Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The snow fell in sheets over Moomin valley as a frigid breeze blows through the bare trees coated in ice and snow. Moominmama, Moominpapa, and Moomin, softly snore in their deep hibernation sleep. Little My, her sister, and Sniff do the same along with a few of the valley's other residents.

Some ways farther south Snufkin continues on his travels down a forest pathway. The trees oddly reminiscent of fall the further into the woods he moved. He surely noticed, it's just that he didn't care for now.

The road was silent even when the few beings there passed by him, not even glancing at him as he tipped his hat in hello. The bird song was almost nonexistent, every now and then chirping could be heard in the far distance. Snufkin of course didn't mind, not everyone was like the people of Moominvalley. He just continued on his way. It took 2 days before he started to grow somewhat frustrated.

“I should have seen something familiar by now, the witches forest isn't all that big” Snufkin muttered irritated as he re-shouldered his bag after packing up his cooking supplies. It smelled of fall here. Things like usually never bothered him, but… something was off here. That was for sure.

Huffing a little as he looks to the treetops seeing the sun starting to lower through the fall colored leaves. That part was starting to confuse him. He could have sworn at least some snow would have shown itself by now, at least a small frigid winter breeze. He was only 4 days from Moominvalley, it usually took him 10 to 12 days to get to warmer climates.

The sun haven lowered itself in the sky, the woods darkening making Snufkin have to light his lantern. He promised himself to set up camp in an hour or so at least until it got to dark for comfort. He continued down the dirt path humming to himself as he held his light up to illuminate his path, his eyes reflecting it eerily in the lanterns glow.

A soft rustling suddenly seemed to have caught his attention causing him to instantly still in place before turning to the source. He could feel his hidden tail and ears twitch in anticipation.

“WIIIIIRT!!!” A young voice yelled, as he felt something jump and latch onto his side, knocking him off balance. The lantern in some trick of luck, landed upright when it fell from Snufkin’s hand.

“Wirt Wirt Wirt! I can't find Penguin! I was trying to find a candy tree! But then it got dark and I couldn't find kitty! And the silly frog loves candy!” The child continued on about candy and frogs for a while, now sitting on top of Snufkin pinning him to the ground.

“Kid”

“ and he absolutely loves the red ones! I think.That's a rock fact!” The kid pulls out a rock with a painted face on it pushing it in front of his face, before continuing on rock still in hand.

“Kid” Snufkin tried again. Only to be ignored completely. Sighing he just laid there and accepted his fate. The path was at least dry and somewhat cushioned with leaves. Not the worst place he's slept before. The hours of travel seemed to suddenly hit him at once. The kid didn't seem to show any signs of stopping, and the air didn't smell of rain. After a yawn and shifting as much as he could with the kid still on top of him, Snufkin promptly fell asleep.

It was maybe 2 or 3 hours later, Snufkin awoke to the sound of movement from nearby bushes causing him to be wide awake. Ignoring the snoring child on him, he carefully moved both himself and the kid closer to the side of the road, the opposite side of the new noise. Snufkin’s lantern was out by now, the almost empty road only illuminated by moonlight.

“Greg?!” A voice whisper yelled followed by a deep croak. The kid now sitting on Snufkin’s side, shifted in unconscious recognition.

A older boy appears from the bushes crashing onto the road after tripping over a tree root. A agitated ribbit sounds along with ‘dangits’ from the boy in the red pointed hat. Said boy stands up shakily, dusty dirt off himself before picking up a large frog.

“Greeeeeg!?” He whisper yells again.

“Wirt?” The now named Greg mutters out sleepily as he rubs his eyes.

The older boy, Wirt, attention goes right to his brother only to see 2 seemingly large reflective eyes looking right at him, causing him to scream.

“Well hullo to you as well”

The two of them stared at each other the ,definitely not, girlish screaming died down quickly.

“Wooooah there's 2 Wirts!! Does that mean I have to eat twice the vegtib-vegetables?” Greg pulls out a piece of candy unwrapping it, then offers it to Snufkin, who he was still clinging to.

Snufkin breaks the eye contact and looks to Greg with raised brows. He gingerly takes the candy from the younger boy and sniffs it curiously. He couldn't say he's ever seen anything like this blue hard candy.

