Alicya's heart

Chapter 2: The Hunt

      I wake up to the sound of nothing. No birds chirping, no crickets, just quiet. It was like this most mornings, the creatures have run off most of the animals. That or killed them. I get out of bed and put on my brown shirt and my black pants. Pull on my worn down boots and walk to my mirror to fix my hair, what little bit there is of it.
     I study my features. Short black hair, brown eyes, muscular build. And a scar that runs down the right side of my face. Right beside my eye and goes across my cheek, stopping part way down my neck. I hate it more than anything, what beauty I did have felt ruined by this. I rustle my hair a few times, make my way to my bow, and my knife then head out the door. Making sure I am quiet as to not wake up my mother and sisters.
      Alister is standing beside my father, his father ahead of them, already heading to the meadows. " Alicya, Alister, you will be hunting the forest today, together. I will head out with Malik to the meadows. We spotted a few of the hairless ones yesterday so it would be better if we hunt in pairs." I nod my head and Alister shook my father's hand then we head on our way. The forest is a good two mile walk from the village and it is dangerous to say the least.
     " So our wedding. It's in less than two weeks time, are you having second thoughts? I know this was kind of pushed on you. If you don't want to go through with it I can find a way around it." Alister said as he strolled forward not even glancing in my direction. I detected a bit of worry in his tone. " No, it's fine. I'm not having second thoughts, I'm ready. Besides I feel our parents know best don't they, and we get along well enough."
A crooked smile made its way across Alister's face slightly hidden by his rugged beard. If I hadn't known better I'd think he likes the idea of our marriage. " I guess they do know best. I couldn't think of a better pair than us, it'll do good for the village and our children will be strong."
    Children, what's expected out of all of us. I never saw myself as the motherly type and honestly dread this idea. I force a smile when Alister looks back at me and we walk into the forest. The tall overgrown trees and brush make it hard for us to keep an eye on things. Along with the briar thickets and the bugs. We kneel down behind a brush and keep an eye out for our next target. Staring at a bait trap we made I caught something out of the corner of my eye. One of the scaly creatures was walking straight for the trap, I hunch down lower and motion to Alister the direction of the beast. He crouches down and readies his bow Incase it senses we are here. I move over slightly and unsheathe my knife from my belt and hold it by my side.
        The creature starts smelling the air and walking in an almost circle, eyes bulging out further than usual. This one looks different than the others. It has black almost vein-like lines running up and down its body, scales seem to be falling off, something I've never seen before. It walks in a frantic motion and the center of it's bulging eyes where the pupils should be is nothing but solid white. It jerks it's head left and right trying to sniff out a scent. The only question was, was that scent us or something else?
     We stay dead quiet as we watch the creature walk around, stepping over and missing the trap as it walks passed it. It walks further into the forest and far passed us before we gave a relieved sigh. "Have you ever seen anything like that before?" I ask in a low whisper. " No. We best move forward and farther away from whatever that was." Then he starts quietly walking, bow in hand, out farther into the forest. I follow unsure if this was the best idea. What if there are more creatures like that out there? What if whatever the black substance is makes them more aggressive? What if it makes them stronger? We can barely fight them off as they are. I push all my thoughts into the back of my head and follow Alister into the thick forest.
      It is in moments like these I am glad my pants are made of deer hide, the briars are relentless in this part of the woods. Alister's head cocked to one side as we heard the noise of branches cracking and leaves rustling behind us. We slowly turned around and right behind us was the biggest wolf we'd ever seen with the same white eyes and black veins running along it's body as the scaled creature had. It was snarling, bearing it's teeth and hunched back like it's ready to lunge. Alister draws his bow and hit the wolf in the chest, but no luck. The walf starts running towards us barely fazed. I lift my knife as the wolf pounces in my direction jabbing it into the wolf's side as he lands on top of me. I felt the sensation of teeth ripping into my shoulder, of claws tearing through my clothes. I frantically jab the knife over and over again into the wolf till I felt it go limp. I start feeling faint and  I can feel the warm blood rushing out of my body. The wolf is dead. Will I be too? The pain hit me hard and fast I could feel it all my shoulder was torn, my ribs are cracked, my torso is sliced beyond repair. Before I can even scream out everything went dark.

I feel every bump he hits as Alister runs me back to the village as fast as he can. I can hear him screaming for help. I can hear him cry, does he really care about me that much? I am in and out of consciousness as he carries me back to the village him pleading with me not to die. "Alicya you can't. Do you hear me? You can't die! Someone help, clear off the table she's lost a lot of blood." I can hear my mother sobbing, pleading with Lori. " Lori baby go inside don't look. Go inside!" She rushes over and starts  applying pressure to my wounds with one hand petting my hair with the other. " Oh Alicya." Is all she can muster before she erupts into sobs again. I hear the familiar voice of my father. " What happened Alister? What happened! You were supposed to protect her!" " Jean stop! Just stop. This isn't helping. It's not his fault and you know it!" I hear my mother yell between sobs. I can hear everything, I can feel the pain, but my sight is gone. I can't move.  Then the darkness and quiet is back.

Hey guys I hope you enjoyed this chapter and feel free to leave comments or vote and don't be afraid to give some instructive criticism I'm new to writing