Chapter I

Nightmares

Willow sighed and adjusted her thick rimmed glasses once more when they started to slip down her sweaty nose and wiped at her forehead. The lenses of her ridiculously heavy eyewear were a little foggy along the lower half, but that couldn't be helped when her cheeks gave off heat like a furnace. It made the paper in front of her harder to read than Ancient Sumerian and she had to angle her head in just the right way so that she could see passed the fog long enough to read the next multiple choice question.

Her pen deftly moved over to scratch a blue circle around the c) option before pushing the booklet up a little higher on the desk and continuing on. Her neck was starting to ache and she rubbed at it before resting her chin on a her fist. She was hot as hell. Though she was sure that the old hag that was her professor had circulatory issues, Willow was more convinced that Dr. Wilkes purposely bumped up the heat to make her and her fellow students as uncomfortable as possible; more than they already were thanks to exams.

Crotchety old cow…

As if some sort of deity heard her privately slandering an elder, the heat suddenly intensified and Willow's breathing began to grow heavy, sucking in the heavy humid air in deep gulps. She felt like she was trapped in a sauna cranked to holy shit Celsius and her pulse began to quicken, but whether it was from her anxiety or the heat, she wasn't completely sure.

This was different than anything she'd felt before though. It felt wrong, like something more than just a cranked thermostat and a crabby professor. Like it was happening, but it wasn't

Looking around, Willow noticed no one else seemed to be as effected by the heat as she was. No one was sweating—except for Leroy, but he was the one with exam anxiety—and several were still wearing their winter jackets. One girl was even wearing her gloves still.

Even knowing she'd almost instantly get a harshly whispered 'shhh!' from Wilkes, Willow couldn't help but narrow her confused gaze at her classmates and mutter, "what the hell?"

Shaking her head, she decided to return to her exam. She was probably just nervous because it was the last one. She could ignore it for a little while longer until she was finished. Then she'd be free and these last two hours would be just a distant memory.

But it wasn't long until the pressure her heavily beating heart created against her insides began to make her chest hurt and she cleared her throat, which then turned into a cough. By now it felt like her skin was on fire and that her insides were being cooked in a microwave, but she did her best to force in a few deep breaths despite the nausea she was beginning to experience. Instantly her lungs were filled with what tasted like bitter ashes, burning down her throat and choking her. She coughed again and gasped for the fresh air she knew was around her but all she got was more invisible smoke.

Dropping her pen to the table, Willow's hands lifted to clamp over her ears when out of nowhere a horn blasted, but it did little good. It was almost like the sound was inside her head, not around her, because when she tried to find the source of the noise there was nothing in the classroom that could have possibly been making it. Then without warning pain sprouted through her from head to toe like she'd suddenly been struck by lightning and crushed all at the same time. It was sharp, unrelenting and struck right to her very core.

Willow opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out that she knew of. The horn was still blaring in her mind, making her deaf to anything else. She desperately looked around to see if anyone was noticing her turmoil—if they heard the horn, felt like the planet's weight was flattening them into pancake like she did—but her classmates and professor seemed to be completely oblivious, as if her screaming and writhing in the middle of the room wasn't even happening.

Like she wasn't even there.

After what seemed like forever the horn finally stopped, but was almost immediately replaced by what sounded like metal twisting and it was loud enough to set her teeth on edge. Glass shattered, but when she looked behind her she found the classroom windows perfectly intact. She could feel the shards prickling into her skin and yet when she looked at her arms, they were bare.

All too soon darkness began to invade her vision. In a panic, Willow stood, tossing her chair back without a care and made a beeline for the door. She had no idea whether or not escaping the room would help her, but she felt a sudden urge to run and she listened without a moment's hesitation.

Not a single classmate looked up from their exam. Professor Wilkes still sat at her desk at the head of the room tapping away at her computer, stealing occasional glances over the monitor at her students. The clock on the wall behind the old woman still ticked away the seconds as if nothing were amiss. The room was pristine, ready for a full month break from young adults stomping across it's floors.

Yet to Willow it sounded like a bomb had just gone off and she could think of nothing else but getting out of that damned room.

