Cat sits on tree. The air smells like forest, he hears the sound of leaves, the insects' buzz, the bark of the branches creaking and popping high above, water mumbling deep inside the ground.
Dog runs back and forth, dog smells little prey, she runs excitedly. Dog never catch any prey. Dog is stupid but cat loves her.
Dog stops, a darker spot forms on her already black fur on the back, where the hairs stand still. Her nose twitches feverishly. Dog smells like great fear!
Dog flee, fast, fast! Cat runs after her, but he can't keep her pace on the ground, cat jumps over a tree, then from branch to branch, following dog from above.

Dog runs for a good while, at some point the trees gets sparser, the paths on the ground gets larger, cat jumps down.
Aspen now could smell something else amongs the scents of the forest, a bitter tang that didn't belong. Asphalt, gasoline. Ink stopped, panting heavily.
"What in the name of whatever have you heard there?"
"Oh Aspen, we almost got too deep! I was losing my sense of... existence? And something HORRIBLE was coming our way! Didn't you heard it?!"
"No, no I haven't... I'm still a bit confused. To be honest, I can't remember why I was there. And I can't remember who you are Ink, except I know you. I know you and I know who I am but... ah, I'm confused, I told you!"
Ink looked at the huge, grey spotted cat tilting her head a couple of times, then jumped all over him, frantically licking his face and dancing around:
"It's true, it's true! I can't remember being with you when I first entered the forest, I was alone but now you're HERE! And to be honest..." She stopped covering him in slobber and sat down, finally "I can't remember knowing you too. Except I know you, yes. You reincarnated Aspen, yay! Do you remember something of your life before?"
Aspen tried to remember, there were a few disconnected images and sounds, humans dressed in white, something going beep, the smell of alcohol, sanitizer. Nothing more
"Ah, too bad. I can't remember my past lives too, someday we will. We will remember all our lives and I can't wait, it will be fun! Well of course, not all our lives were fun I'm sure but hey, everything will make sense!"
"Yes, it will it will... now I just want to go home Ink, I'm tired and I really need to eat and sleep" Now, the memories of his life in the Big City started popping in his mind, fitting perfectly one with the other, all the people he couldn't remember meeting but were inscribed as a pattern of feelings in his mind, all the places he hadn't been but he knew perfectly. The Big City continuosly produced instances of things and people that instantanously fitted perfectly, like in a dream.

(Notes: the trunk that looks like Cthulhu does exist, and we're friends, though I haven't visited in a while: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_w_85L.....on_share_sheet **
I tried to convey the sense of overcrowding of plants of a "natural" wood, though there are almost no real natural woods in Italy, most part of the territory is covered in "income woods", timber, chestnuts, hazelnuts etc. But still, the feeling of a not overcared wood is way different from a park, where you can walk without stumbling or climbing broken trunks everywhere)