Strange World

I was unconscious for as I could remember. Every part of my body hurt as I strained to see in the darkness that surrounded me. The last thing I could remember was opening a strange music box in my room and now I'm in this strange place.

"Ouch!" my feet hurt as I tried to get up. My hands felt a wet sticky liquid on my knee. I must have scraped it on a rock or something. I got up on wobbly knees and tried to feel with my hands for a door. Once my eyes got adjusted to the darkness, I realized that I was in a barn and my knee was covered in blood. A dull yellow light glowed some distance outside the barn doors and some light murmurs and whispers were heard from people outside.

"I'm saved!" I thought as I tried to signal for help. But something wasn't right, instead of normal looking men, I saw hooded devil-like creaures. Wait! Those were the creatures from my nightmares! And they were approaching the barn accompanied by vicious dogs. Before they could see me, I quickly crouched behind a big hay stack. Unfortunately, my injured knee hit the hard floor and I yelped in pain, but that wasn't the worst thing that could happen because the dogs had entered the barn and were gradually nearing the hay stack I was hiding behind! I was so afraid that I thought my heart was going to explode in my chest. The dogs had picked up my scent and were coming closer.

"What do I do?" I thought in a panic. "Maybe I can use a weapon to attack them." I looked around for anything I might use but unfortunately, there was none.

"I'm done for." I thought helplessly. "I'm going to die in a cold dark barn and nobody will ever find me."

A loud whistle interrupted my thoughts. The creatures were calling out to the dogs to retreat, thank God! After waiting for a few minutes, all was quiet which meant that the creatures had left so I began to find my way out of the barn. It wasn't easy because it was dark and there was no moon tonight and I had to grope my way out. Once I had reached the entrance, I looked around to make sure that nobody was around.

My stomach grumbled noisily, it had probably been hours since I had last eaten and I was extremely hungry. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I spotted some apple trees bearing green apples about a hundred yards to my left. Climbing up on one tree I began to pick some apples. They were so big and juicy when I bit into them that I could not help eating more and more. After eating a fifth one, I noticed a large green apple on the edge of a large branch a few feet above my head. After climbing some more, I was a fingertip away from it. A few attempts to grab the apple proved fruitless so I broke off a small twig to pluck it. After poking the apple for a few minutes, the apple finally fell on the ground. Excited, I quickly climbed down to pick the fallen fruit when I heard the most menacing sound. Low growls and snarls were coming from down below. Squinting in the darkness, I tried to see if anyone was around when two pairs of evil red eyes stared back at me. I gasped as the realisation dawned on me. The creatures found me and they're going to kill me! I jumped down the last few branches and began to run.

The cold wind blew into my face as I kept running. I looked back to see the creatures and their dogs trailing not far behind me. One of them held a torch and in the dim orange light, they looked more menacing and evil than ever. I kept running and running while looking for a place to hide before they got me but there was none. I was in a slightly dense forest, trees and shrubs were packed closely together, almost as if they were having a meeting. I would have been running blindly if it were not for the dim light the stars provided. I didn't know where I was or where I was going but I knew one thing for sure- I needed to get away from these creatures. Suddenly, something flew past my ear, narrowly missing me. I look behind to see that these monsters had begun to fly and they were shooting some kind of magic fire arrows at me. The one that I had dodged had hit a tree and fire exploded everywhere, setting the tree ablaze. I kept running for my life while jumping over tree trunks, large roots, avoiding thorny bushes and dodging fire arrows. The creatures were snarling viciously, obviously annoyed that they hadn't gotten rid of me. They threw one last arrow at me and a giant one at that. I had to duck behind a huge pine tree to avoid being hit. The fire arrow hit an oak tree a few feet away from me, setting it on fire and sending it crashing down. The fire had spread around in a small five-foot radius circle, leaving me in the middle of it with a pine tree to hide with. The snarls had come much closer and I peeked behind the tree to see that the creatures were right behind me. One of them looked my way with such evil eyes that I retreated quickly. That monsters must have seen me peeking around the tree because they appeared right in front of me. Now I had a clear view of what they looked like. Dull greyish skins, sharp teeth, long whip-like tails and razor sharp claws attached to blood red hands. Their faces were covered by the hoods of the long black cloaks that they wore which occasionally revealed those evil red eyes. These creatures were writhing angrily, ready to devour their prey.

"This is the end." I thought shivering. "I'm going to die in a strange land and I won't even know where I am or why they want me dead."

"Get her!" They screamed angrily.

I can't explain what happened next but a curved dagger was in the air ready to make its descent when a bright blue light exploded into the scene. I was momentarily blinded so I used my hands to shield my face. When I opened my eyes again I realised that I was in a ball. A ball? Yes, a blue crystal ball. Where it came from I had no clue but the creatures did not like that idea at all. They each tried to break it by throwing magic fire balls and arrows but it didn't give in. Suddenly my head began to swim, I looked at my hands but my vision was blurry. Was I running out of oxygen or passing out from exhaustion? Whatever it was I couldn't afford to stay here in the hands of my enemies.

"No, no, no, no, no don't do this! don't!" I was practically screaming in my head.

I willed myself to keep my eyes open but to no avail. My body refused to listen to me, I was losing consciousness quickly. There was a loud crash as cold air hit my face and I had no choice but to give in to the inevitable.