Sounds like a plan- though I'm not really sure which forest to do! Do you have prefrences? Maybe the northwest forest? Idk, i'm just gonna start and see what happens

~*~Kosmos~*~

I jump a fallen tree, landing lightly on the tips of my toes before dashing under the trees, following the teasing squirrel siblings. 

"Caaaan't catch us!" one squealed, jumping a branch to a spindly pine.

Dodging around the tree and rushing through ferns, and jump high, catch the tree branch and swing easily up, gently grabbing one of the squirrels as he ran straight into my hands. 

"Ah, geez!" the furry animal squirmed, and I let him go.

The squirrels scamper away, the game finished, and I drop lightly onto the ground, landing in a crouch.

I'm Kosmos, and I'm an elf. I can understand the speech of all animals, and though most of their languages are simple, I can interpert their speech into more lengthy words and sentences. 

I rise and walk in a random picked direction, heading northeast. I haven't been so far in this direction before, and I don't recgonize anything at all. The forest seems different here, almost quieter. There aren't oh so many bird calls, and I don't see nor here any other animals. How strange. 

Up ahead, I can see the trees thinning, and I speed up, assuming there was a clearing or something like that. Instead, all of a sudden, I step out of the trees completely, and onto dirt. Lifting my bare feet, I look at the dusty strip heading in two directions, both disappearing around bends both ways. I frown, very surprised. This looked like a deer path- only much wider, and there seemed to be strange, straight tracks running through it. I hesitate, then start down this path, now going directly east. Before I have gone a few steps, a robin calls out behind me.

"Don't go, fair elf! This is the way to places were two legged animals rule, and it would not be safe for you, forest one!" Robins are quite proper with speech. 

I pause. Two legged ones? More animals, creatures, like me? But that... I thought I was the only one! Could it be...? I straighten my shoulders, as well as my cloak, and dive back into the cover of the trees. I would follow this large deer path, but from a distance, in the cover of my home. 

~*~Kosmos~*~

I stay far from the trail most the time, swerving back occationally to check and see if I'm going in the right direction. I have to back track sometimes to find it again, but usually not very far. I walk most of the morning, sometimes walking, sometimes jogging. A friendly jay had flown with me for a bit, chatting my ear off. He flew away after awhile, though, and I was on my own for the rest of the time.

Now it was mid afternoon, the sun giving the forest a golden glow. Over the hours of my traveling, the forest had gradually shifted, with younger trees and far more open places. A few animals were more common now, and I could hear a stream nearby. I veer in that direction. Once I find the stream, I knelt and drank some of the fresh water, then walked upstream. Then I saw them.

On the opposite bank, a humanoid creature crouches by the stream, a young drake splashing happily near them. They straighten, and from across the clearing, I can see their bright amber eyes looking straight into mine. I gasp in surprise, and hurry forward, until I'm right at the water's edge, directly across from them. They have darker skin then mine, and they are a whole lot shorter. Their ears aren't at all pointed, but I can see some strange marks on their neck, like slits. I speak, and it sound so strange to my ears, for I don't usually vocolize outside of bird calls and other animal noises.

"You're like me, but not," my voice is soothing and meldodic, and slightly deep. "I've never.... and a drake... so rare... but never another one of me, even if it's not me. Who are you?" I definitely feel a little frazzled. 

~*~Kosmos~*~

I notice the humanoid creature looking wary, like a cornered rabbit. Did I speak strangely, or out of turn? Was I not speaking my language? Mm. Yeah, I was. But the creature smiles at me. 

"Well, that's the question, isn't it. To be truthful, I don't know the answer much more than you do. But as far as it concerns you, I'm just a fellow traveler passing in the woods." They said."And yourself? 

"I am an elf, and I am called Kosmos. I've lived in theh forest my whole life, and I've never seen anyone like me. And a drake, well. I'm am intruged. They are quite rare; I've only seen one two winters past."

"Who, me?" squeaked the drake, before scampering to the humanoid person side after they snapped their fingers. They then began chewing on a fish they caught.

"And they seemed to have formed a bond to you," I observed. "The two drakes I saw kept their distance and refused to answer my inquires." I glance at the stream, seperating us. I jump it in one fluid leap. I am now about the length of a bear from the two, and I see the the humanoid one tense slightly. I dip into a curtsy. 

"If you are a traveler, may I travel with you?" 

~*~Kosmos~*~

The being replies, "You don't even know where I am traveling to. I always welcome companionship on the trail, but it seems highly suspicious that you would want to come with me when you don't even know if we're going the same direction?" 

"You raise a valid point," I admit smoothly. "I was going in the general direction that the strange deer trail was leading, for a little bird told me that at its end there would be a place where there are others simular to me. I wanted to see if it was true. But then, here you are, and I'd much rather go with you, someone who I know for certain exists, over chasing a possible fantasy. Some birds are feathers for brains." I finish my telling with a slight dip of my head.

@Scuttles, do you have any preference of what time of year it is? Are we mimicking irl weather, because my mind wants it to be late spring in here :)