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Post by yooom on Apr 3, 2018 7:40:04 GMT -6
The ground felt soft, and strangely cool on Eliza’s face. The air was hot and humid,
and made her feel heavy. All around her she could hear sounds, the rustling of leaves in a breeze she could not feel, the idle high-pitched chatter of birds. With a slight groan, Eliza slowly opened her eyes. She winced slightly in the bright sunlight. The world was a blurry mess of browns and greens, but, after blinking a few times, she was able to see the world in clearer focus. She was in a small, circular clearing. Around her loomed the jungle in all of its beauty, huge tree trunks, lush green vines and ferns crisscrossing across the ground. Indeed, it seemed the only place not teeming with life was the circle of dirt she was resting on.
Eliza stood up, stretching and yawning. Her back felt funny, like she’d been sleeping in an unfamiliar position. She blinked a few more times, and wiped sleep from her eyes. Taking in another deep breath of the fresh, sweet jungle air, Eliza looked herself over. She did not recognize the strange, scratchy white dress that was already smeared with the dark brown dirt she’d been sleeping in, but she did recognize the cascade of long, light brown hair that extended down to around her waist. With an exasperated sigh, she began to brush bits of dirt out of her hair with a hand.
While she somewhat clumsily cleaned out her hair, Eliza tried to remember how she’d come to fall asleep in the middle of the jungle. She couldn’t remember much of the night before, and, like a dream, the more she tried to remember it, the harder it was to remember. The most she could get was a bright flash of light followed by a strange, almost sinister stillness.
She shivered, and cast a nervous glance across the jungle. She could still hear the sounds of birds coming from somewhere far, far above her but Eliza couldn’t make out the slightest sight of any creature moving through the underbrush. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest. She swallowed nervously, and stood very still, her eyes whizzing in their sockets at the sight of every rustled leaf, but, as far as she could tell, no one was watching her. Still, Eliza knew better. She was not alone in here. Something else was in these woods, and they were a very dangerous thing indeed.
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Post by Cydonia921 on Apr 3, 2018 10:48:29 GMT -6
The viridescent foliage seemingly wrapped and contorted itself all around Eliza. Nothing appeared to be stationary, with the leaves and trees swaying with what felt like a southerly wind. Creaking as it bent to the will of nature, the sound seemed to echo from how densely packed the forest seemed to be.
Birds were heard from afar, their chirps piercing the canopies. But it did little to quell the anxiety that Eliza had felt. For good reason, she had been nervous, and the fear that she exuded had been caught by a creature. Indeed, a creature that would have been better to never encounter.
With glee, something had come forth. Never in plain sight, always in the shadows, they flickered their tongue. The heartbeats were felt as vibrations in the air, and the smell of sweat poured over them like aromatherapy. What an unfortunate soul to find herself here.
At least that what they thought. Curling around the branch, eyes flickering with a strange intensity, they remained still after perching themselves at an advantageous spot. What was her next move? This place had been a peculiar one indeed, and he was extremely intrigued by the prospect of all of this.
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Post by yooom on Apr 3, 2018 14:39:02 GMT -6
Eliza was frozen, her eyes continuing to roam the surrounding trees. As her mind was slowly waking up, the terror of her situation began to quickly well up in her. The trees, the sound of birds, none of it felt right. She was alone, in an unfamiliar world, and the only thing she WAS certain about was that she was in terrible, terrible danger. Her heart was racing, and she was taking in quick, rasping breaths. The trees loomed larger and larger over the small girl, and she felt a rising helplessness, trapped in this awful place. Hyperventilating, Eliza fell to her knees, her vision going blurry again. She was going to die like this, curled up in terror, unable to even move out of the clearing she’d found herself in.
No. Something about that last thought roused something in her. I will not die, not like this, not today. Just breath…
Struggling to stabilize herself, Eliza opened her mouth took in a deep breath. The air was clean, and crisp, and she could feel her senses returning to her. Her vision cleared, the trees looking a little less intimidating than they had a moment ago. Eliza took another deep breath. She was going to be fine, she was going to be fine, as long as she kept her wits about her. She took another deep, slow breath. Panicking would get her nowhere, and right now she could not afford to panic.
