by husky. » Sun Jul 22, 2018 8:58 pm
Ooooh, spooky!
Username: husky.
Link to roll call post: here
Link to previous form: here
Prompt response:
1,396 words
He sat in stunned silence, not daring to move. His uncovered shoulders started shivering from the cold, and he clenched his teeth to prevent them chattering. Slowly, and as quietly as he could, Rannoch pushed his loose hair from his ears to better hear the noise that he thought may have woken him - what was it?
The low snores and rumbles of the sleeping kalons arounds him didn’t waver. His bunk mates had not been awoken by the same sound, which only spooked Rannoch even further. He reached for a jumper and slipped it over his head. Whatever this sound was, he couldn’t sleep with it going on like this... He should probably investigate. He was, after all, a brave adventurer who stopped at nothing to save the innocent people of the world. If this sound was dangerous, he would put an end to it.
No matter how hard he listened, though, he just couldn’t place the sound. It felt eerily familiar, yet indescribable. He pushed off his sleeping bag and placed one bare foot on the ground, though he quickly retracted it at the cold. Reaching for some shoes, he slipped them on and crept over to the window to get a look outside.
The night was pitch black but for the faintest sliver of moon casting a pale glow over the campsite. Rannoch scanned the campground, looking for any movement and trying to pinpoint the location of the noise. Everything appeared still. He strained his ears to catch the noise again, as it had faded almost to nothing, and his heart was beating loudly in his ears. The noise seemed to echo, not coming from one place or another, making it virtually impossible to locate.
He was about to give up when, all of a sudden, the noise came back, insistent and more intense than before. It startled Rannoch and he gripped his long ears tightly, his heart almost pounding out of his chest. It was coming from the Forbidden Forest.
Rannoch took a deep breath and resolved himself to investigating the sound. He rummaged in his bag for a torch, wincing as he unsettled some snack packaging. The crackle of the wrapping was a stark sound in the cabin, and one kamper rolled over in their sleep. Rannoch waited a moment and let out a sigh of relief. He found the torch, stuck a beanie on his head and slipped out of the cabin into the night.
Rannoch shivered, whether from cold or fear he wasn’t sure; he just knew he couldn’t let this sound go on. He needed his sleep, and whatever monster it was, he would ward it off from the campsite. He flicked on the torch, for the night was too dark to see without it and he was still unfamiliar with the layout of the buildings. Taking another deep breath, he struck out from the relative safety of the cabin.
His feet squelched on the dewy grass, his shoes quickly becoming soaked through at the toes. Rannoch barely took notice of this as he moved along, heading past the mess hall and across the flower fields towards the archery targets. As he made it to the middle of the flower field, he became acutely aware of the open space around him. He felt both safe and petrified at the same time; he had the advantage of being able to see all around him, including if anything were to approach him, but there was nothing to shelter or hide behind. He shook his and hurried on, forcing himself not to glance behind him lest he spot a pair of glowing eyes, or a second set of footprints in the silvery grass.
As he made it past the archery field and came up to the edge of the forest, Rannoch felt an increasing feeling of dread. He had almost forgotten about the noise he searched for as his fear of being hunted from behind had taken his concentration momentarily, but it all came back to him now as he faced the impossibly dark wall of trees.
He gulped. He tightened the grip on his torch. He stepped into the forest.
The noise was accompanied by others now as the nighttime creatures who lived in the forest surrounded him. His torch cast an alarmingly small amount of light, and Rannoch could picture the sorts of things that might jump into his field of vision, creeping along the edge of the light. He fought the intense urge to run back to his bed to escape his wild imagination; rationally, he knew that the forest held many friendly creatures who were more frightened of him than he was of them - that nothing big enough lived there that would want to harm him - yet he still felt wary, that maybe he was wrong. There was also the noise to think about. Just what was it?
It was getting louder now as he appeared to approach it. Rannoch had a fairly good sense of direction, and kept in mind exactly which way it was back to camp. He really didn’t want to get lost. He spotted a bit of light up ahead: slivers of grey moonlight between the black silhouettes of trees. He must be coming up to a clearing, he thought, and he bet that was where the source of the noise would be.
Rannoch flicked off his torch and walked as stealthily as he could, creeping closer and closer to the moonlit glade, the noise now as loud as ever. He practically held his breath as he reached the last tree before the open ground, hoping that whatever was out there couldn’t hear the sound of his heart beating like a drum. He touched the tree and leaned his chest against it, just listening to the noise he still couldn’t identify, and it was a few minutes before he dared to look around the trunk.
Ever so slowly, a centimetre at a time, he pokes one eye around the tree. He didn’t see anything at first, them his eye came to rest on a dark form with highlights of moonlight. It appeared to sit, hunched, in the middle of the glade. It moved rhythmically, and the noise was emanating from it. Rannoch couldn’t tell what it was. He moved to get a better look at it and—
*snap*
The noise came to an abrupt halt. Two reflective yellow eyes appeared on the form in the clearing, staring straight at Rannoch. He had broken a twig underfoot, and absolute fear gripped him as he locked eyes with whatever it was there. He was paralysed as the figure rose up to its full height. Rannoch was powerless against the mesmerising eyes, and could only imagine what sort of horrible things would happen next.
‘Ahem.’
Rannoch stared. Did the thing just clear its throat?
‘Hey, kid.’
Rannoch’s heart was pumping a million miles an hour.
‘What’re you doing out here at this time of night? It’s pretty scary.’
He couldn’t believe it. The source of the noise was... another Kalon. He let go of his held breath and took in air gratefully, though still wary.
‘Uh... what was that noise?’ questioned Rannoch. He was both bewildered and intrigued by this Kalon, out here in the middle of the night making strange noises.
‘I was, hah, practicing my a cappella. It’s a new style, sorta... mixed with beatboxing and improv, yeah, it’s a work in progress.’ The Kalon smiles at him. ‘Did you like it?’
Rannoch thought it was the most bizarre thing he had ever heard, and would be glad to never hear it again. But he wouldn’t dare be so rude. ‘It’s... interesting,’ he mumbled out, shifting his feet and letting out a yawn. Now that he had found the source of the noise, his exhaustion caught up with him.
‘Would you, um... be quieter, please?’ he continued, hoping not to offend the Kalon. ‘I can’t sleep.’
The Kalon sheepishly rubbed the back of their head. ‘Ahh yeah, of course buddy, sorry to wake ya up. I’ll keep it down.’
Rannoch nodded appreciatively and waved goodbye to the Kalon, turning back towards camp and not stopping until he collapsed into his sleeping bag. He felt a sense of accomplishment at having found the strange noise, and drifted off to sleep contentedly.
‘Mission accomplished.’
Last edited by
husky. on Sun Jul 22, 2018 11:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
true neutral
she/her ♦ isfj-t
♈︎ ♘ ♬
fan of anime
& lazy days
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planning a (semi) hiatus
soon, if there’s anything I
need to finish before I go
just let me know.
[to do: br revamps]