Without pause, Nyx continued her reckless flight through the ancient forest ignoring the twigs, bushes and sometimes even rebounding off trees she was unable to avoid in her haste. As she ran, her lungs burning almost as much as her nostrils due to the natural stench of the forest, Nyx's movements became more smooth and natural as she got used to her smaller body, the gravity of the world, and freedom.
While noisily crashing through the ever-thickening underbrush, she was covered in cuts, scrapes and bruises that slowly healed at a rate visible to the naked eye. Due to this, her passage was anything but stealthy, but that wasn't Nyx's goal. At least not until she was far enough away to feel it worth the reduction in speed.
As time progressed, she no longer looked like a newborn calf but a somewhat clumsy panther. Even that changed rapidly as Nyx progressively became nothing more than a black blur to the untrained eye.
"Escape, avoid, disappear, recover." While she vaguely remembered her unorthodox training while she was under Meredith's control, at the moment Nyx just wanted to get as far from the impact site as possible.
"When I get far enough away, I'll try and cover my tracks a bit. Need a little more time to recover before the inevitable."
Nyx barely paid attention to the fact that she actually had no idea how fast she was travelling or how to measure the distance, more focusing on the belief that she had little hope for escape and was just buying time. At least not with who she believed was hunting her. "Lucifer? Eos? Another? I wonder how many survived? Why are they still alive? Where they responsible for what happened to the dimensions?"
Questions bombarded Nyx's mind as she lept over a small ravine, its base covered in dead leaves. However, due to the distraction, she landed on a sharp rock with her left foot. Without stopping, she looked back to see the trail of bright-red blood as she manipulated more of her bodies energies to heal the injury.
While it worked to a small degree, able to reduce the bleeding and pain a fair amount, the golden runes soon flared around her foot looking like small tattoos. The light was extremely bright and appeared so suddenly that Nyx instinctively lept to the side to dodge the perceived attack, crashing into a nearby tree trunk.
Hissing angrily while glaring at her foot, Nyx landed on the floor in a crouched position. The golden runes rapidly faded as she stopped trying to focus more energy towards her regenerating cells.
However, the itchy, pins and needles-like sensation that the restrictions brought with them took longer to vanish. Yes, as soon as the glow disappeared, Nyx looked around to make sure the light show hadn't drawn any unwanted attention before starting to run again in a slightly different direction. "Great. Use too much essence, and I become a beacon of light."
She was moving slightly slower, letting the wounds heal as she limped, while briefly wondering if it was a good idea to leave her blood behind. Nyx wasn't concerned about the trail but more what her enemies might be able to use it for.
Repressing the shudder at the thought of clones, blood manipulation and curses, as she wasn't pushing forward so hard, Nyx started to notice the vivid colours and smells of the forest more. At the same time, she stopped repressing the regeneration of her eardrums, something she had been unconsciously doing since she escaped the dome and the image of Eos.
Nyx winced and stumbled for a few meters at the return of sound. The natural symphony of the forest startling her so much that she considered breaking them again. However, even though her senses were registering overwhelming information, Nyx felt slightly numb and distant to them. The sights and sounds felt incredibly odd. Like they weren't real. Everything was too bright, colourful, loud, smelly or clear.
"Escape first. No point adapting or working out what's wrong if I get caught in the process."
Nyx returned her focus to running, ignoring the things that caused her core to beat rapidly and the pulses of pain from her body. She would have stopped long ago, but the desire to remain free for as long as possible was like a call to arms. The periodic pains flashing around her body became markers that she could pace herself with.
Every time she felt like she would collapse to the ground, her body unable to keep up, Nyx would push through. It happened many times at the start, her vision narrowing dangerously, but the more she ran, the less frequent it became.
"Just keep running."
Everything else, even the cries of her own body soon became meaningless as the various shades of browns, greens and grey patches of rock flickered past. Even the few brightly coloured plants, mushrooms and flowers were nothing more than blurs.
Unbeknown to Nyx, she was travelling vast distances in mere minutes. Even the sense of time was warped as she moved towards the climbing sun, making it seem as if the day was rapidly progressing.
Yet, no matter how far she ran, Nyx's gut twisted in anxiety and fear. She believed that her struggles were useless, her current freedom nothing more than a trap or temporary reprieve from her fate. However, the ever expected attacks never came, causing the first slither of positive doubt to enter her mind.
