//TW: Slight animal harm & death, light gore and finally getting some yandere vibes, forced eating

It had barely been a few hours and you could already feel your previously-numb bones regain strength. No longer were you wobbly and imbalanced as you stood to your feet and you wondered how you felt so alive in just a matter of few hours.

You were sure you would die of hypothermia and living in the mountains with harsh winters and even harsher cold, you had witnessed your fair share of death. The blue, cold faces of those who died in a blizzard, stranded in the middle of nowhere with little to their name had taught you how easy it was to die in low temperatures. Heck, you should have been dead already! At least, unconscious!

You weren't, though, and you were not sure if the water spirit -who stood nearby- had something to do with your fast recovery. Either that or the sun was favoring you today with its scalding heat on your body. It had already dried your hair and clothes, your dress ending up way more wrinkled than you remembered but that was fine.

At least you were clothed, unlike the only other individual in the clearing who was butt naked and peering down at you with an expectant gaze. Because a man, naked and somewhat attractive was the most natural thing to see in the forest.

It was your cue to stand when you could feel your legs again, hauling yourself on tired feet. The other quickly followed, standing a head taller than you with outstretched arms in case you were to fall. How thoughtful.

You were really confused, not knowing what to think of the situation. You had been kidnapped, a spell taking you away and almost drowning you in the process. Having been moved without your consent and then left alone for what must have been hours in a dark cave. Your stomach growled, unused to not having food in it at such an hour. You wondered if your mum had made pancakes for breakfast drizzled with the richest of maple, if on the table sat a tray of fresh bread, butter and jam just waiting to be spread and devoured.

You had to return, you realized. You had to return and quickly! Your poor mother would have a heart attack, probably scold you after returning home with a near-death experience but you could not bear to imagine her crying face. You could not bear the picture of her mourning over an empty grave, clean of bones and only filled by an empty casket. You had the feeling to run off, to find your way back and soothe your parents with your mere presence; to share the news that you were actually alive and not dead in some ditch like they were probably thinking.

Bella had run back to the village, you knew as much -the old mare was a memory book of directions no matter how old she got. If they saw the dark bite on her neck, they would think that a bear had attacked the two of you or even worse, a wild boar with its family of piglets. A search party would be launched but you were unsure of how easy the clearing you were standing in was to find.

Oh, if only you knew.

You turned to the man with the long, black hair and gave him an unnerved smile.

"I have to go now", you uttered after a few moments of gathering up the courage to speak to the thing.

Amber eyes widened at that and the creature repeatedly shook its head at you, mouthing a 'No' with a solemn gaze. It reached out a hand and you did your best to only look at the five appendages near you and not on the one that made your cheeks burn up.

Your wrist was held in a tight grip and you could feel the bones underneath push together. It hurt so much that you yelped and tried to yank your arm back but it wouldn't let go. Its gaze looked desperate, pulling you closer and touching your face with a cold hand as it held you in place. You hissed, surely that would leave a bruise.

"I- ", you took a deep breath, "I need to return to my family"

It was the only explanation you could give the spirit and you hoped that it would let you free. It didn't want to eat you, that much you had been established so what was the point of keeping you there?

The thing's eyebrows knitted together angrily and its lips curled downwards into a deep frown that looked too natural to not be unnerving. Your breath hissed as its scleras slimmed into slits. I jinxed myself with that thought, huh? You gulped and closed your eyes, awaiting something bad and painful to happen.

Nothing bad happened. There was only a loud rumble that came from your stomach and if you had been embarrassed before for stealing a glance at the spirit's southern regions, now you were embarrassed by the sound made by your internal organs.

The grip on your wrist loosened and you opened your eyes to see the other raising its brows as if surprised. You couldn't really blame the spirit; it was very awkward timing for your stomach to do that.

The spirit lifted a finger, telling you to wait in its own way. You were no expert in sign language -nor did anyone in your village know of it- but the social cue was very hard to miss. You nodded and the grip on your wrist loosened considerably. With the same finger it showed you, then your stomach and then opened its jaws to show you its mouth. You couldn't help but cringe slightly at the many rotten, sharp teeth -wait, no, not rotten but mossy.