“If you don't like vegetables don't eat them then” Snufkin states before taking as test lick of the odd candy.

“Wow really?! Thanks new brother Wirt!” Greg cheers grinning up to Snufkin.

“U-uh? Greg yo-you're definitely going to have to eat your veggies! You're still a kid! A-an-and that stranger isn't Wirt! I me-mean me! We look nothing alike! We look as close as a book looks like a river feeding into the endless sea, both unknown till explored and… ummm sorry” Wirt fumbles out looking between his brother and Snufkin. Snufkin gives him a amused look.

“But you both have pointy hats and dresses on” Greg counters.

“It's a cloak not a dress!”

Snufkin mentally shrugs and looks up mid lick at Wirt. “He has you there”

“Who even are you?” Wirt asks irritated.

“He's Wirt!”

“Greg.. no”

Snufkin lets out a huff of amusement. He picks up the discarded candy wrapper from the ground and rewraps the candy and pockets it for later. Wirt gives him a disgusted look.

Quickly and carefully detaching Greg from his person, Snufkin moves to his previously discarded lantern.

“Hey! I asked who you are!” Wirt says a bit more bravely than before.

“That you you did” Was the only reply as Snufkin lights the lantern. He looks to the kids sizing them up. It seemed he was at least a few inches taller than the eldest, the other was at maybe around his hip.

Wirt shivered a little under the still nameless to him, strangers light reflective gaze.

Chapter Text

Without even another word, Snufkin moves to continue on his journey down the dirt road.

“H-hey! WAIT!” Wirt cried out as he started to jog after the stranger with the only light source. Greg following close behind stopping for a second to pick up a old looking harmonica from the ground.

“You can't just leave us alone!” Wirt yells panicky.

“Why not?” Snufkin showed a little mercy slowing his pace allowing the other to catch up. Wirt, wheezing a little was now walking beside him, Greg still close by.

“W-well, um… we're just kids lost in the dark woods that might hold unknown horrors that our young minds can't fathom?” Wirt nervously fidgets the frog still in his hands.

“Are you now? Well good on you”

“Hey mister! Are you a witch? You have a witch hat on, and are in the dark woods at night like in all of those witch stories! Are you going to put us in a oven?” Greg moves between the two and is now walking backwards facing them. He trips a little every now and then but catches himself.

Snufkin snorts lightly at this. “Might be” he says before chuckling a little.

“Wirt brother! Witch new brother! Look!!” Greg puts the harmonica to his mouth and blows into it with a mighty breath, causing the mouth organ to wheeze in what sounded like distress.

“That's mine!” Snufkin yelled sounding a bit panicked with a dash of irritation.

Having not expected the loud sound, Greg falls forward only to be caught quickly by Snufkin’s free hand holding him by the back of his shirt. Greg grins sheepishly up at him, offering the harmonica. After righting the younger kid, Snufkin takes the harmonica and wipes it on his clothes before pocketing it. Giving Greg a raised brow.

“Greg! You need to be more careful! I swear” Wirt frets.

“I'm always careful!” Greg exclaims as he grabs the frog from Wirt’s hand. “ Oswald Peter, Perkins, Percy” he says aloud happily holding the amphibian up, before putting the frog in his pants. Snufkin feels like he should have said something but holds back seeing the frog looked content enough as is.

The trio walked together, Snufkin softly humming a tune, Wirt looking uneasily at the woods, and Greg softly having a one sided conversation with his frog. This continued on for a hour.

“So where are we going?” Snufkin then asks.

“Wait you don't know? You seem to know this place pretty well” Wirt glances into the woods seemingly looking for any signs of dangers.

“Nope, never been here in my life, you're the ones that decide to follow me, mind you” His eyes locked on the path ahead.

“Where even are we?”

“No idea kid”

“I'm not a kid!” Wirt says in a high pitched embarrassed tone.

“Oh? Could have sworn I heard you just say you were one” Everyone was silent for a few minutes, owls screeching in the distance.

“Maybe you two should set up camp soon” He offers as he starts to walk off again. The two others following.

“What? What about you? Aren't you gonna sleep to, mister new brother witch?”

“ With what? It's pretty late and uh… maybe we should stick together? There's no way to know if we're close to somewhere ” Wirt meekly says looking over the trees.