Blinking, Eliza rose again, and this time, when she scanned the treeline it was not with meek disbelief, but with purpose. There had to be an end to these woods, an exit that she could get out of, and wherever that was, she thought, the monster would not be able to follow her. She took a step forward, before stopping again, cautiously eying the masses of conifers and vines that ran across the jungle floor. Would it be better to move slowly, and try to escape these woods undetected, or simply move as fast as possible? Deciding that she would move quickly when she knew where she was headed, Eliza took a few careful steps forwards, towards the edge of the clearing. Taking another deep breath, she stepped forward. The dirt, out of the sunlight, felt cold under her bare feet, and she shivered slightly, before taking another careful step forward. Vines snaked along the jungle floor in all directions, and Eliza doubted she could afford to find out how much noise one made when trampled underfoot. Picking a direction and sticking with it, she continued on her way, taking careful, wide steps, listening carefully for the slightest sound of movement that was not her own.
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:56:01 GMT -6
It’s just a game.
That had been how they felt about seeing Eliza move forward, her careful strides moving her feet in half-circle motions. They shifted accordingly, the scales hidden within the shadows, silver eyes lighting up in anticipation. They glowed unnaturally within the shadow, unseen by Eliza, but appearing like silver daggers that pierced the darkness of their hiding spot. The muscles rippled with excitement, feeling a sense of pleasure swell up within their chest at the prospect of what it was that instinct told them to do.
Feed.
Or was it something else? What was it that they had been programmed to do? Flickering their tongue once more, seeing Eliza moving, the trap had been sprung. Drawn to the smell of her flesh, the impression she made with her careful, deliberate steps, they knew what it was that they must do.
Scales pressed against the soft jungle floor now. Propelled forward with a sense of purpose, silence had been its stalwart ally. Tail pressed against the bark, coiling up into itself, it waited. The ebony scales had a dull glimmer to them, the opaque nature rendering it nearly invisible to the naked eye.
Should it strike? That had been the question that fleeted from their mind for a split-second. It could have been so easy. To lunge, snap their neck, then devour. It had done it a dozen times over, all with different prey. Sometimes boys, sometimes women, and yet always the same result.
Yet despite instinct demanding that it should pounce upon the opportunity, there had been something about Eliza that attracted them. Could it be the cautious way she moved? The way her eyes flitted around with a tense anxiety? Or had it been that her heartbeat had slowed from the initial panic? Oh this had to be observed for its own curiosity.
Unraveling from the tree, it carefully moved, the immediate pressure from delving into its own instincts instead being replaced with a very human emotion. It had to follow Eliza. It had to know.
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:56:18 GMT -6
Eliza continued on her way, stepping slowly and cautiously forward. As she passed from the clearing, the world grew dark, the pale clear sunlight obscured under layers of dense foliage. The thick branches and wide leaves sent strange, rippling shadows across the jungle floor that Eliza jumping at every movement, every breeze that set one of them quivering like an aggravated rattlesnake. Continuing to pick her way through the gaps in the leafy vines across the ground, Eliza continued to head in her singular direction. West, North, South, it did not matter. All she did know was that, at one point or another, this forest had to end, and, once there, she’d be safe.
At a slight snapping of leaves Eliza froze, her head whirling around to look behind her. She was being followed, she knew it, she could feel it in her bones, but from where. She squinted. Underneath the trees, the world was dark, the perfect place for a predator to tail its prey, staying just far back enough to be invisible to her human eyes while being perfectly able to keep an eye on her. Then again, it might have just been a breeze, rustling against the trees. Eliza’s gaze shifted upwards, to that dense layer of trunks and crisscrossing branches, practically another whole floor of the jungle. Some tree dwelling creature could have been following her in silence this entire time, relishing each time it made a sound that sent her glaring at every twig on the ground while it simply watched her from above.
Or perhaps Eliza wasn’t being followed at all. Perhaps the creature that was hunting her was simply lying in wait somewhere ahead and, when she drew just a few feet too close to its den or nest it would lurch out, grab and her and swallow her whole before she had so much as a second to realize it was too late. An Ambush Predator.
