Cryptid : Log 2

Log 2:

"Goddamnit!" I hear Lily cry out as she begins to support me while running. I didn't understand why they came into Julias' Forest in the first place. There's nothing here to be taken. Yet we found ourselves running for our lives as the night sky lit up with auburn flames.

My body ached on from the recent battle with the intruder, still unable to move as freely and swiftly as I'd have liked to. Damnit, it wasn't supposed to be my sister having to carry my burden of being weak and unable to stand strong against the opponent. I didn't have the strength to protect her fully, and now to rely on her like this? Useless.

Rough tumbles and murmuring could be heard from our surroundings. Flames moved around the dark, illuminating the surroundings. It's almost like the light itself was betraying us, revealing our position in the safety of the darkness to the enemies.

"We just need to keep running, eventually they will lose us. There's no way in hell they could navigate this place as well as us." Lily turns over to me as we run through the forest. It seems more daunting to go through now, the trees don't seem to protect us anymore, in fact they seem to be trying to devour us. Is this the feeling of being prey? This familiar feeling within me, it terrifies me to my core.

I can't seem to think straight, I don't know what to do. Was it the fight from just now? Was it the air that night? What was it? The sky above me swirls in crazy shades of auburn and blues of the night sky forming a cumulonimbus-like cloud over us. Like a mad artists' wildest dreams, the world seemed to become unreal.

Several large segmented shadows seem to tear through the forest walls, circling us. The sparrows evacuate their homes in the trees, blessed with their wings, they fly away, silhouettes so close to being consumed by the auburn flames which reach greedily up toward the skies. How I wished to escape from this nightmarish landscape. But we weren't blessed with wings like the harpies, nor were we blessed with the terrifying strength of the giants. We were born as mere humans in this unforgiving world, where the only thing we could do was run with our feet planted to the ground.

We run and run as far as our exhausted bodies will allow us. The murmurs are slowly dying down, but the uneasiness in my heart does not simmer down. "Brother, we have to keep running." Lily turns to me. Her lips are chapped and dry from lack of hydration. She's clearly at her limit. So why does she choose to keep going?

She trips over. I stumble down with her as my heavy body hits the floor. I look over to her, she's already preparing to get up once more. She comes over to support me, scratches and dirt spattered on her slim arms and legs. I'm still crouched on the ground, wincing from the pain.

"It's been about Mom, hasn't it. You always have that look on ya face when you think about her." Lily murmurs, her eyes show a deep form of remorse which she has clearly tried to suppress. I can tell she's worried for me, her left eyebrow furrows slightly more than the right when she does. I try to be a good brother.

"I do miss her." I say to quell her worries. "But, the past is the past. It's best if we left it that way. Though I do hope that things could have turned out differently."

"You're lying, you're still sad about it. Your right eyebrow just gave it away dumbass." Lily replies. She knows me too well, haha. I do wish I could have given her a better life, with our parents gone, this was all we had. Too bad Lady Luck wasn't on our side, she could have led a much better life had she been born into the right family.

Poor living conditions. A tragic background. No parents. On top of all those cards, the world just decided to deal us one more shitty card. Fantastic.

"Now you're beating yourself up about it internally. Oh, I wish I could have given my sister a better life bla bla. " Lily speaks up once more. She reads my mind once more. I shamefully look down. "There's no point in that shit, if that's what's happened, then it's happened. We gotta look at the now. We gotta live through this. We just have to. We can't die." Somehow, in the darkness, with all the bright flames, hers burns the brightest. I can't help but feel slightly better, knowing that I was blessed with such a sister.

"I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. If we survive, I'm making breakfast. Your cooking would make the dead roll in their graves." I pat her head as she supports me forward still.

As if to test the honesty of my thoughts, the world had different plans for us. The assailants we thought we had lost had once again caught up to us. "Over there! There's two fuckin kids!" An unfamiliar voice calls. I turn my head hastily, a man donning a scruffy looking tunic and torn shorts is looking straight at us.

"Keep running!" We have no choice, with my physical condition in shambles we had no chance of hiding within the trees together. Our best bet was to keep running in hopes of losing whoever, or whatever, was after us. However, it's much easier to dream and believe sometimes ,than it is to realise that dream.

"Fuck! They're everywhere!" Every direction we turn to, either a monstrous shadow sits before us, or the ever nearing flames carried by our soon-to-be assailants. All except one angle, the lack of light and sound from the direction is almost as enamoring as a siren. We have no choice. We proceed to run toward the darkness, hoping to find some kind of safe haven which may help us weather this storm.

What kind of beast had come to push us into the afterlife? I can only think to myself as we run blindly through the darkness at this point, unable to think clearly on where we were headed. We are scraped by the low hanging branches of the willows as they try to hold us down.

