Aami slowly opened her eyes in the morning. She sat up, stretching her body, and checked her phone; it was 6:30 AM.
She got up and stepped outside. A faint light was just beginning to filter through the branches of the trees. It was incredibly cold. The campfire they had lit the previous night had burned down to mere embers, with only a thin trail of smoke rising from the ashes... and nothing more.
She looked around. Their tent was pitched atop the rocks in a sloping area. She felt it would be good to wash her face and freshen up.
In the silence, she could clearly hear the sound of a small stream flowing nearby. Following that sound, Aami walked forward.
Just as she thought, about a hundred or two hundred meters away, there was a small brook. She brushed her teeth with the brush and paste she had brought, then washed her mouth in that water.
Even ice water wouldn't be this cold! Still, what a madness this was... trekking in a climate like this.
She felt it was all because of Amelia. She was becoming an unanswerable question.
Aami had no interest in ameliya becoming an unanswerable question .
She dampened her hands and feet, then soaked a Turkish towel, wrung it out, and wiped her body as best as she could. Then, she leaned down to wash her face once more. Just as she was preparing to stand up straight, she heard a low growl...
Ami frowned and stood up. In that moment, her eyes widened with sheer terror at the sight before her. It was that face... just as Alex had described that day. A face so dangerous and cruel. A hyena. Though its body seemed weary from the cold, its eyes glowed with the intensity of a predator that had just spotted its prey. Aami stood frozen, unable to move even a single step out of fear. Her throat went dry, and she struggled to swallow even a drop of saliva.
In the distance, the tent was faintly visible, but the atmosphere was beginning to be swallowed by a thick mist. It was often like that; even after the sun rose, the fog would sometimes intensify. As the world before her eyes slowly blurred into the white mist, Ami didn't even have the strength to scream for Alex. All she could see was the cruel hunter standing before her.
Somehow, gathering a fragment of mental strength, she kept her eyes fixed on the creature and began to step backward. That was when she heard another low growl from behind her.
Aami slowly turned around. There, too, stood a hyena, baring its teeth at her. Her body began to tremble with uncontrollable fear...
"Alex..."
She screamed as loud as she possibly could. In that very instant, the two creatures lunged at Aami from both sides simultaneously. Driven by a primal fear for her life and an urgent need to escape, she suddenly bolted to the side. Perhaps because the extreme cold was not favorable to them, they couldn't immediately keep up with Aami's sudden movement. However, Aami knew it would be difficult to withstand their raw power, let alone escape them.
"Alex..."
As Aami continued to run, In her terror, she didn't realize that she was actually moving further away from the tent. She looked back and kept running, forcing her footsteps. But then, she tripped over a tree root she hadn't noticed and fell hard on her face. Blood began to ooze from both her forehead and her lip. Blood was also flowing from her knee, which had struck a stone.
Despite the pain, she tried to get up, but her foot was caught in a root. When she looked back, the two creatures were standing just four or five feet away, watching her with a ravenous hunger, ready to tear her apart.
Calling out to all the gods for her life, she somehow kicked the root away and struggled to move... but...she no longer had her initial speed. A sprained foot and bruised knees hindered her flight.
"Alex..."
She screamed once more, a roar that made the forest vibrate. It was a cry for her life... driven by the terrifying thought that these cruel animals might bite and tear her body apart before she was even dead. But the man who was sleeping in the tent somewhere in the distance did not hear her calls.
"Help me..."
Ami screamed in agony. Even though she stepped to run forward, one hyena has jumped on top of her from behind. had fallen on her face, quickly tried to fight it off by lying flat on her back, but its teeth pressed hard against her hand...
"Aaaaah...!"
Ami screamed in agony. In her frantic struggle, her legs struck the creature's vital spot, causing it to loosen its grip with a pained moan. In that moment, her hand found a piece of granite, and she struck the creature across the face with all her might. It fell back. When the other one growled toward her, she hurled the stone at it with great force.
Just when that hyena fall back by aamis action,She scrambled to her feet and ran forward again, ignoring the throbbing pain and the blood. To her, her life was worth more than the agony. But it was no use; humans cannot outrun such beasts. Its like a revenge both the hyenas were following her and One hyena quickly overtook her to block her path while the other took a position behind her. Panting and filled with sorrow, Ami felt her vision blur with tears as she realized she was about to become their prey. As a hyena lunged at her, she closed her eyes tight.
In that instant, Aami felt as though she had been caught by something. She fell, but instead of hitting the hard ground, she realized her body was resting on top of another strong, firm body. Though she didn't know exactly what had happened, she could feel a familiar scent and warmth surrounding her. In her fall, her hands pressed into the person's shoulders and her face against their chest; she could clearly hear the steady rhythm of their heart.
Feeling a sudden sense of safety, she slowly raised her eyes with lingering anxiety. The eyes she met were the very same ones she had seen before. It took no time at all for her eyes to widen with a mix of astonishment and curiosity.....