Ellie Parkinson

“It’s so goddamn strange, it’s peak summer and the temperature seems to be way below negative,” asserted Alex, hugging himself, he had put on a thick leather jacket and appeared to have been battling the biting cold himself.

At that instant, the intimidating noise sounded again, this time from somewhere above, filling the atmosphere with utmost terror.

“You reckon, it’s some sort of beast or something?” Judy asked Alex apprehensively, her voice nearly shook with intense fear.

“Maybe,” retorted Alex, gesturing Matt to come with him.

“Matt, I have two guns with me in my tent, I carried them in case of an emergency like this,” he said and they both went to Alex’s tent to retrieve them.

“Ellie, you go back to your tent, I am returning to mine to get a rod that I had packed in case we needed any weapon,” she instructed and walked off to her tent. But I didn’t move, instead, I stood there waiting for them to return. The noise sounded for the fourth time, and now it was even shriller than before. A sort of curiosity overpowered my fear that moment, as I moved towards the edge of the mountain expecting something dramatic to occur.

Before I could reach the brink, a figure appeared out of nowhere. It emerged out of the darkness, revealing a seven-foot-tall man… Or was it even human? Its head was the size of a football, with teeth as long and piercing as a metal nail, its waist-length hair swung fiercely due to the wind. His body was fully covered with hair and he stood towering above me. His eyes were bloodshot and he possessed slits for nostrils.

The beastly man advanced towards me, his eyes fixed on me as I slowly moved backward, feeling rather foreboding and petrified. They raised his abnormally large hand to grab me when there was there were two simultaneous gunshots as Alex and Matt fired at him with their hunting rifles. The firing was unable to cause any harm to the beast, on the contrary, it managed to enrage him as it let out that horrible scream which had been heard previously and ran towards Alex and Matt, both continuing to fire at him. He caught hold of their rifles and smacked them hard with those. They both went flying away onto the ground, their faces bleeding heavily. The beast then shifted its attention back towards me. Its nails were longer and more pointed than a lion’s, it was about to pounce on me when a figure appeared out of nowhere, a handsome man wearing royal robes having a gash on his milky white face, his body seemed to be emitting an extraordinary glow which was brighter than a lamp’s light.

It was that same strange gentleman whom we had encountered on our first day, and who according to my friends, had brought me back safe and sound from the lake. The man withdrew a shiny sword from his sheath and sprung over the beast. With one swish of his sword, the beast fell onto the ground, bleeding profusely through its hairy chest where the man had sliced him. However, it rose again and began battling him. The beast used its razor-sharp nails as a weapon against the man’s sword. It struck ten times, but the man deflected his strikes skilfully and managed to inflict another blow as he flipped over him and chopped his right arm off. The creature let out a gruesome roar and attempted to strike the man pathetically with its remaining arm, but in vain, as the man spun in mid-air and ended up slicing the creature’s head off.

The creature perished without a sound, bringing back the tranquillity in the darkness. Inexpressible relief broke through me, it was as though my heart had been safely placed back inside my chest. The man had arrived again to my rescue, like a guardian angel sent by the lord specifically to protect me. I couldn’t summon any words to express my gratitude, however, I still made an effort using my swollen lips. But before I could create a sound, another monstrous roar was sounded from the sky as another beast sprung out of nowhere.

The beast was an identical copy of the first one, who without wasting a second grabbed hold of me and jumped off the mountain. The creature held me on my shoulder and was landing miles below, causing my surroundings to accelerate immeasurably. My body felt light as a feather, even the force of the creature’s grip on me felt negligible. The beastly man bounded from boulder to boulder and finally landed on the ground. Its grip on me tightened, and with a second’s agonizing pain that shot across my feeble body, I fell unconscious.