Conveniently finished as all the chapters have reached at least 100 views!
Thanks for having read this far, and I'll hope to continue entertaining you with more.
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Chapter 3:
There's Always a Bigger Fish
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The sun stood high in the sky and was slowly starting to begin its descend towards darker hours. It was roughly three hours after noon and the forest happily recieved its share of sunlight. The soil was moist, yet it hadn't rained within these woods for several days. All was well inside this monster infested territory that was nothing short of a paradise.
Except for humans.
Eriss was panting heavily while running so fast that the environment in her sight was blurry and obscured by large tears. She was out of the wolf's reach for now, thanks to the black berry that she had tightly been holding until five minutes ago, but unsure of how long it would help her, she kept running. Having thrown the large fruit right onto the beasts face, it had blindly entered a frenzy and demolished every obstacle in its vicinity. Glad she didn't eat it, Eriss kept running. She wasn't part of the annihilated group of obstacles, yet, but some stones, resigned to their fate, came flying at an amazing speed which had grazed her arms, causing them to bleed.
The monster was too strong for her to take on, and she increased her pace if only to live another minute.
'I'm... Not sure.. if..-'
She lost her thought as she stumbled upon a root sticking out close to the moist ground and fell knee-first before dampening the fall with her hands if only to get up one second earlier.
"Why now!!!" Eriss hissed as she quickened her steps in order to retake lost time.
The dirt from the fall had seeped into her wounds and the stinging pain made it harder to concentrate on what was under her feet. Taking only a step was like letting fate decide where she'd end up, and she was not happy to let that happen ever again. But for now, it was better than turning into an unrecognized pile of intestines. And thus, she kept running.
The forest was still a massive blur around and even in front of her the colors of green and purplish brown mixed together with light blue from her tears. The only thing still resembling shapes were the respective shadows of each object, albeit a bit distorted due to the lack of concentration on that part.
Not knowing when another beast might show up to bare its fangs, she kept running forward. Not knowing when -she had no doubt about the ifs- the wolf would appear to crack her neck with its teeth, she kept increasing her pace until she'd die from exhaustion. She didn't want any of this to happen, but if she would die now, she'd rather not go through the gory path.
Heartbeats kept echoing in her head as she ran. Trees, more trees, and never-ending hills of dirt passed her as the minutes grew. Then her heart skipped a beat.
'Fuck!'
Wishing it would have never happened, Eriss heard a loud howl in the distance. She might have ran for some time, but the beast would close up soon, and then the same slaughter would continue, this time, without any black berry to save her.
'Something! come on! FIND-'
Stumbling over her own feet she realized what she was looking for while rolling a good metre forward in the dirt. She needed to dissapear from the wolf's radar in order to get out of this alive, which meant: its nose, eyes and ears. Dirt and leaves would help solve two of those problems.
Two howls came from the background. Three. Four. The number of supposed wolves increased as they answered the call of the frenzied one. They would be here within a minute at most.
"THERE'S MORE!? Shit! I need to hurry. Somewhere to hide.. Tree!? No. Cave? The echo.."
'Hide a tree in the forest... Dirt...'
Eriss decided that as close to ground as possible nearby a tree would be the smartest choice, since the wind would have a harder time bearing the scent, and dirt was -hopefully- most common on the ground that it might have a higher chance of tricking the monsters. Rolling intensely in the moist dirt, she then ran to the closest tree that had some fallen, brown, leaves lying around and dug a small ditch underneath with her hands, just large enough for her to sink a little bit further to the ground. She then made it look as natural as possible as she laid down in cover.
'This better work, you damn nature programmes'
Not moving, Eriss felt her pulse beating hard from the marathon. Relaxing just a little bit, it felt like she would die from nausea and her body tensed again under the quick rhythm of her heart beating against the moist ground underneath. Her arms hurt, her whole body ached and her pounding head felt like it would explode any second, but she couldnt relax. The smell of dirt and leaves along with the fear of being torn apart by hungry beasts was the only things keeping her sanity alive as she prayed for her life.
Another howl came from the distance.
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...Hunger...Pain...Food...
...Blood...Agony...Smell...
The smell of fear...
Stolen novel; please report.
Prey.