An Ambush Predator. The words stuck in her head, as an image slowly bloomed in her mind’s eye. A large tarantula, rearing upwards, its fangs dripping, pouncing on an unsuspecting mouse. It was a painting on a page, dimly lit by an old, flickering bulb in the corner of a room. The library was small, unimpressive to most, but it was Eliza’s favorite place to go as a child. In there, she was able to let her childhood run wild, reading about exotic lands and animals. From the gloomy attic, she could almost not hear the shouting and crying that filled the house almost constantly.
In the jungle, ten years later and unknown miles away, Eliza blinked. The orphanage...it seemed such an obvious part of her memory, the orphanage she’d spent her childhood, that it felt strange to her to not have been able to remember it a moment ago. She couldn’t remember a time before the orphanage, her parents had died when she was very young. Her earliest memories were of those awful, yellow, peeling walls, and hard, wooden floors. Everything about it was off putting, unwelcoming, except the books. On a few short bookshelves in a dusty corner of one of the rooms, there were a few dozen colorful picture books that she’d grown to love. They were bright, and inviting, in short everything the orphanage wasn’t. She’d practically memorized their words, and, at this moment, their knowledge was all that she had to try and stay alive.
Realizing that she’d spent far too much time standing still and thinking to herself, Eliza let out a slight gasp, and turned her head rapidly, scanning the jungle floor and the branches above for any changes and, seeing nothing, continued on her way of stepping cautiously across the jungle floor, head continuing to move on a swivel, jumping slightly at every sound.
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:56:44 GMT -6
A sense of excitement rushed through the creature's body. Shivering from the delight of the prospect of having this human in their coils, and ultimately in their stomach, it had been all too much to bear. Oh how quaint! The great thrill of the hunt; that had been what it strived to accomplish. Squeezing, maiming, crippling, killing. The greatest image that was first, and foremost, appearing in its mind had been the image of Eliza's face, blue from asphyxiation and eyes bloodshot, within its coils.
However, had this been all there was to it? Programmed to hunt and kill, it had done so superbly the last several times. Yet to top it all it wondered why. That peculiar question again. Why? Why do anything? It always stopped them dead in their tracks after the hunt was over. Instinct made them eat. Instinct made them strive to become the perfect predator. Yet the mere questioning on why posed a threat to its existence.
With Eliza's presence, it only perplexed them. She seemed lost in thought yet fully alert. Careful yet careless. Her heart had went from a gallop to a steady thump thump. Her fear had been there, yet there had also been something else. Something peculiar.
Then, they pounced.
Lunging forth from the shadows, the creature finally struck. Ebony tail exposed to the light, a blur in Eliza's vision, it had finally decided to pounce. Their long, claw-like fingers had clasped the ground as it swiveled, digging into the floor as an anchor. The motion had been quick, just as it had practiced all those times. Before the tail struck Eliza, those silver daggers had gleamed with a prismatic pupil, staring at her intensely.
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:56:58 GMT -6
The creature moved in complete silence, and Eliza, despite her attentive awareness of every sound in the vicinity, had yet to notice it. As a matter of fact, she was growing more confident with each cautious quiet step she took. It seemed that her odds for surviving this ordeal were steadily improving. If she could just keep mov-
DUCK
The thought radiated across Eliza’s mind in a voice that was certainly not hers, but she obeyed it instinctively all the same, leaping down as quickly as she could. As she dropped to the ground she saw, out of the corner of her eyes, something whizzing towards her, its body a dark blur, a gigantic creature that was much, much larger than her.
Whatever it was, it had thrown itself towards Eliza when she’d stood and, while the creature’s body went flying straight over her, whatever it was that was hunting her was large enough that simply taking cover had not been enough to avoid harm. A chunk of the creature’s thick, black tail slammed into her side, sending her skittering across the ground with a shout of pain as the air was knocked out of her.
Adrenaline, and sheer terror at the thing that had flung itself into existence on top of her, got Eliza off the ground quickly. Scrabbling at the ground, she leapt back to her feet and took off, sprinting away from the thing that had attacked, not daring to turn around to see if it was following her, or even to get a better look to even understand what the creature even was.
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:57:11 GMT -6
She fled.
Just like that, the creature had been alone. She had been struck firmly by its tail, which had receded back into a strange pile. Plucking his dagger-like fingers from the ground, which had been black from the soil, the eyes could see Eliza sprinting into the foliage.
