Eyes of the Wolf

16
“Run.”

Those teeth. The animal, it’s so big. It’ll kill me…

“Run!”

It was coming closer. I could see the pupils of its blue eyes, the white markings on its face…

“Dammit Maya…”

A hand grabbed my shoulder and shook it.

Run.

I needed to run.

It would kill me.

Run.

I scrambled to her feet and sprinted. Behind me, I heard the growl get louder, heard paws hit the ground, then stop. Two sets of snarls began, but they were far behind me now. Thanking God that I was a runner, I sprinted farther into the trees, not daring to turn around and look back. Branches whipped at my face and I tripped over roots, but I didn’t stop. I had to escape. My heart pounded in my chest, and I struggled to keep giving it oxygen despite the effects of the adrenaline surging in my blood. Leaping over a fallen trunk, I remembered the breathing my P.E. teacher had taught me, and drew in two breaths at a time and let out one.

Having exerted this control over my body, it was awhile before my breath truly grew short. The two tendrils of hair that framed my face now stuck to it, and I hastily swept them behind my ears as I looked around. I listened.

Nothing.

I heaved a sigh of relief and looked around. I was in a dense part of the forest. No path was visible anywhere. A realization struggled to surface, but I held it at bay and frantically searched for something familiar. Anything.

Nothing.

I was lost in the middle of a national park.

My phone had no signal in said national park.

Crud. I looked around again. Trees loomed over me like huge, looming pillars. They were in such a quantity that they blocked the moon, and I had no idea where I could find it again. I couldn’t even see the stars. It was cold out here.

Panic began to set in. I stood and began to stumble further in the direction I was almost certain I had been heading. Hopefully, it was a way to the edge of the forest. Even if it wasn’t, I was going to move on even ground, not uphill.

Wait…

I turned right and examined the slope. It was steep, but not undoable. Bracing my already exhausted body, I dropped to all fours and started climbing.

Why hadn't I just gone back in the direction of the houses?

‘Cause I was stupid.

Why couldn’t I remember what to do if I got lost in the forest?

I never learned, and I never thought I’d need to. Hiking had never appealed to me and, as I lost a lot of ground by losing my footing and slipping down the incline several feet, I could see why. Gritting my teeth, I tried again. My hands were hurting, and the stuff they grabbed seemed to get slipperier the further up I got.

Finally, I reached a plateau. Groaning, I carefully rose to my feet. I could see the moon now. I shivered in the cold air. Deciding that moving away from it would lead me where I needed to go, since it was on the back side of the house, I turned from it and promptly slipped and crashed to the ground, rolling all the way down until my body slammed into a tree. Pain swelled in my stomach like dye dropped in water, and I let out a long moan for it. I stayed there for a long time.

I was actually almost asleep—if it could properly be called that—when I heard rustling around me. Instinct taking over despite my brain shutting down, I staggered to my feet and started moving blindly again. Whenever I was about to stop, plants would move again and I’d stumble forward with new resolve. Occasionally I glimpsed light colors flicker in the dark around me, but I never saw them when I looked directly at them.
I felt disembodied. I tripped over things and got right back up again to trip over something else. I was no longer cold. I did not feel pain.

I didn’t even notice when I dropped to the ground and didn’t get up. Pain crept up on me again and took over. I couldn’t see anything—it was too dark to see anything other than shadows’ shadows. My body convulsed, and I coughed. Some…something came into my mouth, and I spat halfheartedly. I pushed weakly at something that nudged at my ribcage. It pushed back, worming its way at me until it was under me and lifting me up off the roots I was lying on. Something wet touched my chin, and I tried to open my eyes. Something snapped as the thing pushed at me again. There were too many somethings, and they were all bothering me. I just wanted to lie down…rest…

The thing whined and gave me what could only be described as a shove, and I rolled. When it nudged at me again, I grabbed at it, and it lifted me to my feet. It whined when I started to fall again, and prodded me to something considerably larger, and soft. I fell on it, and it prodded at my leg until I shifted it over to the other side of the large soft thing. My body moved precariously as the large soft thing moved, but I just gripped the fur and slid into sleep…