Jumping to his feet he scanned the area around the clearing, next to him Ziri arched her back and hissed at the shadows. He activated barkskin and his skin cracked and hardened as it turned to bark. A roar shook the leaves, the mere power of it raising dust, The trees cracked as a monstrous form rushed them. Horns like a bull, mouth filled with jagged teeth, a huge body supported by four powerful limbs. A strong tail with four spikes at the end, and a spiky fin running from the top of its head to the bottom of its tail. The monstrous thing had to be at least nine meters tall.
“ENTANGLE, BRIARSWEB!” Sahjail roared, aiming his spells at the monster. Thorny vines and roots ripped from the earth, dirt flying in every direction as they snaked around the creature trying to pull it down to the ground. The monster roared in anger and just ripped itself free charging at them, Gorat charged forward and tackled its legs, the creature smacked into the ground, It roared and clawed uprooting a tree in its struggle, Gorat refused to let go, Sahjaíl instinctively understood. They had to run, they could not yet face this monstrous being.
“Flee and hide!” He ordered, activating camouflage on himself, his hides and skin harmonising with the forest, He sprinted away as fast he could, hearing the bone-shaking roars behind him. He heard a crash and then the heavy footsteps of the creature chasing after him, he cursed, eyes scanning the area for anything he could use to up his chance of survival. Seeing a pool of mud he dashed towards it before taking a dive and a quick roll through it his long braid getting stuck on a tree’s branch, with a curse he grabbed his knife and with a savage pull cut of his hair, scrambling back to his feet then sprinted away, just as he was starting to despair he saw a hill, he heard the creature smashing through the underbrush behind him, getting closer by the second.
Not daring to look behind him he dove over the small hill before finding a small gap where he dove into, pulling nearby leaves and branches over him quickly before freezing. The monster crashed over the hill, stopping just behind it, nostrils flaring as it was trying to find his scent. He really hoped the mud hid his scent well enough, sitting there praying that whatever god was out there could turn him into a log. He watched as the creatures head turned back around, its head hovered barely a meter over where he was hiding. Breath caught in his throat as he tried his best, to stay utterly still, blood and spit dripped down from the monsters fearsome teeth, splashing next to him.
The monsters ragged breath shook the leaves he was hiding, his now unkempt hair ruffled in the air air it released with each breath. After an agonising minute of the creature sniffing around the hill it roared in anger, claw reaching out and smashing a tree, which crashed on Sahjaíl. He muffled his voice as one of the shattered branches pierced his shoulder. His body sustaining a series of cuts to his face and chest as the branches crashed past him. The monster to his relief, stalked away from his hiding place. After he could no longer here the monsters retreating footsteps he sighed in relief, his face quickly shifting from relief to pain as he scrunched his brows. He tried to get out from underneath the tree but the thing was massive, the only reason he wasn’t squashed was the little dimple in the earth he had taken cover in.
A soft squeek made him turn his head. Red eyes socketed into what at first glance seemed to be an elven child glanced back at him. His first guess of an elf was immediately rejected upon closer inspection. It, or rather she, did indeed have elven features, the long pointed ears and the slightly refined cheekbones. Her skin was pale however, a near snowy white, and covering her snowy white skin were tufts of brown fur. Her teeth sharpened, more fang than any humanoid dentature. The ‘child’ looked at him with her head cocked before disappearing.
“Wait!” Sahjaíl said, hoping he could get the young child to help him. The child did not show itself again, he cursed as, he tried to get the branch piercing his shoulder out. He had very little wiggle room so he was not making much progress. After a few minutes of futile attempts he sat back, racking his brain on how he would get out. If he didn’t hurry he might pass out from bloodloss. Before he could come up with a solution he felt the earth beneath him start to shift, he screamed in pain as the earthen bed he was laying on suddenly collapsed down into the earth, The branch ripped from his shoulder tearing at the skin on its way out.
He smacked onto soft dirt below, he looked around and red eyes stared back at him. The child was smiling at him, he looked around and to his astonishment saw a rather large tunnel had been dug from the other side of the hill to where he was. He stared at the child “You did this?”
The child cocked her head “Sasa?”
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She obviously didn’t understand him, he tried to get up but child sat down on his stomach and shook her head. “Sasi lulok asa!” Waggling her finger at him, she told him.
Blue energy swirled around her fingers, suddenly mixing with the dark forest red of the forests energy, she placed her hand on his shoulder and started humming. The tune was unlike anything he had ever heard, the earth itself seemed to him with her, he felt the slight vibrations in the air as nature itself tuned itself with the child. Eyes growing ever wider he stared at his shoulder as the flesh started to crawl together. A chill ran through him as the energy spread itself through his skin, he gasped, body turning rigid as the energy formed bands, tying him down to the earth, dirt rushed to his wounds, fusing itself with his skin, healing his wounds. With a soft hum she finished her work dropping him back to the ground, she sat on his chest and smiled at the now completely healed Sahjaíl.