“You don't even know me, but I have a feeling there's really nothing that's going to deter you” Using his free hand, Snufkin runs at the bridge of his nose.

“Nope” Greg supplies cheerfully.

“Greg!”

“What are you two even doing here? Shouldn't you be at home or something?” Snufkin huffs out scowls out as he moves to the side of the road finding a small clearing just big enough to set up camp.

“We were on our way home, but… we seemed to have become lost” Wringing his hands nervously, Wirt watched as Snufkin started to drag stones into a circle, Greg helping a little by dropping small pebbles around the larger ones.

“Hm should be easier to find your way back in daylight then”

“Yeah… hopefully. How come you're traveling through here?”

“Traveling south for winter” That got Snufkin a look of confusion.

“Wait wait isn't it a bit early for that? Though… I guess some birds are already migrating, escaping the freezing winds that covers the land in sheets of white fluff that freezes the rivers and ponds over making them solid after the trees are bare of their leaves haven …. Uh… Sorry sorry” Wirt mumbles blushing in embarrassment as he sits down next to the slowly growing fire.

“Was already snowing, where I left” He states as he snaps some sticks in half to put in the fire, a dark black sap or oil drips onto his hands. Raising his hands to his nose he took a small sniff expecting a sickly sweet scent, only to be met with smell of putrid rot and something similar to fear. He quickly pulls his hand away looking at it disgusted.

“What?” Was all that was said before a angry voice takes all three of their attention.

“What do all of you think you're doing! Explain yourselves!! Don't you know the forest is extremely dangerous at night! The beast is afoot here!” A older gentleman yells as he moves past some trees.

“Then why are you out here?” Snufkin eyes the older man's bright lantern, it reeked of the oily sap.

“I'm doing my job! Welcome to the Unknown boys your all more lost than you thought. Now all three of you, your lucky that I have somewhere close by. Come come.” The weathered man shoulders his axe as he looks over the trio.

“I'll follow in a second, need to properly put this out” Snufkin gestures to the fire.

“ I'll leave you a candy trail!” Greg cheers as he pulls a hand full of candy out throws it to the ground.

“Alright then”

The two shorter boys begin to follow the woodsmen, Greg dropping a candy every second.

Snufkin lets out a sign as he starts to kick the cold dirt on to the fire as he internally debated on following the others or not. They did seem like they were going in the same as him and if the odd old man was right it might be better to stick close to them for now. Then again having the two would defeat his lonesome traveling and slow him down. It might take him double the time to get to where he was headed and back to… where he was before.

With one last kick of dirt the fire was fully extinguished and he packed the few things he had pulled out.

His mind was made up as he began to follow the candy trail, picking up some every now and then. Something told him something was going to happen soon, maybe a start to a grand adventure he could tell his friend… tell his best friend all about it when he returned in the spring.

Chapter Text

The candy trail lead to what looked to be a abandoned water wheel, or maybe something akin to one. As he made it to the front door, Snufkin could already hear the brothers inside whispering about something.

Carefully opening the door as quietly as he could, Snufkin entered with no one noticing.

“What are you 3 whispering about?” The old man asked turning from the just lit fire.

“Wait what?” Wirt quickly turned to look behind himself, definitely not expecting anyone to be standing just behind him. He let out a high pitched scream, and fell to the ground on his butt. Greg snickered a little, Wirt giving his brother and the stranger a small glare.

“Thanks for the warm welcome” Snufkin chuckles out as he unshoulders his bag setting it against the wall. He slides down to the floor sitting cross legged.

“We were talking about running away outta here” Greg supplies to the Woodsmen who was watching them with a small speck of amusement in his eyes, then lets out a small huff.

“Leave if you wish. Just remember, the beast haunts in these woods, sing out his mournful melody. Looking for lost souls such as yourselves.” The man warned.

“To help us?”

“No.. not to help you. Now I have work in the mill. When I am finished I will do what I can to hide you, that is, if you're still here when I return” He glances over the three, before going through the door that one could assume, led to the mill.

“Well I guess we could just leave” Wirt says.

“Seems so” Snufkin adds pulling out his harmonica inspecting it for damage. He looks up only to see Greg test swinging different objects around the room. He watches this for a few seconds before going back to inspecting his instrument.