Hours after Nyx had crashed into the planet, the sun had reached high enough to start burning away the light clouds. Rays of warm, golden light shone through the small gaps in the thick canopy above. Occasionally Nyx would break into small clearings or trails, sucking in a hiss-like breath until she realised the light hitting her black scales and velvety skin wasn't the restrictions flaring up or an attack.
It was when the shadows from above seemed to be cast vertically onto the ground, Nyx subconsciously assuming it was mid-day, that she slowed to a halt and slumped against a nearby tree. The stench from the forest still felt overpowering her senses, while the sounds of the birds and occasional roar or shriek in the distance were like sonic booms in her ears, making it hard for Nyx to use her enhanced senses to keep an eye on her surroundings as she tried to catch her breath.
Small wisps of dark essence seeped from her body, trying to spread outwards. Yet when they reached the distance of around five foot, they started to fade away. Not only did she not have a lot of refined energy, but the air and ground were saturated with other elements reducing the amount of natural essence she could manipulate significantly.
"I really wish... I held back a bit." Nyx hissed in annoyance as she recalled her futile struggles earlier.
After taking another hot breath, the temperature almost suffocating even though she was in the shade, Nyx refrained from using her limited ice essence to cool down and scanned her surroundings cautiously before closing her eyes. She really wanted to lay down and sleep, her body and mind seemingly trying to tempt her with how good it would feel, but Nyx knew that if she did, everything she had done until now would be pointless.
Feeling the burn from a small patch of light that would periodically appear as the canopy rustled in the breeze, Nyx opened her eyes and frowned. The sensation reminding her of when she had crossed the clearings or been caught in direct sunlight.
"Why does the light hurt?"
After staring at the spot on her arm where the light would appear for a couple of minutes, Nyx tried to retract her scales. After they lifted slightly and pulled inwards, an extremely uncomfortable feeling, her skin gradually lightened. Within thirty seconds, her right arm looked no different from a young, skinny and pale, human child's.
As the stream of light appeared and vanished a few more times, Nyx's frown deepened as she realised the burning sensation was gone. She could feel the warmth of the sun, as well a strange desire to stay out of it, but it wasn't unbearable. "Actually... it's quite pleasant."
Looking up, seeing the bright light sparkle between the leaves, she sighed. "Do I continue as a human or a Nightmare? Lucifer and Eos should know that I have both forms, so hiding it is useless. But those under them that are chasing me might now know, and it could give me an advantage."
Realising that her forms were far more than aesthetics or an indication of her mood, Nyx continued to think as she chewed on her bottom lip. "That human saw me in my Nightmare form, so maybe I should stick with that. It... does feel faster, protective and more powerful."
After a few more minutes, Nyx touched her smooth, white skin with her left hand, which was still covered in the tiny black scales. The contrast was startling, and when she rubbed her hands together, she discovered that the small scales could be extremely sharp if she forced their tips out slightly. "My human skin. Is it weak, or are my scales tough?"
After watching the small cuts heal, she froze for a moment before her eyes shifted between both her left and right hands. "Wait. I can shift my body parts individually? Why haven't I tried this before?"
A dazzling smile then appeared on her face. "And my transformation is not restricted by that damn light essence? Does that mean it only restricts my core and not my body? If so, maybe I can refine my body and chip its power away?"
"No." Nyx frowned as she squatted down, still looking at her hands as she seemingly forgot about her situation and where she was.
"It slows down my healing and regeneration. Though it could be that the restrictions only react when the energy in a part of my body reaches a certain threshold. Basically crippling my offensive abilities as any augmentation or essence build-up is pointless."
Nyx rocked her head from side to side as she stared at her hands. As she did, a slight hum was generated from the faint vibrations emanating from her throat. While she focused on her body, Nyx completely repressed her thoughts about her soul and connection to the abyss. Something she couldn't bear to think about at the moment.
"While refining the body can't hurt, it will just make me stronger and more resilient and not help me regain my power. Also, I am going to need lots of food. That or I'm going to end up consuming myself until I am nothing more than a core."
Nyx focused on her tiny, bony wrists and arms. They were much thinner than when she first escaped her tomb-like prison. At the same time, a small rumble came from the pit of her stomach. "Food."