It waited for you to pick up on its silent words. You got that it had said something about food -did it want to feed you? It told you to wait again, letting go of your wrist and backing away. A couple of steps to the treeline and it finally ripped its eyes off you. Oh, it wanted to insure that you would stay put and it mouthed that -whatever it had set out to do- it would be fast.

That was it! That was your chance to run back to the village and call a party to take out the water horse that had put you through a cruel night! Yes! Yes, that was magnificent! You had to be quick about it, though -the spirit knew that you would take the road back to the meadow to escape from there; it had seen you there after all. Without Bella, if you didn't move fast, you would be caught and not even the giant ents knew what would happen to you then.

So, you waited for it to disappear behind trees and branches (not staring at the spirit's behind, it was hidden by its lush hair) and the somewhat thick foliage you could make out from the side of the lake. You were alone in the clearing and the wind blowed in your face, urging you to the exit. You couldn't rush, however, not without making sure that the guy was far in the forest and not just lingering in the tree line, waiting for you to make a move.

You could feel its gaze for at least five minutes and it kept the hairs at your nape standing in attention.

Looking at the lake, you went near and cleaned the mud and dead grass that clung to your palms. It was your chance to escape and the sun was favoring your plan.

You took to following the river upstream as fast as your feet could carry you in your weakened state. You were hungry but you would be fine going without food for a couple of hours. The journey home was a long one on foot but you thought you could make it there by dusk with few short breaks. There was water running right beside you, the sun up in the sky to keep you warm -there were no obstacles in the road. Wolves rarely showed up in this part of the forest and bears were even rarer.

I'll be fine, you thought to yourself, trying to get that survival instinct to activate.

In a couple of minutes, you were in fact, not fine.

The bushes rustled on your side of the river and you barely caught a white flash lunge at you from within the darkness, followed by many others. You screamed, having gotten knocked off your feet and onto your rear. Instinctively, you let out a scream that was quickly covered by the barking and growling of the wolves.

​​Such a good day to be alive.

Teeth sank​​ into the fabric of your dress, tearing and fraying it to mere worthlessness as you struggled to get back up. You were thankful for the length of the skirt for you had managed to tuck your legs underneath and so you only received scratches. None of them had gone for your neck or face yet and you took the opportunity.

You grabbed a rock by the river and lifted it over your head before striking one of the wolves. The growls grew in volume and before you knew it you were screaming; not out of fear and helplessness but out of pain and burning agony. Fangs had found your forearm, torn through flesh and drawn blood.

The wolf didn't stop there, however. No, it trashed its head around in a vengeful manner as its pack mate bled and whimpered where it had drunkenly paced and fallen. The wound widened and you could feel thin threads snap in your arm.

You didn't realize you were crying and wailing until you heard footsteps approaching. No, no!- Those are hooves! You looked to the direction of the meadow thinking that Bella had returned for you but there was nothing but a wolf that growled.

The hoofsteps of a horse pounded on the soft grass by your trail. The rhythm was uncertain and uneven, clearly rushed in a way that would make the animal trip many times over. There was no tripping, though. Instead,there was a neigh, loud and echoey, downright haunting. One would think that the poor thing had had its vocal cords cut out.

The pack scampered in the woods the moment the water horse got near you, leaving the wounded wolf for dead and your arm stinging with hot, white pain. The whimpering animal's eyes widened but before it could react, its life was stomped out of it -quite literally. You witnessed bloody hooves retract from the bushed skull and you could only hold your breath with wide eyes as you held your wounded arm to your chest.

That could have been you, a voice in the back of your mind said. You wholeheartedly agreed with that statement but that didn't mean you would listen.

If you survived whatever punishment there was to receive, you would make a run for it again and again in a heartbeat. You had family waiting for your return. Heck, you were pretty sure even the snobby women would be worried sick about you.

There were teeth boring into the collar of your dress soon enough. The fabric choked you as you were dragged through dirt and mud, back to the lake's clearing. Even wounded as you were, you reached with both hands to tug at the fabric in a desperate attempt to breath. You cried for help subconsciously but your words fell on deaf ears.

Hooves beat beside you, bloody with pieces of bone and brain stuck to the nail and you had the urge to puke. You held it down, though, focusing more on trying to breath and prying the water horse's hold on you. Some hairs at the back of your neck snapped and you would have winced were you not getting dragged like a log, tossed carelessly from side to side at times.

