026 – Encounter

Uriel sat against the tree and devoured one zephra after the other, it had a thick outer skin of purple colour that locked in the water and made the flavour of the fruit all the more potent and delicious.

The skin had a delicious flavour and came with a crunch that brought joy to Uriel's mouth as he feasted on the fruit until his belly was full and starting to bulge.

When he finished he pulled a few more and limped towards Zeresha.

The mare was happily filling up in a bush of elderberries when Uriel arrived and showed her the water-filled fruit.

Trusting the hand beneath her muzzle the mare took the strange-looking fruit into her mouth without hesitation.

"Nghhh!" the mare cried in excitement at the sheer amount of water that entered her mouth, it had been too long since she was able to enjoy such a feeling.

She looked at the smiling youth holding onto several more of the same fruit and jumped onto him wrapping him in a hug on her front legs and licked his face over and over again.

Uriel chuckled at the mare's behaviour and slowly fed her more of the delectable fruit.

When he looked back the tree was filled with plenty more fruit and at the same time, it wasn't the only tree of its kind several more dotted the forest.

He sat down feeling fully content for the first time in a long while and with a full belly his thinking became much clearer, and he was able to give proper thought to his plans for once.

The first thing he thought of was leaving the forest, the area he was in had plenty of food, enough for him to replenish his supplies, but he quickly put that idea away.

Having a lot of food would not stop him from getting lost again once he left.

The forest provided him with plenty of food but at the same time it also held dangers within and if he wasn't careful he would become the food of the forest.

After giving it some thought he decided to stick with his old plan to find a river or a stream, as that was the best way for him to find his way to a village as his sense of direction was evidently not the best.

He got up and brought Zeresha along with him to explore the wonderous forest, but not before grabbing a few of those delectable fruit.

The duo walked slowly, and Uriel tried to keep them as stealthy as possible, but it was hard to do with a large horse.

Time ticked by as they explored various parts several times they encountered some of the small rodents of the forest, raccoons, squirrels and hares made frequent appearances but all of them almost immediately scuttled off in fright.

Uriel had a feeling that it might have been in part due to his wide grin every time he saw one, he couldn't help it, every time he saw one of the creatures he couldn't stop himself from desiring to hunt them and eat some nice tender meat.

It had been too long since he had some good meat to eat.

As midday approached they discovered a little clearing and decided to sit down and eat a little, the more he delved into the forest the less worried he became about conserving food because of the ample supply that existed everywhere.

Even back home they rarely ever ate during the day, which made this a rare occurrence.

Uriel couldn't help but marvel at the Green Wood's prosperity, it was already the months of frost and yet the entire forest was still as green as always, producing fruit and the animals moved about freely, it was called the Green Wood because it was supposedly prosperous all year long, but he never believed it to be true.

As he sat in the clearing a sudden sound forced him to get up in a hurry and turn to face the noise.

Uriel's eyes widened and he reached down for his sword in fright when he saw the creature…

But it was no mere creature, it was an abomination.

The creature had the head of an ant only the head was as big as a persons, two long antennae stuck out from the top of its head and its two large bulbous eyes seemed to be looking everywhere but nowhere all at once.

What made the creature an abomination was the rest of its body; it had the body of a boar and a rather large one at that and two ugly leathery wings extended from its furry back.

Uriel looked on with fear as the abomination turned to face him with its two front mandibles clacking together, a red substance was dripping down the mandibles.

'Is… is that blood?' Uriel wondered; though he was fairly certain that his guess was right.

Clack.

Clack.

Clack.

The abomination smacked its mandibles together repeatedly, and froth started to form in its mouth.

Uriel pulled the sword from his scabbard without hesitation and pointed it at the monster with shaking hands, "Get out of here," he tried to shout as he moved in front of Zeresha, but his voice came out incredibly weak.

"Clack," the abomination smacked its mandibles together again and tilted its head.

"SCRRRRREEEE," it suddenly let out a ferocious roar and darted towards him with hunger in its eyes, as it ran the foam in its mouth dripped onto the ground, where ever the foam landed steam started to rise as the grass rapidly dissolved.

It came so fast that Uriel could only attempt to block at the last second as the creature took a swipe at him with its mandibles.

The sword clashed against the abomination's mandibles without doing it any harm, but when it came to power Uriel held the advantage over the abomination despite its large size.

The abomination was by no means unintelligible as soon as it detected the strength of its opponent it backed down and tilted its head in confusion probably wondering how something so small could give so much resistance.

At the same time, Uriel started to beg and plead with his power to enter the blade, just like it had when he fought the bandit, against this thing knives weren't going to work and his sword couldn't harm the creature until the blade became sharp.

The silver blade glinted in the light, but it showed no change in response to Uriel's pleas with the edge staying its usual dull self.

Uriel held the sword aloft and pointed it at the abomination, "Leave!!!" he shouted trying to warn it off, but it did nothing to scare the creature, instead, it met his shout with a screech of its own.

"SCRRREEEEE!" the abomination roared and charged at him again, as Uriel stepped forward to try fending it off it suddenly jumped to the side with an agility that defied its massive size and aimed its mandibles at Zeresha.

Uriel's eyes shrunk and he swung the sword over his head bringing it down on the back of the abomination.

"NGHHH!!!" Zeresha let out a pain-filled cry as she kicked and trashed trying to get the abomination of her, but its mandibles managed to cut into her side.

But before it could sink its mandibles any deeper Uriel's strike hit its back and a solid crunch thundered throughout the clearing.

"SCRRREEEEE!!!" the abomination jumped and its ugly leathery wings spread out as it hollered in pain it managed to put some distance between itself and Uriel before it fell to the ground and trashed about in pain clawing up copious amounts of dirt.

As the abomination battled against its pain Uriel ran to Zeresha the attack of the abomination had knocked her to her side.

He tried to calm her down as he looked at her wound.

There was a gash almost an inch deep and the width of his hand, blood was pouring from the wound but there was also steam rising from the wound with a horrendous stench.

Surrounding the wound was a thin coating of the substance the abomination released from its mouth.

Zeresha kicked and thrashed despite Uriel's attempts to calm her, thick drops of water spilt from the mare's eyes as its flesh sizzled.

Uriel turned around in a blind rage and went running at the monster without thought, at that moment all he wanted was to kill the thing that put Zeresha in such a state.

As he ran at the abomination it suddenly shot up from the ground flapping its wings it pulled itself up into the air over a dozen feet until it was directly above Uriel.

Uriel's eyes shrunk when the monster started to fall, and it was heading straight on top of him.

Uriel tried to move but the moment he did the abomination extended its wings and sailed over him seemingly intent on crushing him with its large body.

But right then at the last moment, a massive humanoid figure came flying from the trees on the side and delivered a brutal kick to the abomination which sent it flying across the clearing into a tree.

Uriel fell down and looked at the massive figure of a hairy baboon standing in front of him.

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