Page 41 of The Blackened Blade

This bear must have been huge.

I brush a hand down its fur, looking for any claw marks or bites that I could recognize, when suddenly I realise my hands don't feel wet anymore, but sticky.

Wouldn’t mud have dried up or turned gritty, not sticky?

I place my hands out toward the small rays of light over the bear's corpse, and now realise they’re coated in a familiar crimson liquid.

And it's not just my hands, I was covered from head to toe.

I’m guessing it wasn’t mud that I had slipped on earlier either.

A pool of red liquid trickles beneath my feet from the body beside me.

A heavy sigh leaves my lips as I turn my eyes to the darkened sky, contemplating my luck.

Had I burned through all my good luck when I came back in time?

I shake my thoughts off and take a better look at the corpse. I shouldn’t stay out here any longer than necessary.

The body was more like a mass of ripped flesh and meat on its front side, its torso mangled and torn to shreds, with no identifiable claw or bite marks, even from a magical beast.

I make my way around the body, continuing my search as a dark thought hits me.

This wasn’t about food.

Even though the body was shredded, there were no bite marks and too much meat and flesh left for anything to have been eaten.

Was this creature primal, and protecting its domain, or taking a new one over?

Or was this something else, something much more sinister? Was it for the hunt, the kill, or forfun?

A cold chill runs down my spine as I turn around, gazing into the dark forest around me.

Whatever it was…it could still be out there, or near.

The light fades from the sky, the forest darkening eerily again as an icy cold mist begins to form on the forest floor.

I hear a crunch of leaves in the distance, and something shouts in my head, telling me to get out of there, to run.

I turn and dash through the forest as fast as my legs will take me.

Whatever it was, it had to be big and powerful to be able to take on a brown grizzly and make mincemeat out of it.

I had fought a lot of crazy creatures in the Facility, too many to count, but my instinct was telling me that this was something else.

Something, that with the strength I had right now, I would be no match for.

I run through the forest, ignoring everything else around me and only slowing when I see the academy building in my sight.

I make a quick beeline toward the girls dormitory and make quick work of the back doors lock.

I take my bloodied shoes off and make my way quickly up to my room, discarding my clothes on the bathroom floor and jumping straight into the shower. I turn the water on full blast, hoping to cleanse myself of both the blood and the cold chill running through me.

Sooner or later I’d have to come face to face with whatever was lurking in that forest, especially if it was expanding its territory, but tonight wasn’t the night. I didn’t have the strength or agility to take on something that big this early.

I’ll retreat for now, but I won't next time.

If there's anything I’ve learnt, it's that even the largest of predators can become prey.

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