Praestrigia

And So It Begins

Image Source: MGB-Stock on deviantart

Warning: This story is not suited for the faint of heart or those with weak stomachs, certain scenes featuring blood and the like aka "gore" will be very descriptive so be wary. 

Warmth. I can feel it throughout my entire body. It reminds me of the times my mother would embrace me in a crushing hug when I was a child. The soft wind billowing around me feels comforting and the grass acts as a soft bed of sorts. 

Wait a minute....grass? Warmth? Soft Wind? Wait, this isn't natural at all for where I live? Usually when I wake up, I'm either met with sweltering heat or icy that my thin blanket fails to protect me from. Not only that, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep on a stiff, and this grass definitely doesn't feel like rough cloth or springs that threaten to break your in your sleep. Either this is a hyper-realistic dream or I've been kidnapped from my cheaply made apartment room and thrown into some random field without my knowledge. 

Slowing rising from my position on the floor, I open my eyes and am greeted by a surprisingly well maintained forest. Not a hint of graffiti to be seen nor trash to be seen on the ground. Just where exactly am I? Absentmindedly sweeping my hand through the grass, I felt a piece of something crumple between my fingers. It was a piece of paper, it had a yellow tint to it and the folded parts of it were hard to unfurl. It was obvious that it was meant to be opened many years ago. Screw it, I'm gonna open the note and see what it says, it's now like it was supposed to be opened recently. 

"If you can read this, then the ritual has succeeded, when the moment is right draw a drop of your blood and drop it upon this parchment. Only then will I come to lead you on fate's intended path." 

Oh, if only there was a way to unread something. The entire thing was strange, from the age of the note to the message written on it. The paper was obviously old, but the ink used to write the message was new, it looked as if the message had been written mere seconds ago. That wasn't the only strange thing, "rituals" and "draw a drop of your blood" aren't exactly words that would lead to a happy ending.

I looked around my surroundings, in front of me was the edge of a cliff and the behind me was a forest. I couldn't see what was in beyond the cliff-that is,  if there was anything beyond it. Nothing left to do but explore the forest and look for a way out of here, just sitting around wasn't going to do anything for me anyways. 

~

First things first, I hate the forest. I've been lost in here for what seems like an hour and I haven't seen any signs of life around here at all. Oh, but you wanna know what have seen? Claw and tooth marks on the trees and ground. In case you're wondering, I don't mean little marks that a small bird or rabbit cold have made-I'm talking about bear claws. What I'm seeing is fully grown brown bear claws. Just in case you didn't know how relevant that would be to this situation, brown bears are the second largest bear specie following the polar bear. 

I let out a yelp as my foot caught on something and I was sent tumbling to the ground. I ended up hitting my head slightly on a rock and my vision blacked out completely for a moment before I could get a hold of my surroundings again. I grumbled and looked back at what had made me trip so violently and oh let me tell you now- if I had thought I was dreaming before I definitely had reality slap me in the face at that moment. 

The thing that had tripped me was definitely not an everyday forest finding in most cases, it was a dead body. You heard me right, a decomposing corpse had tripped me. The smell was atrocious and irritated my eyes to the brink of tears and it took all of my might not to throw up everything that I might've had in my stomach at that time. It was apparent that the person hadn't died recently, the skin had begun to rot away and the nails and teeth had begun to fall out. The worst of it had been to gaping hole in their abdomen. If the claw marks from before were big- the hole was about a half larger than the marks. Not only that, the hole had been deep, I could see the beginnings of the tree it was propped against. 

"Oh my god,"I felt sick, my head hurt, I wanted to go home, I felt helpless and scared. "Th-this can't be real!" 

Oh but it was real, from the beautiful grass plain to the corpse that stared right at me, everything. 

There was sound that rang in the distant, a roar of sorts. It hurt my ears, the roar sounded like someone had just dragged their nails down a chalkboard and elevated that sound by using a microphone and a max volume speaker. At that moment I knew, I had to get out of here. 

Quickly scrambling my thoughts together, I began to run in the opposite direction that I heard the sound from. I almost several times as I made my way past several trees and bushes. I had to get out here. Unfortunately I ended up sliding down a hill and almost twisted my ankle. I can't decide whether I'm lucky or unlu-

Oh

Oh no

Oh no

Oh nooooooooooooo

That's it, it's official, life hates me. 

Remember the creature that I tried oh so hard to hide from earlier? Even if you don't, I still remember. 

Why am I bringing it up  right now, you ask? 

Well let me ask you one thing, what exactly is staring right at me at this very moment? 

If you answered "the very creature you tried to run away from a couple seconds ago" then you guess right. You win an imaginary pat on the head, look at you being a smart person. 

Holy skies did this thing look scary. 

The body of the monster looked much akin to what you would produce if you put a wyvern and zombie together. Parts of  its torso were a greenish  color and the other parts that were spared were just bone. Each time it flaps its wings, a piece of it dripped to the floor and melted away anything that was unfortunate enough to make contact with it. An excessive amount of saliva dripped from its half-skeletal mouth. Based on the fact that the flowers that were sacrificed for the sake of knowledge, the saliva was acidic too and it burned everything it touched within a matter of seconds. 

Its lifeless eyes stared at me as if I was its next opponent in a battle to the death, which it ultimately would become if I acted rashly. 

Whatever deity or deities that may be watching me at this moment, what do I ever do to you?

Chapter One: Fin

~

(And so comes the end of chapter one to this hopefully well-done story, chapters may update sooner due to me being on summer vacation but once I start school again, it may be a bit shaky)

(As I should say in future meetings, thank you for giving me your time and may your future be bright. -Kanra)