A loud roar came from behind Nyx, causing her to jump and her right hand to return to its more sturdy Nightmare form. After briefly looking back over her shoulder, only seeing the green and brown of the forest, she started running again.
"Shit. I got distracted. I'm still too close, need to keep moving." Nyx didn't know how far she had come, but even without the nearby bear-like roar, she felt it was nowhere near enough. Yet, despite all her best efforts to not get her hopes up, the gradually building doubt about her pursuers and their abilities started to turn into a belief that she might actually be able to escape.
Around an hour and thirty minutes later, having crossed two ravines and a dry gorge, a booming roar to her right caused Nyx to violently flinch. Unlike the one before, this one sounded ancient, massive and extremely deadly. However, as she tried to change her course, Nyx felt her body tense as she crashed to the mulchy floor, seemingly paralysed.
"What? No. Not yet. I wanted to see more." Nyx's momentarily panic, that Eos or Lucifer had caught her, faded along with the strange feeling as she lept up and bolted in the opposite direction.
Nyx calmed as the distance between her and the roar grew. As she did, she quickly noticed that she was covered in quite a lot of dirt, and some leaves had caught on her scales from her tumble to the ground. While the fall hadn't injured her, due to the speed Nyx had been moving, she had dug into the soft ground quite a bit and left a long groove.
Frowning at the discovery, feeling the desire to stop and clean herself out of place, she wrinkled her nose and forced herself onwards. Nyx's instincts warning her almost as much as her paranoia that she didn't want to meet whatever had made the noise.
"What the hell was that? An ability that uses sound?"
Nyx tried to focus her mind as she ran, the strong scent of the dirt and repulsive feeling on her scales and skin extremely distracting even with the perceived danger. "Why... do I hate being dirty so much? I never use to mind? Is it because it's hindering the ability to absorb dark and ice essence?"
Shivering slightly, the raise of her scales dislodging a bit of the dirt, Nyx glanced over her shoulder. "This place..."
As time continued to pass, the forest gradually became denser. At the same time, the clearings Nyx would cross from time to time would become more prominent. Some of them would have grass or small tree's growing in, but most were covered in ash.
Nyx sensed that there wasn't something right with the clearings. Their size and shape always being roughly the same in the same area, as well as the seemingly controlled fire that had generated the ash, but she didn't know what exactly it was.
However, as the questions in Nyx's mind continued to grow, she did have some relief. The trees and bushes were becoming denser, increasing her ability to hide and mask her tracks.
Just as Nyx cleared a fallen tree, its width easily around a meter, a large shadow passed the space it had made in the canopy.
Throwing herself to the nearest standing tree, Nyx felt the spikes on her back and arms rise in preparation as her hands became claws that appeared savage and demonic. However, as she looked up, Nyx realised that enormous shadow hadn't stopped.
As it continued in the direction she had come, she heard repeated soft thuds that sounded like the beat of wings. Something that she had not realised due to the deafening pulses emanating from her core as it strained itself to provide her body with enough energy while refining the limited amount of essence in her surroundings.
Having already stopped, Nyx continued to watch the direction the shadow had gone as she caught her breath. Each time she inhaled, the dark and ice essence would be syphoned out, making the air she exhaled brighter and even hotter than her sweltering surroundings. Under the shadows of the canopy, it looked like she was exhaling steam.
After five minutes of peace, removing as much dirt as she could during the break, Nyx slowly looked around. She had somewhat adapted to the smells and sounds around her and, even though she was in an unknown place, she could help but marvel at her surroundings.
Just as she was enjoying the sights and developing questions that were not related to her survival, the soft breeze a delight, Nyx was woken from her thoughts as her head nodded downwards. "Can't sleep yet."
Shaking her head, wondering why she was so exhausted already, Nyx repressed the yawn and started moving again. However, this time she carefully stalked forward on two legs while anxiously looking around.
"I need to find somewhere dark and cold to hide. Like a cave or something." At some point, Nyx's attitude had subtly shifted. It had gone from trying to prolong the inevitable to recovering as much as possible while enjoying herself before she was caught. "The essence here is too thin and I really, really want to sleep. And eat. And drink. I wouldn't mind a..."
