> Perspective: A Strange Girl
> Time:10:18 PM
> Location: Deep Mountain Woods — Celestine Realm
The footsteps behind me grew louder.
I wiped the cold tears from my cheeks and forced myself to stand, my bleeding leg aching with every step.
The black mountain woods rose into the dark, steep and unbroken.
It was my only choice.
I plunged into the trees, letting the heavy spruce branches whip across my face.
The darkness swallowed the village lights almost immediately. I ran for nearly 1 hour, deeper and deeper into the mountain, until my chest ached and every breath tasted like copper. Sharp rocks and dead thorns tore into my bare feet, opening fresh cuts over old dirt.
I c-can't stop. If I stop, my legs will give out.
The forest around me felt suffocating. Ancient pine trunks rose straight into the night, their boughs blocking out the sky.
Then, my feet froze.
A prickle of ice ran down the back of my neck.
20 yards ahead, a dim yellow glow flickered between the roots. It looked to be an opening, a road, a lantern from an honest traveler.
An exit...?
I took 1 step toward it, but my stomach violently twisted.
N-No. Stop.
My legs refused to move. The closer I looked, the more the air felt wrong. The yellow light wasn't a clearing.
It was the sickly reflection of stagnant water trapped under a massive pile of dead bodies, snapped logs.
Beside that black pool, something stood in the shadows.
A tall, emaciated silhouette, 3 times the height of a man. 2 curved horns rose from its skull, twisting upward into the dark. Its arms hung so long that the curved claws dragged through the frozen needles on the ground.
It didn't move. It stood with unnatural stillness, watching me with hollow, sunken sockets.
It sees me...?
The creature tilted its head. A wet, wooden crack echoed through its joints.
Then, it melted backward into the blackness without noise.
My breath caught in my throat. I spun to the left and ran, tearing through briars and mud, my heart hammering against my ribs.
Behind me, far down the hill, men's voices carried through the trees.
"Found her tracks! She went past the creek!" a hunter shouted.
"Keep the mages tight! Don't let that bitch slip further!"
Then came a sound that turned my blood to slush.
Not a beast's roar. A man's scream.
"What is that—GET IT OFF ME! AGHHH—"
The shout tore open the night, followed by the wet crunch of shattered bone. An iron lantern shattered against stone. A hound let out a sharp, choked yelp that cut off in the middle, followed by the sound of something heavy being dragged upward into the canopy.
Then, absolute silence.
Wh-what happened to them...?
Panic drove me blindly forward. I stumbled over a mossy root and crashed hard into freezing mud.
Cold water splashed my face and chest. I tried to push myself up, but my arms trembled so violently I slid back down into the muck.
A thick, rancid stench hit my nose. It smelled of opened bowels, rot, and copper.
I forced my chin up.
The shallow pool wasn't muddy water. Dark, heavy blood curled through the current, pouring down from above.
I looked up into the pine boughs.
My jaw went slack. A silent whimper escaped my lips.
3 hunters hung from the branches 15 feet in the air.
1 man had been impaled through his ribs on a splintered bough, his chest ripped open, dark blood raining steadily into the pool below. Another hung upside down, his legs jammed into a fork of wood, his bearded face frozen in a wide, empty scream. Their bellies were torn out, long grey coils of intestines trailing down into the cold air.
This wasn't a fight. Something had played with them. Something had hung them up to bleed.
I-I need to get away... P-Please, God, please...
A warm, sticky drop splashed onto my bare shoulder.
I stopped breathing.
Slowly, inches at a time, I turned my eyes toward the branch directly above me.
Perched on the limb 10 feet up, coiled tight against the bark, was the horned creature.
Its grey flesh was stretched tight over visible ribs. Black saliva dripped from needle-thin teeth, sizzling faintly against the damp bark. It watched me with hollow sockets, its joints popping with that sickening, splintering wooden sound.
M-Move... Move...!
