One night, as the eerie mist spread throughout the lethally silent woods and the ground blanketed with a thick layer of pristine snow, Emarie surged her way through in a desperate plea to survive.
As peasants, life was not as elementary. The higher...
Cautiously, I soared through the tall blades of grass slicing at the scraps of material that just about dressed my pale, scrawny legs while the ordered line up of trees reached out in an effort to claw me. Bow and arrow equipped, I stopped. The immaculately white snow sprayed up onto my clothing as I suddenly came to an abrupt stop. Before I returned to my senses, I swiftly bent my knees into a low crouch. Propping my forearms on my thighs. I observed the unusual pristine snow carpeting before me. My icy blue eyes trailed to what appeared to be footprints. No, paw prints.
I shot back onto my feet almost silently, careful not to alarm whatever creature was now wandering these grounds. With every small step I took the snow crunched beneath my feet as if screeching out at me to walk no further; but I defy. Trudging and trawling my weary limbs through the layers. After a few steps forward, the paw prints faded. There were no longer any traces of the creature marked within the depth of snow.
Until, cracking of branches soon emerged from the large bushes nearby. My ears twitched at the sensation of a presence lurking around and eyeing my every movement. My breathing grew ragged and abnormal, a hint of fear flourishing through my eyes. I followed my instinct as I swivelled around on one heel, bow propped in position with the arrow as I aimed at nothing. Utterly nothing. All that lie before me was the scorched grass and the beastly trees, drained of color, towering before me.
But then, a warm breath caressed my face, like a soothing touch of a hand. My eyelids began to grow heavy and soon took in the pleasant gesture. I jolted, awakening out of whatever trance that attempted to lure me. I pull back the large oak wood arrow that majestically feathered at the end, in which it soared and tore through the air until finally colliding into something large before me. A faint squelch could be heard as I took in the damage I had done. The steel head of the arrow had pierced through the eye of a Thyral.
A hairless wolf-like creature lie before me, cowering its head in great agony. The creature had extremely huge talons of some sort creeping out through its skin, from the paws that had left the trail of prints to lead me in this current position. Meanwhile, as I stood and glanced down at the fanged creature, its skeletal structure clearly visible through its skin, I pushed my shoulders back and raised my head in pride. Yet the wincing and desperate cries wailed from the frail monster bowing before me caused my eyes to narrow in sympathy. I kneeled to observe the havoc impacted by the split arrow in its bloodshot eyeball. In one swift breath, one swift movement, I had yanked the arrow clean out.
It roared painfully, hoisting itself up onto its hind legs before straightening to its full length almost the size of a horse. An illuminating yellow eye pierced through mine with a threatening look, whilst its other eye seeped blood. I could see clearly now, the arrow had successfully sank into the centre of its eye, clean through the black void of its pupil.
Shifting, the creature shuffled closer to me as if to lunge and puncture its lethal fangs deep into the uncovered and accessible part of my neck, where my veins pulsated, drawing it in.
Yet it paused, halted as if it sensed the powerful and detrimental aura reflecting from my tiny figure. Fear now replaced the hatred and fury in its one eye, and it yelped like a helpless feeble pup yearning for the comfort of its mother. The monster was half way out of my view as it fled, a large scurry of birds from the tree tops fleeing along with it while leaving a trail of crimson blood in its path.
Sheathing my damaged arrow back into its compartment placed on my exhausted back, I ploughed through the now blood-soaked burgundy snow and recoiled back to the direction of the diminutive village a few miles away, dragging along a fairly large hare I had terminated not so long ago, already drooling over the thought of a luscious rabbit stew served for tonight's dinner. I had longed for a genuinely appetising meal for about a decade, and this lifeless slump I dragged along will give me just that.
A large grin beamed across my face as I then heaved the hare over my shoulder, gripping onto its emaciated limbs to ensure as little noise as possible due to the Thyral I had just encountered. I wouldn't want myself and my own dinner to be shredded into the next ravenous Thyral's meal. ___________________________________ {in-book definitions} Thyral- A skeletal and bony, hairless creature built in some form of a wolf. The size of a horse, with Illuminating, piercing yellow eyes, a lethal set of fangs and sharp talons as claws. Thyral's abilities: the ability to vanish whenever fear is present. Its yellow eyes are so alluring, they're able to set you in a trance that lures you to your death bed. __________________________________
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