Too much blood

Sleep is different that night. Images and figures shrouded by shadows flicker in and out of my dreams. I remember flashes of teeth and iron, scales and claws, ash and flames...but nothing in enough detail to discern what my imagination had constructed.

I rebuild my campfire to make my coffee and breakfast with nothing accompanying me but the sounds of the breeze travelling through the trees and the songs of the birds flitting about under the glow of the morning sun. There's a certain sort of peace when you disconnect from the self-made pressures of society and immerse yourself in the beauty and solace that nature provides.

I pull out and unfold my chair and place a small table in front of me that I use for my coffee mug, and now that my hands are free I can take another look at the journal I purchased yesterday. My other new item from yesterday, the pendant with the seven-pointed star, is still hanging from my neck.

I unwind the leather cord that binds the long, flattened pen to its cover and quickly flip through the pages. I'm surprised that for a journal that looks this worn, all of its pages are empty. There is not a single swipe of a pen or pencil marking in its contents.

I tap my finger on my lips in contemplation as I stare at its first page. If the page was to stare back at me right now, I wonder if I would look as blank as this page.

I'm unsure why I was inclined to get a journal from the start. I had one when I was younger, but after writing a couple of passages to myself it quickly lost its appeal. So now I am staring at this journal, much older than I was before, but still as lost about what to do with it.

I close the journal and place it on the table and then pick up my coffee. I distract myself with taking small, but meditative sips of it, while the events of yesterday infiltrate my thoughts.

I don't know what to make of it all. Or if I can talk to anyone about this, without risking being institutionalized and called insane. There's no one I trust enough to tell them about what I saw. About what happened.

The troll came alive and spoke to me, yet there was no indication that anyone else could see or hear it. So many people walked on by without reacting to it, and its attention was solely focused on me.

And when the troll's eyes hazed with white and it went into a trance, the words it spoke predated my trip to the antique store but predicated what I would find all the same.

A snap of a twig has my gaze shifting to the left. I scan the terrain, but there's nothing I could pinpoint as the source of the sound so I go back to my coffee and my circling thoughts. But when the shifting of leaves sounds this time, I know it's not a fluke.

That, and the fact that the noise was loud enough that it had to have been made by a large animal.

I glance at the belongings scattered around me and realize that I left some items out when I made breakfast earlier. Based on how big I suspect the animal is from the amount of noise it makes when it moves… my stomach sinks as the realization dawns on me that I likely attracted a bear to my campsite.

I mutter a curse as I look around me again in search of anything I have near me to defend myself, but my search is coming up blank.

A huff of breath rents the air that sounds too close to comfort, so I leap from my seat. The table that was next to me goes crashing to the side and the items scatter about just before an animal comes crashing through the bushes into my campsite.

No, not an animal.

It's a large black wolf the size of a bear, but it is only standing on its back two legs. It is hunched over, its claws gleaming and canines bared while drool hangs from its maw. But the most surprising of it all is the two large batlike wings sprouting from its spine.

I gape at the creature and hope that I am actually going crazy, because it is looking at me like I am its next meal. I have no weapons on me, but I glance around frantically to see if I can use anything to defend myself.

The beast throws its head back as it throws its arms to each side and gives off an ear-piercing screech that makes me vision glossy and lose focus. I am able to register that the dark shape is now barreling towards me, so at the last second I dive away, but not before its claws swipe at my calf.

I roll on the ground and land on my stomach, so I peek up at the creature, but when I do I see that it is licking my blood off its claws. I don't have time to consider that, and a flash of silver grabs my attention. Using its momentary distraction, I scramble towards the item in desperation. It is the pen that came with the journal - when it had fallen to the ground it hit hard enough to uncover an item within it.

A gleaming silver knife.

Another deafening screech booms around us and I know I only have a moment to spare so I hit the ground harder. Just as I bend towards the knife and turn my head towards the beast, I see the black wolf with wings chasing after me, beating its wings behind it for more speed. In less than another second it is upon me, and it winds its gangly arms around me and kicks off the ground with me in its arms.

