Side-Write: The Creature in the Forest

Happy Halloween! I hadn't been sure what to do for this one, as I should definitely make this one about Project Wild One, but a lot of the lore is still up in the air as I refine the mechanics and build around them. But I realized that what I did have at the ready could actually match up pretty well with the season: it's time for a spooky story! Of course, I don't think it really came out all that spooky so much as... well, you'll see.

As usual, this isn't considered officially canon so much as a glimpse into how the concepts behind the game are coming together! Hope you find it interesting!

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You want the story of that night, eh? Hmmm... Well, I suppose you're old enough now. Alright. But don't you go spreading this around, understand? Go on, sit down...

It was a night much like tonight. The sky was clear and the moon was full, and the last warm winds of autumn were blowing through the valley, making every tree in the forest seem to scrabble at the sky like molting, dying hands, cast in pale light and deep shadow. The warmth of the world was dying away, and we celebrated it with a festival, gorging on the finished harvest.

I myself was drunk on pumpkin brandy, and in the deepest hour of the night I finally dragged my pickled carcass out of town to head home... but fool that I was, I'd wandered off in completely the wrong direction. I followed a thin trail into the Deep Woods, only gradually coming to realize it wasn't my twisting steps that made the path seem unfamiliar.

That's when I heard them. Creatures, snarling and roaring, yowling and yelping as they traded vicious blows somewhere nearby. I'd never heard the like before, and my curiosity got the better of what little sense I had. I crept closer, but the sounds were so vicious I felt nearly sober by the time I got my first glimpse of them, sneaking through the underbrush and trying to find out what terrible things might be fighting so near the village.

But by then, the battle was over. A clearing was half-trampled flat, the earth torn up and many trees shredded of their branches. Against the trunk of one I saw a great monster, probably an ogre or a cyclops. I couldn't tell without getting closer, but I could tell it was male, as he was putting it to the creature he had trapped against the tree with vigor. It was a smaller thing, I could barely glimpse it under him, but it was still yowling and scrabbling at the bark at first. Finally, it gave in, and the little thing took its punishment for losing.

Mind you, I'm usually not so stupid as to wander into that part of the valley, so it was the first monster I'd seen of such size. I'd heard it was common for monsters to clash, and for the winner to have their way with the loser like this, but it hardly looked like it could've been a fair fight, and I thought the smaller one might not survive such treatment.

That's what I thought, but it was still snarling in the dark when that great brute spent his seed in its belly, and when he was finished, he collapsed on his back in the clearing, exhausted. And that's... when I first saw the creature properly.

At first I thought it might have been a simple werewolf. Big ears, shaggy neck, claws. But as it shifted, still rooted atop the great monster, I realized it had the horns of a ram and the tail of a dragon, with a vicious, hooked blade at the tip. Some of its fur was patched with scales, and I thought it might have even had some kind of plating on its legs, like those ant monsters. I didn't know what it was, and I'd grown up on all the stories of monsters of the valley and the lands around us.

And it didn't move like a monster. Now they were done, it took its time rising, dragging itself up and off the pillar stuck in its gut. Standing up, I could see it was a she. She had fat breasts to match the fat belly she'd taken, but as I watched, it... shrank. It didn't even look like it was spilling from her, she was... focused, gripping her middle, and it all disappeared in the space of a few breaths. If anything her breasts seemed larger now, though that might have just been the contrast. I knew I wasn't imagining that she was somehow healed, though-- she no longer moved gingerly, but with a dancer's grace as she slipped up round the side of the beast.

He rumbled and reached for her, but he was so sluggish, he didn't get halfway before she struck, gouging all the fight out of him in a single swipe. I doubt he was dead right out, but he surely would not rise again anytime soon. And this strange creature, this newcomer, seemed as fresh as if she'd just had a good night's sleep. I didn't understand what had happened then, but I knew she was a new kind of threat, and one the village likely wasn't prepared for.

But the wind must have shifted, because while I was concealed as best I could in the bushes, she sniffed the air once and turned to look straight at me. Those eyes...! I thought my blood might freeze, staring into those eyes. They bore a golden glow in the moonlight, devouring all the light in this world, but they were not the eyes of an animal. They were the eyes of... a hunter. Not like the trappers or the poachers, but a real hunter. In an instant, she'd taken in everything about me, appraised me as a threat and as a prize. She knew what I was, she understood perfectly well what I represented. And slowly, with calm certainty, she rose to come and claim me as one more prize for her night.

