Chapter Fifteen

"Follow me, stay close, and do not fall behind," He whispered.

"Alright, what's the plan exactly?" I whispered.

"Run!" He yelled.

He took off too in a full out sprint, I ran after him, trying to close the gap from his head start, but he was running too fast. We arrived back at the clearing of long grass. We ran into the grass and immediately crouched down out of sight. Jupiter and Keven were nowhere to be seen, and the beast started running toward us. Its large feet sent tremors through the dirt and into our legs it was bigger, faster, and far more aggressive than anything I've ever seen before. Every breath felt like it was going to be my last. I started to slowly crawl through the grass, trying to find Jupiter, when something took a large and loud breath beside me. I froze, holding my breath and closing my eyes, shaking in my skin as I slowly opened them and looked over. I was frozen in fear as I stared into the mouth of the beast. I stopped breathing almost instantly because I couldn't bear its discussing smelling breath that blew in my face through Its teeth. Something is not right with this creature, it has the snout and head of a large bear, but its teeth are not that of a bear. They looked like they belonged to a wolf or a lion. It moved its head away and a step forward. Its body was that of an oversized polar bear except for its tail, It's tail looked like it belonged to a wolf. I couldn't see its claws or the top of its back from where I was sitting, suddenly it burst into a spirit, its jaw was in an angry snarl as it leaped through the grass.

"Aaaaa!" Little Keven screamed.

I stood up to see over the grass and Spun around in a circle. It was so dark I could barely see anything, but the moon gave just enough light for me to see Jupiter trying to dodge the creature's attacks with little Keven on his back. His efforts proved ineffective as the creature ran through them both, knocking them to the ground and leaving a huge gash on Jupiter's arm. The beast spun around and quickly charged back to finish the job. Jupiter threw himself over Keven, using his body to shield him. Running toward them, I threw one of my swords into the air to turn the beast's attention. The beast raised its enormous paw with claws the size of a megalodon shark tooth. My blade flew through the air, just barely striking the beast in its side, it roared in pain, dropping its paw and swaying side to side as it tried to balance itself out. I continued to run towards the beast tossing my fear into a locked box and not paying enough attention to see the fallen tree in front of me. Reacting quickly, I jumped onto the downed tree, pushing myself up into the air. Holding my blade with both hands above my head, I brought it down scratching, the beast across the face. It roared with anger as it started to charge at me. Slim fell from its mouth as it stared me down, dodging; to the left, I swung the blade down, scratching its neck and shoulder.

"Get Keven out of here!" I yelled.

Jupiter had gotten up to his feet and was ready to join in on the fight. He looked back at Keven. The young boy was curled into a ball, covering his head with his arms and crying for his mother. He looked back at me with sorrowful eyes before running over to Keven. Sweeping him into his arms and running into the woods, the beast turned to look at the two before trying to chase them down. It took three steps in their direction before I swung my blade slicing, its leg. Bringing its attention back onto me. With extreme speed and force, the beast spun around striking, me in the back with its paw. The blow sent me flying into the grass causing, me to drop my blade somewhere in the dirt. I lost sight of it, and the beast, one of its claws, caught me, cutting me across the back, crawling on my hands and knees. I started looking around for my blade, but I couldn't find it. It roared with a blood-curdling screech, sending shivers down my spine. It stood in front of me, snarling fear deep into my soul; Pure hatred was locked into its pitch-black irises as It lunged through the grass with its muscular legs. My back fell flat against the soft dirt as it flew over me. Jumping up, I ran over to the beast and grabbed the blade, holding it steady as the force of the beast turning around pulled it out. Leaving a large gash with flapping skin across its side. It didn't roar or make a sound, only turned its head to face me. It wasn't immediately affected by the gap in its side or the scratches on its head. I didn't give it a chance to attack or lunge again. With pure fear pulsing through my veins and fueling my body. I ran into the grass trying to put some space between it and me. I could hear the beast behind me, it charged after me running faster than I was. It only took a few seconds for the beast to catch up and run beside me in the grass moving closer to me with each step. It was trying to push me into the trees, where it could pin me to one place.

Dropping to my knees, the beast stumbled and rolled around in the grass leaving blood everywhere. Standing up I ran in the opposite direction, into the trees. My blade was still in my hand as I continued to run, never even trying to look behind me. It came to the point that the only things I could hear were the wind passing by my ear and my heart pounding in my chest. It felt as if my lungs were filled with water as I fell to my knees. Dropping my sword in front of me. It felt impossible to breathe at the moment, my heart was racing faster than it ever had in all my years of being alive. For a moment; I thought that I had lost the creature, I wanted to keep moving, but my legs hurt too much to stand. I sat on my knees for a little while trying to breathe. My heart pounding was too overpowering of a sound, to hear the beast slowly approaching over it. At least until a familiar roar approached from behind my ear; quickly grabbing my sword I turned around to face the beast. Its blood and slime dripped from its teeth as it charged at me once more. I swung my blade, hitting the beast in the face, only my arms were too weak to cause any damage. It jumped on top of me, trying to bite at my neck. I blocked it by pushing my sword in its mouth and holding it back, with one hand on the hilt and the other at the tip of the blade. It bit down on the blade, pulling it out of hands and throwing it to the side. before quickly turning back. I held my arm up blocking it from my neck, it bit down and threw me up against a tree. It ran toward me, biting down on my leg and tossing me over to the edge of a steep hill. Looking down the bank of the hill at the bed of the river below. The beast had charged at me once more, but before it could grab me, I threw myself over the side. Rolling quickly down the hill while bouncing off rocks, sticks, and firm leaf piles. Landing on my back, my clothes soaked in blood. I was unable to move any limb on my body, and I couldn't tell if the blood was mine or the beast, it was most certainly a mix of both. My right hand laying still in the icy cold river water. My last sight before passing out was the beast on top of the hill huffing and looking down on me. Rubbing the fresh blood between my fingers. It was smooth and slimy. A cent of green pine and algae from the river relaxed my mind as I closed my eyes trying to take in the scent of the pine trees and the freedom flowing through the air.

"Kristy," A faint female voice said.

"Mom," I said, faintly as I fell unconscious.