Low crawling in the thick vegetation my stomach, chest and chin are constantly being scratched.
The reason I am hiding and moving so slow is because of the large beast flying up above.
It looked like a small plane circling the sky.
The terrain changed with long red grass growing like weeds out of the ground in between large rising landscapes.
Sometimes I would come across a landmass that rose straight up.
It reminded me of the time I was eaten as a horse.
As a matter of fact the sunset blocked by the mountain turned the sky blood red mimicking my nightmare.
The first time I thought I was looking at the base of the mountain but when I went around the huge rising landmass looking for a foothold I could see the mountain behind it.
Everything was absolutely massive and the vegetation plentiful, the only bad news was all the flying beasts.
They are all either coming or going, none stay.
Only one lone figure remained, a half a grain of rice sized beast in the sky.
None came near or around it, its reign was supreme.
Its anger at being brought to the ground was felt by ever winged creature that rose to meet the morning sun.
I dragged myself with my hands making minimal movements, going so far as to stick my head in the soil and encase my body into the ground digging my way forward.
Ava was just as afraid, she heard that roar as loud as I did.
Alas that fear couldn't sustain her and she became a puddle in a bottle in my bag along with the spoils of previous battles.
I am glad I left the bow and quiver as they would have been a hinderance and absolutely useless against that mobile giant.
The rain that night was bitter sweet, It was plenty but I wasn't able to reach out and take a single drop into my mouth for fear of being seen.
Licking on the muddy water from the ground I am grateful that the soil was easy to maneuver.
It only stayed in the sky for twelve hours, when the sun was setting it dived down moving west.
I stayed in place, inching forward every so often until I got to the end of the mana grass and into another open field.
Carefully I continued south along the edges of the field.
When the sun rose on a new day, my fingernails are bloodied and some removed.
Again I see the half speck flying high.
Like a worm hiding from a bird, I inched forward bit by nerve wracking bit.
I didn't dare disrupt the mana grass unless a breeze happened to move by.
I measure time by how hot my skin is burning.
I smell like something unholy, insects crawled on me luckily my my clothes are secured at my wrists and ankles and they couldn't crawl in that way.
When it left again before sunset I was even more cautious, If I was hunting prey from above I would watch it until it was lulled into a false sense of security.
I went south for a half day before finding open plains.
Turning around I crawl back moving north.
A few days later and I am looking at open fields but with another patch of mana grass extending north one hundred yards away.
It was evening and the beast was making wide arcs above passing by my angle of vision every few hours.
The slow moving grain in the air brought with it a change in the eco system.
Predators who who knew what the flying beast was found new land to hunt in immediatly, not daring to stay another moment.
Prey that was constantly on alert for predators did not feel the dangers of the wilds as much as they did before.
By the time I reached the end of the first field of grass small critters could be seen bouncing around, some of them coming out of the grass only to rush back in.
Unused to the low flying birds being gone, they ate their fill before leaving.
I waited and waited, staying still for another day.
When I see it dive down west for the night I go from motionless to a full-on sprint.
Ava woke and remained in her liquid form, she was scared she would accidentally leak or absorb too much energy.
Obviously this thing could use mana vision if it could find me when surrounded by dark mana.
I still didn't know if it was looking for me specifically but I wasn't willing to take the chance.
My body made a thud as I fell and continued low crawling north.
I crawled quickly and quitely, When I felt my hairs stand on edge again I slowed down.
The northern route was much longer going for miles on end.
I was famished, parched and dirty but I was alive.
In the morning I see the large creature flying low and rising clearly eyeballing game.
It flew low coming down closer to my area allowing me to appreciate the size of the four clawed salamander like creature.
I heard the rushing of water before I could see it.
Parting the long strands of mana grass I see the flowing water, if I had a tears I would cry.
It was the perfect cover but I had to wait for the right moment.
I could see the beast was still patrolling even when the sun was setting, forcing me to remain as still as possible.
As I waited I noticed something off about the flow of the water.
At midnight exactly the water stopped flowing from west to east and went from east to west.
It lasted nearly an hour before the surface stilled and it ran west to east again.
I wondered what could cause such a phenomenon.
It wasn't until noom of the next day that I was able to move from my position and dip myself into the water.
Slipping into the river I turn the section I enter brown while I submerged myself.
The cold water is a stark contrast to the humid air.
Swimming down below I connect air to my mouth with a mana tendril.
It works well enough and I use the rock bed below to fight against the current moving west.
My head would bob up above the water every ten minutes or so.
At times I wouldn't even break the waters surface, I would come up just enough to get a clear view of the sky before decending again.
Life in the flowing river consisted of water beams and their prey.
Luckily for me a tendril of mana would force them in another direction.
The water hid my mana signiture allowing me to keep moving at times creating a fishtail to fight the current as it raged.
'Do you think its gone'? Ava asked.
'No'.
'How can you be sure'?
'Because I wouldn't leave, that thing came down for a reason.
'It can take its pick from anything it wants and I can barely fit the space between its teeth.
'Whatever it wants the end result is the same, we run or die'.
'When can we eat pizza'? she asked me suddenly.
'When did you learn about pizza'? I asked her taken aback with the suddenness of the question.
'Everytime we went dark, I could see and feel so many wonderful things'.
She prattled on about what she learned, while I slow down and listen to her.
As she spoke about different cuisines I plotted her death.
This thing is the perfect leech and I just showed it exactly how to syphon all of my memories.
It wasn't the thoughts she was experiencing but the fact that I didn't know about it until now, days after the act.
She was shielding memories from me, it was a thin barrier not as strong as mine but it was there non the less.
Opening my mouth wide I eat another air bubble, I slowly reach my pruned hand into the bag and place it on the little bottle.
Either I kill it or it pries deeper into my mind either becoming another me or something much worse.
I had a decision to make.