Nyx quickly repressed the desire for contact and interaction with others, deciding it was far too risky and not as important as the rest.
After what felt like an eternity to Nyx, the progression of the sun appearing to slow significantly as she stopped racing towards it, she came to a wiery stop before a massive river. The lush, green grass on each of its banks and sparkling water that rippled noisily caused her to blank out for a moment.
After regaining her senses, Nyx swallowed hard while staring at the water. Her throat felt rough and swollen. "How long since... I last had a drink."
Just as she was about to run out of the treeline and dive into the water, Nyx's ears flattened as she frowned and looked up. After scanning the sky, river and its banks as well as her surroundings for more than fifteen minutes, Nyx started to creep forward on all fours.
"Water."
The closer she got, the dryer her throat felt but the more cautious she became. It had been so long since she had drunk anything that hadn't been the congealed essence residue that had formed puddles on the floor of her prison.
Slowly, each step feeling as if it sounded like thunder, Nyx continued onwards. Her ears constantly twitched and moved as her gaze never lingered on a place for more than a few seconds. "Just a little sip. Then I will leave. It's too open."
Nyx's imagination started to go into overdrive again, yet she forced down her paranoia. "They might catch me soon, then I might never get to taste it. Just a sip. A mouthful. It's an experience I can't pass. I may regret it forever."
The sunlight burnt her black scales and skin, but she couldn't bring herself to take her weaker human form. The soft skin hurt more, but as Nyx quickly checked her condition, she couldn't see any damage and so promptly ignored the sensation as she focused on her target.
It was only when Nyx reached the edge of the river, seeing her reflection in the crystal clear water, that her emotions started to settle as she moved into a squat. The muscles in her legs screamed in protest, having long since reached their limit, but Nyx ignored them as she cupped her hands and tried to scoop a handful of water.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
As she brought her hands to her mouth, Nyx realised that the water was gone. Repeating the action, she noticed that the grooves between her scales actually provided enough gaps for the water flowed out quickly.
Frowning, Nyx stared at her hands for a bit. However, after a brief internal debate, she again decided against using her human form. After placing her hands on the soft bank on each side, revealing a little shiver as the soft mud squelched upwards, she slowly leaned forward.
With her ears upright and eyes scanning the water and treeline before her, Nyx sucked in a small mouthful of water.
As the cold liquid entered her mouth, Nyx shivered in delight. It hurt a little bit to swallow, but with each gulp, it became more comfortable and refreshing.
As she continued to drink, forgetting about her plan of only taking one sip, Nyx started to use her long tongue to try and push more water into her mouth. For some strange reason unknown to her, it felt more natural to do it that way.
"Heaven." Every time she swallowed, the cold water containing far more ice element than the muggy air around her, Nyx felt the world around her wasn't so separate and distant. At the same time, she almost believed that just this event on its own was worth all the troubles she had endured since her prison break.
She continued to drink, feeling her stomach starting to bloat until two masculine voices shouted from the right in a language far different from any she had heard before.
["Danny. Do you see what I'm-"]
["Shut the fuck up, Dave, you're going to scare it away."]
Even before the first word was completed, Nyx's tense muscles had already thrown her forward. The action was without thought, her body reacting before her mind could process the threat. It was only when she crashed into the water, clearing almost half of the river, that she was able to recognise that not only had she been discovered, but they had managed to get incredibly close to her.
"They found me."
After a moment of floundering, Nyx struggling to recall how to swim, she managed to get herself to the other bank. Coughing up the water that she had inhaled, she quickly climbed the muddy bank and sprinted into the nearby treeline. As she weaved between the trees, trying to keep them between her and whatever had made the noise, Nyx cursed herself for becoming so absentminded.
Her body screamed in protest. Combined with the belly of water, it was even more painful and uncomfortable than before, but Nyx continued to charge forward until her figure was nothing more than a blur. Tree's seemed to flash past at an incredible rate.
It wasn't long before she stopped briefly to vomit out the water. The liquid was far brighter, and even seemed to sparkle a little with motes of golden light, than when it went in, but Nyx didn't notice as she had already left the moment she had stopped retching.
Hours later, the temperature and sun seemingly dropping, Nyx collapsed against the side of a tree as she gasped for air. She had sprinted the entire time, almost breaking her shoulder at least twice as she collided with trees.