"Brother! I think we are losing them!" She's right, it's become significantly quieter once more. But at that very moment, I feel the gaze of something.

Have you ever had an eerie feeling? Just an indescribable feeling? A small voice which warns you, stops you, does everything it can to prevent you from doing something?

At that moment, I had that feeling once more.

I stop in my tracks, something is in front of us, I can feel the hairs on my neck stand at the very presence of this beast. Wobbling forward in front of my sister, I barely keep a strong front, as I prepare my axe once more. Lily is confused by the sudden halt.

"Lily. We are going to have that breakfast together okay?" I reassure her. I will protect her, even if it costs me my life.

"What are you talking abou-" She shoots back, clearly shocked now,

A terrifying roar reverberates through the tunneling forest. Even the willows seem to bend away from the source of this unholy noise. As if to slowly unfurl a red carpet for the grand reveal, the spaces between the trees widen, making way for the giant beast. I force myself up once more as the bones in my body creak as unsteadily as the trees around us.

The sound gets louder. The flames grow much larger and move toward us. The numbers have increased too. Boisterous laughter can be heard amidst the crashing of wood and leaves. My eyes dart around to catch the attempts of death. If there was a single sign of hostile motion I would swing my axe to protect Lily.

Right there, within that small pocket of darkness, I can see it. It's head. The form of the beast becomes clearer as my eyes squint to accustom myself to the flickering light which tumbles toward us. My eyes widened in surprise upon realising the kind of enemy we were up against. A paralyzing fear is sent throughout my body, I grab onto Lily's hand tightly, as I prepare to flee. But my body refuses to.

An unholy amalgamation of brutally severed cryptid parts, varying sized legs of Giant Arachnids are stapled uncaringly to the main body... If you can even call it that. Some legs are longer and thicker, while others are furrier and have thorns attached to them. They twitch frighteningly, the cabins are shoddily put together, heavily used and blood splattered, attached to the main body. The main body seems to be a dead hydra's torso, cabins grow out from the body, shaking unpredictably as the amalgamation of a vehicle blasts its way through the forest, tearing everything in its path. Moss coats the wooden shacks and cabins which seem to be held up only by thinning wooden supports nailed into the side. Rusted pipes and a myriad of other used amenities show the history and usage of this vehicle, evidently they aren't too concerned about their presentation. Forest whistlers and deer remains coat the surface of the caravan train. Eyeballs and hooves stuck between the bits of spider fur as a trail of blood and remains are left behind like a Chuttera snail's slime track. Woodchip dust lines the air along with metallic traces from the blood of the poor critters who were unfortunate enough to come into contact with this monster. It's craftsmanship was almost as uncaring as its methods of traversing the lands, ripping through anything in its way.

Let's not forget the front of the snaking structure, desert husks' tusks emerge from the front creating a boney mask in the form of a boar to protect the front cabin as the mechanatron eats its way through the dense forest. It is a marvel of an invention, somehow even though all the parts should be antagonizing and unable to work together, they do somehow. A strange metaphor to describe it would be... a beautiful watch, for every gear which may turn, another is allowed to turn. For one component works for another. No part in this watch slacks off.

Absolutely shocked at the feat of engineering, I can do nothing but stand in front of it. As if the passengers are its very life force, I can feel the pressure it exudes from a distance.

Although the vehicle is a work of art, I can't say too much about its passengers. The passengers are a mixed herb bag of vagrants and hooligans at first glance, their clothes coated in dirt and crusted blood from animals and I assume, themselves too. One picks his nose and flicks the gummy treasure at another, and the two start scuffling. Across the two, another man whips his member out before spraying his day's worth of digested alcohol on another resident who peers up at him, yelling incoherent curses. The victim is visibly pissed and ducks back into his house, before returning to his window with a half broken glass bottle. I turn my head away from the scene before further scarring myself. The ramparts scream uncontrollably and incoherently. Some even stand on the tops of the cabins as they wave around their assortment of weapons, consisting of clubs and dulled blades.

" Are you fucking kidding me?" Lily breaks the silence. I can still feel her tremble at the size and monstrosity of the presence before us as she tries to put up a strong front.

I look at the machine, only realising now the kind of enemy we were up against. The machine seemed to snake further and further into the darkness. Peering down the length of the beast, more flames lit up, the ruckus from the vagrants also intensified. The segmented shadows which wrapped around us lit up, one by one. They reveal the size of the beast before us, which stretched and spiraled around us into the surroundings, swallowing up Julias' Forest.

We never had a chance to escape in the first place. Like a rat in an infinite maze, we had been surrounded from the very beginning.

More laughter emerged from around us. It was sickening.

Everywhere we looked, a pair of eyes stared back. The eyes of a predator stared back. "What a beauty this one is, eh?" I hear a whisper. "Send the boy to the pit later. He seems like a strong one." I hear another. They were discussing their business endeavours involving our lives in front of us? It felt like a circus freakshow, where we were the main attractions.

