Hidden in Plain Sight (Working title)
Chapter 4: Audrie

Audrie slept quietly in her redwood trunk. She never thought humans would just happen to unluckily replace it. And she never thought they'd replace her in there.

She woke up to the sound of shouting. She slowly sat up with her wings still protecting her. They were wrapped around most of her upper body which was the only part of her that she really needed to protect. She hissed at the sight of two humans standing at the entrance to the redwood trunk. There was a problem with the trunk being her home. She only had one entrance.

Great for hiding. Not great if she was found.

Which she was.

Audrie hissed again when the human shined a flashlight in her direction.

"Hey, it's ok," one human said semi-calmly. As calm as someone could be when something that could very much kill them whenever she wanted was in front of them. "We won't hurt you."

"Yeah, right," Audrie growled.

"We won't?" the other human whispered, thinking Audrie couldn't hear. The problem with that was creatures' senses were two times better than a human's.

"No! We don't have weapons. We'll take her to a place that can."

"I heard that, idiots!" Audrie hissed. She stood up and folded her wings behind her back.

One human looked at her with a fearful expression whereas the other looked at her angrily.

"Not like it matters," one of them said. He was wearing jeans and hiking boots with a tee-shirt. The other was wearing a dress. She was hiding behind the other human. "You're stuck anyway."

Audrie leaned against the side of the trunk. "Not that that matters. You have no weapons. I do." Ausrie unsheathed her claws.

The first human bit his lip. He was obviously trying to think of a way to come back at that.

Would he? Probably not. Anything he said she could come back at with something better.

And she could also kill him whenever she wanted but she didn't want to draw attention to herself.

Then he called a number.

"Yes? Hi. So we found a creature in the middle of the forest... Sure I'll send my location."

Fu-

Ok, this was bad.

So she had to get out of here.

However, she didn't actually want to attack these people.

Why? She had no clue, so don't ask.

Maybe because she didn't really want to draw attention to herself.

Who knew, who cared?

She certainly didn't.

"Ok," she said. "So, nice try but..."

She had a secret back-up entrance.

She totally forgot.

She backed carefully into the back of the redwood trunk. She never looked away from the humans. She moved a black-red sheet uncovering a window just big enough for her to squeeze through. She folded her wings tight against her back. Audrie squeezed through the hole, the bark of the tree scrathed her back.

She barely made it out of the hole. She fell to the ground, shaking bark out of her wings.

Sadly, whoever the humans called got there way faster than she'd expected.

She slowly got to her feet and spread her wings. She was about to take off when she heard someone yell at her.

Welp.

She flew up into the sky before feeling a stinging pain in her wing. She fell to the ground. Thankfully, she hadn't been very high. She crashed into the grass below her. She would probably have a few cuts and bruises but otherwise Audrie was ok. She felt another sting in her wing as she stood up.

Welp, time for a last resort.

Running.

She stood and ran through the trees. The redwoods weren't much cover. But she darted behind the trunk of one tree then behind the trunk of another.

She finally had to stop running because she was out of breath. She went to the nearest redwood, climbing up the tree to the lowest branch. The tree was pretty young; only the size of a normal tree. The lowest branch was pretty low but it was high enough that no one would see her. She sat down on the branch, laying againt the trunk of the tree. She held her legs close to her as she looked down at the ground. She was breathing heavily. She stared at the ground for a long time before anyone came past the tree.

"I thought she came this way," one person said.

"Well, she obviously didn't," another said angrily.

Audrie held her breath. Her heart was racing.

"Come on, she didn't attack them so it doesn't matter," said a third person.

"Unless she does attack someone," a fourth person hissed.

But when Audrie looked she realized it wasn't a person.

It was a creature.