Intrigued

Inspiration: Perfume (solo version) by: Sia

I could feel my heartbeat in my ears. Blood pumping through my veins making the back of my mouth taste strangely coppery, and my feet were starting to hurt. I eventually slowed to a comfortable walk, feeling out of breath. I was starting to sweat, but I knew I'd get cold too quickly if I took my jacket off regardless of the warm spring breeze.

There were a lot of animals out it seemed. Every step I took scared another rabbit out from a bush, or sent a bird flying out from a branch overhead. They were all chirping calmly, communicating with one another, and every so often 2 would fly out from a branch, one chasing the other. I wondered when the bird mating season was.

"Do different kinds of birds have different mating seasons?" I asked myself, deciding I would look it up on my phone when I got back to my car.

Eventually I came upon a path leading uphill. I checked the bottoms of my feet as I walked, gazing over my shoulder as one foot pushed off the ground, then the other with the next step. I had thick callouses, so my feet weren't scraped up, simply very dirty.

I'd have to watch my step from now on headed up. I had traction when it came to flat land, but uphill was a battle. I climbed over a few fallen trees laying on the trail, but for the most part the path was clear. I don't know how long I'd run for, or even how long I walked uphill, but as the path reached its peak I started to hear the distinct roaring of a waterfall.

I stopped a moment at the top and took in the water. It was a good distance from the bank I stood on, to the ground on the other side, and it was covered more heavily in trees and underbrush than the path I had just come from. I would need shoes to continue, so I decided to head back to my car after taking a break.

I sat down on a rock, zipping my leather jacket up. The slight chill from the waterfall was setting in now that I'd stopped moving, but I wasn't up high enough on the mountain for there to be any snow. If there was, I would have stopped hiking or risked frostbite on my feet. I closed my eyes and honed in on the sound of the waterfall and river. If you listened closely enough the sound could become almost deafening.

The quick rush of water across rocks underneath, redirecting around fallen branches. The hushed sound of the water spraying against the surface. I could distinctly hear a woodpecker somewhere off to my right. My muscles became restless as I listened to the sounds around me, so I took my jacket off as I stood up, placing it on the rock. I always loved practicing yoga in the wilderness. Without the comforting padding of your mat, it gives you an added incentive to hold your balance and not fall.

Breathing in deeply through my nose, I raised my arms high above my head, pulling my core in as far as I could and breathed for a few moments. Sweeping my arms down beside me, I swan dive into a forward bend, palms planted to the earth. I moved slowly through each pose of the Sun Salutation, feeling my muscles loosen with each exhale. The ground scraped my feet, but I pushed through.

"What is yoga without being comfortably uncomfortable?" I said to myself with a slight laugh.

When I came back to a forward fold for the last time, I planted my hands as firmly as I could, spread my fingers wide and gripped the dirt beneath me. Tightening my core, my feet slowly lifted off the ground, and I tapped my toes to my wrists a few times before continuing to sweep my legs wide and up into the air until they met above me in a handstand.

Inversion moves were always the hardest for me, so I had to continually remind myself to breath. Four count in, four count out. Breathing in, legs together I bent my knees and tucked them to my right arm, flowing into side crow then back up into another variation of the handstand. Suddenly there was a growl somewhere to my right. My elbows came slamming to the earth, and I crumpled in on myself from the impact.

I jumped up into a poor excuse of a defensive stance, years from lack of using martial arts catching up with me, and scanned the surrounding area. There was no way I had imagined it. It sounded almost like someone beating rocks against the ground repetitively. A gravely kind of sound, not quite a growl, but nothing distinguishable that I'd ever heard. It was quiet, as if it was meant to be hushed, but I heard it. I had to have heard it. There were cougars in these mountains, but the jingling of my keys would have kept them far enough away while I was running. And a bear wouldn't have been quiet enough for me to sit and listen for this long.

I stood and slowly walked backward toward my jacket, keeping my eyes on the tree line. The moment I touched my jacket all animal noise seemed to stop. Something was moving up there, and it was big enough to scare the daylights out of the animals. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, my years of experience Earthing by myself giving me a large respect for wild animals, and the know-how to recognize when something was NOT to be fucked with. And as of right now, I needed to get the hell out of the clearing.

I knew better than to bolt. Any predator loved the thrill of the chase. I began walking as calmly as I could back down the hill, continuously checking over my shoulders the whole way back. There was still no noise, except for the occasional shriek of an angry flock of birds before they would fly off to another tree. There was something definitely following me, and by the way everything moved out of its way, it was big. Bigger than me even. My pace subconsciously quickened and the moment I rounded the bend and my car came into sight I was sprinting as fast as I'd run into the forest.

There's a moment in your fear of being chased, that you think whatever it is, is bearing down on you. Breathing down your neck and ready to strike. Like in nightmares where you're running toward something but it just seems to keep getting further and further away, but you can feel the shadowy hand of death reaching out and ghosting its fingers across the back of your neck. My body slammed into the hood of my car. I fumbled for my keys before pressing the unlock button, throwing the drivers door open, and slamming the door shut.

My first instinct inside the car was to dial 9-1-1 and pray to god that there was service in the secluded back country road I'd decided to drive up. Feeling around my car for my phone, I realized it was still in my trunk with my purse.

"Shit!" I whispered, looking out the front windshield. Should I get out to unlock my trunk, or just haul ass home? Whatever was out there wasn't a normal animal. The only big cats I know of that scale trees definitely didn't live in the forest, and sure as hell don't jump from branch to branch like Tarzan. Even stranger, whatever it was didn't take the opportunity to try and attack me. Here I was, sitting in my car debating if running to my trunk was worth it and the thing didn't even budge.

I scanned the treeline and saw no movement. Slowly I began opening my door for a chance to get to my trunk. Maybe if I ducked down beside my car and moved slow enough, I would have time to grab my purse and be back in the front seat before it even had time to reach my hood. The moment my drivers door opened I heard the gravely sound again; like someone was gurgling rocks. I slammed the door shut immediately and the noise stopped. It was stalking me, watching me like prey to see what I would do.

Fuck it. I put my key in the ignition, revved my car the life and floored it in reverse out onto the road. The moment I had the car in drive I slammed my foot down on the gas pedal and prayed to whatever deity would listen that I make it home alive.

Thank you to Coolprix and Anonymous for reviewing. Your support is much appreciated.

These chapters are going to be short-ish, but I will try and make them longer. If you have any ideas about what you'd like to see happen just let me know, and they will most likely be incorporated. I often times don't even have a story line thought up when I write, just simply write whatever pops into my brain at the time. Unfortunately this is why it will take me a bit to update.

TaTa for now! :)