Zeke couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he heard the blond man asking him to ‘come back.’ Not even the dumbest animal Zeke could think of would have obliged such a ridiculously suicidal request. The man really did seem harmless and a bit buffoonish, especially when he stumbled and staggered around in his hopelessly futile attempts to give chase, the only thing intimidating about Aleric was amount of noise he was making as he followed. Seemingly slamming his foot down on every twig as he walked. It even sounded like he’d walked into a tree once or twice… but surely that had to be Zeke’s imagination?

Zeke was more worried about the other presence his sensitive ears had picked up on. Someone who ‘smelled’ significantly different from the earthy scented mushroom diver. The second presence moved with much more confidence, not quite swiftly to be considered a hunter, but something in the air seemed to give of the vibe that Zeke didn’t want their paths to cross.

Fortunately Zeke was a fair way away when Akiko burst out to intersect the path Zeke had already passed by. Though when he heard the brunette girl chasing after him, the wolf-man was fears had been confirmed. These… ‘creatures’ weren’t definitely predators, no docile harmless creature Zeke had ever come across would ever chase him so persistently, and…. The deep crimson red eyes of the woman trailing after him looked dangerously, reflecting the sunlight and bathed in the shadows of the tree canopy in the worst possible way, giving her what many would consider a dangerously sinister look.

Unfortunately Zeke attention had been so focused on getting away from red-eyes that he’d failed to pay attention to the group he originally headed for, and by the time he turned his head to place his gaze on Ian, the shorter male burst out from behind a wall of bushes. Startling Zeke and causing him to ungracefully fall backwards onto his backside. These…. ‘mushroom lovers’ were appearing all over the place, almost like goblins in a mineshaft. Fortunately though Ian seemed just as startled by his presence as Zeke had been, and without giving it any further thought Zeke scrambled back onto his feet before veering sharply off to the left. It was a slight detour, but the stealthy appearance out of thin air was enough to make Zeke think twice about intersecting the loud group he’d heard earlier. 

Managing to quickly gain some ground, Zeke smugly stopped and arrogantly swished his tail in a mocking gesture.
“You wingless birdmen are slow, you should just give up and go home before you fall out of a tree like the first one” Zeke smirked smugly.  “You don’t belong here, this is my forest, my mushrooms, and my ears!” he added, holding out one arm to the side to indicate his forest, before placing his hand protectively on the ear that Aleric had so rudely poked.