The Monster's Stratagem (Lesbian Story)

21: Mad Dash

"Someone's coming." Syrena announced during their second afternoon within the Western Territories.

"Please tell me you're joking." Dawn said, although she knew that she wasn't. "We're too out in the open here!"

Syrena frantically looked around, trying to find suitable cover to hide her human companion. Dawn watched as her silver eyes snagged on a particular point. "There, there's woodland."

"Do you remember what happened last time we went into woodland?"

"Vividly, but would you prefer to wait out here?"

Dawn hesitated for but a second before marching towards the dark and closed forest.

"I'll take that as a no." Syrena muttered to herself before hastily following after the Venturer, disappearing into the trees before they could be spotted on the well-worn path.

These particular woods felt eerie, the air around them dense and stale. The tree canopy closed over their heads, and soon enough, it was impossible to tell where the forest started and where it ended. Even though it was late afternoon, the forest was cold and dark, making it difficult to see much beyond where they were. A thin layer of mist followed them through the trees, coating the ground in its sinister haze.

"I think I would have preferred whoever was approaching." Dawn whispered after a while, believing she was seeing gnarled limbs rather than branches poke out from behind the bark. "This place doesn't feel right."

Syrena grimaced, spear raised and ready as they pushed onwards, unable to tell which direction they were going, or where they had come from. "Let's keep moving forward, we're bound to find the exit eventually."

Sticking close to the monster, Dawn raised her knives, glancing in every direction where she saw movement in her peripheral vision. However, when her eyes fell upon the spot, nothing was there except more trees.

Time was lost to them in the forest as they had no way of checking in such a dense and dark area. The damp air was beginning to affect Dawn, her fingers starting to tremble from the cold. Twigs snapped and branches creaked, and a wailing wind swept through, carrying autumn leaves and foul smells.

"How long have we been in here?" She asked the Commander, hoping Monstra had some spectacular way of telling the time even in places such as this.

Unfortunately, this was a fool's hope. "I don't know, an hour maybe?"

"It didn't look this big from the outside." Dawn uttered more to herself than to the monster, recalling the misleading visual it presented from the open. "A deceptive forest, now I've seen it all."

Another stretch of time had passed, though neither girl could tell whether it had been a couple of minutes or a couple of hours since they last spoke. The silence was heavy in the air, and Dawn believed she would go utterly mad if she was here alone, seeing movements that weren't there when she checked, or hearing things that were invisible.

"Are you seeing things too?" She asked after a while, unable to withstand the silence any longer.

Giving a stiff nod, Syrena shuffled closer to the Venturer, allowing for no gaps should they be caught unawares again. It seemed like the monster was unwilling to allow Dawn to be ripped away before the Commander had the chance to gut the attacker from the inside out.

"Monsters?"

"Of a sort." Syrena confirmed, head whipping around each time she caught movement. "It's certainly not Monstra, but it isn't human either."

Dawn lifted her knives to her chest, goosebumps covering her flesh at this new information. "Great, that's exactly what I wanted to hear."

The Venturer found herself unwilling to look too closely at the darkness, in case she spied something she truly did not want to see. Though it turned out that she couldn't get away with this for much longer as it appeared as though whatever was lurking decided now was the time to make itself known.