Chapter 2:
I woke up with the sun shining bright in my eyes through the forest trees. I got up from my laying down position to being on all fours and slowly crawled out. I stood up slowly and felt as all my muscles crack back into place so loudly that it echoed through the forest. It caused the birds in the tree I had fallen asleep in to fly away, fleeing for their lives. I looked all around at the half lit forest surrounding me, in search for something that may be familiar, but I didn't recognize anything. I was lost. I had no clue where I was, which direction to go so I closed my eyes, spun around until I was dizzy, stopped, opened my eyes and started walking straight.
"Elaris!" I yelled out frantically. I liked the forest, but I didn't like it when I was lost in it. I just kept on walking though, hoping that I would eventually find Elaris and get things settled. After about an hour of walking, my bare feet were sore. I HAD to stop walking for a while to let my feet rest. I sat down to relax my feet and started looking around for something to pass my time while I let my feet rest up. I found a pebble a few feet away. I reached over to get it, but it was just out of my reach. I kept on straining my muscles trying to get it when all of a sudden, it flew straight into my hand. What in the world? I thought to myself as I began examining the pebble for some kind of magnet or something, but there was nothing. Just a pebble. I shrugged my shoulders and started tossing it up in the air and catching it to relieve me of my boredom.
When it felt that my feet were ready to go again, I tossed the pebble aimlessly in a direction and heard a clunk when it entered a bush followed by a rustle and an "ouch!". I jumped at this and took a couple of steps back, up against the tree.
"Who's there!?" I asked commandingly, trying to subdue my fear. The rustle of movement stopped. I heard a low growl as everything else in the forest seemed to fall silent. "Show yourself!" I persisted. There was still no response. So I braved up and approached the bush slowly. When I was about two feet away, I got really low in a position to pounce. I waited for a few seconds while my nerves eased, and jumped, full force right into the bushes. Just as I started my attack, a panther jumped out at me, catching me right before I reached the bushes, countering me and sending us flying backwards back into the opening. I hit the ground first with the panther right on top of me. As soon as I hit the ground, I curled my feet to get in between me and the fierce cat and lunged my legs up and back, sending the cat flying off and behind me right into a tree. I used the momentum from this counter to flip backwards up to my feet and turned around to face this perturbed wild feline. It regained its stance with great swiftness and got down ready to pounce at me. I stood there, standing straight up, never taking my eyes off of this cat. There was not a long moment of rest before the Panther pounced at me. I reached my hands out and grabbed the hind legs of the fierce predator, stopping it in mid air. I clutch the legs as tightly as I could, slammed the Panther to the ground, then spun it around till it was off the ground and launched it back into the tree. There was a loud thud from the impact against the tree and the cat fell to the floor, seemingly paralyzed.
"What was that for," the Panther asked in a quiet voice. "I was just looking for lunch"
"I am not lunch!" I replied in an annoyed tone.
"Well then what are you," the panther asked
"I am a human being"
"Oh my. Humans are so delicious"
"You're really not helping yourself here, you do realize this"
"Hey, I was just looking for something for lunch"
"Wait… lunch? Is it really noon time already?"
"Where have you been? It's actually well passed noon, and I'mmm huunnngrrrryyy" the panther complained, licking its lips and glaring at me.
"Look, I don't have time for this right now. I need to find Elaris."
"Elaris? Why are you looking for him?"
"Because he's the one who abandoned me on the top of a hill"
"….. he abandoned you on top of a hill? Did this hill top have a tower with a really big diamond on it?" the Panther asked in suspicion as its appetizing glare turned into a death glare. He started circling me with eyes locked on mine as I followed him, never letting him get behind me.
"Yeah. It did. Why do you ask?"
"So you are a 'sparkle fairy'"
"A 'sparkle fairy'?" I asked
"That's what we call you 'denizens of the light'," he explained. Still circling me very slowly.
"So… well I can assure you that I'm no fairy and surely I don't sparkle"
"That's right, you shine. You light up like a mornings day," the Panther stated, chuckling as he spoke.
