Dark Forest 2

From about roughly 45 feet away the beast stood watching Xueyu.

It snorted at the girl's horror stricken expression.

She just sat there, waiting for death.

'And they said humans were smart,' he scoffed.

He looked away from the sight and instead surveyed the sky. If he was a human he'd probably have been whistling a merry tune.

The continued creaking of the falling tree became a nuisance and when he looked in the direction again he was almost tempted to roll his scarlet eyes.

She was STILL there.

He watched as the tree came close enough to her, an inch away, so close to crushing her.

A twitch started in his feet and moved along in his body.

He struggled against his natural instincts but in the end he couldn't resist.

He sighed in annoyance at his conscience as he dashed towards the girl. In just under a minute he had gotten to her, picked her up by the back of her dress and thrown her onto his back.

With a skid and a U turn he raced away from the tree that was falling towards them.

The girl was titling dangerously to the side.

'Gods above! Hold on tightly, little girl,' he roared at her using telepathy.

Her eyes, if that was even possible, got wider and with trembling hand she dug her nail into his scaly body as she held on.

With one large leap ahead the beast got far enough to evade the tree.

As it fell to the ground it shook the earth and a tornado of dust flew up into the air from the impact.

The beast let out a breath before casually slowing to a languid stroll.

It ignored the helplessly terrified girl on it's back, taking it's usual route back to its home.

___

Xueyu sat paralysed on the back of the strange beast. If not for her feeble hands that gripped it she wasn't sure she would be upright.

Everything seemed to have happened in a blur.

One minute she was staring death in the face and the next she was almost falling off of the back of the beast that was the cause of her near death.

She wasn't exactly sure how to feel.

One, she had no idea where this beast was even taking her and two, it was the same beast that tried to kill her... but saved her too.

She ignored all the irrational thoughts that floated around in her head.

Jump off its back.

Run away.

She was in too much pain to even jump let alone run. For now she would just enjoy the ride and if the beast showed any bad intentions she'd find a way to escape.

Having the beast was an advantage for her anyways. She didn't exactly know it's level of cultivation but it seemed high enough to be able to keep any other beasts or magical creatures away.

There was also the communication factor.

She had never heard anything about animals being able to communicate with humans. No matter what kind of beast it was.

She was, least to say, shocked out of her mind when she heard an angry voice roaring in her head.

That shook her up more than anything else.

She decided to just go with whatever was happening and find someway to get past the border when the opportunity came.

___

It took a total of 10 minutes for the beast to get to its home.

Normally there would be a food stop but he at least had enough compassion to not scare the girl anymore.

Meals were... a bit of a gory sight.

The beast walked towards a hill that he knew was only partially covered in natural growing greenery. A section of the grass covering it was just to camouflage the opening of a cave from any beast.

Not that any beast would willingly walk into its home.

Before the beast was within five stepping of the opening, another beast identical to itself but looking a bit older, bounded out.

Xueyu felt the beast stiffen underneath her. She peered curiously at it, noting the similarities between both of them.

Her mind raced a million miles a minute and she came up with a theory.

From the looks of it the other beast was elder. Judging from the air and aura around it. It seemed more responsible, mature and definitely more wise than the one she encountered before.

She shifted her gaze when the black eyes zoned in on her. Her eyes looked anywhere and everywhere, surveying the forest around her and committing her location to memory. She had to atleast remember something useful.

The beast must have noticed her discomfort and instead looked at the other beast.

She could hear snorts passing back and forth between the two of them and it seemed like a whole conversation was unfolding before her...