The monster's feet crushed the trees behind me as easily as crushing a sand castle with a hammer. The ground shook so roughly when she walked that I couldn't help but run in a zig-zag line away from the fallen log I took shelter in.

The beast squished the log and scattered a thousand rotted shards around the area. I screamed when a flaming sensation pierced my side and painted some nearby green leaves with bright crimson.

I did my best to ignore the pain, pushing my legs to sprint even though a wooden dagger was firmly implanted in me. If I stopped for even a second to catch my breath, the albino would have snapped my body in two with one crunch of her razor sharp teeth.

A wet droplet of snot landed on my neck and her hot breath made butterflies hatch in my stomach and take flight. My ears popped and a annoying ring replaced all sound as she snapped her jaw right behind my head. She was too close.

I am not going to win this race, I thought as sound slowly returned to my ears.

She snapped again, this time pinching off a chunk of my back just above my bottom. I screamed as I fell sideways to the ground.

Somehow the creature missed with her massive mouth and I managed to fit myself in between the webbings of her toes when she stepped on me. She kept running, unable to turn around quickly. I'd found a weakness, I just didn't have the energy to exploit it.

A dozen trees toppled over when the beast's head slammed into them. She seemed dazed and I took advantage of it by using the last of my energy to crawl into the bushes along the tree line. I heard the gobbling noise and a peck at my ankle told me it was true.

I turned to see the father dodo bird staring back at me and he gave me a gobble like he was saying hello.  The baby and the mama trotted out behind him.

"Get out of here! There is a giant monster over there who will eat you for dessert after me," I tried to shoe them away.

The father tilted his head and gobbled more before walking out of the bushes and into the clearing that the monster had created when she chased me.

"No! No, get back here!" I called as I grabbed onto his fluffy round tail and pulled him back into the bushes.

He gobbled angrily and loudly, then pecked at my finger until I let him go. There was a bloody handprint left on his back.

The monster roared and sniffed the air, looking for prey, looking for me. She turned her head and looked directly at the bushes where we sat. The world shook as she walked. Her intimidating growl matched the beat of her footsteps. She smelt blood, either what I left on the dodo or the missing chunk in my back. With my luck, it could have been her little snack from earlier blowing downwind.

The dodo ran out into the clearing, his wife and child following closely.

They're even dumber than deer. They might buy me some time to escape... who knows? Maybe their stupidity will get them out of that horror story with blind luck, I thought as I pushed myself up to my feet and waddled away.

They'll be ok... They'll be ok.

I heard the monster's roar followed by a rapid and terrified version of the dodo's gobble. I stopped and turned around. The monster's head stood far above the tree line, stretched out as she swallowed the father whole.

They are just birds. Your life is more important than theirs.

I sighed, then tried to keep walking, but my feet wouldn't carry me.

I'm an idiot. I'm probably going to get myself killed. At least I'll die with a clear conscience.

I spun around and skidded as fast as I could back towards the monster. I popped out of the trees and saw the mother as the next victim being swallowed whole. She had left the baby as an undefended orphan in the shrubbery. He was gobbling rapidly and walked repeatedly into a tree trunk, too scared to alter his course.

The beast let out another ground shaking roar and aimed for the baby. I grabbed onto the baby dodo moments before the beast's jaws clamped shut and cut down the tree.

The dodo was gobbling even louder as he rested in my arms and looked over my shoulder at our pursuer. The sound of a running river ahead of us gave me a little extra fuel to keep running through the pain.

The sun had dropped and the forest seemed to be pitch black. I could no longer see the beast, but her footsteps were all the assurance I needed that she was still behind us. I put one foot in front and slid the other behind until that one foot felt no land, only air. I plummeted with the baby dodo for what seemed like forever and crashed into a large pond.

My wounds burned when they touched the water and they turned the blue liquid a shade of reddish black wherever I swam. A small lamp lit up the pond in the distance. It was held on a makeshift raft with a tiny hut built on the deck.

"Help!" I yelled and gargled some water in the process.

The dodo rested on the top of my head, coughed up some water, and shook his feathers free of moisture. 

The beast's angry roar vibrated the water. I could see her silhouette in the moonlight on top of the cliff I fell off of. It had to have been a forty foot drop easily. The beast was eighty feet tall, so if she had the courage to jump, it would have been like stomping in a large puddle.

"Can't catch me now, can you?" I yelled happily as I swam towards the now moving raft.

As it moved toward me, I saw that the lamp was held by a small girl with a head too big for her body. She was shouting something, but it was distorted and I couldn't understand her. She was so close that I thought I was going to be saved, but then my leg was touched by something long and scaly. I kicked, trying to get what I thought to be a normal fish away.

More of the same rocky feeling touched my toes. One decided to take a nibble of my flesh. It felt like a pinch. More and more nibbled on me and suddenly a sharp pain hit my leg. Soon after, I felt no leg, just pain.

I couldn't move. Every time I tried, the pain would worsen.  The pinches were getting more frequent and they were all over my body. I was getting light headed and the boat was an arms reach away. I realized what she was trying to say.

"Piranhas," she repeated again while she held out an oar for me to grab onto.

It was too late, I had no arms left to hold out. I couldn't move because there was nothing left but skeleton.

"Take my dodo. It's too late for me," I gulped as my last breaths of air were imminent.

She nodded her head and put the oar next to my head. The dodo walked along the pole and onto the boat as if it had done it a million times over. The baby looked at me and gobbled slowly as if to say thank you.

Or it was just asking me for food.

Either way, it was alive because of me.

"Get her into a good school. Make sure she stays away from skateboarders and anyone named Brad," I laughed before my head submerged in the water.

I took my final breath and felt my body be tugged under.

The piranhas were the size of an encyclopedia and had a mouthful of triangle demon teeth.

I was leaking out of every missing limb. I had turned the Blue Lagoon into the Red Sea.