Gazing at the child with mild confusion he said “Thanks?.”
“Sasa!” She said happily bouncing up and stepping back to give him some room. He got up and and stretched his body a bit, to his surprise he felt completely fine, his leathers were a complete mess though. The chest was pierced and cut open on multiple spots, there were rips in his trousers, his boots had remarkably survived rather intact. His bow had snapped when the tree had fallen, same with his spear, his knife was unharmed. Looking over his rather meager gear he left the tunnel with the child in tow. He remembered there being a stream not to far from the clearing where they had made camp, his backpack was still there. He headed back to the camp, the child humming what he was pretty sure was the tune to Allstar from smashmouth.
So she’s been following me for a while
He looked back at the little one and got a dazzling smile in return, she just seemed extremely happy and he had no idea why. He smiled back though, he may not be good with adults and other teens, but kids on the other hand were easy. Give them food, let them play, or play with them and they liked you. Way easier than adults. It took him a good fifteen minutes to reach the camp he had run further than he expected. The way back was easy to find, he just had to follow the trail of destruction the…
What the hell am I going to name the thing that almost killed me. Behemoth? Kinda cliché, Bullfinsaurus! Yeaaa, now that is a name for a creature like that. He nodded at himself in satisfaction.
The camp was completely wrecked, good thing he didn’t have a tent or anything that the Bullfinsaurus could destroy the caltrops they had taken to carrying with them, usually Gorat carried them all, were smashed. With a shock he thought about Gorat, he remembered feeling a snap, he guessed it was his connection with Gorat. Indeed he found a rocky limb near a tree, the rest of his body was nowhere to be found. He frowned, it was decidedly unpleasant to have a companion die on you. He know that the elemental wouldn’t have actually died as its spirit was not easily destroyed, it had just created a body from the earth and trees after all. He was sure Ziri had made it out, he felt her as a vague presence somewhere in the distance. She was already making her way back to them.
His backpack had miraculously survived the event, he picked it up and headed to the river. He walked at his normal pace, realising in surprise that the child was easily keeping pace, even running around him in circles or bouncing of a fallen log every now and then. She was an epitome of energy, always smiling and laughing and picking things up and pointing at them, it did wonders for his dampened mood. He pointed at himself. “Sahjaíl.”
The girl looked at him with her head cocked “Sahel?”
“No, no” he pointed at himself again “Sahjaíl”
“Sasa!” She said pointing at him excitedly.
“No its-”
“SASA!” She yelled even more excited while running around him.
He sighed, well as far as names went Sasa wasn’t to bad he supposed. He pointed at her. “You?”
She pointed at herself, “Immi!”
“Nice to meet you Immi.” He said sticking out his hand.
She walked to his hand and licked it, eyes glimmering. “Nice you Sasa!”
She retorted, continuing further down the path, grinning he followed her.
A lick instead of a handshake huh, she must have grown up around here.
Reaching the small stream he checked how deep it was, further downstream he saw a pond, he put his stuff down next to the pond. He took of his clothes and looked at his body, the barkskin was still active and it was covered with dirt and blood. What he noticed the most was when he looked downtown towards his private area’s.
He laughed, “Now that is what I call having wood!”
Ziri chose just that exact moment to walk in the clearing. She looked at him with judging eyes and he swore she was shaking her head. Immi however saw the panther and ran up to her excitedly, the panther just stood there as Immi buried her little head in the fur, rubbing the panther happily. Ziri purred a little at the treatment as nudged the child.
“Sasa!” She yelled at him, then pointed at Ziri. “Fuwfuwi!”
Smiling and guessing at her words he said, “Yea, she is very soft”
“Sof?” she said cocking her head then pointed at Ziri. “Sof?”
Sahjaíl nodded “Yes Ziri is very soft.”
“Zili sof!” She exclaimed and buried her face in the panthers fur.
Chuckling at the girls behaviour, he saw that Ziri despite her attitude liked the treatment, he could actually feel her contentment. He cleaned himself, carefully removing the dirt and blood from himself. Even though he was completely healed he still felt a little tender, he made sure to properly clean himself however. After he left the pond he cast a minor healing on himself for good measure, in case of infections or something similar.
Then he looked at his ruined leathers and wondered what he should do about them. They really were rather thoroughly destroyed, sighing he looked at his boots. At least they were still in wearable condition. He would probably have to make something from the skins and hides he had in his backpack.
Sighing he started working.