She will figure it out as she goes, that's fine too. What will she do later on? She'll worry when she gets there, ok? For now she hides. She'll hide until they stop looking for her, until they forget about her, then she'll live a quiet, obscure life. She didn't ask for much: only peace.

What if she pretended she died? People go missing all the time. Eaten or possessed or stolen. She saw at least 4 missing posters on every street. In the news it would be announced if somebody's skin was discovered to be used by a skin-walker, thus confirming they were dead. Could she fake that, somehow? Then what? Dead people can’t get jobs. Under the table jobs! She'll get a new identity. She'll say she was born in a cult that doesn't believe in registering people to the government and now she needs a birth certificate! She saw on the news that there's a cult right in the next town over! There, fixed! Everything will be fine!

The leaves shook as she nervously tapped her foot against the branch. Shit, what if someone saw it? Stupid.

Shut up, she's not stupid, she just has a lot to figure out in a short time. She will figure everything out eventually. It will be fine. It will. Shut up, it will. Enjoy the peace of the damned forest now.

"Buddy!" She climbed down, her palms burning as she slid down the bark. "Let's go somewhere else now!"

- frolic in the fields

There was the town, then the forest surrounding most of it, then the fields. In the far distance she could see the cult town and their own woodland. The grass swayed and bowed under the wind like sea waves. Buddy merrily jumped like a deer around the tall grass, and Garofița joined him. She hadn't run like that in so long. Through the grass grew wild wheat and poppies and shrubs as short as her.

Buddy would run forward, stop, and when Garofița was about to catch up, then bounce again. After some more chasing, Garofița lunged forward, but Buddy side-swiped, and she fell down with a heavy "Oof!", crickets and her stick flying up.

Garofița laughed as she pushed herself up, her fuzzy sweater catching every dry leaf and empty seed shell. Buddy ran to her side, pushing his face by hers. She tried to pet him and he ran off again.

"Are you a dog after all?"

They sat down on the ground, surrounded by grass and looking up at the sky. The clouds lazily rolled across the blue, soft like cotton. If she lied down, she would be fully concealed. She wondered if there was anybody or anything else hiding in the vast grass, and slowly the thought congealed into "there has to be".

Songbirds and swaying branches were still behind her, but unlike inside the forest, the field was eerily quiet. The wind blew and caressed the grass, whistling into one ear or the other. She kept expecting to see something. A figure in dirty clothes or a misshapen deer shambling through the field, nothing but the sky and the grass around them. She read that many of them use the same strategy: standing with their back towards you. Some stand too still, others walk uneasily, as if drunk or hurt. It catches your attention, makes you worried for them or at least curious, and that's how they lure you.

Garofița's eyes rolled along the horizon, searching but finding none. She expected to fight for her life all the time, but the days since she arrived had been quiet like the field. Most distress was caused by herself.

- forage and scavenge

The sky was turning orange, red and pink. Time flew by so fast. Garofița remembered she only ate berries in the morning. Oops.

"Let's go home, Buddy." She stood up. She still had food in the house she bought from the grocery store the other day. They had to be non-perishable things, like biscuits, nuts, dates, cereal (she could eat it without milk too), beef jerky and cans. There were cans of food she didn’t even know could be canned! Cans were annoying to open with her knife, though. It was also kind of sad to eat cold canned vegetable soup straight out the can. Can can can can can. She heard of portable tiny ovens for camping, but she was scared of working with gas. Maybe if she made a small fire in the yard she would be able to cook unnoticed and without burning down the house.

As it got darker, the green of the forest turned blue and purple. The blackberry stains looked dark again. Birds sang above their heads uninterrupted. At some point Garofița discarded the stick. The street was as quiet as ever.

"Tonight's menu!" Garofița opened her backpack, where she kept the food. As much as she loved Buddy, he was a glutton. He ate more of her bread than she did. Even now he was sticking his snout under her arm. How was he so skinny, yet constantly eating?

"Canned peach, one for each! The last pieces of bread! This small bag of chips! Aaaand, peanut butteeer!" She held it up like a prize. She got it on sale too!

Garofița ate two peach halves, then held out two halves with a fork for Buddy to take. She drank some of the syrupy juice straight out of the can. Then she spread the peanut butter generously on the last slices of bread for both of them. Buddy ate every crumb. She sprinkled her slice with chips.

