3. Run, Rabbit
She was beginning to get bored of the path. Very few dead leaves were underfoot, as the path was obviously well maintained, and they had recently been swept into piles on the sides. It was beautiful; a verdant tunnel with a translucent roof of overlaid greens, reds, and golds, but it was starting to look exactly the same, on and on. The forest sounds weren't unchanging though. The twittering of birds and the rustling of branches had remained constant, but for the last few minutes the vaguely whistling sound of the breeze had changed. There was an added huffing sound, and Lucia heard what sounded like faint crunching. She stopped to listen more carefully, but then she couldn't hear the crunching sound anymore, although the odd wheezing wind continued.
The creepiness of that meeting with the boys must have gotten to her, she thought. Because now she felt as though she was being watched, even though there was obviously no one on the path, and she couldn't see anything in the surrounding woods, already darkening as the afternoon was drawing to an end. Lucia decided she would only walk a little further on before starting back; it looked like the path was reaching some kind of destination up ahead. She started walking again…and the crunching sound resumed.
Lucia whirled around. "Who's there?" No answer. She peered harder into the trees. She couldn't see anything. Wait. There, slightly behind her and to the right, didn't the forest look a little darker? She walked toward it to get a closer look. Definitely darker, there was something besides the trees blocking the light. As she approached, the air around her seemed to be getting warmer.
Then the birdsong stopped.
She turned, and began to run. A universal, prehistoric memory had awakened and sounded an alarm. She was being hunted.
Behind her she heard that odd wind, that breathing, but there was no more crunching of the leaves. It was with her now on the path itself. She wasn't going to waste time to turn around and see what it was, frantically scanning her surroundings looking for some kind of shelter. Up ahead on the left, a few meters off the path, three large elms were standing close together in a circle with less than half a meter separating each of them. Maybe she could squeeze between two of them and hide in the center? It would have to do, because the breathing behind her had gotten close enough for her to feel it on the back of her legs.
Throwing herself from the path, she burst through the dead leaves bordering it, and turning sideways, wedged herself between the trees. The rough bark snagged at her dress, but she squeezed through, reaching a kind of chimney in the middle of them. She was almost completely out of breath, and was gulping in air as fast as her lungs could take it.
She wondered how long she would have to wait before someone came looking for her. The massive trunks were almost two meters in diameter, and there was barely enough room for her to fit between, so she felt relatively safe from whatever had been pursuing her. That inky darkness in the trees had looked pretty big, and the breathing had been very loud. What kind of animal was it? Did the Zaoldyecks just let wild animals roam in their woods? Maybe some giant Kitsune-Guma had entered uninvited. She had calmed down enough to be curious, so she turned her head to look through the opening between the safeguarding trees.
Filling the space on the outside was an impossibly long snout. Lucia was tall. Of the Zaoldyecks, only Illumi and Silva were taller, but this snout was at least as long as she was tall, if not longer. It was bordered with fang-like teeth, visible because the creature was panting, and from those teeth hung unspeakable pieces of something… or someone. Lucia shrank back as far as she could from it.
Then there was a new sound, a creaking, a groaning. The tree under her left hand began shuddering and she moved away from it as the sound changed again to a sharp splintering, followed by a crash. One of the giant trees protecting her had simply been pushed over. And now she stared face to face with the most baleful, soulless, yellow eyes ever created.
There are cat people and dog people, and if asked, Lucia would have probably said she was a dog person, but this was no dog. This was a monster. The beast's front legs were bent, to bring it closer to the ground and to her, and she tilted her head up to look at the rest if it. It must have extended back ten meters, not counting the tail, which was not wagging.
She dove between its front legs, underneath its body, hoping its massive size combined with the density of the trees would slow its turning. She ran through the trees now, choosing the narrowest openings possible and eschewing the path, but paralleling it and heading in the direction it had been going because surely it must lead somewhere! She needed to reach some building or shelter or grounds keeper…
The path led to a small clearing with wild flowers and fallen logs artfully scattered to serve as benches. She was pitched forward by a sudden shake of the ground, catching herself with her hands on one of the benches. The beast had jumped and landed right behind her. Everything felt so unreal, like she was in a rabbit's nightmare, running from a giant Borzoi.
Slowly she turned to face it. Dimly she registered the smell of its breath, like a thawed abattoir, and she idly wondered, how could she not have noticed that first, as overpowering as it was? She swallowed the lump in her throat and slowly began to extend her left arm.
