Casnie was no longer running. This was not due to a lack of respect for the great beast scrabbling through the underbrush behind her but more an exercise in practicality. She could keep ahead of the beast by maintaining a brisk pace. If she were to keep running flat out she would eventually tire. Something told her that the reptile on her tail would not run into such dfficulties. Still, she couldn't be sure. She'd never seen anything like it--and once she was done with this whole mess she hoped she never would again.
She couldn't help but realize as she tramped through the densely tangled brush that she had been vaguely aware for the past several minutes of a low din to her east. Little else seemed to make sense to her so she followed it. She followed it for a long time, until she began to lose track. The sound was growing louder, but slowly. Very slowly. It was strange--most sound in this great forest seemed to be enveloped by the ghostly mist hanging low in the air, but not this sound. This low, rumbling noise that seemed to reach out from the earth itself--it was perfectly audible. It sounded like a voice--or perhaps several voices crying out in unison.
If there were people here then surely they must know how to dispose of this creature. She hoped this was the case even though she was uncomfortably aware of a nagging doubt. This reptile did not belong there. This was not his home and he was understandably perturbed. Did it see her as prey? She was unsure, but it continued to follow, never flagging. It continued its slow but relentless pace. She had to confess to herself that she was growing tired even at the leisurely pace she'd set for herself. It had been an eventful day for her--that was for certain.
This was all she had left. That low, throbbing rumble to the east. Was the sun dipping beneath the horizon? She could not say. Tendrils of mist seemed to cling to her shoulders as she muscled her way between a pair of knobby tree trunks. The temperature was dropping but the mist seemed to let off a light all its own. She could see perfectly clearly where she was going despite the circumstances. For the first time since she'd entered this maze she felt her gaze was under her own control. She stared straight ahead defiantly. She did not feel her field of vision slowly slipping to the side as it had before. Perhaps the wood's curse had been broken. She could not say.
The trees and brush began to thin out. She was definitely approaching a meadow of some sort. The grunting beast struggling to force its way through the underbrush would find purchase there and perhaps gain great speed. It would be dangerous to go this way--but the sound of voices grew ever louder. It was a great wordless moan that melded with the buzzing sound one hears in total silence. It was deafening in it's own strange way. She could scarcely hear the scuffling sound of her leather shoes disturbing the grass.
"Is there anybody there?!" Casnie yelled as she grew closer. "I need help! Help!"
Unlike the din of voices carried to her ears by the mist, the sound of Casnie's voice evaporated, carried away by the wind. Even she could tell that she could not be heard. She felt she could barely hear herself. She might as well have been underwater. In fact, she couldn't help but feel suddenly that she was moving through sludge. She knew very well that she had picked up speed since the trees had thinned out, but her dead run was taking place in slow motion. She chanced a glance behind her and the world spun, ever so slowly, the color of the trees, the mist, and the dim sky so far above melding into a colorless blur. She could not see a reptile. She could see very little.
A great rush of wind pierced Casnie's eardrums and she could hear the deafening noise of her footfalls on the dirt, the sound of crickets chirping, and she could smell the scent of the leaves permeating the air. The buzzing sound of silence was still there--but it was muted, subtle. She could hear the sound of hear breathing and the air filling up her lungs. She took an experimental step and could hear the scraping sound of her shoes on rocks and dirt. She felt no tendrils of mist caressing her cloaked shoulders and if she were to look above her she could see an early evening sky. Something had definitely changed. She was no longer being followed.
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