"Well I really must be going now. I need to find Elaris," I explained in an attempt to escape my current predicament.
"Oh? Leaving so soon? But like I said, I was just looking for lunch. And I found myself a nice little shiny snack," the Panther continued chuckling as the pupils of his eyes began to change shape. His body began to grow, stretching his body to a much greater size. He just kept on growing till he was as big as an Elephant and as long as an anaconda. I watched his transformation come to a close with his iris's of his eyes turning a flared orange and his pupils changing shape from straight lines to crosses. "Now… where were we," the vicious Monster asked rhetorically.
I paused for a second to come out of my shock, then replied, "I do believe that we were at the part where I kick your ass." The enormous Panther let out a deafening roar at my statement then bolted at me. I immediately took off running the opposite direction as fast as my body would allow. Zipping through the forest, in between trees, over bushes, up and down hills, over logs, across rivers and streams. I must have been running 100 miles an hour, but the panther kept right on my tail. Just mere yards behind me. I kept on running till I approached a cliff side. A straight wall stood before me. I couldn't climb it, for it seemed like solid marble. I stopped at the wall, and turned to run alongside it, the panther following close behind.
The Panther began closing in on me from the side. I looked at the panther for a moment and noticed a flare spark from his half closed mouth. No way. He arched his head back, then forwards at me, opening his mouth and out came a stream of fire. I jumped out of the way. The flames just barely missing my feet. I jumped uncontrollably into the air, much higher than I expected. I was well above the trees of the forest. I looked down during my descent back to the ground. I landed right on top of the dragon like feline's back.
"Hey! Get off me!" the Panther snarled. I didn't listen. The cat came to a sudden stop and I was launched forwards from its back. I reached forward for something to grab onto to stop me from flying forward. My hands latched onto the panthers ears and the momentum of my body gave his ears a really nice tug as they stopped me. The Panther gave out a mighty roar from pain. He shook his head as hard as he could to get me off and I was flung to the side at an alarming speed, only to be stopped by a solid marble wall
My body instantly stopped with full force against this giant stone rock. Arms and legs spread out as if I'd been crucified from the inertia. I dropped to the floor a moment after the collision. I struggled to my hands and knees and looked up at the beast.
"I have you know," the panther said in a very monstrous and demonic voice.
"you got me? Then come and get me you stupid cat"
The Panther gave out a loud roar and came charging at me. I jumped up as I high as I could just before he got to me. He couldn't stop in time. His head banged against the marble wall like a battery ram. I jumped up so high that I was able to land on-top of the mountain made of marble. I heard a crash as loud as thunder echo throughout the forest. When my feet touched down on-top of the mountain I gained perfect balance and stood there looking down at the monster. I started to hear a cracking noise. First it was faint, but then it got louder and louder. When it sounded like the cracks were going to eat me, they stopped. It was silent….. then a huge chunk of the mountain crashed and crumbled from under me, falling off the side of the mountain. I fell with the rubble, seemingly helpless. Then I remembered about the pebble from earlier, and how it just flew straight into my hand. I regained my stability in midair and concentrated on bringing one of the larger chunks of rock towards me. I stared at it and reached my hand out towards it. Nothing happened. I continued my concentration, focusing as hard as I could on the boulder in front of me. "Come on dammit!" I yelled. Suddenly, the rock came flying towards me, too fast, way faster than I wanted it to. It crashed against me, moving itself and me both flying out of debris.
The rock was falling faster than I was, and I was below the rock. I quickly got over my fear of the situation, and got serious. When the rock got close enough to me to touch, I thrusted my hands into the boulder and used every ounce of my strength to flip the rock around in mid-air so that I was on-top of the rock. It hit the ground with a loud crash, breaking into smaller pieces as it made impact. When the decent was done, I was on all fours in the middle of a pill of rubble that circled around me. I looked over where the rest of the falling rocks were and saw as they all fell, piece by piece on-top of the monster that was chasing me, crushing it into mush.
