The creature stood with arms and legs spaced, its long fingers stretching in and out with its breath. It was tall, seven feet maybe, and its shadow bore a shape of part human part wolf- only its bones were exposed in some areas and its skin seemed to rot dryly from its limbs. It stood hunched, twisting itself again as if to stretch. As if the animal was warming up for something. At that thought, its neck turned sideways as if it heard the observation. A resounding crack of its bones echoed through the chasm and the animal crouched lower.
Raina gulped, then cracked her own neck. Raising her silver stone dagger in front of her neck with her left hand and the sword with her right, the creature growled. Or rather, gurgled. Raina wrinkled her nose at the disgusting sound, her lips turned down in a frown. She stepped forward.
As if pressing a button, the creature ran with full force and lunged at Raina’s midsection. Raina quickly stepped back and swung the sword sweeping outward. The creature whimpered briefly before rolling its body down into a crouch. Raina stood ready. There was no way a slight stinging wound would damage this living carcass so quickly.
The creature stretched back into standing position and growled at Raina, its claws extending further out. It slammed all four paws into the earth and lunged once again. Now, this was full force.
Raina turned to the right, narrowly avoiding its paw. She felt it snag on her tunic but didn’t let that distract her. She swung her sword and gritted her teeth as it made contact, pulling it deeper through the side of the animal. It howled and spat at her. The spit landed on her lower leg, immediately burning a hole through the fabric and searing her skin. She cried out, backing away slowly from the creature. The once bleeding wide wound that Raina had carved out in its side was no longer bleeding. In fact it was smaller than it was when she placed it.
Raina gritted her teeth once more as the animal curled back into crouching position. She knew now what she had to do to get the fuck out of this chasm. The wolf-thing reared its head back again and let loose a long howl before pouncing forward. Raina screamed as she held her ground, letting the animal run at her full throttle.
With her dagger ready, her legs slightly crouched and her sword angled to hit- she pointed the sword at the last second crunching through the chest of the creature. Her dagger pierced its eye, and with a final roaring scream Raina plunged both weapons deeper inside the animal until its whimpering seized. Releasing her grip on the dagger she pinned the animal on its back with her sword.
The wound began to make quick work of stitching together and Raina rolled her eyes and cursed. With an angry tug she released the sword from the animals chest and quickly lifted the weapon and cut smoothly through its neck, spilling its blood fully from its body. Tossing the sword to the side, Raina ignored the searing pain of the blood spatters burning through her clothes.
“Just in case,” Raina mumbled as she plunged the dagger further into the creatures brain. Satisfied with the sight of light draining from its eyes she pulled the dagger from its skull before collapsing down beside her weapons, her chest heaving from exertion.
There was utter silence in the chasm now, except for the sound of her breath and gentle sound of a drip. Water? Raina gulped, unable to remember the last time she drank. Water would feel awfully good right now, especially on some of these burns. Turning her head she looked to her blood covered weapons. She had to keep going.
With a groan, she pushed herself to sit upright and ripped a corner of her tunic off, large enough to protect her hands while she wiped her blades clean. Legs weak, she forced herself to stand. Slicking the burning blood off of her dagger, she sheathed the weapon and did the same with the sword before tossing the cloth into the now bubbling blood puddle that consumed the carcass of the animal.
Raina listened for the dripping noise and stepped lightly, following the sound and praying that she wasn’t following an echo. In the distance, she heard a howl and her blood chilled. Not just a howl-howls. Raina swore, looking back at the mouth of the chasm to where the first one followed her in. She shook her head, looking again for the sound of the drip. She needed to find water, fast, before the next wave of creatures found her.
NEEDLE&QUILL 
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