I ran. I was a stumbling mess, running face-first into low-hanging branches and barely dodging trees, but I ran as hard as I could. I was in such a panic I must have blown right past the trail, as I never saw it, though I was sure I'd run back the way I'd came. But I fled as quickly as I could, gasping for air and only bearing to look over my shoulder after a good couple minutes. She was there. Eyes in the dark, low to the ground. She'd stood on two legs before, but now she prowled after me. I don't doubt she could've overtaken me, but she must have wanted to run me out of steam first. She liked her prey too tired to fight back, I figured.

My head was pounding, and it was all I could do to dash through the trees without clobbering myself, hands out in front of me to catch any dangers in the dark under the canopy. And, well... I caught one.

My fingers sliced on feathers sharp as razors, and the best I could do by reflex was to let my legs give out. I collapsed at the feet of an enormous beast: a wyvern! For a moment, I was so drained and terrified I could do nothing but lie there, staring at the beast. It almost looked like a rooster, this one, though it was as big as a house, and its beak split open to reveal a mass of fangs like needles. It croaked at me, and other shapes moved in out of the dakness. Not just a wyvern, but a wyvern with a full clutch of younglings to feed.

The thought of being torn apart slowly by peckish children was enough to get my legs under me again, but I was too slow. They were snapping at me, and when I tried to kick at one, it caught my boot, and its fangs sliced straight through. Fire shot up my leg, and I knew-- they were venomous! I managed to wrench away, stumbling through the brush as they wobbled after me, but I knew without a doubt I'd die this night, now. Of course, I'd wake up again on the morrow in bed, Blessed Be the Merciful Mother, but the poison was destroying my leg slowly. If I were sensible, I'd have let them kill me then and there, so I didn't wake up with a useless leg and be damned to never walk again, but I was in a panic and all I knew in that moment was to keep putting one foot in front of the other while I could.

Well, that got me half a dozen steps before my leg just wobbled out from under me and I was laid out in the dirt. But there were fewer of the hatchlings, now.

The big wyvern was screeching, searching around it, and I thought it was just the lights swimming in my head, but as I watched, the little ones disappeared one by one. Finally, the wyvern slashed out and caught that strange she-beast, snatching her from the shadows. She'd followed me all the way here! I didn't understand why she hadn't just let them have me, but I watched, fascinated. It was a terrible flurry of violence I could barely follow, her dark form blurring across the wyvern's back and slipping under it, slashing all over as it tried to crush her or catch a proper hold on her.

Suddenly, the wyven pounced and caught the wild creature's arm in its fangs! Surely she was poisoned, maybe even about to lose a limb, but she didn't even pause. Her captured arm wrenched around to catch hold of that beak, and with both arms she forced its maw wide open... and plunged both her feet straight down its gullet! The great scourge seemed about as shocked as I was, and even struggled to cough her up, but she disappeared into the monster's maw in seconds.

For one aching, shuddering breath, I stared at the monster, feeling the darkness rising up to drag me under as my panic gave way to exhausted confusion. Then the beast convulsed, and shrieked, drawing in on itself. It struggled to cough up its involuntary meal, but soon it toppled over to thrash in the brush, squawking and warbling in ugly, warped registers that grew desperate, then feeble. Soon, it was only a faintly quivering mountain of darkness, devastated from within.

And its throat finally bulged again as... the strange creature, the interloper, crawled out of her latest conquest. She hardly seemed to try to avoid those poisonous fangs clambering out of its maw, and the only regard she gave her wounded arm was to work it around a few times in the socket, like a smith stretching after a long day at work.

It was then that I knew, the valley had a new terror to come to grips with. I don't know if she was actually stronger than the great terrors she'd felled, but she had a strange, ruthless cleverness to her. She hunted with the tactics of man, moved with the speed of a wild animal, and claimed what she wanted even by means we might think mad or suicidal. As she approached me, I knew that I could not stop her taking whatever she wanted. As far as I could tell, no one could.