"Get back you hooligans!" I wave my axe weakly in front of them, not a very convincing show of strength from me. However, although my actions don't seem to have an impact on them, my words definitely did.

"You really think you're that much better than us, kid?" His face contorts to form a not-so-pleasant expression, expressing clear disdain toward what I just said. In fact, all of them seem to be a wee bit more

The ramparts start to surround us and push us slowly. Why the hell were they so mad that I called them hooligans? They were ugly, dirty and uncaring bastards who could give less a shit about our lives. Before I can come to my conclusion, the stubby man in front of me wielding a chipped blade rushes at me in a frenzied state. Mustering up all my strength, I watch as the blade grazes my chest, before sweeping my axe across his arm.

The severed hand drops to the ground before the man, eliciting a pained wheeze from him. I have a small moment to breathe before I am attacked once more. "Lily, just watch my back."

I can hear her runes clattering in her hands, it reminds me of when we used to throw rocks at the aviary in the forest, from time to time we would hit one and it'd be like an extra snack for the day. Roasted sparrow over a wood fire was the best.

I can only hope to have that experience again. "Scram you bastards!" A voice calls out as we prepare our final stand. The screams and chants are reduced to murmurs as I look for the source of the threat. The stubby man collects his arm before scattering away in the crowd too. He scowls at me before leaving. It's quite clear he has no intentions of being involved in whatever mess was about to occur. A lengthy staff stretches through the watching crowd, as it slaps me right across the face.

Before I'm able to do anything, the axe I wield is smashed across its hilt, sending the blade flying. "Wha-" I manage to get these words out before the other end of a staff comes swinging across my face. "Fuc-" I try to yell before I am rudely cut off again. Another volley of swings comes flying toward me. I'm brought to my knees as I hunch over.

Instinctively almost, I duck over Lily, hoping to protect her from the blows.

"Brother give me some time." Lily whispers.

I can hear her searching for her runes beneath me.

If he had been using a proper weapon, I'd be dead by now.

Yet another series of batterings come flying in as I try to gain a bit more time for Lily. "Ack!" Blood is dripping from my mouth as I look down at my hand. The axe handle is all that's left gripped in my palm. I look back up. Before I can make out the figure of my torturer, I'm hit across the face again.

"Keep your head down in front of your elders." The voice is raspy with a sense of wisdom and impatience from the years living in this corporeal dimension. This man is different from the ones I fought before, although he doesn't own a very threatening tone in his voice, he makes it clear that the difference between our skills is clear as day.

Even though I can taste the acidity of iron on my tongue and feel the pains throughout my body. I proceed to get up once more.

"Shut up you bastard." I lash out with a smile on my face.

"Ho, that's a new one. Maybe you could be the one." He's intrigued for some reason. "Well that won't matter if you don't survive the test."

"I don't give a shit about your fucking test." I look up at him, one eye covered in blood. He's not human? Although my vision is blurry from being hit in the head multiple times at this point, I can tell his facial features are not of a human. His neck is bristled with a mandarin orange coat of fur with brown baby hairs mixed in, with massive fox-like ears which jut out the top of his head. On top of that, he dons a terrifying mask. Polished tusks grow from the orifice in the mask, which I can only assume is the mouth ,while two carved eyes with huge black pupils bulge out unnaturally from the surface of the mask. His nose arches like an elegant dancer's back in motion, contrasted by what can only be called a morbid series of skulled regalia lining the frills atop the mask.

Well too bad I'm going to have to take that head off his shoulders.

"Now!" Lily screams.

I firm up my body in sync with the roots emerging from the ground to assist us once more. For a brief moment, I can see an opening, with my splintered axe handle in hand I once again prepare the blow for our escape. However, it is not us who have the upper hand in this fight ,unbeknownst to us. "This is why I hate rune users. They always get too cocky hiding behind their magic or whatever it is."

CRACK.

In the next moment, before I can drive the sharp end of my broken hilt through the side of his neck, and before the roots can enchain him to the ground, a crack in the air is heard. His form is no longer in front of me. Instead, he is above me. His staff cracks into multiple segments, before firming up once more as it extends past the trees around us. Toes perfectly balanced on the tip of the staff supporting his whole body weight, he looks down at me. Much like a dancer, his movements are swift, but decisive. The moon glows above him, like a perfect spotlight displaying and accentuating the elegance of every movement he makes. How's he so fast? Before I can decide my next actions, the staff turns flaccid once more as it retreats into his palm, causing him to descend from above. He's giving up his advantage in the air? My eyes widen as I realise something. He wasn't running, he was setting up a counter. "This is going to hurt a bit." These are the last words I hear, before being knocked out.