Terra Natus

II

After a while, she slowed. She wasn't sure whether or not the Aberrant would follow her into the woods, but she wasn't going to wait around and see. She continued moving, hoping that, at the very least, the Aberrant would be as out of its own comfort zone as she.

She looked about, unable to gauge where she was by what she saw, nor which direction she headed. She felt she was going straight, but with the tree line no longer in sight behind her, she really had no idea. There were no landmarks here, no way to see far enough to orient oneself.

How did beings and animals keep from getting lost? What if she roamed the woods lost herself, eventually just dying, alone and weak? Her breath became labored, though it had little to do with her recent running, and she began whipping herself around, this way and that. Everything was too close, closing down upon her, and she suddenly felt like she couldn't get enough air.

She crouched down in on herself, squatting so as to keep her rump off of the wet ground, and wrapped her arms around to hold her knees,resting her head down in the space between the two. Breathing in slowly, purposefully, she told herself that the closeness she felt all around her was merely her own body, her own knees against her forehead, her own arms around her ears. As she breathed there, she calmed her thoughts, choosing no thoughts over any that would come to her, focusing on the simple in and out, in and out, in and out.

Though, that didn't last for long.

For as she stilled, she became more aware of the subtle noises surrounding her, noises that seemed to increase the longer she was silent. It scared her, knowing that any one of those sounds could mean that at any moment she could get an arrow right in her exposed back.

Still she sat, defiantly. Let it come. What could she do to stop it?

Also, with this small break, other needs, beyond that of running to stay alive, became noisier inside of her.

She was so hungry, the scary kind. The kind where she felt herself weakening, felt her heart whirring hazardously after her recent running, long after it should have been settling. She was dizzy, and tired, oh so tired. She felt thirsty and, wondering where she stood with that, she released her knees and turned her arms, maneuvering her water satchel, from where it hung at her side, up to where she could shake it.

Not much, a swig at most.

She went ahead and drank it. For a while now, she'd been saving it, knowing that later she might need it more. But now? Now she drank it with the abandon of someone who probably wasn't going to have a later.

It wasn't quite a full swig, stale and lukewarm.

She stood, waiting for the sparkles at the edge of her vision to retreat, then looked about her, really trying to take it in this time. Continuing to run without knowing where she was going could end up being a problem. She could accidentally steer herself right back to the Aberrant.

Also, as unfounded as it may be, she hoped that the Protectors would stay mainly to the edge of the forest, looking out; perhaps not expecting anything to get past them. Which would mean that the deeper in she went, the safer she would be, for now.

Not much of a thought, but something at least.

But where to go? She needed some sort of landmark. She looked about her. Everywhere was moss covered trees and small greenery of all sorts growing on everything, even the rocks on the ground, and old dead trees. She smiled, it was beautiful. Like nothing she'd ever seen, and yet something she'd always imagined. She looked up, way way up, to where a little sun broke through the canopy. Perhaps she could climb up one of the trees and see...?