“Do you really think there's a beast out there? Or do you think that guy was just messing with us? I mean… he could have done away with us by now if that was his plan” Wirt says somewhat skeptical.

“True” Snufkin adds before starting to softly play his mouth organ to test it.

“and he lit that fire… that's pretty nice”

“Yeah” Greg cheers.

“I guess there could be a beast, since there was a talking bird”

“That's odd to you?” Snufkin asks now somewhat interested in what the other is saying.

“Well yeah, the birds brain is to small for cognitive speech, but it was talk right at us! It wasn't a parrot or any types of those birds who could somewhat copy human speech, it was talking in full sentences! Or well sentence, it flew away”

“Huh”

“Yeah!” Greg comments while swinging a fire bellow.

“Oh I didn't know that, but did you know that if you soak a raisin in grape juice, it'll turn into a grape!” Greg pulls out the rock with a silly painted face on it. “That's a rock fact!”

Snufkin quietly snorts in suppressing his laughter.

“Why don't you go play with your frog or something”

“Ah beans, where is that frog oh mine? Hang on a second, brother and new witch brother oh mine I'll be right back for your plan!” Greg goes to leave, but throws fists full of candy around before heading out.

Snufkin could hear a faint calling of “Kitty? Kitty?” from outside. Shaking his head he began to play his harmonica, mulling over the new information, a calm melody playing. The two boys must be from pretty far away to not be used to talking animals. It certainly didn't help that they were human, very fickle beings, and them not being used to such a common thing? He remembered warnings of such humans from his mother, always keep your tail tucked and so on. She always told him and his half siblings this. What else wasn't normal to the boys then? That could be dangerous. Humans tended to lash out at what they didn't understand. Though Snufkin had to admit, the two were still kids and seemed pretty open minded, specially the youngest.

Snufkin pauses his playing as he suddenly smells a dark strong scent appear.

Wirt looked up from his ball and cup game he apparently had, hearing a crash and growl from outside. Seeing Snufkin look on edge certainly added to his concern.

The old man rushed through the door to the mill. “What's happening? Where's your brother!?”

Wirt shrugs and Snufkin stares at the door to outside intensely. The door opens and Greg walks through frog in hand covered in bits of splintered wood and barrel rings.

“Ohy moi, hot dog!” Was all Greg could get out before being flung across the room from the door pushing him. Snufkin quickly leapt from one side of the room to the other, carefully catching Greg before he collided with the stairs. He sets the youngest down and gives a loud animalistic hiss at the very large canine creature in the doorway.

“Its the beast!” Wirt cried out.

The old man surprised by the sudden jump from Snufkin, stumbled backwards accidentally stepping on a porcelain statue which tripped him to the floor, causing him to hit his head on a log knocking him out.

The creature slowly moved towards Wirt causing the boy to panic as he hid behind the fire grate. Snufkin began hissing again and clawing at the monsters hind leg drawing the attention to himself, causing the canine to loudly growl out in fury, as it began snapping at its attacker.

“Run Run Run Run!!” Wirt chants as he does just that out the door, Greg doing the same only after throwing a hand full of candy to the floor.

"Candy Camouflage!"

It's attention quickly moves from Snufkin to the candy now on the floor. This gave Snufkin an idea.

Reaching into his pocket he pulls out a few candies he collected from the trail, quickly putting the blue hard candies back in his pocket. He hissed again drawing attention to himself holding the hand with the candy out to the creature.

“This better work” He hisses out to himself as he quickly retracts his hand from where the canine was just about to snap it's jaws. Snufkin quickly sprints outside through the broken doorway. The creature right on his heels.

Chapter Text

The canine, unfortunately was just a bit faster than Snufkin.

He could feel the heavy paw push him to the ground, causing a loud yowl of pain escaped his throat. Snufkin could feel his tail practically crushed from under the weight of the massive creature on top of him. Sharp claws dug into his back, and a hot wet breath was right on the back of his head. It came closer and closer to his neck, and he stilled waiting for the inevitable. His whole body flinched. He just hoped the kids had already gotten away by now.

He waited…. and waited… only to be met with a slobbery tongue to his paw, that was still holding a the few candies from his pocket.

