[b]Thunderstorm Tent[/b]

“Wake up,”

Piper’s eyes slid open. The side of the tent she was looking at was somewhat blurry. Why was she awake? She liked sleep so much more...

“Huh? What’s going on?” she said, groggy and a little bit too loud.

“Two more signatures. They’re both much, much smaller, but they’re hostile. Angry. Outraged,” Chumi said, in a worried whisper. Any trace of sleepiness instantly vanished from Piper’s head.

“What are they? Where are they?” she whispered back. Angry monsters? She couldn’t think of anything they’d done to anger anything. Were they trespassing? Was the clearing they were in already occupied?

“Can’t quite tell where they are. They’re either floating above the ground or really tall, and they’re moving towards us,” he answered. Flying angry monsters? Were they dragons or something?

“How close are they?” she asked. She wanted time to change out of her pajamas if she was going to be fighting dragons. 

“Too close. I say we have a minute before they’re upon us,” Chumi said. Darnit. No time to change, then. She immediately got out of the pile of blankets she was rolled up in, and grabbed her hat. Her wand, as always, was strapped to her right arm to prevent it from being stolen. She slid  it into position in her hand. Beside her, Chumi was doing similar. There was no point in remaining as though they were ignorant to these intruder’s presences if they were already so hostile to begin with. That thought brought something else to her mind. 

“Hang on, what about the big bored monster?” She asked. 

“It’s still there. It’s not as bored now, though. Come on, let’s go meet these angry flying monsters,” Chumi said, and stepped out of the tent. Piper followed. 

The night outside was deafeningly dark. What little moonlight made it through the overcast sky was barely enough to give off the rough shape of the trees. The water, however, was bright and reflective- Almost inviting.

“Behind you!” Chumi hissed at her. She whirled around. Before them, barely visible in the dim light, were two figures. They were vaguely shaped as men, but there was something [i]wrong[/i] about them. Maybe it was that they stretched far over a human’s height, or maybe it was the horrific, terribly incorrect shape of their heads. Beyond that, she couldn’t make out anything- Except for the way that they were slowly, steadily strutting towards them. Her eyes were drawn upwards, and looked rapidly between the heads of the two of them. Somehow, despite the utter inhibition of her perception, she could feel, no, she could taste utter hatred and malevolence, a desire to corrupt, to condemn, emanating from the invisible hellholes that surely existed upon the tall monster’s faces. 

Piper didn’t even realize she was backing up until she suddenly noticed that her behind was very wet and cold- She had tripped and nearly fallen into the pool. The waterfall’s deafening roar served only to drive her terror to greater strength- It was as though the monsters, the not-men were screaming out at her, as though they were exclaiming their desire to hurt, to maim, to perform such vile acts of cruelty that they could have no name. 

Chumi stood before her, wand raised in a desperate act of defiance. He screamed at her, at the monsters, but she couldn’t hear him. She could hear only the horrific roar of the waterfall, the sound that came from every direction at once. He shot bolts of light, of lightning, of gorgeous white fire, but nothing struck the not-men. They faded and fizzled long before then. The tall, strutting monsters were invincible- Even the light of the magic failed to illuminate them. They remained dark, shadowed creatures of impossible horror, of a type that no demon could compare. 

The monsters soon stood mere feet from Chumi, as he held a glowing, blue orb within his hand, and before they could strike him, crushed it with his bare fist. He vanished in a flash of azure light, all that remained of him was the shards of the broken orb. 

The creatures paused for a moment, and began strutting once more, directly towards her. They moved faster this time, as though they wanted to prevent their new favorite torture subject from escaping as the other had. 

Piper’s body couldn’t move. She couldn’t lift her wand, couldn’t reach for her sword. She could only move back, in a terrified, scrambled way. It was enough, however, to send her slipping into the waterfall’s pond. She broke the surface, and the terrible noise of the waterfall’s distorted roar suddenly became softer, calmer. She still wasn’t safe. She desperately tried to swim downwards.

As she sank deeper into the waterfall pit’s darkness, the horrible forms of the monsters loomed over the surface, distorted and wavy. They watched her as she sank deeper, deeper, far deeper than she had gone in her previous little swimming session. Eventually, they grew darker, darker, until she could no longer see the surface, no longer see even the bubbles of the waterfall’s upside-down fire.

Safe. She was safe here, she was in her element, and the monsters couldn’t follow her here. She laid there for a long time, slowly trying to calm herself down. She was blind, but she was safe. 

She didn’t notice the slow, steady pull of the current, which lead only downwards.