The Forest

The Forest - Part 2

Part 2 – Attacked

Cain walked until he was out of sight, at the edge of the denser parts of the forest. There, he stopped. He stood there, staring at the ground before him. Then his legs buckled and collapsed. His body dropped to its knees as though it was just a puppet, and its master had cut off its strings.

The façade Cain had put up just for the boys and for Theresa to see broke the moment they were no longer around to see it. Cain started to breathe heavily, his head tilted upwards, staring up at the sky. Sweat dripped down his face even though it was the middle of autumn. The moment he brought his face forward, his torso rushed forward as well, and he had to put out his hands to stop from falling face first into the ground.

His heart beat pounded in his ears, and his heavy breathing became harsh. A wind swept past him and suddenly that was all he could hear; the sound of the strong wind blowing past. When the wind faded, a growl reached his ears. His head flicked up towards where he thought the growl came from. Another growl came, this time from a different direction. Then he heard a howl, but realised it was the wind. Cain wondered if the growl was the wind too, but that was impossible because the growl came from the creatures that were starting to approach him, or so he assumed.

Cain’s head was already facing the ground again. He was shaking and even on his knees and hands, he was not stable. If a breeze were to sweep past he would have fallen over without resistance.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the Centaurs approaching, and even though they had horse hooves, they trod carefully and made nothing more than soft rustling sounds. Cain saw the magnificence in their pose and muscular bodies, half horse and half human; they embodied such great strength. They held bow and arrow in their hands, alert and ready to shoot.

A Centaur suddenly growled, and the growl passed on. Cain watched as their heads cocked upwards with their weapons. When he himself looked up at the sky, he saw a colony of huge bats, larger than the biggest crows Cain had ever seen. His eyes lowered back down to the Centaurs and saw that they were retreating, as though they were making way for the oncoming colony.

“Chiroptera! Chiroptera!” Cain could barely make out the word emerging as a growl from the Centaurs.

Seeing the Centaurs withdraw so hurriedly, adrenaline spiked up Cain’s spine and he scrambled quickly towards a tree. Using that for support he managed to get up onto his feet and steady himself just in time to run, dodging out of the way of a swooping Chiropteran. Another swooped in after Cain, heading in the opposite direction from the first Chiropteran. Cain kept his head ducked as he ran, using one arm to shield his head, the other to hold on to his bag strap.

“Oh no. Oh no. Oh no,” Cain said, panicking.

An obvious expression of fear was written on his face as he ran for his life, but he gritted his teeth to stop himself from crying. The colony of Chiropters was after him, for one sole purpose; to suck his blood.

After so many years of living in hiding, this was the first time any abnormal creature in the forest decided to show themselves to a human. The last human had turned into a powerful man during his journey through the forest, and the forest came under his control, but when that human’s life ended, so did his control. The creatures of the forest were once again free, and the first thing they were going to do, was kill a human.