Beast Tamer

I

Three years later

Fifteen year old Fauna Everglen leaned against the bark of the tree, basking in the summer heat as she chewed on the end of her pencil.

When she was twelve she had been caught in a car accident and had failed to recover her memory since then but she's managed to move on and live life without her past.

She was a fast learner because of it, she spent three years playing catch up and now that she's essentially caught up on everything she's become used to learning quickly.

"What to draw?" She whispered as she gnawed on her pencil, a bad habit but one nonetheless.

She looked up from the blank page of her sketch book as a bird tweeted and fluttered down in front of her. A Summer Tanager.

"Hello Pepper," she smiled as she stroked a finger down Pepper's open wings.

Summer Tanagers' had beautiful wings, they looked like they were only made of shiny black feathers but when Pepper stretched her wings you could see the vibrant red feather on the wings too.

Pepper stretched out her wings and posed for Fauna to draw her but she laughed.

"I drew you yesterday Pepper," Fauna laughed. "I think I'm fine."

Pepper chirped happily before fluttering her wings and taking off. Fauna watched her fly away until she disappeared within the trees of the lush forest.

Fauna had a certain way with animals, they always listened to her. She could begin with even the most unruly animals and make them sit with a snap of her fingers.

They almost seemed to be able to understand her. She spoke and they listened. She trained all the animals in the town of Mendacier over the years and now nobody is kept up by the barking of dogs. She taught all of the animals, birds, dogs, cats, horses, you name it.

Fauna stared down at her still blank page. She just didn't know what to draw - for once in her life she didn't know what to draw.

The entire sketchbook was filled with different animals she's trained or just seen while wandering around the forest.

"Just draw whatever comes to mind," she murmured. "Don't over complicate things."

So that's exactly what she did.

She didn't even know what she drew but it started off slow as Fauna tried to get into the perfect mindset however, soon her pencil was moving effortlessly over the page.

She never looked at the entire picture until she was 100% finished, always paying close attention to all the little details.

Finally, she moved to colour pencils. She had to use her new spare pack as she had forgotten her usual pack in her bedroom, luckily she carried the spare pack wth her everywhere.

She finally finished and grinned as she leaned her head back against the tree trunk with her eyes closed.

She stayed like that for awhile and tucked her pencil behind her ear, her colours littering the floor. It was quiet and peaceful here, nobody ever came into the forest except her.

Before she knew it she dozed off and was stirred by the sound of a dog barking but was fully awakened when something wet licked her face.