Yet one thing remained clear: she had been aware of its existence. If she hadn't ducked, it could have taken her head clean off. This had been no ordinary girl. No one that they had ever hunted down could have predicted that motion so quickly. It had been automatic, reflexive even.
The creature let out a howl that sounded like a mix of a human scream merged with a panther. It rang through the trees, exposing the sheer anger it felt to all of the jungle.
Eliza would pay dearly for this action, it thought. She will succumb to him! Giving pursuit, it slithered, the odd humanoid form that it had undaunted from the task as it lowered itself near the ground. Speed was its ally.
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:57:23 GMT -6
As a terrified Eliza sprinted past trees, over thick brambly vines and gnarled roots, she heard the creature let out a furious shriek. The sound was terrifying, a high pitched, wail that sounded both disappointed and enraged. The voice sounded distant enough, she could hear it echoing between the trees, as if there were a dozen shrieking monsters chasing after her instead of the one she was certain of. However, Eliza did not stop running, did not even slow down.
What baffled her the most about the creature was how quiet it had been. She hadn’t been sure what she’d been expecting, perhaps a tiger, or a leopard, but this creature, from what little she’d seen of it before she’d taken off, was far larger than both of those animals combined. How on earth had it been able to stalk her in such complete silence?
A pain was building in her ribs; she wasn’t sure whether it was a stitch from the running, or from when the creature’s huge tail had collided with her. Her mind whirred, what kind of creature had a tail and grew to be that big? It had to be well-known, it must have popped in something she’d read. Was it a lizard? The way it moved hadn’t seemed like a lizard, and it certainly didn’t sound like one.
The trees quite abruptly parted, and Eliza skidded to a halt, staring in utter shock at the sight before her. Towering above her, looming as high as she could see, was a vast wall of ivy that extended as far as she could see in either direction.
“W-what?” Eliza mumbled, in complete confusion. Slowly, breathing heavily from her sprint, she stepped towards the wall of ivy. Stretching a hand through the thick vines, she reached forward, and, once her arm was up to her elbow in the ivy, she felt something cold and hard: a concrete wall. She closed her eyes, her heart sinking. Wherever she was, she was trapped with this monster.
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:57:42 GMT -6
The creature burned through the foliage, the sharp claw-like fingers treading along the jungle soil. It felt the heartbeat pulse through the air, each wave hitting its senses with a thrill that it had longed for each time after the hunt was over. Sweat and fear permeated its sense of smell, which had been located on the tip of its serpentine tongue. The smooth-formed head, which had been blackened from the scales, slowly raised as it saw Eliza encountering the wall.
The dreaded wall. Where many people before her had met their end. Half of the encounters ended like this, with the humans that appeared here pressed up against the wall. Some of them, it remembered, tried to take branches from nearby and swat at it. With a quick motion, it had either broken the person’s arm, or instantly snapped their neck. They were lucky to have even got this far, and yet here she was.
She dodged the blow that it had planned so far in advance. The girl even managed to get up after taking a hit. Oh how curious the creature had became. Instead of going for the killing strike, it instead appeared before Eliza.
The fingers tread the ground as it moved forward, the tail propelling itself forward. On closer examination, one could see that, instead of hair, there had been feathers along the head. The eyes shimmered with prismatic colors, intensifying as the irises narrowed, perhaps getting a better view of Eliza.
Despite the strange, peculiar features, it appeared to have a somewhat human torso from the waist up. Although it had been covered in scales, with lack of defining muscle, it appeared to carry with it a very human emotion: curiosity.
At first it had been silent, staring at Eliza as she closed her eyes. Then, it spoke.
“Hu...man…”
The voice had been low, steady, and almost came out as a hiss. The attempt had taken effort. When had been the last time it spoke? It struggled to remember, yet it had been born with vocal cords for a reason.
“Hu...man…”
That was the word, right? It sounded right. It had always been a hassle to remember what words went to what object.
“Human…?”
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:58:00 GMT -6
Eliza slowly drew back from the wall, pulling her arm out of the ivy she’d entangled it in to feel the cold concrete behind it. The part of her mind that hadn’t resolved itself to defeat moment she’d realized she was trapped in here whirred, struggling to come up with the next way out. She could here the voice, the same voice that had told her to duck, ringing in her head.
