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What I've Become

by Knight Breeze

Chapter 1: Chapter I

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Chapter I

I charged headlong through the bushes, my breath sounding harsh in my ears. Up ahead, I could hear my quarry as it bounded through the underbrush, its frightened squealing causing an uproar through the forest ahead of it. Honestly, I couldn't blame the poor animal for wanting to put as much distance as possible between the two of us, but I had needs too.

A guy's gotta eat, after all.

I burst out of the underbrush into a clearing, blood pumping in my ears, the beast screaming in my brain. All that existed right at that moment was me and the two hundred pound sow making a break for the other side of the clearing. It was fast. Real fast.

Luckily for me, I was much, much, faster.

With one mighty leap, I landed on the poor animal, spearing it with my long, sharp talons. Unfortunately, I had missed its heart, so the poor thing was still struggling underneath my powerful, gruesome frame.

I'm no sadist, so I ended its suffering with one swift stroke of my claw to its neck, killing it instantly.

With a simple muscle twitch, I sheathed my foot long claws back into my fingers. I shivered a bit as the blades moved up my hands and into my forearms, the feeling still unpleasant, even after all this time. How long has it been? Months? Years? I thought morosely to myself.

My dark thoughts were interrupted as my sharp ears picked up the sound of a snapping twig. My head quickly turned at the sound, allowing me to see something that made my blood run cold.

Standing just at the tree line of the clearing was one of the natives of this planet. She was a beige, pony-like creature with a bright orange mane and tail. On each of her flanks was a tattoo of a bushel of carrots, and on her face was an expression of abject terror.

Oh crapbaskets, I thought to myself, as the orange pony turned and started to run.

* * *

Carrot Top was fuming. That stallion is so infuriating! she thought as she stomped her way through White Tail Woods. I can't believe that he would go and forget our anniversary like that! She kicked some of the autumn leaves out of her way, her rage building as she thought of her stallion. He had just up and gone to work, not a word, not a kiss, nothing! Did I do something wrong? Or-

Her musings were interrupted by a loud crashing sound echoing through the woods. It sounded like some sort of wild pig, yet there was too much sound for it to be just that. There also seemed to be some kind of skittering sound, probably from whatever predator was chasing the poor thing. Not wanting to be anywhere near predators on the hunt, Carrot Top started to turn to leave, but froze as two things burst out of the cover of the forest.

The first wasn't all that surprising, considering all the noise she had heard earlier. It was a rather large sow, probably weighing somewhere around two hundred pounds, and running as if all of Tartarus were on her heels.

The second thing was a nightmare.

It was huge, standing probably five to six feet tall. It had a faintly gorilla like look to it, except it was bald, gaunt, and sickly looking. Its pallid flesh had a slimy sheen to it, and it was so thin that she could see its ribcage stand out on its barrel. Blade-like spikes burst from its back along its spine, giving it a faintly dragon-like appearance. Each of its long, spindly limbs ended in a five-toed claw, with its fore claws being much longer and sharper-looking.

Before she could comprehend what was happening, the monster reached the poor sow in a single bound, impaling the animal on its foot long talons. The pig valiantly continued its struggle, trying desperately to get away from the nightmare that had just killed it. The creature was having none of that, however, and impassively ended the pig's struggles with a single swipe of its claw.

At this point, Carrot Top had seen enough. Slowly, while the monster was distracted by its recent kill, she moved her hooves back. If I'm really quiet, I can get away while its busy with its-

*snap*

The monster's head whipped around and, for the first time in her life, Carrot Top saw true terror. Its face, like the rest of its body, faintly reminded her of a gorilla's in its shape and ears.

But that's where the similarities ended.

Its lidless eyes were pools of ebony, through which Carrot Top was sure she could see eternity. It had no nose, rather just a hole in the center of its face through which it breathed, while its lip-less maw sported two rows of interlocking, inch long fangs. Drool dripped menacingly from its chin as it regarded her with an expressionless glare, its soulless eyes boring into her.

For a single second the two just stood there, staring at each other. The creature seemed to almost deflate at the sight of her, which broke whatever spell was holding Carrot Top in place. In a flash, Carrot Top turned and ran, determined to put as much distance as possible between herself and the nightmare.

Her flight was ended before it even began, however, when she ran headlong into the trunk of the tree that stood directly behind her. She felt a blinding pain, then remembered no more.

* * *

I would have winced if I still had the facial structure to do so. The poor mare had taken one look at my ugly mug and had wisely decided to make a hasty retreat. Unluckily for her, however, she had failed to notice the tree that had stealthily spent the past seventy to eighty years growing in the exact spot where it could conk some poor soul attempting to flee from an alien monster. Her face made a loud thunk noise as it struck the evil wood, and instantly she was down.

Carefully, I made my way over to her to check if she was alright. The bump looked pretty nasty, and I could see a small trickle of blood drip down her forehead. However, her breathing was strong, so I was sure that the wound was just superficial. She would wake up in a couple of hours with a blinding headache, but otherwise, she would be fine.

However, I wasn't sure on her chances if left out in the woods. Animals might think that her body was up for grabs, or she might not wake up in time for sunset. Plus, her injury was kind of my fault. Well, mostly it was the tree's fault, but I couldn't exactly force the unmoving wood to pick her up and take her home.

I knew that it was up to me to make sure that she got to safety.

Sighing slightly to myself, I bent down and gently picked up the poor mare. So help me, if I get chased by an angry mob for this, I'm going to kill you, tree, I thought vindictively at the offending plant growth. The tree, unable to hear my vehement oath of vengeance, just continued to stand there, smugly pleased that its seventy year evil plan had finally seen fruition.

Sometimes it really sucks to be the good guy, I thought to myself.

Author's Notes:

Well, I hope that was enjoyable to you all! Comments and concerns are appreciated, but just as a warning, I'm probably not going to get very far on this one. Not until Nautilus Protocol and Fool's Gambit are finished that is. I only really wrote this because I was having writers block with my other two stories, so if you want updates here, you're going to be waiting for a very long time.

Edit: It's been a while since I first wrote this chapter. That being said, I'm still glad to see new people pick this story up. A lot of people have expressed an inability to picture our main character correctly, so let me give you a little illustration:

This was made by the very talented xXmarkingXx, and commissioned by Gogofan. I described the character to Gogofan, he had it commissioned, and other than that I had absolutely no input into this picture. That being said, it is 100% accurate to how I imagined our protagonist, with the sole exception of the obvious censorship.
Hope you weren't planning on sleeping tonight!

Next Chapter: Chapter II Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 37 Minutes
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