2 2. Shade

A dark shadow moves unceasingly through the forest. As if drawn to some unseen source, perhaps like a shark smelling blood. It runs through the forest, its feet heavily patting the ground, rattling the trees around it and cracking anything unfortunate enough to come under its feet. Its nostrils flares as it draws heavy breaths, empowering its body to go faster. Jumping through the canopy the beast opens its eyes wide, its eyes almost popping out of its skull in excitement as it sees a man standing grimly before it.

The man looked like a haunting ghost, with tattered oversized robes rolled many a time around his body, giving no inclination of his body shape. Only his sharply defined features tell somewhat of a tale, because his hair covers his whole back in a mess of tangled dark web, and every exposed part of skin seemed to be covered in a dark substance mimicking soot. This heavy color made the whites of the man's eyes stand out like floating jewels, looking hauntingly at you. The beast grunts in irritation at what he imagines must be a dry husk of a meal.

Keeping the pace up it rushes towards the man with extreme agility, intent on severing his body with its long, sharp, nails. Its feet bury deeply into the ground as it prepares to jump from the ground, instinctively becoming airborne and time seems to freeze as something feels wrong. There is a coldness in the air which wasn't there before. The beast doesn't linger on the feeling for too long, focusing back on its opponent who is now calmly crouching with a hand on the ground, the other holding a dulled sword. As the beast flies towards the man, the man jumps forward, underneath the beast, slicing its stomach open. Its entrails fly out, spraying the ground in shit, blood and gore. The beast crashes headfirst into the hut, intestines trailing behind it as its eyes are tightly locked in pain. In one last effort before death, the beast looks behind itself in horrified pain before life leaves its eyes looking dull.

The man looks behind himself, staring at those beautiful red ruby eyes in fascination, noting that they are slowly glazing over. Putting the sword across his shoulder the man looks down, sighs out loud to himself and scratches his head.

"Man, what a surprise, who would have thought I'd get rushed by a darkling so early in the morning" Rubbing his tummy he begins looking around himself.

"Well, it really couldn't have come at a better time. Better they hunt me than me hunting them is what I always say" The man goes behind a tree and looks for some dry wood branches lying around. "But why would the beast be rushing towards me like that? It seemed to know that I was here somehow" The man glances at the hut as he digs a hole and piles all the timber into it. Making sure that nothing flammable is close by. "Is it the hut? Is there something in this hut?" The man looks skeptical as he pulls a log, he found earlier close by and rummages through his clothes. "Whatever it is, is it worth looking around for?" The man questions himself while pulling out a rock and placing it by the timber. Eyeing the rock with one eye, he pulls his sword in a quick motion, slicing at just the right angle to produce a shower of sparks. The man gains a satisfied smirk as the timber catches on fire and eyes the beast. "Well, first off, let's have a meal. Shall we?" His eyes crinkles in satisfaction as he heartily waves his sword around. His steps seemed to have a spring in them not there before.