Chapter 3 - Out of the Tree, Into the Turf War

As luck, fate or destiny would have it, I wasn't going to be eaten by wolves today. I was in for something much much worse.

As I was basically dangling for my life, I heard something weird like water burning off an iron skillet coming towards me and the wolves. The wolves must have smelled it or heard it too, because they bolted when I heard the second or third instance of burning.water. I took that as a sign that I should probably get out of the forest and book it back to the menhirs as quick as I could. I started rappelling downward as fast as I could, but the sound was getting closer and closer. At this point I was about 5 maybe 6 feet off the ground and I did not want to see whatever was walking towards me. I took out my hunting knife and proceeded to cut through the rope suspending me in the air and landed in the snow with a thud.

I was a little dazed as I got up, but I quickly got my bearings together as I used my knife to remove the last of the rope harness from my backpack and I. I was about to book it back towards the village by following the path of marked trees I had made, until I finally saw what was making the sizzling noise walking towards me from the direction of my marked trees. I was standing there frozen like an ice sculpture staring at a freaking MajiMonster.

I slowly backed away while drinking in every detail of the Monster I was staring at.I first noticed the heat coming from its body, every step it took towards me caused the snow to melt all around it in a near perfect circle and its hooves was burning scorch marks into the forest floor.The MajiMonster looked like a bull moose,but its normal brownish hide and palmate antlers was replaced with harsh black stone that a strange shine to it and jagged edges that looked to be as sharp as stone arrowheads. Additionaly, what appeared to glowing red lines criss-crossed its entire body with a matching set of eyes that looked like burning embers. On its back where the head and neck would meet, a trail of smoke was coming out of strange hole,like a fire was burning inside of its body.It reminded me of the blacksmith forge, belching out smoke and ash. Needless to say, I was terrified.

I wasn't sure what this thing was called, but it looked like a moose so I assumed it acted like a moose. This meant I had to back away very slowly, because if I agitated it at all, it would start charging at me and would keep doing so until it smashed me into a pile of ash and paste. I slowly stepped back away from the Monster, making sure to keep an eye on it for sudden changes in behavior or sudden changes in direction. Every step I took was slow, deliberate and very tense. One wrong move and I would be an ash stain in a snowy wonderland. I managed to take at least three, maybe four steps until I heard a second set of crunching steps right behind me. As if my luck could somehow get worse,I turned my head to see that there was another MajiMonster right behind me but this one I knew about, a Glacielk.

It looked almost like a normal bull elk, but with very distinct differences. Glacielks have piercing blue eyes akin to a frozen pond, fur as white as the snowy forests they call home and their antlers are jagged like snowflakes. On top of that, their breath is so cold that their exhalations caused snowflakes to form in the air. As I stopped and stared,panic overtook me as I noticed that the Glacielk seemed agitated.In a panic, I had forgotten why it seemed so angry until I remembered the fire moose majimonster in front of me, that had also become agitated in the presence of the Glacielk. At this point I wasn't sure if it was because they were both MajiMonsters or due to the territorial nature of moose and elks, but I was very certain it would be very bad for me to be in the middle of their turf war.