y dreams were troubled that night. Images flashed across my mind. A calm forest clearing, a fine maiden... A dark figure lurking in the bushes... pain... death... blood... gnashing teeth. I could feel the creature's teeth ripping flesh away from bone.
I sat up in bed. My head throbbed. I had never had a dream so vivid, so horrifying, and yet so real. Sleep was useless this night. I opened up my old drawers. The papers inside smelled old, dusty, and stale. I was unsure of my destination, but these maps would help me find my way.
I wandered through the forest, still staring deep into the map. Most onlookers would think I was mad, wandering to an unknown destination. In truth, I did not know right then. But deep in the corridors of my mind, the location of that clearing rested. I was searching. I looked up from the map. I was in a forest clearing. This was it. Amazing where the mind can lead you if you give in to it.
I looked down at my feet. I saw no blood, no bones, no corpse, nothing to indicate that an innocent soul had been slaughtered here. But my dream had led me here, and I had to discover why. I set my pack on the ground and set up camp in the clearing. My next dream would reveal where I was to go next.
But that night, he had no dreams. He woke up untroubled, the sun shining into the clearing. I heard the rustling of underbrush and bushes. Quickly, I drew my daggers.
"Come out, coward! Fight!" I yelled into the forest around me. But when I saw what emerged from the bushes, I could not believe my eyes. Suddenly, horror struck me. It was the human maiden from my dream.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that," she said. An image from his dream flashed in his mind.
"Hide, quickly!" I yelled. I spun around, looking for other movement in the bushes. A shadow. The softest noise reached my ears. I recognized the sound of ragged breathing. Where was it coming from? I could not tell. I spun around.
In that instant, there was a loud roar, and the creature was on me. It jumped at me with its wicked claws outstretched. I jumped to the side. It rolled, recovered, but it wasn't fast enough. I had just managed to embed one of my daggers in its shoulder. With a roar of unimaginable rage, it slashed at my stomach, dagger still lodged in its shoulder. Blood streamed from the deep cuts into my flesh. I jumped out of its reach. In one swift movement, I charged, kicked it in the jaw, and embedded my second knife into its neck. Blood spilled from two locations- from where the dagger entered the back of the neck, as well as from the front, where the other end protruded out. As it gasped for breath, I yanked one dagger from its shoulder, and brought it back down into its back. With a final roar of agony, the beast doubled over, dead.
When I hit the ground, I reached for my pack. I hadn't neglected to pack healing potions and herbs. First, I applied the herbs to the four slashes in my stomach. Then, I drank the potion, and a warm calm came over my body. The pain of my wounds dulled, and I was able to catch my breath.
I propped myself up with my pack. I looked to the left, and I saw that the woman had fainted. I tried to stand up and go to her, but the pain in my stomach was still too intense. I sat back down, removed the healing herbs and drank another potion. What was left of the wounds on my stomach mended themselves and I was able to walk around again. I walked to the corpse of the creature and pulled my daggers out of it. This creature was not of oarfish origin, for the blood was a deep scarlet. I turned the creature over so that it was lying on its back, and examined it. The hair was very long, similar to that of a draw's, but this was not the regular silver hair of a Drow. This was an intense blood red. I looked into the eyes, which still remained open, an expression of hatred frozen into them. They were the same shade of red. As I pulled open the mouth, some blood poured out. The creature's fangs were sharp, and crude. The teeth of a carnivore. But the features undoubtedly resembled those of a drow- but even more... malevolent.