Bright Eyes

Chapter 8

As he settled down for the night once more, this time under a large willow tree with the sun just disappearing behind the forest tree line, he heard a rustling sound coming closer. Branches snapped and something obviously very large was just out of sight. He panicked and quickly climbed the oak tree as quietly as he could. As he watched through the leaves, a Large scaly head poked through the jungle brush, giant tongue flickering, tasting the air. The creature was monstrous. Larger than anything he had seen the Warrior browns patrol with.

It had bright scales reflecting the dying sun, oil slick colors from head to toe. 4 limbs appeared as it wandered towards the oak tree like that of a lizard, but with a head shape more similar to a scaled tiger. It must have been 12 feet long, not including its lizard like tail. As it sniffed around the bottom of the oak tree, he held his breath. It tasted the air around the oak tree clearly on his scent. Right as it seemed to give up and turn to wander away, the branch beneath Soup's feet gave way. The branch must have been rotten.

Soup hit the ground with a snap and a thud, his head swam as the creature turned to him and hissed. He shook off the fog in his head and started running. The beast lept at him, knocking him down the bank of the river. Soup had no choice but to swim for his life. The current was incredible and swept him downstream quickly. As he swam he glanced behind him, the beast was still staring at him from the bank. He must have swam for 15 minutes before reaching the other shore.

He looked around and saw no sign of the animal. "I suppose all types of cats don't like water" he thought to himself.

He really had no idea where he was now so he continued to follow the stream for another 10 minutes to get futher away from the beast, before deciding to climb one of the giant jungle trees on this side of the river, finding some thick branches so he could sleep off the ground.

Soup woke to something wet on his face. It was pitch black, but he could see the shimmer of oiled scales in the moonlight. He realised the beast's tongue was flicking out and tasting him. He screamed and jumped to his feat on the giant branch. As he stood, the beast bit onto his foot, causing soup to fall and pulling them both off the branch to the ground, falling 20 feet the giant beast caused an incredible thud.

They rolled apart upon hitting the ground, Soup looked down and saw his leg bent at an unnatural angle, with a root and bone poking through the top of his thigh. The creature licked the air tasting blood and rushed over. Soup panicked - his head swimming, nearly losing consciousness as the creature came in to finish him off. Right as it opened its maw and leaned in to bite his torso, he weakly lifted his arm and placed it on the creatures nose. The creature went still.

"Find help" he whispered as the light went from his eyes.