Page 6 of Blood Red Woes

My shoulders slump, but I get going. I don’t exactly trust this thing on my wrist, but what other choice do I have? I don’t really want to test his theory about the forest at night, so walking it is.

“How far?” I ask.

“A good way, unfortunately, but if you keep up a brisk pace, we’ll hit a settlement before dark and find some shelter there.”

Man, that means Laconia city is even further away. So much for getting back to my life in a timely manner. This detour is going to take way too long, I can just tell.

I get tired after an hour of walking. Hey, what can I say? Keeping a brisk pace is tiring. Plus, having to talk to the thing on my wrist makes everything worse. The thing is chatty. Probably because he was stuck in that crystal or whatever, but I’m in no mood.

Plus, he’s kind of a jerk, but at least he’s able to guide me where to go, lighting up a trail whenever I ask him for a refresher.

After a while, I turn things around on him. “So, you don’t remember your name. What am I supposed to call you, then?” When the tattoo is quiet, I think.

Tattooisn’t a good name.Marksounds like a middle-aged man with a beer gut. Hmm. Whatdid he call himself after I first woke up here? A rune?

“How ‘bout Rune?” I ask.

The tattoo glows white as he sighs. “I suppose that’s fine, if you must.”

“Don’t worry, bud, I’m not trying to be BFFs or anything. I just want to find someone who can get you off me and get me the hell out of here. I have a life I need to get back to, and you can get back to doing whatever it was you were doing before you got shoved into a crystal.”

Out of all of that, what Rune focuses on is: “BFFs? What is that?”

“Uh, you know, best friends forever, I guess? It’s just something people say.”

The forest of Magnysia are thick and, if I’m honest, a bit unnerving. As I walk, I can’t help but feel like someone is watching me from the shadows—or something. But every time I glance over my shoulder, I don’t see anything.

“All I’m saying,” I went on, “is that if we’re stuck with each other for a while, I need to call you something. Otherwise I might start feeling insane—which, okay, might be pretty damn close to the truth already—”

Rune sighs, and the tattoo on my wrist glows. “You are not insane. Trust me, I have seen insanity and the terror it creates, and you are not. A bit rough around the edges, sure, but most certainly not insane.”

“Rough around the edges, huh? Asshole.”

“So far, you aren’t too pleasant to deal with, either.”

As much as I want to hate this thing, this Rune wizard guy, I guess I should be thankful that I’m not trapped here, alone. If I was, I wouldn’t know where to go. I wouldn’t know where to avoid. Hell, I wouldn’t even know how dangerous these forests are if it wasn’t for my hand-dandy little buddy here.

I shit you not, I hear a twig snap behind me, and my skin crawls. I don’t see anyone behind me though, but I can tell I’m not alone. Whatever has been stalking me this whole time must be close, but damn it, I can’t see it.

“I would pick up the pace if I were you,” Rune mumbles. “It seems we are not alone in this forest.”

Yeah, that’s an understatement.

I was never good with anything athletic, but the adrenaline pumping through my system is enough to push me into a jog. If I sprint, I’ll expend too much energy at once. I do as Rune said and pick up the pace, glancing over my shoulder every few seconds.

But nothing comes. There’s nothing but the unsettling feeling that I’m not alone here.

Something’s out there. Something bad. Whatever it is, I don’t want to see it and find out.

Chapter Three

I’m freaking exhausted by the time I make it out of the thick forest and into a field. The grass is green, and I welcome its wide-open air. Turning my eyes to the sky, I can see it’s daytime, a bright, clear blue sky above my head, and I wonder if I walked all throughout the night without realizing.

God. No wonder I’m so tired.

I’m only two steps out of the forest when I hear a growl behind me. It’s an almost unnatural sound, so low and menacing that I can practically feel it touching my skin. I take off in a sprint, ignoring how tired I am to get further away from whatever’s in the woods, stalking me.

I have the feeling I won’t like meeting it face to face. Something tells me it’s not a normal animal.

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