My Little Teelo

by Ardwolf

The Morning After

Teagan woke shivering, curled into a tight ball. Bright light was shining in her face and the blankets were tangled over her hands. Groggily she untangled her hands and sat up, blinking.

And then bit back a scream as fear knifed through her.

She wasn’t in her bedroom! She didn’t have any blankets, what she thought were blankets turned out to be her bunny slippers that had somehow ended up on her hands. That’s when she remembered the night before.

That voice, that horrible, cheerful voice that kept saying the most terrifying things to her…

And that hand. Teagan shuddered violently as she remembered the sharp points touching her throat.

Looking around she tried to discover where she was.

She was lying on the ground with only a layer of pine needles for a mattress. Around her were trees, lots and lots of trees. That was scary all by itself because Kansas was rather noted for its lack of trees. This didn’t look like any of the little parks she’d ever played in either. This looked more like something from the dawn of time. Big trees, lots with moss covered trunks and most growing close enough together to block out the light under them.

The sun wasn’t above the trees yet so she assumed it was morning, especially considering how chilly it was. She frowned, belatedly realizing it wasn’t cold enough; she should have been freezing to death. Instead she was just shivering.

That made no sense! It was the middle of January in Kansas. It had gotten below freezing last night!

She was still dressed in her pajamas, and somehow she had her bunny slippers with her. Shivering she put them on and stood up, trying not to think about the fact she’d been abducted. She thanked her lucky stars all he’d done was dump her in a forest. She resolutely refused to think about what else he could have done while she was unconscious.

For whatever reason he hadn’t and she was fine. He hadn’t even tied her up, just left her here. Well, she wasn’t sticking around! Who knew what that maniac might do next? Not to mention that she never wanted to see what he really looked like! Her imagination had already painted all too graphic an image—that of a snake man with pointed teeth and needle sharp claws.

She shuddered again when she remembered he’d actually touched her.

Looking around she tried to see if there was a trail. To her dismay there wasn’t.

“So which way do I go?” She asked herself aloud. “Everything looks the same. Why did that maniac kidnap me if he was just going to dump me somewhere? He could at least have left me a map, the creep!”

Fuming made her forget how terrified she’d been. Deciding the trees looked a little thinner in one particular direction she set off.

The forest was overgrown in a lot of places, making her constantly detour around bushes. She was careful about branches and thorns since she didn’t want her relatively flimsy pajamas shredded. She was already cold enough, torn PJs would just add to her misery.

She walked for a good half hour without seeing anyone or coming across a trail. The forest was alive with sound, the sighing of leaves in the wind, birds singing, insects buzzing and crickets chirring. But she seldom saw any animals, only the occasional squirrel scurrying furtively up a tree.

After a while she began to relax and enjoy the forced hike. She was warmer now, the exercise plus the rising temperature had seen to that.

Her good mood was abruptly shattered by the sight that greeted her as she walked into a clearing.

A huge beast was lying in the middle of the clearing, busily devouring its kill.

The thing spotted her and immediately growled, a bass rumble that reminded her of an idling semi-truck. She froze as it rose to its feet, its eyes level with her own, meaning it was over five feet tall!

Feeling detached and eerily calm in this crisis she noted the beast had been eating a full grown deer. Most of the carcass was nothing but bloody bones, only the front quarters of the deer remained. The beast, a massive lion-like creature placed one paw on the remains of its kill, white claws unsheathing silently, just like those of a house cat, only much, much bigger.

It looked like a lion, with a light brown pelt and huge red mane. To Teagan’s shock it spread red bat-like wings, making it look even more fearsome. The red scorpion tail that curled over its back and began waving slowly back and forth was just one more detail that her strangely clear mind calmly noted.

Then it roared at her, a blast of sound that snapped her out of whatever weird mindset she was in. It glared at her, and the message couldn’t have been clearer if it had spoken English.

Go away. Mine!

She backed slowly and carefully out of the clearing, keeping eye contact with the lion-scorpion thing as she did so.

Never run, her father’s voice repeated the lesson in her mind. If you run it will chase you, that’s what predators do. Calmly back away and make no threatening moves, pumpkin. When it loses interest get out of sight, and once you’re out of sight then run away as fast as you can. But don’t run while it can still see you. And don’t ever scream.

The lion-thing watched her back away. Still watching her, the thing folded its wings and let its tail uncurl. When she’d backed completely out of the clearing it lay back down and resumed feeding.

She backed away until she couldn’t see the beast any more, then turned and walked as quickly and calmly as she could back the way she’d come. After a couple of minutes she looked around and seeing no sign of the creature burst into a sprint, praying it wasn’t about to pounce on her.

She ran until her lungs were on fire, until the pain in her side literally made her fall down. A single thought echoed in her head over and over.

Lions live in prides. Do lion-scorpions?

Gasping desperately for air she got up and staggered over to a tree so she’d have something to guard her back. She collapsed against it, tears trickling down her face.

She started sobbing, pulling her knees against her chest and her head on her knees.

“It’s not fair! Why did he have to kidnap me? What did I ever do to deserve this? Why did he just abandon me here? None of it makes any sense!” She started crying harder, the sobs rocking her and the making it harder to breathe. To top it off she was still panting from her panicked marathon sprint.

The horror finally proved too much for the girl. She broke down completely and began wailing like a damned soul, rocking back and forth, gripping her knees as hard as she could.

“Oh my! What’s the matter? Are you hurt?” A kindly female voice asked urgently, breaking through her misery.

She jerked her head up frantically; terrified another monster had crept up on her unawares. She cursed herself for being so stupid.

But the curse died halfway to her lips as it finally dawned on her what she was looking at. And hearing—it had spoken English!

“You have got to be kidding me.” Teagan said in disbelief, this final shock restoring a limited measure of self-control.