However, before she could fully recover, a weird tingling sensation started prickling her skin. At the same time, the rhythm of her core increased as an extreme sense of unease assaulted her.
Frowning slightly, looking back in the direction she had come from, Nyx tried to remember where she had felt the sensation before. It was extraordinarily familiar but alien at the same time. Yet whatever it was, she knew it was something important.
"Did they follow? Is this it? Is my freedom already over?"
The thoughts whizzing through Nyx's mind vanished as a faint hiss from above caused the scales on her arms to feel as if they were standing on end. Without thinking, Nyx lept to the side before rolling to her feet and releasing a small but vicious hiss of her own.
Looking back at where she had been standing moments before, Nyx froze as she locked eyes with a giant snake. Its scales were the same colour as the tree's bark and rough like its texture, the only other colour being the leaf-green eyes on its pointed, triangular head.
The snake released an angry-sounding hiss, staring back for a few moments, before slowly pulling itself back to the low hanging branch its lower half was coiled around.
After carefully watching every twitch of its body for a few minutes, Nyx felt her shoulders slump as the small amount of energy she had left seemed to vanish. However, a small, unnoticed smile crept upon her lips as relief and joy erupted. "So... it wasn't them. Stupid snake."
Resisting the urge to sit down, Nyx stared into the eyes of the snake for a few minutes, still watching her, before tilting her head. "Natual dangers are good. Though they might not be any use against my enemies and can harm me, they might be able to distract or give early warning."
After listening for a while, Nyx started shuffling in the direction that the most roars or shrieks occasionally came. She was moving at a much slower pace, carefully scanning her surroundings while trying to reduce the tracks.
Occasionally looking over her shoulder, Nyx chest started to tighten as she began to believe she might actually escape. However, she would always shake her head and berate herself for being so foolish. "No. They will come. They always come. It's just a matter of time. Just keep moving."
Hours later, as the forest's shadows vanished into the dull, deep blue gloom expected at dusk, Nyx almost sighed in relief. While it wasn't much, the dark and ice essence in her surroundings had improved, and she was able to manipulate more of the natural energy.
Instead of having to rely on her five senses, she could now use her essence to scan the surroundings up to ten meters away. It wasn't a replacement for sight, but if anything moved in the dome-like area, she would sense the disturbance and could react swiftly.
Nyx continued onwards, noticing that the trees were becoming more substantial and the roars louder and more terrifying. She often had to skirt areas where her skin would start to tingle, and the anxious feeling would re-appear. Every time she did, she would frown and try and recall how her sense of danger felt in the past, thinking it was different but not remembering enough to be sure.
There where even a few sections of the forest that were covered in thick spiderwebs. Each strand almost the thickness of her arm. While she didn't get the same feeling from them, actually feeling nothing strange at all, Nyx steered clear. The webs were clearly designed to trap prey or alert whatever made them.
It wasn't long before the forest was plunged into darkness, and Nyx's movements came to a halt next to an enormous tree. After closing her eyes and using her alternative vision to check for foreign energies nearby, and checking with her dark essence for any creatures that might be hiding in it, she put her back against the tree and slid down into a sitting position.
Taking a deep breath, black streams of energy formed in the air nearby and crawled across Nyx's body and towards her nose and mouth. As they touched her, they became fainter as they were absorbed. However, the streams seemed to move around the areas covered in dirt.
Feeling the essence diffusing and circulating through her core and body before moving to her core to start the first cycle of refinement, Nyx released a moan-like sigh. While the essence was still far from the quality or quantity she needed, her core was so empty that even the smallest drop would make a huge difference. Not only that, but the pleasurable feeling of cultivating once again was almost blissful. With each beat of her core, she imagined she could feel her strength increasing.
Thinking about it, the enchanting smile that had bloomed on face faded slightly. "Three elements, thirteen bands each. To fill my core so I can condense my Gem Stone, its thirty-nine layers in total... and the natural essence in this world is... shit. So much potential, so little resources."
"If I want to grow quickly, its plunder or find natural wonders. One is risky and high profile, the other is down to luck."
After thirty minutes of cultivating, Nyx grit her teeth as she forced herself to stop. "That's enough. I need to find a shelter or a safe place before I fall asleep. That snake earlier was only a beast with no core or refined essence."
