Name : Nur Amira Mirza bt Nazar ( Group A )
Story title : Lost in the wilderness
Rain slipped between the branches and settled on my skin. The pine needles were soft beneath my sore feet. I heard the water splash onto the puddles all around, noticed the evening roll in, the sky grow darker. I walked and walked. Alone. Past the baby monkeys poached from the jungles, the marshy bayous. Into the deep, dank forest, trees so dense they blocked the sky.
In another part of forest, a creature underneath the canopy of willows and birches and ash watched as the boy wanders around, exploring and searching for a place to rest his feet. Ahh, lamia, half serpent, half human. She is the cousin to the mermaids, the ondines and the great seafolk known as selkies. She swam away in her scaly skin, so black it looked blue, so sleek it gleamed. Hiding under the creeks, waiting her chance.
I leaned against the enormous tree, trying to brace myself against the eerie cries of the owls and deep-throated chorus of bullfrogs. Something large was moving toward the creek from the opposite side. Quick and quiet, I tiptoed up the other bank. There, right in front of me, not six feet away, was a black-blue human like serpent. For a full second, neither of us moved. Sweat oozed down my face. Slowly I raised my feet and run. Branches swiped at my face, tore into my skin. I stumbled over roots. Prickly vines pulled at my ankles and legs, dug into my pants. Still, I run. Run for my life.
My heart pounded in a drumbeat of fear, of pain. I kept running. My sides ached. Still, I stumbled through the darkness. I gasped for air. But still I run, until at last, I tripped over a thick root and crashed...