Fire Emblem: Awakening - Call of The Wild

Chapter 4: What Lies Beyond

I ran.

I ran as fast as my legs would allow.

I was happy, free.

Why would anyone fear this? The forest is beautiful! I stopped running, laughing breathlessly. The only main difference I saw was that the trees seemed to get bigger, but that was it. Babbling streams scattered the land, the plants were bright and green in the setting sun, and the forest seemed to go on forever.

I've never felt so alive in my life. I have never been here before but I felt so welcomed. I didn't care how far away from home I was. I could finally be me.

As I caught my breath, the realization that it was almost dark hit me. I should probably head back... What was that? A flash of bright blue light danced in the corner of my eye. I turned to see a tiny whisp.

"Whoa!" I approached it carefully. "This...this is the type of thing you only see in fairytales!" I reached out to touch it, but it darted away. My heart told me to chase it. I gladly complied.

I chased after the darting whisp for Grima knows how long. Time did not matter. The whisp hypnotized me and I could not break away from it. I found I did not care. I did not care about anything.

After what felt to be hours of running, the whisp disappeared. I looked around, hoping to find it, but it was nowhere to be seen.

The trance broke.

It felt as if a bear was clawing into my heart as I realized just what I've done. Where...where am I?!

My breathing quickened; I felt like I was suffocating. I was miles and miles away from home and I did not know how to get back. I was lost in the Ylissean Forest.

Dammit! Dammit dammit dammit! What was I thinking?!?! Damn me and my curiosity! I'm lost and I'm going to die out here! Stupid, Anna! Stupid!

My knees weakened and I fell to the ground. I looked up to see the bright moon being covered by dark clouds. "Greaaat. Just great. Now it's going to be even darker than it was. This can't POSSIBLY get any worse." A low rumble of thunder was heard. "...I just had to open my big, dumb mouth."

Soft droplets of rain hit the treetops but soon came down at full force, showering the earth. I willed my sore legs to move and ran deeper into the forest in hopes to find shelter.

There has to be SOMEONE out here! Maybe I'll run into a camp or a secret village!

Grima finally sent me a miracle. I came upon a cave. Thank the gods! I quickly took refuge in the cave and caught my breath. Maybe...I'll just close my eyes for a minute...

...

I woke up to the sound of growling.

...Oh no...

Hesitantly, I opened my eyes to see an angry grizzly bear. ...Grima, help me.

I screamed at the top of my lungs and sprinted away as fast as I possibly could, the bear still hot on my trail. After running for a while and getting a good distance away from the bear, I found a tree that I could climb with ease.

As I was climbing, I could feel the bear's hot breath as it snapped at my heels; I was too quick for it. Once I was secured on a high branch, I looked down to see the bear still waiting for me. I'll camp out in this tree for a few hours. I need to make sure it's 100% gone before I get down. And I certainly did wait for hours. Day broke and went into noon, but I was still too scared to climb down.

Eventually, I mustered up enough courage to climb down. No signs of a bear... That's good. Going in the same direction I came would be a stupid idea since the bear was still a threat, so I decided to get away from the area as fast as possible and then loop around.

I was traveling at a slower pace than I wanted. My whole body was sore and my legs screamed for me to stop. My lungs burned, even when walking. I had to take frequent breaks, each one longer than the last. Hunger clawed at me but I couldn't do anything about it. Hunting could take forever, everything was still wet so I couldn't start a fire, and I didn't know which berries were safe to eat.

It was around sunset when the wind began to quicken and storm clouds gathered in the sky. "Today is not my lucky day..." I haven't even started walking back in the direction of home. Not that I even knew where that was.

The rain came quickly and the wind picked up. It was hard to move. I willed myself to run against it, my hair blowing in my face and my body aching.

As I wiped my hair out of my eyes, my heart lurched as I looked to see that I was about to walk off a cliff. The ground below consisted over even more trees and the drop looked to be over 50 feet high. The heavy rain made the ground beneath my feet break and I lost my footing.

I screamed as I tumbled down the cliff face, grabbing onto whatever I could. If I thought I was hurting before, it was nothing compared to now.

As I hit the ground, my body gave one more roar of pain. I moved my upper body around, nothing felt broken, thank the gods; but my leg was another story. My right calf was twisted at an odd angle and sharp pain lanced through it. I had to cover my mouth so I wouldn't scream at the sight.

Ok. Ok. You're going to be ok. It's ok. You've broken a bone before and you can heal from it again. I just have to set it.

I sat up and gripped my leg, ignoring the pain. Ok...breathe through this. It will hurt like hell but it will get worse if I don't do anything. 3...2...1... As I snapped the bone back in place, I couldn't contain my scream.

I collapsed back onto the ground, knowing nothing but pain and sobbing heavily. My eyes couldn't stay open and I was trying to fight unconsciousness. I lost the battle and drifted off to sleep.

When I awoke next, it was to the sound of something sniffing me.

*****
SO NOW WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE. Ahhhhhhhh. Things will escalate VERY quickly from here on out and I'm flipping excited. So in case you didn't know, Chrobin Week 2019 was last week (I was surprised, too) but somehow, I was able to write prompts for every single day. XD They're all in My Random Thoughts and I would really appreciate it you checked them out! Also, I am currently at band camp, and I know I'm already really bad at responding to comments (I'm trying to get better at it, I promise) but if I don't get a chance to respond to them for a couple days, that's why. Thank you so much for reading and look forward to reading more!

Link: https://youtu.be/BR1YPQ8pkUA