Cravings

After long hours of walking, night was approaching. "We can camp hear for the night" Mama told her group. Bones immediately went and curled up under a tree with Charlie while everyone was getting a fire set up. They used Dart, Pippin's fire breathing lizard to start a little camp fire. The forest was alive with birds and crickets. Something ran through a bush nearby but they all assumed it was just some small critter getting scared by the small fire and everybody moving around. Most of the adults plopped down by the fire while Lasso went and hooked his arms under Bones's and dragged the big boy over to the fire so he wouldn't get cold. Thompson went and gently picked up sleeping Charlie and also brought him over to the fire.

While everyone else was sitting, Lasso was up and pacing. "Lasso come here baby" Mama Williams motioned him over but he shook his head and stayed far. Mama got up, ignoring her aching feet, and went over to him. She noticed him keeping his distance from her. "Lasso?" She watched him trying to back away from her and into the tree coverage. "What's wrong?" She asked gently, trying to coax him back to her. "I'm just tired..." he mumbled while slowly lowering himself to the ground. "Come lay by the fire then, I don't want you getting sick" Mama motioned for him to follow but he stayed put. She saw Pippin start to get up to go see what was going on but Mama motioned for her to sit back down. Lasso held his head in his hands as she quietly approached him. Mama Williams slowly crouched in front of him and cupped his face in her hands. "Are you feeling ok baby?..." she asked, keeping her voice low to avoid drawing attention from the others. His cheeks felt hot and she saw his eyes were rimmed with red rings.

           "Lasso.." she held his face closer to hers to get a better look at him. He looked exhausted and  his eyes were sunken in and red. He seemed to be trying to avoid looking at her but Mama Williams just tilted his head back up to her. She looked down and noticed him gripping his right sleeve. When she reached for his arm he quickly shuffled back. "Just go sit with the others...go mom..." he quietly pleaded. He made a motion to shoo her away so she finally sighed and slowly got up. Mama Williams knew that pressuring him was only going to make things more difficult so she quietly went back to the others, leaving him to sit by the tree line.

              "Is he ok?" Pippin asked and Mama shook her head no. "He won't tell me anything though" she sighed. Pippin stood and turned to go check on her brother when she noticed he was gone. "Huh?-" she mumbled while looking around but he was gone.

            "Lasso!" A man's voice echoed from the trees. Lasso slowly lifted his head. "Cowboy!" The same man shouted. He recognized the voice but couldn't pin who it was, his head ached too much to think properly. The voice sounded like a mere echo but he slowly got up and shambled off into the woods. "Hello?...." He groaned as he slowly made his way through the trees. Lasso's legs began to ache more the farther he went so he finally sat down under a tree. Lasso held his head in his hands, starting to forget why he was even out here but was reminded when he heard the familiar voice. "Sick huh?" Was what he heard. He shot up, sending bolts of pain through his head. He groaned again and looked around, seeing a silhouette of a man sitting next to him. The familiar scent of cigarette smoke filled the air around him. "Ret?..." he groaned while squinting into the dark.

             "That's me, how you feeling Lasso?" He asked. Instead of answering, Lasso sat there confused. "Aren't you dead?.." he asked and Ret simply shrugged. "Looks like you've been through hell" Ret remarked. Lasso just stared at him. "Bit?" He asked while motioning to Lasso. He just nodded and slowly rested his head in his palms once more. "So your joining me soon huh" Ret chuckled while taking another puff of his cigarette. The realization struck again and Lasso quickly shook his head no. "No...no I'm not.." he growled while quickly getting up, stumbling a little. He stared down at Ret, feeling the overwhelming hunger rise again. Lasso quickly shook his head and looked away from the careless man sitting under the tree. "How are you back." Lasso growled but refused to look at him again, trying to get the hunger to die down again.

            "Well, you tell me" he grinned and Lasso couldn't help it anymore. He turned and lunged towards him but instead of tackling a person, he crashed head first into a tree. "Agh!" He gasped and curled up into a ball on the ground, holding his aching head. There was no blood but it sent waves of pain through his already aching head. He didn't know how long he had been laying there but his attention was brought back when he heard quiet but heavy footsteps close to him. He looked up and Ret was gone, instead there was a creature lurking around. The crickets and birds were silent as this monster stepped into the light of the moon. It was one of the tall, eyeless creatures with a long, human like body but large grey antlers and their legs were shaped like a deer's for increased speed. Lasso watched it chitter and feel around, looking for the thing that's noise attracted it.

          Instead of running or staying still, Lasso slowly rose to his feet. He drew the machete that he had stolen off of Tiger's body years ago and began to make his way towards the monster. The only thing blaring in his mind was that he was hungry. Nothing told him to turn away and run or alert the others. Not one thought warned him that this could be fatal. Instead he just marched on towards the beast, not caring if it heard him or not. Once it turned it's head to the sound of his footsteps it lunged towards him, screeching in triumph that it had found something. All Lasso did was dive to the side and bring the machete down, right behind one of it's antlers. It screeched again but in pain this time as it went tumbling to the ground. Black blood trickled down the side of it's large head. It began to chitter once more, trying to locate where Lasso is but the pain in it's neck was enough to tell it.

           Everyone around the campfire could hear the shrieks of a beast in the forest. Guns and knives were quickly grabbed as everyone sprinted to the forest, scared that Lasso was in trouble. Davy was forced to stay with Bones and Charlie, who were still sleeping. Mama Williams, Pippin, Penny, and Thompson rushed to the sounds of the beast. By the time they got there the creature was silent. They could only hear quiet grunts in the dark and see the silhouette of the beast lying motionless on the forest floor. They could see something smaller than the beast moving around in the dark. Pippin pointed her bow towards the movement with an arrow drawn. Mama Williams held her rifle in that direction too, slowly creeping towards the movement.

          She finally saw the outline of a man crouched down. Mama recognized the silhouette and and began to lower her rifle. "Lasso?..." she called and the figure froze, looking up at her.