"Normally, they wouldn't be a threat, but I can't use any more power than the first layer, and my body is too weak at the moment. I'm... at the bottom of the food chain."
Nyx frowned, not understanding why believing she was weak enough for an average beast to kill filled her with anticipation and longing. A burning hunger, different from the one coming from her stomach, seemed to simmer in the depths of her soul.
Shaking her head to dislodge the strange thoughts and feelings, Nyx tried to stand up only to crash to the floor as she hissed in pain.
Letting out small whimpers, she massaged her muscles and tried to stretch. Now that she focused, she could feel her muscles breaking down and rebuilding after pushing her body beyond its limits. However, the excess resources it needed to repair were none existent, and so the rest of her body was breaking down what it deemed unnecessary.
"I need food. Lots of food." Nyx glanced around the dark forest, listening to the occasional roar that broke the insistent din of insects and other night wildlife. It was only now that she realised the gnawing pain coming from her stomach was hunger and, the more she concentrated on it, the worse it became.
"Not tonight. Not until I know more. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind." Scanning her surroundings, wondering where the saying had come from, Nyx sighed and stiffly stood back up as she looked towards the canopy above. "Just where am I?"
Feeling the pull and slight pain of her hands and feet turning into their demonic-like states, Nyx turned and started to carefully climb the tree. She slipped a few times, leaving large gashes in the bark, but otherwise quickly ascended as if she were a natural.
After reaching the highest branch that would support her slim build, Nyx broke off the bits that obstructed her view and let them fall to the ground. Above her, was a stary night sky. While it was meant to be the same view, it looked completely different from what she had seen from space.
As she watched the twinkling stars, occasional debris shooting across the night sky and burning up in the atmosphere, she wrapped her tail around the branch and hugged herself.
She could make out the faint outline of the orange planet she had briefly seen, but the rest were either not there, or not visible with her eyesight.
Slowly, her eyes became unfocused as Nyx recalled the events that had occurred since she discovered the barriers of her prison we no more. "So much has happened... in such a small amount of time."
A small twitch of a smile formed at the edge of her lips as Nyx's thoughts moved onto her discover of the human. "Such a strange man, such a strange feeling. Also, his black hair and blue eyes... Why do I feel like I should know him? He was wounded as well, chased by the metal things."
"He seemed cornered. Maybe he was trapped as well. Maybe he wasn't my enemy? But... how did he know my name?" Nyx frowned for a moment before shaking her head. "What does it matter. I'm sure I'll find out when they catch up."
Nyx looked down for a moment, the sense of sadness and loss of her newfound freedom making her want to curl up into a ball. "Stop it. I can feel sorry for myself later. I should just enjoy everything I can now."
"And who knows... maybe... it won't be so bad."
Forcing herself to think about her journey through space, ignoring the seemingly waste of energy she expended trying to break free, Nyx's smile returned. "That... was kind of fun. And beautiful."
"I wish I took a little more time to look around. Never been into space before, well the abyss doesn't count. Might not get another chance."
Nyx's mind travelled over her journey up until this point, finding it funny how she had the urge to return and fight the snake that was obviously stronger than her. "Well... at least I have a chance of winning. Unlike what will happen when-"
Nyx slapped her cheeks before pulling her ears down painfully, irritated that she couldn't just enjoy the moment. Looking back up at the sky, she tilted her head as she sucked in the bottom left part of her lip. "What's wrong with this?"
After a couple of minutes, she sighed. Her vague memories of the solar system somewhat confirming her theory. "This place... it doesn't have a moon. How... sad."
She didn't know why, But Nyx felt a sense of loss at the discovery. Coupled with the hot-mid day temperatures and thin natural essence, Nyx felt herself wishing she was back on the fourth continent not realising it had changed into a barren desert with time. "This world... I already dislike it."
"But... it can't all be like this. I saw white patches too. So it must have colder climates." Standing up, using her claw to hold onto the trunk while her tail wrapped around the branch for support, Nyx looked around. In the distance, she could barely make out what seemed to be mountains. Their white peaks illuminated by the starlight.
