Nephilim: New Dawn

Chapter 1-The Stranger

Rain fell onto the moss-covered rooftops, pouring down like miniature waterfalls onto the ground, forming small streams on the dirt road through several tussocks of grass. Just above, trees waved their lush branches between ruined houses, their leaves rustled and sang as winds and rain blew through them while roots and vines covered and stilled the crumbling skeletons of what used to be houses of steel and cements. A shrew ran from one ruined wall to another between the bushes of the undergrowth, trying to avoid the pouring rain. A fallen banyan tree provided the small rodent with a temporary shelter, enough for it to dry it fur at least. Secured underneath its rotting wooden sanctuary, the shrew shook its body, splashing tiny droplets of water around, trying to dry itself, oblivious of the danger as the wall supporting the rotting giant started to crack.

A bolt of lightning lit the sky ablaze with a thunderous roar, making the shrew raised its head, surveying its surrounding. The cracking sounds were loud and close, signaling that the wall could hold no longer, but as the shrew put its front legs down to run. But it was too late. The concrete wall collapsed, crushed by the weight of the dead tree, the thing that the rodent thought would aid it. The unfortunate creature screeched, terrified of what has just happened, the banyan tree's rotting, hollowed trunk has trapped it underneath it, its left leg caught under a large chunk of masonry, causing the distressed animal to cried out in agony as it tried to claw its way out of stones and wood. Before long, the shrew was exhausted, as it was trying to catch its breaths, its eyes looked around frantically in the dark as it felt the rising rainwater threatening to drown it in the crater created by the collapsing wall.

Suddenly the footsteps of something large stilled the shrew, accompanied by a faint smell of rotting leaves and fungi. The sound and smell approached, closer and closer, until the footsteps stopped, directly in front of the fallen tree where the shrew is trapped underneath. The rodent tried laying motionless, save for the frantic movements of its ribs and its eyes looking around, trying to search for any way to escape. Then, all of the sudden, the rotting trunk shook and splintered, ripped apart by powerful claws, making the insects that have made their home inside its corpse fell out or scattered into the air. The shrew looked on, as if bedazzled by its rescuer's peculiar appearance, unaware of its trapped limb.

What stood in front of the rodent now could only be described as a walking bush, branches, feathers and other materials all weaved and bound together with vines, making it looked like the shaggy coat of a weasel in the midst of winter. Underneath all of that, the shrew could make out patches of leathery brown skins stitched together in a hideous parody of a hide, puncturing holes and cuts littered what it thought was the creature's chest. Small, lichens covered branches and vines hung loosely from its shrouded head, mimicking the mane of a very old bison, as it moved, so too did the vines and branches, swaying with every motion the creature made. After a while, as if assessing the situation, "the Bush" reached out to the shrew with its long, grey arm, covered with strange patterns resembling vines with sharp turns from its forearm presumably up to its shoulder. Long, clawed fingers touched the chunk of cement, pushing it away with effortless ease while another hand caught the rodent in its gentle grab.

The shrew struggled with its remaining three good limbs as "the Bush" brought it nearer to its face. The strange creature tilted its head slightly, seemingly amused by the struggling rodent as another flash of lightning lit the sky, illuminating the human-like face underneath, its amber eyes glowed for a second before fading into the darkness of its cloak. The rodent's breathing slowed, its small nose sniffed the air, reaching nearer to the creature's face, it could see under the shadow were a maw lined with daggers like teeth, slowing opening with trails of drools falling down from the slits. The poor animal didn't even have the chance to react as "the Bush" opened its maw and tossed the rodent in, sinking its teeth down to the squeaking animal before tilting its head back to swallow its whole.