Chapter 6 - Haunting Dream

As the night dragged on, I fell into a rough sleep. Haunting dreams plagued my mind. Dreams that felt so real, but when I jolted awake, I was back in the forest grove with a deer as my only companion.

When my eyes closed again for the much needed rest, the dreams or, dream, came back, taunting me.

A dream where I endlessly trekked the snowy forest, searching for something frantically. What I was searching for is unknown. All I knew was that I was running, looking left and right for whatever it was.

My feet pound tirelessly in the snow, my legs stretching long with each step. The heart in my chest beating like a drum as I run, my breath coming quick and frantic.

This feeling coursing through me. Was it fear?

Shivers ran down my spine. Despite the warmth the coat covering my entire being gave and my running provided, I couldn't stop shaking.

Was I running from something? I couldn't look back and find out. I could only look forward, endlessly searching the empty forest for something important.

Great need filled me as I continued to run. I needed to find whatever this important thing was soon and fast.

The fear within grew more as the sky turned darker, yet my feet continued to pound on. My muscles full of knots and tension hurt, but I couldn't stop. I wouldn't stop.

Suddenly, I'm falling. Falling far and deep into a dark abyss. The ground beneath my feet opened up and swallowed me, and now I was falling. I would scream. Then I would wake up. 

Cold sweat covered my body each time I awoke, but for some reason, I couldn't stay awake. I kept falling back into that dream. It was a dream that felt so real and would wake me up in a cold sweat.

This continued until the sky started to lighten with the rising sun. 

The bags under my eyes are proof of the fitful sleep I endured the entire night. My mood was dangerous, and my energy level was low.

I glared across, to the other side of the grove, where the deer was peacefully sleeping. I was angry. Angry because this deer had a better sleep than me.

Quickly getting up onto my feet, I stomped my way over to where the deer was still peacefully resting. My hunting knife seemingly had found its way, tight in my grip, somewhere along the way. I no longer had the reserve to not kill this peaceful creature.

About halfway over, though, my anger dissipated, as the deer had yet to wake to my loud movements. I was instead filled with confusion. It should have woken up by now to my loud snow crunching.

I quickened my steps, having them fall much more lightly on the thick snow-covered ground to get to the sleeping deer faster. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.

Despite my continued approach, the deer still didn't open its eyes. The deer failed to wake up. I finished my short trip standing right next to the still sleeping deer. 

Crouching down next to the deer, I nervously took my shaking pale hand and touched the creature. The fur was soft, fluffy from the winter coat, but the deer itself was cold.

I shook the deer a little, hoping, almost begging, for it to open its big brown eyes and spring up in shock from my closeness to it, but the deer continued to lay there, cold, in the snow.

Tears formed in the corner of my sapphire eyes. The companion that I had just met yesterday was dead.

The deer was dead.

To think I was angry that the deer found a peaceful sleep and I didn't. How insulting of me to be so selfish. Soon, I would be no different than the deer.

I removed my hand from the deer and continued to look at it somberly. A great grief filled me. This creature had survived so long only to die in its sleep, in the comfort of a grove of trees. It was such a peaceful way to pass, but for how long had it suffered before then?

Grief slowly turned to anger as I continued to examine the skinny deer up close. You could easily see that it was malnourished, the rib cage showing. It died from cold and starvation. Anyone could figure that out, but I had the unsettling feeling that it was from more.

I wrapped my arms underneath the deer and stood up. I wasn't going to let this deer's unfortunate demise go to waste.

With tears streaming down my cheeks, I took the deer back over to my makeshift camp.

It was a feeling that told me that if I left the deer, it would lay there until spring came, rotting away until it became one with the earth. No creature would find and help the process. It would slowly decay into compost.

Wanting to make the most of this deer's death, I was going to take the deer's remaining meat and its pelt. I needed the food, and I could use the pelt to make a new hat or even a new pair of gloves.

Setting the deer down next to my dead fire from the night prior, I started skinning the pelt off. Once the pelt was successfully removed, cleanly, I started cutting strips of meat from the deer.

It took an hour or so, but soon, I had a small pile of deer meat and a pelt. I would have to wait for when I got back home before I could tan the pelt, but the meat I can cook and eat freely.

Thanks to the cold, the meat would take a lot longer to go bad, so I wrapped it up in what the jerky used to be wrapped in. I ate the last bits of the jerky before tending to the deer, knowing I had a fresh new supply of uncooked sustenance waiting after I finished with the deer.

My meals for the next few days will be fulfilling. I was both grieving and grateful for the deers death. Grieving because it did die and grateful that its death would help to keep me alive.

Packing everything up that I could, I took out my compass and started my quest for home once more. My tummy was satisfied, but my heart was hurt.

My brows stayed furrowed as I continued my journey, trekking at constant pace through the deep snow. There was a dark, uncomfortable feeling inside me. One that was foreign and caused by the unfortunate death of the deer.

Something about this forest was off. I was sure of it now.

The facts were all there.

Animals were scarce, and the ones I did see were either acting out of character or on death's door.

I lost my compass, and I found it again, or it showed up in the pocket of this fur coat that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. The only clue left of where this coat came from were those footprints at the entrance to the cave, but those vanished when I got closer to examine them.

Unexplainable feeling of being watched when nothing is there.

The noise of crunching snow, appearing with no trace of prints or of whatever made the noise.

That dream.

Rethinking all these thoughts made the unsettling feeling in my gut grow more. I'm sure my pale skin turned ghostly white as a sickening feeling flowed through me.

I am positive now. This wasn't the same forest that you could find next to my town. This was a different forest. An enchanted forest that is supposed to be void of life, where anyone who unfortunately enters, gets lost for eternity.

Realizing this now, my hope of escaping alive dives dangerously low. The fear I felt in my dream started to bubble from inside me.

I look around frantically, now seeing the forest for what it really is. A prison.