I was ready to die. I'd had enough terror to last me two lifetimes, and at this point, I felt... empty. Squashed flat, or perhaps, floating at the mercy of a tide far greater than myself. So I waited, watching her.

But she did not strike. Those keen eyes raked over my helpless body, spread on the ground before her, and... I did not know why, but I... I grew aroused. Oh, cast against the pale canopy behind her, I could see she had an agreeable figure, hips broad and fertile, breasts heavy and lush, her thighs thick with power and padding both, but... she may have been a demon, for all I knew! Yet somehow... something in the way she held herself perhaps, or even just the way she looked at me... Those eyes held a hunger, and perhaps some part of me dared to hope it was a hunger of that sort. I found myself trembling as she descended over me.

My britches were already ragged, but she shredded them off me and mounted me. I barely registered shock before I was inside her. And... I'm not ashamed to say I felt tears roll down my cheeks as I gripped at those immense hips. She must have been two or three feet taller than me and twice my weight, and I could barely move to save my life, but I still found the strength to push into that... wonderful warmth. Somehow, this creature, this hellion, this unstoppable monster I'd just been desperate to escape, had a... primal beauty to her, in my eyes. She moved tenderly but surely, the care in her and the sweetness of her embrace such a contrast from everything I'd seen before, I was shaken to my bones... utterly captivated. I didn't care what came before or after, as in this moment, I only wanted to... touch her. To be touched by her.

I don't know if she worked some magic on me to change me so quickly, or if it was purely out of relief, that any kindness at all seemed a gift from the Mother in that tormented night, but... If I look back, I feel like I was captivated by her from the very first glance. Terrified, but I'd wanted so much to see more, to know more, that I'd lingered till she'd sniffed me out. I'd run in panic, but my heart leapt when she... she saved me. She was... graceful, and powerful, and somehow she seemed to have a dignity to her greater than any king. To this day, I don't know who or what she was, but I felt like I was being visited by a creature from another world, by something... incredible.

I sowed my seed in her with all the enthusiasm my dying body could muster, and she drew me close, smothering me in her breasts as I rocked against her till I was spent to the last. She gripped me close and sure, both with her hands and below, drinking up all I had to offer. I clung to her as long as I could, my legs hanging useless under me, and I said to her... "Please." I didn't know what I was pleading for, but I pled, gripping at her until my strength ran out.

My vision was dark when she drew me up, and I barely recognized her fangs glistening in the moonlight before I descended into a dark, warm embrace, tucked away snug where she wanted me. I drifted for a time in a stupor, feeling the world wobble and roll around me as the numb tingle crept through me, and... well. The last thing I remember of that night is a dazed contentment like I'd never felt before... or since.

I didn't know why she'd done any of it. She could surely have caught all sorts of prey more easily if she hungered, and I doubt my seed could have done much anything to even heal the wounds she'd taken coming after me. It just didn't make any sense. I was in a stupor of sorts for days after that. Hells, I still catch myself searching the treeline for any glimpse of her eyes in the dark, sometimes...

It took some time for me to catch wind of what happened at the temple up the mountain trail. A young man had emerged from the forest the next day, yelling for help, drawing guards and priests to follow him... and in the few minutes the guard was thinned, the skull of an ancient demon was spirited away from the depths of the sanctum. They never saw who did it... but when I heard what the boy looked like, I had to go up there and meet him myself. They thought he was befuddled in the head, and that maybe he was my little brother or cousin, we looked so alike. I could hardly believe it, but... I took him home, and raised him as best I could. It was hard to believe, but in the end, she'd left me an unexpected gift.

I... suppose you could say... I was used. I know that. But after seeing her... being in her presence... To be honest, I'm just glad I could be some small part of whatever bizarre story she's carving in the world. It warms me to think that she may still carry some part of me within her... and that she's left some of herself behind, here, with me.

So... that's why your momma's never around, kiddo. She's probably still out there, giving the world hell, and who knows why. And... yeah, that's probably why you're so good at sports and such... and why I keep telling you not to show off. Remember... this is our secret, alright? Not everyone would understand just how... amazing your mother is. I guess you could say she taught me that the things we're scared of... and rightfully so... can be worth treasuring, too.