Chapter Two: Run

Darian woke up to the absence of the deer's heat and looked up to where the deer stood, just a few feet away. Then as he got up and brushed off some old withered leaves, terror struck him. It was almost nightfall. The sun had broken through the clouds just barely above the horizon, as if trying to tell him in to run. And run he did. Not even getting a chance to say goodbye to his new friend, he sprinted through the trees and down the path. Many times he fell scratching up his knee and got hit  by some low hanging branches. But he refused to slow down. He could almost see the lights of the house of a village when he heard the last thing he wanted to ever hear.

A low grumble, that seemed to vibrate the entire forest, and a cold unnatural wind  that crawled up Darian's spine. The one thing that had been hunting him down for the past year had found him again. His heart raced and he went pale with fear. He began to run again and made it to the town. No one seemed to be out and about so he ran to the only place he felt safe. When he had first appeared here the only person who had accepted him was the local black smith, but only a few days after taking in Darian he had been sent off to a war happening in the Medusae Gulf, and while shortly there had either been captured or killed. No one knew what. Darian ran to the smith shop where he slammed the door and started to pile things in front of it. He shut all the shutters of the windows and fled down into the cellar. Here there was a small variety of weapons. Some bows hung on the wall and arrows laid next to them on the floor. Any sword that was there had been taken away, and now only some knives were spread about the room.

He had no time to waste. He grabbed one of the bows and one of the bag of arrows and as many knives as would fit onto his belt and pack. Darian heard it again. A low grumble that vibrated almost the entire house. He quietly walked back up the stairs trying to avoid the windows. He would have to wait till dawn to run from what hunted him now. Whatever was hunting him, could not get past the protection of the home he now lived.

Hour by hour passed and Darian didn't dare sleep. His eyes jumped from window to window to door and to window again. Nothing would come in. Another grumble came from the unknown beast beyond the door. Then the steps began to leave the door way and go away from the house. Darian sighed in relief hoping that the creature had given up. The chill had left as well and he felt all the more safe.

He laid slumped up against the wall wanting to get a bit of rest before tomorrow, when he heard a sound more terrifying then the sound that had been hunting him down. The scream of a child. Without thinking and without a plan he ran out the door to see a small young boy looking up in fear at a terrifying creature. It had small red eyes that were meant to paralyze it's victims, and long teeth to cut through flesh and bone. It had so many teeth that it couldn't even close it's mouth. It stared at the child salivating at the site of a delicious meal when he smelled what he was meant to hunt he turned around to barely see the silhouette of his prey when an arrow struck it in the eye. Before it could scream another arrow pierced his throat and a third hit his other eye. The animal dropped dead.

The boy still shocked at what happened ran down the street from the corpse of the hideous monster, but took one look at where his savior was. But he too was gone.