The panther was now right in front of me, white whiskers tickling my face as it sniffed. Its eyes held me captive, each the size of my head glowed yellow. Its fur shined silky smooth I didn’t dare to touch it even though a curious part of me wanted to. I stayed silent not daring to move, blood pounding in my ears.

  *PUFF*

  In a cloud of green smoke the panther disappeared, left in its place was a creature with what appeared to be leaves for clothing. It had a human-shaped body apart from the fact it was about the size of my forearm. Large dragonfly wings buzzed as it flew back from the tree branch, out of my reach.

  My heart beat calmed curiosity peaking. The creature had pointy little teeth exposed as it cackled, a high-pitched noise. Its skin could easily be mistaken for bark, green moss for hair. Squinty black eyes seemed to peer into my soul.

  ‘Much pain,’ the words appeared in my mind invasive. I could feel it’s glee as images of the nightmare from last night surfaced. Had it been caused by this creature? It seemed to gain a sense of pleasure by frightening me.

  I pulled the knife from where I had stuck it in the tree branch. It wanted me to leave I could feel its intentions. An image appeared in my mind, my body lying on the tree branch, mangled, a panther was sitting above mouth clamped shut on my neck I was not breathing. It was foreign, not of my creation.

  I glared at the creature hovering in the air, my knife held at the ready. I had never heard of anyone seeing, much less interacting with a forest sprite, all I had to go on was the legends. They were said to be tricksters who enjoyed tormenting humans, terrifying them and in the end leading them to their death. The sprites beady black eyes narrowed, head tilted, a thought invaded my mind, curiosity at seeing my cat eyes.

  *SNAP*

  Without warning the sprites wings snapped as it blurred landing on a large colorful centipede that had been crawling to my side. Needle-like teeth tore off the large insect’s head, the sprites bark like chin dripped green gooey insect guts. I lunged, but as my knife came close the sprite was gone in another puff of green smoke. ‘I will be watching’ followed by a high pitch cackle filled my mind. Looking around, the sprite was gone.

  Light began to peek through the leaves overhead, the glowing blue buds on the vines dimmed. Insects birds and other wildlife filled the forest with sounds coming out with the passing of the storm. When I moved birds hidden near me squawked and in a flurry of wings flew to a new perch.

  Animals with thick brown fur and flat faces swung from hanging vines using four arms. They hooted to each other as they moved around. Easily larger than me a few looked my way showing mild interest before continuing on their way. My instincts told me they weren’t a threat.

  I reached up pulling down the leaf I had used for cover while sleeping. It was filled with fresh rainwater. The cool liquid was refreshing as it washed down my throat, it worked to trick my stomach, stopping my hunger pains. The forest sprite might want me gone and seek my death, it was wrong I would not leave. The deep wilds would be my teacher, I would learn from the great panthers, the wolves, my sanctuary would develop the longer I stayed, I would become a predator.

  I smiled, the sprite would have to work much harder to scare me away. Following the four-armed animals example, with knife in mouth, I jumped airborne for a moment my hands closed around a hanging vine. It was rough, pulling at the skin on my hands, I lowered myself to the forest floor.

  The moss was soft and spongy under my bare feet. The spring where I had left my bloody rags was hidden by undergrowth, knife at the ready I carefully moved forwards stepping from spiraling root to root. I reached forward to pull back some of the vegetation and reveal the body of water.

  *SNAP*

  With the slight touch of my fingers, a large leaf which reached far over my head, collapsed into a tight ball. A massive bull of an animal with three horns, one in the center of its head and two to the sides, turned from where it had been drinking at the spring. It was surrounded by its herd all around the waterhole.

  Like everything else I had seen in the deep wilds, the animals were huge, the size of a small house. They had leathery grey skin. The bull whose attention I had drawn swished its tail in annoyance or warning. Its nose flared as it huffed pawing the ground.

  I backed up slowly staying low to appear as unthreatening as possible. I used my peripherals to look for cover in case it charged. I made my way back towards the nearest Elder tree. Almost as soon as I started backing away, it huffed turning back toward the water lowering for another drink. I must not have seemed very menacing.

  Circumventing the spring and the herd, I walked making sure to keep my head on a swivel, senses tuned for any sign of danger. Massive snakes were coiled in the undergrowth, one was even able to wrap itself a few times around one of the Elder trees. If I kept my distance and was aware of them they would not be an issue. Insects flew around me, I had made it to a swampy area. I stuck to walking on the tree roots to keep out of the mud.

  I tried to stab the annoying flies, they were the size of my hand. They made a loud buzzing as they flew zipping around, I could not get close to slicing them with the knife, after every attempt they would just return. I could see the multitude of facets in their large black eyes.

