Chapter 3: The Fauna That Resides Within (II)

The silence was at its maiden of time's dismay as I walked closer to the bending and swerving path— made by a fading memory that grasp has yet to be relieved. Yet the enveloping silence was suffocating yet the daunting aura that surrounded the near horizon was even worse.

After dozens of more steps, I had finally reached it.

A wide split area that was marked heavily by a grim aura. The aura wasn't very powerful. Instead, the aggressiveness and grimness of the aura were what made the onlooker's paths feel weary.

It was a dark shade of aura that appeared to be naked to the invisible eye but everyone who had a gift understood blindly what it was.

Hostility.

The hue of bore emitted a dire aura, one that made everyone feel ill-witted. Despite that there was a mark of aura that was in companion with death, I ignored it. Thoughts of training against the beasts almost rush out of my mind as I wanted to turn right back but a part of me still wanted to try.

Memories of my grandma never enter this portion of the forest flooded into my mind as I obeyed with an unknowing nod. The times where I was small, made me wonder how atrocious was the aura.

However, curiosity almost killed the cat as I chose to ignore her warnings bound to my interest and walked right up to the border.

I couldn't see the aura at the time but it felt suffocating and dreadful.

So much so, I immediately ran away and was scared almost to death's bed. At dinner, it was too discernible to tell that I had disobeyed her.

Still, now that I am 13, I understand that her way of not choosing to punish me was her own punishment. I had suffered just by experiencing it and A way to make me feel guilty and scared of that part of the forest without comfort from her.

Yet, I still wonder what to do now.

My grandma is in a paradise without pain and her warnings should be for more own safety. But now I'm older and stronger.

Breathing a tense sigh, I stare at the wall of aura and query what to do next— one hand clasped on the grip of the sword, the other hand's palm pressed firmly wall of aura.

Smiling, and with hands of guile, I gave the aura a forceful push. Which in return, made the grisly wall of aura shattered into hundreds of aura shards that lay heinously on the ground.

Wisps of aura began to emerge and seep from the shards they wafted into the air and began to fade away. Until there was nothing left.

With a sigh that let go all my tension and the markings of death broken, the gears had already begun to set into motion. I needed to run, now.

Immediately while clutching my blade, I ran into the part of the forests ignoring all the serene warnings of death.

The stone path that once led me to where I was now was gone as I no longer had a path to follow. I did not run where my instincts and intuition screamed towards and against, instead, I had a plan.

Leaping over fallen timbers and navigating around all the prickly bushes that housed treacherous needles. I ran against my own fate and the silent gales that pushed me back.

The silence was more daunting than that I thought it would be as I barely swerve around a branch that had been stripped clear of its foliage. Clearly, as its jagged branches scarcely brushed against my left eye

Racing through the forests, I soon began to hear thrashing behind me. The rustling of the bushes quickly faded, as a soft and agile thump leaped over the prickly bushes, that it once thrashed around in. Followed by more thrashing and thumps of more of the same.

However, I didn't look back because I could already sense more predators through the trees that bound over the obstacles in their path.

I didn't want the thrill of playing hide and seek against beasts who knew their terrain better than me. Instead, it would be fun to play cat and mouse as I would be the mouse that would turn the tables in a matter of guile.

Wouldn't it be better to lead them to a terrain of my own, a place that I recognized?

As soon as I destroyed the dreadful lingering aura, all of the wolves in their territory were alerted and would immediately pursue the person who had done so.

It would be midday where the dazzling medallion of light would be at its magnificent splendor— which would make me incredibly sweaty, though I do take showers every day in the lake. Which shouldn't be noted in the first place.

The wolves would follow my scent all throughout my path until they would reach where I was. Their speed wouldn't match my own but their knowledge of the terrain would bring the balance at all evens. Following it, their vengeance and hostility would not be satiated until they saw me, at a clearing. Where I stood now.

A smooth and flat streak of land where not even the stumps of the fallen trees remained. No hills, no obstacles, no terrain. Though it did bring back melancholy memories of brazen flame that tore through the forest and set my comfort into embers.

However, I sighed at the sullen thought and focused on the challenge at hand.

Towards the edge of the clearing, was where I stood and clutching the sword. I readied my stance. Whilst, I tilted my blade at the incoming sound which was pointed straight at them.

In the distance, sounds of furious running and jumping made me cautious. I could only sense that there were 3, no 4 of them. Could there be 7?

My thoughts were interrupted when a dissonance of sound erupted as a large set of wolves burst out through the overgrown foliage and out into the other side of the clearing.

Bearing their teeth in irritation, they began to spread out.

Looking at the wolves and their appearance along with an intimidating aura, I gritted my teeth together.

A trickle of cold sweat drifted down my forehead as my clasped hands gripped my blade even harder as it pointed straight at where the wolves stood.

A glint of light reflected from the sun and onto my sword as it was an uncanny signal to commence.