The Wild Hunt (Part One)

Hello Darkness

Free.

I was free.

And cold.

And lost.

The forest seemed darker at night. Deep, black shadows filled the gaps between trees and I'd catch a pair of yellow eyes looking back at me. I had no idea where I was.

I hugged my arms to myself as I meandered through the dense vegetation. My slippers already felt soaked and my bare legs were scratched and itchy from stumbling over broken limbs and thorny plants. I also felt extremely thirsty and swallowed what little saliva lingered in my mouth.

Suddenly, fleeing at night seemed less of a bright idea. Not to mention the fear of running into the Tewase. I didn't escape possible death to find it in a matter of a few hours.

Croak!

"Ah!" I stumbled to the side, startled by the sudden sound.  It was just a toad. Calm down.

I took a shaky breath and continued my blind trek through the trees. My hands were out beside me, gently grazing tree trunks as I passed by them. This part of the forest was dense and the trees huddled together in clusters. At some points I had to squeeze between them. The tunic I wore was a thin cotton material and the front began to tear at every pass I made through the tight trees. I felt the cool air tickle my ribcage and reached to feel a wide slit across the front of my tunic. If I continued this any longer the whole front of my tunic would be in shredded pieces.

"Ow!" I winced, as I stepped onto something hard and jagged. I felt the object puncture my slipper and pain raced up my heel and ankle.

"Owww, we'll that hurts." I hopped over to what looked like a half-sunken boulder and sat against its flat face. I brought my foot up onto my thigh and examined the wound.

My slipper looked worse then my top. The silk fabric was shredded at the bottom, exposing small gaps of my skin. I knew It wasn't in my head when I thought I felt water inside of my shoe earlier.

I grimaced and pulled the slipper off. The bottom of my heel looked to be inflamed. I couldn't quite tell in the darkness if it was red but it felt swollen and painful to the touch.

I sighed heavily. How was I going to keep walking? Where was I even going? I shook my head. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I had no plan. I didn't think any of this through. I mean just a few hours ago I hadn't even believed I would see the outside of the palace walls. All I knew was how badly I wanted to leave. To stop the inevitable from happening.

"Okay," I exhaled out, sliding my slipper back on. I only needed to make it through the night. Once dawn came and it was clearer I would continue to walk. For now I needed to rest. My whole body felt sore and my legs ached all over. I don't think I have ever walked such a long distance within a small time frame, let alone had run like I did earlier. I was so out of shape. It's not that I was thin, but soft and lacking in muscle or strength. My endurance was starting to whittle.

I looked  around me and found slivers of shadows looming all around. Yellow eyes glowed low to the ground and skittering noises filled the quite of the night. Leaves rustled and twigs snapped. I slide down the boulder to the ground and huddled up against the curve of it. It's cold surface did nothing to calm my nerves as I closed my eyes and listened to the forest whispering.

I jolted awake, blindly swinging my arms around me as I fought the shadow of a nightmare. His face... I saw his face- General Yakmens. I saw his face in that trench and he was staring at me. Reaching for me. His rotting body pulled and clambered over the dead corpses beneath him as he strained towards me. I couldn't move. I was frozen there at the edge looking down. His rotted, fleshless, boney fingers grabbed onto my ankles and I tried to scream, to kick but I was rooted there. I felt there cold, grimy grasp snake there way up my legs and thighs until he rose to stand over me. His eyes... they were black. Gone. He had two hallow, holes for eyes and his nose was sunken in. He smelled like death and rotting flesh. I strained to regain control over my body and as he reached to grab my face I felt the hold on my muscles slacken.