The Sky's Pink?

Sounds of chirping interrupted Cyliss's nap.

Damnit I don't remember setting an alarm. Cyliss reached to his right where he usually set his phone but instead of the feeling of plastic he was so accustomed to was something wet and squishy. Did I leave out an unopened honey bun? Groggily opening his eyes to check what his hand was on, it was a clump of moss. How did moss get in my room? Cyliss's eyes flew open as he noticed the tree roots it was growing on.

Did I fall asleep outside? No, I live in a city... Did I go camping? Cyliss thought back to what he was doing before his nap but no concrete memory would surface. "Why can't I remember?" Pulling himself up Cyliss took in his surroundings as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He was definitely in a forest but he had no clue where the nearest forest to his place even was let alone how to get there. And the lack of a tent or even a backpack told him he hadn't come here planning to camp. Not only that but something seemed eerie about this place but Cyliss couldn't place exactly what it was. Wait a minute, Cyliss thought his eyes snapping wide open, the light coming through the tree's isn't yellow, but rather... pink? His grogginess was quickly replaced with surprise as he stared up, trying to confirm it, but the foliage was too dense to see through. Maybe it's just the sunset... Yeah that's gotta be it. Cyliss shook his head, chuckling at his own shock.

A squicking noise from nearby caught Cyliss's ear, perking him up again. A squirrel was passing by a nearby tree, catching Cyliss's attention, having rarely seen one outside from the one outing his family took while he was young. He stared at it curiously as it moved closer to him. When it faced him however, a chill went down Cyliss's spine, a cold sweat following close behind it. For instead of the cute face he had seen in movies was the head of a wolf, snarling at him as it realized he was there.

Cyliss never understood the concept of fight or flight before in his life before this but all his questions were answered when he began scrambling away from this weird creature as it started to charge him. Cyliss's hand hit another clump of moss causing him to slam into the ground, feeling something soft brush against his ear. Pulling himself up in a panic he realized just how close he was to death. What had brushed against his ear was the squirrel wolf thing having barely missed him as he fell, and it had a mouthful of bark in its mouth. Cyliss took a horrified glance at the tree that was next to him and blanched at the size of the hole the squirrel had chomped out of the tree. Hastily pulling himself up from the ground he sprinted as fast as he could from the furry little monster that was still trying to spit the bark from its mouth. Being careful not to trip again knowing that a mistake like before wouldn't be forgiven a second time he made his way through the forest. After a minute of nonstop running, dodging tree roots and broken branches he hid behind a tree to regain his breath.

Cyliss looked back the way he came to see if the monster was after him, seeing nothing he breathed a sigh of relief, laying back against the tree. But instead of the opposing tree in his vision was the open mouth and two rows of sharp teeth of the wolf head inches from his face, flying as though a professional pitcher had thrown it. Cyliss swung his right arm on reflex, swatting it out of the air like a bee flying toward his face, slamming it into the ground. The thing must have followed his scent, so I guess there's no running from this thing. But after hitting it he realized just how much bigger he was than it and how fragile it had to be.

Cyliss dodged out of the way as the thing quickly got back on its feet and flung itself at him again, but without giving him a second to rest it jumped off the tree just as it landed heading straight for his face again. Cyliss dove to the ground losing a clump of his hair to the critter. A fiery pain grew in his stomach as he landed one of the fallen sticks on the ground the size of his arm. But there was no time to curl up in pain with the breath of the beast on his heels. Ripping the stick out of his gut he turned his back to the ground, anticipating where the beast would be, flying toward his face, mouth wide ready to take another bite. Raising his arms above his head, clutching the stick, he swung down, piercing the thing in-between the eyes, the stick erupting from the bottom of its head spewing blood all over Cyliss's face.

Cyliss hurled at the sight of its popped out eyes and its tongue flopping out of its mouth, pushed to the side by the stick. After relieving his stomach from whatever he had eaten last he frantically wiped the blood from his face. Once he was fairly sure most of it was off he flopped onto his back in exhaustion, causing the place where he had been stabbed to erupt in fiery pain yet again, drawing his attention to it once more. Cyliss looked down and began to panic as he saw the size of the hole in his shirt. He lifted his blood soaked shirt hesitantly to check the damage and almost passed out at the sight of the hole in his stomach which had to be at least the size of a quarter seeping out blood. Starting to feel light headed he finished pulling his shirt off the rest of the way and wrapped it around his torso. Cyliss reached for a nearby stick and began twisting his shirt around with it to make a makeshift tourniquet like he saw in movies, not sure if it would actually help his stomach wound. Holding onto the stick keeping his shirt tight he pulled himself up. "Now's not the time to rest, I need to find a town or something and get to a hospital." Cyliss began slowly walking in the same direction he had been running, hoping that he had already been heading toward the exit of the forest. Using the trees near him for support as his head started to get lighter and lighter Cyliss pushed on for what felt like forever. Just as he was beginning to lose hope on survival, a concentrated light began to shine from the direction he was heading. It was the strange pink light that had been shining in the forest for a while now but the only thought that was on repeat in Cyliss mind was just a little farther.

Cyliss felt the hope rekindle into a blaze and stumbled forward, ignoring the pain, pushing his way toward salvation. Finally he broke through the foliage of the edge of the forest and was met with a plain, with only a single house visible in the distance. Feeling the hope in his gut extinguish, his vision began to get obscured by spots of black. "I can't give up..." Cyliss stumbled forward one step from beyond the forest before the blackness completely claimed his vision and he fell to the floor failing to even notice the crimson red sun that was overhead let alone the pink sky.