The Lone Gem

Prologue

Running down the trail I can smell all of the animals that had passed though. A rabbit, the skunk, even the beetle that rolled its dung to their dump the hour before. All of this and more is what I can smell. Glancing up I see a bird lose a feather, I can see it fall for about fifty feet before hitting the tops of the near skyscraping trees, I can hear it hit the leaves, hear the scales on bark as a cold blooded creature drags the massive feather to its nest in the trees. I feel every heart beat pound through me, every breath feels cold, sharp, and needed.

But most importantly I can sense the hunter at the edge of the trees, crunching the blue-ish green grass beneath his 3 toed foot, as he paces, willing, yearning, aching even, for me to take a wrong turn and run strait into their poison embrace, to take me back and make me forget what I had learned.

Ominous thunder booms in the distance. Looking to the right, the hunter lets out a low growl.

Hunters, no matter how skilled or determined, still have some limits. In this case, religious. As dark green clouds rolled towards their hunt, threating them with demon rain, the hunter snarled, turning around and running back to their liquid tight homes. The hunter was brave, but not foolish. If even a single drop from the green clouds landed on the hunter and his party, the purification process they would endure was definitely not worth the price on my head.

Allowing a quick sigh of relief, I continued farther into the woods, well aware of its stories.

Many had entered these woods, with only their screams to las the night. If even that. There was one thing that lured brave souls into these woods, it was the promise of something great. Some say gold or gems. The more romantic believed that true love and eternal life awaited them. And still others said tat their god dwelled deep in the woods, waiting to be found. I didn't have such time for stories when I first heard them, dismissing them as stories, nothing more. But at this point, I was willing to believe anything.

So I run farther into the woods.