And What I Found There - Book Two

34. Run Away Now

I wake with a jolt and heave my heavy head up out of the mud.

Ugggghhh...so weak...

In such pain...

I roll over to my hands and knees. Despite having had a powerdrop before, I'm still surprised when I see my skin is a bright lavender color and my long curls are the color of a rainbow in the dark. I shake my head and now crawl through the thick mud before I flop back down on my back on a patch of moss.

Rain pours down me again.

Great.

I force myself to stagger up and stumble deeper into the dark, dense forest. Most of the rain is mercifully blocked by the thick canopy. It's so cold here I can see my breath in shaky, gasping clouds before my mouth as I pant. I shudder -not just because of the crippling cold- as I hear a distant flock of birds screeching.

Jeez, how am I supposed to defend myself out here when I don't have any magic anymore? It could take me days before the magic in my blood is replenished enough to use again.

And where's my Dark Rider?

I feel so horribly guilty about forcing him to transform into his demonic alter ego, but I honestly think he would've been killed without it.

I anxiously look around. He surely must've shifted back into his "normal" state by now. I have no idea how long I've been out, but it feels like a while. While on the subject of me passing out, I'm kinda surprised -pleasantly so, of course- that I wasn't eaten in my sleep by any of the monsters that haunt Ghost Hills.

"Vyndren!" I call, desperate to regroup with my Dark Rider. "Vyndren! Where are you?"

There isn't a reply.

I grimace as I rub my aching side. Perfect. I'm lost, alone, injured and defenseless. Could this night get any better? Ugh.

"Alright, what would Vyndren do if he was me?" I ask myself, trying to imagine my Dark Rider in my situation. "Find shelter," I decide. I hastily limp along, looking for a nice, dry place that'll keep me out of the weather and hopefully shield me from predators.

A stick behind me suddenly snaps.

I gasp and whirl around in time to see a monster crouching as if about to spring. I'm almost too horrified by its ghastly appearance to even scream. Almost.

This albino monster stands on six different scaley legs equipped with paws and claws, the torso towers over the rest of the armored body, and a forked tail swishes over the ground menacingly. It has four different boney arms with long claws at the ends of each, and -most hideously- it has three different heads.

They look alarmingly humanoid but are ghostly white and cadaverous with stringy white hair hanging limply from their skulls. The middle head has blazing red eyes and a round mouth protruding from the rest of its head with dozens of sharp yellow fangs, this head has bloody holes where the ears should be. The left head has bloody gorged out eyes and the right head doesn't even have a mouth, just bloody red cuts over its flesh where a mouth should be.

Okay, this thing is freakin' terrifying!

Of course I scream.

The monster lunges.

I anxiously sidestep and kick its spine as it darts pass me. It staggers forward with a hiss but now its tail swings for me faster than I can move. It catches me right in the stomach and I go sailing through the air and crash into a huge risen root.