Neet clung onto Janner in what seemed like a neverending hug. She worried that if she let go for even a second that her son would vanish from her life for another nine years. If that were to happen, Neet... or Nia, wouldn't be able to bear it.
"Mom..." Janner continued throughout the hug to convince his mother to come home with him. He knew there had to be a reason she was avoiding him and his siblings but he didn't know why she refused to come with him.
Could it be that she was a danger to the family because she was openly hostile to fangs? That was very likely after what Janner had seen just moments prior but was it really enough to keep Neet from visiting? Was there something else she wasn't able to communicate that interfered with this?
Unfortunately, Janner didn't have much time to think much longer after a rustling was heard coming toward them.
Without warning, Neet whisked Janner onto her back and ran as fast as she could away from the source of the noise.
"Not again!" Janner shouted, thinking his mom was trying to take him home to never see her again. He struggled in her grasp in protest, unaware she was actually taking him away from danger.
"Rennaj! Pots!" Neet screamed at him in turn, worried she might drop him. "Yhtoot woc!!"
A toothy cow had caught their scent despite all the herbs Janner had packed to deter them. Janner only got a small glimpse of the beast before Neet did something very unexpected- She began to climb a tree.
Retracting her panther-like claws, Neet plunged them into the bark of a large tree before quickly climbing up it as if she had nothing weighing her down. This left a very hungry toothy cow, just barely nipping at their heels and Janner gasping in shock.
"Where are we going?" Janner asked in a breathy voice, now holding onto his mom for his dear life.
"Egattoc. T'nac og emoh won... Taht woc lliw trela lla srehto ybrean." Neet tried to explain as she leapt onto a bridge not previously seen from the forest floor.
Janner blinked with awe as his mom set him down on the bridge. "Has this always... been here?"
"Hsuh." Neet shushed him, seeming agitated that they had been interrupted by a toothy cow. She began to walk forward on the bridge without another word.
Her sudden coldness puzzled Janner but he still followed Neet, thinking that the extra time could give him plenty of opportunity to convince her to return home. He tried not to ask as many questions on their trip to what seemed like nowhere.
Meanwhile, Neet remained faced away from Janner the whole time, fighting the tears in her eyes as she walked forward. An internal battle was raging inside of her chest, a conflict of desires. She desperately wanted to keep her family safe but the more time she spent with Janner, the more she wanted to be with her family... And the more she wanted to be with them, the more she worried about putting them in danger.
Janner knew nothing of this internal conflict but after seeing how she reacted to seeing him and hearing about her other children, he knew there was a pull in his mother's heart to come home. He planned do all he could to use that pull to return home with her.
Thunder rumbled over head as it began to rain when they finally arrived at a modest cottage in the trees.
The house was made of what appeared to be scrap pieces of wood, the roof looking rickety but still waterproof. It appeared to be half painted red, like Neet had tried to make it homey at some point but gave up when other things came up. The front door was also half painted red.
"Is this... Is this where you've been all this time?" Janner asked, watching his mother open the front door.
"... Sey... Rof... eht tsom trap." Neet replied with a flat tone before entering the wooden cottage. "Teg edisni erofeb uoy teg a dloc."
Janner still didn't understand what his mother was saying but assumed she wanted him to follow her inside, so he did.
A fire crackled in what appeared to be a small fireplace made out of clay and irregular shaped stones. The warmth radiated from it, filling the room with a campfire smell and a cozy atmosphere. That was also the place she dealt with all her cooking and thus, had plenty of pots and pans stacked beside it.
As for the interior, there wasn't much to look at. There was a large hay stuffed bed mat in a corner with a patch-work blanket neatly resting over it; that was presumably where Neet had been sleeping for the last nine years. There was also a couple of hardcover books resting beside the head of her bed, indicating she enjoyed to read once in a while.
Over in another corner was a wooden crate with a collection of various items that looked unusually unorganized when compared with her neatly made bed, sparking Janner's curiosity.
Janner neared the crate curiously to get a peek at what was inside.
Inside the crate was a jumbled mess of items: a worn teddy bear, a small sack of coins, a few random puzzle pieces, a necklace, and an old looking book.
"What's this?" Janner asked, kneeling down and picking up the old book.
Neet looked over at Janner poking around her things and she suddenly became belligerent, snatching the book from his hands. "T'nod hcuot taht! T'nod hcuot gnihtyna! Fi sgnaf reve dnif em, ll'yeht emoc retfa uoy oot!"
Janner threw his hands up in a frightening manner. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to anger you!"
Neet stared hard at her son before her angry expression became sorrowful again, looking back at the fire. "I dluohs evah denrub siht koob nehw I dah eht ecnahc... Tub Esben... I t'ndluoc od taht ot mih." She neared the fireplace and crouched down, hugging the old book in her arms like it were a baby.
"Wait-? 'Esben'?" Janner's eyes widened at the mention of his father's name, cautiously walking over to his mother after her explosion. "Where's... Esben...?"
Whimpering noises emerged from Neet's throat and she shook her head, pressing her forehead into the book. "On... Rennaj... I t'nod tnaw ot klat tuoba mih... Eh saw ni os chum yboga tsal I was mih..."
"Mom...?" Janner kneeled beside her and gently pat her back. "... Why can't I understand you? What happened that made you this way?"
Neet wiped her eyes with one of her claws. "... Yhw od uoy ksa em snoitseuq nehw uoy t'nac dnatsrednu em?"
Janner sighed in response before just giving her a hug. "... I'm sorry you've had to live alone so long... It... Must have been hard... I want to help you but I don't know how... Uncle Artham said he's tried everything... What would it take for you to come home?"
She closed her eyes and began to crumble into tears again. "Rennaj... I peek gniyrt ot llet uoy... I t'nac."
"You keep saying that word... 't'nac'... Does that mean... 'can't'?" Janner asked, trying to piece together what she was saying.
Neet only nodded in response.
Thinking of an idea, Janner looked around the tree cottage for a piece of paper and something to write with. Maybe if Neet couldn't tell him what she was saying, maybe she could write it!
Can she write with those claws???