[u][b]8:15 PM 
Wilderness outside Hope Springs, West Virginia 
November 4th, 2019 [/b]
[/u]
[hr]

A voice awoke Harris from his slumber, his eyes shooting open as he heard a call ring through the forest. He had to wonder why the person was here, perhaps a hiker.

Harris' eyes widened and his pupils contracted. He'd forgotten to handle the poacher. He was just laying there, pinned under a tree. Thankfully it hadn't been that long, he'd be alive, if a little shaken. Unfortunately, this hiker had spotted him, meaning that his cover was blown now more than ever.

[i]Harris you idiot, why didn't you think to do that?[/i]

Harris had to confront the man, or else he'd just wake the poacher and only get one side of the story, the wrong side. He couldn't just reveal himself, but what choice did he have? He could scare him off with his abilities, but that would only bring a witch-hunt and make him out to be a bad guy, he wasn't a bad guy, at least he didn't try to be.

He placed his hand on the wood in front of him, and the tree opened slowly, the sound of wood snapping being let off as he walked out of the newly created doorway. A bearded man stood before him, examining the scene that Harris had created, the poacher lying there, thankfully not conscious, and his truck, which Harris remembered doing a lot of damage to.

Harris flexed his fingers as he took in the sunlight, enjoying the feeling of fullness it gave him, he tilted up his chin and allowed himself to be bathed in it. It was a good feeling for sure, but it was very distracting, he had to focus.

Tilting his head back down, Harris looked at the hiker with a neutral expression.

"Greetings," he stated simply, the first time he'd spoken to someone since his transformation, this person had a Dixie accent, not an Appalachian one, so he wasn't from the area, he wouldn't be able to convince many people of Harris' existence, considering he was an outsider. "I am the defender of this forest, the Vine Stalker."

That sounded good enough, he supposed, intimidating but still not altogether belligerent. Hopefully the man would be cowed into hysterics and flee, that would make it far easier for Harris to simply sneak back into the forest, hide for a few days when cryptid hunters eventually come searching, not that he'd need to, they never found anything.

He rose his arm, and trees grew beneath both the poacher and his car, lifting them skyward, the tree then tipped, passing it to another, which grew right next to it, it continued in this same way far into the distance, towards Hope Springs.
  
[@hagroden]