The bloody female ape child had dared to escape! Its days have been counted. Its life will be forfeit!
ITS WHOLE FAMILY WILL PERISH UNDER THE GREAT WOLF'S NAME!
'HEED THY LEADER'S CALL, BRETHREN! FOR TODAY, WE DINE ON FRESH BLOOD AND FLESH!'
The hysteric wolf let out a howl that filled the air with terror. The ambient sound of the forest had turned completely silent for a moment. Then, the responses came from the distance. One, two.. Nine howls echoed back and forth as the sound came closer.
there weren't as many as usual, but it was enough to have a feast on bones. The leader let out another howl as to answer those invited.
The grey beast didn't know why it wasted its time on a mere monkey, but its primal instincts couldn't be wrong. The feeling it had gotten after crossing path with those frightened, almond-shaped, eyes that seemed capable of bewitching anything, was otherworldly.
'...Danger...Kill...Kill...Power...Find the prey...Eat it...'
That creature didn't belong here.
The wolf didn't know exactly what that meant, but that monkey-child's existence had to be erased. Running with nine other wolves, whose black fur made its own color look illuminating in comparison, a familiar scent bore itself into its nose. They were close. Sneaking forward in order to not give away their presence, the wolves halted in the middle of an open area full of leaves within the forest. The smell stopped here.
'...Danger...Blood...Find...Prey?..'
The grey wolf growled as it turned its face towards the other nine and then moved back and forth around the area while still growling, as if looking for something.
'FIND! BLOOD! CLOSE! FEAR MY ETERNAL WRATH!'
All the wolves split up, and searched for whatever being that was capable of angering their leader to this extent. The smell of blood was fresh. It couldn't have been more than a minute since their prey had been here, yet their eyes saw no body, no pile of blood being dragged into the dark, and smelled nothing unfamiliar compared to earlier. The wind was starting to slow down as the bright ball in the sky had turned orange and the leaves had stopped fluttering mid-air as a result. Only some leaves close to a few trees kept rustling.
...
The smallest black wolf that noticed this, stopped its growling, and silently moved towards the leaves that rustled intensely behind the nearest tree. Crouching down, it was ready to pounce the leaves. It looked too unnatural as the leaves quickly moved back and forth. The prey was most likely in there. Consumed by greed, the cub leaped forward within a second to strike, then howled to let its guardians know. It had found the prey.
A rabbit!
The dissatisfied grey wolf snarled at the young hunter, causing the little black wolf to let out a small whine. It was the wrong prey! Going back to searching, another growl from the distance joined the group.
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'There are TEN of them!?'
Eriss was looking straight at a grey-colored wolf -followed by a pack of nine black wolves- that just recently entered into her vicinity. Getting out of this forest alive felt nigh impossible. Closing her eyelids, she thought that somehow passing out now would be a great idea.
'They can't see me if I can't see them! Nope! What wolves? here's only-'
Opening her eyes, she saw the smaller black wolf glare right at her. Unable to move from her ditch -or it would completely give her away to the other wolves- Eriss looked at the small beast that would still probably fit inside an average box -and look cute while inside it too- making its way forward slowly, but surely.
'Shit... Shit! Fuck! No!'
The cub crouched, made itself ready to pounce, and then leaped. Frozen by fear, Eriss kept her eyes wide open as the predator, for what felt like hours to her, was airborne. Then it landed -just a few metres in front of her- on a rabbit. With its claws out, the little moster reaped the poor soul's life with a single strike of its right paw which ripped the rabbit's left ear off, causing it to die from unexpected stress shortly after.
Unconsciously holding her breath while the scene in front of her happened, Eriss slowly breathed out, mentally sighing in relief.
'Even that cub can kill me as I am right now...'
Eriss knew she had no clothes or a weapon to protect herself with, but even so, there was a clear difference between her and the natural killing machine that looked only a few months old. Lying still in the pile of leaves and dirt, she looked at the searching wolves, hoping they would retreat. Instead, another growl came from the forest behind her.
'What no-'
A really large bear had appeared behind her, growling straight at the grey wolf.
'...Great...'
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Edit: I'm unsure if this would soon count as drama... Know any missing tags? Let me know! <3