She raced through the forest like a bat out of Hell, arms extended outward as she cut through the low hanging branches and scattered shrubbery, the jagged edges of bark slicing through the palms of her hands. But Sunset didn’t care – she was too fueled with adrenaline to notice the blood seeping through her wounds and trickling down her fingers. She needed to get away. Needed to find someone, anyone, and get the hell away from this forsaken place, and the creatures that lurked, wherever they were.
Wherever they were hiding.
Shards of hail pricked her skin, the clap of thunder sending a jolt straight through her racing heart. Her body begged for air, but her legs kept on moving, determined to get away from the thing that had attacked her. The thing that dragged her away. Her mind had told her to stay close to the road, knowing it was easy to get lost in this black sea of trees. But when she heard… something… let out an otherworldly screech into the distance, she immediately charged into the forest, the sound of creature’s screams echoing behind her.
But there was nothing in her wake. Empty paths lead into various directions, but Sunset couldn’t remember which path she had taken that led back to the road. Every tree looked the same, every bush matching the other. The ground was covered in dead twigs and fallen leaves and the ground felt soft and spongy beneath her feet once the downpour started. She was lost, with no way to contact anyone or figure out where she was.
And when she heard the close, guttural sound of a throaty growl, her growing sense of panic immediately morphed into sheer fear.
Clouds of fog could be seen coming out of her mouth with every exhale of breath she took, the temperatures dropping fiercely the deeper she fell into the forest. Daggers pierced her chest with every inhale of breath she took and it didn’t take long before Sunset’s knees finally gave out.
Paranoia flooded her senses as she forced herself back to her feet, sprinting as hard as she could. It was almost like she could feel its jagged nails scraping along her spine, feel its frozen breath lingering at the nape of her neck, its teeth jagged and pointy and gleaming in the silver moonlight that peeked through the darkened storm clouds.
The mass amount of trees began to split, less and less coming into view until Sunset noticed that she was coming close to a cave.
Without any hesitation, she slid on her stomach, slipping into the cave and gulped large amounts of air, shivering violently, goosebumps running across her body, raindrops sliding against her exposed skin and soaking, torn clothes. She opened her eyes, not even realizing they were closed and blinked owlishly when she noticed how incredibly dark the cave was.
Closing her eyes again, she drew down inside herself, focusing the power within her. Opening them, her eyes grew black and her pupils turned into slits as fist ignited is a shroud of white hot fire. Spinning around, she saw a sight that made her heart drop and a heard a noise that made her stomach churn.
“Nurrrgghhhhh!”
Shit.
Glaring back at her out of a pair of black orbs that screamed murder, with a bright red gem right smack in the center of it’s head, was a massive furry shape that resembled the bastard offspring of a polar bear and a gorilla.
‘Well, I’m boned’, she decided as she took an uneasy step backward. It snarled again, exposing dentition that had not evolved for masticating vegetables. Painfully aware of her lack of access to any defensive weaponry more advanced than fire, Sunset continued her studious retreat.
“Um…s-stay…?”
The monster took a step toward her, in one stride making up all the distance the diminutive human had thus far managed to put between them.
“S-sit?” Sunset opined weakly.
“RAAURRRRHH!”
Whirling, Sunset bolted, letting out an earsplitting shriek.
TheWanderingSunset2 