Beauty and The Beasley

Chapter 16

Day 2 of Bree's hunt was even worse than the previous day. Allen playfully knocked down a beehive and Bree found herself running from a swarm of bees, spraying them with water from her bottle. She regretted doing that afterwards.

She lost Allen again right after they stumbled upon a bamboo covered area of the forest. Bree could've sworn she'd seen a trio of adult pandas.

"How are those things even here?" She'd whispered harshly. She couldn't tell if the dog was scared or just pulling a silly prank but he suddenly turned and bolted back the way they came.

Bree couldn't scream his name or she'd risk attracting the pandas nor could she go back to fetch him. She had lost plenty of time and had to make up for it so she took a different route and went around the animals.

The only good thing was, her map was still intact and in good shape. The last thing she wanted was to get lost. It wasn't like she had a bloodhound to sniff her way back.

She pulled out the map and studied it while she walked, munching on a bar of chocolate cookies. The monster was too big to stay where he could be spotted, so she figured he'd stay in a cave. There were about six marked cave spots on the map and so far, she'd come across none of them.

The first one was located in a place called Blue Stream.

Bree stopped momentarily.

"A blue body of water? like, chlorophyll blue or food coloring blue?" She muttered to herself then continued walking.

She came upon a marsh land and had to use a big stick as a weapon to smack her way through. The forest seemed to be watching her, enjoying her frustration and making things more difficult.

Bree silently prayed she would run into Allen. Despite how annoying he could be, he was her only company. She trotted past a small stream that stretched the length of the forest. Bree had no idea how deep the water was. It wasn't clear and definitely not blue so she concluded that it wasn't the Blue Stream.

A few hours of more walking and she came out the edge of a cliff. It wasn't the same one she'd almost rolled off from but it looked smaller and there was some kind of rickety rock bridge connecting the side she was on to the other.

Bree stared at her map. A rickety rock bridge meant she was going in the right direction - that could also possibly be her last direction. She rolled up the map and tucked it in her bag then proceeded to cross the bridge.

The rock wasn't exactly smooth on the surface. It was bumpy and covered with pine needles. Small chunks of rocks fell off as she walked past, trying hard to not look down. She stretched both arms for balance and carefully moved on step at a time until she was safe on the other side.

"Phew!" She exhaled. As soon as she turned to continue walking, she heard a bark.

"Allen?"

Bree became alarmed when she spotted Allen standing at the other end with two of his legs on the rock. "No, don't cross. Down boy! Down!"

Allen wasn't listening. He climbed the rock.

"No, Allen, stay! Stay!" Bree ordered. At first, Allen got the message and climbed off the rock then he barked and climbed again.

"Allen!" Bree called cautiously when he began to advance. Her heart thumped loudly in her ear, her hands trembled even as she had them outstretched trying to guide the dog back. One little slip and he could fall to his death. Sawyer would kill her.

"Allen! Easy now. D-don't, don't run!" She ordered calmly. Allen was wild and oblivious to the fact that he stood on a bridge 89ft above ground level. The minute he attempted to run across, he would slip and that was it.