While she couldn't guess their size, or how far they were away, Nyx noted they were the only noticeable thing she could see. The rest seemed to be an endless sea of trees. The only difference was to her right and left, the trees seemed to get bigger while to her back and right, they appeared to slope downwards.
"I must have come far..." Nyx tilted her head as she looked around. While Nyx didn't know exactly how far she had travelled or in what direction but she believed that after an entire day she must have covered a significant amount of ground. "A forest that stretches out in all directions. I guess it's a good place to hide. Unless they burn it to the ground."
The gentle breeze wraps around her body, causing her to shiver in delight and forget her negative thoughts. The hope and expectation that she kept trying to ignore growing with each passing moment. All around her, creatures and insects continued to fill the air with noises. "Maybe..."
"... I really got away? Maybe I did something to the barriers and threw it off course?"
"No. It can't be this simple. It never is." Slowly, her shaking head, Nyx's smile grew despite trying to downplay her emotions and find excuses. "Then again, maybe that was all just to help me. It did bring me to a decent planet and stopped me from being turned into a paste."
Nyx giggled at the ridiculousness of her theory, believing that the restrictions alone showed that Eos nothing good for her.
"Wait... what if all this is just a dream." Nyx shuddered, her chest suddenly feeling extraordinarily tight and her breathing became somewhat ragged. The sense of dread continued to grow as she started doubting herself.
After thinking for a few moments, even though she had experienced many pains and various sensations earlier, she looked down as she used the nails on her free right hand to dig into her palm.
Feeling the sting, as well as watching the bright red blood drip and fall onto the leaves below, Nyx released a deep sigh as her smile returned. Feeling the wound slowly close up, Nyx shook her head. "No, it's not a dream. I'm here. I'm... alive."
Nyx started to chuckle, her head swaying from side to side so the breeze could blow ruffle her short hair as her smile turned into a full-blown grin. Yet, after a few minutes of enjoying the sensation and basking in the starlight, she frowned before briefly looking at her arm, no visible signs of the discomfort she felt, Nyx tensed.
"Threat."
Nyx's eyes that had been half closed, abruptly opened as she scanned her surroundings. She could faintly see the small tendrils of her dark essence snaking through the shadows around her.
After glancing down and spotting no movement, she turned towards the mountains and squinted. In the distance, Nyx made out a faint shadow appearing against the stary backdrop. However, it was so far away that she could barely make out its shape. Massive wings, a tail and long neck, were the only distinguishable features.
"It can't be it. How would it even see me at this-" Nyx's thoughts stop as she spots the blue hue reflected off the top of her nose and nearby leaves. "My eyes... glow. Shit."
Even though it looked like the shadow was getting closer, the sensation didn't change. However, subconsciously linking the terrifying roars with the winged creature, Nyx didn't feel like hanging around to get a better view.
Leaping onto the trunk, Nyx used her claws to control her rapid descent. However, instead of getting better, the foreboding sensation only seemed to intensify as her scales stood on end and stomach lurched.
When she was not more than a couple of meters from the ground, Nyx's eyes widened as she sensed movement to her right side. The momentary confusion was milliseconds from being replaced with understanding just a burning pain flared up on her right and her vision span. "It wasn't the shad-"
Before Nyx could grasp what had happened, she spammed into the trunk of a nearby tree and slowly fell to the ground. Finding inhaling almost impossible, Nyx realised that a warm pool was rapidly forming around her. For a moment she didn't know. "Blood..."
Moving her left hand to where the pain was coming from, Nyx tried to gasp as she found a large portion of her ribs and stomach missing. Glowing golden runes flared to life as her body tried to heal her while illuminating surroundings.
Sensing movement again through the dark essence she had instinctively spread around her, Nyx tried to gather her energy and launch an attack. Yet, in her haste, she didn't limit the power gathered, and the glowing runes quickly repressed her energy as the glow they released became like that of a small sun.
Just as she cursed herself for panicking, Nyx felt something grab her leg. The grip was so powerful that she felt her leg break almost instantly as her sense of gravity changed as she found herself flying through the air.
Fur, flickers of amber eyes and rows of razor-sharp teeth was all she in the glow of her body before the wind whistled past her ears and she felt a downward motion. In the next instant, the sound of bones breaking resounded in her ears as Nyx was slammed into the ground hard enough to create a small crater.