It was the worst nightmare she'd had in years and Willow wanted to just wake up from it. Now. Seriously, if this didn't stop soon, she swore her ears were going to start bleeding. She couldn't breathe, could hardly see anymore, her knees were starting to buckle and she cursed, not for the first time, how exhaustibly large the college classroom was as she stumbled across it. So she pushed on and ran with whatever strength and speed she had at her disposal towards the door.

Willow didn't make it very far until the once creeping black began to sweep in like ghostly fingers, converging steadily towards the centre. Suddenly exhausted, she slowed and almost collided with the doorjamb before her quivering legs gave out. She collapsed, sliding along the wall as she tried and failed to hold herself up, one weak hand reaching for the handle that she hoped would lead her to safety, or at least help. But her efforts failed when her arm went slack and it collapsed at her side, numb, and she collapsed to the floor.

Willow gasped, her back lurching up in an arch as she struggled to find fresh air as she woke from her nightmare. Almost immediately she choked and coughed harshly, eyes squeezing shut as a bright light made them burn the second they flew open. Her throat felt raw and dry like she'd just inhaled a whole pack of cigarettes and she could feel her hands shaking as she reached up to sooth the aching area.

Jesus christ, she felt like shit. It was one thing to wake up from a horrible nightmare like that, but to wake up feeling like she'd just been knocked out in a burning building was another. She'd had a lot of stress filled dreams about her final week of exams before, but damn, none of them had ever been that bad. Besides, she'd taken her last exam just yesterday, her anxiety should have been long gone.

And she sure as hell didn't remember the room feeling like it was on fire like that.

She groaned as her head throbbed painfully. Finally bringing herself to sit up, Willow swallowed at the urge to vomit and forced in a few slow deep breaths as she leaned back on her hands. They clenched and froze when she felt an odd prickling under her sweaty palms. It was soft and delicate; thin but smooth and kind of waxy. Whatever she was touching wasn't her duvet. Her comforter was soft and fluffy and a bit lumpy after countless washings. What she was touching felt nothing like fabric either, more like a plant. It kinda felt like… grass?

Slowly, Willow peeled open her eyes and the light felt like they were getting seared out of their sockets by the light. She squinted, but that didn't stop the salty water of her tears from dripping out from under glasses and off her chin. She wondered briefly why she'd fallen asleep with them on, but was thankful they hadn't broken while she appeared to be sleeping off what felt like a hangover. With a groan Willow sat up fully and slumped forward rubbing her blurry eyes and was surprised to feel something hard beneath her, something that definitely wasn't her rickety old bed.

Huh.

Grass plus what she could only assume to be earth. Was she outside?

Eyes now free of obstruction, Willow looked down to hopefully debunk her suspicions, but her mouth quickly fell open in shock. Thick, lush, green grass met her eyes. It taunted her, peeking out through the hole made by her criss-crossed legs and she reached out in front of her to test if it was real. She was met with the same waxy feeling as before as she carded her fingers through the blades in awe. Looking up, she might as well have detached her entire jaw it hung so low.

All around her was more grass, just as bright and green, waving merrily in a breeze that passed by. And there were trees too. Some were tall and skinny and others a little fatter, but all of them had healthy new leaves rustling in the wind and created the clearing she sat at the centre of. There were fallen branches, some flowers and tall weeds at the trees' bases and the more she looked the more she realized that she couldn't see very far into the thick foliage. There were just trees, bushes and more trees. Oh, and grass. Wherever she was, it was clearly not her bedroom or anywhere in Manitoba for that matter.

Last she checked it had been winter. Where was the snow? The skeleton branches? The ice?

Where were the roads and buildings for that matter? And why the hell was she waking up outside?

The longer she looked, the more confused Willow became and she couldn't help but curse her luck under her breath. Twisting her body to look behind her she just saw more trees. And a squirrel, but the moment she caught sight of the little creature it scurried up the trunk it was perched on, disappearing into the leaves.

