Running through the woods at high speeds is pretty rough. Running through the woods with eight appendages that end in stiff, ungiving hooks ten feet back can make that challenge near impossible. She was leaving a trail they could follow very easily, at least for now she was. She would try to get to a clearer space, a field would have little to catch on, but a pine forest without undergrowth would be much preferred. She remembered the rocky terrain and scrub oaks covering the forest floor of her home. The giant pine trees had stretched like behemoths above her, seemingly unending in proportion. Now, however, the branches were too close the the ground, she caught on things, severed tree limbs, and overall left a wake of destruction behind her. Light filled the space ahead of her, and she burst into a grassy clearing. She looked quickly to the left and right, scanning the area she’d entered.

A rock in the middle wouldn’t be too good for hiding unless it had an overhang on the downhill side. A house lay at about fifty feet downhill, on the other side of the clearing. Gray, worn and weathered it was clear it hadn’t seen paint since its creation. She huddled back into the trees as a helicopter’s blades whirled somewhere overhead. Cringing away as it came into view, she cut off a large branch from one of the taller trees and prepared to send it flying. The helicopter continued and didn't circle back. She looked after it for a long time before realizing she was being watched. On the rock in the middle of the clearing stood a little boy, who watched her with curiosity. She poised each of her eight limbs, brandishing the sharp, curved tips to be clearly in view. Her grip on the branch tightened to the point where she accidentally cut off the base. The boy just cocked his head to the side and jumped off the rock into the grass. She jumped with worry momentarily. The grass was much taller than she had anticipated, to the point where the boy was nearly invisible. Occasionally the wind would blow and she’d see his black, straight hair waving in the wind. Eventually, she panicked and clawed her way up into one of the trees, looking down on the field with suspicion. The little boy, about twenty feet from where she was looked up with curiosity. She continued to hold the tree branch, although it was pretty pointless since she’d continually cut off section after section until it was just the tip remaining, small enough you would’ve thought it was a normal branch.

“Who are you?” The little boy asked, walking up to the base of the tree to inspect the gashes. The girl just stared at him, not really sure what to do. Eventually the boy ended up just staring back. “Who are you?” He asked again, feeling the strands of his own hair to see if he could find something similar to what he saw.

“Who are you?” The girl retorted, finding a rather sharp tongue. The boy just shrugged and kicked a rock. He looked like he was thinking about how to respond. She continued to stare at him for quite a while.

“I think I very well may be no one!” He exclaimed with surprise, breaking a silence in quite the startling manner. She looked back down at him, attempting to calm her appendages from the sudden surprise.

“H-how do you figure?” The girl continued after reclaiming enough air to speak. The boy thought very deeply for a second or two before he began to formulate his answer.

“I suppose it’s because I’m ignored all the time.” He finally decided.

“Ignored? In what ways?” She asked a mild interest.

“At my house, when I say I want to go to town, they just ignore me. Eventually they’ll pack up and drive away for a few days, coming back with water and fresh food, but they won’t let me eat any. They cook meals, but never a plate for me. They’ll wish each other goodnight, but they’ll never so much as breathe an ‘I love you’ to me…” The boy stated, not really sad about it in the slightest.

“That sounds similar to my home… No matter how much I begged to see daylight they shut me up. When I would cry at night they comforted themselves by saying that I really had no mind, that I had lost my feelings long ago. They would put needles in me that made me sleepy, sometimes for days at a time… needle after needle… Sometimes they wouldn’t give me food at all!” She sighed, shivering at the memories. The boy simply stared for a while after she had finished.

“Do you want to run away?” He asked finally and simply. She looked at him, perplexed.

“Run away?” She answered finally, not having heard of such a thing. The boy nodded furiously.

“Yes, run away to a place with no one to hurt or neglect us!” The boy decided, smiling at all the possibilities. Finally he paused.

“What’s your name?” He inquired curiously. She looked down at him, thinking. Finally she dropped down, a small dust cloud appeared when she landed.

“I don’t know if I have a name…” She sighed eventually, looking down at her knees with sadness. It was very clear to the boy now that she was not normal. Hair wasn’t alive, and he was pretty sure normal peoples limbs didn't look so long and lanky. It reminded him of a weeping aspen tree. He moved to hug her, which took her by surprise, but she didn't struggle against it. “This feels nice… What’s it called?” She asked eventually.

“It’s a hug… Mom and dad do it every now and then, but they never give me hugs, and I’m pretty sure you’ve never been given a hug, either.” He concluded, continuing to hold her. Eventually she began to cry. He wasn’t sure what else to do, so carefully and avoiding her ‘hair’ appendages, he patted her on the back. The sunset was missed by the two, and the boy eventually started to cry a little bit too. She returned the hug now, although her arms were much too big for a proper hug. Her hands were as large as the boy. Eventually they both fell asleep. The boys parents did not search for him that night, nor did they care he was gone. The girl was being hunted, but they expected her to travel much farther than she had. So for now there was safety in their location. The night seemed to pass quickly and without events, except for the occasional animal noise and the one time an aged blue truck headed down a dirt road away from the house. Morning would’ve come quickly. But that didn’t happen, nothing could ever go as smoothly as a good night’s rest.