The Forest

-35-

There came a rustling, a shrieking zip, and a force yanking him through the dark. Light blinded him.
Aspen blinked, dazzled. The room he opened his eyes to was purely white, shimmering on every surface. Not a smudging of dirt or a single imperfection that might suggest life was visible inside the four enclosed walls. Human, as the scary stories they used to whisper had told. A place bleached clean of everything his people so loved about the woods. A place sterilised and severed from the living world.
He searched for his boys and found them sprawled on a table beneath, blinking and disorientated. But they were unharmed. Small relief.

He turned back to the human. The monster had removed his gloves, and the horrible heat of him burnt even through the furs where his finger and thumb crushed Aspen's waist.
"Where are we?" He squared his shoulders.
"Don't talk." His free hand darted about to empty each pocket of his belongings— a phone and paper and silver things that jangled. "I have nothing to say to you."

Aspen gritted his teeth. Fine. Twisting against the grip did nothing, and so he stared about the room instead. There were no windows he could see, one door that appeared locked in its hinges and too big for them to move. No immediate way out.
Everything jolted as the human stooped to lift something, still keeping his crushing grip. Aspen strained hopelessly. The boys were up and looking around now, huddled together beneath him. He could see the fear bright on their faces, even Kovu. Thankfully Daniel, if that was his name, wasn't showing much interest in them for the moment. He didn't seem to have any intentions on putting him down either.
Aspen's heart beat numbly.

"You haven't said what you want with us." He tried to keep his voice steady.
The human rose with an armful of cylindrical containers. Aspen didn't need to ask to know what they were for. His stomach churned as the big hand set them down one by one on the table, causing the boys to scatter backwards, murmuring their fear.
"Just to look at you."
He twisted and glared. "Why?"
That caused the human to pause. He actually had to think. The last container clinked to the tabletop, totalling three, three not four, before the dark eyes settled on Aspen.
"I've never seen anything like you before." Daniel decided. "I'm interested."
"In what?"
"You."
"What about us?"
A twitch in his face betrayed his annoyance. The human didn't want to be questioned. So he simply turned and continued with his work, now fetching the toppers for the prisons.
But Aspen wouldn't accept that. "No, explain. I'm sick of you humans showing up and taking what you want with no real reason for it— like we mean nothing!"

It was always the same— different people, a repeating story. The tribes suffering because of a human's whims.

Daniel set down an oversized pen. "When someone finds a new animal, or a new plant, or anything, they don't just pretend to have never found it." He made a sweeping gesture with his free hand. "That's how we know so much."
"We?" He demanded. He still didn't know where they were, though he had a sinking suspicion, but Daniel wasn't referring to the people in the building.
"Humans, our society." He searched for the right words. "Because we find things, and we look at them. That's the whole point of research— that's why we're here." And now he was referring to the people in the building. They were here to look at the forest.
And his people, apparently.

Daniel leant on one elbow, studied Aspen with his dark eyes. "I found you." He said softly. "And so I'm going to find out what you are."
The room seemed to drop a few degrees. Those gaping eyes sucked up the light, gleaming with excitement around the edges. His voice came hushed. "I'm going to find out everything."

Aspen gulped. His throat had gone dry. He chanced another glance at his boys, and they were staring back at him with equal expressions of terror. This was worse than anything any of them had imagined. This guy was insane. And it was in a different way to Sam, it was like what Mike had shied away from becoming.
Kovu's eyes asked him what they were supposed to do.