Tyura sneezed violently and shivered, pulling the wolf lion fur tighter around his body. To make matters worse, he was starving. His already malnutritioned body was on the verge of collapse.
He once again thought about now unfortunate it was that he hadn't learned some survival skills like hunting and tracking. He bitterly thought about all the musical instruments he had collected over the years. How useless. Tyura vowed that when he returned to his world he would take up the practice even if he wouldn't need it any more.
Tyura's thoughts were interrupted by another howl and he shivered. This time not from the cold.
The animal had gotten closer. Perhaps...it was tracking him?
Tyura smiled humorlessly. If that were the case, then no matter where he went he wouldn't be safe. He stood anyway and stiffly walked in the opposite direction. How keen could it's nose be if it hadn't round him yet? It didn't sound like a wolf and besides the woods were vast... probably.
Tyura walked blindly for while. It wasn't completely dark. The moon shinned brightly through the trees. There were also fireflies hovering around. It was thanks to them that he found a cave. It was more like a small crack in the side of a rock, but at that moment Tyura felt like it was a saving grace.
He shuffled into the cave and collapsed at the entrance. Tyura had just let out a breathe when he heard a loud and fast thumping sound headed in his direction.
Tyura moved on instinct, jumping forward deeper into the crack, but he was still too slow. Pain erupted along the length of his leg and he let out a piercing scream.
It took every last bit of Tyura's strength not to pass out then and there. He gasped in pain and continued to move to the farthest part of the shallow cave. It was only then that he looked back.
The dim light wasn't enough to see much and the fireflies had scattered from the sudden commotion, but Tyura could see them. Glowing blood red eyes. Those eyes looked at him and then moved away from the crack to the left.
It was a trap. It wanted Tyura to think that it had left. Only and idiot would believe that. Tyura knew it was still there. Waiting. He could almost feel it.
Tyura pressed himself against the back of the cave and felt his leg. He hissed and drew his hand back. It was covered in something wet and warm.
Tyura let out a shaky breath and started tearing at the fabric of his makeshift clothes. After a few minutes of fumbling around in the dark he managed to somewhat wrap up the leg injury. Even just that bit of movement left him breathless and he was left breathing heavily against the wall.
He stared at the entrance trying to stay awake, but no matter how much he tried he couldn't keep his eyes open. He had lost too much blood. He needed... to sleep.
___________________
Tyura woke up with a jolt. His head swam and his body felt sticky and damp. Sunlight shinned into the cave covering it in a yellow glow. Tyura had slept til morning.
After a moment of being dazed, the events from last night came flooding back to him. He looked down at his leg. He felt his breath catch.
The cloth he had put on it was completely soaked through with blood. The injury must be servere.Tyura reached for a corner of the cloth intended to pull it back, but he stopped. His hand dropped and he leaned his head back against the wall. There was no point in looking and he honestly didn't want to.
Tyura was tired. Honestly, he was wondering how he was still alive. Either was he wouldn't be alive much longer in the cave. The animal from before would come back as soon as night fell. Maybe he was the first human it had seen. Tyura could be the first human it would taste and then once it was finished with him, the animal would forever crave humans that he couldn't have. Wouldn't that be great...
Tyura drifted in and out of feverish sleep throughout the morning. Each time he would open his eyes he would feel a little better. The cloudyness he felt in his mind would lessen and he was slowly regaining energy in his limbs.
Although he was still in a lot of pain, Tyura managed to scoot to the mouth of the cave until he eventually limped out completely.
He had just reached the tree line when he heard a familiar thumping from behind him.
Tyura turned back slowly and was stunned. That thing from last night hadn't left. It had been resting above the cave the whole time and now it was blocking the entrance. Seeing it in the light, Tyura couldn't call it an animal. It was a monster similar to the lesser demons of his world.
It was the size of a horse, with pitch black fur and glowing blood red eyes. Two tusk jutted out from its ferocious snarling face and instead of four legs it had six. It was truly ugly.
The monster beat the ground with his front four paws.
Tyura stood frozen, ready to jump out of the ways at and attack. He kept eye contact with the beast which seemed to anger it even more.
Tyura finally looked away, glancing to the left for a split second, and that was when it attacked, crossing the distance before he could fully focus on it again.
Tyura jumped to the side and rolled behind a tree. It was there that he saw an axe. He was shocked for a moment but he couldn't dwell on it. He grabbed it immediatly and dropped to the ground just as a large paw smacked the tree where his head had been, splintering the wood.
Tyura tried to rushed to the other side of the clearing, but his leg gave out and he fell.
The monster stomped the ground again and made a snorting noise. Tyura had the distinct impression that it was laughing at him.
His hands balled onto a fist. He felt humiliated but more than that he felt anger. Never in a million years would he have thought that he would be laying in the dirt being laughed at by an ugly monster. He was-is the Great, everyone knew his name and the name of his axe, Grave Digger. All those who had mocked the name he gave his axe at first had all came to fear it.
"Let's go Grave Digger." Tyura murmured.
Even though this piece of metal on a stick couldn't compare to his axe, he was determined to use it to make that stupid monster regret laughing at him.
Tyura tightened his grip on the axe and rose from the ground.
"Come on!" He yelled.
The monster growled and charged forward.
Tyura stood in place, only moving to raise the axe over his head.
And then, as if it were attached to a string, the axe flew from Tyura's hand and froze in the air, before plummeting down at lightning speed and burying itself into the monsters head.
It gave a terrible ear piercing howl, before falling to the ground. It wasn't moving.
Tyura stood there his mouth agap. He looked at his hands but suddenly heard laughter coming from the side.
Tyura's head whipped up just in time to see the axe unlodge itself from the monsters, and fly into the hands of a tall man. A human man, and next to him was a human woman wearing a brown skirt.
Tyura stared at them and they stared back at him with a matching pair of amused green eyes.
That was the last thing Tyura remembered before he lost consciousness.
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