NOVEL WEB Ch. 8: The Clearing
Cass skirted through the forest, keeping to the dark pools of shadow cast by the glowing foliage, every step aided by Stealth. She hadn’t spotted any other monsters, but she didn’t let her guard down all the same.
Ahead, the forest underbrush was thickening again, the trees above thinning. She slowed as passing through the thicker brush was much harder to do silently. Still, she wove her way through until she spotted a narrow trail winding its way forward.
Cass followed it from the deep woods into a clearing. A shallow pond stood in the center, surrounded by sandy beaches and green stone. Tall reeds filled the far edge. Ferns and grasses thrived in the remaining free space.
It seemed empty of fauna, to which she breathed a sigh of relief. She strode out into the clearing, sparing a glance up to the storm brewing sky. She would have liked a little sunshine to relieve the stress of the last couple of hours or so.
In truth, she had no idea how long she’d been wandering. She had never been a very good judge of time. Add the stress of being found by monsters, she could have been wandering those woods for half an hour or six, she would have believed either claim.
She sat by the pond’s edge, plopping onto one of the green stones with a sigh.
What was she doing? She wanted to go home, so she was looking for people to direct her to the nearest trans-dimensional portal. She’d been banking on finding people today. More than that, she had been hoping to find them soon.
But what if she didn’t find them today? She shuddered at the thought of sleeping in the open tonight. She might have a rain jacket and hiking boots, but she did not enjoy the prospect of sleeping on bare ground without even a blanket.
And what if she didn’t find any people tomorrow either? Or the day after?
What should she do? Switch from looking for people to finding shelter for tonight? She glanced up, that storm was still threatening to drench her any moment now. It would be easier to find or construct somewhere covered before it started pouring.
But that meant giving up on finding people today. That confirmed she would be sleeping on the ground tonight.
She rubbed her temples. But what other choice did she have? If she was still walking along the cliff side she might have pushed on. But here, in the middle of this forest, she couldn’t imagine she would stumble into someone friendly in the next couple of hours wandering the woods.
Which meant it was time to start thinking about survival. Long-term survival.
Question One: Was this a safe place to set up base camp?
The clearing was a relief on her nerves. Something about the open sky above her relieved the pressure on her chest. But objectively, was it safer than the glowing forest on every side of her?
Her eyes fixed on the pond in front of her. The pond meant water, which would be one less thing for her to worry about. Though, if at all possible she wanted to filter and boil that. The stagnant pond did not look fit for human consumption.
But more to the point, that also made it desirable to the local (or imported?) wildlife. How many dangerous things passed through here for a cool drink? It might be too shallow to be of interest to anything bigger than her, but that seemed awfully optimistic, didn’t it?
Demerit number two: that same open sky above. She might feel more at ease under it, but it would be a problem as she tried to not be rained on. The dense forest canopy would provide better shelter from the elements.
No, she shook her head. She couldn’t stay here. She didn’t know if the forest would be safer but—
The crack of a broken twig behind her was all the warning she got.
She spun, her eyes meeting the feline intruder’s.
Terrorcat
Lvl 7
[A powerful feline, native to the shadowed planes of Azorth but with a thriving population in the West Forest. Its night vision is unparalleled. Its claws, sharp.
It is a poor climber if that helps.]
It did not.
She stood slowly, her hands sliding down the length of her walking staff.
The cat slunk forward, its gold eyes locked on her. It was about the size of a bobcat. Its fur was black with swirls of grey.
She took a hesitant step away from the pond. Maybe, it would decide she wasn’t worth the effort, drink its fill of dirty pond water, and be on its way.
Its eyes remained fixed on her as it crouched, its lips curling back in a snarl.
Her hands clenched at the base of her staff. Her heart pounded. Her mouth was dry.
The cat lunged at her.
She screamed and swung down on the animal. She missed completely. It barreled into her, knocking her to the ground, its claws sinking into her chest. It tore down, raking across her body.
She thrashed, trying to throw it off. If it had been any bigger, she would have stood no chance, as it was, she managed to roll over, throwing it off.
She scrambled to her feet, swinging her staff wildly as she backed away from the terrorcat. It dodged around her wild swings, faster than she was by a wide margin.
Cass couldn’t breathe. She could barely see through the panic. Blood dripped down her chest. Blood dripped down her back.
The creature lunged again, leaping for her face. Some instinct told her to step out of the way. She followed it blindly but a claw still caught her side.
Pain ran rampant over every inch of her body. The bloody fleece of her PJs pressed into her wounds.
The cat ran circles around her, slicing at her legs and her arms. Launching at her chest. She swung at it with her staff, hoping for the best. Hoping she wouldn’t pass out from the pain or the blood loss. Hoping she’d get lucky.
She did. The staff connected with its head, throwing it out of its forward lunge.
The terrorcat barely noticed, continuing its dash toward her. It clawed at her ankles.
She backpedaled, blinking through the pain, her leather hiking boots deflecting the thing’s claws this time. There was a System notification at the edge of her vision. She didn’t have time for it.
Vaguely she could feel her grip on her staff was wrong, that her dominant hand should be lower, her non-dominant hand higher.
The cat didn’t give her time to reposition them. It sprinted past her before turning at leaping again. Its claws sunk into her shoulder.
She screamed again, the pain lacing up her body from the incisions. Her vision blacked out for a fraction of a second. The creature howled in her ear, jerking her back to alertness, its mouth uncomfortably close to her neck.
Unthinking, her hand slipped up the staff. She twisted and using her forward dominant hand jerked the staff backward into the hell cat’s body.
Somehow that was enough for her to knock it off her. Somehow she’d done it before her throat had been ripped out.
Her body followed the fallen terrorcat, her hands repositioned for maximum force. She slammed it down before it had a chance to speed off again. It struck a leg with a crack. Bone splintered under the impact. The creature yelped in pain, sprinting forward on the mangled leg anyway.
But that sprint was struggling and slow. A confidence bloomed in her. Her staff felt right in her hands.
She swung her staff down, leading the target just barely. There was a resounding crack as the long staff multiplied the force of her arms into violent impact with the cat’s skull.
There was a squelch and blood splattered around her.
And then there was silence.
The only movement was Cass’s ragged breathing as she stood over the corpse. Blood oozed from the crack in the terrorcat’s skull.
Her staff slipped from her fingers, falling to the bloody dirt with a soft thud. Cass’s body crumpled to the ground after it, her knees giving out.
Notifications pinged into existence.
She collapsed, dead to the world, before she had a chance to so much as glance at them.