My chest is heaving, my heart thundering in my ears, each exhale making my mind swirl. Every muscle is tensed, painfully knotted. I scramble to my feet from my place on the floor and scan my surroundings.
I'm on a gentle sloped cliffside, moss covered boulders underfoot and somewhere in the distance, the sound of rushing water.
I bring my hands to my face as a splitting headache pierces my temples. I rub some of the pain away only to notice my hands are covered in something dark and crusty. Blood.
I look down, up to my knees I'm covered, uncomfortably I can feel the dried bits in between my toes and under my feet. My shirt and pants are in shreds and clinging loosely to my body.
I stretch my neck and sigh; I don't know where I am, but I do know how I got here.
I turn and look down the rocks and see a trail of smeared of blood, some places claw marked scuffs into the stone where it was climbed.
Looking up at the sky the sun is just on the horizon and rising ever so slowly, it's early and everything is still covered in little droplets of morning dew.
Taking a few steps I realize I'm much dizzier than usual but shrug it off as dehydration or simply exhaustion and begin walking away from the cliffside and into the woods.
I walk along the side of the river hoping the edge will even out to a point where I can wash off the filth I've found myself in, only to find a log that's fallen over into the valley.
Estimating that I can get myself back up easily enough, I scramble down the log to the pebbled beach and dip my toes into the water. I cringe from the brisk temperature but dip my arms into the water and begin scrubbing the crusty flakes from my skin.
I touch my hair lightly and sniff it, becoming immediately repulsed by the stench of dried blood. Sighing I uncomfortably step into deeper water and submerge myself.
The icy water sucks the air from my lungs and shocks me enough to stand upright again and decide that river water isn't such a good idea.
Shaking and soaked I scramble back onto the pebbled beach. The water loosens the filth and my hand brushes over something unusual along the right side of my torso. As though acknowledgment was the key to an introduction of rippling pain, a fresh train of blood flowed down from where I touched it, dripping and streaming into the icy water. Quickly patting myself down and reaching behind as far as I could to reach my back, my right shoulder screamed in pain to some wound on my back.
Another wave of dizziness hits me along with a newfound panic. I wasn't supposed to have wounds when I woke up, no, I healed much too quickly to be still bleeding. I scanned the surroundings; I must have been shot recently if I was still bleeding.
Thinking back to where I woke up, I couldn't remember seeing any signs of an attacker. Even then had an attacker been nearby, surely, they wouldn't have left me alive.
The pain was really making me dizzy.
Scrambling up the log and trying hard not to lose purchase, I landed myself once again at the top of the valley.
I begin walking into the woods, now on edge and turning rapidly to look at every movement.
Suddenly the wind changes and a gust of cool air swirling from over the river water crests over the valley and hits me in the back, it feels nice against the pain, but the birds have gone silent.
Movement in front of me in the woods catches my eyes and barking cuts through the air.
The thunder of rapidly approaching paws makes me freeze in my tracks, and a large mutt bursts from the bushes, its eyes locked on me.
A wave of nausea pulls at my stomach and the dizziness hits me in full force. As much as I want to run away, my limbs feel like lead, and it takes all my energy to brace the falling impact as I fall to the ground and wonder if the owner of the dog is the one hunting me.
