I didn't expect them to let me go so easily, I expected a chase. Not even a search party was roaming out from the city's walls. My wounds were festering and my body felt broken. I had to make it to the next city before I passed out from pain again. Each step I took felt heavy into the stone path leading to the edge of the city's border. Each tree I passed looked drained of life outside of the city's walls, the soil was gray, and dead life had been made impossible outside the walls. That was just this city, others weren't as corrupted, some were more and others were less. Would I be able to make it to one of them without trouble or would I have to paint my hands red once more? I had reached the border in a day of non-stop walking. The bottom of my feet left a trail of bloody steps on the stones, would this make it easier to track me down? I stepped off the stone path, it ended on the borderline a black line that was covered by sand and dirt but still easily visible. Before me was an ample empty space of land followed by a large dense forest with trees of various sizes. I couldn't see into the forest the cover of the trees making the inside pitch black, but the only way through was forward. It was too wide to go around and going over wouldn't be possible with my injuries.
I tore the cloth off some corpses near the border and wrapped my wounds tightly holding them closed. A spear and a dagger were the only weapons nearby they were damaged but I'd have to make do. Small rivers of blood dripped from my wounds, the once brown cloth became a dirty red. I placed the dagger at my hip and held the spear firmly in my right hand. Walking towards the forest I put some of my weight onto the spear. The pain in each step eased but never disappeared. I walked until I could see past the shadows of the trees from outside the forest. Every few steps I cracked a branch under heel, unable to avoid them. The forest was old and untouched but there were still limbs littering the roots, tributes?
As I stepped into a clearing I stood before a large clear pond. I could look straight to the bottom if I stood at the center. I stood near it enjoying the cool wind gliding across my face for a moment. My body and mind relaxed since I entered the forest. This was a bad choice that I may soon regret. I sighed a breath of relief before I heard a large branch snap behind me. On instinct I clenched my fist and crouched low to the grass. I held my spear at my side ready to slash whatever emerged from the trees. For what felt like an hour I stayed crouched waiting for the creature to exit the forest and attack but it never did. The place laid barren of sound besides my panicked heartbeat. I rose to my feet slowly, my eyes peering over the half decayed grass. My heart relaxed as I sighed with relief only to be greeted with more panic. The sounds of branches breaking shrouded the area. I couldn't tell where the creature was, I could have been surrounded. It sounded like I was but I heard no movement. Taking in a deep breath I drop the spear to my feet, inches away from my toes. I closed my eyes and waited, listening to the movement of the grass. The clashing of wind and grass flooded into my ears as the pond laid still as a corpse.
Silence rang in my mind like a bell, the sound of the pond splashing broke this outright. I kicked the spear up into my hand and dropped into a crouch. The spear pointed forward stabbing into the beast's neck before snapping. It's Fangs inches from my arms, they looked like they could bite into iron armor with little effort. I narrowly slipped under the beast dodging its bite. It's skin black and yellow leather, twice my size with powerful legs and black empty eyes. It could pass for a tiger if it didn't look clad in armor. I stayed low to the ground circling with the beast only a few feet away. It growled at me before licking its wound, we stood still across from each other . Was this beast underestimating me or was it that confident, would I be it's next meal or would it be mine?