011 was rooted to the ground with fear. He could tell that the sound had come from something big. "What type of creature could make such a horrifying sound like that"? 011 thought to himself as he slowly looked round in the direction of the roar hoping to catch a glimpse of this monster. Unfortunately, the thick trees and shadows made it impossible for the changeling to see even 25 feet in front of him. 011 started to grow nervous. Even though he couldn't see anything, he felt as though he was being watched by multiple pairs of eyes.
"Perhaps it would be wise to fly out of this place as quickly as I can. Whatever is after me likely cannot fly. At least I have that advantage". The changeling suggested to himself. There was only one problem wring with that plan. Changeling wings always produced a loud buzzing noise. If there was indeed something stalking him, then it would likely hear 011 and try to attack him before he could escape and would end up with him getting seriously injured or worse. Deciding that flying and risk dying would be better than doing nothing and dying gruesomely, he got ready and flapped his wings as hard and as fast as he could, hoping to get as much distance between himself and the ground.
He could hear heavy footsteps charging straight for him. Not daring to look back, he concentrated all of the power in his body onto his wings. Another roar sounded off from now less than 30 feet away. Whatever was after him, it was only seconds away as the footsteps got louder and louder. He had almost made it above the trees. "Come on! COME ON"! 011 yelled in his head. He felt the leaves of the top branches on his hooves. Then the second he felt he had escaped, something had bitten his right wing. 011 screeched, he had never felt such pain before in his life. The creature had got him and dragged 011 back below the tree level before flailing the poor changeling round like a dog would with a bone until *RIIIPPP*!
011 fell to the ground with a heavy thud. He quickly stood up and turned to check his back, and feared the worst for his wings, his right wing was still attached to his back luckily enough. The bad news however, was that it now had a rip right down the middle and the top part of his wing was bitten off by some sort of large reptile, due to the shape of the teeth marks, meaning that flying away was no longer an option. He quickly turned around to see what had attacked him.
Before 011, just mere meters away was a lions head. But not just any lions head, this one was twice the size of a normal lions head. A Manticore perhaps? The creature growled softly, followed with a "Baaaa" noise. "Baaaaa!? what kind of lion goes baaa"? thought 011 with a puzzled look on his face. "Unless, its... oh no"! 011 suddenly then realized that the animal before him was more than it seemed. A second head rose above the lion's own, but it wasn't another lion. It was a goat, with the same size head as the lion, its thick horns were large enough to impale three changelings in a row. But there was still more to come, within seconds of the goats head appearing, a humongous snake rose several meters in the air behind both of the other animals. Its fangs were sharper than spears, especially since a small part of 011's wing was hanging loosely from one of them which explained what had happened to the torn off tip of 011's right wing.
Suddenly without warning, the lion jumped into the air and attacked! 011 barely jumped to his left and managed to avoid the paws of the lion as they smashed into the ground where he once stood. 011 readied his magic and turned round to face the lion and noticed that he was no longer standing before 3 different creatures, just one. He was now viewing the right side of the lion and saw that the goats head had no body of its own and was attached to the lions back and that the snake was in fact, the tail of the beast. The size of the monster, minus the snake tail, was more than double 011's size
"A Chimera! Ha broshieb'rak"! 011 muttered in his own specie's language. The monster turned to face the changeling just in time to see a green bolt fly out of his horn and hit into the chimera's front paws with enough force to cause the beast to trip, lions face first, into the ground. Using this to his advantage, 011 ran deeper into a lighter part of the forest. He knew that he was no match for a fully grown chimera, even though he was a high drone, he would have still needed at least 10 other changeling soldiers under his command to defeat it. 011 suddenly heard the head of the lion roar as loud as it could. He knew that he had just made it mad as he turned round to see that the chimera, no more than 40 meters away and gaining,was now violently knocking down all the trees between itself and 011. Even with the trees in the way of the chimera, it was still too fast for the changeling and it would only be a matter of time until it caught up to him.