I threw myself sideways into the brush just as its claws slammed into the mud where my head had been.
I scrambled forward on hands and knees, sobbing, scraping over broken branches.
Ahead, a gap between 2 boulders promised shelter.
A shadow dropped from the high branches, blocking the opening.
A 2nd beast, heavier than the first, landed with a soft, predatory thud. Its horns swept back, jagged and sharp, and its long, skeletal fingers flexed in the dirt.
A low, clicking rattle rose from its throat. Behind me, the 1st creature crept forward.
I was trapped between them.
N-No... N-Not like this...
The smaller beast lunged.
I tried to roll, but curved claws sank deep into my right ankle, ripping through flesh and tendon.
"AAAAAHH!"
Pain exploded through my leg as I was dragged backward across the jagged rocks.
Before I could kick, the heavier beast stepped onto my chest.
A massive, clawed hand pressed down against my ribs, pinning me flat into the freezing mud. The weight forced the air from my lungs. Its rotting breath washed over my face, carrying the stench of the slaughtered men in the trees.
Then, the cold began.
It wasn't just physical weight. A sickening, icy numbness seeped from its claws straight into my chest, spreading through my veins.
My warmth, my strength, my very will to breathe—it was being drained away.
Wh-why do I feel so weak...?
The creature lowered its face inches from mine, its black sockets widening. It wasn't just feeding on my flesh. It was savoring my terror.
It made a soft, purring click in its throat, relishing the sound of my crying.
My pain made it happy.
My eyes started graying out. My fingers lost their grip on the wet leaves.
This is it... Th-there's no one left...
Before the darkness closed completely, the beast on my chest stiffened.
Its clicking stopped. It turned its horned head toward the eastern edge of the clearing.
Footsteps.
Slow, unhurried, steady footsteps crunching over the wet deadwood.
Through the haze, I saw a boy. He wore a dark overcoat, walking into the clearing with both hands resting casually near his sides, ignoring the dark entirely.
A hunter...?
No... he doesn't have a torch... He has no weapons.
He couldn't had seen them...
Even as the cold clawed at my heart, a surge of raw, desperate panic tore through my chest.
N-Not another one... I d-don't want anyone else to die this way...!
I forced air into my crushed throat and screamed with every scrap of voice I had left:
"R-Run! RUN AWAY...!"
The beast pinning me snarled, while the 2nd creature leaped into the air toward the boy, its long claws extended to tear his head from his shoulders.
The boy didn't flinch. He didn't raise his arms to guard.
He reached behind his right shoulder and drew his blade.
There was no incantation. No flash of magical light.
Just a single, soundless arc of black steel.
"KUWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" A high, shrill screech tore through the clearing.
The leaping monster—the thing that had hung men from branches and purred at my tears—hit the dirt and shrieked. It rolled in the mud, shrieking in pure, pathetic terror, clutching the bloody stumps where its arms had just been sheared away at the elbows.
"KUWAAAAAAHH!"
It cried in agonizing pain, kicking and weeping, terrified of the boy standing over it.
Before the beast on my chest could even lift its claws, a whisper of parting air sliced between us.
I felt lighter...
The creature's severed head rolled off my chest and thudded into the weeds, black blood hissing against the leaves as its body collapsed into the mud.
I fell into the dirt, gasping for air, shaking so hard my teeth clicked together.
The cold was pulling me down. My eyelids fluttered shut.
Before my head could hit the sharp stones, two strong, warm arms slipped beneath my shoulders and knees, lifting me gently from the frozen ground.
My head fell against his chest.
I blinked through the tears, fighting to stay awake.
Clear, brilliant blue eyes looked down at me, steady and calm.
Th-thank you...
Wait. H-how is that... him?
He placed a warm hand behind my head, his fingers gentle against my tangled hair. He smiled faintly.
"Are you okay?"
The warmth of his coat wrapped around me, and for the first time in years, the darkness didn't scare me.