How the hell was it spring when it was supposed to be winter? It had been snowing just yesterday. Thick snow! Like the kind that kept you indoors for hours with a cup of hot chocolate and made you hope school would be cancelled the next morning. It definitely couldn't have all melted and went into mid-spring that fast. Willow wasn't a meteorologist, but she wasn't stupid enough to think that was possible even with global warming. Not in Canada.

Besides, she'd gone to bed in her apartment last night. Regardless of what season it was, it still didn't explain how she was waking up in the middle of buttfuck nowhe-

Oh.

Wait.

She never did make it home. The last thing she remembered was hailing a cab just outside campus. The streets were hell; icy and covered in a thick layer of fresh snow and she hadn't wanted to walk to her apartment in the over thirty below temperatures and howling winds. But then, how did she end up here? She didn't remember falling asleep and she sure as hell wouldn't have been asleep long enough for the cabby to take her so far south that it was fucking spring. He could have drugged her, but aside from dusting the backseat with some kind of powdered tranquilizer, Willow doubted it. He could have used gas in the vents perhaps, but that would have only knocked him out too.

The last thing she remembered… god, it was all a bit of a blur. The cabby had pulled away from the curb and back to the main road and then… then nothing. Just darkness.

It was all black just like the end of her nightmare. It was frustrating to have a stupid fat head that was blank and useless and Willow wanted nothing more than to scream herself hoarse in frustration. What the hell happened during the what was supposed to be a ten minute drive to her apartment? Still, the bigger question had to be where was she now and how she was going to be able to get help?

Well, she couldn't just sit there forever waiting for the answer grow on a tree. It was warm so she opted to peel off the black jacket and the purple hoody she wore underneath. Willow sighed in relief when another breeze filtered through the trees and cooled her bare arms and sweaty neck, ignoring how her loose red curls tickled her shoulders. When she finally stood up and bundled the materials into a ball to stuff them in her backpack she turned to grab it, but there was nothing there.

She hadn't seen it in her initial shocked perusal of the area either, she realized, and upon another glance there was still nothing. If she actually had been drugged then the cabby could have stolen it and while there wasn't anything of much use inside it, the fact that it was gone still pissed Willow off. Now she had no ID, no money and no goddamned phone, regardless of whether or not she even got service here. This was just fucking peachy.

Since the bag was lost, she decided to leave the hoody on for easier traveling, but left the zipper open and rolled up the sleeves to keep cool then tied her coat's arms around her waist. Her winter boots made her feet feel like they were on fire, but she had no choice but to leave them on and she frowned down at that clunky things as she wiggled her out of sight sweaty toes with a sigh. She then randomly chose a direction and started out on her trek into the woods in the direction hoped was headed towards civilization rather than away from it. She'd always heard that when lost you should just stay put and someone would eventually find you, but Willow was pretty damn sure that advice didn't suit her current situation.

No one, literally no one, would be looking for her. She could have easily been passed out here for days and she was sure no one would have batted an eye besides her landlord and maybe one other person. Her roommate was hardly ever home—and was completely useless when it came to bills or anything that required a sense of responsibility—and she barely kept in contact with anyone else.

She had no real close friends, being rather comfortable hanging out by herself, and Granny was long gone. There was Kory, a sort of friend that liked to hang around Willow sometimes, but Willow hadn't heard from her much recently either and she figured that girl was off on another bender or something.

So really, it was up to her to get herself out of this mess or else she'd likely die of starvation. Besides, she was bound to find someone eventually, right? How big of a forest could this be?

How many are even left in the world now anyway? she grunted mentally. I'm bound to find the other side soon enough.

"Right," Willow scoffed, this time aloud, as she avoided a branch that was at perfect eye-poking level. Her voice was rough and ragged, probably from being drugged, if she had to guess. She coughed once to attempt to clear it and spit out the phlegmy mucus that came up with it with a grimace. "Just thinking that jinxes it. Now I'll probably die out here, mauled by a bear or something…"

A sudden rustling in the bushes made Willow pause instantly and she stared into the trees just off to her right, the air turning to ice in her lungs. She hadn't thought to really consider the dangers of trudging around a forest alone and with no means of protection before making her decision to stumble through the trees, but now that the thought had occurred every paranoid death scenario that she could possibly think of shot across her frazzled mind.

