Curse of the Weretroll (rewrite)

Chapter 18

After a few hours of keeping watch over her sleeping friends, Poppy was slowly beginning to doze off as well. She was tired just like the rest of the group... but she couldn't bring herself to wake one of them up to take her place like they had originally planned. She would just have to stay awake until they all woke up on their own...

The young princess's eyes began to blink shut as she involuntarily lay down on the ground, the comfort of the grass underneath her quickly putting her into a light sleep...

That is... until she heard a sudden sound...

With a silent gasp, Poppy quickly jumped up to her feet, immediately snatching a nearby pitchfork from the ground, the young troll suddenly wide awake as she looked around in a panic, the rustling leaves immediately catching her attention...

"Hello? Who's there?" she called out into the pitch black darkness of the surroundings forest, her voice shaking in fear as she gripped her pitchfork tightly in her trembling hands...

     There was no reply...

Another crackling sound arose from a nearby bush, causing the young princess to jump back slightly as she quickly turned to face it...

"Who's there!?" she demanded, trying her best to sound intimidating though her fear could still be heard clearly in her tiny voice...

Suddenly, as if responding to the pink troll's question, two icy blue eyes began to slowly emerge from the bush, looking straight at the young princess, a low growl emerging from whatever beast lurked just out of sight...

"St... sta... stay back!" Poppy warned, her voice trembling even more then it had been previously, her fear seeming to rise higher and higher by the second.

Slowly, the creature began to emerge from the bush, revealing itself to be the wolf the whole village was hunting... the wolf she was hunting...

     With a quick gulp, Poppy tightened her grip on her pitchfork, straightening out her back to appear more threatening, ready to attack the beast if it made even a single move closer...

     Sniffing the air, the wolf slowly took a step forwards, almost as if tracking something, relying only on it's sense of smell, it's vision completely blurred by the clouds that blocked it's mind...

"Stay back!" Poppy warned, threateningly pointing her pitchfork at the monster, but the beast only continued it's approach as if not seeming to see or hear her... only her smell seemed to register in it's mind... and for some reason... the wolf was completely drawn to it...

Poppy backed away slowly, the pitchfork shaking in her trembling hands as she tried to move as far away from the threat as possible...

     "G... g... guys..." she whimpered, her fear quickly overwhelming her. "W... w... wake... up..."

     But her group of friends remained sleeping on the ground just a few inches away, the wolf stepping right over their motionless bodies to continue it's approach on the terrified troll he was sniffing out...

Realizing her only chance at survival couldn't hear her... Poppy moved away farther from the monster, slowly walking backwards until she suddenly tripped on a risen root, falling flat onto her butt...