3 Close Encounter

Hup two three four five six! Hup two three four five six! Hup two three four five six!

Wow, it really does help to scream numbers while walking! Especially when you have a ridiculous number of limbs. Despite the fact that the terrain isn't exactly the best fit for marching, I've made do despite this. And I haven't found even one noteworthy thing as of yet! Rainforests are truly large and not very interesting!

But that only makes them even more difficult to navigate. Which is hard enough without tripping over your own feet every five minutes. Which gets old very quick!

But other than that my exploration has been pretty uneventful. I can't say exactly how long its been since I departed from the area I started off in, but it must've at least been an hour if not more. Walking for so long was beginning to get to me though. My roots stung every time I moved as they became sore. Maybe plants have less stamina than a person does? That or my roots just aren't used to walking. It might just be the latter rather than the former.

I know people like to say rainforests are a lively place, but now that I'm in one that doesn't seem to be the case. Actually now that I think about it this forests been quiet to an almost suspicious amount… Aren't these places supposed to have a ton of creepy icky crawlies, birds, and frogs? The only things I've actually seen so far are plants! And even then its been a little while since I've seen another plant walking…

A sudden chill ran down my back as my leaves became uncomfortably itchy. I slowed down while looking around at the underbrush for any signs of some life. Any life at all, but was only met with eerily still greenery.

Something wasn't right. If I wasn't sure of it before I was now. White noise filled the ear in the absence of any other sounds, and a thick foreboding sense of dread weighed down the air. Heck, this foreboding shit was more suffocating than being the third wheel when your two best friends started to have a thing together. And that is seriously suffocating! Not that I speak from experience.

Enough being a paranoid idiot. I should really get to somewhere safe right now. Well, as safe as one can be in the wilderness. I'm not sure how safe that can be but hopefully, it's relatively safe.

I marched my way as quickly as I could while keeping a close eye on my surroundings. Well as close as I could with how fucked up my eyesight is. Thanks to my excellent sense of humor I've been able to stave off some of that dread from earlier. So I shouldn't be panicking any time soon! I hear bad things happen when a person panics and I don't want to be one of the idiots who panics and gets themselves killed! Now let's just hope I'll find somewhere safe soon-

Crack

Wait. What was that?

I slowed down while looking behind me to where the source of the sound came from as the feeling of dread returned and pressed down on my stem. Slow thudding footsteps broke the silence and grew closer with every passing moment.

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. This sounds bad. I'm getting boss battle horror vibes and I do not like that! I need to hide now! I am not about to get killed because I didn't realize something dangerous was coming towards me!

Looking around I spotted a particularly large tree root that partially jutted out of the ground, and yeeted I repeat yeeted myself over it. I then tucked my petal covered head down and hopefully out of sight just as the sound of bushes being rustled and crushed marked the arrival of something.

A low growl that seemed to vibrate the very air ranged out in the empty forest, followed up by gruff sniffing. The footsteps of the creature thudded closer to my hiding spot.

Thud

Thud

Thud

But then it ceased abruptly.

Silence. Not a sound could be heard for what felt like an eternity. Not even the sound of an animal breathing almost as if whatever creature was on the other side of my hiding spot just disappeared.

And then a low pitched growl shook the innards of my body once more causing me to unconsciously freeze as the claws of terror scratched at the edges of my sanity. The stomps started up again this time slowly growing quieter.

Soon deafening silence once again overtook the forest now that the beast seemed to be gone. Despite the silence and the sound of it leaving I didn't dare move even slightly. I continued to stay like this for the next few minutes.

SQUAWK!

What the absolute fuck was that!!!

I jumped while spinning around trying to find the source of the sound, ready to flee at the first sign of danger. When nothing leaped out to kill me I stood there for several moments processing what just happened. It was just a bird. It was just a fucking bird. Are you fucking kidding me!? I just had a near-death experience and you squawked at the worst possible moment you pellet brained living ball of feathers!

Hoo. Haa. Calm yourself. Calm yourself. No need to get angry at a bird you can't see. There are much bigger problems to worry about. More specifically whatever the fuck that monster is! I mean seriously! The sound of those footsteps was crazy! And the growls. They shook me! I've been fucking shooked! Literally! How the hell does that even happen!?

But the crisis has been avoided! This time. But now I have to worry about possible giant murder monsters. Oh god, what if it comes back!? I need to find somewhere safe just in case then! Even if it's gone now there's no telling whether or not it will be back… and next time I might not be so lucky.

Alright, we have our first proper goal for today! Find somewhere safe. It should be simple enough, right? It has to be!

Now that I had an actual goal I started walking in the opposite direction of the monster, intent on avoiding it like the fucking virus. Right away I noticed a change in my walking. It was easier to walk. The difficulty of walking on so many limbs was only slightly easier but even that little bit had a dramatic effect!

It seems that scare did something useful after all! Not that I'd want to put myself through it again just to walk a bit easier. I mean don't get me wrong I'm not stumbling nearly as much as I did before, which is nice. But I could have died back there! Nevertheless, it's nice to actually be able to walk like I'm not having a seizure every couple minutes.

This time around I was being a bit more cautious of my surroundings just in case there was another creature out there I had to worry about. And this time I was definitely paying a lot more attention to the ambient noises in this jungle! Before when that thing was near there was absolutely no noise. But now that it was gone there were birds tweeting in the distance and frogs croaking. All in all the forest was ridiculously loud!

It's a bit crazy that I never actually noticed everything go quiet until it was nearly too late. Maybe I'm just not as perceptive as I'd like to say I am. I'll make sure to not make that mistake again!

Now that I think about it I don't actually know what that creature even looked like and what it could do. That'll certainly make it more difficult to find someplace safe from it when I don't even know what can and can't stop it… And with my eyesight just finding a place will be difficult! But my life is on the line so it's not like I have a choice.

Well onwards to find safe haven! Hopefully, before it gets dark. The night would make my already poor vision far worse.