Rain drizzled down from the bleak sky, dripping off the leafless branches and into my already soaked hair. My stomach yowled again, prompting me to glance down at the twigs I had resorted to chewing on. I was so tired of the rain, of the gurgling stream just out of my reach. So tired of the same silent murky landscape and slushy snow.
The sparse bushes I crouched in gave only meager shelter, and their sharp needle-like branches dug into my aching back. There were no rocks to offer anything more suitable, no crevices I could crawl into to hide. I was stuck with the disgruntled ravens and skeletal trees, an unquenchable beast in my stomach.
Digging my nails into my palms I shuffled on the cursed dirt. I had to move, had to shakily stumble away from this wretched, dead place. Of course, I knew I could not. Every attempt I had made had been halted by the horrible shrieking that would pursue my movements. The rancid smell of rotting meat, and torn breathing of a huge monster heading towards me. Only when I settled back down on my sharp bed of thorns would it stop. Only when I resigned myself to chewing on damp bark and quell my crying would I hear the heavy footfalls retreat.
I could never quite get a glimpse of it. There were always a few too many nimble trees obscuring the view. Always a little too dark, the rain a little too thick...always something hiding the monstrosity that stalked me. At least all but its huge sprawling antlers. Those I could see with horrific clarity.
The red stains on the tips, strips of velvet dangling like weeds from the yellow bone. I can almost swear I could see the dried veins webbing across their surface. A sick replica of the roots spreading outwards from ripped-up trees. Not a fiber of me wanted to know what the rest of the creature looked like.
So I hid, despairing, the insanity of my hunger nearly driving me to make a run for it. One final dash that would have prayers running through my head like flocks of birds. A shaky breath escaped me, too loud in the silence. The smell of rotting meat floated on the breeze.
YOU ARE READING
Scraps of A Mind
General FictionUnder my feet is the earth, above my small form is the sky. Both seem endless and vast, stretching onwards forever. In between these things are thoughts, rattling around in my brain like a landslide with no direction. Here are some thoughts, the one...