Especially when the rustling didn't stop and she couldn't chalk it up to an overactive imagination.

What if it's a bear? Or, oh sweet baby Jesus, a wolf?! She wouldn't even get a chance to starve if something ate her before even an hour passed!

Panic welled in her chest, forming a hard lump in her throat. She couldn't help the horrible scenarios from invading her mind, featuring lots of blood and mortifying screams of agony. Every gory horror movie and Animal Planet documentary came to the forefront of her mind then, mixing together in a paralyzing waking nightmare as her overactive imagination twisted and morphed the clips into something that made her so physically sick that she wanted to bend over and heave her guts out.

But she didn't dare move. She didn't even want to breathe.

Oh, god, she was going to die and she didn't even have a chance to get a real job before the end. She was twenty-four and the only meaning to her tiny little existence would be a college degree she hadn't even received yet.

The bushes rustled again and Willow wanted so badly to tuck tail and run, go hide under a rock somewhere and lick her wounded pride, but her body was locked up and stuck in place. Her feet were glued to the ground and her heart was beating so hard she swore it was about to burst out of her chest. She even wondered for a moment if she was going to pass out. Holding her breath for as long as she was was not helping her one bit, but for the life of her she couldn't force her lungs to work.

The rustling came closer and Willow's hands trembled with anxiety, fearing the worst.

It's probably a big ass bear. Sharp teeth and claws and fucking tiny, beady black eyes. Soulless, bloodthirsty eyes—

Her shriek echoed through the forest around her when rustling finally resulted in something small and grey popping out of the bush right next to her. Notably not a bear. The shrill sound scared what ended up being a poor little jack rabbit back off into the foliage, but Willow finally allowed herself to breathe. Heart still hammering like a drum solo, her tense posture immediately deflated with relief and she placed a sweaty hand to her forehead, laughing piteously to herself. Her legs were still trembling with leftover adrenaline too so she shakily reached out grasp a tree so she could keep herself from falling over.

It was just a bunny. Fucking Peter Cottontail. And she'd been worried it was going to eat her.

"Good god, I need to find people," she groaned, running a clammy hand over her face. She then smacked her cheek a little harder than what was probably necessary and shook her head to focus on the task at hand. "I've only been out here for a few minutes and I'm already talking to myself and getting worked up over the goddamn easter bunny. Alright, you can do this, Willa. Just chill the fuck out and walk."

Taking one last steadying breath, Willow steeled her nerves and pushed off from the tree, resuming her course into the shadowy depths of the forest. Although her heart rate had slowed to a safer tempo, it still thrummed with a bit of lingering adrenaline as she wandered into the unknown. Finding a hair tie in one of her sweater's pockets she used it to pull her hair into a sloppy bun at the back of her head and sighed when her sweaty neck was cooled by another gentle breeze.

Okay, she could do this. How hard could it be, right? She watched Survivorman, she could get by for a few days, surely. She wasn't an expert on what she could and couldn't eat but she at least knew a few tricks she could try for making a fire if she needed to boil water or use string from her coat or sweater to make a snare. And there were plenty of trees. If she didn't reach help by nightfall she could always sleep in one if the fire didn't pan out.

"QelIS HIboQ…" With that one last muttered prayer to herself, Willow pushed on.

Several hours and three more jump scares later found Willow thoroughly irritated, hungry and tired. She still hadn't reached the edge of whatever forest she was in and she was beginning to think she'd just been going in circles all day. There didn't seem to be an end in sight. It's not that anything felt or looked familiar, but she thought she'd at least have seen a break in the tree line by now.

But no, there were just more bushes and trees. Now the goddamned sun was setting and Willow still hadn't found any water. She couldn't see through the thick canopy of leaves above her head, but the already dark forest seemed to be getting darker. It got to the point were she needed to squint in order to see where she was going. She could only assume it was getting close to nighttime and she still had no shelter or food or water. She was a terrible survivalist.

It was starting to get cold too. Not enough to make her put her heavy wool coat back on, but enough to make her fingers a little numb. She'd rolled down her sleeves and zipped up her hoodie long ago and was content. Aside from the aching hunger, of course.

