Monday 27 June 2011

It All Started With A Stumble #5

"MOVE!" I bellowed at Rose.
And she did. I tightened my grip on her hand and together we ran as fast as we could, heading towards the road. I recall wishing the night sky had not been so bright and clear, because as I looked back over my shoulder I saw the forest wall rustle, it seemed as if every tree shuddered as something huge moved within trying to break through. Another of the roaring screams filled the hot night air and at that a monstrous shape burst through the foliage and into the field.
"You gotta be friggin' kidding me!"
"What? What is it?" Rose asked panting as we ran.
"Just don't stop running."
We had reached the place where fence should have been, but it was nowhere to be seen, not that this surprised me given what was now running across the field after us.
"Where is the damn road?" Rose screamed.
I glanced again over my should and immediately wished I hadn't.
"MOVE FASTER!"
I could now feel the vibrations of our pursuer's foot falls through the ground beneath us, it was closing in. As we ran I noticed that the area around us was in no way familiar to me. About a hundred meters ahead of us I could make out a stunning vista in the star light and suddenly realized we were on some sort of plateau heading towards a cliff that stretched out in a crescent for kilometers. We were approaching the edge fast. Before us the land dropped away into a large flat forest filled expanse. Behind us I could now feel hot breath hitting the back of my neck. There was no place left to go. 
"WAIT!" Rose screamed.
But there was no time. I jumped out into nothingness taking her with me. I felt something slam against me as we went over the cliff and knew that our persistent friend was falling with us. I could barely make out anything as we fell, it felt like forever. All I could see where flashes of landscape bathed in silvery light, and nearer, leathery skin. Beside me I could here Rose screaming.
Then we hit. We fell for so long I, not for the first time that day, thought we would die. However hundreds of rakish arms seemed to reach out and catch us. They also succeeded in cut my arms all over. I came to rest in the fork of a large tree rather abruptly as Rose came tumbling down one of the larger branches that led into my fork and land right on top of me. For a moment she did not move, her arms looked about as shredded as mine and she had a nasty cut on her right cheek. I was starting to worry when she at last spoke.
"Ow!" She sighed not moving her head from my chest.
"You okay?"
"Ow."
"Yeah I know right, lucky this nice cotton soft tree broke my fall." I said feeling like I had landed on rock.
"Lucky I landed on something a little softer, thanks for having seconds at dinner." She looked up at me.
"Least I could do." I said and she leaned forward, for a moment I thought she was going to kiss me, when suddenly the tree we were in shook violently and the dreadful roaring scream returned. I had briefly forgotten about our falling friend. I had hoped it would not survive the fall, but somehow it had been just as lucky as us, even given it's size.
"You know what it is don't you Matt?" Rose's voice was barely a whisper. 
"Um not exactly." I said as the tree shook once more.
Peered over my shoulder down at the ground, Rose clambered over me a little to see, but the ground could not be seen, the light of the stars all got caught up in the jungle canopy above. All we could make out was the trunk of our tree and those around it running down into the gloom below. Lucky I could not make out the thing rocking the tree, I didn't really think Rose was ready for that yet. Jesus I wasn't ready for it yet. The tree shook once more and then the night seemed to go quiet once more as culprit moved off in the underbrush.
"What's with that cliff? and where the hell is the road?" Rose seemed to have decide to move on to other question.
"I don't think it's the road that has gone or the cliff that has appeared Rose." Rose looked at me and in the dappled light I knew she was waiting for more.
"I think we left, not the road and I think it was us that appeared not the cliff." She just lay there not moving. She was not a stupid girl. I knew she would have come to this conclusion herself but obviously needed me to confirm it.
"That light, the blue energy. It moved us?" The puzzled look on her face mirrored my own feelings.
"I think so." I sounded like I was telling her someone had died.
"Why? How?" She thought a moment then asked the more important question, "Where?"
"I am not too sure." I lied. I had a pretty good idea of where we were.
"I think we should wait up here till the morning." She said looking nervously down into the darkness below.
"Sounds like a good idea to me." Thoughts of the pursuing shadow flashing through my mind.
"Hey, look, the torch." Rose was pointing off into the thick black soup below.
I could see the torch about twenty meters away, laying on the ground. Some how in the fall the switched had been flicked on and now its little beam shone feebly amongst the tree trunks. 
"In the morning we can climb down and get it." I said.
"Shouldn't we get it now? it might be dead in the morning." She said peering down at it.
Movement in the torches light quickly put all thoughts of going down to get it out of her mind. As we watched something moved through the light, too fast to make out any detail. Just a flash of green and brown and I thought I saw feathers to. 
"What the hell?" Rose sounded slightly more than worried. 
"We will worry about that in the morning, lets just get some sleep."
"Matt?... What's that?" The calm way in which she said this was completely unsettling.
I looked back down into the tiny patch of light, at first I couldn't see what she was talking about. Then my eyes saw it. At the base of a large tree, poking out from behind it, into the light of the torch was a three clawed foot with a larger sickle shaped claw further up the ankle just past that the rest of the leg vanished behind the tree and nothing more could be seen. I continued to stare at the foot, then gasped, when I noticed that about seven feet from the base of the tree a pair of eyes were watching me, just as intently as I was watching them. But these eyes weren't like mine, these eyes were cold, unmoving, unblinking and although they were just watching, I instinctively knew they meant me harm.

To be continued...

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