“CHASE HER!!
DON’T LET HER GET AWAY!!” The sound of a man’s shout from a distance echoed throughout the forest.
Valerie tried to run faster into the deep woods that were full of animal sounds and trees blowing in the wind.
”Fuck!!
Why won’t those bastards just give up!?” She cursed in her heart.
She kept running and looked up at the sky.
“The sky tonight is so beautiful, if only it weren’t for those people, I could have enjoyed this night and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate in my hands in peace,” Valerie muttered while running.
Suddenly she tripped over a tree branch scattered on the ground, she fell so hard that her palms were scraped and bleeding.
”What a fucking miserable night!!” Valerie cursed while trying to get back up.
”BOSS THERE’S A SOUND OF A SNAP IN THAT DIRECTION!!” A man’s voice screamed from a distance.
”Shit, they heard me fall!
Fuck fuck fuck!!!” Valerie muttered in her heart and continued running.
As she ran, her beautiful gown was torn into long pieces by the tree thorns she crashed through while running fast in the darkness of the night forest, blood stains ruined her beautiful white dress.
”Spread out, you useless people!!
Quickly find that woman!!!” A man’s heavy voice echoed in the distance.
“She won’t be able to run far in this kind of weather,” the man said while mocking her.
”Check the area near the river!” Another man shouted, his heavy boots stepping on dry leaves.
“Check for broken branches, maybe.” The man said while ordering the others.
Valerie stopped behind a big tree and hid there, she covered her mouth with her own palm so she wouldn’t make any breathing sounds or sobbing noises.
She leaned her back against the trunk of the big oak tree, she could only tremble and hold her breath, and just hoped those people would leave soon.
She looked around with a desperate expression, “Those people are seriously relentless…” Valerie muttered softly.
She looked around and took slow steps carefully so she wouldn’t step on any more branches or dry leaves.
She heard the sound of their footsteps getting closer and closer to her direction.
She kept running deeper into the forest because of fear.
She didn’t want to get caught and die, not now.
She didn’t want to die at that man’s hands.
”Looks like I found something,” the first hunter called out with a smirk on his face.
His voice echoed through the whole forest.
“There are footprints here,” he said.
”Find her then,” the second man ordered.
His voice slowly faded away.
“We have to find that woman before the storm comes!” he explained loudly.
Valerie didn’t wait any longer.
She increased her running speed, she didn’t care anymore about her ankle that was hurting badly from falling earlier.
She ignored the pain in her ankle as she ran down the slope.
”Shit, this hurts so bad!
But I have to keep moving!” Valerie muttered.
The wind from the storm was getting stronger, but that actually helped Valerie in her escape, by helping to cover the sound of Valerie’s footsteps as she went deeper into the forest.
Her breath was already erratic, she had reached her limit, she really couldn’t run anymore, her lower stomach felt painful because she had been running continuously since a few hours ago.
Her vision got blurrier.
Her legs felt weak and heavy.
Her steps slowed down.
And finally she stopped running.
She walked to a huge rock, then she leaned her body against that rock.
”My hunch was right, they went toward the river,” Valerie whispered to herself.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her hand.
She looked around and felt that the forest felt different from when she first entered this woods.
This forest felt darker and quieter, the size of the trees too….
made no sense, there were no trees that big!
”I’ve never seen a tree this big, is this tree a human experiment?
Pft no way, but this is seriously very rare,” Valerie whispered and glanced at the twisting tree roots.
Valerie took a few steps forward.
She looked for a tree or a small ditch to rest and hide until morning, that way she wouldn’t have to exhaust herself by running continuously.
As she walked through a row of bushes, her foot caught on something.
She stopped suddenly.
Her breath felt caught in her throat.
There was a figure of a man lying on the ground.
It seemed like that person had just died, or maybe he just fainted?
The body was just a few steps away from her.
”Hey…
you’re still alive, right??” Valerie whispered tremblingly.
The man’s body didn’t move at all, he was just lying on his side with his wide shoulders filling the gap between the rocks.
The man wore a black cloak made of thick leather, but the cloak material on his back was ripped and torn apart, his back also had many severe torn wounds, as if they were scratches from the claws of a wild beast.
She looked around to make sure if there were wild animals around her or not.
“Phew, luckily there are no wild animals here,” Valerie muttered.
Blood kept flowing from his body until it stained the dirt.
”Hello???” Valerie called softly, she stepped a few steps closer.
“Can you hear me?
Answer me if you’re not dead!” Valerie shouted.
The man didn’t say anything.
”Looks like he really is dead.” Valerie thought in her heart.
Valerie looked around again.
She wanted to make sure that those people weren’t coming this way.
Valerie felt relieved because they weren’t coming in this direction.
“Thank god they didn’t come this way,” Valerie said to herself.
Then Valerie walked back toward the man.
She knelt beside him.
Valerie yelled at the man, “Hey wake up.” She was completely frustrated.
Valerie started checking the man’s neck to see if he had a pulse.
There was, he had a pulse.
Valerie found out that the man was still alive.
“It seems he really fainted, maybe from losing too much blood, his wounds are also very severe.” Valerie thought in her heart.
Valerie saw that the man was badly injured.
Valerie said, “hey wake up, can you hear my voice?
If you stay here, you will seriously fucking die!” Valerie snapped at the man.
The man didn’t make any movement or signs that he was alive, but the sound of his breathing started to be heard, even though it was short and weak.
Valerie’s fingers started to move toward his shoulder, but right before she touched his skin, her gaze shifted to his head.
On the top of his head, there were triangular shapes poking out from between his thick black hair.
Valerie stared at it with her hand still held in the air.
Those were…
ears!?
Those were not human ears.
Those ears were definitely not human ears.
It had thick gray fur all over it as well as an ear shape that was very different from a normal human ear.
She looked around.
“Is this a movie set?
Why is this man wearing weird clothes and a wolf ear headband?” Valerie said in confusion.
As Valerie looked at it, she couldn’t believe her eyes.
One of the ears moved a little as if he started to hear something inside the forest.
Valerie whispered, “What the fuck,” with a voice full of surprise and horror.
”Impossible!” Valerie said in horror.
“Those are real ears!
I thought it was just a decoration!” Valerie muttered.
These ears were something she would never see on a human.
Valerie kept staring at those ears, she was completely shocked.
She started to crawl very slowly away from the man’s body.
Her hands scraped the dirt, her eyes still staring at that figure.
She couldn’t believe what she saw.
Valerie tried to get away from the man’s body, she crawled backward slowly with her eyes fixed on that mysterious figure, Valerie was afraid of that mysterious figure.
The clouds in the sky moved away from that area, letting the full moon light shine on the man’s body which made the inside of his cloak become clearer to see.
The wind made the cloak shift sideways, revealing a long tail covered in thick silvery-gray fur lying limp on the damp ground.
The tail didn’t move at all, just stayed still.
Valerie could only sit frozen on the ground, both of her hands pressing hard against the dirt as she stared at the pair of furry ears and that big wolf tail without a word, her voice as if swallowed by the deep darkness of the night.
Who is he???
Is he really a human?
Or an animal?