After drinking from the fresh water, Don sat next to the pond, content to watch as little fish in different colors continued with their daily lives. Mind blank, he watched as one little goldfish played catch with another one, neither of them winning.
He needed to release some stress, and let all his worries fly away with the wind. His way of doing that is using the serene atmosphere as some sort of stress reliever.
The sun started to set, and night slowly fell onto the world.
Looking up at the sky, Don took a long breath before releasing it. The night was mesmerizing. The stars, high up and somewhere in space, shined down white light on everything below them like gods. Then he looked at the moon.
“Wait, what?” Don asked himself. There were two moons, and both were red. That was not natural. “How?” Don asked himself once again. There was no reasonable explanation for the phenomenon.
Out of confusion, Don got onto his feet, still looking up at the sky. After a few seconds of analyzing the moons, Don broke his gaze from them, only to gasp at the sight in front of him. Every green object in the vicinity had turned red. Bloody red.
The leaves on the trees, dancing in the wind. The grass beneath him. The bushes and plants that were around him. Everything turned red.
'What the fuck is happening?' Don thought as he looked at the crazy sight in front of him.
Scanning the surroundings, Don noticed another unnatural thing. The water in the pond changed color. The once see-through water was now a dark purple.
“Huh?” he walked closer to the edge of the pond, peering inside. He was scared and he didn’t know what to do. He needed to find out what was happening.
He couldn't see a thing because of the dark and dense color, but still tried to focus his eyes. Nevertheless, no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t find anything useful.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" a savage scream was heard throughout the entire forest. If someone would have listened closely enough, they could have heard the animal that made that horrible sound was choking. It was an inhuman scream of a dying living being.
Don jumped, not expecting it. Everything was quiet in the forest since he got there, only the noise of nature booming in his ears. The blood boiling scream was surely a surprise. A frightening one, that is.
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'I think I read somewhere that most predators come out at night, right?' he thought back at the countless hours he spent scouring the internet. 'Also, how the fuck can I see stuff. It's not like there are any street lights here..' Don sighed. He couldn't find any reasonable explanation. It was as if the place was lit up by something. Something immaterial and mystical.
"What the fuck should I do? I don't want to get eaten.," he whispered to himself.
After a couple of seconds of thought, there was a loud splash sound coming from the pond. Don looked at its direction and found something that left his mouth hanging.
'What the fuck is that!' he cursed in his mind. The freak of nature that stood in the far-right corner of the pond was dirty pink. It had the shape of a giant goldfish while having four legs. Its mouth was open, struggling to breathe in the air around it, choking on itself every second breath. Small streams of water were coming out of its every pore. Its soulless, completely white eyes looked at Don, making him shiver.
Not waiting for the thing to get itself under control, Don ran away back to the direction of his open abode. His feet getting even more disheveled and bloody, knees getting scathed, elbows hitting tree trunks from time to time, he mustered on his motivation to keep going.
It was painful, but he made it back to his boulder, his current place of residence. He didn't have anywhere else he could go to. He was not a survivalist, nor was he a hunter. He didn't even like survival shows and survival tips. He thought that he would never need those. But life in most cases is unfair, and this is just one of those many, many cases.
"Alright.. ahh.. I need to find.. ahh.. a way out of this place.. ahhhhhh.." Don said between breaths. He was tired. He didn't know what to do. He was helpless.
"Alright, I need to focus. Just need to survive in this fucked up place for one night. Then get the hell out of here." he said to himself exhaustingly while rubbing his face.
'No, don't look at the legs. Won't help you.' Don reprimanded his curious albeit random devil.
After resting for a few minutes, he got back up again. Wincing from not only the leg pains but also because of the stinging he felt all over his body.
He continued walking, to the opposite side of where he had heard the scream come from while also evading the pond.
While walking, the wind started picking up. Don tried to protect himself from the onslaught of rustling leaves with not much success.
Accidently falling on his face, Don slowly got up. He was a dirty mess, but he still got the determination to keep going. He didn’t want to die, even if he got a face full of mud.
He didn't know where he was going, but he knew that at some point the forest should end. He just hoped there won't be any other monsters in the way.
After walking for a few minutes, without notice, Don was tackled. Thrown on the ground, he grunted. Then, his hand started burning. screaming, he flailed the hand around until the thing that got stuck to it came off. Through the small tears that gathered in his eyes, Don looked at his offender.
It was a purple slime the size of a forehand. But it wasn't cute and round. It looked like sticky acid that would eat you. And that was exactly what it was trying to do to Don.