Survivor
The air was still and pungent from the excessive heat and humidity that hung in the air like silt in a lake. A woman, desperate for the escape from the nuisance of the prickling heat that stung the back of her neck, grabbed her damp sticky hair and shoved it into a bun, using a piece of bark as a hair tie. She took a step, feeling the ground with her bare feet, nervous due to the fact that she couldn't see what her foot could be touching. The woman's eyes scanned the tree tops before looking back to the ground and trotting along through the dense leafy vegetation. A sigh of satisfaction escaped her lips as she came upon the sight of the clearest pond she had ever seen in her entire life. She stepped to the bank feeling her feet sink into the sandy mud and feeling the surprisingly cool mud ooze between her toes.
Before she could kneel down to quench her thirst, the woman was stopped by the almost inaudible shift of the branches that hung high in the trees to the left of her. She shot her head up and looked in the direction of the sound, focusing her eyes on the branches. It took her a few seconds but her eye eventually rested on a part of the branch where the light seemed to be reflected in the oddest way. By blurring her eyes she could just make out the general large man-like shape of the light deflection. She cocked her head to the side and pulled her lips back to form a slight snarl, informing the intruder that she had in fact discovered where he was hiding. The shape stood and for a second the woman's hand flinched to the hilt of a large blade that rested on her right side. Before she could pull it out the shape had stepped back out of her field of vision. The woman snorted and turned back to water knowing full well that if it had been hunting her that it would have confronted her directly with her threat. She knew that from experience, after all that was just there ways. For now it was content watching her and that was fine until it tried to kill her.
The woman pulled her once pants but now tattered shorts up as she kneeled on the mud. She cupped her hands and dipped them into the water bringing her hands to her lips and chugging the liquid desperately. It took her a few minutes of continuously filling her hands up full of water to finally diminish her thirst. She sighed again after wiping off her mouth. A playful smile lit on her face for a brief second before she launched her head into the cold water cringing as it splashed up her shoulders. Her head stayed in the water as she slowly opened her eyes, watching as a couple of large air bubbles float to the top. Seconds before the woman was about to come up for air she saw a large beiges fish with large eyes that were almost on the very top of its head, swimming very close to her head. Perching her feet in the mud to get better leverage, she flung her body forward arms reaching out and propelling her body forward towards the fish. The woman was surprised beyond belief when her hands actually made contact with the slimy body of the fish. She grabbed it and jumped up, pulling most of her torso out of the water. The woman let a triumphant and almost unbelieving laugh as she held the fish up by the gills above her head. She had actually caught a fish bare handed! The woman couldn't help but feel cocky as she stepped out onto the bank but as she took a step the fish flapped, exposing unseen spines that seemed to pop out of almost nowhere slapping the woman across the wrist and ripping skin off.
She yelped, dropping the fish in the mud. It flapped and she dove again to grab it but it had flapped hard and far enough to make it back into the water. She watched with her mouth open as it swam farther into the lake.
"Shit.." She said as a general statement at her situation. That would have been the first real meal that she would have had in almost two days now. The woman flopped on her back in the mud, huffing in disappointment. She looked at her right wrist, watching as the blood dripped down onto the mud. Bleeding here was a very, very bad thing. She didn't want to attract unwanted attention from any hungry beasts. With her good left hand she pulled out the blade that was strapped to her right side, sitting up as she did so. She pulled it to the tattered end of khaki pants and cut of a long shred off and wrapped it tightly around her wrist. She realized that she was lucky that the fish hadn't scrapped against her face. That would of hurt a lot more and she could have lost an eye.
"Well," She began to say to herself as she stood up and brushing some of the mud off of her tatter pants and shirt. "I've had more dignified moments." After she was finish with the almost pointless task of wiping the dirt off of her almost completely soiled pants she walked forward beside the lake.
The plants only seemed to grow thicker and the trees closer together. It was only after about thirty minutes when she came to an area where the trees where nicely spaced and the undergrowth was almost non-existence. She stopped at a crunch of a twig and stood deathly still like a deer does. She brought her hand to the hilt of her blade and watched as the light was yet again deflected to form the shape of a very large man- like creature that only if you focused in the right way could you see it. This one was so much bigger than the last. She cursed her luck as it turned around roaring facing her. It had apparently heard her.
Authors note/ This is my first fanfic , leaving it at kind of a cliff hanger, sorry about that. I do plan on updating soon and also plan on giving a link to some my sketches of the characters to give you a better idea of who is in the story. Till next time - Dowely
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