Chapter 23

Lwanda continued on, his heart racing, gulping in fear at each step. His heart felt heavy, like it had a ton weighing on it. He’d come to know these feelings well. They'd been part of him for so long and each time he’d feel this way something horrible was bound to happen.

Lwanda thought of turning back but that didn’t seem to be an option. From looking side to side, he could tell the same thing was happening all around him. Left to right as far as the eye could see, everything was wilting, everything was dying. He didn’t know if there was anywhere he could go to escape this predicament and most importantly, his destination was directly past this freakshow so he had no option but to carry on.

Lwanda sighed and continued on, the fear in his body was visible, he could feel a lingering sense of doom one unlike anything he’d ever felt before; this was bad. He creeped in every step, always checking his surrounding, always ready for whatever might pop out.

Lwanda walked for a mile but still nothing changed, the ground was dry as ever if not more Burren, there were crevices on the ground from the drought, it was like every ounce of life was sucked out and the same continued to intensify the more he went on.

Lwanda was sure whatever caused this, whatever gave him this uneasiness; this sense of doom resided not too far ahead of him.

He hesitated for a bit but continued on, he was at least confident in his ability to run away hopefully saving his own life. There was no rule that stated he had to face whatever was up ahead, he could always run, and run he shall if things got dicey.

Lwanda continued on for five more miles, all the while having an uneventful travel, if it wasn’t for the intensifying feeling of danger fiercely raiding his body Lwanda might have already forgotten all about it, and continued to hymn as he enjoyed his leisure walk like he always had.

On the seventh mile Lwanda’s face drop. His mouth was wide agape. He was struggling to believe what it was he was looking at. He tried pinching himself and the slight pain told him what he was seeing was real.

Before him was a parcel of land unlike anything he’d ever seen before. Thick tall trees circled what appeared to be a spring. Their trunks were bigger than all the trees he’d ever seen after coming to this place, spanning countless meters wide. They were so tall they disappeared into the clouds.

On the branches of the trees giant butterfly like creatures flew around, sucking on the flowers that seem to grow randomly along the trunks of the trees.

The spring at the bottom was even weirder. Its water was as blue as sapphire, reflecting anything that shown on it. It had a mystical vibe to it, like it was holy, always meant to be pure and never sullied, this was also emphasized by the leaves that fell everywhere except in the spring.

The water from the spring was strange, caught in a state of two extremes yet still being in perfect harmony; exhibiting both a state of intense turbulence and a complete lull all at the same time.

Lwanda took a look at everything before him and he was speechless. The weird parcel of land, it stood out to him like a sore thumb, mostly because other than this technically small piece of land, everything else around was dead, deader than dead for miles.

Lwanda looked at the giant butterflies wondering if they would react to his presence but all they did was ignore him, completely unfazed by his presence, almost like he didn’t matter in the face of the flowers before them.

He breathed a sigh of relief; this was the first time he’d ever seen docile creatures that didn’t jump for his neck the second they saw him. He was almost convinced the problem was him, maybe he had tasty blood and flesh or something.

Lwanda continued on, before long he was at the strange parcel of land, he knew the trees were massive but now that he was close to them, he felt dwarfed by them, like an ant standing close to a mega tree.

“These are pretty tall, I'm sure I can see quit far if I climb all the way to the top. Maybe I can even spot a settlement from the top”

Lwanda thought his luck was finally changing. A good vantage point was practically delivered to him, from here he could see quit far, maybe not all the way but he’d at least be able to spot his next destination.

Without wasting anymore time Lwanda quickly readied himself to climb.

**BADUMP!!**

Just as he was about to start, the awful sense of dread intensified. His heart beat madly, it was almost like it would rip from his chest at any moment.

**Badump**

He gasped for air, the fear raiding his body made it hard to breath.

**Badump**

Buckets of sweat drenched his body. His body remained stiff, not moving one bit. He had the feeling if he made any move it was sure to be his last.

**Badump**

**Badump**

Lwanda stood still, trembling, the dread he was feeling was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. This was way worse than the feeling he got when he first met the monstrous eagle and a hundred more times worse than anything he’d felt in the recent days.

This was bad, this was death, he felt like he was in the jaws of Yama himself. He felt like at any time his life would be snuffed out. He felt like his life wasn’t his anymore, it now belonged to the creature that had its eyes on him, to do with it as it pleased.

His life and death were completely at the whim of the beast staring at him and he had no say in the matter whatsoever.

Lwanda hadn't turned around yet but he could sense a presence behind him, he could sense its eyes sizing him up, staring at the weak insignificant being that was himself.

**Grrrrr**

The beast growled. It was a gentle growl but it was enough to make Lwanda’s knees buckle.

He slowly ignored all his instincts and slowly ever so gently turned around. He was well aware of the possibility of death but he figured he’d rather die facing his foe than be struck from the back.

Lwanda slowly turned to face his predator.

Laying on a branch directly above him was a black giant jaguar like creature. Its black fur seemed to be the embodiment of darkness itself, sucking it all the light around it like a black hole. The air close to it seemed distorted, like even it was running away from the beast’s presence. It had three sets of canines reaching out of its mouth, three on each side, resembling the teeth of a saber-toothed cat but fiercer and definitely deadlier.

The aura around the beast was deadly, Lwanda felt like he was walking on death’s valley itself. He felt like it didn’t matter how much he struggled; his demise was inevitable. There was no fighting it, there was no fighting the beast.

He watched the creature staring blankly at him. With each passing second it seemed to be more and more irritated with Lwanda’s presence, it was just a matter of time till it made a move.

“Fuck it!!”

Lwanda mumbled under his breath as he took off running, he had no destination in mind but anywhere would be better than here. He had to go, he had to go anywhere but there.

**whooosh**

As Lwanda took his third step, a streak of black light passed by him. It was so fast he barely saw it. Lwanda felt a sudden weightlessness to himself followed by a sound of something trickling to the ground. He turned to take a look and that’s when he saw it; his right arm was missing, gone; yanked off like it was never there to begin with.

Blood was flowing out of the wound like a fountain, but even in all that Lwanda still couldn’t feel anything. Not because he was numb to the pain but because it all happened so fast, he hadn’t registered it yet.

**Argh!!!!!!**

Lwanda let out a scream as he held his wound trying to slow down the bleeding. The pain was finally here and it felt unworldly. Lwanda screamed in pain, it was taking all he had to not collapse right then and there.

**Thud**

Just as he was lamenting on his despair something was dropped before him. Lwanda tried to focus his blurry vision and take a look.

“You...bastard”

Dropped before Lwanda was his right hand, returned to him by the beast. It stood before Lwanda licking the blood from its mouth, staring at him in contempt almost as if it was mocking him.

Lwanda looked at the gigantic creature of darkness before him, his eyes turned cold.