RUN AWAY
There was nowhere to run. She wasn’t fast enough to make it to the end of this wall before the creature would catch up to her, and was was to say there wasn’t another wall there, and another wall connected to that, a huge fence penning her in here with that terrible creature.
RUN AWAY
Eliza’s head was hurting from the sheer ferocity of the voice now, hardening in her head from instinct to something else, something more than what it had felt like a moment ago.
RUN AWAY NOW
“I can’t!” Eliza screamed, at what she did not know. “There’s nowhere to go!” She took a deep breath again, leaning against the ivy, trying not to cry, breathing in short, desperate breaths. The two of them were trapped in here, and it would be here before she could figure a way out.
This time, she heard it before she saw it, the snapping of leaves under its long, black tail, the heavy thud of each of its arms, each seemingly two longs for the creature’s malformed body. Eliza turned, and, as it loomed forward from the shadow, she at last saw the monster in full. It was gigantic, its skin black as shadow, a tail, as thick as Eliza’s entire body, rising up to about her chest. From there, its body changed. It wasn’t a snake’s body, but it wasn’t quite human either. Thick, armored scales covered a human like chest, two lines of ridged scales rising up along the creature’s back. Its shoulders were large, strangely spherical, and with the tips of its claws sinking into the dirt, the monster’s shoulder blades stood several feet above level with Eliza’s head. The creature’s head was sight to behold, terrifyingly misshapen. A long, thick, dark blue tongue lolled slightly out from between eerily human-like lips, and, atop an unusually large head was a plume of odd, brightly colored feathers. However, the strangest aspect to this creature was its eyes. They were large, taking up most of the creatures face, and they were squinting at her in apparent confusion. They were brightly colored and seemed to sparkle like diamonds gleaming in the-
DON’T LOOK
Eliza’s eyes slammed shut, and she turned her head down to face the tall grass, her body frozen in fear. She heard the creature approach, the thuds of its clawed arms shaking the ground as it came closer and closer.
At the sound of the creature’s voice, Eliza’s eyes shot open, though she continued to look at the dirt, seeing just the coil that marked where monster met ground. It’s voice was strange, rasping, yet deep, almost a whisper. Eliza stuttered to respond, her own voice trembling.
“Y-y-yes, I’m...I’m human.” she said, shakily. “What...um, what are you?
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:58:12 GMT -6
What was it? That was a question it sought to answer in its own right. What a peculiar question it had been. Born with feathers, a strange humanoid form with a serpent tail. By all means, if it had any sort of idea of what constituted as normal or relatively within the realm of normalcy, it would have considered itself a monster. A beast that never should have seen the light of day.
Instinct had been put aside for now, for the first time having a human engage in dialogue with it. Normally they screamed. They ran. They died. That had been how it worked in here. Yet something about Eliza had intrigued it. A hollow hiss escaped its mouth, the feathers ruffled as it raised a hand towards her, the claws unable to be receded back.
"Human... Speak?"
No, the sentence was wrong. The structure was off. The irises shimmered, flickering as it had a strange focus on Eliza. Lowering the hand, letting the claws sink into the ground, it contemplated on how to effectively communicate with the girl.
What about...?
Turning its head towards Eliza's eyes, it noticed how frightful she appeared towards it. Understandable, but foreign to the mind. "Human... comfort?"
Had that been the word it had been looking for? It seemed strange, to say a word that it had little to no meaning for. It reminded the creature of when it had been introduced to dogs, cats, and then more complex animals. Names for all of them, yet it had all been meaningless. All organisms were made to die. Yet humans were different. They were the only ones to express fear, discomfort, and it had been a pity to hunt them down.
Was it instinct that brought the creature to do what it did, or was it that it never knew anything else? Now was the test.
"Human... scared? Afraid...?"
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:58:29 GMT -6
The huge creature was silent for what felt like a very long time, and Eliza, careful to heed the voice’s instructions to not look into its eyes, slowly looked up, so that she could more of its huge, misshapen body. She watched as one of the huge, dark arms raised up slowly, and, as it came closer to her, Eliza shied away from it, her eyes locking nervously onto the gnarled, yellowing, talon like claws. The creature, seeming to notice Eliza’s fears, lowered its hand, and Eliza winced slightly as she watched the sharp claws easily slice through the ground.
