A Young Lady's Guide to the Demon Slaying Arts

by Protocol

The Island of Mists (I)

The Island of Mists (I)

The rumors about the island were true. Well, most of them, at least. The whole place has changed completely within a few, short years. So much so that I can't even recognize it anymore. It used to be a wildlife preserve, but ever since the whole Discord fiasco, the whole place has warped into a twisted ghost town. The water's become murky, the plants have thrived into a tangled jungle, and the eerie mist surrounding this place has gotten so thick that I can barely see five steps in front of me. It's made traversing the mountainside a hell of a lot more difficult than it needed to be. Even more strange, however, is the fact that throughout the entirety of my stay, I've yet to see a single animal here. It's all just flora here, no fauna at all to balance it out.

What's more, there is treasure on this island. I can confirm it. I've seen it with my own eyes, sparkling gems and gold doubloons spilling over each other in a shimmering mountain of wealth. It's all there, deep inside the caverns that burrow into the mountain, piled up for the world to see. But that's all useless to me now. Because… because the sailors were right.

I'm not alone on this island. There's something else here.

I don't know what they are. I don't know what they look like. All I know is that they're there, and they're out for blood. My blood. It was a mistake for me to not trust what they said about this place when I first heard of it. It almost makes me laugh, how stupid it all sounded back then. Yet here I am, paying penance for my sins in this form of cruel retribution. Stranded on a deserted island, being hunted savagely for my life on a daily basis.

I don't even know why I'm writing this down right now. Rather than a warning to future souls who venture into this place, this notebook is more of a satisfying way of distracting myself, and reminding myself that this is all real. After all, nobody who's set foot on this place has ever returned alive. That's the way it's been for the past few years, and I suppose that's the way it's going to stay. Heh, not such a promising sign for me, I guess. The locals can't do anything about it. Nobody can. The moment they set sail into the thick fog surrounding this place, no magic signals can get through. And once you're in the mist, you're gone forever... I can see why.

I came to this place two and a half weeks ago, on a zoology expedition with my colleagues, professor Rosewood and her assistant, Green April, to see how much the island had changed. About a few hours into the trip, we had our first encounter with them. After some time of coming across literally zero animals, or even insects on our expedition, we heard a faint hissing noise coming from deeper into the mountain. Naturally, the three of us got curious, and went on to investigate, eager to see where all the living creatures had disappeared off to.

That was our second big mistake. The first was ever setting foot on this blasted island at all. When we got closer to the hissing noise, the mist had still stubbornly refused to let up, and we still couldn't make out the direct source of the sound. When we got to where we thought it had come from, we couldn't find anything there. The hissing stopped abruptly, and it was replaced by a blood curdling screech that sent chills and shivers down my back.

Now, there were no dangerous creatures listed on the preserve's records, and some harmless animals tended to screech loudly to intimidate and scare off predators, so we decided to search for the source of the screeching.

That was our biggest, stupidest decision yet, and it would cost us professor Rosewood's life.

Since we couldn't see very far ahead of our own feet, we were travelling in a tightly packed group, linked with ropes tied around our waists. We were lined up in a row, with professor Rosewood leading, me in the middle, and Green April behind us. As the screeching grew louder, our steps grew more wary. However, without warning, the hissing fell completely silent. I felt a sudden, harsh tug on the professor's side of the rope. She screamed out in fear and in shock, and I felt the rope in front of me break loose. The other end of it tore with a resounding snap and fell on my leg limply, its tip coated red with moisture.

It all happened too fast for us to react. One moment, we were perfectly fine, and the next, all that was left of professor Rosewood was a piece of torn rope, a muddy black boot, and a few drops of blood on the ground. I wish I could say that we went back to try and rescue the professor, but I'm no hero. I knew that whatever that thing was, it had taken the professor down in a matter of seconds, and we would be no match for it. Even if we were, there was no guarantee that she was still alive. She'd fell silent, presumably from falling unconscious or from death.

At this point, I decided to leg it as fast as I could. Where? I didn't know, and I didn't care. I didn't have time to think where I was going. Anywhere but where that thing was. April was frozen in terror, but she managed to break free and feel the adrenaline rush through her legs when I tugged her along with my end of the rope. Together, we ran as fast as we could, through the ominous mist and entangled plant life that cultivated the mountainside. The marshes squelched wetness through our boots and socks, and the branches left sharp, red scratches all over our faces, but we didn't care. We just ran, and ran, and ran until the adrenaline wore off and we couldn't move our legs any longer.

How had they found us? The mist was too thick for anything to see through. These things were obviously relying on a different sense like sound or scent to track us, or their magic allowed their vision to pierce through this thick veil of fog. Unlikely but possible; there were still many undiscovered aspects of magic that no arcanist had ever found.

The two of us sat down on a nearby rock, regained our wits, and started thinking rationally for once. We needed to escape the island, we needed to do it as fast as we could, and we needed to do it without getting caught. I took out a small knife and some rope, and after some crude camouflage with the tree branches and leaves nearby, we made our way to the shore and silently sneaked our way around to where our boat had been.

