Mia woke up with a gasp, her lungs greedily sucking in air as pain set every single one of her nerves on fire. She desperately tried and failed to bite back a scream as she felt bones snap into place and the disgusting, slimy sensation of her organs sliding across the forest floor and pulling themselves back into her torso as new flesh and muscle grew over bone in a bid to undo the damage she had been suffered from the fall.
She laid on the floor for what seemed like an eternity, her world one of pure pain and utter shock at the fact that she had somehow been able to survive the fall and that something had been able to send her flying that far. The low sporadic whine of her destroyed mask slowly brought her out of her reverie and with a pained groan she managed to get to her feet to look for it, her tattered clothes hanging off her bloodied form. She found the whining device several feet away, tubes wheezing as they desperately tried to function before ultimately failing and dying with a desperate wheeze. "Fuck!" she swore, crushing the device with an angry stomp, "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" each curse was followed with a stomp that cracked the ground beneath her feet. After several minutes of doing nothing but channeling her frustration into her surroundings, she had finally calmed down enough to try and find her way back home.
Inhaling deeply, she tried to find a scent trail that would lead her to civilization; either hers or that of local hunters or campers, her lips twisting into a snarl as she found nothing but the scent of decaying leaves and animals. "Fuck!" she swore once more before taking a deep breath to try and calm herself, letting the breath out in a hiss as eyes opened again. She knew her next steps; wait, watch the movement of the sun to establish east and west, and then start making her way south. Hopefully she would run into someone. Hopefully. She adjusted her clothes, tearing off her top to reveal the sports bra she wore and the lines of blackened veins and miscolored flesh which wriggled and pulsed in excitement. Almost like they knew something she didn't.
Looking around for the nearest tree, she laid eyes on a massive tree and after discarding the rest of the clothes and bits of sloughed off flesh, began climbing the tree, deliberately destroying the lower branches in order to avoid the hassle of dealing with would be predators. Nestling on a firm branch, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to process the series of events that had led up to this point.
A part of her, the part she had always hated and tried so hard to quell wanted to just breakdown and cry at the unfairness of it all. What had she done to deserve this? Why she was never good enough for him? She furiously brushed away the tears that streaked down her face, even now struggling to suppress her emotions. She couldn't cry. She couldn't. She shouldn't. This was why he was always disappointed in her, why he saw her as weak and worthless. "Stop crying," she hissed, furiously wiping away the tears that just didn't seem to stop falling. "Stop being weak and then he'll love you," she sobbed, her voice choked as she desperately tried to swallow the cries that threatened to reduce her to a bawling mess.
After managing to regain her composure with a great amount of effort, Mia looked at the sky above, taking note of the sun's position in the sky. It had shifted a bit during her momentary breakdown, giving her an accurate determination of east and west which she then used to determine north and south. With her directions mapped out, she climbed until she had reached the top of the tree and surveyed the area just like Hadin had taught her. Her eyes scanned the horizon, searching for any landmarks, but most importantly; a stream or anybody of flowing water.
Finding none, she allowed herself to fall from the tree, her faith in her newfound durability and healing factor giving her a new sense of freedom. Crashing into the ground on her feet, she picked a random direction and launched herself into the air, the force of her leap sending her several meters into the air and through the forest, her eyes protected from wind and dust by a thin layer of translucent film that had grown over her eyeballs. Landing on a thick branch that looked like it could support her weight, she launched herself off again, the branch exploding beneath the force of her leap.
She travelled like this for several hours, the forest silent around her as she tried to navigate the forest that only seemed to grow darker and more oppressive the deeper she went. Just as she was about to turn round and leave, she stopped in her tracks, her ears twitching as they picked up a sound; a cry. A baby's cry to be exact. A baby meant people and people meant a way home.
Dropping to the floor, she began to clean up to the best of her ability, pulling out leaves and other debris that had stuck to her hair. Satisfied with her appearance, she made her way towards the crying, her steps as loud as possible to let whoever the parents of the baby know that she was coming. "Hello?" she yelled in the direction of the cries which had only grown louder as she got closer to the clearing where the crying was coming from.
Just as she stepped foot into the clearing, the crying suddenly stopped and the forest went quiet. "Hello?" Mia called, her senses screaming at her that something was extremely wrong and that she should turn round and leave as fast as possible. Her body stiffened as an overwhelming sense of dread washed over her as she felt a presence behind her. Turning round, she came face to face with a baby, or more accurately, the twisted facsimile of what was supposed to be one.
The face was stretched and contorted into a mask of agony, the lips bloody as rows of razor-sharp teeth gnashed against each other in desperate hunger as empty eye sockets looked at her direction with infinite malice. The head was attached to a long writhing oozing tendril of wet pink muscle lined with smaller undulating pseudo-flagella. Trailing the tendril to its origin, she was greeted with the sight of a cavernous maw lined with even more teeth, each one the size of her forearm, acidic saliva dripping down onto the carpet of leaves, eating away at them with a hiss.
"What the fuck," she hissed, eyes fixated on the body behind the salivating maw. The body that never stayed in one shape, like the creature couldn't decide on what it wanted to be. She blinked once and saw a pair of wings sprouting from its back, a second blink and it sported multiple clawed arms which dug into the dirt as it stalked towards her, the baby's head on the tip of its tongue opening its maw as it slowly wrapped around her, the pseudo-flagella dancing across her skin, drinking in the fear that coursed through her body, its icy talons paralyzing her as the tongue lifted her and brought her towards the gaping maw.