Fight To Live Another Day

It was getting quickly dark when Renn and Kaede traveled eastwards. They already left the high plains behind them and reached the outskirts of a forest. As Kaede remembered, the entire distance between the high plains and the human kingdoms were covered in thick forest.

All kinds of beasts and creatures were habituating in different areas of the forest, which tended to differ greatly.

The forest part they were passing now was very similar to the forest they both lived in before.

Renn was currently running along with Kaede, trying to train his body by pushing it to the limit, even though that reduced their speed by quite a margin. He was still enjoying himself in the newly discovered world of true energy. Everything felt so different, he felt alive like he never felt before. His past view of the world could only be described with the words narrow and superficial. He now understood why the wolves had such strict principles regarding killing, only hunting when it was needed without wasting anything.

Because anything in this world was actually breathing and wondrously precious, who would dare to erase knowingly the simple yet complex beauty that life had?

While they were walking deeper into the thickly wood, slowly and subtly, a fog started to engulf them.

At first, they didn't think much about it, assuming it would soon fade away, but the further they went, the denser the fog became until they could barely see the ground on their feet.

But even worse, the fog didn't only obscure their optical vision, but also their energetical vision.

The fog was unusually dense with a strange form of energy. It was neither like vitality energy nor true energy. The bizarre energy layered the entire forest, covering it in its blurriness.

They both stopped running since they were afraid of misstepping.

'Kaede, this fog is weird. I've never seen any fog like this. It even has a weird aura and is incredibly dense.' Renn remarked astoundedly.

...

'Kaede?' he asked and turned around to look questioningly at his sister.

But she was nowhere to be seen. 'Kaede?' he spoke louder 'Where are you sister? This is not funny! KAEDE?'

She was nowhere to be seen. Not even an echo came back, completely swallowed by the mysterious fog. He was a bit panicked. She was right beneath him a second ago! Did they lose each other on the way?

But why isn't she answering his calls? 'Kaede???' He shouted again. But of no avail.

He wandered slowly forward, cautious, not knowing what lurked behind that all-consuming fog.

A suffocating absolute silence dominated the place. He could hear feel his own pulse.

thump

Thump

THUMP

His pulse was resounding deafening, drowning his senses.

Moments passed, only filled with his heartbeat and the deafening silence.

Sensing his own panicking, he tried to calm himself, breathing deeply.

Slowly he recovered, finally calmed. 'It's okay, nothing to be afraid of Renn' he spoke to himself.

'I need a plan, okay, first I'm going to find Kaede quickly. And then get out of this bizarre fog. ' he thought aloud, trying to overcome the silence. 'If I keep moving forward and keep calling for Kaede, I will eventually find her. I'll just ignore anything that's maybe there, hiding and lurking for me.'

'Kaede!'

'Kaede!!!'

'Kaede!' he repeatedly shouted, going continuously forward.

After a while, he thought he heard something.

...-en...

something was carried through the fog.

He immediately stopped. After a while, he heard it again, but this time even louder. ...-en....

'Kaede??' he shouted.

He walked forward. '...Renn....'

Excited, he quickened his steps. '....-enn!...'

The fog grew, even more, dense, but the calls got louder and more discernable.

In front of him, a shadow appeared. 'Kaede?' he asked.

No answer.

'Renn!' this time, he heard it clearly. But it was not in front of him, it was from far away..

The shadow came closer, revealing slowly more.

The first things Renn managed to discern, was the pair of red glowing eyes from an absurdly inflated bear.

---------------------

Meanwhile, another shadow of deep darkness stepped onto the plain.

Breathing in slowly the air of the plain, the air seemed to lose its vitality.

'Theyyyy are gonee' a voice hissed. Indeed, they looked at a forsaken village.

Judging from the fresh tangle of traces, at least a few hundreds of wolves must have been there just a few hours ago. The tangle led northwards.

Even if he wouldn't be able to catch those swift light wolves, but he knew that there were also other wolf races among them. And he would catch those, well-knowing that a pack would try to save its members.

Smacking his lips in l.u.s.tful anticipation, he swept through the plain, drawing all life to him, delightfully devouring the gigantic tree on his way.