Starla trudged home after the last day of school on the familiar gray, blood speckled, flimsy ground; you take one wrong step and you could enter the bone- crushing oblivion that the blood so fervently warns. Even with a limp in her step, Starla was agile on her four, four-jointed, four-toed feet. She had to be; it was the only way to live to the age she had.

She held her crisscrossed, purple face to the sky, letting the freezing rays of the gray Brighter that was high in the black sky bathe her face. School was now out for the summer break, and she was thrust back into the nightmare that was her realm of Roschakoo.

Finally halfway home, halfway to safety, Starla entered the most dangerous part of her trek: The Looming Forest. As she knew from experience and her school studies, the place of horror was filled with beasts ready to drag you to locations unknown. It was filled with craggy, moss-covered rocks that housed crawlers that could annihilate you with one bite. It was filled with mountains sheathed in the blood of the victims of the bear-men that resided there. It was filled with the Looming Trees that seemed to touch as high as the Brighter with thorns instead of branches and carcasses instead of leaves. It was filled with evil in its rawest form, a clawing monster that lives in everything and everyone.

The only sound amid it all was the crunch of Starla’s four feet against the ground. Even in her youth, she could tell something was amiss. There were always other sounds to be heard, whether they be the screams of new victims or just the swishing of the wind. Stopping, she glanced around haughtily with her two, saucer-sized, white eyes. Her teacher at school had always told her to show no fear even in the face of death. Clutching her teacher’s words like a lifeline, Starla raised her noiseless nostrils to the sky and breathed deeply. There was nothing, and that scared her most of all.

Despite her teacher’s words in her ear, a nervous twitch entered her step as she cautiously began walking once again. After a few antagonizing minutes of walking, Starla heard a snap off to her immediate left. She stood stock still as old memories bombarded her. The feeling of her leg cracking, the blade on her face and her narrow escape penetrated her mind. It was an old wound reopened, and it was something that had wizened her beyond her years.

Her calm breathing morphed into gasps, and her nervous twitch developed into a terrified shake. Starla whirled to her left, searching for the source of the sound that caused her so much agony. So much pain. Of course, nothing revealed itself. Only a faint rustling could be heard, the only proof that the thing that had scared her was real. Starla started gulping down air, wishing that her teacher were with her. He was the only parental figure that Starla had left.

Suddenly, Starla was enveloped in sounds emerging from every corner and crevice. A cold hand clutching her heart, Starla lost all pretense of bravery and began to run. Unable to be with her physically, but always with her in her head, Starla’s teacher began screaming to calm down and look at this logically, but she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. Abruptly, Starla was caught off guard as the creature that inundated all of her nightmares materialized right in front of her. It was a colossal, hairy, black creature. It possessed no head, only a giant sphere made up solely of thousands of blood-red eyes. Its body had no shape, merely a blob cocooned in hundreds of arms, sprouting from even more arms that all ended in inhumanly sharp claws tipped with poison.

In her haste to avoid barreling into her imminent death, Starla fell to the ground with a scream. She started scrabbling backwards while the beast stalked towards her cackling with a hidden mouth. Two giant eyes that stood out from the rest locked onto hers, promising nothing but pain.

In her panicked haze, Starla started remembering back to the monster lessons that occurred at school that last year. She found a hazy memory of her teacher going through the list of monsters: going over their strengths and weaknesses. It finally clicked in her mind that this was a Seeker, one of the most dangerous creatures in all of Roschakoo. It was unknown what horrors the Seeker commenced on its victims, but everyone knew the bodies were never found. The creature of darkness only had one known weakness: bright colors.

Swinging her head to and fro, Starla searched for any source of bright color, but knew her search was going to be fruitless. She was only met with the common, bleak colors of Roschakoo. A nagging voice in her head told her to just give up and die. It would be easier that way. Starla pondered it for a moment, but pushed it to the back of her conscious. She was not taught to back down. Focusing her attention back on the Seeker, Starla cursed herself. It had snuck up on her while she was stuck in her head, and swiped one deadly, poison-tipped claw at her hip. Unable to dodge it, Starla was flung into a nearby Looming Tree with a crack. Dizzy and disoriented, Starla cracked open an eye, but was met with absolutely nothing. The Seeker was nowhere in sight.

Starla wondered if she had imagined it. Struggling into a standing position, pain roared through her side. She gripped her hip in agony as a black poison seeped through her fingers: the Seeker’s poison. So it was real. Even though Starla was in horrid pain, she wondered what exactly the poison did. No one knew, but it seemed like she was about to find out.

A sudden dizziness washed over Starla, causing her to lean back into a sitting position against the Looming Tree. She guessed the poison was killing her, but she couldn’t be sure. Her teacher was pounding on the locked cage that was her memories, but was unable to get through. She felt with horror as more memories slipped from her mind. It was as if her head was a cracked glass, her memories flowing out like water and spreading into nothingness.

Instantaneously, beasts, creatures, and monsters of every size, shape, and dark color surrounded her: beckoned her. They started to chant, a cacophony unlike any other. Strangely, Starla felt no fear. Any memories she may have had were now practically nonexistent. Soon, all that was left to reside in her mind was her soul, but even that was wavering; it was unsteady in a way that only the crazed monstrosities that dwelled in the void of delirium could comprehend. It was withering into something indistinguishable from the monsters encompassing her. Her soul writhed and squirmed, attempting to resist, but failing to do so. Darkness consumed it, dispersing all of her pleasant emotions and thoughts into such a pettiness that it was humorous. The monster, the evil, that had once been hidden in the darkest, most forgotten corners of her mind and soul had been unlocked, and it was demolishing everything god and just in its path to control.

Finally, the process was complete. Starla’s mind was now brimming with lust to bring her pain and anguish upon others: to watch them suffer what she must now endure. She looked at Roschakoo now with new eyes: red eyes. She felt a malicious glee at the screams of the creatures that were being saved from their tasteless existence and introduced into her own. Their thorns glinting in the rays of the Brighter, Starla seemed to finally see the beauty of the Looming Trees that were all around her.

She finally stood up on her new legs to see her brothers and sisters surrounding her, their voices welcoming her into this new world. Smiling a ghostly grin, Starla began chanting along with them while swaying on her four, four-jointed, four-toed feet which sprouted from more feet, which sprouted from more feet that all ended in inhumanly sharp claws that were tipped with a poison that would introduce more family into her world.