A silent frozen breath rushes out of a gasping throat and the sound is lost to the blizzard around it. In the pristine white snow a man trudges through leaving heavy, exhausted foot prints but yet this man trudges on as if he couldn’t stop. The feeling of warm blood is the only distinction this man could feel among the frozen winter storm which chilled his every movement. The blood that has escaped quickly down the man’s right leg left a trail that slowly vanished into the blizzard but the smell of his dirtied blood is not quite so repressed. The roaring winter storm masked both the sound and sight of the horrors that stalked the man with every step he takes. His body, frozen and tired, wished for a moment's rest with every step. His body screams in pain but for every moment he waits his fear grows and for what feels like hours the blizzard rages on but eventually it must stop. Leaving the man exposed to the horrors that follow his every movement and eventually the shadowed figures of a small forest appear, opening a place to hide and a hope for rest for the weary man.

With renewed vigor the weary man rushed as fast as he could with his damaged leg towards a medium sized birch tree near the entrance of the forest. He began to cover his tracks with the newly fallen snow that appeared from the blizzard that once raged. He begins to sit behind the tree in the opposite direction from the opposite direction of the forest, away from his newly hidden tracks. Fear consumed the man’s mind with each moment that passed and within every one of those moments the man tried to control his breathing and repeated prayer in his heart for the horrors that followed him would disappear right with his exhaustion but that hope would soon end. Beast-like growls erupted from beyond his hiding spot signifying that this man has no such hope left. Thus cruel sun began to dim and made way for the even crueler moon leaving the snow covered man to curse his luck knowing if he did nothing this would become his end. The roars of the beasts came closer and closer before they began slowly searching the birch forest that the man had hid in. As if dwindling sunlight had taken pity on the poor man’s plight, its final rays shone on to an object causing it to shine. This metallic item though obscure through the slowly retreating light could be his savior and he knew only if he was smart for he had a tarnished leg and close to no stamina left. The man looked beyond the trees deeper into the forest to see the object that might save him and he thought to himself ““Is that an ax? Well if it is then it might be my ticket out!”” and thus the man rushed toward the ax in his tattered body, alerted one of  the beasts to his location.

That beast let out what could only be described as a screech alerting the rest of the beasts and they began to chase, the man knew if he didn’t make the mad dash and failed to reach the ax he would die. So in the momentary time the dusk sky shone light, the man rushed for the ax all the while the beasts continued their chase through the ever thickening birch forest. The man passed between tree after tree until finally his cold hand reached the ax. The emergency of the moment blinded the man and now he notices that the ax was on a single tree by a cliff but with no time to contemplate he ignored the cliff and began to place his hands on the handle of the ax then suddenly without warning a sharp but warm feeling of pain began to emerge from his back. The pain clenched his hands  and made the man exert more force than he intended and began to fall but as he fell to the snow he tore the ax from the tree. The ease of which allowed him to fall face first into the snow reawakening his dulled senses with a cold and sharp panic into his brain as he forced himself to stand and  face the beasts that hunted him. This clarity that was created from panic, fear and an instinct to survive allowed him to see the creatures that hunted him and the beasts that he could only describe as horror. The creatures were white in color or more accurately described as pale, they had no eyes but a gaped jaw with jagged yellow teeth that dripped saliva colored in crimson. its claws were long and twisted and it stood bipedal with a thin whip-like tail. The beast's pure visage struck unimaginable terror but the man’s survival instincts had to kick in because without him even knowing he had swung the axe with as much energy as he could through the beast's stomach causing it to fall dead but also allowing it’s stomach to reveal its contents. All that escaped as the beast lay lifeless in the snow were skeletons of both man and beast. ““Holy Shit, What the fuck”” the man said in a course tone, he then looked over to the not so distant horizon to see three more of these beats rushing to him. The moment allowed hesitation to set in but the man steeled himself and rushed for a tree to hold his position allowing the beasts to come closer. These beasts followed and within minutes the first of these monsters attacked but was quickly dispatched by the man but the second had reached him before he could recover attacking his posture. Landing a deep wound on the man’s chest with its gnarly claws causing him to step back in pain.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The man’s feet now stood at the edge of the cliff where the ax was first retrieved and he looked behind him so he where he now stood. The man knew that where he stood was dangerous but before he could reposition one of the beasts suddenly pounced on him causing both of them to fall over the cliffside. Both the man and the beast fell straight from the cliff but before they reached the bottom the man took his ax and forcefully stabbed his ax into the beast’s skull causing it to die before it hit the bottom of the cliff. Once the act was done the man had hit the snow at the bottom of the cliff only for it to become as hard as rock and slammed into the man’s back. It caused what felt like shattering bone to course through his body but even with the pain the man took the moment to smile having believed that the cliff was too tall for the the second beast or the final beast to follow but as he looked towards the cliff. Panic began to set in as he saw the beasts climb down the ragged cliff with ease. He began to pick himself up but found that his body struggled but he tried and tried till he could move. He grabbed the ax from the skull of the beast and began trudging as fast as he could through the snow trying to get some space from the beast, he used his ax as a cane and marched on hoping to find something or to finally lose the monsters that had been chasing him. He trudged through another birch forest but this time the beasts were closing in quicker than he could escape them. They raced each other for over an hour passing by the birch forest into a small clearing with a log cabin. Hoping this was his saving grace he used the last of his strength to rush toward the door.

Once he reached the door he found it locked but it did not matter as he busted through the door into a heavily ransacked home filled with nothing but claw marks, a chest and a burning fire. Remembering the beast on his tail he rushed to the door shutting it tight and as he could before a pounding force emerged from the door. He pushed against the broken lock door with all his might hoping the beast would be foiled but it only enraged the beast. With a loud screech filled with rage it slashed the door causing it to collapse on itself leaving the man on the floor. The beast then walked over the man with its claws sharpened ready to kill but as its claws rushed down, the man kicked it causing it to be tossed over by the fire. The man pushed himself up and readied himself for a fight but all he witnessed was the beast filled with panic and fear when it laid its non-existent eyes on the fireplace as it frantically thrashed about before running off into the snow that was light up the moon illuminated night, hopefully never to be seen again by the man.

The man exhaled before collapsing onto the floor closing his eyes and he slept for hours for when he woke up it was morning. He scanned his surroundings and saw the fire still burning but overall nothing changed. Even his wounds that were bleeding yesterday were now closed shut and strangely enough healed completely. He was even able to stand up without effort even though he broke his spine in the fall. It  was obvious but he didn’t have time to think it over because he worried that those things would come back. So he walked over the chest hoping to find some clothes after all his previous outfit didn’t fix itself like he did. He opened the chests to see a long black coat with a fur trim with some basic clothes like a red T-shirt and long but fuzzy pants. He even found so black snow boots to which he promptly put them on and finally some cheap alcohol. The man now dressed looked out the door of the cabin and began to ponder to himself “It will not be safe to head out without more to protect me and even though I have this ax, I was still almost killed by those things.” That’s when he looked at the still burning fireplace and remembered that the beasts that hunted him seemed to be terrified of fire. The man looked around the room to see a broken chair with one of the chair legs torn off he then wrapped it with his old torn shirt, wrapping it around the leg as tight as he could before he poured the entire bottle of alcohol onto the shirt and finally put it into the fire to create something like a torch. Now with his torch in his off hand and his ax in the other he began to walk into the never ending forest hoping with all his heart that his torch doesn’t go out.