Night Terror
The woods were quiet, as much as they ever truly were with the bugs chirping at full volume while the sounds of other creatures occasionally joined in on the playback of nature's soundtrack. In different circumstances, it might have felt peaceful, the wind blowing gently through all that surrounded, but beneath the surface lay a dangerous undercurrent. You felt an unease within this false normalcy. A sense you were not safe; so much so that you wondered how you ever felt safe at any time before. Before was shrouded, fuzzy; an indecipherable, incalculable thing.
Landing like a sudden impact strong enough to shake the very ground beneath your feet, a revelation hits. You are small. Tiny even, enough so that most foliage towers over you. How? Since when? Questioning and uncomprehending, you stumble around trying to make sense of something, anything to patch up your faulty memory. You act carelessly noisy.
A soft whoosh follows the crackling of branches as something overhead takes flight, clearly noticing the rustling caused by you. Instinct takes over, you run fast as you can, but it feels like you're wading through jelly. The nearest nook in a tree root too far to provide sanctuary as it draws near causing you to expect a swift end. But, it does not come. An owl emerging from darkness lands only a glancing blow, igniting fiery pain. Scrambling, bracing for a followup strike, you cower. Instead, it merely watches as you writhe in pain, towering overhead like a child spectating ants burn under magnified light.
You're desperate to do something. To fight back. To scream and expel the bubbling rage at being toyed with, however completely futile it would be against such a force. Launching a miniscule, ineffectual pebble that laughably bounces off, it finally leaps forward to finish the job, talons outstretched. Just as contact is made, death a for sure conclusion, you are suddenly a million miles away, desperately escaping from beneath bedsheets more damp and clingy than you remember.
