Light Within the Umbra

Chapter Two: Survival of the Not-So Fittest

When Scintilla came to, the moon had traveled all the way across the sky and the sun was slowly starting to rise. Had she really been here all night?

Scintilla slowly stood up and immediately got dizzy. She put her hand to her head and looked around. Her belongings had been blasted away, scattered in an approximate 6 meter radius around her. Very few items actually remained in her bag. The grass on the hill had blown flat outwards, as if a powerful gust of wind radiated from where she stood. The ground was slightly muddy, as it had rained for a short amount of time before. Now, Scintilla's sweater was splotched with dirt, an irregular contrast with the black and red stripes. Her long black hair was damp and the faded blue tips were spotted and caked with dark brown mud, though she shrugged it off for now. She found her glasses and put them on. She just needed to get back to the cabin, and whatever happens, happens.

Though Scintilla couldn't see very well in the early morning light, she began to gather her belongings, keeping track of what she had and what she still needed to find.

Lastly, she found her flashlight, which she kept for situations like this. She turned it on and took one last look around, making sure she had everything, zipping her bag up. But as she pointed it around on top of the hill to check one last time, she heard a low, growling sound.

Scintilla panicked, not sure where the sound originated from and frantically turned left and right, waving her flashlight around to try and locate the source.

At first, she couldn't see it very well. The beam of light focused on a large, dark mass, its wide eyes reflecting the dull, yellow glare from her flashlight. The sound came again, louder this time, and the figure slowly stepped toward her. Her legs locked in fear as she realized she was face to face with a large bear. She glanced down when she saw another set of movement and realized why this animal was threatening her. There was a cub, which the mother was trying to protect. She had disturbed the bears...their den had to be nearby.

The mother bear stepped closer, as if it were giving her one last warning. Run! Scintilla told herself. Don't just stand here like an idiot! RUN!

With the bear's last roar, Scintilla finally urged herself to move. She turned around and ran in the opposite direction, clutching her bag tightly. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew she had to keep moving. With her flashlight in hand, she ran down the hill and through the trees, trying to avoid rocks and roots. The bear was right behind her. She knew bears were fast, but not this fast. She could hear the roars and feel it's angry breath on the back of her neck.

Scintilla ran for what felt like ten minutes straight. She had never really been the active running type since she spent a lot of her time inside, so at this point her legs felt like jelly and ached terribly.

Right when Scintilla felt like she was going to collapse, the bear decided she had chased her far enough. It stopped, gave one last warning growl, and turned around to go back to where it came from.

Scintilla stumbled as she looked back and began to slow her running when she realized she wasn't quite in danger anymore. That wasn't a very smart decision just yet, though. Her right foot hit hard something jutting out of the ground. Was it a rock? A tree root? She wouldn't find out until later because before she could stop herself, she landed face-first into a rock.

She could feel the blood gushing from her nose and her whole head ached. As a matter of fact, her whole body ached from being slammed to the ground unexpectedly.

She laid there with her eyes closed and all of her senses overwhelmed. Scintilla just wanted to get up and go home, but as she moved to stand up and do just that, the dizziness overtook her and her face hit the ground once more, temporarily losing touch with the world again.

* * *

Hours later, Scintilla's eyes slowly fluttered open. Her head was pounding, her ankle ached with sharp pains every now and then, and the faint irony scent of blood still assaulted her nostrils. She attempted to sit up once more but her vision swam violently and her head felt like it was going to explode.

Once the dizziness subsided, Scintilla squinted around to get an idea of where she was, since she hadn't really gotten a chance before she experienced an epic battle between her face and a rock. She was relieved to find her glasses still on her face, and miraculously the only damage they suffered was a small crack in one of the lenses and one of the hinges was broken.

The first thing she noticed was that it was late evening and nearing darkness again. Great, she thought, I've been gone a whole twenty-four hours. They are gonna KILL me when I get back.

The second thing Scintilla noticed, however, was that she had no idea where she was. She searched for familiar landmarks, but to no avail. She hadn't gained the chance to explore very far since she had only been up here with her dad and his wife for a few days.

But she would try to find her way back anyway. What else was she supposed to do? Scintilla stood up haltingly, as not to lose her balance as the dizziness still attacked her vision.

As Scintilla knelt on her left leg brought up her right to stand, she noticed a few more...peculiar things.