Men & Monsters

Wildeboar Attack

Finn was abnormally quiet while Eira nibbled on the meager feast he had collected for them. Unlike the night before, which was filled with more fish than the Folk felt herself able to eat, this evening easily reflected the spinosaur's conflicted thoughts. He hardly took notice to Eira as she built another fire. Instead of the fascinated gaze he watched her with before, he sat ruminating on his catch once he had swallowed his portion whole. She cooked her meal and occasionally made an awkward cough, but all but once did it break him free from his thoughts, to which he looked at her with his polite grin. Finally, she was rewarded with a smile back.

"How is your meal Eira?"

"It isn't quite ready yet." She replied with a childish smirk before twirling the fish on the end of the thin branch she found. Waiting until its scales turned black and charred, the girl watched helplessly as the feeble wood she gathered snapped over the fire and her dinner gone with it. Her heart sank just as her stomach growled, when she looked to Finn. The spinosaurus, however, was too caught up in his thoughts to notice. Tossing his manners to the side, he laid his head down onto the rocky ground and stared off into nothingness. Nothing could interrupt his thoughts now, neither by Eira nor her desperate waves of attention. After several silent moments, interrupted only by the crackling fire, Finn closed his eyes and separated himself entirely from the Green Folk.

A loud grumbling noise emanated from her stomach when Eira hugged it. She watched her dinner hopelessly as it slowly disintegrated into black ash when she looked over her shoulder to the dark forest, in the direction of where Giant had passed on toward. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she slowly got to her feet and looked to Finn. With a part of her mind persuading her to visit Giant and another to remain with Finn, Eira summoned up the courage to cross the shallow part of the river and enter the dark abyss of endless trees and hills.

As her heart began to race, she found it only natural to look back to the glowing fire and Finn lying quietly beside it. Warm and protected, what more could she ask for? An unwavering sense to delve deeper into Finn and Giant's past was what pushed her forward, however. If not out of personal curiosity, than perhaps she might catch the early fog of the late evening and find her way home.

Straying away from what remnants of light flickered behind her, Eira swallowed her fears and ventured off into the forest. She was guided only by the hope that she or Giant might find the other. With brush crunching beneath every step she took, she listened closely to the woods around her, only to be discouraged by every moment of silence around her. Even the insects failed to make any noise, as instead they fluttered away to hide. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Eira still could make out little more than the nearest trees, as the forest was obscured in darkness.

Cursing under her breath, Eira quickly realized the mistake of her ways when she started back toward the way she came, only to find that the flicker of fire she built had vanished. Marching through the woods for some time, she couldn't see any flame, nor could she smell the charred wood and fish when she looked from one direction to another. She started one way, then toward another, only to blind herself further from her surroundings. Her hands come up to her brow when she shook her head. How many times could she let herself fall into such vulnerable, foolish situations?

When she heard brush and twigs snap she turned one way, only to hear the same noise in another direction. She turned and looked around until it seemed as if she spun about on her heels, when she finally stopped in time to meet eyes with a shadowy figure. A massive being, it was little else but a dark mass even more ghastly than the endless forest, through which the full moon above fought valiantly to pierce through.

With a feral snort the Wildeboar, concealed behind the shadows, scratched at the tender soil with its cloven hooves. Unbeknownst to Eira, several of its companions began to circle around her, their jaws oozing with slime as they spotted their next meal. At such an hour, instinct dictated to them that another Green Folk was miles away, and they had just so happened across a helpless being. Without a knife or bow to defend herself with, Eira could hear the saliva drop from the daeodons' snouts as they trapped her. She eyed the shadowy beings surrounding her, if just to calculate a plan to avoid them.