Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
She had to reach home, where it was safe, and where she would be protected. She began to move, slow, cautious, and with a hint of fear.
A few steps, that was all she took when she caught sight of a movement through the trees, a flash of something large and white. Not something that belonged to the forest, not this forest.
Her heart hammered and her breath caught and she feared releasing it. When she could hold it no longer, it left her in a soft whisper. The need to get home had her feet moving quietly. She would avoid whatever was there with her.
Slow and sure her steps crept cautiously along the ground, her head down, not glancing its way. She would not see it, and it would not see her.
Bria felt something then, a slight stab of sorts, not painful, but noticeable. Something she could not ignore. So, naturally, she had to look. She turned and peered through the low growing branches of a tree that had shed a good portion of its leaves.
She saw it clearly then even though it stood at a distance, its form immense even in stillness. White, unnaturally so, against the dimming tones of the forest. Its shape carried the outline of an enormous hunting cat, far larger than any she had ever seen or known to exist within these lands. And two long-curved tusks sat on either side of its mouth. If ever struck by even one of them, it would surely kill.
It moved. Not toward her, but across her line of sight, its body flowing with a controlled power that spoke of immense strength held in perfect balance.
Then it stopped, raised its head, and roared.
The sound tore through the forest, deep and raw, echoing through the trees with a force that seemed to press against her very bones. It was not the cry of a creature claiming territory or warning off rivals. There was something else in it, something sharper, something that she could almost feel. Then it passed as quickly as it came, lost beneath the reality of what stood before her.
Bria did not move. She did not breathe, not fully, not enough to draw attention to herself. Every instinct urged her to remain as she was, to become as still as the trees around her and hope that she might pass unnoticed.
The creature stood unmoving. Then slowly, as though guided by something deeper than sight alone, it turned. Its head angled in her direction, and its eyes found her.
The moment stretched, held in a silence that seemed to draw the forest inward around them both.
Bria felt the weight of its attention settle on her, not as a passing glance, but as something deliberate. Fear held her fast, pressing her in place as surely as any physical restraint. Her pulse thundered in her ears, her body poised between the need to flee and the certainty that doing so would bring about exactly what she feared.
The creature took a step toward her, then another. Each movement was measured, unhurried, as though it had all the time in the world to decide what she was.
Bria remained still, though every part of her trembled beneath the effort. She thought to run, but his huge paw would take her down before she could take a few steps. So, she waited, praying he would find no interest in her.
When it drew near enough, she could see the details more clearly—the length of its two tusks, curved and deadly, the strength in its shoulders, the pure white of its fur, the deep dark of its eyes, and the unnatural size that marked it as something beyond what the forest should hold… could hold.
It lowered its head and sniffed, drawing in her scent.
Time seemed to hold its breath with her. And then—it turned away.
Without warning, without any reason she could see, it moved off, its powerful form slipping back through the trees with a speed that left her no time to question it.
In the space of a few heartbeats, it was gone.
Bria did not move. Not at once. She stood where she was, her breath returning in a rush she could no longer hold back, her body trembling with what she had forced it to endure.
The creature had seen her. It had come close enough to strike. And yet, it had not.
Bria did not linger. The moment her breath returned enough to release her legs frozen from fright, she turned toward the path and hastened her pace. Her steps quickened with each passing moment as the need to reach Willowmere pressed more urgently upon her. The forest no longer felt merely changed; it felt unsettled, as though something within it had been disturbed and had yet to settle again.
She had walked it countless times, gathered from it, trusted it. However, she now feared what it might harbor.