“Huh” Was all he said as the giant canine move off of him and started sniffing and nipping at his pockets.

Snufkin slowly and as non-aggressively as possible, pushed the creatures muzzle away from himself after rolling over into his back. He was still in major pain but then again he could be dead, he very much preferred the pain over the being dead part.

“Um….” He stared at the creature and it stared right back at him in a glowing intensely. Snufkin’s hand slowly goes to his pocket and fishes out a single piece of candy. The giant canines attention goes straight to it and lets out deafening sharp bark. He panics for a moment (not that he would admit) and chucks the candy in a random direction.

That direction unfortunately being right towards the mill.

“Oh dear” He exclaims softly to himself as he watches the creature follow the piece right to the mills wheel. Snufkin’s whole body flinched as he saw the canine become trapped in the wheel, causing the whole building to shutter. The sounds of surprise captures his attention and he looks to the mills roof seeing the two boys up there.

Snufkin lets out a deep breath as he runs the bridge of his nose. “ I swear…” he says before he hears a shrill cry and sees the boys fall into the river. He quickly stumbles up and rushes to the river's side. He watches the older brother climb out sputtering out water.

“Where’s your brother!” He yells as he looks over the river.

“I I I don't know!”

“Hey look! He spit up a turtle and now he's my new best friend!” Greg and a skinny brown and cream colored dog emerge. Snufkin does notice a small black turtle with a blue candy stuck to it's shell.

Snufkin facepalms and Wirt looks on with a look of disbelief. The dog throws the youngest off it's back and runs off.

“Hey were you going? Well ain't that the way” Greg says as he stands.

“What in the world happened out here!!” The woodsmen appeared through the front door rubbing his head. His eyes narrow in suspicion as he looked over the trio.

“We got The Beast problem solved” Wirt exclaims pointing to the dog who was now curled up asleep under a tree. Snufkin give Wirt a unimpressed look muttering “We?”.

“The dog? That is not the beast. The Beast can not be mollified like some farmers pet! He stalks like the night! He sings like the four winds! He's the death of hope!” The older man explains very animated. He pauses a bit before sitting on the ground. His voice quotes a little. “He steals the children, and… and he'll ruin the.. the..”

The two older of the trio could easily tell that something had happened, and they felt somewhat bad for the old man.

The Woodsmen looks to the mill noting the slight cracks in the building's structure before muttering a soft ‘It could have been worse’.

“ Just be thankful that wasn't actually The Beast…” The man stands and pats at his pants knocking some dirt off. He then lets out a tired sounding sigh. “Let us go get you boys dry and clean up the mess inside. I have a spare room for you all, that is if you're all staying till morning.”

It was then everything seemed to hit Snufkin all at once. The pain seemed to have amplified and he could feel something warm and sluggishly dripping down his back. His legs buckle under him and it takes only a few seconds before he falls to his knees. He barely catches himself before fully falling onto his face.

“Mister Witch Brother!” Greg cries out in worry.

Wirt and the Woodsmen rush to Snufkin's side carefully picking him up and supporting him as they all move inside. The last thing Snufkin could remember clearly was attempting to fight off the older man as he was trying to take his smock off.

Wirt watched on in some sort of intrigued horror as the older man struggled to carefully undress the hurt stranger, they had been hissing and yowling almost animalistic. It seemed to take a minute or so for the other to either stop struggling or fully blackout. It must have been from either shock or exhaustion. Wirt rubbed the back of his neck anxiously, he felt bad that, all that hadn't happened to him or Greg.

Once the smock was removed everyone seemed to stare in shock for a few moments processing what exactly they were seeing.

A dark reddish brown fur traveled up from his waist up to the back of his neck, it was currently matted with blood. Some seemed to be on his shoulders. The most shocking of all was… a long what Wirt could guess, cat like tail was wrapped around the strangers midriff. Some of it looked uncomfortably crooked.

“ Is… is he a werewolf? Werekitty?” Greg asks snapping the others from their morbid trance.

“Y-you both didn't know anything about this?” The Woodsmen stutters out still trying to figure out just what Snufkin was. “ He's your brother isn't he?”

