Chapter 2
935 Words
Chapter 2
I travel through the forest, like it’s a second home, keeping my feet light to not give away my location, slowly I proceed following the trails of underbrush to hopefully find some game. After about an hour of following the trail the sun is now directly above me, casting very little shadow as it lends its heat to the day. *Snap CRACK*. I spin around towards the location the sound came from. I hear another set of branches breaking, this time further in the distance. I continue to follow the sounds becoming fainter in the distance until I end up in a small clearing. “We’ve been lead here” Said a voice inside my head. ‘Oh great… now after all this time in solitude I’m going crazy’ I thought to myself. “You’re not going crazy” Replied the voice startling me out of my thoughts. I shake my head and ignore the reply, it must be my imagination after all, even though I did agree with the statement, it did feel like I was lead here for some reason.
Cautiously I proceeded towards the clearing keeping low to the ground and my senses alert I peaked through the brush and bushes to find a beautiful natural spring directly in the center of the clearing. The sound of a large animal moving throws warning bells in my head “Move!” The voice said, even if it didn’t, I agreed staying there felt dangerous. As I turn around to leave, I’m stunned, a massive light brown bear was not five feet from where I was standing. It’s golden honey eyes surveyed me from head to toe, intelligence shining in it’s eyes. ‘How’d it sneak up on me’ I wondered, because I’m not usually caught by surprise.
*Flash Back*
I had no idea what I was doing out here or why. Why was the world so cruel that they threw children away like this? It wasn’t like I enjoyed my life before, being raised in the orphanage since age 5 I became used to relying on myself. I was always stronger and faster than the other kids, and because of this no one wanted to play with me. I also looked different than everyone, my hair which is a dark chestnut was starkly different than the light colored shades of my class mates, their skin extremely fair since time outside was limited, however mine always maintained a soft caramel. The only thing we shared in common were our eyes, and even mine were different, we all had shades of blue, green or grey, however mine were surrounded by a thick dark ring and had flecks of gold, they also changed colors or so I’ve been told. Since I’ve always been different, I was always treated different, I don’t remember much before being in the orphanage, mostly memories come in the form of dreams, but I do remember the loneliness of crying myself to sleep each night and the cruelty of knowing you’re alone. I thought things could only be better outside of the orphanage regardless of what that meant, boy was I wrong. It was the second week of my new reality, I was scared, tired and dirty, my last meal was served my last night in the orphanage, the usual gruel. I was able to stay alive eating berries I found along the streams but they never killed the hunger. Eventually during one of my foraging expeditions I stumbled upon two tiny bear cubs, for a moment we all just stared at each other, they were probably in as much shock as I was. Slowly one of the cubs starts walking towards me, out of nowhere the deepest growl I’ve ever heard sounded from right behind me. Startled I screamed, which I guess startled the bear too, as she went to swipe at me and as I screamed and ran I felt her claw graze the back of my right shoulder.
Searing white hot pain caused black spots to appear in my vision, but I knew I couldn’t die there, I had just left the orphanage and I would dammed to fail now. I pushed myself to continue running, my lungs burned and my legs felt numb, but still I continued, after what felt like an eternity I spared a glace behind me to see if I was followed, luckily I saw no signs of the bear or her cubs, so I thought it best to take a rest. I didn’t want to be found on the ground so I searched for a nice sized tree with low enough branches that I could scale and I climbed up into the tree as high I could, not caring that the fall could kill me, I wanted to be able to see everything. Once I reached the top I gazed out across the vast greenery, some areas there was this dark dense fog looking off to the west, to the north looked like there were snow capped mountains that seemed to go on forever, To the west I saw fields of green interspersed with massive trees, and to the south, the direction I came from the trees looked smaller, sicker, as is their energy was being drained somehow. I didn’t think too much on my surroundings as the lack of food, sleep and the energy I expended from escaping the bear had finally caught up with me. I settled into a nook between some forked branches, got as comfortable as I could and the second I closed my eyes I was out.
- Writer
