Ride with you

1

His feet stomped against the forest floor, covering the lower half of his legs in mud and dust. His heart pounded in his chest with each step, it became harder to breathe. "Darryl! Stop running, we know your out here!" Those words scared him. No matter how far he ran, those shadows would be following him, looking to capture him and drag him to hell. Blinded by fear, he tripped over a log. He was quickly engulfed by light. He scrambled to his feet as they grew closer, if he stopped for a breath, it would be an irreversible mistake.

He made a quick left turn and ran towards a large tree. The bottom of it had been hollowed out and there was a small gap that you could crawl through. He looked back at the group who was following him and then at the tree. He swallowed the lump in his throat and dropped down, crawling through the small gap.

***

"Darryl! Stop running, we know you out here!" Zak looked up from his small fire. It's been a while since he had seen or even heard other people. Curiosity got the better of him and he stood up, pouring a bit of water on the fire to put it out. He quietly sneaked over to where he heard the shouting and saw a group of flashing lights in the distance. He thought for a moment, "the smart thing to do is to just leave them be since they are probably from the city. But I'm not that smart." He sped off towards them, quickly catching up. He slowed down when he saw the uniform, grey with orange patches and a bright orange armband with the Carmon City emblem. His steps slowed to a halt as he stepped behind a tree, peeking at them from its edge. "Darryl, c'mon. We're all tired," One shouted. "Yeah, your parents would kill us if we didn't have you back home," called another. Zak looked at his surroundings and heard soft breathing. About 5m from him was a large, hollowed-out tree. He saw a silhouette crouched inside it, "I don't think they see me." He noticed that the figures had now moved in that direction, moving closer to the tree hiding the trembling figure. Zak sighed, "he might repay me." He thought before jumping out from his hiding spot.

"Hi, there!" The 3 men turned to face this average height, tanned-skin boy. He was a few years younger than them and looked real cocky. The tallest of the three sighed, "What do you want kid?" Zak scoffed and made a fake, offended expression. "I'm not a kid, thank you! I'm the ripe old age of 16!" One of them rolled their eyes whilst another just groaned. "Look, kid," the tallest one took out a smallish cylinder-shaped object out of his backpack, "We don't have time for this." He turned the top half and a small flame appeared. Zak began to sweat, "this better work," he hoped. "I wouldn't do that! The beasts don't like fire!" A second worker scoffed, "That's why we have it! Dumbass."

Zak took out a small, leather, drawstring bag and threw it onto the ground in front of him, its contents slightly pouring out. A blue-grey goo that softly glowed, slowly flowed out. The three men looked down at it for a second then began to chuckle, "That was your big-," their faces turned white as they looked up behind Zak. "Ha! I told you! You should have listened to me, master of the beasts!!"
"Fuck this! I'm leaving!" The shortest quickly began to run in the opposite direction, the second followed close behind. "Who cares! Let's come back tomorrow." The third looked at the creature and back down at Zak, he turned and started to walk quickly, "Whatever, I heard he was a fag anyway. Our city can do with less of those!"

The three men disappeared into the distance and Zak chuckled. He turned around and saw a large beast. It was about 3x the size of himself and was in the form of a horse. It looked like it was made from a similar substance to the goo and was emitting dim blue light. Zak froze and became pale as his heartbeat fastened. The creature looked down and began eating the substance in the drawstring bag. In an instant, he turned and ran to the hollowed-out tree, "Hey, uh, can I come I? You see there's a large... thing..." the boy lifted his head, his face was wet and his eyes were stained from tears. He hesitated then let out a slow nod.

Zak climbed in next to him and sat on the ground, "So, are you Darryl? The one who caused all this trouble?" He mumbled something but it wasn't loud enough for Zak to hear, "Ok... well I'm Zak,"
"Thank you..." Zak was surprised. This wasn't the voice of a criminal, it was soft and smooth. Zak was caught off guard but then shook his head, "No problem, you can pay me back later." Zak chuckled and caught a glimpse of Darryl smiling, it made him feel warm and fuzzy inside, making him smile. "Actually, never mind. I just felt like helping."
"Thank you, a lot. Zak."