The space beneath the rock was dark and cramp and her friends had to pull their weapons up close to their bodies to keep them concealed.
The monster swerved around the tree and charged straight for the rock. Ellen held her breath. Had it seen them after all?
The monster stomped right up to the flat rock, swerved around it and kept going. It ran for a few more yards then slowed to a stop.
Ellen breathed a sigh of relief. So did her friends. The monster was still so close that one loud sound would bring it down on them, but for the time being, they were safe.
"I lost my new map book on the way here," Ludendi said quietly. "I hope Kilroy doesn't mind."
She laughed, but just for a second. The monster wandered back towards the rock. It stopped a few feet away then snorted.
Ellen looked at its legs and frowned. Both were covered in thick scales her knife could never pierce. Even if she wanted to fight it, she'd never be able to put a dent in it. Not only that, it had yet to create a single magic weapon. It hardly needed to, not when it could finish them all off with one misstep. Even the monster that had separated her from her family had some weaknesses. This one existed simply to make her miserable.
The monster wandered off after a minute, but it didn't go far.
"So what do we do now?" Barry asked. "We kind of left our supplies behind."
"We'll just wait for the dumb thing to leave," Ralph said knowingly. He looked around for support, but there was none. "It's going to leave, right? Why would it stay?"
Ellen couldn't answer the why, the only thing she knew about monsters was that they hated her, but she already had a good idea how their situation would unfold. "It's not going to leave. It'll keep wandering around this area until someone catches its attention and lures it away. If nobody comes along..."
"We already sent everyone home," Ludendi sighed. "So we're trapped here."
"You're exaggerating," Ralph insisted. "Are you really telling me that thing will just stand out there until we starve to death?"
Ellen nodded, and Ralph winced.
"Doesn't it need to eat or drink or sleep? What kind of evil is this?"
"Some of them do eat," Barry said. "I've heard stories about monsters biting off people's arm or chunks of their skin."
"But do they actually need to eat, or are they doing it just to scare us?" Ludendi asked. Barry answered with a shrug.
"Maybe whatever force brings them to life also gives them the energy to stay active indefinitely," Trevor said. "I wonder if that same force created Ellen's knife."
Ellen suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Everyone was watching her. New and worse types of danger were popping up all over the dimension, and she was holding a weapon that might save their lives if she were to let them borrow it. Or if they took it from her.
She shook her head. Ralph was the only person who had ever tried to take her knife, and she'd made him regret it.
"Didn't you say that thing healed you when you stabbed something with it?" Ralph asked. "So you're just like a monster. You can keep going forever as long as you have something to stab."
"That's right," Ellen said cautiously, ignoring that he had called her a monster.
"It's not going to help us right now," Trevor said. "We'll either get stepped on or eaten before we can take a swing." He raised his binoculars to his eyes and peered outside. "That monster seems to have a wide wander radius. It might eventually move far enough away for us to slip outside without being spotted."
"Who's brave enough to try that?" Barry asked, and nobody answered.
Ellen lowered her head. A morbid thought crossed her mind. There was little chance they could all slip away without being spotted, but four of them could easily escape in one direction while the fifth lured the monster the opposite way. That fifth person probably wouldn't return, but the others would survive.
She shuddered. Could she really ask one of her friends to do that? Or could she do it herself. She was the fastest, and she was more familiar with the wilderness than anyone else, but that wouldn't help her when a monster as tall as the fortress walls chased her down and stomped on her.
She pushed those thoughts aside. They had time. Nobody was starving yet. Trevor's prediction might come true, or another team might visit this part of the forest; a bigger, stronger, more experienced team. Their own team was nothing more than four beginners and one half-wildling girl who'd never faced a challenge like this before.
They could always open a rift. The thought crossed her mind, but she quickly dismissed it. There was no telling where they'd end up or how long it would take them to make it back to the fortress. They might not even get a chance to use it. The commotion and the surge of energy was bound to catch the monster's attention.
Hours passed by in silence. The monster continued to roam the area. Sometimes it wandered too far away to see, while other times it moved so close to the flat rock that one of its narrow black toenails slipped underneath it. They did no harm, and received none despite Ralph insisting someone attack.
When nighttime set in the space beneath the flat rock became bitter cold. Ellen leaned against Barry to stay warm, which she enjoyed, but then Ralph leaned against her and she frowned. Ludendi and Trevor moved in closer as well.
Ellen's throat was especially dry, and her stomach empty. Her friends were probably in just as bad of shape. None of them had eaten or drank anything since the morning. They couldn't stay under the rock for much longer. They had to do something, and since the fortress was at least a day away, they had to do it soon.
"Tomorrow," she said glumly. "We'll sleep here tonight, and then tomorrow we'll try to escape."
"What if that monster is still out there?" Ludendi asked.
"We have to try."
None of her friends spoke. It was too dark to see their faces, but she could feel the gloom setting in around her. The reality of their situation had likely hit them by now. They were in a very dangerous predicament, and there was a good chance at least one of them wouldn't make it out alive.
