Adventures of Dusty Gray "Chapter 2, The Wilds" 2013

Chapter 2
The Wilds


As Dusty stood looking at the vast and amazing world below, he felt something nagging at the back of his mind drawing him toward the great castle beyond the cliff. Peering out across the lands, it felt like he was standing on the edge of the world. The only problem was from his vantage point he could not see a way down. He carefully stepped back from the cliff's edge, trying to avoid what was certain to be a deadly fall to the waters below. Upon easing himself back from the edge, he looked back toward the woods. It was not a particularity dense forest, and through a clearing in the trees he could see more mountains in the distance. He knew he had to make a decision fast because the sun was fading in the sky and he only had a few hours of sunlight left.
As he stood debating which way to go a sudden loud screech startled him, causing him to trip over his own feet. He raised his head, to scan the sky for the source of the stomach churning sound. Just then a large shadow engulfed him! “What is that?” Dusty muttered as he picked himself up, “It's as big as a dinosaur!” Then, with utter disbelief he realized it was a bird circling above. Thoughts starting running through his head so fast he couldn’t even decipher their meaning. As the bird let out another ear shattering screech and began to dive right for him. Dusty began to run as fast as his legs could muster, but even though he was considered quite fast back home he was no match for the bird's speed as it quickly closed in on him. He jumped over fallen logs, pierced through tall grass, and weaved in and out of the trees trying to lose the bird in the forest, but to no avail as the bird was not thrown from his trail. Just as Dusty peaked over his shoulder to check on his pursuer, his foot twisted in a hole and he slammed into the ground with a hard thud. He frantically tried to regain his footing and catch his breath, but the bird had closed in fast “this isn't fair, I only just got here and now I am going to be bird food!” Dusty thought to himself. The shadow closed in, and all he could do was throw up his hands and brace for the imminent impact.