By the time she noticed the lightening of the sky, Alessandra was exhausted. She had been scrambling through the trees for hours, avoiding many more of the slugs as well as other, even more vile, creatures. The nausea that rolled in her belly hadn’t faded, if anything it had grown ever stronger as she tried keep hidden. When she found a shot she could take, she took it quickly and then scrambled for a new hiding spot. She saw others of her tribe occasionally, fighting back against the overwhelming horde of enemies. Alessandra helped where she could, but she knew it wasn’t enough, wasn’t nearly enough.

Even as the darkness began to fade, she forced her aching limbs to pull her higher and higher up a tree, reaching for the canopy. Her head emerged from the harvest colored leaves and into the fresh, brisk air of dawn. The first kiss of the sun’s rays hit her skin like a blessing, her olive colored skin turned a vibrant emerald emerald green as it absorbed the sun’s energy. Already she could feel her body’s reaction, a flood of energy filled her with the warmth and brightness of sunlight.

In the crown of the tree, Alessandra hesitated, holding still and absorbing the welcome flood of energy. Her sharp, brown-eyed gaze looked down over the forest that surrounded her tribe’s home. She could still hear the battle, raging after untold hours, clashing swords and the wet sound of weapons against flesh. Though she searched, she could see no signs of any of her people.

A sound from below made her tear her gaze from her searching quest for her people and look down, through the branches of the tree. A single massive eye stared up, directly at her. Surrounding the eye were eight very familiar looking arms. The long bony fingers of two of those arms latched onto the tree. It moved with dizzying speed as its eight arms drew it scuttling up the tree. Alessandra didn’t have a good shot with all the intervening branches, instead she quickly dropped down a few layers into the canopy and ran along one of the thicker branches of the tree. She could feel the spider webs of magic flowing through her and flowing through the air around her, yanking the magic around her she spread her arms and leapt. The magic bore her up like wings, helping her glide from one tree to the next, she landed on the branch and slipped, barely catching her footing.

Her breath was rasping in her throat as she turned, scrambling to get her bow drawn and an arrow knocked. She barely had time to aim as the scuttling eye-spider raced down the branch toward her. It threw itself into the wind as her arrow flew true, piercing deeply into its eye and carrying it back down to the distant ground. Her body was still trembling, though she had gathered energy from the sunlight and no longer felt starved, she was terrified. She had heard of the abominations that her people had fought generations ago, but they had been banished in time long past.

She rubbed her stinging eyes and glanced back skyward. Stinging smoke was beginning to fill the air. Something was burning. The stench burned her nostrils as she looked around, seeking the source. She couldn’t see anything specific immediately, then suddenly the whole world seemed aflame. The soke welled forth. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes again, dropping down to the next branch. She couldn’t hear the eye-spider, but she couldn’t see it in the suddenly thick smoke either. The sounds of battle filled her ears.

She was nearly to the lowest branches of the tree with still no sign of any of the abominations. As she was dropping to the last branch, a long spear flew past her, tearing a slice through her left biceps. Alessandra screamed as she reflexively let go of the overhanging branch and started to fall. Pain rippled through her even as she tried to gain control of her descent. Warm blood flowed down her arm. She hit the ground, rolling with the impact and lurching to her feet. Her right leg screamed with pain. She nearly collapsed, catching herself against the tree, yelping when the muscles of her left arm were forced to hold her up.

Alessandra could hear something approaching through the smoke. She was caught, helpless and wounded. She raised her fingers to her mouth, tasting her own blood as she whistled. What emerged from the smoke was something like a low slung lizard, if lizards were made of naked pink flesh and covered in a shocking amount of mouths. It hissed, forked tongues darting out of several mouths in her directions. The eyeless thing seemed to be tasting the air to find her. Luckily, the smoke likely masked her scent, at least a little.

She backed away carefully, an awkward limp marring her stride, but hopefully it couldn’t hear her over the sounds of battle. Alessandra was shaking, her stride unsteady and her empty hands fumbling for the knife at her belt when she heard an answering shrill of sound. She backed away more quickly, past the tree’s trunk. Her leg sent up agonizing protests with each step and she struggled to put enough weight on it to keep moving. Ignore the pain, she thought, just for now. You can give in later.

She grasped her determination tightly as she drew her knife, switching it to her weaker right hand. She would be less accurate, but she had no choice, her left arm was filled with a burning pain. With a flick of her wrist, she threw the knife then turned and started running. Her hitching gait was clumsy and slow, but she couldn’t hear the creature pursuing her yet. What she did hear was heavy pounding hoofbeats coming in her direction.

She heard another multi-voiced hiss behind her as the golden horse emerged from the smoke in front of her. Alessandra’s heart soared. She tried to speed up, running as fast as her injured leg would carry her. Her muscles screamed in agony as she strained to even her stride. She couldn’t stop and set herself up properly, couldn’t hesitate as the horse came even with her, she had to do it right the first time or there wouldn’t be a second chance.

On its four squat legs, the many mouthed lizard was running behind her, she could sense it as much as hear it. A malevolent anger that seemed to burn into her back. Stretching out her right hand, she felt for the net-like web of woven fiber that wrapped over the horse’s girth. As he passed, she grabbed hold and used his forward motion to pull herself up. Her arm burned and her leg collapsed as she used it to thrust herself up and into the air, trying to swing herself onto her horse’s back.

Alessandra’s hand caught his mane as she nearly went all the way over his back. She settled with a hard bump just behind his withers, quickly righting herself. She could see the lizard again now, her knife was burried between a pair of the mouths. Once she had steadied herself, Alessandra drew her hatchet, a pitiful weapon when compared to the abominations and their size. Lizard hissed, gathering its limbs beneath it for a springing attack at them. An impotent rage filled Alessandra, a rage that darkened the edges of her vision and brought no sort of comfort.

The burning smoke had Alessandra’s eyes watering and she could hardly see, she swiped the back of her wounded hand against her eyes, smearing blood and sweat across her face. The mixture burned her eyes for a moment before she blinked it away. The lizard leapt and Alessandra braced herself, holding tightly to the horse with her legs. Her left arm ached as she gripped the net, her right hand held the hatchet, ready to try prevent the lizard from latching onto the webbing.

The lizard’s long, ragged looking claws stretched toward her, followed by an uncounted number of mouths. She hacked with her hatchet, the blade slicing at the creature’s head and turning it aside. The momentum of the leap was too much and her body shuddered with the impact as the lizard nearly rocked her right out of the saddle. She struck again and the lizard flailed for a grip, one set of talons digging into her right thigh and ripping a deep trench in her flesh as the weight of the lizard pulled it down and away. The sound of it, the quick, wet sound caught her off guard and precluded the black rush of pain, blood flowed freely.

The lizard, behind her now, roared its fury from a hundred mouths as the gold horse raced on into the forest. Alessandra’s hatchet fell from her grip as she put her hand against the wound on her thigh and leaned low over her horse’s neck. Her head was swimming, her vision dancing in swirls of blackening color, her heart raced and fear clawed like the bitter taste of bile in her throat. She swallowed the taste of it back and felt it roll in her stomach like some sort of vile snake.