  A sudden movement in the swampy mud drew my attention. It was a frog, standing as high as my shoulders. Its skin seemed to shimmer, matching the color of the mud beneath it. Its tongue had snapped out swallowing one of the annoying flies. I watched it sit in complete stillness waiting, then without warning it repeated the feat when a fly flew to close.

  With my knife out, I used my other hand to brace jumping down into the mud, the frog looked like a meal. Before I could get close to closing the distance, it saw me and jumped away, skin changing to blend with the new surroundings. I cursed internally, my stomach growled reminding me of my failure.

  Hmm, if the frog could eat the insects so could I, at this point just about anything edible looked appetizing. The flies had been much to fast, the second I would start moving they were already be gone. I took a deep breath to center myself, remembering how the frog had done it. It had sat unmoving, no indication of its intention. The second the insect had entered its range; the tongue had shot out with precision, zero telegraphing.

  In my sanctuary I watched the ghostly figure of my father instructing my younger self, a memory of my past. We both held wooden swords, my father had carved them to teach me how to defend myself. He reached forwards correcting my grip on the sword, then circling around me he made other adjustments to my stance and foot placement.

  “Before executing a thrust you must be centered, if you leave your weight forward the enemy will see the lung coming long before the actual thrust is executed. Try it again.” His voice was firm, commanding as it always had been when he was teaching me. The memory faded away.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Keeping the lesson in mind I left my sanctuary and climbed back onto the root from the mud. The buzzing of the flies filled my ears, I relaxed all my muscles stance centered, stock still. With a burst of movement my arm holding the knife shot forwards, too slow. I forced down my frustration hunger was making me irritable, the memory of my father left a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  I tried again letting go of the tension and assumed my stance. My arm whipped out, the fly saw it coming, with the first twitch of my muscles it was gone. I let out a sigh, my father would never give up. I would not let down his memory, he and mother had given everything so I could live.

  It was still early, and though I did not have a sundial, my estimate was it would be eleven ahn before sunset when the dangerous predators preferring to hunt in the dark would be on the prowl. I would not give up on this meal, although I knew how to set traps and hunt, everything was many times larger in the deep wilds, it would be much more difficult here in the deep parts.

  Around three ahn passed with me growing ever more irritated. My muscles protested, sore from holding my stance and constant attempts to catch the flies. I had nothing to show for my effort. Tempting as it was to go search for easier food, I would catch the damn flies, we were at battle. I would not give up till I had caught one, I recognized my stubborn streak but after three ahn there was no way I would leave the loser.

  Occasionally, an animal had wandered into the swampy area I stood, I did not see any that posed a threat. The sun having shifted in the sky above cast down rays of golden light spreading through the gaps in the canopy. With frustration I swung my knife towards buzzing behind me, the knife met resistance.

  “HA!” I grinned, couldn’t help but let out some of my triumph.

  I looked at the ground behind me, the body of a fly twitched where it lay. In its death throws it flopped around, before it could roll off the root, I skewered its head. It had been luck, but I would take it. With a moment of hesitation, I bit off the fly’s body. It was disgusting, gooey with a slight crunch. I finished it off trying to chew as little as possible, for now, fire was not an option so what I ate had to be raw.

  My focus improved with the meal. To thrive in the wilds, I needed to get a sense of its rhythm, learn to live in harmony. If I tried to fight against it on my own, I would be easily swept away.

  Cackling surfaced in my mind, it wasn’t my own. The Sprite. ‘If you want to live you best hurry! Behind you in the mud.’ The thought was deceptive almost as if my conscience were talking to me. I looked for the sprite but saw nothing. What I did see was something poking its head out of the swamp, staring right at me.

  I ran along the root to the nearest elder tree, I tried to climb, my hands slipped off the holds. Calm, I had to stay calm or I was dead. With controlled movements, I managed to make it a good distance up the side of the tree. Out of the mud rose the largest lizard I had ever seen, forked tongue slipped in and out of its mouth as it tasted the air, its eyes locked onto me.

  I climbed faster, my finger cut on a piece of bark with a jagged edge. Stout legs the size of barrels moved fast as the lizard rushed to the base of the tree. It clawed its way onto its hind legs snout extended upwards toward me. Sharp teeth the size of my dagger snapped just out of reach. Its breath smelled of something rotten. Claws tore furrows into the tree-bark as it tried to reach me, I climbed a bit higher to be safe.

  The sprite giving me a warning ran counter to everything I had ever heard about them. Just what game was the sprite playing at, did it want to keep me around as a form of entertainment or something more sinister.