She'd taken a few rests throughout the day when her feet started to get sore from her stiff boots, but never longer than what she guessed was half an hour. She'd seen a few bushes with some berries on them a while ago, but had stopped herself from eating them regardless of her belly screaming at her for nourishment. She had no idea if they were poisonous or not and didn't want to take the chance. Survivorman's teachings could only go so far and she wasn't a Botanist. She had no desire to throw up or shit her one pair of pants, thank you very much. That would only dehydrate her further and make it so she couldn't travel anymore.

And she had to keep moving.

With a frown, she'd left the berries behind even while her stomach gurgled in protest. It just wasn't worth the risk. By now her legs ached to the point of almost giving out on her, but she'd pushed on in hopes of finding anything besides trees. As darkness fell she was still up shit creek without a paddle. Hell, she didn't even have the canoe and the creek was bone dry.

Willow hated the idea of staying out in a strange forest overnight because that's when the scary beasties tended to come out and play, but she didn't have much of a choice in the matter. She'd prefer to find a tree to sleep in and resume her search tomorrow, but she wasn't sure her legs' small amount of remaining strength could get her up to one of the higher sturdier branches.

Looking around her as the light faded to leave only outlines of trees, Willow made her decision. Staying on the ground seemed an even worse idea than forcing herself up a tree and with a determined nod she had grasped the lowest branch of the closest tree.

As it turns out, it was a little more difficult and painful to climb a tree in the dark than she anticipated. She slipped constantly, her palms got all scraped up and she knocked her head on the branches above her several times before she managed to finally reach a thick branch roughly half way up the tree. Once she got there she was so exhausted she just about fell back to the bottom again, but somehow managed to hang on.

Willow straddled and slumped over her chosen branch tiredly as she removed her jacket from around her waist and bundled it. Placing it on the branch before her she practically face planted into it after removing her glasses and tucking them in the back of her pants for—somewhat—safe keeping. Joining her arms through her sleeves beneath the branch, Willow tucked in for what she knew was going to be a restless slumber.

Attempting to sleep was absolutely awful and when morning came again she was pretty sure she'd gotten no sleep at all. Every time she was about to doze off her body would start to roll and she'd startle herself awake trying to right herself before she fell from the tree to the darkness below. Every rustle and hoot of an owl would make her jump even though she knew she was safe, her nerves fried from the day of helpless wandering. She almost broke her glasses a few times when she'd sat up in fear. Her empty stomach was sore and made her insides clench and her tired muscles ached like nobody's business. All in all, Willow felt like she was in hell, just without the torture and hellfire.

Well, an argument could be made for the former. She was pretty sure that starvation was a form of torture.

By the time light started to shine through the leaves again a headache had formed in her temples, she was exhausted and felt incredibly weak. However, she knew she couldn't stay up in the tree for the rest of her—probably—short life and had eventually talked herself into climbing down. It had been slow going and she reopened some wounds from the night before, but she made it to the bottom relatively unharmed.

Maybe, she thought with waning optimism, maybe today I'll find a person or even something to eat or drink. She needed something, anything, to make this horrible twisting in her gut go away or at least some company to keep her sane. Willow didn't care if she had raw fish given to her by a hobo at this point; just as long as she had something to eat.

Thumping to the ground, Willow wobbled on weak legs before trudging onward. While her pace yesterday had been cautious and steady, today was the opposite. She stumbled over twigs and nearly lost her glasses when a branch whipped her in the face after it slipped from her hand. Now her cheek stung too and it only added to her list of things to silently complain about.

Hours or minutes of this passed. Willow was too dazed to try to figure out how long it might have actually been and her already waning optimism was quickly spiralling into depression. The scenery hadn't changed for what felt like miles and she was beginning to think that she was stuck in limbo and wandering around an endless forest in her mind. She scoffed at the idea, but conceded that the feeling of helplessness was still the same.

But then she suddenly stopped in her shambling and stared ahead of her. That hope she'd thought was long gone welled back up inside her chest. A surprised hysterical laugh, unrecognizable as her own with how raspy and broken it sounded, bubbled from her lips and Willow ignored how the action made her already sore stomach clench in protest.

