The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

#52 A Rock, A Hard Place, and a Monster

[Sophia]

"What?" I said blankly.
"He was taken away by some big creature!" they both said in unison.
"You mean he was kidnapped?"
"He tried to fight it off," Fleetfoot started.
"But he couldn't escape it and dragged him away!" Fyboy concluded.
"Why didn't you go after him?"
"The ground caught fire and we couldn't get away from it!"
I didn't know how to react. I just had a stunned look on my face. Both stunned from shock and confusion.
"Shouldn't we go after him?" the Twins suggested.
"Yeah, you're right." I said, trying to snap out of my confusion. "Uh- do you remember which way he went?" I asked. The Twins looked around, trying to remember where they saw Apollo being dragged away.
"Wait, over here!" the Twins pointed something out and trotted over to it. I followed them and looked over to see what they found. I didn't spot it at first, but as I looked closer I could see there was a tiny puddle of black ink that almost blended in with the charred ground.
"Apollo must've wounded it." they pointed out. By then, I already knew where this would go. If this was here, then there had to be a trail of some sort that would lead us to wherever Apollo was dragged off to. I took a step forward to see if there was anymore inky puddles. To our luck, there was. Small ones.
"Here! This way, there's a trail!" I directed. The Twins followed me closely as I followed the trail. Soon, it started to spread out and we started off into a jog as I looked around for more black puddles. The trail began to wear thin as we went on and I was starting to panic a little. Mostly out of pure confusion, because I was still processing the information the Twins had said to me about two minutes ago.
"Hey, Sophie?"
"Yeah?"
"How did you put the fire out?" Flyboy asked.
"Oh... uh- I'll explain later." I stammered. I turned my heads forward and continued following the trail. Until I couldn't see anymore ink puddles to follow. I looked around frantically, feet covered in burnt ground and grass, but there was nothing.
It ended here.
"Augh, where'd it go." I said to myself, frustrated. I kept looking around, trying to see if there was any other sign of tracks or anything the creature had to have left behind. Until Fleetfoot came over to me and put a hand on my shoulder, making me tense up.
"Sophie, wait." he stopped me and I looked behind me to listen to them. But they didn't explain themselves. They both stared off into the distance, eyes darting around, and I swear I thought I saw their ears twitch.
"Quick, this way." they whispered to me and started running away from me. I quickly followed behind them, tired from running already. We flew through the trees and jumped over hedges and climbed over rocks. Until I heard something thundering in the distance and we all stopped to listen. A fierce cry was heard shortly after. We kept running, ears open, climbing through the forest as fast as we could. (I was sort of lagging behind because running through the forest while you're barefoot isn't as nice as it sounds.) We knew we were getting closer when the sounds and screaming became louder.
We started to climb up a hill and we were stunned to see the scene before us.
A creature with skinny hind legs and red spiraling eyes was digging furiously at the ground. I crawled forward, trying to be quiet, whilst trying to get a better look. A huge tree had fallen on top of a few boulders and trapped between the two was Apollo, trying to duck and hide himself in the ditch he was in.
He was trapped.
I didn't realize that I had stood up, fight-or-flight instincts taking over me. And I think that was what alerted the monster to come for us, because I think Apollo spotted me and the creature recognized the look on his face and turned around. It roared loudly and started charging at us. And without thinking, I opened my wings and shot straight into the air and the Twins followed behind me just as Apollo called out to us.
But I didn't look before I leapt and I flew straight up and hit my head on a branch and I tumbled downwards as the Twins scrambled upwards, trying not to get stuck and avoiding the same mistake I made. As I fell, I was lucky enough to catch myself on another, thicker branch. Until the tree suddenly shook before me and I gripped the branch tightly. The monster was trying to climb the tree and drag me down. I scrambled to pull myself up in a state of panic and fear. And the monster below me scratched and howled, making harder for me to climb.
I'm pretty good at tree climbing, and I even enjoy it. But this... no, this wasn't fun at all. In fact, this is even worse when you're just trying to sit on a branch but your friend climbing below you is shaking the tree and it makes you feel like you're about to fall off.
So you might understand how terrifying this situation is already.