  A shadow drew my attention, my mouth opened in awe. I forgot to be afraid. It was a griffin, massive with the head of an eagle and body of a lion. It was elegant as it dove, regal in its bearing. Its talons closed on the lizard’s head piercing it, the lizard's body went limp. Readjusting it grip the griffin looked me in the eyes, as though contemplating, it turned away and hauled its prey into the air.

  A feather fell loose from the griffin just as it disappeared into the canopy, a gift? It floated back and forth before finally coming to rest at the base of the elder tree I had been climbing. The feather was easily twenty hands in length, it would be able to comfortably cover my body.

  Even with everything going on in the wilds, my mind was partitioned, I stood in my sanctuary as well. One of the giant flies had found its way in. Time in the sanctuary ran slow, thirty moon cycles would be equal to one in the real world. I made use of the giant fly in my sanctuary, repeatedly I relaxed my muscles before exploding in attempts to catch the fly. I would not tire in my sanctuary.

  I dropped down from the elder tree, shredded bark from the lizard’s claws lay at the base. A patch of blood from when the griffin pierced the lizards head soaked into the moss on the root. I moved to the feather several paces further from the base of the tree, picking up the end it was surprisingly elastic, I could bend it without damaging the fibers.

  I walked to a skinny vine hanging from a branch far above, with my knife I cut off a section. Back at the feather, I rolled it into a tight bundle tying it with the vine. I hung it from my back with a loop, the extra weight was barely noticeable.

  ‘Blessed by a griffin, what an interesting human. Sleep with that at night and the scent of the griffin will scare away predators.’ The sprites thoughts entered my mind, this time it didn’t cackle but rather the tone was contemplative.

  “Where are you, what do you want with me.” I didn’t shout but having a sprite watching my every move was not a good feeling. The only answer I received was a cackle in my mind, I would just have to ignore the sprite.

  Now that I had made noise I didn’t linger, following the flow of the roots I moved deeper into the wilds. I continued to emulate the silent prowl of the wolves, the roots all seemed to lead in the same direction, waves pointing the way towards my destination. Where? I had no idea.

  Movement caught my eye. I stopped in my tracks turning my head, it was an animal with shaggy brown fur and tall pointy ears, it stood up to my waist. It had moved in front what appeared to be a thorny bramble. The plant had many individual arms growing from a single stock at its base. Each arm spiraled out into the air in different directions. At the base was a group of yellow fruits.

  The animal stood up onto its hind legs sniffing the air. It had a white belly. It moved forwards cautiously going back on all fours. One of the branches whipped down smacking the ground as the animal dodged to the side. With that the game was on, I was amazed at the dexterity put on display.

  The plant would continuously whip its arms down, but just as they would come close to connecting, almost as if on instinct it would evade the attacks. Weaving in and out it managed to make it to the prize, the fruit at the base of the plant.

  Its cheeks puffed up like a chipmunk as it stashed its bounty. The second it left the center at the plants base the thorny brambles began to whip around again.

  It had made it halfway back out when a group of thorns made contact. It kept moving but I could see it's movements becoming sluggish. More thorns connected, whatever venom was injected had an effect as the animal keeled over, lying still.

  The plant's arms wrapped the corpse dragging it back towards its base, I could now recognize white bones littering the ground around the plant. I shivered, I would wait to try for those fruits once the plant appeared in my sanctuary.

  The glow from the plants and vines began to appear indicating the sun would soon be setting. My eyes marked me a creature of the dark, but till I had the skills to go with it I would make use of the griffin feather.

  I didn’t have to walk much further before finding a flowing creek winding its way between the tree roots. I made sure there were no animals near before taking a deep drink using my hands to cup the water. A fly was buzzing around my head, I relaxed spreading my feet for a better base. My core twisted as my knife exploded toward the fly, it missed by a hands width.

  I waited, flies never seemed to learn. After half an ahn and countless attempts, I managed to skewer one. Not thinking about the taste I chewed, forcing the insect down. My practice in the sanctuary had paid off, I would not be starving tonight.

  Climbing back on a thick root, I made my way to an elder tree and began my assent. After reaching the branches far above I found as flat a surface as possible. Above me was a small gap in the foliage, I could make out the stars beginning to shine now that the sun was setting. Careful not to damage the feather I undid the vine and unrolled it. The underside was incredibly soft to my touch, it would be able to cover my body.

  Closing my eyes, I fell asleep, memories of my parents plagued my mind. I would get my revenge. Escaping to my sanctuary, my mind resolute, I continuing to work on catching the fly. In my forest, a giant Elder tree had appeared, towering over the evergreens. A dark grin showed on my sleeping face.