As I open my sleepy eyes, I see a woman. Running, shaking me, panting, these salty water drops coming out of her eyes. I'm not sure what’s going on or where we are. My eyes clear up and I can see the woman, her dark waves, her hazel eyes, her straight teeth. I can hear something, but I'm not sure what. Sounds like somebody beating against a drum. It's beating against my fragile body. I felt her panting slow, as the wind that brushed against me stopped feeling so vigorous. She lifted me against her chest, swaddling me. The beating begins to rush faster, it's scaring me. I wail, as I feel her soft lips brush my forehead, she covers my face. I feel her run again, the wind faster than ever. Now, I feel as if I'm floating. And a soft mist brushes my face. This time it's not salty, it's fresh...

I wake up, sweat pouring down my face, and my back. I fall back down, sighing, grateful that the horrid nightmare is over. I stand up, almost falling over. I take a few seconds to wake up. I stumble over to the dark, bulletproof windows, and look outside. Seeing the emerald green grass, the small evergreens, and our little garden outside. I slightly turn my head to check our chickens but wait... They are all missing, only a trail of small feathers is left. My heart rushes faster, as I scurry to put on my shirt, pants, and boots. I hopped on one foot trying to put the other on. I barely make the door, and slam my body against the door frame trying to run as fast as I can. My adoptive mother is nowhere to be seen. Which is also odd, usually she's making breakfast for me and my stepsister. I look around and see the news, “Warning, The blood phyle has been seen near these cities, *****, ********* ****, and Blood River. Stay safe y’all”. The blood phyle are these weird animal-human creatures that have a human head, with goat hooves and hairy legs. Called satyrs. 

I roll my eyes at the Television because I don't believe in such creatures. I race out the door and stop. My eyes follow the trail. The old Missouri trail was abandoned due to “blood phyle” sightings. I swear, these people. As I shake my head, I start to follow the trail. The trail started looking oddly familiar, but where have I seen this? Then, I stopped. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Something was watching me. But what? As I cautiously started to creep by the trail I heard the leaves crack, and the bushes rumble. I froze, wishing I had paid attention to my self-defense classes. I stand there, vulnerable, frozen, adrenaline rushing through my veins, ready to fight. It jumps out in front of me, almost causing me to have a heart attack. As I opened my eyes waiting for the nasty creature to devour me, I gasped. It's only a puppy... Then out of nowhere, I see an arrow just barely missing my nose, piercing the tree only inches away. This time I ran. The puppy followed, and I quickly turned and picked the poor thing up. Running faster than I even imagined I could, I raced out of the trail. As I turn around in the safety of my yard. A black figure stood in the forest, with weird legs, and maybe a headdress. Or horns...In a blink of an eye, it disappeared back into the deep forest. My heart is in my throat. Frozen yet again. Maybe I was wrong? Maybe these weird creatures exist. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me? I'm not sure, but whatever it is, I won't be going near. As I continue to stare. Somebody's hand touches my shoulder. I scream, terrified, waiting for my last breath. I turn around only to see my Adoptive mother. I sigh...

I turn, her eyes wide and dreadful. “What's wrong, baby?”. I didn't wanna freak her out, and go on lockdown, so I had to lie. “I saw a snake about to eat this puppy.”. She took the little thing and stared at it. I swear her eyes dilated, but it also might be my brain trying to scare me. I shook my head trying to reach some of my sanity. What am I doing? Thinking my mom, who loved me, fed me, and clothed me, could be one of those things. That's it, I'm losing my mind. I took the puppy back and stroked his matted fur. The puppy who looked ragged and diseased was chewing on my hand, he bit it so vigorously it drew blood. Blood runs down my hand as I watch my blue veins turn brown. My heart raced but my breathing slowed. I’m panicking? Why? I’m not even scared...My stomach churned and my head throbbed as I felt bile grab my throat, as I spit out this nasty liquid... My adoptive mother stepped back with sympathy in her eyes. She rubbed my back trying to comfort me. It didn't help, blackness started to overpower my eyes, turning the bright light of day into nothingness.

As I woke up my eyes fluttered, it was dark. Something sticky ran down my face and arm. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the blood moon, I wiped the sticky goo off my face and looked at it. It was blood. I’m still in my yard though. I stood up quickly, panting, scared. Where was my mom? Then I saw it... A Trail of the same red blood, it wasn’t just a trail it was like something was being dragged...

I wobbled inside looking for my mom. “Mom?” No answer. “MOM?” I’m starting to worry. Why was there blood? What’s out there? Where is she? Is she alive?

I started to follow these tracks. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears. It's silent. No crickets, no bats, no fireflies. Something is wrong in this forest. What does the forest know that I don’t? I'm scared. Not even the moon shined tonight. The clouds covered the bright moon, leaving an eerie fog on the trail. The trail of blood is getting harder to see. I track on... I'm getting tired now and I don't know what to do. That's when I saw something in the dirt. Hoof prints. My chest started pounding again...Everything's black, I open my eyes to see a bright day, my eyes hurt from the bright daylight. Sweat poured down my back like a river. I stand up and see that my veins are still brown. What was a dream? What wasn’t a dream? This is all so confusing. I have no strength to pull myself to a stand, much less a walk. So, I crawl making my way slowly to the back door. Something was watching me again, but by now I'm used to it. I use the last bit of strength I have to pull myself on my knees to open the door. I collapsed back onto the hard floor, grateful I was able to open the door. I crawl into the cool, air-conditioned room, yet again my mom is nowhere to be seen. 

