17 Running

Bark,Bark , Bark,

"fuck sake, Miss Mcnagert shut your fucking dogs up"

sliding to the side of his bed he suddenly felt himself reaching out for the alarm, he was falling and with a quick hand he held the tree with desperate reach he stabbed into the tree,he was holding a horn?,As he came back to consciousness he hanged there like a dangling keychain falling through a hole in a bag, he still clutched the rabbit's carcass tightly.

3 grey beasts stood there staring at his dangling person like a succulent morsel, wolves stared at him with eyes with intent.

Caleb's heart raced like a war drum affecting his whole body,

boom

boom

boom

With a heavy inhalation and slow exhalation the war drums stilled in their pace but now we're relegated to a steady but still strong beat, Pulling himself on the branch he rolled onto the canopy with newfound energy and the canopy once more now covered him from sight.

"The blood attracted wolves, just like my luck"

Caleb looked at each tree around him, they were closely packed in places with great gaps in some,he could jump between some.

He knew those wolfs will follow the sound of the trees if he jumps and if he reveals himself below the canopy he would be dead meat.

"System Purchase Silent Step"

A ping of acknowledgment wordless but still there reverberated through his mind, after that a rushing burning affected his feet, like pins and needles but those pins and needles are barbed knifes

Biting hard with slight twitches of pain in his eyes, blood a crimson stream formed from his pink lips dropping down on the emerald green leaves.

Thankfully burning sensation is only slight

"Well let's do some leaps of faith "

Without hesitation he ran towards the nearest tree and jumped, his legs closed towards his chest and his arms flailed, as he approached the canopy it collapsed inwards but sprung back up like a trampoline laying now straight, as he ran it was noticeably silent but not majorly significant but would do enough to confuse the wolves .

After getting up from his sunken position in the canopy 3 words came to mind"This is fun"

with a reckless sprint, he approached the next tree ,he enjoying each and every second, the adrenaline pumped in every jump, everything in his world was now , nothing else to mattered but running.

He continued to jump to each tree continuously increasing each and every jump his falaling arms closed close and legs were tightening causing him to roll decreasing the time before jumps and slowly each jump now he rolled better and quickly recovered to continue with each jump anew.

Within his mind this was exhilarating and, he felt alive in the moment, he did not know how many times he jumped but he knew a lot .

he was now approaching a jump which could be the end of his journey, with reckless abandon instinct took over and verbalized 2 words

"[Cowards Sprint]"

With a burst of momentum and no turning back now and a jump no human could make made plausible and with a lofty jump lurching over the great gap he reached the next tree, As he turned to roll the canopy collapsed suddenly and he grasped with desperation clawing at the tree but as if guided by fate , he reached the edge of the barkand now with a fast fall his hand clutching the horn-spiked into the bark slowing his pace to a still .

The adrenaline cleared clarity of reasoning returned like a rushing stream

"I need to thank the system for getting me the downclimb ability or i would be dead

Caleb could hear the rushing of water, it was music to his ears.

"The gap was caused by a stream "

Caleb with a jovial pace went down the rest of the tree and landed on the soft tree floor still holding the rabbit in his hand.

Caleb approached the stream, it was no stream but a river cutting the forest in two, deep blue water with bubbling throth at the top flowed rapidly down constantly, the noise now was obnoxious and

all-encompassing.

As he reached the edge of the river in delight 3 stark grey figures faced him down from the edge with the instincts of a coward he started to climb, then he looked back at a safe distance up.

the stream was too strong for the wolfsto pass through, he was safe