To the Buildings
“The ship is probably compromised and we can’t make it all the way across the battlefield, the buildings are the best option!” You look over your group of innocent charges before thrusting your hand up. “Follow me!”
You start pumping your legs hard, jumping from the back to either side of their grouping to keep the enemy waves from crashing over the youngest members of the remaining survivors. Your shoulder socket aches from swinging your crude weapon side to side, but you constantly continue working it, forcing the leaping attackers away. Finally, passing the crest of the little cropping of buildings you see bodies torn from forehead to toes strewn through the doorways of the huts.
“Oh God-” You search for enemies, but it seems they’ve already torn through. You keep moving the kids, following the main path deeper into the village, searching for something you might be able to secure for them. Finally, you spot something set into the ground beside a hut. You rush over to it, sweeping the dust away and lifting its lid to see a small room spilling down beneath the Earth. “In! In!” You rush the kids in, barely thinking.
You’re imagining it’s a store shelter or storage room, but once inside you realize that the walls extend far away from just the small area around the entrance. “Come on-” you hiss, quieter to the kids now as you begin to move down the black corridor. There’s no light. Your hands stretch out, skimming down each wall to track where it moves. Behind you, the kids hold onto the tip of your tail to clutch onto you blindly.
You walk through the dark, blind until the sounds of fighting totally fade. Little, unsure whimpers start to leak out of the children. “Where are we?” they whisper. “I’m scared,” they whisper even softer.
“Shh... It’s okay.”
Suddenly, light begins to leak down from another entrance into the underground tunnel. You blink, hesitating. “Is it safe?” you whispered to yourself, pushing one hand beneath the wooden drop to peek out.
What you see makes you gasps audibly. Expanding out in the sliver that you can see is just pure, lush green. You raise it higher, seeing a spray of yellowed rays of sunshine before sparkling water winks out in the distance. “Wow!” You usher the children up, hearing their own gleeful squeals at the sight.
“The trap worked!” A strange voice hollered.
You swivel around, suddenly seeing a semi-circle of deformed, gargoyle-esque attackers. A burst of echoing screams leave the children and they scattered to all sides. You found yourself freezing into place instead. Arms grab you on either side.
“Run! Run!” You shout at the children, but the enemies barely appear to notice them. Instead, they successful escaping into the cover of the thick foliage. Instead, they only seem to want you.
“Perfect. We have the heavy one.”
You blink. “What?”
“Hush.” They usher you forward out of the perfect glen. In front of your eyes you watch the beautiful green fade into a sharp metallic flooring. You blink, thrashing as you see a surgical table approaching. “Where am I? What is this?”
“Tigers strong.”
“Tigers pretty.”
“No like us.”
“We ugly!”
“We make new small ones with tiger!”
“The heavy one brings us pretties!”
Your head is spinning, confused and frightened by the crowd of confusing, disgustingly malformed individuals. You can see the traces of fur around their faces, though it’s matted and skin is starting to overtake it, hardened, callous skin. Mutations, maybe?
“Heavy One! Give us pretties!” You thrash, but their arms hold you steady. You try to utilize the power in the tigress’s form, but it doesn’t seem to be stronger than whatever these beasts are. You holler, howling out; but no one responds, you walked so far from the battle, from the camp.
“What are you doing to me? What do you want!”
“We only want to be pretty-” One whispers, suddenly startling you. You turn to him, eyes softening before you catch the glint of a blade. “We must wear the pretties-” Then, the blade kisses to your fur and begins to shear away at the top layer of skin.
Without cutting through an artery, you survive until half of her fur has been stripped from our frame. When your mind finally begins to fall away, you beg for death to swallow you up.
Written by Picklessauce69 on 17 May 2016
The end (for now)