I woke up trembling, the searing air made my skin tingle. Why was it so cold? The deep woods that took all day to reach now looked unrecognizable. Earlier it was green and lush with welcoming breezes; but now it gave a faint hint of malice and seemed so unwelcoming. I blinked against the biting wind, squinting as the wind whipped my raw flesh and rubbed my arms, feeling utterly useless to repel this attack.
Sounds and light were all gone just like that. There were no animals around. No birds sung. The insects were silent, and the forest now reeked of decay. A creepy, dark feeling began to take hold of me. This wasn't what I had been expecting at all when I made the decision to traverse the wastelands to reach this point.
I dragged myself up and dusted the grime from my cloak as best I could. As I Lifted my exhausted body from the ground a dry sourness began to plague my mouth, and for the first time in the past two days I was conscious of my intense thirst.
As I moved through the dark, I began to survey the area and could hear the faint sounds of flowing liquids. Shortly after my senses began to kick in and I could smell something I hadn't before: metallic, pungent, artificial—this was something I could taste in the back of my throat.
There it was... but is this really... Water??
Instead of the clear liquid of normal of a stream of this type: a dark reddish hue emanated from the newly discovered source. It gleamed reluctantly; even though the light in the forest was so dim it could only vaguely be discerned; it didn't prevent all my senses from tingling along with its faint sparkles. The deep red glow shed a very strange unearthly luminescence. My instinct told me to back off, but curiosity got the better of me.
I found a stray piece of wood and cautiously prodded the liquid with it. Yet nothing happened—no hissing noise nor acidic reactions. Still skeptical, I squatted down to smell it. My throat was very dry: the thirst took over and I paused for a second before sticking my fingers in and cautiously lifting the liquid to my lips.
Delicious!
Even more so than I'd anticipated. It tasted earthy but was eerily refreshing, without a moment's hesitation I began to satiate my great thirst, nearly sticking my whole head into the stream. But upon closer observation I could see something strange. Red Crystals embedded on the streambed caught my eye, barely glinting reflections in its lurid glow. Is this the reason the water looked crimson?
Now hydrated I rose up to my feet and once more began to survey the area. I couldn't afford to stop taking precautions as for some reason I felt an ominous presence in the general area.
I followed the course of flow of the stream, in an attempt to try and track where it led and before I knew it, I was faced with a scene that could only be described as horrific...
There they were...Corpses.
On the banks of the stream lay dead animals in twisted forms. At first glance they seemed like deer, birds and canine shapes; each was horribly contorted, like marionette dolls being manipulated by strings. Legs jutted at crazy angles. Heads swollen or gone, the eyes swollen or missing, it was gut wrenching. Some had scales instead of furry parts, while others had extra appendages, but one they all had in common was the fact that they had all been mutilated beyond recognition
The animals had been hacked away at viciously. Tissue was torn, bones were broken, and intestines spread across the hillocks of undergrowth. No hunter would do this. It was more like an animal had killed them for entertainment.
Almost immediately after I was able to process this, a clinking noise began to approach, tick by tick, step by step it inched closer to me before nearly making contact. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up straight and I knew I was in danger.
Standing in open-mouthed horror, I put my hand to my chest and clutched my heart.
"Shit."
I gave a wild leap and began in a full sprint, my feet clattering on the ground hurriedly. The noise behind me grew steadily louder. It was also very fast—much faster than I. My breath came in hoarse gasps as my legs strained to move faster and faster. Far ahead, the forest suddenly opened up, and I could see a dark waterfall, but there was a problem... The ground plunged off sharply and there was nowhere for me to go but down.
I stopped suddenly at the cliff's edge, my heartbeat drumming away in my ears. I took a glance back instinctively, and there it was. Out from the blackness of that grotto came the faintest outlines of a huge figure; the creature began to materialize... a live mass composed by painstakingly shaped scales and a long tail like that of a dragon or lizard of some sort. Its eyes pierced my own glowing blood red. The monster tilted its slightly to look at me, and I felt all of my blood run cold. There was no time to think. I drew a long breath and jumped over the cliff praying that I would survive the drop.
The fall seemed to last an eternity, and I had no idea how deep the water below was, but I was in no position to make any other choice for a moment's hesitation could have resulted in death.
I realized that this was the last time I would be seeing the waterfall which I had mindlessly jumped from to save my own life.
Once I made impact with the water and floated back up to the surface, I made my final glance in the direction of those mist-wreathed rocks and fear gripped me by the throat once more.
There, only a short distance downstream, amidst thick fog and smoke, something unnatural stood, eyes fixed upon me with the gaze of a medusa that could turn any mortal to stone... I let the tide take me for as long as I could before finally mustering enough strength to pull myself out and catch my breath.
What had I seen? What on earth was that thing... and how many of them were there? All these questions ran through my mind, and I realized that coming here was a big mistake...