What She Found

Oh shit! She looked across the ravine. Actually, she looked across the tree trunk she had easily traversed 7 hours and 17 minutes ago and wondered how the fuck she was going to get across this toothpick in the pouring rain.

The gentle brook was now a rushing, soaking force pounding at her eardrums. The sides were glistening and darkened, the mud making her squeamish, like the sight of blood.

But what was howling behind her was worse. Much worse.

As if it had read her mind, its magnificent call came raining down from the sky, scattering the raindrops, pulverizing them with its shattering tone.

She let out a startled yelp and stepped out onto the log. Begging her brain to remember how many steps she had taken on the way over, her brain laughed, you were so high, dumb ass!

Fuck! She said as she skidded and looked past her shoes to the rushing water below, climbing higher and higher, hungry to fill, fill, fill, kill kill kill what had been waiting for just this rain…

She realized it had been doing it again, distracting her thoughts with its hypnotic prose and this time she had to pin wheel her arms to stop her skid from tossing her to the swift blue mass.

Trees shook directly behind her and a whistling breathing replaced the rushing water in her ears. A chuckle ended a breath here and there as it watched her midstream. A chuckle.

This is too unreal. Her eyes widened in terror and her whole face transformed. And as she spoke too many words a sob escaped. She had to slam her teeth down, eviscerate it and turn her eyes to steel.

She dug deep and become solid, like metal. Imagining her body smooth and silver, armour-plated, red hot as if just hammered from a fire. Then alchemized gold waiting to be molded to the weapon of her choice.

From the bank a small cry of frustration filled the air and she fed on it, like an adrenaline fruit. Assessing that she had six steps at the most, she took the luxury to pause and steady herself. The bank creature responded with a boiling gurgling sound that sent her once again on her way.

Six, five, four, three, two, one.

She launched off the log with both feet and slipped in the mud on the bank. Landing on her ass, the wind was knocked out of her and terror invaded once again.

It will follow me! She thought. Why had she been so sure it wouldn’t? Why, why, why…

But then she turned to look at the opposite bank, pushing with her heels as she did, away from the creature, she saw its characteristic orange tips fading away and the spaces between trees filled with daylight once again.

Her heart pounded in her ears and she caught her breath finally. Up as soon as she could be, she first returned to the log. She gave it a test push and found with regret she might not be able to move it, it was certainly too, heavy, she could hurt herself, or die, could she hear it coming back?

Again! Get Out!

She pushed with all her might; the log into the ravine and the creature out of her head. Then she returned to the camp to tell them what she found.