Ape-like howls, sounding enraged, echoed at the edge of her consciousness as she fought to stay awake and limit the damage. However, with her jumbled senses, Nyx couldn't regulate her essence correctly. This caused most of her attempts to result in nothing more than a light show.
Nyx's thoughts were gradually destroyed, as well as any attempt at resistance, as she was slammed repeatedly into the floor. It was only when she suddenly found herself arcing through the air before tumbling across the forest floor and coming to a stop at the foot of a tree, that was she able to regain some ability to think.
Struggling to move, finding her body unresponsive as she gazed with one eye into the canopy above, Nyx internally roared in defiance and anger. The golden light emanating from her body revealed a thrashing shadow just at the edge of her peripheral. Yet, that information was ignored as she realised that not only could she not feel any pain, but she couldn't feel anything either. "Did it rip my leg off?"
Without being able to move or feel her body, Nyx imagined that the thrashing creature was still flailing around with her leg without realising the main body was already missing. "But... how? My body is like a fucking lighthouse at the moment. Why isn't it attacking?"
Without pain and unable to move, Nyx found her thoughts becoming more organised as she pushed essence through her body to discover how damaged she was. Her right leg was missing, as well as the large chunk from her chest. Most of her bones had been broken, and her left arm was mangled so severely that she couldn't quite envision the information her essence was returning.
Even though the creature's high pitched howls were almost deafening, Nyx was able to hear the slight clicks and cracks as her body started to pull itself back together and regenerate. It wasn't fast, and she dreaded what she would feel when her nerves would reconnect, but Nyx felt slight relief in the knowledge.
"I... this might actually not be a good thing." That was until she started having thoughts about being eaten and digested as her body regenerated endlessly. "And what happens when I run out of nutrients to rebuild my body? My essence is limited by the damn restrictions, so I doubt that will help me much. And without a body, absorbing and refining natural essence will be so much slower. I'll be nothing more than a pretty rock."
"Wait." Nyx blinked, the only movement she could make easily. "If my body is destroyed, will the energy inside it vanish or will it re-enforce the restrictions around my core?"
The howls of anger nearby had turned to pain as the sound of snapping wood and the floor being pounded continued. Yet, Nyx was almost oblivious to this as her brain raced with the possible implications of her situation. It was only when the wails turned into agonised, terrified shrieks that were gradually getting weaker that she stopped brooding.
"What?" Finally noticing the change, momentarily wondering why the beast had given her so much time to think, Nyx frowned as her body started to twitch. A few moments later, a loud thud shook the ground as she felt a loud click in her neck. After that, Nyx's world became one existing only of excruciating pain as her body violently spasmed.
Nyx didn't know how much time had passed, but as the pain gradually faded, she realised she was screaming. The cry was so blood-chilling, more of a screech from the depths of hell than anything, that she felt her mind shudder and her consciousness further blur until she forced herself to stop.
Gritting her teeth and taking deep breaths, Nyx sensed that while her body hadn't recovered much, a film of essence had formed temporary organs, muscles, bones and fibrous tissues as the flesh slowly regenerated.
Slowly, ignoring the pain and watery eyes, Nyx turned her head in the direction she had last seen her assailant.
A large mound of brown-grey fur was visible in the golden glow of her body. It was huge, the silhouette seeming like a small mountain, yet she couldn't make out any distinguishable features.
Almost immediately, she noticed two things. The first was that her surroundings were eerily quiet while the other was the heap was making no movements at all. After probing the body with a small amount of ice essence, the dark energy almost entirely maintaining the functions of her body while stopping her surviving organs from flowing out, Nyx closed her eyes.
"Alive~." Nyx's wheezy, hiss-like voice, the language of the abyss that she had subconsciously picked up over millennia, broke the unnatural silence as an enormous grin appeared on her face.
Even though she still felt agonising pain, she started to chuckle, which quickly devolved into coughing up copious amounts of clotted blood. Mixed in with the bright red substance, small motes of golden light flickered like tiny fireflies
"I'm alive. I'm really alive~."
While trying to work out what had happened, Nyx slowly lost consciousness as she drifted off to sleep. While she had no intention of sleeping, her mind, body and soul were exhausted from her first day of freedom. The smile etched on her face in complete contrast to the grisly scene around her.