If you could be a whimsical forest creature, which would you be?

A dryad, I'd chose the comfiest tree and no one else would be allowed to touch it

the little field mouse who is always somehow in a flower laden with pollen

A hedgehog. I know everyone else is going for mythical ones but please try and fail to convince me that hedgehogs aren't whimsical. They're tiny adorable waddling grumpy balls of spikes what could be more whimsical than that

Probably a gnome or a goblin

The witch in the woods with a master-key'd staff under their bed and a pot of somethin perennially bubbling over the fireplace.

Mothman

Shapeshifting trickster spirit that carries out arbitrary and deadly morality tests on any passersby who look chuddy.

Tanuki, but only if I get the full set of powers and revolutionary comrades like in Pom Poko

A boney fingered Hobgoblin named Murzgrak who will pull up your tent stakes if you camp near my tree stump.

A beaver. They do a lot of communal building and other animals live with them in the lodges in the winter.

head librarian in a mantis monastery

Tom Bombadil

a nymph living in a pond tossing swords at men and wooing the ladies with my luminous hair

owl, but with, like, really big eyebrows

Outdoor cat.

A grouse! They're so cute and are good at camouflaging.

Pallas cat

Wolf but I'm vegan wolf

This would literally solve most or all of my problems

Hobbits never have to wear shoes so that right there is enough for me. I see from comments now that you meant an animal and not a fantasy creature, but I'm sticking with it. A pre-Shire hobbit though so I'm not burdened by class relations.

A squirrel! I'd just collect things to eat all day and play in trees and nap

A fox, I like sleeping during the day and climbing trees, exploring quietly, etc.

Something tentacly with big cute eyes, like a fae Kit Fisto. I would slither up creeks and entrance resting travellers with cuttlefish lightshows

Deer, but mostly because of the sleep schedule.

i'd rather keep the human form i have but be considered as a whimsical forest creature

Kitsune

In Japanese folklore, kitsune (狐, きつね) are foxes that possess paranormal abilities that increase as they get older and wiser. According to folklore, the kitsune-foxes (or perhaps the "fox spirits") can bewitch people, just like the tanuki they have the ability to shapeshift into human or other forms, and to trick or fool human beings. While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others—as foxes in folklore often do—other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, and lovers.

Talking owl that follows travellers through the woods giving unhelpful advice.

bigfoot

nobody would really notice me arriving or leaving to their campfire circle, as if I had always and never been there, and I'd share my weed with them

one of Dionysus' silly minions

Fae creature that gives riddles, for sure. Rewards for correct answers, increasingly absurd punishments with hints for incorrect answers.

A squirrel who comes to people's windows looking for treats.

a little people / folk

Sasquatch.

Some sort of fae that will force Hexbear to get math degrees and become polycule graph theorists with riddles and oaths.

That or long elk.

A ghost wandering through the forest surrounding a scout camp, the kind that people tell campfire stories about.

Flatwoods Monster

Ent.

Just me and my Entwife chilling in the woods with our tree buddies.

Wisps seem pretty cool

Gwragedd Annwn, just chilling in a lake, guiding travellers to the lower world, fucking up farmers as punishment for mistreatment of animals. If my exploits spread far enough amongst the fearful townsfolk they may even build a statue of me.

elf or dwarf