But by the time we got there, it was already too late. The boat had been destroyed, and it hadn't been an accident or a coincidence. Fresh, sharp teeth marks lined pieces of the splintered wood, and all the supplies and equipment we'd left back there had been either broken into tiny pieces, or damaged beyond repair. Whatever these things were, they were intelligent and knew how to keep us helpless. We had no vision, no food, professor Rosewood was taken from us, and now we lost both our remaining equipment and our way back home. The nearest harbor was only a few hours away by boat, but we might as well have been stranded weeks away from civilization.

April and I retreated back into the woods, where we planned out our next course of action. Laying down our remaining tools in front of us, we managed to salvage my knife, an axe, some more rope, this notebook, an empty water bottle and a pack of iodine tablets, and a basic first aid kit from our pockets and backpacks. First order of business, disinfect the wounds we accumulated from our hysterical little jog through the forest. Then, we filled the canteen with water from a nearby river, and dropped in a few iodine tablets to purify it.

After taking care of physiological needs, we decided that the only way we were going to escape was by boat. Chances of someone else coming to rescue us was slim. We weren't very close with any of the locals, and the sailors were all too afraid of this place to come help a bunch of strangers. Back then, I scoffed at them for fearing a harmless little wildlife preserve. Turns out that I was the real idiot, huh?

Circling around the island, we scoured and plotted out a map of the island's features and locations. We still dared not return to the place where we'd lost the professor, and there were still many blank gaps missing from our findings, but we did manage to find the treasure trove, as well as a group of trees close to the shore that could serve as raft material. Over the course of a week and a half, we chopped down the trees, tied them together, and tried formed a crude raft out of the wooden pieces. I took my knife to carve out an oar for steering, since we didn't have any sails, or even any wind in the area, for that matter.

Of course, we had to do it in absolute secrecy to keep hidden from the hunters that stalked the forest. The raft and pieces were covered up by a blanket of leaves, and we worked as silently as we could. At night, we took turns sleeping, while the other kept guard for any danger. That would prove fruitless, however, as many of the nights, the constant hissing and screeching of creatures patrolling the island would keep us up throughout the night. By the end of the first three days, our eyes were bloodshot and bagged with heavy, darkened skin. We were dozing off in the middle of work, and often, one of us would have to nudge the other awake.

Two nights ago, however, they almost found us. The screeching and hissing was louder than ever, and we knew that the patrol of hunters had inevitably reached our part of the island. I didn't know what to do. I guess I didn't even have a backup plan, relying on nothing but unfounded hope that we'd be able to finish in time before they found us. We had no time to move the raft, and even though we could escape, they would most likely find and destroy what we'd made so far. I started to panic. That was the last of the wood in this area, and if we made another raft further into the island, we wouldn't be able to get it into the ocean. Frantically pacing around, I wracked my brain but came up empty as the creatures drew closer and closer.

It was then that Green April pulled off something completely insane, something I would never have allowed her to do if I'd gotten the chance to stop her. She turned her head to me, and told me that she'd draw them away as a decoy to prevent the raft from being discovered. Before I could do anything, the girl broke off into a full sprint with a determined, desperate look in her eyes, dashing off into the caverns. The creatures drew dangerously close as they followed her into the depths of the mountain, and I couldn't do anything but hide and sit helpless as the hissing passed by right beside me.

During the two days that I finished up the final touches and bindings to the raft, I waited for April. I waited and I waited, refusing to sleep at all for the past forty eight hours in case she came back to me during the night… But I haven't heard from her since. They're about to patrol this area again tonight, and I'll have no choice to leave without her. I've tied the raft down by the shore, and I'm ready to leave any time.

---

…Still no sign of April. The sun's set, and I can hear them hissing and screeching again. They've come for me. It's time to leave.

That's it from me. I'm leaving this notebook behind for now. I can only afford to take what I need, if I want to make the last stretch to my raft and row my way out of the mist. If anyone finds this, who knows how long from now, don't bother looking for me. I'm not here anymore. I feel weak in my knees, I haven't slept in days, and I haven't eaten or drank anything but water for two weeks. My breaths are ragged, my body is feverish, and I'm more scared than anything I've felt in my life. The raft is flimsy, the rope's weak and ready to snap without a moment's notice. I may have even waited too long for April. They're so close now, I'll likely be exposed to them the moment I get on the water. There's a slim chance that this'll work, and more than a thousand ways it could go wrong. But I swear to god, I'm going to get off this god forsaken island — or I'm going to die trying.

Comments

[SlashAttack321]

http://knowyourmeme.com/search?context=images&q=RWBY ponyfied rwby cast .

[LunarDiurnality]

I clicked on this because of Ruby

But this story looks like its gonna be good.

[LunarDiurnality]

knowyourmeme.com/photos/582896

[Protocol]

3017786 On a side note, the first few episodes of RWBY that are out atm are pretty damn awesome.

[LunarDiurnality]

3018021 I haven't gotten the chance to see any of the episodes yet, but I love the trailers and the music I've got "I Burn" as my ringtone and my favorite song is either "Mirror, Mirror" or "Red Like Roses." I use Black's theme and the opening theme to get myself all pumped up for airsoft
Either way, RoosterTeeth is AWESOME so I can't wait to watch it myself