Ryan’s eyes drank in the uniform hue of the sky, bright and vibrant in the light of the sun directly over him. Though there was no sign of roads or buildings, it was a majestic vision.
“Amazing,” Ryan murmured, shaking his head one more time, as he finally looked downward to begin his descent.
His nerves were teetering on the edge. Only minutes before, he had been standing in front of a restaurant just off the downtown area. He was now peering from the top of a tall tree, atop a hill in the midst of a forest that spread out in every direction as far as the eye could see.
Ryan had not gone more than a couple branches lower, gingerly bringing his weight to bear upon each one to make certain that they would hold his weight, when a dark shadow abruptly fell across him. His breath caught in his throat, as his eyes shot back towards the sky in alarm.
Gliding along the air currents was a very large, winged creature. It had a long, thin body that was covered with a light growth of purplish fur. Broad, membranous wings protruded from its back. A short, thick neck connected the body to an elongated head that resembled a cross between that of a serpent and a bird. Two narrow legs were tucked underneath its body, each ending in grasping talons whose ends looked wickedly sharp.
Ryan froze as the shadow from the animal crossed him and continued onward. It emitted a sustained, hollow cry that chilled his nerves.
The only comfort was that the flying monstrosity appeared to have not taken any notice of Ryan, as it showed no outward reaction to the young man’s presence. As the creature glided into the distance, Ryan counted himself lucky and resumed his descent, quickly angling down from branch to branch with less caution and more urgency. He jumped down to the ground, bypassing one lower branch, and paced over to Lee.
Lee’s face was one of sheer amazement, and his eyes remained fixed upward.
“I don’t know what in the world that thing was, but it was big, and to be on the safe side, I am staying down here,” Ryan announced.
“I think we’d better take things really carefully,” Lee said, his eyes looking about warily as if the forest would suddenly come alive with an array of menacing, unknown threats. “I think we’d better not assume anything. I think that’s the best thing to do right now.”
“Let’s get going, and be ready for the trees, if you see anything at all on the ground,” Ryan responded. “I have no idea what that thing in the air was, and I wouldn’t be sure that we won’t run into even more creatures we don’t know about… ones down here that don’t fly.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about the trees either,” Lee commented, eyes widening, “Look!”
He pointed towards the branches of a nearby tree.
Ryan followed Lee’s gesture to find a small, furry canine-like creature staring quietly right at them. The tree that Ryan had climbed had been very close to the tree that this creature inhabited, and as his eyes met those of the creature he flinched reflexively in surprise.
A ray of sunlight glinted off of one of the sharp talons by which the small mammal clutched the tree branch. Tucked close into its sides were a pair of dark, leathery wings. Its beady eyes, set back behind the length of its extended snout, seemed to be furtively studying the two humans.
As if it now recognized that its presence had been discovered, it chittered excitedly and leaped abruptly from the tree, spreading its wings and gliding off into the depths of the forest.
“No, we can’t be too sure,” Ryan agreed, unnerved further and finding himself growing more fearful by the second.
“And we can’t assume that smaller is any less of a threat,” Lee added.
“Have any more encouraging things to say?” Ryan curtly riposted.
“Better figure the worst. At least things can only get better,” Lee replied dourly.
Fully out of his element, Ryan was lost in a bizarre forest where the first two living creatures that he had set his eyes upon were entirely foreign to him. The specter of danger was palpably tangible to his senses, whether it lurked in the trees, the sky above, or upon the ground.
A freezing anxiety arose to grip him in the wake of his rapidly diminishing hopes. The feeling traveled through Ryan with a mildly paralyzing effect, and he felt as if the world itself was compressing him from all sides.