The crisp, morning air rung with the sound of running water and the melodic tunes of a pair of Australian Magpies; their beautiful duet stirred Shayla from her peculiar, dream-riddled sleep. With eyes still closed, her nose begun to crinkle as she tried to piece together fragments of her dream.
She had been in the middle of a forest, similar to the one that they had hiked through the previous day, yet it had felt different. It was a rush of sensation which Shayla remembered vividly; it was as though she were able to feel the trees around her, the millipedes crawling through the leaf litter, and the baby birds hatching from the eggs in branches far above her head.
Shayla had felt the life in everything surrounding her, the energy passing from one cell to the next. It was an endless stream of unknowing power. The gift of existence flowed from the decaying organisms into the soil, through the roots of the flora and to the leaves, providing shelter and sustenance to the fauna.
While it was just a dream, Shayla couldn't help but feel a warm sensation in the pit of her stomach and at the ends of the fingertips. It made her feel happy, completely at ease. As reality clawed for attention within her mind, the warmness dissipated.
Sitting upright from inside her sleeping bag, she moved her hands through her thick, dark locks. Shayla frowned slightly as she attempted to untangle the thicket of hair that had become akin to a birds nest.
Riley hadn't woken yet; besides the cascade of water from outside, her soft snores were the only sounds filling the air.
That's odd, Shayla thought vaguely to herself as she yawned deeply. The younger girl had absent-mindedly noticed the lack of magpies singing outside their tent, before other matters filled her head. She failed to notice the faint unease she had begun to feel, as though her instincts had started to prickle at her skin and cause her stomach to flitter anxiously.
Instead, she looked to Riley. She could see tufts of blonde hair poking out from underneath the blanket, reminding her of yellow wildflowers rising out above green grassy fields.
Shayla felt the slight tension within her whole body, though she attributed it to the worry of her closest friend. She hated that Riley had been hurt. It truly seemed as though things were getting better for Riley; of course, the blonde haired girl did often lash out, though Shayla had seen an improvement over the past several months.
It wasn't that she smiled more, but that her smiles had become truer, more genuine, like she didn't need to force herself to seem fine on the exterior.
Shayla clenched her fists slightly, thinking about that damn asshole that had just ruined everything for her friend. In less than a week, months of Riley's progress was flushed down the drain. She had no idea how to deal with such a situation either; Shayla had never had a boyfriend. Shit, the only boy she had kissed was while in primary school as a dumb dare.
Rubbing the remaining sleep from her dark eyes, Shayla sighed slightly. The sun began to beat down on the top of the tent, amplifying the heat within the small space.
"Riley," Shayla said softly. When the girl didn't respond, Shayla spoke much louder with nose crinkled in slight annoyance.
"Riley! Wake up, snore-zilla." Riley groaned loudly, her own annoyance evident in her incoherent mutterings.
"I'm going to wash off in the river and change. Then we can pack our things and keep moving, okay?" Riley huffed in agreement, as Shayla grabbed a change of clothes, zipping open the tent and stepping out into the bright morning light.
The woodland glowed with the vivid greens of the canopies, further accentuated by the dark soil and brown leaf litter that made up the forest floor.
The water rushed down from the mossy ledge that towered above them, splaying onto the banks at the foot of the river that formed from the waterfall. Shayla watched as the stream carried on effortlessly, casting downstream, through the trees and out of sight.
Shayla moved towards the edge of the river, placing her hiking boots, a new pair of shorts and singlet beside her. She sat down and swung her legs over the bank, the water coming up mid-shin.
The coursing river felt beautiful against her skin, warm with the mid-spring sun. Despite this, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, a niggling feeling in her chest causing her mind to flush in disarray.
Despite her want and need to wash herself in the river, something in her mind stopped her. Instead, she just washed her legs clean, then her arms and chest.
Feeling much more refreshed, Shayla changed into the clean clothes she had brought with her. As she finished tying the shoe laces of her hiking boots, which now sat snugly on her feet, she moved herself onto her knees.
Bending over the ledge of the river, she cupped a handful of water within her palms, splashing it against her face in relief. The water felt truly amazing, and Shayla felt incredibly blessed. Savouring the feeling of the cool respite against her face, she missed the sudden and very obvious fluctuation in the river level.
