Rude Awakening
Roger slept peacefully.
The ditch he had dug protected him from the elements, and the formerly raging fire was now just a few burning coals, faintly illuminating the area.
Lila was sleeping on the opposite side, but Roger tried to not think about her too much. He was still trying to figure out his opinions regarding her.
The snap of a twig woke him, and he groggily sat up.
"Lila? Is that you?"
His tired eyes scanned the perimeter but saw no movement.
He was going to lie back down and dismiss it as a forest critter when he heard another snap, this time to his left.
His eyes darted to the area he heard the sound, but he couldn't make anything out. He slowly rose to his feet, his hair standing on end.
He didn't know how, but he knew a beast was out there.
Roger could feel the inhuman eyes on him and the hunger that rested in them.
Crouching down, he slowly picked up his sheath and drew the blade from it with a loud ring.
Slowly, he stepped around the fire and stopped by Lila's resting form. He spared only a glance at her before roughly digging his shin into her side, causing her to rise with a jolt.
"Roger? What the gods do you think…"
Her words trailed off as she noticed his sword was drawn, and his eyes were locked onto the darkness beyond the clearing.
She slowly lowered herself and picked up her sword, standing back up with it held with both hands. Her grip was tight, and her gaze hardened.
A strange laugh, like a hyenas, echoed in the meadow. Roger and Lila whirled to face the noise, but the darkness never faded.
The rustle of branches brought their attention towards another direction, but nothing was there either.
The shadows around them grew more eerie, barely held at bay by the fading sparks of the fire.
The two teens stood near the fire as their fears mounted.
'Should I run? Maybe I could make it to the river! I just need to touch the tiger on my way out and I could run downstream! Whatever is out there, I doubt it can also walk on water!'
Despite thinking this, he knew it would be suicide.
Whatever was out there was fast, very fast. The noises kept coming from different directions, but never more than one at a single time, so Roger assumed it was just one creature.
'One very fast creature. That also laughs. Evily.'
In a strange show of regret, Roger caught himself before he sighed.
'I never thought I'd miss the safety of that god's damned box.'
A soft noise broke him out of his thoughts.
"What do we do?"
There was a quiver in Lila's voice as she spoke, but a hidden resolve was there.
Roger didn't know how he knew it, he just did.
'Maybe I have more people skills than I thought.'
Mulling over the question, he panned his gaze over the tree line, still seeing nothing.
"We watch and wait. Whatever is out there is intelligent. I think it's trying to find an opportunity to attack us."
Despite his words, he had some doubt, most of it stemming from one question: Why didn't it attack them while they were asleep?
While Roger was waking up, it could have struck and easily killed him before he managed to get his sword.
'What if it enjoys the fear?'
A shiver went down Rogers's spine.
He had met a lot of people in the prison who scared him, but the worst were always the ones who enjoyed the game, not the reward.
They would choose victims at random and try and break them, both mentally and physically. They liked seeing a person reduced to nothing.
Roger felt like he was the newest victim of one of those sadists.
As if a hand had just gripped his heart, Roger felt his breath quicken and his thoughts get muddled together.
Lila shifted nervously next to him, and he realized she must be feeling the same.
'I wonder what thoughts she is currently connecting this situation with?'
As soon as he considered that, his train of thought abruptly ended, and he shook his head to focus again.
The fire was almost completely extinguished, causing the shadows to slowly approach the two.
Fearing the worst if that happened, Roger quickly grabbed a fresh log and threw it on the fire. A shower of red sparks burst from the pit, illuminating the glade.
A tall, lanky figure lept back from the light, reaching the trees in a single stride.
Lila gasped as she saw it, taking a half step back as her sword rose awkwardly.
Roger, meanwhile, found himself almost falling into the newly fueled flames.
They licked at his body, threatening to set his new clothes on fire.
He reeled back, landing on his ass with a small bounce, his sword still in his hand.
With surprising agility, he jumped back up and turned back to face the trees, unwilling to get caught by surprise.
A wave of heat hit his back, and he spent only a moment enjoying it. After so many cold nights, the warmth was like a holy gift.
Lila had spared him a glance when he fell. Once he rose, she shared her thoughts.
"I think it's afraid of light."
Roger found himself inclined to agree. It seemed almost terrified of the fire's glow.
'Maybe that's why it didn't attack? The last few sparks were protecting us, and he was waiting for them to die down when he accidentally broke the branch that woke me up?'
Even with those thoughts, he couldn't shake the feeling something was off about it all.
The laugh sounded out again, dark and depraved.
Part of it seemed familiar to Roger, but he couldn't say where he had heard it before.
'This whole thing is messing with my head! None of this is lining up!'
The colors around him grew slightly warped, mixing together.
Just when Roger tried to focus on the change, Lila spoke up, drawing his attention.
"Roger!"
He turned around and saw blood dripping from her face.
She looked at him with one wide eye, the other eye socket being crossed with a gaping wound.
Her hand reached up and covered the wound as her lips quivered before she released an ear-piercing shriek.
In his shock, Roger didn't notice he had turned away from the edge of the clearing. The fire was suddenly doused, and an explosion of pain tore through his back.
His body was sent flying across the clearing from the force, causing him to fall in a heap to the grass a few meters away.
Roger faintly heard Lila scream again before the sound was cut off. The thud of a body followed.
Through the pain, he felt himself grow enraged at her death. He had just met her, but she was still the closest thing he had to a friend in this god-awful place.
Sadly, he didn't have much time left to worry about that.
A dark mist flooded the glade in the absence of the light, and the laugh came for a third time.
It slowly approached him, as if it was trying to taunt him.
In his pain, Roger wasn't thinking straight, but a wry thought broke through.
'Isn't mist made of water?'
With a sudden thought, he threw himself to his feet and dove for the corpse of the tiger.
The mist darted after him with renewed intensity, as if it terrified of what he could do with the corpse.
With only a second to spare, Roger landed near the large body and slapped his hand down on it, activating his ability.
He expected to feel the cool flow of mana, but instead, he felt… nothing.
In a fit of panic, he raised his hand and brought it down again, trying to activate it once more. Once again, it didn't do anything.
His confusion was interrupted as a large claw appeared, slicing through his shoulder and neatly amputating his arm.
The pain was muted for a moment as Roger tried to wrap his head around what was happening.
Knowing once the adrenaline ran out he wouldn't be able to be logical anymore, he quickly began looking around for those muted colors again.
Noticing them, he realized his brain simply didn't want to consider them, but he forced it to anyway.
The more he stared, the less he could feel the rest of his body.
Everything around him felt just as muted and warped as the colors, and with that thought the pain vanished.
With a gasp, Roger found himself waking up once more, this time he felt strangely drained.
Something was wrapped around his arm, and looking over he saw what it was.
A strange canine creature with tentacles sticking out from its body was standing next to him, two of the tentacles connected to Roger.
Its green eyes were locked on his, and sharp fangs protruded from its lips.