My stomach dropped, and I spun around too late.
A hand suddenly tangled itself in my hair and slammed me into the ground.
I screamed and thrashed beneath him, trying desperately to shove him off as he pinned one of
my arms to the ground.
A sick laugh tore from the man's throat as his hand clamped around my neck.
"Haha—they always struggle at first. You new-fallen are so easy to track down. No hiding,
no covering your tracks... it's like you're asking to be hunted down."
My vision blurred as I clawed at his hand, unable to breathe. Up close I could see old scars
and burn marks covering nearly half his body, but this man was undoubtedly human.
Another exile?!
How long had he been surviving down here?
He tightened his grip and pulled out a knife, dragging the blade lightly across my cheek.
"I haven't had a proper meal in days," he hissed. "But you'll do just fine."
Terror shot through me.
I twisted violently beneath him, reaching for the knife on my belt only for him to slam my
wrist into the dirt. My blade tore free from its sheath and disappeared somewhere into the
darkness beside us.
"No!"
"Easy now," he laughed. "We wouldn't want a pretty thing like you getting your hands dirty
now, would we? Be a good girl and just. Let. Go."
My struggles weakened as black spots flooded my vision.
This can't be it—this can't be how I die...
The subtle rustle of leaves made the exile above me freeze. Something dark lunged from the
trees and slammed into him hard enough to throw him off me.
I gasped violently for air and rolled onto my side coughing while the exile staggered upright
with a snarl, knife raised.
"Damn you!" the man shouted into the darkness.
Something moved between the trees too fast for me to see clearly. I only caught flashes of
glowing eyes and a large shadow circling through the brush.
The exile spun wildly trying to track it—then the creature struck again.
It tackled him from behind, and the two crashed into the dirt, snarling and clawing at one
another. The exile cried out as his knife was knocked from his hand, skidding through the dirt
beside me.
Then moonlight flashed across something sharp.
The fight lasted three seconds. A blade glinted in the moonlight—not a handheld knife, but
something attached, moving with the creature like an extension of its own body—and it
slashed through the man's neck in a single motion. Something warm hit my face and hands.
I looked down at my fingers.
Dark red. Viscous. Blood.
The exile collapsed choking on his own blood while the creature stood over him, growling
low in its throat, and for the first time I could see it—see him—clearly.
He was enormous. At least seven feet tall, lean yet undoubtedly strong, every inch of his
frame made of muscle, honed by a life of brutality. He had a human shape—two arms, two
legs, upright posture—but nothing else about him was human. Double horns swept backward
from his head beneath long dark hair. His skin was so dark it blurred against the shadows.
And his tail—the weapon, I understood with a slow and horrible clarity, the thing that had
done the killing—swayed behind him in long, slow arcs, its tip a curved blade still wet with
blood.
The thing grabbed the exile by the head and dragged him toward a nearby rock.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
A sickening crack echoed through the forest.
Silence followed.
Breathing shakily, I looked back just enough to see the corpse lying motionless in the dirt.
The creature knelt beside it searching through the body, seemingly unconcerned with me.
My eyes caught sight of the exile's blade, resting in the dirt beside me. Trembling, I snatched
up the fallen knife and slowly backed away toward my burrow to get away from this creature
before it decided to come for me next.
Crack.
My heart dropped as I looked down and saw the broken twig beneath my boot.
Slowly, I lifted my head.
The creature had stopped moving. For a moment it remained crouched over the corpse, then
turned its head toward me.
Its glowing eyes locked onto mine.
The thing rose to its full height and bared its teeth in an irritated snarl. Its blood-covered tail
flicked behind it in clear agitation.
My eyes widened in horror as I clutched the knife close, and the beast took a threatening step
toward me.
With no other choice, I did the most logical thing I could. I ran.
An angry snarl erupted behind me.
Branches whipped against my face as I sprinted through the darkness, heart hammering in my
chest. The creature gave chase immediately. It was fast—far faster than me—and I could hear
it crashing through the undergrowth behind me, rapidly closing the distance. I ducked under a
low branch and heard his grunt of frustration as he had to clear it rather than go under.
I spotted the rocky ledge ahead, and my eye locked onto the narrow burrow beneath it.
Without slowing, I threw myself toward the opening.
I hit the ground hard and squeezed through just as claws swiped through the air behind me,
narrowly grazing my hair.
A furious hiss erupted from the beast outside.
Panting, I scrambled deeper into the cramped burrow until my back hit the far wall. A hand
appeared at the entrance. Long fingers with dark claws. He reached in as far as he could, and
I pressed my back harder into the corner. His reach fell short by mere inches and retreated as
he realized he couldn't reach me.