After all that excitement had calmed down, I looked the opposite direction of the monster and started walking, circling the giant mountain of marble. So that was one of the monsters that Elaris was talking about. He was trained to fight those things? He doesn't seem like one who could fight. I mean, I had to save him from a pack of wolves when I first met him. I will not believe he can fight until I see it. I said to myself as I continued on my journey around the mountain.
It was very quiet in the forest. Usually there are various different kinds of sounds like birds chirping, locust buzzing, etc. but not at this moment in time. I didn't hear any more than the sound of my feet crushing dead branches and leaves on the ground, and the dirt crunching under me with each step. No birds, no locust, nothing. I had never been in a forest so quiet. The sound of silence made me very suspicious. I was constantly turning my head to look over my shoulder and looking around cautiously like something was about to tackle me to the ground and kill me.
Suddenly, I heard a sound come from the bushes in front of me. I stopped immediately and stared at the bushes. It didn't take any movement from me to make the bushes move again. I got as low as I could and slowly approached the bush. It continued with its movement and noises as I inched closer. When I got close enough, I reached my hands in the bush to move its leaves and branches out of the way to see what it was. When I finally had a clear view of what was inside, I saw scales. Then I heard a low toned purr. This purr was unlike any I had heard before. It wasn't adorable like a kitten, it was more like a tensed growl. Then I saw the mass of the reptile spring up like it heard something. When its body had moved, I saw its feet. This creature had claws for toes. One toe on each foot, was clicking on the floor. It seemed sharper than the rest, and it was more curved than the others. I slowly tilted my head up to see what this creature was. As I moved my head up, the bush seemed to vanish from below me. When I had a clear view of the reptiles face, it had a clear view of my, this was obvious. It was glaring directly at me with menacing eyes. its snouted mouth slowly opened to reveal a mouth full of long teeth that looked as if they could rip through metal. As its mouth opened, I heard the omniscient purr like growl. I sensed danger. I slowly stood up, not knowing what else to do, and started to back away slowly. It stepped over the bush without taking its eyes off me. It started walking towards me as I backed away from it. The distance between the two of us wasn't expanding. I finally backed up into a tree as it continued to get closer. When it noticed that I couldn't go anywhere else, it crouched down really low in a position to pounce at me. I closed my eyes when it jumped at me and heard a high pitched ringing noise, followed by the reptile screeching, then a thud. I opened my eyes and looked where the creature once stood, oh so intimidating. I saw it out of the peripheral of my eye squirm back to its feet and let out a loud roaring screech of a noise, clearly a threatening noise across the path in front of me. I looked where it was directing its attention and saw Elaris, standing there in the clearing.
"Elaris!" I yelled out
"Ryan, stand back," Elaris responded. The reptile roared again, and charged Elaris at an alarming speed. Elaris charged back at the beast. The reptile jumped what seemed like 20 feet in the air. Just before it landed on Elaris' back, an orb of light surrounded Elaris, stopping the reptile in its tracks. Then the orb expanded, launching the creature several yards away. A spear shot out from the top of Elaris' head, forming a horn right in the center of Elaris's forehead. It was at this moment that i realized the discerning truth that Elaris wasn't a horse…. He's a Unicorn. I stared at the horn for a moment, awestruck. I noticed the horn begin to sparkle in the sunlight and begin to glow a bright yellow color. He slowly leaned his head, high in the air, and then looped it in a circle towards the reptile. A stream of light formed and was shot towards the beast. The ground shook as the blade of light streamed across the ground. The animal let out a final screech before being struck by the immense force of this unworldly attack. This attack didn't explode or sending the monster flying when it hit him, it simply just cut him in half, right down the middle. The light went through and past the monster for just a few feet then faded away. The monster then slowly fell apart.
I felt my heart stop. My knees quivered as I fell to the ground. I invisioned the monster falling to pieces over and over again in my head. I was terrified. I heard the sound of hooves move towards me slowly. There was a nudge on my shoulder after the sound of hooves had stopped. "Ryan. Ryan, are you ok?" the voice continued sounding through my head as my vision faded to nothingness.