I manage to crawl back to my room. And claw myself back up onto my bed, panting, exhausted. I fall onto my soft pillow, close my eyes and just embrace my mattress. My eyes opened and closed slowly waiting for sleep to overthrow my body. I woke up. My insomnia keeps my body miserable. Something yells outside the house. Sounded like a human yelp, but also like a goat bleat. Half asleep I stand up, finally having power over my body again. I stepped outside. There's a trail. The same trail from my recent nightmare. This must be fate, I have to follow it. I start feeling that deja-vu stuff people are always talking about. I start down the trail, yet again. This time, it's scarier—the dead of night. I can barely see three feet in front of my face. Then in the same spot as my dream a hoof print. My heart is pounding, beating against my body. I'm nauseous now, my hands shaking, my head hurting. I feel pulled all over my lower body. I grew taller, my once normal claves turned to hocks. My head started hurting worse, and worse. I just wailed. Wanting to pull my hair out from this nerve-wracking pain. I grunted, harder, and harder, hopeful that it would stop. I felt these sharp horns grow out of my temple. I was turning into one of them. But how? Satyr blood is contagious, but only by getting their blood into an open wound. I haven't come in contact with any satyrs. The puppy. Must've bit the satyr and then bit me transferring its blood to mine. Stupid mutt. A branch breaks, this time louder and less stealthy like it's trying to let me know it's here. 

That's when it jumped out at me, tackling me, pinning me to the ground. I shriek and squirm trying to free myself. But the satyr just laughs. Is it mocking me? Is it funny that it's torturing me? It climbs off of me and I peek my eyes open to see a young male satyr holding his hand out to help me up. “You’re not going to kill me?” I mumble. “What no? You’re a satyr too, right?” Or are you just a billy goat?” he chuckled. I just have to play along. If he finds out, he’ll kill me. I have to find my mom. “ Hey, it's dinner time,” he said, jumping up and down. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me, leading me. I don't know why I'm doing this, but maybe he knows where she is? He runs now, tugging me behind like a child and their stuffed animal. Deeper into the forest, it's not dark or gloomy, it's beautiful. It's filled with colorful flowers, vines, and berries. And the most unique animals, pink rabbits, blue squirrels, and yellow deer. And the ground, not dirty and dark but blue with green tufts of overgrowth. My eyes glow in the mystical overgrowth, once green but now golden with a bright yellow tint. We approached the village, hot, sweaty, and tired. The other satyrs approached me, staring, judging. Eyes staring at me from all directions. I stand there shyly. “Everyone! I found this stray satyr out in the woods. Please, treat her with our hospitality.” he shouted amongst the crowd, holding my hand in the air. Everybody clapped, giving me a warm welcome. I felt at home..no, I mustn’t let my guard down to these nasty creatures. I have to find my mother and escape. Everybody started walking towards this big hut. ‘Where are we going?” I asked. “To the dinner table,” he grinned and bumped his hip into mine. Just as we sat down, music was playing and food was passed down to us. The Blood phyle chief said the blessing. And everybody ate. As I watched everybody eat this meal, my three days without food hit me like a train. I devoured the delicious foreign meal. By the time I finish, everybody's staring including the satyr who found me. Embarrassed, I stood up and ran back into the forest. I found a small lake filled with tadpoles and small koi fish. I sit down on a log growing mushrooms on its side. It's peaceful, the most peace I've had in years. As I slow my breathing, I can hear somebody coming for me. I hope it's an animal. I’d rather it be an animal than another satyr. As I close my eyes I can feel another presence. I kept my eyes closed, hoping they’d go away and leave me alone. I heard it grunt as somebody sat next to me on the log. I slowly open my eyes, revealing the same young satyr. Looking into the pond, he puts a hand on my shoulder and gives me a warm smile. “It's alright” He spoke softly. “I'm sorry, I just haven't eaten in days” I mumbled. His eyes widened, and his smile turned to a frown. I just look back into the pond. “Let's go back” as he took his hand off my shoulder. As we walk back to a place that I'm not welcome in. The temperature changed drastically causing me to sweat, then smoke filling my lungs, choking me. We turned to each other, he was worried. We ran back to the village as fast as we could. The village was on fire, the trees, mounds, huts, everything. It was all turning to smoke and ash. As satyrs ran past us pushing and shoving us into each other. Children screaming, and women calling for their children. As flames grew it spread farther and farther. We ran into the forest losing all the other satyrs. We stop running, out of breath, panting. We’re lost. As we start looking for our tribe. Our tribe...His tribe. “I’m sorry,” I said, trying to break the silence. 

“It's not your fault,” He said

As the sun started setting I knew we had to make a shelter before the nocturnals come out. I started collecting leaves, sticks, and logs to hopefully make a small shelter. As he goes out looking for food and more supplies, uncertain about how long we'll be in this mess. How am I gonna find her now? How are we gonna find his tribe? This all went downhill so fast. I try and try to make the shelter but the leaves won't weave correctly. 

“This is starting to get on my nerves” I mumbled

“Don't get mad” He chuckled, startling me.

He sits down in front of me grabbing my hands, gently leading my hands showing me how to weave the leaves, as he stares into my eyes, giving me butterflies. I can't do this, I'm a human, he's a satyr. Snapping back to reality, I smile back at him, feeling guilty.

“See you did it,” he said proudly

I chuckled “You mostly did it.”

As I set up our small shelter he gets a fire going, I ask for his name 

“Bodhi,” He said shivering 

“Dolly,” I said responding to him.

As the full moon’s light shined down on him and me, I noticed a spark in his eyes. Embarrassed, I look away. Tired I go into our little shaft. And as I lay on the hard leaves I pull the blanket over my cold body, trying to grasp a little warmth. I hear him start singing. He had a lovely voice. He sang an old folks tale. Too tired to keep my eyes open I start to drift off. Opening and closing my eyes, I see the last bit of light go out from the fire, And he comes to join me in the shaft. I feel his warm body heat the leaves making it harder to keep my droopy eyes awake