Time Mishaps

𝕻𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝕿𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖊

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"Halt!" Ædrie pulled Maxine's arm back.

"What?" Her head snapped towards the spot she was about to walk into then back at Ædrie.

Ædrie pointed to a series of small lumps in the ground. They were trekking through the forest that they stayed in during their first night two weeks ago. Their hair was messy, dirty, tangled, and their clothes were soiled. Ædrie had tied her ruined bun into a ponytail, and Maxine wore her jacket around her waist. The teens had small bruises dotting their cheeks and arms, and their muscles ached from both walking for days on end and sleeping on the uncomfortable ground. Food was a definite challenge since they had to figure out what fruits or berries were poisonous, so sometimes they went hungry. And thirsty. Maxine had the most difficulty: transitioning from drinking filtered to dirty water. They did, however, try to find cleaner water to drink from and tried to filter it with their clothes—if that even helped.

The forest grounds were canopied by overhanging trees, luscious green leaves decorating the long, interweaving branches. Plants that would be extinct in the future were thriving and looked like they came out of a fantasy book. Some had blue leaves and some had spiked flowers. A couple of birds would be spotted every minute—and an occasional exotic one would be tagging along. Once, the girls witnessed a definitely-did-not-need-to-see killing of a harmless blue bird caught and eaten by a large-winged creature with three horns.

The hills in front of the girls were small and tight-packed, little mushrooms and grass patches grew about their business on top and in between. Tall grass grew around the entire batch of hills.

"Chill out. It's just bumpy ground," Maxine said.

"Lies," Ædrie sneered. "Over yonder. The hills rise and fall as if they breathe."

Maxine's eyes widened. "Breathe?" Her head slowly turns towards the hills. Just like Ædrie said, they moved—if you focused enough. It was a slight movement, but they were definitely rising up and down, like it was an animal in slumber.

"There's something alive under the grass...Or if the grass is alive." Maxine barely whispered out.

"We should step back." Ædrie slowly backed up, pulling the other with her. Both tried not to make a sound to wake the beast. But clearly it didn't work because another one heard them.

A gust of air blew against their backs. Maxine and Ædrie tensed.

"Hear me out: I don't wanna look back...but...I wanna know what it looks like," Maxine said through gritted teeth.

"Likewise," Ædrie agreed, still tense.

Simultaneously, both turned around to see a white dragon, wings, horns, teeth and all. The teens took one look at it, screamed, and ran—over the hills.

The disturbance of their running caused whatever that was underneath to rumble and violently shake. Ædrie slipped, but Maxine pulled her up hastily. The duo jumped from hill to hill, wobbling at every landing. An earthquake-like rumble roared through the grass, and the flapping of the white dragon's wings were heard not long after. Suddenly, a lumped beast crawled out of its spot, rolling the girls off roughly a bad number of feet down, definitely giving them bruises for weeks and bleeding wounds.

As the girls coughed, trying to catch their breath, the monster shook the dirt off, revealing its large, ugly, head and body, its back crooked and knobbly. If one looked at its back, they would believe that it was the front of a hill. But it was like a wolf in a sheep's disguise. Reaching up to four stories, it stretched its stubby arms and hands with sharp, dirty talons. Its head snapped towards the recovering girls on the ground.