As she reached her hands into the water once more, there was an intense pressure against her wrists. Shayla's eyes fluttered open as she cried in shock, trying in vain to move away from the river. There was no use; her arms felt as though they were locked into a vice grip by an unseeable object below the surface. Despite this, she fought against the hold the water had on her.
Within seconds, the river turned absolutely tumultuous; Shayla's eyes became wide, the water moving up past her wrists and to her elbows, quickly encompassing her shoulders.
Riley had only just begun to awake from her slumber, when a piercing screech filled the air, followed by a loud splash.
There was no hesitation in Riley's movements then as she scrambled out of her sleeping bag. Throwing her scraggy sneakers on within seconds, she jumped through the open tent door. Her blue eyes darted all around her, searching for Shayla.
After what felt like a millennia, she saw the soaking, dark locks of Shayla floating downstream, her arms flailing as she tried to break above the surface of the monstrous river. Riley's jaw dropped in shock. What the hell happened to the river? How was this happening? Shayla knew how to swim better than a damn fish!
Riley ran as fast as she could towards her, her bright purple pyjama trousers and singlet flashing past the trees in a blur.
Tears stung at her eyes as she fought desperately to catch up to her friend, Shayla's arms beginning to fail against the current.
Without a second thought, the logical portion of her brain unable to catch up to the instinctual part, Riley jumped into the water in a desperate attempt to reach Shayla.
Riley fought to swim above the surface, yet she couldn't discern which way was up. Her legs clattered against something sharp; she almost cried out in pain, but she clamped her jaw shut against the water that engulfed her body. Her lungs felt as though they were going to explode. She again tried to reach the surface, and for several seconds Riley was successful.
Breaking above the current, Riley searched all around her for Shayla. Taking in a poor attempt of a breath, she inhaled water instead of air and found herself below the surface once more.
Her lungs burned, as though they were caught alight from inside her chest. Her eyes stung each moment she attempted to open them. She couldn't move her aching legs anymore; they felt like anchors, attempting to bind her to the river bed.
In a final effort, Riley used the last of her energy, and oxygen, to fight her way back above the surface.
Greens flashed past her vision as she bobbed above the water level for an instant, before she was pulled under once more, even deeper than before.
Riley couldn't find what way was up. Everything was dark, and then finally, everything was dark, as she blinked painfully out of consciousness.
Shayla had been terrified, more terrified than ever before in her life. That was all she could remember. Where was she now? Where had she been before?
She didn't know. Suddenly, she realised she couldn't breathe. With heavy limbs and stinging eyes, she forced open her eyes and flailed her arms awkwardly above her.
Rolling onto her side agonisingly, the young girl heaved, coughing deeply as water exhaled from her lungs. Her stomach curled and writhed. Her throat burned from the exertion of forcing the water from her body.
Collapsing where she lay, she closed her eyes and attempted to grasp onto her fading consciousness. It was as she begun to fall into a stupor of exhaustion that she heard a muffled spluttering, as if the noise resounded from a distance away.
Shayla opened her eyes once more, her bleary orbs peering all around her for the source of the sound. It took but moments for her to see Riley lying face down at the edge of the river, blonde hair covering her pale face as her shoulders shook slightly.
"Riley," Shayla managed to cry, her voice hoarse and barely audible. As though her bones were made from concrete, she dragged herself across the pebbled earth of the riverbank.
With shaky limbs, it took her minutes to finally reach Riley. Her lower lip quivered as she kept her eyes trained on her friend, the fear that she was not alright near paralysing her.
"Please, please.." She stammered as she reached the blonde haired girl, moving a reluctant hand to Riley's cheek. Shayla could see the faint rising and falling of Riley's chest, giving her only a brief sense of relief as she looked over her friend.
The fabric of Riley's pants were patched with blood; Shayla hesitantly lifted the pants above Riley's knee to reveal many bruises covering most of the flesh surrounding a thin, jagged wound. Another faint cough sounded from Riley, making Shayla jump at the sound.
Grasping the ground beneath her fingertips, Riley opened her eyes slowly. Everything hurt. Everything ached. She tried to recall what had happened, but it seemed blurry. One minute she had been asleep in their tent, and the next moment she was fighting for life underneath the surface of a rushing river.