In mere moments, we are flying in the air and the ground is falling farther and farther below me with each flap of its powerful wings. Its claws sink into my sides for purchase, and I let out a terrible scream in pain. My mind goes quiet and my senses sharpen with the pain and I remember the item in my hand. Lifting it, I pull the metal casing that was shrouding the blade as the beast sinks its fangs into my neck.

Without hesitation, I slam the blade into its neck all the way to its hilt. I feel the pressure of its fangs release, but I only have a moment of reprieve before I realize that we are falling. The beast goes limp, and we are a tangle of limbs and teeth that land in a heap with a bone crunching thud.

I struggle to breath and black touches the edge of my vision before it takes over entirely.

…

I wake with a groan, the pounding in my head drowning out any noises around me and is making it hard to think. To remember.

My eyes are still closed as I roll over onto my side. I feel the crunch of dead leaves and sticks underneath me and my body freezes as my brain races to catch up to present time. My eyes fly open and I see that I am in the forest and the last rays of the sun are touching the forest with orange and golden hues of light.

I take a deep breath and flinch at the way my body feels. The pain is a reminder of what happened, and although I would like to think that it was my imagination the pain won't let me believe my own lies.

I turn around, ever so slowly. My eyes travel up and down the limp form of the beast to make sure that if I even see a twitch of one of its muscles, that I will be ready to run. My gaze lingers on its chest for a few minutes to make sure that there is no rise and fall of its chest. Seeing that all of it is unmoving, I release a sigh of immense relief.

I move slowly and try to be as quiet as possible, just in case it is only sleeping. But as soon as I start to rise up from the ground, the throbbing in my head grows in size and I fall back to the ground with my face scrunched up in pain.

My hand presses against the side of my head and I wince as I touch an unnervingly larger size lump on my skull. I have no idea how high up we were in the sky, so I must have hit my head pretty hard when we fell to the ground.

I try to stand again, but this time I make very slow and precise movements. I make sure to only move the muscles that I need to so I don't unnecessarily tweak any of my injuries. That beast hit me with the force of a freight train. I have never felt this battered, this bruised. The bruises are so deep they seem to be in my bones.

After a few agonizing minutes, I manage to stand, but I have to fight the dizziness that threatens to send me back to the ground. I must have lost a lot of blood. Too much blood.

I have never been this injured before, so I have no idea how much danger I am in.

I bite my lips to hold in a whimper when I place my left ankle down and find it to be twisted. I shift so my weight is balanced on my other foot, but my hip screams in protest. I push through the renewed pain, knowing that if I don't I won't be able to walk away from here any time soon.

Now that I am standing and am higher above the beast, I take a longer look at its form. Its black fur is matted with blood...likely a mixture of the blood from my injuries and the fatal puncture to its neck. Its claws are also smeared with dried blood, and I swallow as I try to forget the feeling of the two-inch talons that ripped into my leg and my sides.

I press a hand to my side to check on the injury and thankfully see that the blood seems to have slowed. I don't know if I would be strong enough to put pressure on the wounds, so it is really lucky that the blood flow seems to have stopped on its own.

Really lucky.

It was also lucky that what seemed to be a simple pen was also a knife once you remove its casing. If I hadn't knocked it to the ground and shaken the casing loose, I don't know where I would be right now. Or if I would be alive.

I shudder at the last thought.

With a deep breath, I ready myself to take a step forward. I very slowly and carefully hobble my way towards the beast, but no matter how slow I move, the pain is excruciating. When I make it to where the dead beast now lies, I lean over and pull the knife from its neck.

I watch the beast with rapt attention, because even though all signs point to it being dead, there have been too many things that have happened lately that don't make sense. And I can't afford to let my guard down. I just barely escaped with my life and I don't want to lose the chance I have been given by making a mistake now.

So I watch, and I wait. And when I finally feel as though it won't come back to life, I turn my back on it and start to walk in what I believe to be the direction of my campsite.

It takes me longer than it should - my steps were twice as hard to do and my stride was half the length it normally is. It is dark by the time I make it to the camp, but somehow through sheer determination, I found my way back.

By the time I do, I only have enough energy to drink some water and lay down to rest. I pray that nothing else comes to hunt for me tonight, because I don't think I will walk away this time.