My Fairy Prince {Chosen Mates Book #4}

Chapter 14

The first morning rose as the Seraphina stirred in her sleep. The sun's rays couldn't break through the dense fog and darkness the forest was concealing her with.

Her eyes slowly opened, her skin and clothing damp from the dead tree she slept in. Seraphina rose, crawling her way out as her fingers sunk into the soft forest floor. Now with some grey light to her surrounding, the forest didn't look too scary, it was more magical in its own way.

Seraphina's stomach growled in the silence and she sighed. Hunting was not what she wanted to do first thing the moment she got up, she was hoping to sleep more. But how long she had been out made her wonder what time it was now. Seraphina's stomach disturbed her thoughts again, more demand for the search for food.

"Alright." she trucked herself away from her campsite and towards where she felt was good to start.

Today was the first full day now that Seraphina would have to endure until the bitter grossly dusk would veil the endless trees again.

Seraphina wondered how everyone was doing. What they were doing as well. They had all probably been worried about her still, hoping that she was actually finding food and that she was warm enough. Seraphina smiled at that thought though. People actually allowed her to make her choices this time, even though it is dangerous. But it felt good to not have screams and fights over what she wanted to do.

~~~

A clearing in the forest came into view sometime later, Seraphina's stomach screaming so much she thought that whoever or whatever lived here could hear it and would probably hunt her down already.

As she neared closer, the sound of water made her pick up her pace and a river came into her line of sight. It was somewhat lighter here as well and Seraphina spotted some bushes close by the river.

Water..., Seraphina sighed in her head thankfully. Spots of red adorned the bushes and she noticed they were strawberries. Bright and damn perfect ones at that.

As she picked some and carried them in her shirt from the day before, her water-soaked shirt aided in cleaning the small fruits. The chilly river somehow felt better against the forests' humid and musty air. Seraphina's morning was turning out peaceful and it relaxed her as she ate the ripe fruits.

Soon Seraphina finished and stood herself up from the river's edge. She plucked more of the strawberries from the bushes while she hummed. She was going to carry these back to her lean-to shelter and mash them for the juice so that she could mix them with the water she'd bring with her as well. But Seraphina would have to outlook for something to carry that water in, but she'd do that in a bit.

The bushes rushed. Seraphina stepped back in case something would lunge at her but nothing did. She just assumed it was from her or some animal hiding inside that she scared away. But that wasn't the case she figured out.

Heavy breathing was almost inaudible from the forest's ability to seem to silence anything it hosted. The mist was forming above Seraphina but nowhere else. There was no rain and the fog was dense enough as it was to even make her own hands disappear in front of her own face. But she was at a clearing, the only fog that was around was back inside the dark wetness. But that dark wetness was also something else.

Seraphina slowly rose her head up as the breathing got louder. Above the bushes and mangled in the trees was something terrifying. At first glance, you probably wouldn't have been able to see it, but Seraphina did at that moment. It was as tall as the trees, its horns like roots from its head, all twisted and bent in shapes like arms. Its body was thin and lanky, skin so tight, it was as if the bones inside were the only things keeping it together. The little amount of hair? Fur? Seraphina wasn't sure at all what it was. All that she could think was how humanoid the body was and terrifying the face peering down at her was. A deer skull. Dirty, cracked, hollow, and lifeless face.

Wendigo.

The smell of decay and mold filled Seraphina's sinuses as she dropped everything and bolted.

Wendigo. Wendigo. Wendigo! It was the only word chanting so loud in her head and the only thing that made her fly through the dense threatening dead forest.

She's heard the stories about the Wendigo. Even the Skinwalker from her Native American studies back in middle school and high school. But Wendigos, a man who turned into a beast from intense hunger during a brutal winter drove him to cannibalism. He had feasted on another man, when crazed and turned into this monster from folklore that she had seen just now and was always on the hunt for more human flesh that would never be satisfied regardless of how much consumption. The greed was what made him suffer and become so scary and bloodthirsty.

The sound of trees crushed behind her made Seraphina cry out. Her voice was weak against the infinite amount of wood and abyss. No one would be able to hear her as much as she pleaded for help, how many tears she shed, how much energy and strength she would try and run from the Wendigo that roared behind her.

Seraphina knew it was faster than her, just even by walking it could easily catch up to her without even a sweat. It would grab her, squeeze her tiny body in its thin large hand and rib her limbs apart with its bony claw-like fingers and toss her in its mouth like a raisin. Seraphina would be gone before her three days even had a dent in them.

"Please, please someone...!" Seraphina's voice was cracked and horse from the excessive amount of air she was gulping inside. Her lungs burned from the force of the forest's air that was too damp to breathe for even professional runners. Seraphina's legs had grown weak but she was still pushing, trying to see if she could even make any distance from the beast. When she turned back to look, its hand was only a few feet from her, closing in on her ant size figure, ready to snatch her.