Jonathan cast a glance over his
shoulder, breathing hard, but he had not put any distance between him
and his pursuer. The creature behind him leaped a fallen tree, its
red eyes glowing with an unearthly light. Swearing silently, Jonathan
turned his head forward and redoubled his efforts. He tried to ignore
the building pain in his legs, focusing on his breathing as he forced
his way through the foliage.
The chase had been going on for fifteen
minutes, now, and Jonathan knew he was only delaying the inevitable.
He had never been much of a runner, and that fact was certainly
apparent as he felt a stitch forming in his side. He could almost
hear the creature's panting, a near growl marking the time behind him
as the beast pursued. He had never gotten more than a glimpse of
those horrid, haunting red eyes in the fading light, but the light of
malice in that face was unmistakable – a clear sign that whatever
it was, it wasn't friendly.
Jonathan stumbled and cursed, his foot
catching on a root. He fell forward, catching himself on his hands.
He winced at the sudden pain as his skin was scratched and scraped,
but used his momentum to vault himself back to his feet before coming
to a halt. The creature's breathing seemed louder now, closer – he
imagined that he could feel it's hot, moist breath on the back of his
legs. He dashed around the trunk of a tree, the branches whipping at
his exposed arms as he pushed himself onward.
Behind him, the creature began to
growl. Softly at first, but building in intensity. The sound chilled
Jonathan to the bone – it was unmistakably hostile. Jonathan knew a
war cry when he heard one. He began to feel panic truly boiling
inside of him as he ran, adrenaline pumping his legs when sheer
willpower gave out. His arms began to shake as his body reached the
limits of its power, and he felt himself start to flag.
Right as he felt himself slowing, he
heard a noise off to his right – something crashing through the
brush. He looked up hopefully, but screamed when a second pair of red
eyes bounded out of the underbrush, shaggy-haired snout slathered in
foamy saliva. His fear overcoming him, Jonathan dashed off at a
diagonal, attempting to put maximum distance between both his
pursuers. He just barely darted out of the way of the new pursuer,
hearing its jaws snap in the air where his leg had been mere seconds
ago.
The hot breath on the back of his leg
was no longer imagined. The new pursuer growled along with his
partner, the dissonance of their cries resonating in Jonathan's soul.
He could see the end, feel the jaws clamping around his leg in his
mind. With a final burst of speed, he pushed through a large wall of
brush...
...and found himself airborne. He took
a panicked second to look back over his shoulder and see his pursuers
tumble out of the hole he had just made in the patch of green on top
of a large rock face. The wind was deafening, the roaring in his ears
his entire world as he fell. He had no idea how far the ground lay
below him, but he suspected that any moment now he'd find out. His
last thought as the tops of trees in the valley below him entered his
peripheral vision were of his impending impact, and how he sincerely
hoped it would be less painful than being torn to pieces by rabid
creatures with demonic eyes.
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