The Marshal's hand clamped over her mouth, cutting off her words as he hissed at her to stop shouting. For a moment all Sam could do was gaze incredulously at him over his hand. Had he not been shouting about how he was going to slice her to pieces moments earlier? He alluded to other things in the woods, more terrible than him, and she could only imagine what he could possibly be talking about. She didn't have to imagine for long because as soon as he went quiet a howl rang through the air. Sam's head jerked in the direction she though it had come from, made difficult by the fact that the Marshal's hand that was still covering her mouth.

Everyone had gone tense. The Marshal's sword was drawn, as were the other guard's, and no one spoke as all of their eyes scanned the woods. Sam was hardly daring breath as her gray eyes stared wildly at the trees, images off all sorts of nightmarish beasts filling her mind. The silence was was terrible and and seemed to hammer her ears more than an explosion could have.

Dorothea's voice rang out, a shrill scream, telling Sam to run. Then she heard whatever it was that was out there smashing through the forest towards them, and her head turned to look at it, no matter how much she really didn't want to. She saw the giant scaly monster that had swords for teeth and claws, and in retrospect she would have been amazed that she didn't faint from the hideous and terrifying sight.

The Marshal was speaking to her now, but not in the low, threatening voice he had used so many times earlier when speaking to her. It was almost human of him. His hand left her mouth and she felt the ropes being cut away. Sam didn't have long to relish her freedom (not that she could have since there was a monster bounding towards them) before he shoved her towards the tree Dorothea was still in. He had told her she was too slow to outrun the beast, which she agreed with, and was urging her to climb the tree. A daunting task stupidly enough. Sam had never climbed a tree before in her life. She looked back to the Marshal as he screamed orders at his horrified and noncomplying men, then at the face of the lizard creature. The glowing red eyes were fixed upon her. Suddenly the tree didn't seem so daunting.

Sam pulled herself up onto the lower branch, and then another, and then another. She was moving as fast as possible to get out of the creature's reach, and she nearly slipped and fell to her death more than once. She always managed to catch herself, thankfully, and she forced herself not to look down. Not only did she not want to look at the monster but she also didn't want to see how high up she was and loose the nerve to climb further. Sam kept her eyes fixed up at Dorothea until she reached the firmest looking branch that was as close to the cat as possible. Only then when she was positioned semi-securely in the tree with her arms clinging the trunk for assurance did she look down. Sam paled at the height as well as the beast. "Oooooh no, " she said to herself, closing her eyes and gripping the trunk tighter. "Oh no no no no no." She opened her eyes slightly to look up at Dorothea. "What the hell is that thing?"