Eliza’s listened to the creature as it spoke in odd, disconnected phrases. She frowned slightly, trying to understand what was going on. This thing had, barely a minute ago, been trying to kill her, and she had only narrowly dodged it’s first strike. Now, with nowhere left to go and the creature seemingly able to end her life at any moment, it was trying to talk to her. What on earth was happening?
Eliza nodded slightly. It seemed like the best thing to do was to humor this creature, while trying to find the right moment to slip away. Her eyes darted around the narrow clearing the creature had effectively pinned her in. He was between her and the trees, his tail hidden in the underbrush; Eliza didn’t know where the beast’s tail ended, or even how long it was. The creature had stopped talking, seeming to have settled for the word ‘Afraid’, and Eliza was quick to respond.
“Afraid? I...yes, well, you...you kind of jumped out at me back there, it seemed you wanted to…”Eliza paused, trying to come up with the best way to phrase it. “hurt me.” she said, watching the creature’s body carefully, looking to try to dodge if the creature tried to make any kind of sudden attack on her.
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:58:42 GMT -6
Well what else could it say to her? The creature couldn't admit that it had attempted to maliciously maim her. Its eyes stared at the ground before her feet, averting its gaze for the time being to contemplate what it meant. It understood what she was saying to it, and yet...
Wait, what had this feeling been? For a moment, the creature was confounded. Its heart sank into the pit of its metaphorical stomach, and something made it tremble. Shutting its eyes, something was wrong. Its lungs burned, its chest hurt. Darkness had been settling on its shoulders, a shadow creeping up where it had longed to push it away. It felt like a hand was grasping its throat, choking it.
"Feeling..." It started, trying to comprehend what it was that this sensation meant. Its mouth grew dry, yet it knew that this had been a mirage, something caused by its body reacting to this new feeling. What was it?!
Taking up its claws, it tossed some dirt Eliza's way, hitting her shoulder as its other hand, which had significantly shorter claws, went to rub its head. Was it something in his head that was causing it to feel ill? It knew that the psychological effects of blunt trauma could be enough to make it feel weird. Yet its memory was sharp; there had been no such trauma in its recent history.
Then a word escaped its lips.
"Guilty..."
Guilty... What was that? Such a word had never come across its basic and simplistic vocabulary in all of its life. Its hand clasped the side of its head tighter, finally getting in a breath of fresh air into its lungs.
"Guilty! Punishment!"
That's what it needed, right? Punishment. An electric shock administered by some unknown hand. Toxins flowing through its veins in retaliation. A knife to the ribs. Tearing its flesh open to see the contents within.
Punishment... Why?
"Gah!"
Its head hurt more just thinking more about these abstract concepts.
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Post by yooom on Apr 5, 2018 12:58:55 GMT -6
Eliza watched as the creature’s strange, muscular torso shifted in place with what seemed almost embarrassment. She stared at it, again careful to not look into the creature’s eyes, watching as the creature shifted around in place. What was going on its head, she wondered.
To its credit, the creature seemed to notice Eliza’s complete confusion, and appeared to try and offer some kind of explanation. That attempt only lasted one word, before the creature stopped talking, fidgeting nervously. It moved suddenly, its claws sending bits of dirt raining down on Eliza as it cradled its own head, rocking back and forth. She flinched slightly, but tried again to remain still. Whatever this thing was, it was not stable.
As the creature started shouting about punishment, its tail whipping about wildly, Eliza began to wonder whether now would be the best moment to escape. She started to edge over to one side of the creature, the side with his smaller, less menacing arm, keeping a careful watch on the creature. If it figured out what she was trying to do, Eliza wasn’t sure what it would do, and, given its present craze, she did not want him to realize what she was about to do in time. That being said, she still wanted to know what the creature was talking about.
“Guilty? What do you feel guilty for?” she asked, surprised by how level her own voice was. Perhaps it was because she had a plan, that she was no longer fearfully wondering when the creature would strike, but she felt a little more level headed than she had the moment she’d seen the creature.
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