Separated (Natalie)

Once out in the fresh air, I take a deep breath and zone in on all my 5 senses, I feel the warm breeze blowing my hair back from my face, smell the freshness of nature, taste the small mint that is still left in my mouth, I hear all the birds singing in the trees, all the crickets making buzzing noises in the grass surrounding me, all the larger animals running around and snapping leaves and small branches with there feet and of course the leaves rustling over head, due to the wind. I see hundreds of tree trunks, grass covered with leaves and small branches that have fallen from the trees. It is also very gloomy because it is still quite early in the morning and the sunlight rains down in patches landing in certain spots. As I daydream Ash walks up behind me and puts one of his hands on my shoulder. Snapping me back to reality.

“Let’s get moving, do we have everything we need?” I run off a checklist “Sword, Shield, Bow, Quiver, Knives, water and food, including fruit and Vegetables.”

“Yep. We have all of that.”

“Okay then, lets go.” So we start walking in the direction we believe to be right.

As we step into the forest and walk for what feels like days, I notice that there aren’t as many wild animals as I thought there would be, they are probably all hiding from us because we are a larger predator. The trees are magnificent many of them reaching at least one hundred meters and higher. Some even look like massive redwood trees. When we step into our first clearing, it looks like the one we were in the day before, but it couldn’t be, because it had only taken a few minutes to walk to that one, this one had taken at least three hour. My stomach grumbles as I think about eating food, and Ash must feel the same way because he says

“Lets sit down and eat for a bit, while I try and figure out where we are.” I nod in agreement.

As we find a spot to sit and eat our lunch we look over the map Alex had brought with her on the journey to find us. We find a clearing on the map that looks like the clearing we are in and it is about a quarter of the way around the mountain to where we need to get to. Thinking about finding a relatively safe place to sleep tonight is quite nerve raking and unsettling, anything could happen.

When we finish our lunch we check Ash’s watch to see what time we think would be a good time to stop, he reckons six o’clock because it goes dark very quickly here in the mountains, and we believe we should make the next clearing just in time for that. We haven’t packed anything to sleep in or on because it would have been too much of a hassle and it would have been too heavy. As we continue our trek through the forest it starts getting darker and darker by the second, and it feels like every step I take is making the sun go down faster. Soon we will hardly be able to see anything, so I grab Ash

“We will loss our sight soon, what will our plans be then?”

“We will just have to keep walking until we reach the clearing, we have half an hour, we should get there pretty soon.” In my own opinion I didn’t like the sound of this but I wanted to get to that clearing before I started freaking out about other stuff. So I decide to distract myself and start thinking about the nature that surrounded me, the soft noises of the animals in the darkness, the creaking of tree branches as they sway in the wind like a human would to music, the song of the birds high up in trees having a good time as they spread there wings and sore across the sky. The owl that isn’t afraid to hoot during the night. Those deadly predators that wait all night waiting to strike, but what I like the most are the beautiful creatures of the night. The small mouse that may lose its life, gives a small squeak before it’s untimely death. How beautiful nature is when it is left to be itself and not destroyed by mankind.

Suddenly the sun disappears and we are surrounded in complete darkness. Ash stops suddenly and I run straight into him nearly knocking us both over.

“What’s the matter?” I ask with irritation “We should have been there by now.” “What do you mean?”
“It’s past 6 o’clock.”

“What, why didn’t you tell me.” I start to panic, breathing faster than usual and my voice has raises several pitches

“Because I know you would start to panic.”
“Well what’s the time then.”
“Seven-thirty.”
“Are you serious, oh wow, wow.” I can’t even think

straight anymore my mind is going into overdrive.
“Come on, we have to keep walking, its not safe just

to stand here.” Ash says as he grabs my hand and pulls me forward.

2 hours later we still haven’t found the clearing and I am about to fall asleep, as we take a sudden turn there is a loud crunch under my foot and I step backwards in shock, suddenly the ground under me collapses and I start falling. I let out a piercing scream as I plummet downwards, I hear Ash above me somewhere screaming out my name.

“Natalie, Nat, Natalie.” I call back

“Ash help me!” He must hear but it’s to dark and he can’t see a thing. As my arms flail about as the drop continues I start to panic, I might die now, what is Ash going to do? We haven’t even managed to properly kill a monster yet, and we have to find the sword and bow as well. How is Ash going to save the world? With all the thoughts going through my head I don’t notice that I have hit the ground. Suddenly a burst of pain erupts from my back, the same area that I had landed on the day before. Ouch, it really hurts. I role around trying to get up but my back is killing me.

“Ash.” I call out but there is no reply. This is it I think to myself. I am going to die in the middle of no where, surrounded only by trees and with that thought I once again succumb to unconsciousness.