Awoken

Everly:CH1: The Beginning Part 1

Many hours have passed. I've never been so sure of anything in my life yet the sun hasn't moved in the clear blue sky and I'm no closer to finding my way out of this gum tree forest. It seems more like a maze, one that I can't beat no matter how hard I try. More grey than green the patches of grass is few and far in between and the leaves on the branches are sparse, a constant reminder of the stale and completely humid still air.

Every tall and winding tree looks identical to the other, it's unnatural not to mention unnerving. I'm almost positive that I haven't pissed anyone off, at least not enough to warrant this kind of torture; walking around in circles under the hot sun during its strongest hours with no water to parch my dry and raw throat.

I've tried resting up against a few different trees and on the uneven dirt ground as far from the anthills as possible, but every time without fail I'm swarmed by angry biting ants the size of my thumb. It's definitely not the time to be wearing a dress so of course, I am. The black material is a sun magnet. I'm melting.

If this is meant to be a prank it's a horrible one. The only positive in this shit show is the eucalyptus leaves I've been rubbing on my sores which makes the itching and stinging slightly more bearable, plus the intoxicating and pleasant aroma is calming the ever-growing stress pinching at the back of my neck and shoulders.

Wait a second . . . A sudden small breeze disturbs the previously still leaves and it doesn't come alone. I can hear clanging, metal hitting a hard surface, growling, and a man or deep-voiced woman grunting.

Hallelujah. Thank the celestials, I'm saved.

Following the noises, I have to dodge all the low hanging, outreaching branches and roots that seem to be trying to hinder my progress but I manage to make it through with just a few tears in my dress and matching cuts and scrapes before finally stumbling upon a small clearing, and ravaged camp.

Took long enough.

The tent has been ripped apart, torn to jagged ribbons, the brown material scattered all along the ground as well as pieces of splintered wood. The fire pit is just as disheveled, stones kicked away to an edge of the clearing near an upturned grill.

I need to keep moving. Fuck. I'm going to regret this, I just know it.

The fighting is louder now and I can smell death in the air. After creeping through the trees, trying to be as stealthy as possible, I find the source; the tall man I can't seem to escape and an even bigger fiend that looks to be a little over eight feet tall, short for its kind. It's obvious the monster was an earth elemental before what they call the metamorphosis.

Its thick grey barky peeling exterior is blending in with the surrounding trees, with curling sharp horn-like branches that almost form a crown on top of its head, and sharp sturdy thorns that cover its arms, shoulders, and legs with one on each elbow much longer than the rest, its black soulless eyes send shivers down my spine and the four canine fangs look large enough to rip out throats- its smaller pointy teeth just as sharp and lethal in its black mouth.

The man, whose name I still don't know is putting up one hell of a fight- I'm going to name him Aiden, he looks like an Aiden. Deep scarlet blood, black bodily fluids, and bodies are littering the ground around the fighters. The limp dead ones were fledglings; some mindless crazed monstrous-looking humans, while the rest were once animals - tainted, and turned monstrous, also slaves to the zankou, the name given to the darkness.

"It's over, you've lost too much blood," the fiend snarls sounding somewhere between man and monster, his words causing panic to rise and rage alongside the fear.

Sadly it looks to be correct. I can see the gaping wound on Aiden's chest through the torn armor, deep and wide it reaches from hip to collar bone. If he were human he'd be dead but thankfully he's a legacy, a descendant of a demigod-a dark caster to be exact.