I stretched my legs down to find leverage on the next branch down. I shuffled toward the trunk, and quickly let go of the branch to wrap my arms around the tree. In slow motion, I climbed down, my breaths rushing in and out of my lungs so hard, I must have sounded like a grunting beast.
Morning streaked the sky in purples and oranges. I dropped to the forest ground. With my back pressed to the trunk, I checked my surroundings when the terrified cry came again and from my right. I flinched, not daring to move, except the cries weren’t of an attacking animal, but despair.
Without hesitation, I went to investigate because to hear any animal in distress killed me on the inside. Or what if it was one of the other women in trouble? Around an oversized shrub with golden berries, I spotted a tiny purple piglet with the tiniest tusks tangled up in vines and tree roots. All three eyes were wide and the little thing was thrashing for escape, shaking with terror.
“How did you get caught up in there?” I bent at the waist and leaned down to help him.
He pulled from me, his back legs wrapped up on the vines, so I made busy work of tearing them off him, one bit at a time.
“Is this a trap?” I asked, but he just made small crying sounds that broke my heart. With him free, I picked him up, his little belly round like he’d just eaten. Thrashing in my hands, I set him down away from the shrubs and freed him. He stood there and squeaked once more.
“You’re welcome. Now you better get out of here.”
I took my own advice, needing to reach the target by the end of today, and marched toward the mountains. My stomach growled but I could live without food for one more day.
Twigs snapped under my feet, stabbing my soles, and if I could have anything right now, it was shoes.
The snap of foliage came from behind, and I jerked around, my heart hitting the back of my throat. My gaze fell on the small piggy tracking after me.
“You can’t come with me. Go back and find your family.”
He halted and stared at me, all three eyes blinking, so I turned and kept going. Looking over my shoulder frequently, I saw that he kept following me.
I kept wondering if his mom was alright after being chased by the women yesterday.
From beyond the fluttering of the wind and rustling leaves came another sound. Heavy and guttural, it was distinct and I couldn’t place it to anything I’d recognize. I froze on the spot, the piglet rushing to my feet and hiding behind me, and I listened, willing the sound to fade and vanish.
But it grew louder, closer from the direction we came. The piglet cried, and I backed away because whatever made the terrifying sound wasn’t a boar and it was coming this way.
The shrubs and trees swayed wildly ahead. The crunch of gravel suggested it might be a deer or even a rabbit, except I wasn’t on earth. And when the snarling growl came again, I doubted with every inch of my being that it belonged to anything cute and fluffy.
Fear cut through me, so I swung around, swiped the piglet off the ground and ran. I couldn’t leave him behind. My sights set on the mountains close now, and I kept running, not stopping. Distance was all that mattered.
Someone screamed behind me, high pitched and terrifying. I flinched, fear choking me. I looked back, but a shadow flitted through the woods, and I couldn’t stop now.
Not when my own scream rose through me. My feet ached and pinched, the woodland jabbing me, snagging on my hair, scratching my body.
But no stopping.
Glancing behind me, I saw it and my scream rushed out.
Running on two feet, a monster the same color as a muddied lawn with yellow eyes was hunched forward, sprinting towards me. What sort of animal was this?
Eyes glued on me, it unleashed a wailing screech, and I stumbled over a tree root almost losing my footing, but I caught myself.
I set the piglet on the ground and jammed my hand into my bag, grabbing my blade. I spun to face the oncoming fiend. I couldn’t outrun him and I’d rather face an enemy than let him jump me from behind.
A sign of desperation had him coming for me, arms stiff by his body, leaping over dead logs, his mouth open like a ravenous tiger. The string of gravelly snarls that fell from his mouth escalated, and with every rushed step he took, the muscles shifted beneath his skin.
I trembled, barely able to grasp the knife because I’d never fought before, but I had no choice. So I stood my ground.
Four other figures flanked the monster in the woods, but I couldn’t look away. Couldn’t deal with more of these things coming for me. Each movement of theirs was fluid and rapid.
Suddenly I felt foolish for thinking I could take this thing on.
He lunged at me, clawed hands first, mouth gaping open, and all I saw were eyes like sallow lamplight, yet they looked familiar...
Adrenaline pumped and beat through me.