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Every step, she could feel the raw and exposed meat of her feet burn again on the wet grass. It almost felt good. Cooling. Like medicine on the disgusting burns of her feet. But the thought of dirt, bugs, grass, getting into her wounds disgusted her to no end. There was no choice otherwise, however. Sounds of running, chasing, paws hitting the ground behind her grew terribly louder. Danger was coming if she did not go, now. Tears sliding down her face, she continued on. Her hands too, were in similar condition. Worse. The site of the occasion. Still sizzling, maybe still burning. This was the worst pain. The edges of her skin turning over, it wanted to fall off, theres no bending these disgusting things anymore, no more using. There is no more of anything. Sounds approaching, she can only think of survival. Diving into the giant roots of a tree to hide, she has to sink her teeth into her bicep in order to not scream when her hands hit the earth, saving her from impact. She would have rathered impacted the earth. Curling up into a ball in this dark, wet, tangle of roots and straws of life force for trees, she sees traitors and liars run past her with fire and lights and weapons. They snarl and look. They wont find her, and if they did, she would not be returned to that pit in the ground alive. Slice her head off, she will never return. Never return. Close your eyes and wish for the disgusting beasts to leave, in the morning you will escape and never return to this wretched place. Never smell wet forest again, see the horrible moon bugs who used to light up your world. They only can associate with him now.
And she does. When she wakes, there is no one is be seen. Her wounds are caked with dirt, infection is inevitable. She doesn’t care. Death comes for her soon. She makes it very, very far. Farther than she wanted. Why can she just fucking succumb? Stumbling to the edge of a small lake, she sees her reflection. Horrible, disgusting. What am i? Is all she can think. I hate this. Im free. I want to die.
She succumbs. Into this lake, a mirror of herself. Its peaceful. She has never in her life felt this good. Before the tragedy. The first part of her life. When it was normal, it wasn’t. Always at war, with one thing or another. The water soothed the injuries if her hands and feet. She let herself die.
she wakes. And when she does, its somewhere. Instead of the greens and browns and blues of her home, its somewhere with a small range of colours limited to the blacks and browns and reds of a terrifying night illuminated by a fire: Her neck is hot and seems strangely wet. Forcing her eyes open, raising a hand to it. Blood covers her hand. With a foggy glance around she notices a lake. Like the one she died in. But she didnt die? Its night. She can smell fire. Sliding her dry eyes over, a figure sits by a fire. Not facing her. Blonde hair, black fur. Wings. Tail. It turns to face her.
Fangs.
“You’re awake.” Blurry. But she can tell that the figure stands up and that the figure walks over to her. She can not move her head to angle up and look up at this person. Forced to stare at its ankles. “You were tasty.” It bends down, sitting on the back of its legs. It picks up her arm. Her arm is limp and she can’t control it. It might as well be dead. “I wondered what happened to you” It examined her hand. She didn't know what it looked like but it couldn't look great. “These burns on your hands. Feet. On that little star on your face? And then where I found you?” It laughed, “its like finding a hunk of meat in a lake.” Her eyes were open now. It became uncomfortably clear what this creature wanted from her, how it had not hit her before struck her as weird. How long had she gone without air?
“You are a fighter!” A smile spread across this creature's face, the giant protruding fangs being what she kept her eyes fixated on. A pause, and then clawed hands grabbing her arms. They effortlessly dragged her to a nearby tree, closer to the fire than she was before. She found her head lulling, she felt like she was fading. Weak. Maybe now she could die. But it would not allow it. Her eyes forced themselves shut without her permission and despite that, the creature wouldn't let her go.
She wanted to die, but not like this! Not like this…. The creature spoke but she could not hear it.
A sharp pain, one that felt like a slicing and draining of her neck. She knew her blood was pouring out but she couldnt bring herself to care.
It was peaceful this time at least.