Bolting upright, Atrimeaus swung his left arm towards whatever was on top of him, just as he felt a sharp pain in his lower abdomen. The first fist missed its mark. The thing with eight legs and just as many eyes was much shorter than he had anticipated. He swung his right arm out, his eyes now wide open, allowing him to plant his fist into the side of it. No shriek came from the creature as it fell from the tree. Atri had not truly hurt the thing it seemed.

In fact, after a short amount of time, the man began to wonder why he had not heard it hit the ground. Atri's eyes now looking down from the branch he was seated on, and to his surprise, the beast had some white thread it used to climb back up towards him. As this beast climbed up, Atri finally got a good glimpse of it. Every inch of this beast had light brown coarse hair protruding from it. Its eight eyes in a circle in the middle of its head. Every single one was jet black. Below that were what looked like two more legs. However, those legs carried two massive fangs at the ends of them. They were dripping with some clear liquid.

"Venom!" "Shit!" Atri cursed to himself upon seeing the dripping liquid.

Atrimeaus moved his hand down to the two puncture wounds in his abdomen just as the venom began to take effect. The man's stomach began to send crippling pain, causing him to stumble to the side, nearly falling off of the branch. Catching himself with his hand just before going over the edge, Atri once more looks down at the beast coming back for its meal. The thing was much closer now, making a chittering sound and clanking together its fangs.

Atrimeaus noticed even more of the dangerous beasts climbing up some of the other adjacent trees. Each one same as the first, chattering in a chorus that filled the night. Atri felt a deep sense of dread as he realized these things were pack hunters, and the one coming for him was not alone. The larger ones carried what appeared to be sacks made of that same white thread, moving like waves from the inside.

Just then, a dark cloud blocked any light Atrimeaus once had shone down upon him from the moon. The only thing that remained visible to Atri was a dull shine from each of the thousands of black eyes. The only noise now is the ever-present chattering of fang and tap of a hooked foot upon hardwood. Slowly the light returned as the cloud passed, returning better vision to the now terrified man. Several smaller Venom Piercers scattering up towards his legs, Atri reached out for a smaller branch connected to the main one that he sat on. He swung it wildly at the small things until no more remained with him there.

Breathing heavily now, the weight of the entire ordeal he has been through came down on Atri. Wishing for nothing more than a solid night's rest at this point, the man sighed audibly. Just as more sharp pain flooded in, Atri noticed blood starting to flow from his wound slowly. Assuming he had ruptured something and was in serious trouble, Atri sprung into action. However, all the man had at his disposal was a branch with a few leaves on it, the corpse of the flying thing having fallen some time ago.

Thinking quickly, Atri grabbed a few leaves from the branch, wrapping them around his wounds. Tying down everything with vines, ensuring they would not come loose. Dubbing this thing a "Vemon Piercer" after the venom that dripped from its daggers, Atri acted fast to stop it from getting any closer. Placing one hand on the branch, Atri wrapped the hand that wasn't holding him up around the white thread. Pulling it hard, he managed to un-stick it from the bark sending the creature hurdling once more to the forest floor.

*THUD*

This time the man heard the creature hit the forest floor hard, then nothing but the wind passing through the leafy branches. The rest of the Venom Piercers all come to a sudden halt when their comrade fell to its doom. That, and they knew their prey would not put up much of a fight shortly enough.

Atri's mind was overtaken by pain as he began to slide further and further from the safety of the branch until he was free-falling towards the same fate. At first, the man was shocked at how fast he was hurtling towards the ground. The mass of trees moving by in a blur of brown with occasional breaks of green. A dull thump of pain coursing through his body as he fell, he felt pure anger at the Venom Piercer that managed to bite him.

But before he fell too deep into the well of rage, Atri felt some hope seeing a net of vines below him. The thing had managed to go straight through, but possibly, just maybe, Atri would get tangled and saved. More likely, however, was he would just get wrapped up nice and neat for the other waiting beasts.

Vines scraped Atri's body as he shot through them. Atri began running through the events of the day, feeling he had done the best he could and slowly accepted his fate.

"Well, I guess this is it. Damn, I was hoping to catch some rest." Atri chuckled a tad to himself.

Just as he was starting to lose consciousness, not far from the forest floor, the faint sound of someone in full sprint reached Atri's ears. Then everything went black when his falling form collided with the body of the Venom Piercer.

Atrimeaus awoke to a blinding light flooding his eyes. When the light faded, he beheld something that took his breath away. Gleaming white walls surrounded him, windows set into two of the six. Outside the thick glass, he could see wonderous flying things, carrying inside people just like Atri. They appeared to be some form of transportation device, which float above the ground. The people were somehow controlling these strange contraptions even though he wasn't sure how. Seeing a door set in between the two windows, the man ran fast to the outside world. Before passing through the open doorway, Atri's eyes greeted now with the vision of a massive collection of buildings, some of which hovered in the air by no visible means. The magical place emitted some form of elegance, almost losing his breath at its astounding beauty. However, when he passed the threshold, a different sight burned itself into his sockets, one of pure devastation.

The land was a nauseating orange color, the ruins of the once-mighty place now hardly visible. Atri turning around now, the same view revealed itself to him, rust-colored sand as far as one could see. The once beautiful, floating buildings were now in ruin on the ground. The hint of elegance no more. Atri almost didn't recognize this as the same astounding place he has witnessed before. Mountains, nothing more than piles of loose material, rising and falling at the whim of the wind. Atri knows not why, but he felt a deep, never-ending sadness from the sight of this place. But just as he almost lost himself in grief, a swirling mass of sand twisted its way towards the man. The speed of this thing was impressive, catching Atri in no time and picking him up off his feet like he weighed nothing.

Being caught in the eye of the storm yet still somehow being thrust in the air, Atri caught sight of something black in the center. Then in a blur, it shot from its position on the ground into the sky, turning into a shining star as it left the atmosphere of the desert waste with Atri pulled along with it. Dense, oppressive darkness surrounded Atri as he moved with the mass. A small blue and green colored marble was seen now in the distance. Closer Atri grew to the now large-sized ball of ocean blue and dense green, feeling as if something was wrong as he moved towards it. Almost to the thing now, the man's vision went black, just before more light flooded them once more.

Blinking away the blindness caused by the immense illumination, Atri found himself surrounded by many people. A sudden shock to him after being alone for such a time, he screamed just as he felt several of the people grasp ahold of his extremities holding him in place.