Realizing that he would be unable to outrun the monster, 011 spun round deciding that he had no choice but to face it. He aimed his horn at the monster and firing a second bolt into its shoulder. The bolt caused the chimera to flinch but had no other effect, its hide was too tough and was still heading his way. 011 fired a third bolt, then a fourth, fifth, sixth, some of his shots hitting his target while other shots made contact with the trees around it leaving burn marks. The chimera was now within swiping distance and while still receiving a number of green bolts to its shoulders and face, it raised one of its front paws with its deadly claws sticking out ready to slash the changeling in half. 011 immediately stopped firing his green bolts from his horn and ducked at the last second as the clawed paw smashed into a nearby tree. 011 quickly ran underneath the chimera feeling a small sharp pain on his back. It seemed that the tip of the chimeras claws had managed to cut clean through his Armour, allowing the claws to also slice through a small part of his back. 011 ignored the cut and damaged Armour and fired more bolts at its soft belly while he had the chance. This caused the chimera to roar once more, this time in pain. 011 emerged from underneath the rear end of the monster only to have a giant snake head lunge itself into the ground slightly missing 011 by inches making 011 jump back underneath the chimeras hind legs. The snake head pulled itself back up from the ground and looked 011 right in the eye. 011 showed no fear. High drones rarely feared anything and he wasn't going to let some overgrown worm prove otherwise. 011's horn began to glow again and the chimera tail was encased with a green aura. The huge snake was unable to break free from the spell but 011 knew he couldn't hold it for long, especially since he had to also avoid being stepped on by the back legs of the chimera which had no idea what was happening behind it. 011 quickly ran out from under the chimera and tied its tail around the closest tree he could find as fast as he could, before the rest of the chimera could figure out what was happening. Less than three seconds later and the serpent had been tied round a thick tree in a fancy looking knot as though it was a rope. "Least that is one problem out of the way" The high drone though, still staring at the struggling snake head. The goat head turned round and saw the snake tied to the tree. It turned back round and bleated to the lion head as though it was trying to communicate with it. Before 011 could do anything else, the chimera brought all four of its legs together and raised the front of its body into the air. It was now standing on its two back legs. The size of the Chimera had become gigantic. It was now more than five times 011's size. 011 turned round and saw two sharp horns suddenly appear in front of his face. He now had to deal with the goat head, which was now only a meter above him, because it was now trying to impale his head with its horns. 011 was now forced to get out of the second head's way and headed back to the side of the chimera were he was met by the chimeras left paw swinging towards him. With no time to get out of the way, the paw slammed into his stomach, putting a small dent into his chest plate and cutting a small part of his right hoof thanks to the claws. The force of the chimeras paw caused the poor changeling to fly backwards and collide head first into a tree quite hard. The force of his head hitting the tree would have been enough to kill him if he wasn't wearing his helmet but it wasn't enough to keep him from being knocked out. He was bleeding from his back and his front right hoof where the claws of the chimera had hit him.
The chimera couldn't walk forward to inspect its prey, which just lay on the ground with a small twitch from its back hoof, due to it's snake head still struggling to escape from the tree. The body of the chimera then carefully turned around to place its two front paws onto each side of the tree, just above its snake-tail, and crushed the top half of the tree which made it easier to snap it off and free the snake. The only problem for the snake was that it was still tied up in a knot. The chimera lowered its front paws and allowed itself to walk on four legs once again and cautiously walked over to 011, growling. The changeling was still knocked out and was unable to run or attack. The chimera's lion head brought itself closer to the changeling so that it was inches away from 011's body. It looked at 011 carefully and saw no movement. Believing that it had killed the changeling, the chimera then headed back though the area where it had chased 011. With its only injuries being a bruised stomach, the chimera heads grunted in satisfaction. All except for the snake tail which was hissing in anger, obviously frustrated that it couldn't untie itself.
A full minute had passed after the chimera had left and 011 gained consciousness. He didn't have enough energy to stand thanks to his cut front hoof. 011 knew he wasn't going to make it out of the forest alive, not with the injuries he was now suffering from, and not by himself. Feeling as though he was about to loose consciousness again, he managed to pull the necklace from his chest plate with his magic. It turned out that the necklace actually was a locket. A golden, heart shaped locket. 011 opened it, looked inside for a moment and spoke.
"Sally, I'm sorry. I've failed you"...
011 closed the locket and placed it back inside the chest plate. He then rested his head on the ground and closed his eyes, but not before seeing a small white rabbit heading his way.