At first she thought it was just her imagination, but when she looked closer she almost laughed out loud again at what she saw. There, just a few dozen feet ahead of her, she could see the trees beginning to thin and a little bit farther than that was the bright light of either another clearing or, she hoped, a field.

Willow let the hope starting to bring strength to her tired body flourish and, forgetting her fatigue for the time being, she broke into an awkward run towards the pinprick light. She almost tripped over a root or two in her haste, but she managed to catch herself in time and pushed on. She could almost taste the cooler fresh air as she came closer and when she finally reached the edge of the tree line she burst forth with her arms thrown up in victory.

"Hallelujah!" Willow cried in joy. Immediately she collapsed to spread her arms out on the ground of the field she found herself in as if giving it a bearhug. As much as she liked trees and forests, she was happy to finally escape a place that had no food or water and not even a damn hiking trail to help guide her way.

She choked out a sob of laughter as she lay there, her nose being tickled by the blades of grass brushing against it with her breath, and sighed contently. She wanted to cry she was so relieved, but she blinked the tears away and instead grinned like a lunatic. She sifted her fingers through the yellowing blades of grass adoringly.

Sighing out another soft laugh she slowly pushed herself to sit up and lifted her head to look around her, excitement coursing through her veins.

But her smile slowly fell and she just stared, completely unimpressed at what she found instead.

No, she didn't see Ron Jeremy doing a strip tease on the Victoria Secret runway. That would have been preferable over what was actually there. At least there would have been another person around.

Once again there was nothing. No trail, no fences, no buildings, not even a damn cow. Willow took in the field that stretched on for miles, her good mood quickly evaporating. It was empty save for a boulder or a dead bush thrown in here and there just to make things interesting. The sky above was mostly covered by clouds, but at the moment none obstructed the big burning ball in the sky from shining brightly down on her in mocking. It appeared to be at its zenith and she was sure if she listened hard enough, she could hear it laughing at her.

Willow drew in a slow deep breath and try as she might, she couldn't help the scream of frustration from tearing out of her sore throat. She heard it crack and lose gusto, but she didn't care. She was too frustrated, angry and sad to care. It wasn't like there was anyone around to make fun of her for it anyway.

Clenching her hands, she tore several blades of grass from the earth and promptly threw them at the expanse of field in front of her in a fit of rage. The grass flew for maybe a foot before floating to the ground, disappearing amongst its still intact brethren. Tears once again came unbidden to her eyes and she didn't bother stopping them this time.

Willow sniffled and felt her shaking body sag as she squeezed her eyes shut, taking away the upsetting picture of all her hopes crashing down around her liked shattered pieces of glass. This was hardly better than the forest. Actually, it was worse. The grass out here appeared to be dead or dying while amongst the trees it had been lush and green despite the lack of appropriate sunshine. She could only assume there was little to no water anywhere near here either.

So, in short, she'd walked for two days only to end up with jack fucking squat.

Willow looked down and studied a fallen leave sullenly through the blurriness of her tears, pondering whether or not a human could live off leaves. Were they anything like spinach? Animals could eat leaves, so why not her? She took up the leaf to test it and immediately spit it back out. No, leaves were not a sustainable food source. Good god, that was nastykins.

While she'd been mulling over the unlikely nutritional value of foliage, Willow had failed to feel a presence coming up behind her, but instantly froze when there was the unmistakable sound of a growl at her back. Throughout her trek in Treeville she had been spooked by countless animals, but not one as of yet had growled at her like that—not even the fox. Fear shot down her spine and she tried to swallow the lump that formed in her throat, but it remained stuck.

Ever so slowly, Willow turned her head to look over her shoulder and her worst fears were confirmed when she met the eyes of a large grey wolf. Not wanting to startle the creature, she slowly turned to face the animal fully, eyes so wides she was surprised they didn't fall from her head. But there was no way in ever loving hell she was going to leave her back to it, no matter how terrifying looking it the eye was, and with that thought in mind Willow began to shuffle back on her rear. She hoped that if she made no sudden movements, maybe it would lose interest and go away.

