What Dreams May Come

Weary paws positioned themselves in a stumbled pattern as he fought to remain standing. He traveled nonstop, only resting when night fall came but just for a couple hours at a time, and move on his way again. He couldn't risk her finding him. He knew she would eventually, whether she was far away or somewhere close behind with him just a step ahead, he knew that one day...she would find him. And if she found him now, he would be in no condition to fight her off. She was strong, manipulative, dangerous. She made his life a living hell, and he knew that if she got her paws on him again then she would return him to the life of neglect, abandonment, and punishment. His body shuddered at the thoughts, ears held back with terror as he slunk rapidly into the shadows of a pine and stayed there. Everytime he thought about his past, a dreaded sensation along with terror would engulf him, blinding him with nothing but the nightmares he had about his life. He had only ever had one dream that didn't consist of a nightmare, and it had come to him one night while he had slipped into an unconscious state after his mother had locked him in a dark and damp hole.

He couldn't remember what that dream was. Every time he tried, it slipped away from him or remained fuzzy. Always eluding his probing mind to find some sort of happy thought. But alas, he was forced to deal with the terrors of his mind. He glanced around again, the sky seemed to threaten with rain as the clouds darkened and bulged with moisture. Sure that it would rain soon, he moved from his temporary resting spot in search of a dryer location. The trees provided some shelter, but even they would give way to the water should it fall heavily. He walked a little over half an hour, and soon his stomach would rumble with hunger. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten. His body was always so pitifully skinny from lack of nutrition and food. He didn't know how to hunt, didn't know how to fight. Didn't know how to fend for himself. He thrived on water and a vegetarian diet mostly, since he didn't know how to catch his own food. And what he ate asides from greens and berries, were left over carcasses from other creatures if he were lucky enough to find them.

Thunder would boom overhead, causing the boy to shrink back in fright as he scurried to another tree. He sat there, huddled and shaking from the cold winds that would begin to blow. The willow tree he sat under shook, the branches and leaves bobbing and waving as if invisible monsters were after him. And just like a light switched, the rain would fall. Trapping the boy beneath the willow. He huddled, shaking and afraid. The miserable boy had nowhere to go, nobody to turn to. His friend Kar was off somewhere else, and the others he had met gone. He was alone. Alone, and afraid.






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