Prey (Dream SMP AU) (Discontinued)

Ch.5

Chapter 5- A Deadly Dance 

Exhilarated, is all I could feel in my bones as my group set up a little camp by a hill. Nighttime came in fast, submerging ourselves in total darkness. The top was so different from the world below. The world below was always lit up from the crystals, that sometimes it was generally hard to tell when it was night. Down below as much I love my home, there was just something special seeing the stars in the black abyss sky.

The top was lighten up by the plants all over the forest, I couldn't make out the colors they all glowed but I knew they must be beautiful. Maybe some violets mix with light blues, and perhaps there were even some greens . The tree's roots inside the bark glowed too, letting you see inside the tree, watching as the roots twisted and turned into every branch, going into the leaves that also glowed due to this. Something about the glow though, it wasn't overwhelming at all. It didn't make the world look day time, but a night that had a luring gleam that brought comfort. It illuminated the dangers, and the beauty that was hiding, but still gave a mysterious vibe. It was still dark but not dark enough. When the light of the fire hid the beauty I snapped out of my trance and turned towards my group.

Karl and Fundy were talking away, while feeding the fire some sticks I gathered for them. Skeepy and Bad were minding their own business, I could see Bad sharpening a blade while Skeepy pointed upwards towards the stars. Whatever Skeppy was talking about must be very interesting seeing as Bad wouldn't remove his eyes from Skeppy. Really all we need is someone who could play an instrument and it would give off a vibe of friends camping. I read many books about horrors, or romance's , about friends doing something like that. Time back then sounded simpler, to the point all you had to worry about was who was having sex with who, if you pass school, dates, and if your neighbor was the murder the whole time. I looked back out towards the forest, closing my eyes as I listened to the fire crack from the wood burning.

It wasn't long though when a whistle took my interest. I looked around, trying to locate the whistle, before I spotted something on a branch in a nearby tree. It's a bird that's perched, not moving one bit. But that wasn't the only thing it was doing, it was staring at me. I thought maybe it was turning its head and just so happened to catch it when it stared at me. That maybe it would stop staring and move on. But it never moved, it kept staring at me, seeming to try to analyze me. I looked closer, when something about the bird hit a familiar image in my mind. I stood up slowly keeping my eyes on the bird.

"I've seen this bird before."

My mind flashed to an image of a bird flying off in the corner of my eye sight, heading towards where the Speed-Runners ran off too.

It then opened its beak and started to whistle, the tone of it, made me tense. This bird was the exact same bird from this morning. The more I think about it, the more I find how odd the bird looked before. But seeing in the fire glow, it really brought out the weirdest things about the bird. The bird seemed to not be fully solid, like if I looked straight at it, I could actually see it clearly, but I moved my eye away from the bird an inch off, the bird was no longer there, like my brain couldn't pick it out. The next thing I noticed was how the eyes didn't seem to be fully animal, but almost humans. Or how the feathers didn't seem to move from the gentle breeze. Or how it would seem to "glitch" out only for a split second, so fast it almost didn't seem to happen, almost. I reached for my sword handle that's been in the baldric tied to my back. If I learned anything from past hunts, and the books about the top, is how to spot real, from a trick of a Speed-runner. I slowly looked away from the bird towards my group, that was still enjoying each other's company. I looked back at the bird. It tilted its head like it knew that I saw the truth

"Well what's your plan now?" It seemed too mocked.

I glared at it, before slowly taking the chance and stepping towards the illusion. Without turning back I yelled, "Speed-Runners!" And that's when all chaos broke loose.