Chapter 2
'Run faster, run faster you fool!' was the only coherent thought thrashing throughout Darrious's mind as
he tore past dead bushes that reached to drag his pace with their clinging fingers, and water smooth
stones cover in ice, trying to stumble him from escaping the untold pain that was currently distracted by
the meat he had just recently discarded to help in his sharp departure from what would, in Darrious's
be a untimely and gruesome end to his short eighteen years of life.
From his back Darrious became aware of the sound produced by multiple feet smashing the ground
and quickly getting louder and louder as the pulses of his heart grew harder with his ears.
Stealing a brief moment of sight from where he was running toward Darrious glanced back briefly to
view the back of Balverines quite literally on his heels, just running right behind him, not attacking, just
pursuing him, like a cat would a mouse.
During his brief glance to his pursuers Darrious had smashed his way through a thicket of thorns into a
enclosed field surrounded by the dead trees common to Dark Wood only to smash head first into
something quite unyielding , causing him to be thrusted backwards from the object and falling to the
ground, trying to catch his breath in his state of utter terror.
Slowly regaining his bearings, Darrious sluggishly crawled to his knees, slowly raising his head to view
what he had impacted upon. And with all his faith in the holy God Avo he wished he had been born
blind. For there hunched over before him was something Darrious feared more than any Balverine,
hunched before him with silvery white fur, demonic yellow eyes that pierced his soul and claws as long
as daggers clinging to its finger tips was a White Balverine, a pack leader of any common brown
Balverine.
So intrapted within his own terror, Darrious never noticed as the Balverines that had been chasing him
gallop into the clearing and surround both him and the White Balverine.
Minutes seemend to drag themselves into hours as Darrious just stared at the monster before him,
waiting for it to make the first move that would begin the slaughter.
After two minutes of gazing at each other the White Balverine lifted its head to the bloody red moon
and tilted its head as if listening to some phantom voice that only it could hear. A twitch of the neck was
all the warning Darrious received as the White Balverine snapped its head back towards him and lunged
like an arrow out of a crossbow straight towards him arms and claws extended , mouth opened as wide
as a bear trap, ready to snap shut the instant something solid was placid within it. Darrious didn't even
have time to scream before the Balverine knoced him back to the ground, this time with it pinning him
there.