Saige

Chapter 2

It was humid. That was the first thing I noticed. The second thing I noticed was that I was lying in the forest floor. Had I passed out and floated on shore? Had a rescue team dragged me into the woods? No. I couldn’t hear the roar of waves crashing, nor the sounds of a medical team. Where was I? There was only one way to figure out.

            I forced my eyes open and light flooded my vision. The dense foliage sheltered around me. Everything was so moist and green. I realized I still had my mask and tank on. I stripped the goggles off my eyes and tossed them aside. Then, I clicked off my mouthpiece.

            Bad mistake.

            A low rumble shook the air. It was on unearthly sound, like the rumble of a dinosaur. Then, it’s head rose up from behind the foliage. I froze. The creature looked like a giant mutant dog. It was over ten feet tall. It’s towering, dog-like body was covered from head-to-toe-to-tail in spikes like a porcupine. The animal seemed to have a bad sense of smell since he wasn’t using it. However, the creature’s ears were honing in on the sounds of the forest. I didn’t dare to breathe or move too quickly. This creature was right over my head. A trickle of drool fell from the beast’s open mouth and fell on my goggles. The saliva began to react and furiously decompose the plastic. It was acid. This animal salivated acid. I realized I had to move before the mutant porcupine dog drooled on me and melted away my flesh.

            I had a plan. I would have to move quickly and all at once.

            Before the creature’s sinister black eyes could peer down on the forest floor at my unstrapped gear, I had already rolled underneath the dense bush beside me. I had both hands covering my mouth, muffling the sound of my rampant breathing. The creature lowered its head. Drips of saliva fell on the tank. I knew what was about to happen and the giant porcupine dog was not was not going to be happy.

            As soon as enough of the tank’s shell melted away, oxygen shot out like wind right in the creature’s face. The animal quickly threw back its head in frustration and roared loudly. It’s roar was earsplitting and sounded like an overlap of a horrified woman’s shriek and a lion’s roar. This was my chance to split. I rolled over into plain sight and quickly made the smartest stupid decision I’ve ever made.

            I crawled between its legs.

            I moved rapidly between its front legs, under its belly, stopping at its tail. To my utmost relief, the foliage was less dense behind the porcupine dog and I could make a break for it. But, I think it heard me because it started to grunt and back up. This was my only chance so I took the risk of being hit by its spiky tail, stood on my feet, and bolted.

            I ran for every ounce of my life.

            I darted through the forest as fast as my feet could carry me. I could hear the animal grunting and bounding behind me. I prayed the dense forest would slow the big creature down. I had to tuck and roll underneath a fallen branch. The creature simply broke through. The small vines and bushes I had to dodge, the beast simply barreled through. It was hot on my tail. I could hear it panting behind me. Then, the most horrifying thing happened.

            I tripped.

            I fell hard to the ground. Without even taking time to acknowledge the severe pain in my ankle, I feverishly crawled underneath a thick patch of thorny vines. Ignoring the occasional prick of thorns I crawled deep underneath the brush. The creature was growling and chewing toward me. I figured if I should scream at any point for any lost hope for help, now would be the time. Noise flooded the air with the porcupine dog’s lion screams and my own cries for help. The creature’s snout came closer and closer, thrashing around wildly. I could almost feel its hot breath. Then, the strangest thing happened just as its tongue swiped my thigh and I cried out in agony. For only moments, a pale green wave like a force field constructed inches from my leg and forced the creature out from underneath the bush. When the animal dejected from the bush, it wailed in agony.

            My wetsuit began to disintegrate on my outer thigh where the beast’s saliva grazed it. I cried out and tried to keep pressure around the slowly burning flesh. I hadn’t even noticed the struggle going on outside until I felt the ground shake as the giant, lifeless body fell into a heap on the ground. What had happened? I decided to crawl out from under the bush, cringing from the pain in my thigh. When I could see light, I attempted to stand, but my leg made me incapable. I winced as I crawled closer to the dead beast. I scanned over the heap of flesh, trying to find a wound. Finally, I noticed an arrow lodged deep in the hide. I winced as I leaned in closer to the puncture when a voice spoke from above.

            “You got spit on, didn’t you?”

            My head flashed up to the trees overhead. I scanned for the voice. I stupidly responded, “What?”

            A pair of feet landed lightly behind me, “the bresnake spit on you, didn’t it?”

            I spun around to see a humanoid with skin that highly resembled sea water and hair as shiny and green as the grass. His eyes were a crimson red. He had a quiver of arrows strapped around his back. He also wore a thin tunic and pants with boots that looked like they came from a dinosaur hide.

            “The what,” I asked stupidly.

            “The bresnake. Not even the most fearsome carnivore in all of Calamex.”

            “Where?”

            “You were spit on weren’t you?” He crouched beside me and pointed to my leg.

            “Yes, but -” I stuttered.

            Before I could even ask for an explanation, he was examining my leg. I backed away.

            “I’m not going to hurt you,” he sounded offended as he returned to examining my wound. “You’re not from around here, are you?”  I defended myself with the first reaction I could think of.

            I punched him in the face.

            With all the strength I could endure on my crippled leg, I dove myself on top of him, attempting to strangle him with his quiver strap. I was in survival mode, and he had weapons. I was an outsider, who knew what he could do to me.

            My dominance was short-lived; the humanoid rolled over above me and held me down by my shoulders. “I could have let you die, now calm down!”

            “You could also kill me,” I responded defensively, trying feverishly to gain any sort of upper hand. I trashed around as much as I could.

            “I’m sorry,” he said before he grabbed my head and slammed it against something hard.

            Everything faded black.