Once everything was set up, it was time to wait; the first night was dedicated to watching and learning about the ecosystem. One small mistake, and Asher could return home with nothing, that or something too small to last him and his father long enough to go hunting again.
As the night progressed, Asher settled into his hole, snacking on the rabbits he roasted far away from the stream. He began to notice how dark and quiet this forest was compared to the shallower woods. In the shallow woods, owls would hoot, and critters could be heard moving through the night. Nothing was happening in this forest; no owls were hooting, no creatures were stirring, no crickets were chirping, no sound from anything. As if the forest was void of life.
Hours and hours went on like this until the trees began to move, the shadows came alive, then, with the blink of his eyes, it would all return to normal. Gone until he would return to watching, searching for any animals hiding in the night. This pattern continued until the silence came to a screeching halt. Suddenly the moonlight, which was Asher's light source, was covered. A colossal shadow was cast over the forest as something flew across the sky.
Seconds after, a massive roar escaped, causing the trees to shake, the ground to tremble, and Asher's ears to feel like they were about to burst. Then, immediately Asher dove into his body-sized hole, covering himself with his blanket. Trying to keep his eardrums from bursting he placed his hands on his head and covered his ears the best he could.
"Whatever is hiding in these woods is not something I want to fuck with!" Asher thought to himself as he attempted to stop his body from shaking. Afraid that the shaking would lead whatever blocked the moon right to him.
After what felt like years, the roar slowly dissipated into the night; Asher grabbed his straw pillow and began the long and arduous process of falling asleep. Giving up on the watch entirely, too afraid to leave his hole.
After a few hours and almost zero sleep, the day began to break; sunlight passed the horizon and beamed straight into Asher's eyes. The sky was a light purple, with shades of blue mixing in here and there. Eventually, he opened his eyes and started crawling out of his hole, praying to see some sort of animal drinking from the stream.
Then, as he stood up entirely out of this hole, he spun his head around searching, but alas, he found nothing. No living creature was anywhere near him.
Worry shot through Asher as he realized that whatever caused that roar last night might have scared off everything that was once living in the forest. Perhaps the animals knew something that he didn't, that there was something that spelled certain death if they went near the stream. So slowly, Asher began to approach the stream; little by little, that feeling of something off began to grow until Asher feared that if his toes touched the water, he would fall over dead.
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As Asher reached the stream, trying to ignore the fear of death, the feeling of dread reached its peak. Asher began slowly turning his head left and right, examining the stream; sweat poured down his back and chills causing goosebumps on his arms. After thoroughly looking at every part of the stream, all Asher could make out was the stream itself and the few rocks that poke out of the water, causing the current to split off.
Asher sat there, his shoes almost touching the water, convincing himself that this fear was made up and nothing was wrong. But the hesitation still lingered, unable to bring his foot that last inch to prove himself. Then, after a few minutes to suppress that rising fear, he began walking towards the mouth of the stream that runs off into the cavern below, creating a small waterfall.
After an excruciatingly long few minutes of small steps towards the waterfall, being careful not to touch the water, Asher finally arrived and peered over the waterfall's edge.
Asher fell back in shock, landing on his rear, his body shaking in fright. A massive Red Dragon was at the bottom of the waterfall, lying on the mossy cavern floor; it measured nearly twenty feet in length and ten feet in width. Its scales shone brightly as the water fell against the beast, a rainbow of colors shining into Asher's eyes.
The dragon's red scales were brighter than any fire and fiercer than any animal known to man. Below the Red Dragon was a pool of a blue substance that Asher could only guess to be blood. It was hard to tell at a distance, but it looked like some of the blood had already dried up. The collection wasn't massive in size, but it was easy to tell that the dragon was too hurt to fly.
Asher began his descent, climbing down near the waterfall. For some reason Asher wanted to help the beast. He knew that dragons were dangerous, or at least in all the stories they were, but something was calling out to him, pulling him, telling him to help the dragon. As he reached the moss-covered cavern floor, he could feel the blue liquid stick to him, coagulating and pulling up with his feet, sticking like fresh molasses.
Asher crept towards the dragon, hardly breathing, almost holding it. Sweat dripped down his face, falling rapidly to the ground and mixing with the blue substance that lined the floor. Asher was soon just a hairs width away from being able to touch the dragon, he knew all he had to do was reach out, and his hand would reach those Firey scales. Yet fear told him to keep his hand firmly planted at his side.
The dragon made no movements, no attempts to acknowledge Asher's existence, no attacks to get a quick snack, nothing. It was like Asher didn't even exist, or if it knew he was there; it felt as if he posed such a minutiae threat that it didn't matter if it acted. That is when Asher saw what was causing the massive pool beneath him. A large gash lay on its side, piercing deep into scales and into what Asher could call its flesh. Yet it was more like a pulsating muscle. It was alien to what Asher was used to when he gutted an animal.