The Zodiac Cycle

1.18 Uncharted Territory

"Remind me again why we are goin into a dark, creepy forest with signs that say Danger, Keep out if you want to remain alive." Clementine (the pisces) asked, crossing her arms. "Especially at night."

"Well, I figured that if it's dangerous, it could be a good bit of training you guys might need." Keith didn't hesitate to walk right into the woods while everyone else stayed back a bit.

"Dude, cant we wait till morning?" Carson exclaimed.

"Nope, I heard the Nomads that live here are nocturnal, so we dont want to be rude." Keith turned to look at the group, walking backwards and shrugging.

"People really live here?" Avery seemed concerned.

"The people living here are probably the reason it's uncharted." Alex was running their fingers through one of their wings.

"Because that's not unsettling in the least." Brianna was walking beside Iris.

"If I die, please dont leave my body behind." Iris had a very annoyed expression as she spoke to Brianna.

"Oh calm down, you will all be fine." Keith turned back around and continued ahead, the rest of the group catching up to him and Amber walking beside him. The two of them had a quiet conversation that seemed pretty serious, making Amber tense up a bit.

Clementine stayed nearer to the back of the group, and ended up walking beside the large troll. She had forgotten his name already.

"Clementine is a bit of a mouthfull." He spoke to her without warning, startling her a bit. "Can I call you something shorter?"

"What do ya suggest?" She looked up at him. His hot pink eyes were gorgeous, but the way they were dialated, she could tell he wasn't all that good with seeing in the dark.

"How about Cley? It's not too short, but not too far off your name either." He smiled a bit.

She felt a bit of pain in her stomach at that name though. "No, not Cley, it's too similar to ma birth name and ma father used to call me it."

"Oh, Clementine isn't your birthname? Do you mind me asking what is?"

She hesitated telling him, but something about him made her feel at ease. "Claibourne."

"Hmm." He thought for a moment, looking at her. A bit of realization came across his face. "I hadn't realized, good for you."

There was something about the way he had said it, it was in a way that someone like her would have liked it to be said, but also almost rehearsed.

"Me too." George, his name was George. She remembered as he finished, his words not fully registering for a few minutes as they walked in silence.

Then it clicked and she turned to look at him so fast that she felt like she almost tore a muscle.

But before she could say a single word, the whole group froze. A couple of them had heard something.

The silence that followed the halting of footsteps was deafening.

It was followed by a low rumble, so deep and bloodthirsty, Clementine was sure that her blood was actually curdling inside her. A couple members of the group gasped, Rebecca shuddered, and Carson's ears flew straight up.

There was a rustling directly in front of the group as a massive shadow revealed itself. It had a long, toothy snarl and sharp, deadly claws. It was bent and misshapen in an eerie form and had glowing blue eyes.

The group all took a step back, and in response, the shadow monster took another step towards them.

Clementine could tell by the way the monster moved that it was carnivorous like her. She stepped to the front of the group and stood in a defensive position, her fins fanning out in a way that made her appear larger, and snarled back at the beast.

It hunched over a bit, tilting its head, then looked up quickly and let off a rapid, high pitched clicking sound that threatened to burst Clementines eardrums.

Within moments, there were similar sounds echoing throughout the woods, replies to the call.

Well crap.

The group tried to turn tail and run, but they were met by another shadow monster directly behind them, and were quickly surrounded by cool-colored glowing eyes and snapping teeth.

"Ah." Keith looked at the beasts, not fully grasping the situation "now I see why his place is uncharted."

Clementine felt a shift and a warmth spread from her elbow out to the rest of her body. She looked at the sign on her elbow to see that it was glowing the same color as her eyes.

Everyone elses signs did the same, all glowing in their own individual color until all the monsters around them were illuminated slightly by the light.

"Keith? What's happening???" Amber frantically covered the glow coming from her waist.

Keith was scanning the growling monsters around them as they reeled back a bit, probably sensitive to the light. "There." He pointed to one of the beasts with dark green eyes. It seemed more confused than the others making weird noises as it tried scratching at the sign in the back of its hand, glowing like their eyes.

"You've got to be kidding me." Ash pulled Nolan a bit closer to him.

"When all the signs are in close proximity, their signs glow." Keith explained calmly. "We've found our Capricorn."

"Well, not for long, cause we are about to die." Rebecca pointed out.

As if on cue, the first beast got on all fours and screeched at the whole group as loud as possible, then pulled back and lept towards the center of the group. The group was scattered a bit trying to avoid the beast, but was pushed closer to the surrounding attackers, who were also preparing to leap in the same way.

"Run!" Amber shouted. Clementine felt a hand grip her wrist and pull her away from the area as she saw the rest of the team get separated into twos or threes, all having one or two monsters chasing them.

So she ran with George, who had grabbed her, racking her brain for something she could do, some way out of this. She remembered learning about some species similar to these in school, what was the name again? She couldnt put her finger on it, her mind was racing too fast.

She had always been the hunter, never the hunted.

And now she never wanted to hunt again.

Then she remembered the name of the species.

Wendigos.

(Drop some Questions for a Q&A, two more chapters left in this Arc!)