The town had a bunch of supermarkets and grocery stores - one right on the corner outside her neighbourhood. It was all white, with stuff put on the shelves in a way that made sense only to the owner. She never went into town without a face mask. She did her best to be as unnoticed as possible, go in and out as quickly as she could. She didn’t want people to take notice of her. The white grocery store had a board with ads and new missing posters. She wasn't there yet. She checked every day, then berated herself for going to the same place too often. Maybe they weren't even looking for her! Maybe they were glad she was gone! That would be ideal. She leaves them and they leave her alone too. God bless.

She ate more peanut butter with the spoon. Buddy was struggling to lick it off the top of his mouth. It was very filling and tasty. She always saw it in stores before. She wished she could have tried it sooner. What if she has a peanut allergy she didn't know about-shut uuuuuuuup

- listen to the song of crickets

It was very dark at night. Streetlights didn't bother to reach her street. The green and blue and brown all turned black, until it was all gone. Out her window was just a void.

Before going to bed, she put a piece of paper between the door and the door frame, like a makeshift lock, and she checked every room. There were 3. Most of the glass from each window was broken and gone. In the living room, where she slept with Buddy, it was all gone. A direct entrance to the house.

When she tried to go to bed, her mind remembered every scary story and every scary headline she ever heard. Not-humans, thin skin and gaping mouths and black eyes, peeking through the crack of a door, long neck stretching into the room to look at her from above. It was ten times worse in her new house. Until she fell asleep she kept opening her eyes to look either at the windows or the door.

She pet Buddy's back, feeling his spine, until she eventually calmed down and was too tired to stay alert anymore. Nothing happened so far. Not much comfort.

One time in her old house, when she couldn't sleep because every dark shadow looked like someone crouching in the corner, she heard a lot of noise outside. She lived right by the main street. Well past midnight cars and motorcycles and ambulances would still rumble, and dogs would bark. It was so annoying.

That night there were many dogs barking all at once, like a wave as the thing they were upset about passed by, closer and closer to her window. She got out of bed, careful to be silent, and peeked outside. It looked like a child, walking in the middle of the road between the two car lanes. They were too far to see any features. Still, Garofița hid back in bed before they noticed her. She waited to hear a car pass by and honk them, or even run them over, but none ever came. It was like the cars disappeared, the same way birds do when there's a hawk in the sky.

At night in her new house it was only her and Buddy, and there was only the constant sound of crickets, singing for hours. It was like the static from an old TV. If she focused she could distinguish voices. There joins a new cricket. There goes another.

Her eyes were closing, her hand on Buddy's back slowed to a stop, and the darkness behind her eyelids was so soft.

Her eyes opened wide when she heard a noise against the metal fence. She listened, trying to calm her chest, already hurting with dread. Maybe it was a bird flying face-first into it because of the dark. That was a terrible cope, no way she could believe it.

Was it the fox? Oh God, it was the fox, wasn’t it? It followed her home!

Garofița pulled Buddy across the floor to be at her side, and hugged him to her chest, turning her back to the window.

"You'll protect me, right, Buddy?" She whispered.

Something was walking around the backyard, rustling the grass and cracking twigs. The crickets sang undisturbed, unaware of the danger she was in. It sounded small. It was the god damned fox, wasn't it?! Did it jump over the fence? Could it jump through the window?

Buddy wiggled and whined at being clutched closer.

"Hush, Buddy!!" She whispered, high pitched in panic.

She could hear it right behind her head, on the other side of the wall. It brushed with its body against her house, scratching against the exposed brick. It was so loud in the quiet night. Garofița was breathing slowly through her mouth, controlling the sound, being as quiet as possible, pretending she wasn't there. Her head hurt from straining her ears to listen and her chest ached coldly. She was certain that if she turned to look, it would be standing in the window, just waiting for her to turn.

Her mind raced with the encounter with the fox earlier, the water, the blackberries and Buddy, what she knew about beasts - and she got an idea.

She let go of Buddy and pushed herself in a sitting position, as silently as she could, back still towards the window. She took a deep breath, let it go, took a deeper one, and screamed as loud as she could muster. It was a shrill and savage sound, hurting her throat and the sides of her mouth. She held it until her lungs were empty.

Outside she could hear it fall over, startled, scramble on the ground and run away, rattling the fence several times. By the time she ran out of air, she could hear it running into the woods, disappearing among the crickets.

Poor Buddy, up on his feet, stared at her like she had gone mad. Garofița looked out the dark window, then started giggling herself.