“N-no no we uh… met him in the woods and…. Followed him, which I guess in retrospect is a terrible plan. Follow the random stranger in the dark forest of unfathomable terror, with a beast of immeasurable evil out for children in these immense pitch black woods”

The older man stares at Wirt strangely for a few seconds before looking back to Snufkin’s still back. It seemed his breathing had finally evened out.

“I found him in the woods” Greg states. “Do you think Mom and Dad will let us keep him? We could say he followed us home! Though we were following him. Oh Oh we should name him Mister fluffy witch!”

“Child you can't just….” The older man just sighs then points to Wirt “Please go get me a bucket of water from the stream and set the kettle up. Young one go upstairs and into the room closest to the stairs and grab me some of the washcloths and the tin labeled herbs. On with it you two!”

The two boys quickly clambered to do their given task leaving the Woodsmen alone to as carefully as he could unfurl Snufkin’s tail, now noting a fluffy tuft of fur at the end of the tail.

“Young man what exactly are you…”

It had been hours now, Snufkin’s wounds treated, the boys clothes dried, clothes mended as best as possible. Everything was calm in the home as the fire crackled. The old man asleep in a wooden chair at Snufkin’s side, Wirt and Greg asleep huddled together on the spare bed, lent to them for the night. The night continued on as the wind swept through the trees.

Far off deep in the woods a deep voice sang calling all those lost and in despair to go deep into the forest to finally rest.

Chapter Text

There was only darkness. Nothing was visible, only the black abyss around him. He continued to walk forward, that's all he felt he could do. It had felt like there was a unseen fog wrapped around him slipping through his clothes, through his very being, chilling him. This wasn't right.

Many feelings of wrongness twisted in his chest, causing him to fall into a frantic panic. He needed to go back, this place felt so wrong to him. He knew this. Something was off here.

He could vaguely hear his name called sweetly by someone, very familiar. He just… just… couldn't place a name or face. That only added to the gnawing dread. He should have know the voice calling to him, calling for him. This person was so very dear to him.

The soft voice called out once more for him “Snufkin!”

A warm beam of sunlight shown through dust tinted windows, warming the back of Snufkin's head. He didn't want to get up yet, yet, he knew he had to eventually. As if he were moving instinctively, he arches his back, only to be stopped by a sharp searing pain that spread across his back. This in turn, caused him to yowl and his out in a pained surprise. The rooms other occupant seemed to scramble up, now that he was awake.

“Calm yourself young man!” He could hear the scrape of wood on wood from a chair and footsteps drew closer to him. Snufkin's body immediately went stiff.

“You've taken quite the beating from what I've observed young traveler, certainly you'd like to keep the wounds from worsening?” Snufkin could practically feel the older man's gaze on his apparently injured back.

“We did our best at patching you up as much as possible, the boys were worried sick about you”

It became painfully obvious now, that his smock and shirt had been taken off. He could feel the rough fabric of the thin wool blanket, scratching at his skin.

“Now take it slow as you get up son. We'd hate to irritate your wounds, I'll go get you your clothes in a moment”

It took a few moments and a little help from the Woodsmen, but Snufkin was now sitting up on the edge of the bed staring at his furred feet, his tail thumping on the bed behind him in irritation, every now and then. It felt a bit tender, and running a hand gently over, let him know it had been bandaged.

The older man by then, had left him to grab his now, somewhat cleaner, clothes. He already wanted to leave.

Wirt stared out the window as he and his brother picked at their plain porridge. Greg making faces at it as he watches it plop down from his spoon back into the bowl.

“Do you think Fluffy Witch is going to be okay?”

Wirt scowls and rolls his eyes. “He'll be fine, the Woodsmen said the scratches weren't to deep, we should leave soon though”

“Without Mr.Fluffy Kitty?”

“Greg, we don't know who, or what exactly he is, or.. them, she? We don't know their motive. For all we know, might follow us home and and…” Wirt sighs. “Mom's probably worried about us by now, we need to get to a town soon and get a ride home or something” Wirt looks to his food now finding Greg's frog sitting in it. He pushes the bowl away and crosses his arms.

“Dad to!” Wirt scowl deepens at this.

“Oh! I almost forgot!” Greg reaches into his pants pulling out a pixie stick and pours it into the bland mush.