The forest soon became pitch black. Ellen stared out into the dark and waited. She was tired, but she planned to stay awake until morning. The monster could reveal their cover with one misstep, or maybe it would finally smarten up and look under the big rock it'd been pacing around all day. Someone had to stay awake just in case, and since she was their leader, she chose herself.
While she didn't sleep, she did have a few especially long blinks. They were quite refreshing, so much that she soon stopped resisting them.
The scenery changed after one of her blinks. It was bright again, and something big and white was lingering right in front of her.
It was the monster's head. It had found them. It turned its eye on her, and a wave of fear engulfed her body.
Where were her friends? She couldn't see them anywhere. Did they leave her behind to get eaten?
The monster opened its mouth and bared its teeth at her. There were hundreds of them, each as long as her forearm.
Those teeth were going to clamp down on her if she didn't do something. She reached for her knife, and found nothing.
She felt all over her tunic and scanned the ground around her, but her knife wasn't anywhere. Not only had her friends left her behind, they'd stolen her knife as well.
It didn't matter. The teeth were already closing in on her. There was no time to run or fight or do anything. All she could do was scream.
Ellen opened her eyes, and the monster vanished. Everything was pitch black again. The whole thing had been a dream.
But her screaming was real. It continued even after she was awake. Several hands shot out of the dark and tried to cover her mouth, but it was too late.
The monster grunted loudly. In an instant the slow, idle steps it had made while it wandered about the area turned into a fast paced stomping.
Ellen's whole body was still paralyzed with fright, but unlike her dream, her friends were there for her. They dragged her out from beneath the
flat rock and lifted her onto her feet. She didn't know whose hands were on her, the whole forest was still pitch black, but she didn't care. They had to run.
The ground was much lumpier and uneven than she remembered, but she held on tight to her friends' hands and they held on even tighter to her. Whenever she lost her balance, whoever was beside her helped her back up, and whenever they lost their balance, she helped them.
Something heavy and rocky exploded in the distance behind her. It had to be the flat rock getting stepped on. "Sorry," Ellen said. It was the least she could say after having revealed their hideout in the middle of the night.
"Well, you did say we'd have to leave tomorrow," Ludendi said kindly. "I was hoping you'd wait until morning, but at least you warned us."
"Is everyone here?" Barry called out. "I hope we didn't leave anyone behind."
"I'm here," Ralph growled. "I lost my weapon, but I'm alive."
"I don't have my weapon either," Trevor said.
The heavy footsteps slowly came closer. So did the grunting and the clicking of teeth.
Ellen picked up her pace. It was too dark to see those teeth, but she had no trouble picturing them in her head. Her friends sped up as well.
"I lost my weapon too," Barry complained. "Not like it matters right now."
"I still have my knives, and I'm sure Ellen has her knife," Ludendi said, "but you're right."
Ellen did have her knife, it rubbed against her back with each step she took, but she had zero intention of using it right now. Her only option was to run.
And she ran. So did her friends. The monstrous footsteps never stopped, but they didn't seem to be coming any closer either.
Maybe the monster couldn't see in the dark. The thought bounced around in her head, but she didn't have the nerve to mention it. If she was right, they might be able to quietly slink away, but if she was wrong then none of them would be returning to the fortress.
The thought bounced right out of her head when she collided with something hard and dense that refused to budge. Her head hit first then her body.
Her friends' hands slipped away, and Ellen collapsed onto her back. She had to get up, the monster was still right behind her, but her head was spinning and every part of her body ached. Her arms and legs wouldn't do anything she told them. She couldn't even lift them off the ground.
Something heavy and powerful passed over her. It had to be the monster. If it wanted to catch her, this was its chance. She lay still and waited for those teeth from her dreams to clamp down on her.
But the teeth never came, and her surroundings slowly became quieter. The heavy footsteps faded into the distance. So did all the voices calling out her name.
As silence set in, Ellen's consciousness faded until she finally blacked out.
Chapter 20
The forest was bright when Ellen opened her eyes again. Her body still ached all over and her head throbbed with pain, but she had the strength to move again.
She stood up and looked straight ahead. There was a stone nearby; a tall and narrow stone just barely wider than her body.
That stone had separated her from her friends. It had almost gotten her killed as well. She pulled her right foot back and kicked it as hard as she could.
Attacking it didn't make her feel any better, it only made her foot hurt and her head spin worse than it already was. She fell onto her backside and rested for a minute.
Her theory was right. It could hear and maybe smell them too, but the monster couldn't see in the dark. If it could, she wouldn't be alive right now. She'd either be squashed flat against the ground or resting inside its stomach.
Where was that monster now? She couldn't see it anywhere. And where were her friends? Did they escape, or were they laying dead somewhere?
She picked herself up and marched forward. They'd all promised to search for each other if they were ever separated, and she planned to do exactly that.