"Shayla," she whispered, gazing into the terrified eyes of her friend. Riley rolled slowly onto her back, her ribcage feeling as though it had been beaten with a hammer. How could it hurt so damn much?
With agonising groans, ones that caused Shayla to flinch back in shock, Riley sat up against the protest of her body. She looked down at herself, seeing blood trickling slowly from a long cut in the side of her right leg.
"We need to get back out of the forest." Riley murmured, biting down on the pain and schooling her features into an expressionless mask. She didn't want to show just how much she was hurting, and she didn't want Shayla to freak out any more than she currently was.
Shayla nodded fervently, her wide eyes looking over Riley in shock. It took both of the girls a long time to lift their battered bodies off of the ground, their legs bloodied and bruised after nearly drowning in the river.
"We're on the same side of the river, so I think we should straight into the forest and.. And back towards the edge of the reserve.. We can make it to the road and flag down help.." Shayla sounded unsure of herself, but Riley nodded in agreement. Riley knew that she was the best bet in finding their way back off the reserve.
Leaning against one another, Shayla snaked an arm around the taller girl's waist in an attempt to take the some pressure of off Riley's injured right leg. Together, at a snail's pace, they trudged away from the riverbed and through the tree line.
"What the hell happened Shayla? The water.. It just.." Riley trailed off, unable to formulate into words exactly what she had witnessed. It was absolutely horrible, the sight of Shayla fighting through the supernaturally powerful current. She shook her head slightly in an attempt to rid the images from her mind.
"I-I don't know," Shayla whispered, her voice trembling. Riley bit her lip; she hadn't seen the younger girl just so uncomfortable and unsure of herself since the first several months after they had met.
Riley knew how shy Shayla was; when meeting new people or coming into a completely unknown environment, her confidence levels plummeted. It took some time for people to realise that the more time spent with her, the more confident and outgoing she became.
A sliver of envy crept into Riley's heart, before she extinguished it. How the hell was it so easy for Shayla to become comfortable with people?
Her thoughts quickly turned to Shayla's next words, as a shiver crept up her spine.
"I was just washing my face, and then.. Then I couldn't pull my hands out of the water. It was.. It was like I was being pulled under, and I couldn't get away." Shayla shot a terrified glance up at Riley, before really looking around her.
The sun was lingering low in the sky, fingers of light shining and fading through the tree line. She could hear a loud squawking, though it was a bird call she didn't recognise from the Nature Reserve. Shayla hadn't heard such a bird before in her life.
If she had thought the trees looked beautiful and lush this morning, it was nothing compared to what she witnessed now. The greens and browns of the forest seemed to jump out at her, more intense than anything she had seen in her life. Red and orange of flowers poked up from patches of green grass and furry moss, the colours radiating as though they were spotlights on a starless night.
Deep down within her being, she felt a twitch of longing. Shayla stopped suddenly, her confusion pulsating through her nerves. No. She couldn't feel longing. Why would she feel that?
It felt different, almost.. Wrong.
She didn't feel like the earth beneath her feet was the same land that she grew up on. Something had changed, causing her shoulders to become rigid.
"What is it?" Riley whispered, her narrowed blue eyes looking through the trees that surrounded them. Was something out there? What had Shayla seen?
"It's.. It's just.. Do you feel that?" Shayla inquired with a voice that had become pitchy in places. She was absolutely paralysed with fear. She had been through this forest hundreds of times before, so why did she not recognise this place?
"Feel what?" Riley answered without an audible indication of her fear. Internally, however, she was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion and terror.
"I don't know how to explain it.. But.. We must have travelled way downstream. I don't recognise this part of the reserve." Shayla sounded as though she was going to cry. Riley tried to understand why she would become so upset, when it hit her. Duh.
Shayla had grown up here; she knew every inch of this place. If she didn't know where they were, then this was bad.
This was really, really bad.
"It's okay, Shayla. We will find our way back to the car. My leg isn't that bad, it's even stopped bleeding. Don't cry." In Riley's attempt to calm her friend down, she sounded like a robot, even to her ears. She wasn't one for expressing feelings, or comforting people.
It wasn't because she didn't want to, it was just because she didn't know how.
