Just Another Day

I can see the trees! Shanku thought excitedly.

After many days of flying over the prairie she had finally reached the Nyre forest, hopefully far enough south she wouldn't bump into any of Scissortail clan. She tilted her wings and glided smoothly under the cover of the trees. She cupped her wings around her to break her speed and dropped to the ground. Shanku looked around as a flood of memories returned. The sunbeams shifted and danced between the leaves and cast a multitude of spots and speckles on everything. There were many kinds of bushes and ferns hiding what part of the forest floor wasn't covered in discarded leaves. Shanku took a deep breath.

Smells like home, she thought wistfully.

A twig snapped close by and she dropped her stance. Her wings flared behind her and her ears were twisted to the front.

"Who's there!?" She demanded. Shanku hoped she looked threatening enough to ward off whatever was nearby. She had not been in the Nyre for a year but that had not dulled her memory of what dangers lurked beneath the canopy.

Two yellow eyes gleamed in a dancing sunbeam.

"I saw your eyes! Come out!" Shanku barked and arched her wings above her body to make herself look bigger and even more threatening.

"No hurt Grubber?" came a small, scared voice. A goblin in a ragged loincloth stepped out from behind the bushes he had been hiding behind.

Oh crap, a goblin... Shanku was worried. She looked him over. Grubber was a greyish green as most of his kind were. He had very few hairs on his head and about as many dull teeth in his mouth. He was very thin, making his batty ears and long arms look larger and longer than they should. "No, I don't want to hurt you," Shanku answered after her observation.

"Strange to see a cub alone," Grubber knelt before the bushes and crept slowly towards the cub on his knuckles.

"Strange to see a goblin alone," Shanku countered and stood up. Her ears were half laid-back and she tucked her wings behind her.

"Not alone, have little friend!" Grubber said cheerfully and thrust what appeared to be a wad of leaves up close to Shanku's face. "Gremmy!"

"Hi!" The wad of leaves greeted her. Shanku looked closely at them. The leaves seemed to be in actuality a small humanoid creature with large, bat-like wings. It was a dark, dirty brown with ears to match Grubber's ears. His eyes were a solid black, his many pointed teeth snow white, and he wore no clothes.