The same forest...

Misty managed to keep quiet as she escaped the cave, reaching the mouth only to be greeted by the guiding light of a full moon. "There's a moon," Misty noted, satisfied that she could at least confirm that it was Earth's moon, which meant she was probably still on Earth, somewhere. The cave mouth opened into a small canyon, giving her a view above the trees and out into the rolling hill and carving cliffs, all topped with a thick, tall forest. She took in the sight for only a moment, savoring the view of where she was and the beauty of this giant forest, before turning to run, knowing it was only a matter of time until that beast turned around and noticed she was gone. She intended to be far away when that happened.

Running down the rocky path, she ran down the side of the canyon, her path descending her under the tree-line and finally into the forest. Keeping a mental map in her head, she tried to remember where she was going as she darted into the trees. She ran through bushes and under vines, between trees wider than she was tall, and it took her a bit too long to remember she should be afraid of the forest just as much as the beast. Misty stopped in her tracks, stumbling over a root and falling onto her hands and knees, luckily catching herself in some grass. Her eyes darted back up and she listened for any sounds, terrified she just made a lot of noise in a forest full of predators other than him. She quickly crawled to a tree and hid against its tall shaft, the tops of its roots being a few feet off the ground, giving her ample hiding room. She continued to scan the forest, looking and listening for any movement. Not seeing anything, she started sneaking through the forest instead of running, still trying to create distance between herself and the cave.

She crept from tree to tree, tip toeing across the grass and between vines as she continued into the forest, still trying to keep her sense of direction based on the view she got. As she understood, she should be at least a mile away by now, and so made a turn towards a ravine she think she saw to her left. Her ears and eyes stayed sharp as she checked for any movement, her heart pounding within her chest. The tied sleeves of her hoodie sagged low over her wide hips, and eventually they fell off as she darted to another tree. Too scared to be out any longer than she hard to be, she left it behind and kept going, relieved slightly of the weight of heat of the thick fabric.

Finally, between the trees ahead she could see the walls of the ravine, and as she'd hoped, it looked like she could easily fit inside. Making a break for it, she ran between the trees, breathing heavily as the ravine became clearer and clearer. Moonlight was perfectly angled inside it, lighting most of the ravine up, showing its walls and rocks and bumpy floor. Misty felt a smile creeping on her face, and just as she broke out of the tree-line, she saw a glint of something blue in the ravine. Slowing down, she saw the ravine splitting two cliffs of rock, full of massive boulders and lined by smooth walls, and she saw something blue behind one of the rocks, glinting.

Misty's jogging pace slowed to a cautious step as she tried to make out what it was, and when one blue glint turned into two blue glints, she stopped and quickly changed her course to start backpedaling, not wasting any time stopping and staring if it was an animal. Whatever was in the ravine hopped over the rock it was behind, and two more pairs of those same blue eyes appeared behind similar rocks within the ravine, all creeping out into the moonlight. They looked like apes, a muscular middle ground between a gorilla and a chimp, only instead of fur, their skins were covered in jet black scales, reflecting dimly in the pale light. Their ears were shaped like fins and their chimpanzee-like faces were twisted into hateful snarls.

Her eyes were wide open in pure terror and she backpedaled faster, trying to keep an eye on them as she made for the trees. As the scaled apes stepped out of the ravine-

ROOOOOOOOAAAARR

A distant, but still loud and clear roar echoed into the canyon, and both Misty and the scaled apes turned their heads in its direction. Now that she heard it again, and it wasn't so close to her face, she could tell it was a human yell, although incredibly deep and loud. He must have finished his meal and realized she was gone, which meant he'd be out soon, and looking for her. She looked back to the scaled apes, who were also staring in the direction the roar came from, their faces twisted into fear and frustration as one of their number crawled back into the ravine, waving his arm for them to follow. The remaining two looked at each other, and then one of them looked back at her. It's cold blue eyes locked onto Misty, looking at her like she was a thing and not a breathing being, and then the scaled ape started running towards her.