But as with everything else that had been happening to her recently; she had no such luck.

The beast snarled, its lips pulling back to show off a set of horribly sharp teeth and it followed her at an equally slow pace. Willow whimpered softly, but flinched and fell silent when the sound only made the wolf let out a sudden bark followed by another menacing growl. Licking its black snout, it continued to inch closer.

Oh god, this is how I'm going to die, Willow thought despairingly, watching as the wolf crouched and made ready to pounce, its hackles rising. She couldn't help it. She shut her eyes in fear, praying that whatever was coming next wouldn't hurt as much if she couldn't see it, but its snarls only sounded more terrifying now.

It was then she fully began to realize that she was about to die in one of the worst, most painful ways she could possibly think of and her pathetically dull life began to flash before her closed eyes. Every regret she ever had for never doing more with her life twisted and writhed within her gut like a caged animal and every hope of the future she'd thought she'd have stabbed through her heart like a lightening bolt on steroids. She was going to die and she wasn't even twenty-five yet.

She'd never gotten to go skydiving like she'd always wanted to, or go on vacation to Ireland to see where her family came from. She'd wanted to try sushi, get a cat and a career and die old and grey watching Star Trek reruns in the old folk's home. Suddenly none of that was possible and the feeling of loss nearly broke her more than the terror did.

All the things she'd wanted to do but never could because of lack of time, money and confidence would never happen now. Now, her greatest accomplishments would boil down to winning a piano competition when she was sixteen and getting a degree that took her almost nowhere.

Though scared beyond comprehension, Willow dared a peak and immediately felt her entire body go numb when she saw wolf had crouched lower, ears pinned flat to its head, eyes hungrily eyeing the tender meat of her neck. Willow silently pleaded with any deity that possibly existed to have mercy on her, unable to look away. She watched as the wolf leaned back to gather momentum for its pounce and forced her eyes shut again, not wanting to see those large sharp teeth bearing down on her. She felt ashamed she couldn't look death in the eye like a strong woman should, but she reasoned with herself that pride wouldn't matter when she was dead and digested into wolf shit.

Fuck her dignity. She never had much of it anyway.

But the mauling of teeth and claws never came. The wolf's growling suddenly cut short and instead she heard it whimper. Eyes still firmly closed, Willow narrowed a confused brow. That couldn't be right. It should be devouring her like a fat kid set loose at a buffet right now. She obviously wasn't a threat, so why was it whining?

Tentatively Willow peeled her eyes open, only to watch through squinted lids as the wolf tucked tail and ran back into the trees. It disappeared into the shadows and bushes like it had never been there at all, leaving Willow to blink at its back in confusion. Her furrowed brow deepened, but she didn't have to wait long to find out what had spooked her would be attacker.

There was a thumping approaching at an alarming rate from behind her that she hadn't realized was there before and more snarling, deeper and more menacing than anything the wolf had produced, but it was farther away. And by the sounds of it, it wasn't just one creature either. Almost too afraid to look, but also too morbidly curious not to, Willow turned around again and her jaw dropped so low she might as well have been using it as a shovel.

She could only think of three simple words in response to what she saw.

What. The. Fuck.

Translations:

QeylIS HIboQ: Klingon; meaning 'god help me.'

Hey, Everyone! I'm baaaaack~ lol Now, before I start getting hate mail for posting a new story when I've been away for so long (and haven't finished my previous LegolasOC), I just want to say... I hope it's worth it? I've been on a long hiatus, I know, but I've been somewhat productive during that time. This story as well as a few others have been in the works for the past couple years. I just wanted to make sure I had a decent storyline going before I posted without really looking it over after writing it like I used to.

(Cue full-bodied cringe)

That being said, I hope you enjoy this little snippet. There is plenty more to come as I have a lot of chapters for this fic already. There's just a few finishing touches that need to be made before they come out. Hopefully that will be soon since I'm leaving this on a minor cliffy. I also plan to spread out the postings so that I can actually keep up with writing, something I failed to do before and can hopefully avoid this time. I hope ya'll enjoy this first instalment though. Thanks for reading!

Kat