A Monster!

Avril tossed and turned on the rough surface. She rubbed her leg against a sharp rock and felt the pain in her head. She woke up and groaned. Her body was sore.

She sighed and sat up then looked at her bleeding leg.

“uhhh! Another injury” she grunted and rubbed the sides of the wound to ease the pain.

She was in a cave and the beach was right in front of them. She could see the waves and hear the howling wind but couldn't feel it because it didn't enter into the cave.

“but how did I get here?” she asked herself. She remembered waking up on the sand shore but that was all she remembered.

She gathered up all her energy and stood up on her feet. She took few steps then remembered what she saw. She froze and held her breath.

“that wasn't real, right?” she asked rhetorically

she mumbled and walked out of the cave. She looked around and could only see sea gulls and other birds on the beach.

“but how did I get into the cave? I remember lying by the sea” she thought

She looked back at the cave and then at the sea. Something didn't feel right. She took slow strides towards the rocky part of the beach in other to figure out where she had laid. She was looking straight ahead all these while and only looked down when she reached the rocky area. Coincidentally, she was standing at the exact spot she lay. She looked down and saw her body print on the sand and the waves were coming up on it so only half of it showed.

“I was lying here. So how did I get there? The monster part was a dream so how did I leave this place?”

Her eyes caught an imprint on the sad just beside her legs. She looked and her eyes widened in horror and bewilderment. It was a huge footprint. Not of a human but an animal. A huge animal.

“oh my God! Oh my God! No!” she exclaimed as she staggered back into the water. She looked ahead and saw the footprint moving up and into the cave. The cave she had woken up from. The cave she just walked out from. That same cave. But how did she not see the footprint? Just how?

Avril stood there shuddering and loosing all her mind. A real monster. What she saw was real. She was so loosing her mind.

She looked down at the footprint again and knelt beside it to examine it. She gulped down when she saw how big it was now that she was closer to it. It was about the size of two of her palms staying side by side on the sand. Little wonder it shook the ground when it walked earlier.

The footprint had claw marks. Very sharp claws that dug into the earth deeply. The footprint looked like that of a dog. Like a paw. Only bigger and modified.

Cold chills ran round Avril's body. Goosebumps appeared all over her and her teeth began to chatter. She was in it for trouble. She never imagined dying in such a brutal way. As dinner for a non human.

“oh no! This is not happening” “staying on the ship would have been better. Being sold as a slave would have been better” she cried

She looked around for any sign of the monster. Everywhere was empty and quiet except for the normal beach noise.

Avril began to walk away. Walking the opposite direction of the cave and the foot marks that led to it. Anywhere she didn't see its footprint, there she went. She kept walking and looking back until she got really tired and hungry. She groaned and sat on the sand, watching the waves. Her life began to reflect on her mind

She was always unlucky. All her life, she never felt extreme joy. She loved her parents even though they hardly provided for her. It wasn't that they didn't want to, it was just that they didn't have to. They tried their best to make her eat at least twice a day. That is breakfast and dinner. Their only food was rice and fish. And that was only when they got them as payment

She cried as she saw the roaring waves. She wished they could just swallow her and save her the pain of either starving to death on a deserted island or being served as dinner to a monster.

She wiped her tears as her stomach grumbled, reminding her that she needed to eat something.

“but what? What can I possibly find to eat?” she asked herself and began to walk. The pain from her new injury was seeping in through her leg, it was still covered in blood but had stopped bleeding.

Some birds flew past Avril and she sighed. She felt the birds were the freest of the animals. They could fly high above the ground and fly whenever and wherever they liked. If they wanted a fruit from a tree, they could get it. And if they wanted to drink water from the ground, they still could get that.

Her eyes looked up at the thick forest in front of her. Tall and huge trees were jam-packed with little trees and bushes and plants. She began to walk towards them. They should at least be one fruit tree among them.

As she walked, she heard a sound like a big rock falling to the ground. She looked in the direction of the sound but saw nothing. Just trees.

The sound came again and fear gripped her. On a normal day she wouldn't be scared. But knowing that she was on the same land with a monster made everything suspicious. She hurried into the woods and ignored the sound. The forest floor was rough and she had on no shoes. She prickled her big toe with a thorn and let out a sharp cry. She immediately covered her mouth and looked around. She didn't want to alert the monster.

She bent down and held her toe, then she pulled out the torn carefully with pain. The toe began to hurt even more and she gritted her teeth and tried to avert the involuntary tears. Her blood flowed out and she ripped the hem of her dress. She tied it up tightly and the bleeding stopped. The pain also reduced a little.

She straightened up and walked more carefully this time, scanning the spot she was going to step on.

She was also looking up at the trees to find something edible to eat. Finally, she sighted a tree with lots of fruits on it. Both ripe and unripe.

She gasped with a smile and hurried her steps towards the tree. She reached it and looked at the fruits.

“mango” she said and giggled. The tree was tall and huge but since it wasn't pruned, the branches were all about and some close to the ground. She moved to a branch and pulled a ripe mango until it plucked from the branch.

The fruit was so big. She had never seen one so big and attractive. The green, yellow and red colours blended quite well.

She took a big bite and groaned when the taste touched a taste buds. The juice was thick and so sweet, she felt she had tasted the fruit of life.

“this is so good” she moaned and sat on a dead log of wood. She kept munching and eating happily, forgetting all her fears and worries.

Soon after, she dropped the seed and plucked another. It was consumed in less than five minutes. Then she plucked another. And another. And soon, six seeds were on the ground.

She groaned and rubbed her tummy. It felt so full and happy too.

All these while, she never knew there was a pair of Amber eyes watching her every move.

She turned around, plucked another mango and wanted to move forward to look around more. Then her eyes caught hold of it, in a tree up above and holding unto a big branch. She couldn't scream nor run, she just stood there with her mango in her hand.

The creature jumped down from the tree and the impact shook the ground and also her. It began to take slow strides towards her on all fours, like a wild cat trying not to alert its prey.

Avril gulped down and moved backwards. She threw the fruit at the creature's face and it growled angrily at her. She jerked backwards, screamed and fell. Immediately, she looked up but it had disappeared.

The monster was no longer there. But at the spot it had stood, was a little basket on the ground.

Did it turn into a basket?