Chapter 45: Revenge is a dish...
Soon the first hound reached just below his tree as it subsequently jumped towards him.
Other hounds too, soon reached the position of the tree.
Peculiarly however, none of the hounds reacted the same as the first one. Rather they kept moving without a pause in their stride.
The hound that had jumped had a perplexing reaction on their face, now that he looked at it properly.
Although it inevitably did not reach his location, as he sat at much higher altitude, it did not stare at him with the ferocity that he remembered the last time this scene played out.
It looked around the tree, circling its trunk, then the trees in the immediate vicinity, here and there, even as the whole pack moved past him, some calling onto him even, but never really focused on him.
After going at it for a few seconds, it had also joined the moving pack as everyone bolted past his tree. In a few minutes, all the hounds had passed cleanly without a hitch.
Noctis let out the breath he had been holding as he sprawled on the branch in relief.
"It worked. It really worked."
***
He could feel the hounds scurrying around the area before they eventually left in the direction they had come across.
As they were leaving, Noctis thought to use his forest manipulation, as he had come to call it for now, to see their reactions.