Chapter 15

Five years earlier...

Kendrick stood very still as he watched the male human just ahead in the trees. Dressed in simple attire and black leather boots, the human was kneeling at the base of a tree picking mushrooms. Kendrick had atypically gone to the southern most edge of forest territory and had picked up the human's scent. It was close to the border of his forest and the human territory. Long ago he had deemed the forest his territory and decided the humans would reside in the area beyond. He could and sometimes did cross that boundary but for the most part if humans stayed out of his forest he felt no need to invade theirs.

This human didn't look like a poacher or a slayer due to the fact he didn't have any weapons on him typical of those professions. However, poacher, slayer, or not, Kendrick didn't tolerate human trespassers in his forest. With a careful step he inched closer, kneeling down in much the same position the man was in. Unaware, the man picked another mushroom and at