“There! All better!” He grins before shoveling the food down. “Let's go check on Cat!” Greg pushes away from the table leaving his empty bowl. He ran up the stairs to the room Snufkin was in, Wirt followed, but at a much slower pace.

Snufkin could hear the pounding of feet running up the stairs, and he hoped that- nope never mind. The door slammed open revealing a small grinning child.

“Fluffy Kitty Witch Brother!!” Snufkin wished he was still asleep.

“Well hullo” Snufkin says sounding a bit hoarse.

“We were gonna leave you hear! But I didn't want to, cause then you couldn't follow us home and then we wouldn't get to keep you! I a zillion percent think mom and dad would let us keep you!” Greg rambles excitedly as he shifts from foot to foot.

Wirt stands in the doorway an amused look on his face.

Snufkin's ears unconsciously pinned themselves back, and his tail softly thumped behind him. “Kid” He says in a deadpan tone. “I'm not a pet”

“I know! You're our new cat brother!”

Wirt snorts at this. Snufkin gives him a irritated frown.

“Move it boys, let him be. He needs to get dressed now” The Woodsmen says from behind Wirt causing the boy to jump, then moves allowing the older man into the room with a pile of familiar clothing. Handing them to Snufkin, he ushers the two younger boys out of the room.

It takes 10 minutes for Snufkin to make his way downstairs fully dressed, tail swaying behind him. It had hurt to much to wrap it around his waist. There was no reason to linger any longer he was very eager to leave.

Snufkin sees the two boys, one sitting on the couch, the other playing with the frog, it croaking in amusement. Quietly he tiptoes to his satchel that held his gear. He was pleasantly surprised to see his hat sitting sitting on top of it all. Putting the hat on, he slips the backpack on suppressing a hiss at the contact to the scratches. Snufkin looks over the two, one more time before he slips out of the house as silently as he could.

The cat like being lets out a sigh of relief as he moves towards the mills outer entrance to say goodbye and express his thanks to the Woodsmen. Looking through the windows he doesn't see anyone in there, shrugging he turns leave but jumps.

“ I thought I lost you mister fluffy cat wizard!” Greg exclaims, and the frog in his grip croaks in what sounded like a disappointed tone. Wirt just looks uncomfortable standing there, as he watches Snufkin seemingly studying him.

Snufkin rubs the bridge of his nose in irritation. “I need to leave” He states.

“Then let's go!” Greg cheers. Snufkin was about to argue with the youngest boy until he noticed the puppy eyes said boy was giving him. He lets out a deep sigh.

“Okay… how about I take you to the closest village, then I leave alone. I am a man who travels best alone”

Wirt looks a little relieved at this.

“Go find the old man and ask him where the nearest town is, on with you now” Snufkin waves Greg off, the boy then runs shouting for the Woodsmen.

“Are you just going to stare? Just ask me what you want to know.” Snufkin states.

Wirt's face turns a little red at this. “W-what exactly are you?”

“Mumrik”

“A what?”

“Next question”

“Wait! B-but! Ugh fine, what's your name, I doubt you'd want to keep being called Fluffy” Wirt glares of to the side.

“Well maybe I just might”

“Weird”

“Says the kid named Wirt, but mines Snufkin”

Said kid huffs. The two stand there awkwardly as they wait for the youngest of the trio to return.

“So… where are you from?”

“No where, and everywhere” Snufkin smirks.

“Wow very specific… were from... Hopkinton”

Snufkin gives him a confused look. “Where? Never heard of it”

“Really? But we-”

“Mr. Axe man said there was a village North of here!” Greg interrupted as he made his way towards the two the Woodsmen following.

“If you keeping walking North there should be a town there, never stopped by it, but it's there” The man points out the trail across the river.

“Many thanks for the hospitality” Snufkin gives a small smile tilting his hat a little.

“Take care you three! And don't stay in the woods at night! Remember! The Beast is still out there! Beware young ones!” He calls as the trio start their journey on the path.

“Bye!!” Greg waves while walking backwards, also making his frog wave along with him. Every now and then the youngest would attempt to capture Snufkin's tail, much to his amusement. Wirt just followed silently staring at the back of the cat like creature he was following, many questions cycling through his mind.

Off the three were now, onto their next adventure.