The Lost

PART 4- Encounter

Azure

"Lyn?" I called, "Come out now, this isn't a game, we need to go."
The idea that was in my head was ridiculous. Just my imagination getting the better of me. And yet even as I thought that, the bushes shook gently. The wind changed a little. The birds had all fallen silent. It signalled that our friend was close now. Our friend. Because that's who it was; Lucius. I assured myself of that. Or maybe Mike. There were no other humans here and I had no reason to freak myself out. But still, something prevented me from yelling out to Lyn again. A lingering feeling of unease that I couldn't ignore no matter how I tried to. The footsteps were close. It wouldn't hurt for Lyn to stay hidden... just for a moment. Just so I could see who-

I was waiting, expecting the arrival, yet the human appeared so suddenly that it still made me jump. I hadn't even heard the last few footsteps before the bushes suddenly shuddered, as if there was some unified shiver jolting through them. The leaves quivered, stopped, and then they were split apart.
I jumped backwards and threw my head up, having to cover such a ridiculous distance before I could even see the giant human's face. The size of these people would never cease to be daunting. Frightening.
Maybe a moment had passed when our eyes met. Brown eyes on blue.

I found myself stepping backwards. Blinking didn't make anything make sense. Huh?
We both finished the period of stupidly gawking at each other at about the same time. Our confusion turned to realisation, realisation to surprise. And for me, that surprise devolved into a vulgar horror.

The dark hues that formed the human were something I had only seen in my nightmares. Dark hair on light skin, light skin but dark eyes. Brown, almost black eyes. It was a stare so ghoulish that it couldn't possibly belong to Lucius. Childish denial was all I could manage. The mere sight of him standing over me, towering over the floor like some sinister god, it was paralysing. Both for my mind and body.

When I eventually breathed again, the rasp in my voice was unavoidable, "Sam?"

The mere word made me dizzy, but the sight of him made me dizzier. How could it be possible? No, no it was impossible, it was impossible! It was just... it couldn't be real. But the way he was standing there, totally still apart from sequential breathing, that was no illusion. Not Lucius, not Mike, no human could look as terrifying as Sam did.

The sides of his lips twitched when he saw me.
I was totally paralysed by a fear that he had induced. Fear. That was the only word for it. Even when air washed over my face, a breeze made by the movements of his colossal feet, I still couldn't move a finger. It was like I was outside of my body. The one thing that snapped me out of the trance was a hum that throbbed deep in my ears.
"Hello." Sam grinned fully, teeth and all, and that set my nerves aflame.

The heel of my foot scraped across wet dirt in a useless attempt to step backwards. Not this again. My legs were weighted with invisible rocks, wings just thin veils. It couldn't be real, why would it be real? There was no need for me to see him again. Aspen was safe, Rosin was safe, my brothers, Micah... the whole tribe was safe! I rescued them! I took a few shaky steps backwards. Everything was alright again, because this ordeal with humans was over. It had been over, just five minutes ago. Yet now... there was a human standing in front of me.

I hurried away from him, not that I was putting any meaningful distance between us. Had he always been this big? This... this intimidating? Trying to bury my obvious fear under any expression would have been pointless, so I didn't even try. The human could most likely see terror in my every breath.
Sam suddenly stepped closer to me, foot slamming against the ground. I tripped backwards when the floor shook in response. In that one step, the fractional distance I'd just put between us had been obliterated. He was less than a metre away now, and I could barely stop myself from casting out my wings and flying away from him. No, no, don't panic. I withheld my wings from movement. Oh gods how I wanted to just run, to get away, throw myself up and catch the wind so I could dive back to the camp... but flying would cause me one thing only; capture. He was too quick, too big. I shook my head desperately, reasoning with myself not to try it. Too big. I couldn't get away from him like that.