The thing was huge, two massive canines protruding from its mouth, long deadly claws and those deep green piercing eyes. This mix of a saber tooth and a panther was just as tall as me, but compared to it I might as well be a helpless sack of flesh.
The deer was long gone, its speed must have been something. I was first to make my escape but in the end it was no longer in my field of vision. All that was left now was a huge hungry black panther that lost its target but happened to find a new one, namely me. As much as I'd put quite some distance between as for something as fast as it it wouldn't have taken much to catch up and rip my head of my body forcing me to go bushes, thick branches, overgrown roots, just anything to chip off some of its pace.
The big guy wasn't letting off though, no matter how many times it got smacked in the face by those branches, it was just hungrier and angrier. From the get go I was always meant to lose this race, it was only a few feet within my reach, and as much as I knew it was hopeless I didn't wanna die. Unfortunately, a rock that I happened to trip over had other ideas and soon my vision was just a blur of everything around as I rolled on the ground. I also happened to notice a black mass going over me as well so that by the time I had come to a stop the panther was staggering about trying to find its wits while the tree next to it now had a nice big groove on it so much that it had splintered.
Looks like my little trip was more of a blessing. I went down just as it was pouncing to go for the kill and gladly missed to smash into a tree.
No time to keep thinking about it, I had to keep up my escape and so I was back to sprinting through more forest, and the big guy was also good to go and right back to the chase. The more we moved, the more it gained on me and now I was back to a leap away from becoming dinner. My only chance was slipping into a hollow log just a few feet away. I didn't think my legs could keep up anymore but I pushed as hard as I could. I don't want to die, the only thing on my mind.
Before I realized it I was already slipping and slithering into the log with my hunter aggressively clawing at it to get to me. No matter how much it tried the log wasn't budging and I wasn't going anywhere. And so it decided it'd rather have me be paste in a log, smashing its body against the log over and over until I was rolling down the slope.
The log hit everything in its path, be it trees , boulders or just plain rolled over other animals. I could have sworn in all that twisting, turning and crashing I heard a hiss, shriek and just flat out bone being crushed, myself not doing any better. The log twisted and turned everytime it hit something enough to make me want to hurl my guts out, but finally it came to one painful stop, smashing right into something.
Everything in my eyes was just spinning at the moment and it took me a good five minutes to finally think about crawling out of the log. That itself was tough enough with all the dents it got from ramming into anything on its path. I had to squeeze out, painfully I might add till I finally rolled onto the grass and before I could even find relief my gut wasn't having it anymore. I puked so much I wonder if I ate that much to begin with.
Stand up damnit. Trying as hard as I could my body wouldn't respond. I was stuck on this spot like it or not and wasn't moving anytime soon. Hopefully nothing dangerous decides to pass through or I might well be the easiest meal they'd ever come across.
Hours passed before I finally managed to wiggle my thumb a bit and about half an hour later, I think, I couldn't really tell time that well anymore, I finally regained full control of my body. That was the only good thing though, night was already here and so were its surprises and I wasn't going to sit around and wait for them to come find me.
Slowly, I got up and it was really tough. My joints felt so stiff I really thought I'd fall over on the first step, but I pulled through, moving at the only pace my body would allow, insanely slow.
I didn't even know where I was going anymore, all I thought that was if I kept on moving I'd find help somewhere, eventually. The noises were back in full force. I could certainly say this forest was more lively during the night and it had me freaking out so much. 'Just keep moving,' I chanted that one line over and over in my head, to give myself hope and keep pushing and eventually I'd reach to safety and soon enough it looked like I had a little speck of hope.
"A light?" A little brilliance not to far from where I was moved slowly through the trees. I prayed my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, otherwise this would be the first sign of solace I'd have ever since I woke up here. I pushed my body harder, trying to move faster, hoping my only chance of salvation wouldn't disappear into the night and the closer I got the brighter it was. Accompanying it was the sound of creaking...wood if I'd have to put my guess on it and following that was the sound of something trotting along the ground.
Just a little further. I practically had my hands reaching out. My legs were giving out at the worst possible moment and all it took was one step for me to hit the ground. I was dead tired. Back to not being able to do anything...except,
"Help! Help me!" I was screaming. I didn't care of either the boar or the panther or any other thing heard as long as I could get the attention whoever's passing through.
Lucky me. The light stopped, but I didn't think anyone was going to come looking for me so it was up to me to get moving once more. I was literally crawling, using what was left of my energy to get back on my feet.
"Please don't go! Help!" Just a little more before I fell on my knees in front of a horse drawn wagon with a lamp hung at the front. The man riding it looked down at me, hesitation still lingering in his gaze.
"Please help me, I can't survive...out here...any longer," I was struggling to get my words out in between sobs. I hadn't even realized tears were rolling down my face. All I knew was I'd had enough.
The man finally got off the wagon slowly drawing closer to me. His left hand was slightly hidden behind his back but he was definitely holding something.
"Who are ya?" he finally spoke. Once he was within three feet of me he didn't move any further, his gaze sharp and cautious. Looks like my rescue wasn't going to come easy.
"My name is Arden. I don't know how I got here but I've been stuck in this forest for about two days now..." he looked like he was measuring up my story to determine whether I was worth the trouble.
"I don't know this place and if you don't help me I doubt I'd last the night...please, just help me get out of this forest," I'd said my piece and it was all up to him now.
"So ya don't know where ya are lad, looks like you've had a hard time," he had this accent when he spoke.
He drew closer now, looked like he was less cautious of me now. " 'Ere, let me help ya out,"
Relief would have been what I'd been experiencing if his left hand hadn't come up so swiftly and swinging at me so furiously so that the only thing I caught was the gleaming edge of the axe.
The adrenaline kicked in just in time for me to jump back and avoid having my chest carved open but could avoid getting grazed. A thin line of blood formed along the graze that had torn through my shirt. I backed up as fast as I could while the man stalked me, axe fully out in the open.
"I've had enough of ya thieves and ya trickery. If you're gonna steal from me again be ready to die as well," and he swung again but this time I was more prepared dodging back as far as I could. I turned back to the woods and ran as fast as I could, which wasn't that fast considering the state I was in. The only good thing was that he wasn't chasing after me.
"Hope ya die ya scum!" He yelled out our parting words behind me.
That was it for me, back to the forest, back to all those predators lying in wait, back to the darkness wanting to swallow me up, back to my certain doom.