The sun is already sinking to the horizon, turning the sky an alarming shade of orange and purple, and you're still walking, trying to figure out where you took a wrong turn. There is only an endless, silent forest around. Tall, gloomy firs and pines stand in a dense wall, their tops are lost somewhere in the twilight sky. The path that you walked so confidently a couple of hours ago has disappeared, as if it never existed.

The silence here is special – thick, oppressive. Only occasionally is it disturbed by the crackling of a dry branch under your feet, which seems deafening, or the distant cry of an unfamiliar bird. But then you hear another sound–a low, guttural rumble somewhere ahead, behind the dense undergrowth. You freeze, your heart thumps in your chest. The sound repeats, a little closer. You can't see who's making it, but your imagination immediately draws powerful paws and sharp fangs. This is the land of bears, wolves, lynxes – the ones you read about in books, but never thought to meet so close, defenseless.

And who would have thought that this particular taiga is home to a group of unusual animals. In fact, these are ordinary animals, but they can talk like humans and understand human speech, with such myths as the Red (Fire) Deer, capable of burning everything in its path, the Saber-toothed Tiger... And what do you think of the myth about the glowing lake?

Leo and Tig were playing catch-up in a clearing among a bunch of fireflies. The leopard didn't even seem tired, running around the tiger laughing, while the second one was already a little out of breath before suddenly stopping in place, smelling a human scent (in this AU, people were harming animals, so they are somewhat hostile!).

"Leo... Do you feel it too? The human smell..." Tig mumbled softly, looking around.

Leo seemed to have smelled the human scent too and frowned as he jumped onto a small boulder nearby.

"Strange..."