It felt like a painstakingly long time until you were let go and your head bounced off something soft and fluffy. It was not the grass blades you had felt under your fingertips after you had been carried out of the underwater cave. You were quick to sit up when you felt whatever you had landed on shift and move with a pained whine.

It was a doe, small and fragile. There was blood on its neck and a wound much deeper than the one that had been afflicted on Bella. You gulped. The poor thing was still alive and breathing, only weakening by the life pouring out of it.

You saw the stallion dip its head to the deer's stomach and munch on it. It ripped out a good chunk accompanied by a pained wail and with a flick of its head, the piece was on your lap.

You screamed at that, quickly throwing the meat off your lap as the doe beside you wheezed and cried. The spirit hit its hooves irritatedly on the ground, flicking a wavy tail to the side and slapping the air like a whip.

Something else was thrown on your bloody lap but it wasn't a piece of live venison. It... was much smaller. You opened your eyes (which you had not realized you had closed) to find a dead body. Judging by the fluffed up and swirly tail, it was a squirrel -its head had been bitten off.

You whimpered and looked up at the horse. Amber eyes shined expectantly as they wandered from the dead animal to your face. Was that torture or was it trying to feed you? You were not sure, it felt like it was both.

It nudged the animal closer to you and you squeaked in surprise as more blood stained your dress. Oh, what had you done for fate to treat you like that?

The doe had stopped moving and shifting and crying. It had either passed out or already died from blood loss, one could not be sure.

Your stomach grumbled but your hunger was not enough for you to want to ravage a poor squirrel. So that was pushed off your lap as well.

Something akin to a growl sounded from above you and before you could look up, a mouth had grabbed your hair. You were shoved headfirst into the dead deer and blood leaked from the missing chunk and into your mouth.

Then there was a hand at the back of your neck, pushing and making you sink your teeth into the meat. Tears stung the edges of your eyes and as you blinked, they blurred your vision. You could hear the creature growling behind you, pushing your head in further -gods, did you want to throw up- until another hand came and closed your jaw, effectively making you chomp off a piece.

The meat's texture was weird and it made your nose scrunch up. The taste of iron and copper along with the raw state of the venison was making you feel dizzy. What had you gotten yourself into?

Your head was dragged up to meet an angry human face. Fingers grabbed at the fat under your chin and pulled before pushing, making you chew the unusual food in your mouth. You were crying and weakly dragging your nails on its arm but it hardly even twitched when you managed to draw blood.

There was no escaping swallowing the meat and blood in your mouth.

The spirit let you go after that, satisfied with the small amount of food it had managed to get in you by the looks of it. You were a crying mess until nightfall but you were given no sympathy. Its eyes remained cold and distant, calm when it looked your way.

The spirit didn't eat and you could only guess that it rarely got hungry not unlike the tarantulas in the forest. Either that or it had a strict diet of human. It probably didn't know the diet of humans and just went for animals out of instinct.

Wait a minute, you paused your crying, Is it trying to care for me?

It was a stupid thought, one that lulled you in a false sense of security. Your chance at escaping the thing had gone to waste but if you could teach it some manners, perhaps your very short stay would be more tolerable without being manhandled by a water horse who couldn't speak your tongue.

That night you were once again dragged underwater. Why, you were not exactly sure. It was either that shout in the forest that sounded like a person (you knew it was an owl but the spirit must've been paranoid) or your failed attempt at escaping.

Thankfully, the lake wasn't salty and so the wound on your arm didn't sizzle and burn but it wasn't exactly taken care of either. You knew it would need stitches to heal properly and if you got lucky, it would not get infected until you managed to get your hands on a needle and string.

You had expected to be left alone after the kelpie left but you had been wrong. It came back in human form -you could only tell because it was fingers that touched you- and pulled you closer by the shoulder. Your wounded arm was grabbed in a firm grip and you knew better than to try and pull away. Something fuzzy and slick was draped over the wound and tightly wrapped around your forearm.

Moss, you realized. Hopefully, it was the healing kind.

You were pulled into the spirit's cold chest, your head tucked under a sharp chin and arms wrapped around your waist. You did not want to think of where your legs rested on but your brain would not leave you alone even in this critical situation.

But hey! At least you got to preserve body heat... That's good, right?

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