I couldn't see it anymore. I saw plants moving out of the way, and a small path that it was following, but not the actual body, just where it had to be. I heard Benneth scrambling to keep up with us; our footfalls getting closer together, though they were catching up slowly (if that's possible in a speedy situation like this).

I like chasing things, but most of the animals trust us so much that they usually just sit and wonder what we are doing. This creature is obviously different, which makes me want to catch it even more! My small glimpse of it showed it had a large round white orb on its back, and many long spindly legs. It's a wonder that it can run this fast with such a heavy-looking body. 

Rounding a tree and barely reacting fast enough to jump over a log that the creature skittered under, I realized that this creature is following a trail, not a large one, but a trail that it must have created! Why did it make this trail? Ducking under a particularly large leaf, I decided that I would figure that out soon enough if I kept the pace.

The path steeped downhill as the forest thickened. The ground seemed to be so much more pebbly and rocky now. I am very thankful for my shoes, my feet would have been sliced and bleeding by now! Yikes.

The skittering little form seemed to never slow! I was pretty athletic, but even I ran out of breath after a while! And that "while" was about now. Pumping my legs, I convinced myself that I could last another turn or two, but thank goodness that was when we reached our destination because I was truly exhausted.

Huffing and puffing body lies a hill in the forest. Hill was an understatement, it was more like a cliff. It was rocky on the side facing me and topped with more grasses and vegetation hanging down as if they were reaching for the ground. Rock and dirt colored it with grays, reddish-browns, and even a couple of slashes of black mixed in. The trees around it covered it from most of Ba’s light, but a few bright rays slashed through the dampening leaves. 

I didn't notice it until the still-scurrying creature weaved into it, but there was a crack in the cliff. A cave! How exciting! It wasn't like the caves I had imagined, this one looked like somebody took a giant ax and slammed it into the cliffside, which created a big enough gash to walk through.

All this I perceive in a couple of moments, along with the fact that Benneth is no longer behind me. I wonder what he is doing, but brush it off with an oh he is just slower than me. I don't have enough time to make a smart decision, so I rush into the cave anyway because I need to see this creature, and I need to find out why it is running from me. For the Living Book!

The cave entrance was small and sharp; I think I scraped my arms trying to fit in. It was also DARK. I realized that I had no idea what it was like underground! I guess I just always assumed there was light somehow streaming through the dirt and rock from Ba'ar. The entrance went down into the ground, still skinny– that is, until the small crack unnaturally widened into a dome, about the size of the meeting house back at Fields of Plenty. 

At the other end of the cave, heaving was the little rascal I followed. “Nowhere to run now!" I muttered raspily. The critter turned, "face" illuminated by the streams of light coming in behind me. Oh, Great Gardener! On its back was a huge, shiny, wet, round, puffy eyeball. It had no eyelid and almost seemed to be simply set on its back. The eye seemed to ooze in the light, It looked at me from behind the creature’s... head? Stalk? On the "head" were 2 long protruding fangs, and many mismatched teeth: yellowed, square, sharp, ribbed, the works. The creature itself was a rotund thing, mostly a dark washed-out red(where there wasn't an eyeball), with 6 segmented legs(3 on each side), and 2 more hanging out too high on the body to touch the cave floor. 

This was a hideous malformed freak of nature. A disgusting doll is sewn together with the grim remains of other toys. This was something not of our beautiful world.

I wished I hadn't been so stupid. I wished I hadn't gone in without Benneth. I wished he was there to talk sense into me like he always does. I wished I had run when I realized what I was chasing. I wished for a thousand things, but wishing doesn't change what happened that day.

}--{To Benneth}--{

I stood back up, face dirty, head spinning, and I romped back off, following the path I knew Moikra had followed, gaining speed–determined to catch up to them. 

That was a mistake because almost I fell again. I slipped on the gravelly path, trying to stop when I noticed the path ahead dipped down quite steeply. And before me was a cave that broke into an open rock face. Losing no time, I ran down the bluff and delved into the crack-cave, hoping it wasn't too dark.

It was. I walked in and was faced with a pitch-black, rocky path to walk through. A bit of light came through behind me, but I blocked most of it. The farther I walked, the harder it became to breathe. The darkness felt like it was choking me; the tight walls did not help. However, I pressed on knowing that I couldn't let Moikra get in trouble or worse, hurt! 

Then I heard something dreadful. A scream rang out unlike anything I had ever heard, long, wailing, and pained. I had heard her cry before, as mom bandaged a gash caused by a particularly sharp rock, but this was something more, almost animal-like, like all the fear and pain we had ever experienced stuffed into one scream. I ran, FAST. Tearing through the rest of the crack into an open room.

Moikra was on the floor, unconscious (or worse!). Looming over her was the most hideous thing I have ever seen. What I saw was a lump of flesh with body parts as if they were stabbed into it at odd angles. Blood trickled from spot the legs where shoved in and also from a large gash in its side, a festering gash. Fueled by fear and love, I continued to run at the creature.

"GET OFF MY SISTER!" I yelled. I landed a punch right in its lumpy, wet eyeball, hoping to throw it off-guard. The creature stumbled backward and fell over with a strange low squeal and tried to ease the pain with its legs. I forced my attention onto Moikra. I picked her up, and I ran as fast as one can run when holding their limp little sister inside a stone crack with a terrifying monster behind you.

I felt like I exploded out of the cave. Able to run a lot more freely–and breathe a lot more freely–I ran up the bluff and broke off from the path in another direction. I ran until I thought we were out of hearing range and set Moikra down. She was still breathing, but her right shoulder was bleeding quite a bit. 

In a fit of medical inspiration, I took off my shirt and ripped the sleeves off at the seams, then I fit them around her own sleeve, which had 2 small holes in it (I realized later that the creature had bitten her there, but only the fangs of the creature had punctured her shirt–no other teeth). The extra sleeves tripled the amount of fabric to soak up the blood and increased the pressure on the wound. I tied the hem of my ruined shirt around the 3 sleeves to apply more pressure and ensure they wouldn’t fall off.

I collapsed, and, breathing heavily, tried to comprehend what had just happened. We had made it out, that was enough for me right now. I started doing what I do in situations with pressure; I started making a list. All the weird things that had happened got cataloged in my head: A creature had run away from us, this creature did not seem... designed, Moikra got bit by it, I punched it, and we went into a cave. What a day. I knew that we would be pouring over this day for details, trying to draw the creature and find out more about it. First, though, we had to rest. 

A while later, I stood up and tried to shake Moikra awake. No luck. She had suffered quite the scare and who knows how much her shoulder hurt. It was probably better that she didn't wake up right at this moment. I picked her up gently. I made sure that her injured shoulder had as little reason to hurt as possible, and I made my way back to the path and back to the town. 

THE END

}--{To a word from the author}--{