Panting across the Rocky terrain the scenery around breckan changed as the trees gave way to shrubs and short grasses with an abundance of sunlight kissing the Rocky trail that evolved from small ledges and drops to a somewhat angled trail that was obviously used, albeit not that commonly as the official delver trails, Breckan could say it was a beautiful day even, if only he wasn't in the shadow of a giant deformed flying worm that wanted to use his body as a chew toy in a very literal sense,
steps were growing shorter, feet barely clearing the floor, breckan knew he was at his limit, nothing could have prepared him for how physically taxing running on wild trails could be.
the splitmaw was growing closer, time was running out and breckan had the feeling the damn animal could sense it, he felt that the splitmaw was purposely toying with him, like it slowed down to extend the chase as if it wanted him to struggle some more.
Nearing a large boulder, atleast as tall as a house and as wide as a horse drawn carriage that was located to the right of the path breckan sprinted on he thought of an idea, the splitmaw had no eyes, he didn't see a nose, and it was obviously smarter than your average house cat, it had to have a way to keep tracking its prey, hence how it had managed to keep chasing him, albeit his boots making a crunching sound on each impact was causing a considerable amount of sound, it could be hearing or it might have some sort of field detection mechanism, either way, maybe if he got away from it in the least amount of time possible he could avoid detection by escaping its field of sensing per say before it could track him, however breckan knew that the splitmaw would probably have a vague idea of what direction he took since his escape wouldn't be instant.
There was only one way to find out if his insane scheme would pay off, take no risks win no victories, to hell with it.
The boulder breckan closed in on was situated to the right of the path, a mere couple of feet away from a nasty looking slope angled at a steep sixty degrees, a tumble down that would lead to much more than a few bruises but it was his only cover, rushing towards the side of the boulder which faced the cliff scooting along the edge with his back pressed against it. he needed time to think! But he had no time the damnable creature could fly how the hell would he escape the splitmaws senses quickly? Breckan was terrified and stumped, completely out of ideas.
Taking deep breaths in order to stabilize his frantically beating heart breckan noticed something, everything was silent, no animal calls, nor the tell tale swooshing sound of a moving splitmaw, it almost seemed like the very air has stagnated akin to a still pond, feeling very much inside a pond breckan was afraid of breathing, as to somehow alert the splitmaw of his location, tilting his head upward breckan saw the sky, clear and rid of killer worms, then he repeated the motions to the right and left, nothing, that only left one possible location, it was on the other side of the boulder, why wasn't it moving? Had it lost him? No, that wasn't possible having held his breath for far too long breckan relented and took a shuddering breath, bad idea.
The splitmaw took that moment to make its presence known, the boulder lurched towards the edge as a massive force pushed it, "no No NO, damn it im going to fall!" as his histeria increased with every inch of his standing space that decreased breckan yelled again, this time louder, "hey crimson jackass, do you like to crush your food before eating? What are those huge damn teeth for, Decorations?" Maybe it was just breckan but the boulder seemed to shift somewhat faster now.
The splitmaw, was smarter than he predetermined, it was trying to coax him to leave his cover to save itself the effort, scratch that it was smart enough to play with its food, which would be considered a higher functioning trait, a trait that over rode an animals will to eat was a strong trait indeed, the animal was imposing enough with its physical attributes, adding intelligence to that roster would be overkill.
In a heart stopping moment, breckan's boots lost purchase... With his heart lurching into throat he plunged down the hill quickly losing any semblance of a controlled descent rolling and tumbling like rocks in a grinder, attempting to spare his head he elevated his arms up and wrapped them around the crown of his head and rolled in his legs into a makeshift natal position crying out in pain every time an out-jutting rock slammed into one of his bones, the most excruciating being those that impacted his vertebrae, a pain so severe torturing him to lose control over his mucles.
Unlocking his now tear streaming eyes as he skidded and rolled down the slanted cliff he idly noted from the split second images that the vegetation around him was becoming increasingly dense with more trees along with moss on the cliff he rolled on, breckan welcomed the moss with open arms as his clothing had basically shredded to tatters, barely hanging on to his body, hence the protection provided was extremely lacking.
Breckan's misfortune was nowhere near over however, as evidenced his loss of contact with rock as he fell down a man sized crevice at the base of the cliff face, "so, this is how it ends, I should have taken the first ship off this island, Belorussia doesn't have a death hole which ate your sister and now you, well i really did it this time" with those comforting last thoughts breckan's back slammed into something sharp the object most certainly embedding itself into his back followed shortly by his head meeting the floor of wherever he landed emitting a hollow THUCK.
Breckan's body relented, shutting down, finally freeing him from the pain of the waking world.