Hour after hour passed, with no sign of the elusive ghast. No clue, nor faintest sign of its existence. All of this tense searching filled Lukas' heart with anxiety and a subtle feeling of fear & doubt.
Where is the ghast? What if it's been following them? What if he's not strong enough to fight it? What would it look like? Could he fight it?
Which each second that ticked by, yet another thought would cloud his mind, and question his ability. Despite his attempts, he could not shake these questions from his mind. He couldn't blank out his mind, cut away all of his fears. But he could continue to focus on searching for a hint of the ghast.
"Could it be in the trees?"
Vesa thought for a second before answering.
"It could. Would be a first for me. They normally skitter around like spiders on the ground."
He was embarrassed a little, not knowing that he spoke out loud. But the fact that the ghast could be in trees was important. It meant they would have to double their search effort. Luckily Lukas was doing the majority of the searching.
"Vesa, could you search the trees, just in case."
"You're giving me orders? You sure have a lot of nerve to do that... but I'm just messing with you. Sure, I'll check the trees, don't die while I'm gone."
Vesa winked at Lukas, before swinging into the canopy and searching the upper layers of the forest. Lukas was left alone, but he honestly preferred this. He liked being alone every now and then. Even if he was a little uncomfortable with the lack of safety.
'I need to focus.'
He shook his head and continued searching. But, still, there was little evidence that he could find over the next couple of hours.
Shortly after noon, Vesa returned to him. With her was a small piece of pure white flesh, and a serious look on her face. Lukas also noticed that her outfit changed to the one he first encountered her wearing. She took off her glasses and jacket. When she did this, Lukas did not know, but it was while he and her were separated.
"I found a few tracks and a piece of its flesh on some sharp thorns. It must've run by it and got itself snagged. It was north of here, 25 kilometres or so."
Now that he knew how close their goal was, Lukas was nervous. His chest sunk a little, and his stomach swirled like a twisting gale. His limbs shook a little more, and his breath too became a little more rapid.
He couldn't quit now, but he didn't want to face whatever was ahead of him. All he could do was hope that the road ahead would not be covered in his blood. But his mind kept telling him that it would.
He took a deep breath in, hoping it would quell the fire in his heart, but it only served to bolster it.
"Well, let's get going."
He spoke with little confidence. His voice, was anxious and defeated, as if he had already given up.
He thought he saw Vesa's face change ever so slightly. He wasn't sure how, but he was sure it did. She was thinking something about him, but he wasn't sure what it was. Was she concerned? Worried? Impressed? Amused?
'Whatever... I just need to get this over with.'
For the next few hours, they found and followed a small trickling blood trail. It was dried, but still present on the surface of whatever plant, mud, grass, or bark it was on. Fresh enough to indicate that its source was only hours away.
Nevertheless, the duo stopped for a brief respite. The reason? Lukas needed to take a break, eat a ration or two, and drink some water. He had been walking, or running, the entire day while also focusing on minute details in the soil and plants. It was exhausting, both mentally and physically.
Vesa did join him in his rest, but she wasn't nearly as tired as him. She still looked perfectly fine. So despite also eating and drinking as Lukas did, Vesa watched over the two of them. Making sure that nothing, mainly the ghast, snuck up on them.
After they were done with their rest they continued north.
However, only a few dozen minutes after their break they heard something rustling nearby. Vesa signalled for Lukas to be quiet and to unsheathe his sword. Something was close.
As they crept closer to the origin of the sound. Vesa saw something and her eyes went wide. Before long, a wicked smile spread across her face, ear to ear. As Lukas came up next to her, she pointed to a nearby density of foliage.
In it was something with pure white hide, the colour of snow. One, three, four, six limbs, all of which were... wrong, so profoundly wrong. Bent in impossible ways, with far too many joints.
Vesa crouched down, covered her mouth and said:
"Phan"
In only a second or two, it was as if her middle and pointer fingers morphed into two large fangs. Her smile grew more wicked and mad, and she seemed on the edge of insanity. She turned to Lukas and whispered something, but his heart was beating far too loudly to hear her.
All he could hear was his heart. All he could see was the white of the monster ahead of him. His heart dropped like an anchor, his stomach a whirlpool. All singing an abhorrent song of fear and dread.
Vesa tried fruitlessly to get his attention, but it was to no avail. The creature began to squirm, dashing out of the foliage. It looked at the two would-be hunters, with its seven eyes. All of which were solid in colour.
One was an oily black, like a pool of vile sludge. Another was a milky white, like a clouded sky. Two were vivid blues; One was dark like the ocean's depths, while the other was light, like a clear sky. The rest were various shades of yellows and browns like most of nature was.
It moved by flapping its appendages forward, grasping the earth, and dragging or propelling itself forward. Its speed was impressive considering the inefficiency of the movement.
But to Lukas... all of this did one thing.
It caused him to remember.
He remembered every emotion from that day, nearly two years ago; The fear when he saw the hideous creature that didn't deserve to be called a beast. It shook him to his core and terrified him to a level of fear he did not know was possible.
It paralysed him and took away everything he had. Nearly taking him with it, like an omen of death ready to reap his soul.
When he saw what was sprawled on the ground in front of him. The grand mockery of nature that shambled its way to feast on another creature. There was so much fear, at its similarity to the horrific abomination.
But there was also rage, so much righteous fury to take back what he lost.