“Well its four thirty, we should maybe start heading back” said Jarrah.
Mike and James agreed and they turned back to descend the steep track they had just struggled up.
“I'm glad you brought us here Mike, I wasn't aware of this place existing” Said Jarrah.
“Yeah it's wonderful isn't it” Mike replied, “You should see the view from the top of the peak slightly south, the one you could just make out in the distance from back there. We should do that tomorrow; it's a much longer hike so I'd say we'll need about eight hours to get there and back”.
They all agreed it was a good idea. The view from here had whetted their appetite and they were keen to see more. It was a slow journey back down; parts were so steep that they really had to take their time. Except Mike of course, who was like a mountain goat, and could probably walk up the side of a wall if he had to. Mike gradually got further and further in front of them. They told him to go at his own pace, the route back to the camp was easy and straight, it was just the steep decline that they had to traverse, and they’d see him back at camp. They were about two thirds of the way down when Jarrah said he heard something. He looked round to where he thought he heard rustling and thought he saw something moving in the bushes.
“There's something just over there, I saw the bushes move” He said.
“Probably just a rodent or something, let's keep going, come on”
They continued on briefly before James stopped dead in his tracks. He thought he saw something moving to the left of him, but when he glanced around there was nothing there.
“Did you see something too?” asked Jarrah.
“I'm not sure, I thought I did but there's nothing there”
They both brushed it off as their overactive imaginations due to being tired, it had been an exhausting hike up and they just wanted to get down, so figured that their minds were playing tricks on them. They still got a sense of unease though and decided to hurry up. Another fifty metres further and they heard what they thought was a growling sound, but almost mechanical, somewhere between a mix of gears grinding and an unearthly low grunt. They were now convinced that something was near, something tracking them, a bear maybe? Both of their minds started working overtime as their imaginations ran wild as to what could be following them, each of them now completely silent as their panicked minds went into flight mode. Their quickened pace made them short of breath, but they figured that having a heart attack was less painful than being mauled by a wild creature, so were determined to get to the bottom. They continued on, faster and faster, the ethereal grunts splintering the silence around them like hammer blows, bushes and trees shaking randomly from different directions and what felt like low rumbles bouncing at them from one side and then another. This was now getting really strange and they were in full flight mode, desperately trying to outrun whatever it was that was chasing them. They finally reached the bottom and turned their desperation into a sprint. They were hoping to catch up with Mike, but he was still nowhere in sight along the track.
There was suddenly a body-shaking roar as if a hundred trees had dropped to the floor and this made them both look around, terrified but curious as they had never encountered anything like it. There in front of them was what looked like a green pulsing morphing lattice-like figure, as if the forest itself was bending itself into a creature. It seemed to have no eyes, no mouth but was unmistakeably in the shape of something that seemed alive, the green pulses flashing like blood pumping through veins. The green pulses gradually started to change into a light blue. They flashed with more and more intensity, before whatever the creature was seemed to lurch forward, accompanied by what sounded like the forest floor tearing itself apart.
James turned back to the direction of the camp and began to run, terrified and confused. He shouted to Jarrah to run too, but when he glanced back round, he found Jarrah routed to the spot, unable to move, his limbs frozen, his eyes getting wider and wider. The forest creature got closer and closer to him and Jarrah slowly began to lift off the ground as if levitating. He began to scream, and James shouted him once more, not sure what to do, as the entity seemed to wrap around Jarrah, it's pulsing blue veins rippling through Jarrah's torso before suddenly letting out a magnificent ethereal roar as if the entire fabric of the forest was being torn in two. Within a few seconds Jarrah's body splintered into a thousand parts and disappeared deep into the blue pulses, as a screeching sound echoed around James.
He could only look on in horror before he turned and ran as fast as he could, he didn't know what else to do. He ran and ran, careful not to fall, his mind in full concentration, focused solely on getting back to the camp. He couldn't hear anything following
