He grabbed the blanket and headed for his pickup.  Fuzzy followed after scarfing down breakfast.  Allistor laid the blanket across the passenger seat, and Fuzzy obligingly leapt and pulled himself up.   Circling a couple times like a dog, he plopped down on the blanket and snorted.

Allistor got in, turned the truck around and drove out the gates, closing them behind him.   Fuzzy sat up and moved around unsteadily as the truck’s motion initially confused him.  But when they got going down the road, he calmed and laid his head back down.   Allistor spoke to him as if he were a human riding along.

“Well, it’s just you and me, buddy.  Off to explore the world, hunt exotic beasts, capture territory, and take over the world! Muah ha ha!” He did his best Brain impersonation, but Fuzzy wasn’t impressed.

About ten miles down the road, the bear cub let loose an obnoxiously loud fart.  “What the hell, man?  Party foul!” Allistor scolded him as he rolled the truck’s windows down.  Fuzzy just looked proud of himself.   When he caught an interesting scent coming in from the windows, he sat up and stuck his head out.  Allistor laughed at the bear that looked just like a dog, head out the window, tongue flapping in the wind as he watched the trees go by and sniffed.

The truck was only moving about 30mph when Fuzzy started to growl.  Allistor slowed even further, scanning the trees on either side of the road.  Fuzzy’s hackles rose, and he bounced his front paws on the seat a couple times.  He sent out a tiny roar, then pulled his head inside and sat back against the seat, ducking down.   Whatever was out there, he didn’t like it.

As they rounded a bend, now only going about 20mph, Allistor spotted the tops of several trees shaking violently just ahead.  Whatever was doing it was moving toward the road.   He stopped the truck and turned off the engine.  Whispering to Fuzzy, he said, “Hold real still and stay quiet, okay?  Whatever this is, we’re just gonna play dead and let it walk right on by.”

Fuzzy relocated himself down into the well below the dashboard.  He curled into a ball and set his head on his back leg, looking up at Allistor.

Allistor’s attention was drawn back to the road ahead.  He could now hear crashing and splintering as underbrush and small trees were demolished.  Whatever was moving through the woods was big.  Not sixty-foot titan big, or he’d be able to see it already.  But bulky enough to push around mature trees.