Fallen Stars

Chapter 23

KLAIRE

Continuing in the woods surrounding the town, the hunters were setting up something in the court at the front of the village—some sort of contraption.

The contraption was placed above a platform. It appeared like a large rectangular structure made from metal bars. One of the hunters holding a bucket entered from its opening, spilling chum inside. The entrance appears to have a mechanism on it.

The bars that close the structure shut are raised in elevation, being held by a rope attached to a tall post remote from the platform. The rope extends towards the raised elevation inside the hollow metal structure where the chum is placed.

A trap? Do these hunters want to catch that creature?

I was stalking them at the edge of the woods surrounding the village, The torchlights that surrounded the contraption could easily grab the attention of surrounding entities in the forest. The two could only do nothing but get curious about the lights of the village. They can't see as far as I can.

"It's safer here now, " I stated as we continued to walk and the plaza was nowhere in sight. The two were still tailing me as we came to a roundabout on the other side of the village.

"Probably. The last thing I'd hate is to bump into those Hunters," Shayne said in relief.

"The last thing you'd want is for those things to bump into us," Cathera butted.

We came to another segment of the woods. It was a lot shadier here than the other where we came from. The canopy of the woods was still showing that this part of the woods wasn't that old, The leaves of trees that acted as roofs above us were quite low that I could reach it if I jumped.

"Where is Tygron?!" Cathera groaned in an irritated tone but with her soft voice still intact. She was looking around, feeling uneasy.

"Hold on. We are near and I know it. Where are the bowls exactly?" I said, trying to calm her.

Then, we heard a low snarl from a distance on our left, followed by rustlings of the shrubs and bushes.

"What was that?" Shayne asked as Cathera went close to my back while Shayne peeked out above my shoulder, peeking at where we thought the noise came from. Cathera clung to my left arm, remaining silent.

The animal noise came from the bushes. Waiting for it to come out we observed it, eyeing it for that moment.

Horrifying us, it revealed its face snarling at us which we could hardly see because of the shade of the trees. We stepped backwards as it stepped forward. Snarling low on the ground, its saliva was trickling down its mouth to the ground as it showed its teeth on us, apparently the only white thing we could distinguish from its face under the dim light of the moon being filtered by the thin foliage of the trees.

It was our signal to run away as it slowly approached, growling.

"Run!" I yelled as we ran away from it. We were all surprisingly quick because our dresses were not heavy and draping too low on the ground. Also, we wore sandals with thick leather padding.

It came chasing us as we ran through the woods.

As we ran scared. Heading to another tall wall of hedges, another creature came leaping straight on our faces, making us duck on the ground and scream.

Trying to grasp what just happened, I quickly stood up and looked back and forth, realizing that the creatures had separated Cathera from us two. The two beasts stood between us, with one of them blocking Cathera from us.