Creatures of The Forest

It was a warm day when Merlin was up working on his bow and staring at the waterfall. He wondered about the birds he had seen after he jumped and why they were circling him. In his moment of wonder, he thought about what caused the animals to do what they did. When it happened he thought it was just a coincidence but maybe it wasn't. He needed to test this theory, but how would he do it? The only way he could; by going into the woods and seeing for himself. He picked up his bow and headed for the woods. He thought that he may need to be in some sort of trouble seeing as though he was every other time it happened. This would be difficult due to the animals helping him instead of hurting him. He was trying to figure out ways to get into trouble but could think of none that would be very troubling. He was walking in the woods for many hours and realized that he was a good way from his camp and it was getting dark. He needed to head back as he did not feel very secure in the woods during the dark. Right on cue as he was walking back a creature ran right in front of him. Merlin was very startled and almost fell; no animal was able to get so close to him without him knowing in a long time. He readied his bow and heightened his senses. The animal was nowhere to be seen, that's what Merlin though anyways, soon enough the animal ran out from behind him. It didn't attack him, it just ran very close to him to out in front of him. It stood there motionless allowing Merlin to get a good look at it. Its body looked nonexistent, the same color as the sky, dark black, from what he could make out it was large, a bit bigger than a wolf. It had blood-red eyes that wanted something to fight. It looked towards Merlin for hope but saw nothing that could challenge him. It seemed to squint and look deeper at Merlin as though it was looking at something inside of him. And suddenly it grinned at Merlin preparing for a fight. Merlin knew he would stand no chance of beating this beast and his only chance of survival was if his theory was correct. Merlin could see the animal walking closer at a very slow pace so he walked backward at the same speed. The animal, without warning, bolted at Merlin knocking him down. It jumped off him and ran into the cover of the woods, Merlin hurried to his feet and waited for the next strike. He wished he had a spear but he only had his bow. The creature then jumped at him ready to strike Merlin with its paw. Luckily, Merlin was fast enough to dodge the strike and release an arrow trying to hit the beast. He didn't know where its body was so he took a shot in the dark, literally, but missed. He knew he had no chance of beating this creature, but he still had to try. This was the life-threatening event that he was waiting for but at the moment he wished he never left his cave. It became more and more likely that he was wrong about the animals and it was, in fact, a mere coincidence. The animal quickly rebounded after the failed attempt and slashed Merlin's chest; it wasn't too deep but it was enough to fling him to the ground. The beast knew he got Merlin and walked to him in a taunting manner. It didn't seem to want to kill him but it wanted to hurt something and he was the perfect target. Merlin was injured and could not get up after hitting the ground so hard. Just as he fell into despair, he heard a howl followed by the trample of many feet stomping the ground. Suddenly, a pack of wolves ran right over him carefully avoiding his body. He could hear the whimper and growls of the two species engaging in a bloody fight. Not too long after the fight started the animals ran off in chase of the creature. Still in pain Merlin could not move very well and thought it was better to lay there for a bit longer. Although he was injured he was happy to be alive and his theory became true. He was smiling while laying on the ground with a gash in his chest. He could no longer hear the animals so he tried to get up and after many failed attempts he was on his feet and heading back to the waterfall. All he could do while he was walking was smile at his successful guess and fall at the occasional hit of pain. He looked up a few times noticing a few birds following him; happy with his newfound knowledge he figured they were protecting him. A long time later and a not so timely manner with his impeccable sense of direction, he was back at his base. When he got back he looked up again and noticed the birds had stopped following him. Because of this, he felt safe and headed back to his cave. He noticed that he no longer had a bow and no way to protect himself. That was an afterthought though because he still had his injuries that needed to be taken care of. He was not bleeding but there was dry blood all over his chest and stomach, so he got out of the cave and stepped into the river. Noticing it was cold he hesitated but after a bit of getting used to he was able to get in. Seeing as it had blood on it also, he decided to use his shirt to wipe the blood off of him with it. Although it was dark, he could still see the blood-filled water in the moonlight and realized that he lost more than he thought. He tried to hurry and clean the wound. After he got most off and sufficiently cleaned the gash, he got out of the river and tied a piece of dry cloth around him covering the wound. He also hung up the wet cloths to dry and headed back to the cave to get some sleep. On his way, he felt weary and became very dizzy all of a sudden. He could no longer focus on walking, he had to stand still to keep his balance; this was not enough though and he passed out as he was falling to the ground.