Shayla didn't say anything to Riley's words, but instead nodded dejectedly. Again, they begun to walk, holding onto each other as a means of physical and emotional support.
They continued to move, even as the light retreated back through the trees. There was a half hour of dimmed twilight, before the harsh darkness of night fell upon them.
Shayla stopped once more, her breathing becoming deep and laboured. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that they couldn't continue like this. It was pitch black, and their injuries were taking much more of a toll than even Riley was willing to admit.
Riley had begun to speak once more, when Shayla gasped. Her eyes were wide again, so wide that Riley could see them through the darkness of the forest. Turning her head with such suddenness that it almost caused whiplash, Riley focused on what had caught Shayla's attention.
A small orange glow could be seen around a hundred metres or so from where they stood, through the forest ahead of them.
The girls looked at each other; Shayla was frozen with a look of paralysing shock on her face, and Riley with an indecipherable mask that she wore to hide her apprehension and trepidation.
"What do we do?" Shayla whispered urgently, casting glances between Riley and the orange light of a campfire. Riley stood motionless for a moment, her unease getting the better of her common sense.
If they were to go over there, they had no idea who those people could be. They could be damn hermit psychopaths, or murderers, or escaped criminals. Riley gulped, unable to suppress the fear momentarily. They couldn't waltz over there and expect to trust a random person or people to help them.
Shayla felt the same way, yet it was her common sense that trumped her fears. Riley was injured; they were both cold, hungry and dehydrated, not to mention completely and utterly exhausted. They needed to do something. Shayla spoke up before Riley decided to.
"We need to see if they can help us. You're hurt, and we can't go any further tonight." It was clear her fear was overwhelming her, yet she put on a brave face for Riley's sake.
"No," Riley deadpanned. Shayla looked at her in utter confusion, until Riley continued.
"We need to see who they are first. I don't feel comfortable in walking straight into their camp. It could be anyone." Riley had enough experience with trusting the wrong people to know that she would be damned if she were to do the same thing again.
Shayla nodded once more, and then they continued walking towards the light, much slower this time.
Their footsteps were heavy even in their attempts to stay as quiet as possible. Within fifty metres of the camp, they heard voices.
"Oi! That is not yours!" Shayla and Riley froze in their tracks, hearts beating frantically within their chests.
"I saw the rabbit first, therefore I choose which part I want to eat." A gruff, second voice called out.
"Aye, but I shot the damned animal. Perhaps if you were a skilled bowman, you would be able to hunt your own food." The first voice spoke again, deep but more light hearted than the first.
Shayla and Riley couldn't move. Shayla was horrified as they argued about shooting the animal; it wasn't the fact that they had killed a bunny, but more so the fact that they spoke about using a bow. Who the hell were these people? Why did they have weapons?
Riley listened intently as her heart hammered through her ears. There were two men at least, but what confused her most were their accents. They didn't sound Australian at all, they sounded more English than anything..
She stepped backwards, dragging a shock-struck Shayla with her. Slowly they turned, minimising the sounds of their boots and sneakers against the leaf litter of the earth.
It was as they turned a complete 180 degrees, that strangled gasps escaped both their lips at what they saw.
A stocky man, close to Shayla's height, stood before them, wielding two axes.
"Who might you two be?" He boomed, his voice near echoing off of the trees around them.
It was then that both girls opened their mouths and screamed bloody murder.
Hello you guys! Firstly, thank you so much to fardreamer333, Evakarina, Miriel Tolkien, Fire and Ash, mh21, luvgirl101 and DeLacus for your wonderfully heart warming reviews! You are all fantastic :')
I realised after uploading the first chapter, that I had made a few mistakes! (My own fault for getting ridiculously excited about sharing my new story, that I didn't triple check my work haha) I have fixed them up now, so thank you to fardreamer333 for pointing a few things out!
In saying that, I had changed Riley's ex boyfriend's name to Brax (from Tom) and missed some instances where I hadn't corrected this. Sorry for the inconsistency, but it should be all good now!
I am working on an original story at the moment, so this fanfic probably won't be as constantly updated as Not All Monsters was.. I am going to keep my chapters shorter so that I can allow for more constant updates, so I hope that is okay! :)
Please review, and thank you once again for all the comments, follows and favourites! It makes me so excited :D