Webber's POV
Sanity was a very tedious thing to keep when you're surrounded by creatures who live to kill you... and even more so when you are nearly unable to fight back. We had lived alone for such a long time, though, we had expected it not to hit us nearly as hard... the warning of insanity wasn't even something we had time or patience to worry about. It seemed like such a minor threat in the grand scheme of things...
Perhaps it was the terrifying encounter with the tree guard finally catching up to us? Perhaps it was the knowledge of how if something wanted to kill us, we could not run. With so many possible factors and such a lack of other things to think about, you'd think that the concept would have been planned or even considered.
It wasn't.
We didn't even realize what was happening at the time. After a particularly bad dream which the details of we couldn't correctly grasp, we awoke to near darkness. Wilson was asleep, though he looked rather uncomfortable, and WX- who didn't need sleep- was watching the dying flames of the fire with a sort of fondness that suggested it would be a terrible idea to disturb him. We flinched at the own sound of our ragged breathing as we struggled to calm our racing heart. The undisturbed terror of seemingly nothing should have been a clear indicator of what was soon to happen. It took us a moment to realize what exactly had sent us into such a panic.
It was the shadows.
No, these weren't ordinary shadows. These shadows had eyes. Cold, callous, viciously hungry eyes. They didn't make any move to lunge at us, though. They just sort of... watched. We could sense that these eyes held billions of thoughts. They were most certainly sentient. They all blinked, together, slowly, like they all belonged to the same monstrous beast. We shifted closer to the fire to the best of our ability without moving our damaged legs too much. WX didn't pay any attention. The sky was hesitatingly turning lighter on the horizon, and the very second the new sunlight touched the eyes they vanished, revealing nothing but the peaceful woods that surrounded the camp. We bit our lip uncertainly. The uncertainty didn't last long because the next thing to strike was a splitting headache. We quickly shut our eyes from the light, but it didn't help. It only made it worse as scenes began to play out through our head.
Us, alone, in the middle of winter and soaked with blood.
A blue blade.
Fire licking the woods around us.
A clawed hand; a wicked grin.
A wail of piercing grief.
A golden crown.
Fear.
Blood.
Death.
Darkness.
\The unconscious part of our mind knew it was insanity... the rest of us was too terrified to listen. Memories were flashing faster than we could process them.
A cry for help.
A scarring betrayal.
Emptiness.
It fell away almost suddenly, leaving us gasping for breath like we had just emerged from deep water. This seemed to catch the robot's attention. He glanced at us as we inched our hand toward our head. He sort of froze as though trying to figure out what the heck was happening. Our migraine began to subside, so WX shrugged and turned back to the fire without a word.
It was still bad enough, however, that the second we felt the hand on our shoulder we yelped and nearly slashed Wilson, who flinched back at our violent reaction.
"Ah! Webber! It's me!" He shouted as though we didn't realize.
"Oh.. sorry."
"LOOKS LIKE THE WORLD'S FINALLY GETTING TO HIM," WX commented with a hint of a sneer in his voice.
"Stop," he snapped, glaring at the robot. "You're not impressing anyone."
"I'M NOT TRYING TO IMPRESS ANYONE," WX retorted. "I WAS MERELY STATING A SIMPLE FACT."
Wilson ignored this and shifted a few paces closer. "Are you okay?"
We clenched our teeth and shook our head, the headache beginning to return. Ugh... what is this? "It hurts..."
"What does?"
"...everything."
The scientist's brow furrowed with concern, but before he could say anything else something dark behind him rose up with a silent roar. "Watch out!" I yelped, throwing our arms over our head andshaking slightly. Wilson instinctively ducked and rolled to the side.
But the blow we expected never came. We dared to peek over our arm to see that whatever monster had been about to attack us had disappeared into thin air. We stared at the empty air for a second, our jaw hanging open. "Unfair!" I protested. "There was something there, we swear!"
Wilson frowned, dusting himself off. He said nothing, but after a few seconds of him examining us with concern in his gray eyes he reached forward and put his hand on our forehead. We stifled a hiss of fear at the sudden movement, but he paid little attention and drew back. "You're burning up," he sighed. "That's probably what's wrong..." His gaze flicked to our arm and back.
"AWW, WHAT'S WRONG? LITTLE KID SICK?"
...I'm probably running a fever because I'm seeing things... like that's logical.
"WX, if you're going to be like that, the least you can do is go hunting or something."
WX stood to his full height instantly. "I'M NOT GOING TO BE GUTTING ANY ANIMALS!" He protested. "WITH THE FURRY HALF-BREED OVER HERE OUT OF THE EQUATION, WHO DO YOU THINK WILL BE DOING THE DIRTY STUFF AROUND HERE?"
Half-breed! If we weren't crippled, that probably would have been enough provocation to attack him again. We opened our mouth to snap at him, but shut it abruptly as Wilson gave both of us the 'glare-of-death'. "You," he pointed towards WX. "Out there." He pointed to an area where be unexplored farther out. The robot scowled at us but said nothing as he stomped away. "Hey, will you be alright on your own?" Wilson lowered his voice and crouched to become eye-to-eye with us.
We nodded, brushing away the beads of sweat forming on our forehead. "We'll just... sleep or... something..."
He patted our shoulder, smiling. "Hopefully WX and I will be able to get you back on your feet soon."
"Hope and truth are two different things," I muttered, too quiet for the scientist to hear.
"I'll go explore a bit towards the way we were going when the hounds attacked. I should be back before dark..."
"And as for WX?"
He shrugged. "You know him... not much I can do."
"Good point... well, good luck... like I said we'll just... catch up on our sleeping." To show him we would, we stretched and lied into a more comfortable position. He chortled lightly.
"See you soon."
Wilson's POV
Perhaps I should have been paying more attention. Perhaps I should have been thinking less of my predicament with the two rivals and more of the fact I knew next to nothing about this land. The book helped, but it couldn't describe just how awful the creatures really were, as evidenced by the hound attack. Of course, go figure, it never occurred to me to pay that close attention.
It wasn't until the beast was close enough for the entire world to shake in its presence that I realized I had just made a terrible, terrible, terrible mistake. And in the wilderness... any mistake can be fatal. At first, I was confused, thinking that there was an earthquake. If that is the case that means that this world has plates, which means it has fault lines, which means that this area should be affected more by these earthquakes and I can almost guarantee that a simulation could contain such physics.
Before I could even comprehend what was happening the forest around me gave a giant heave, and the tree nearest to me was cut clean through, slid and fell with an earsplitting crash. With the leaves and branches now gone from their spot, the monster was presented clearly to me.
Its bottom fur was almost entirely black with the occasional hint of silver mixed in. Long white fur was draped over its shoulders and down its back almost like a natural cape. The sunlight glinted off of its soulless white eyes, sharp, needle-like teeth, and a white stripe that parted the black fur on its head. And it. Was. Massive. It was slightly bigger than the trees and ripped away undergrowth like it was made of paper. It paused for just a second in its rampage when it met my gaze.
The Bearger... I thought in horror. It dropped onto all fours and roared at me so loudly I was temporarily deafened, then lashed out a huge paw and hitting me hard enough to send me into a tree. I wasn't hit by its claws, but it was still a painful collision. The oddest thing happened after that. The second I was out of its way, its snarl dropped and it continued its way through the forest. I lay still, panting against the tree and waiting until the artificial earthquake died away before trying to stand. I let out a gasp of pain as I put pressure on my right leg, then nearly smacked myself. For crying out loud, are we all destined to get beat down until we can't do anything anymore? I thought furiously. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart, then started to limp home.