Her stomach immediately growled. It had been over a day since she'd eaten or drank anything. She'd have to leave the forest first thing in the morning, or maybe sooner, if she wanted to make it back to the fortress alive.
She followed a trail of footsteps deeper into the forest. Each one was longer than she was tall. The feet that made them had passed within inches of her body right before she had blacked out. The memory gave her chills.
The footsteps came to an end after an hour, and Ellen frowned. How could such a massive monster disappear so easily? There were no signs of life in any direction. She couldn't hear it, either. Her own footsteps were the only sound she'd heard since she woke up. Them, and her growling stomach.
She headed left towards a rocky area. There was a dozen cracks and crevices someone could fit into, and even more rocks they could hide under.
"Is anyone here?" she called out.
The only response she received was from her stomach. She moved forward a few steps and tried again, but the results were the same.
Ellen kept searching. She had to move slow. The ground was hard and uneven all over.
After roaming the area for a few minutes, she found a slanted hill that led to the top of a tall rock and climbed up.
Even while thirty feet off the ground, she couldn't see any signs of life anywhere in the forest. Even a small monster would cheer her up. She was hungry enough to eat one raw. She might even eat it while it was still moving.
"Is anyone here?" she called out again. "It's safe. That monster is gone."
Nobody answered. She waited a minute for some kind of response then moved on.
She left the rocky area and headed back the way she had come. Ludendi still had her knives with her when they were separated, but her other friends had all left their weapons behind. They might've gone back to search for them.
Or maybe they went even deeper into the forest and now she was heading the wrong way.
She paused. Which way should she go? Neither direction felt any more promising than the other, and she couldn't search both. She didn't have the time or the energy.
She sighed, turned around and headed even deeper into the forest. Meeting her friends while they went back for their weapons was a nice idea, but this forest wasn't nice at all.
Her trek went slowly. The ground sloped up and down much more often, and broken adolescent trees lie scattered all over the area. A massive, ancient tree lay amongst them.
She made her way to the base of the massive tree, which she hoped to find hacked apart and covered with monstrous scales, but that wasn't the case. The tree had been uprooted, by what exactly she couldn't tell, but it hadn't been a giant monster's doing.
"Is anyone here?" she called out. Her throat ached when she spoke. It was so dry she could hardly raise her voice.
It made little difference. Nobody answered her call.
Ellen kept moving and searching and calling out to her friends, but her efforts were fruitless. She wandered the forest for hours without finding so much as a footprint.
The light slipping through the treetops started dimming after a while. That's when she turned around. It had to be passed noon by now, or maybe later. She needed at least a day to make it back to the fortress.
Dread crept through her body. If she didn't find her friends on her way back, she'd never find them. There was a chance they'd already made it out of the forest safely, but if they were injured...
She shook her head. If she could escape from the giant monster, then there was no reason her friends couldn't have done the same. And the forest was so calm they could easily survive without their weapons.
The ancient fallen tree was absent from her trek back. The terrain seemed different as well, or maybe she was just looking at it from a different angle. Regardless, she picked up her pace.
She walked for hours without coming across any sites she recognized, either from today or any other day. It was a massive forest, but could she really have gone that far off course?
Her nerves settled when she spotted the edge of
the forest. It didn't look anything like the area she'd originally entered from, but that didn't matter. All she had to do was reach the plains and the fortress would be right in front of her.
She sprinted forward. She hated having to leave her friends behind, but if she stayed any longer her hunger and thirst were going to finish her off.
She reached the edge of the forest and froze. The fortress was nowhere to be found. Neither were the plains. After the forest ended there was nothing, only a steep drop into pure darkness.
It wasn't just the edge of the forest, it was the edge of the world as well. She'd gone the wrong way.
Ellen turned around and ran. For a moment, her hunger and thirst were gone and she felt so energetic it was as if the giant monster was chasing her again. She needed that energy. Not only did she still have to cross the plains, but now she had to make it out of the forest as well. The whole trek was going to take at least a day, and it had already been more than a day and a half since she'd eaten or drank anything. Even with her newfound energy there was a chance she wouldn't make it.
She frowned. How did all the trees around her get so tall without a source of water? And why were the monsters that were so eager to attack her before suddenly gone now? The dimension was turning out to be cruel in ways she didn't think possible. It couldn't even throw her a few scraps of food. The few shrubs growing on the forest floor were all sickly looking things that would likely die before they bore a single fruit.
Her surge of energy lasted a few more hours. It faded around the time the forest started getting dark.
Ellen kept going until it was too dark to see, then settled into a small crevice between three tall rocks. The ground was hard and cold and her stomach growled so loud she doubted she could sleep, but wandering around in the dark would only get her lost again. At least she didn't have to worry about being stepped on during the night.
Sleep did come to her, but it was brief and miserable. She woke up more exhausted than when she had drifted off.
Forlorn Dimension (Ellen's Friends Book 1) Page 20