As Long As I Live

Things Get Worse

A manticore, Oliver had said. I remembered some details about the creature from school. It supposedly had a loin's body, a man's face, and a scorpion tail that could shoot poison. Sure enough, that exact description of a monster came barreling towards us. I couldn't move; the creature was just to entrancing. Oliver was as frozen as I was, but he was spitting out manticore facts that didn't help my fear whatsoever.

"They can shoot their spikes with dead accuracy while running at high speeds." He recited. "They can climb walls quickly, and can move with ease on uneven surfaces. Although their poison won't kill, it will cause extreme pain, and a sting from its scorpion side can kill just i-"

"Shut up." I mumbled at him. 

It was my mother who saved us. "Y/n! Oliver! Snap out of it! Run!" Oliver obeyed, and started sprinting toward the trees, but I wasn't about to leave my only family with a deleterious mythical creature. 

"Mom! What about you?" I cried. "I'll be fine." She answered with surprising calmness despite the situation. "Follow Oliver, and reach the camp. You'll be safe there."

"I can't just leave you here with... with that!" I pointed at the manticore who was dangerously close. Mom turned to me with pleading eyes. "Please Y/n." She begged. "Please, do this one last thing for me."

I nodded, tears coming up to my eyes, but my heart sinking. I turn and ran into the forest. Oliver was waiting for me although it looked like he wanted to do anything but that, bless his little goat heart. A scary thought came to me that I might be warming up to the guy. "Let's go." He said, and for once, I agreed.

We sped through the woods, dodging branches and roots in our way. Well, Oliver was dodging them, I on the other hand, seemed to be running into all of them.

Oliver seemed to know what he was doing, so I tried to follow his lead. Unfortunately, I was tripping on everything. Roots, rocks, stumps, dirt, ants, shadows, ...the list goes on. I was not a runner.

After tripping on what I think was the wind, and face planting on the leaf-covered ground, I shakily got back up, but my significant annoyance was nowhere to be seen. I tried calling for him, but all I got back was silence. It was starting to get dark, but I decided to keep running. I was afraid that if I stopped, I wouldn't have the strength or courage to get back up, so I kept going.

After a while, the sky got so dark, I had to use a flashlight I had found in my backpack. I finally decided that I needed some rest, and I set up camp under a small tree. I made up my mind that I needed some rest.

Yeah, not a good idea.

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I woke up to the sound of a deep rumble, hot air, and something wet dripping on my face. I slowly opened my eyes, expecting to see the leaves of the tree I was under, but instead, I was greeted by a snarling face of the manticore I had seen just yesterday. I screamed out of surprise, and before it could react, I grabbed the nearest thing, my bow and arrows. Instinctively, I shot, and the arrow dug itself in the ugly beast's nose. It wailed, truly a horrific sound, and clawed at its sniffer, trying to extract the arrow. I took this time to my advantage, and ran. 

I kept running for what seemed like hours, but was most likely a couple of minuets, until I burst into a clearing. A huge hill awaited me, with a giant tree standing at the top. The tree was protected by a dragon-like thing, but I had a feeling that if I got to the tree, I'd be safe. I ran up the hill.

I was almost there when I felt a sharp pain in my back. The manticore had caught up to me. At first, I thought he had shot poison, because the pain was taking over quickly, but then I realized that his scorpion tail had stung me. The creature didn't look like he was finished, because he charged, but a huge tidal wave of water stopped him. 

Water? Where had that come from? I didn't have time to find out; I fell to the ground, Oliver's words ringing in my ear. "...a sting from its scorpion side can kill..."

Hello my peeps! I'm really sorry for not updating sooner! Well, winter break is coming in a week, so I'll update more then.