บท 10: The Monster

Naiari heard a low, vicious sounding growl and she felt the tiny hair on her arms rise. She could not hear, see anyone or anything and the growling had stopped. Taking a fearful step backwards, she looked around as she could not pinpoint the location of the growl.

She wanted to run but she feared that she would run in the direction of the growl instead of away from it. She wondered what kind of wild animal she had stumbled upon in this dark forest.

Suddenly, something lunged at her out of the dark and she moved just in time to duck out of its reach and her foot slipped so she fell to the ground then she hastily scrambled up to her feet and stared up at the monstrous creature which stood about a feet away and snapped its jaws at her.

It was so tall that even hunched over as it was, it still towered over her. It's limbs were long and gaunt and it had two big round black eyes without any pupils and a slit for a mouth which revealed rows of sharp needle like teeth that snapped and opened. Naiari took a shaky breath as black spittle dripped from its mouth.

She slowly started to back away while she felt like her eardrums would burst with the loud pounding of her heart. The creature remained still even as she took another step backward and she wondered if it could not see her for some reason.

However when she continued to back away slowly, her back hit the trunk of a tree and she shrieked loudly in fear that she had backed into another of the creature in front of her. The creature reacted by stretching out its long hand and swiping at her head with its long black nasty claws.

She dropped just in time and she felt bits of the tree bark fall on her head and her back. She chanced a quick look at the tree and saw the claws embedded deep into the trunk for only a split second but that was enough for her to turn and start running away.

She did not hear the thundering footsteps she expected to hear behind her and she turned to look and saw nothing then suddenly she heard a thud in front of her, making her turn around then she skidded to a stop.

Unbelievably, it appeared that the creature could jump long distances and it could definitely see because Naiari could clearly feel it's menacing stare at her. At this point she was sure that she was going to die, there was no escaping this monster.

She had already been running and was tired, the forest was dark and it's floor uneven so running away was not an easy task. Still, she told herself that if she had to die then she would die protecting herself. She was not just going to serve herself up as lunch to the monster.

She bent and slowly picked up a stone without taking her eyes off the monster then hefted the stone at it before running away to the side. She heard the monster howl then loud steps followed her.

She ran hard without looking back, her sole intent was to run away from this accursed forest which held monsters, the likes of which she had never seen before or heard of.

She could hear the monster close behind her and tears of fright started to run down her cheeks while she continued to run for her life.

Just as she felt a breeze as the creature swiped at the back of her head and her hair swayed. Naiari believed that she was doomed because the next time it reached for her it would surely catch her. But instead, she heard it emit a loud howl that made her sober then next came a crashing sound like a tree falling.

She did not wait to see what happened, the only thing she realized was that she could no longer feel the oppressive feeling of the monster right at her back and in the distance she could hear what sounded like howls of pain.

She did not want to see what had happened so she did not even turn to catch a glimpse and kept on running, not knowing in what direction she was running towards.

As she pushed forward running for what felt like a long time, her chest heaving and her thighs burning she was forced to stop and take a breath while listening to the surroundings.

She could no longer hear any sounds but that did not make her feel secure, that creature may very well still come after her or some worse creature might just appear.

With that in mind she straightened up in preparation to run again and her eyes immediately caught a pair of golden eyes which were attached to a dog.

'Nope, not a dog. That thing was bigger than a horse but it looked like a black dog, an oversized wolf really and it was staring intently at her'