Too large to fit through the burrow opening, it snarled and stood to its feet, only to start
pacing back and forth outside. Through the opening I could see only its legs and the
occasional flick of its bladed tail as it searched for a way to get to me.
I held my breath and prayed it would leave, but as minutes turned to hours I feared that this
nightmare I found myself in would never end.
EPISODE: 4: Stalked
POV: ALITA
The chirping of birds and the sounds of small creatures stirred me awake, and I found myself
curled up in a hole in the ground instead of my warm bed.
I lay still for a moment, letting the events of the previous night reassemble themselves in
order. The cannibal. The attack. The beast that had appeared from the darkness like a
nightmare made real, who killed a man in seconds and then chased after me.
How did things end up like this?
I was never close to Sansora-Kel. My father was the one who did business with the man. He
opted to help in the movement of stopping the penal-colony project and the aggressive
research settlements that some greedy politicians were pushing for.
When my father fell ill and passed, everyone who once supported his work seemed to
hesitate, thinking the movement was done for—but with Varin's help I stood up and chose to
take over my father's work in hopes of finishing what he started. That was about a year ago,
and things had been going so well. Our support was strong, and we were close to achieving
our goals to finally put an end to all of it. Sansora-Kel's vote to support us was the last step
we needed for that final push.
That is—before someone killed him in cold blood and framed me with his death.
I have seen death before...many times. I watched my own mother die right before my very
own eyes at a young age, but Sansora-Kel...when I walked into his quarters and found him
choking on his own blood, I froze.
Someone had poisoned him and planned for me to be there when he died. Later on they even
found evidence of the poison used to kill him within my own quarters. Everything happened
so quickly, and with the victim being a council member the people pushed for swift
punishment.
No matter how hard Varin and I pleaded for a chance to prove my innocence, no one listened,
and many of those who once supported us started to question my motives...
They didn't even give me a chance.
Closing my eyes I sighed, forcing these thoughts out of my mind. I can't dwell on these
things. I had to focus on survival. That was all that mattered right now. I couldn't fix
anything while I was trapped here. Until Varin comes my priority is survival.
Carefully, I looked toward the entrance.
Was it still out there?
Holding my breath, I crawled forward and peeked outside.
Nothing.
The forest had returned to normal. Sunlight filtered through the canopy overhead, and small
creatures moved through the undergrowth without concern.
After another cautious look around, I climbed out and stretched my stiff limbs. Immediately,
pain flared across my throat. Raising a hand to my neck, I winced. The bruises from the
exile's grip were already beginning to form.
My eyes drifted toward the place where the fight had happened.
Even from here, I could see the outline of the dead man's body lying among the grass.
A shiver ran down my spine.
I needed to leave.
There was no telling if that creature would return, and staying near a corpse felt like a terrible
idea on a planet filled with predators.
Grabbing my bag, I turned away from the clearing and began walking deeper into the jungle,
hoping to find water, food, or at the very least somewhere safer than this.
After walking for several minutes, the rustle of leaves somewhere nearby caused me to stop
abruptly. The jungle around me seemed unchanged at first glance—yet something felt wrong.
A cold sense of unease settled over me, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
Slowly, I tightened my grip on the knife.
My eyes swept across the surrounding foliage, searching for movement, for signs of
something following me, but there was nothing. No growling. No footsteps. No visible threat.
Only the gentle swaying of leaves in the breeze.
Even so, the feeling wouldn't go away.
It felt like something was watching me.
My heartbeat quickened as I slowly took a step backward, then another. Every instinct
screamed at me to leave. To run. To get as far away from this place as possible before
whatever it was revealed itself.
Then something landed behind me with a heavy thud.
I froze as dread pooled low in my stomach.
Very slowly, I turned my head.
Standing only a few feet away was the same creature from the night before, glaring down at
me with those same terrifying silver eyes and sharp fangs.
A growl vibrated deep within its chest as it stepped forward. I did the only thing any sane
person would do...I screamed, turned, and ran for my life.
I barely made it a few meters.
Something slammed into me from behind with enough force to knock the air from my lungs.
The world spun as I crashed into the ground. Instinctively, I threw my arm over my head to
protect myself from the impact.
Pain shot through my shoulder.
Before I could recover, I was flipped onto my back.
I cried out and thrashed wildly, kicking and clawing at anything I could reach. In blind panic,
I swung the knife toward the stranger.
With a furious snarl, he caught my wrist in one hand, and before I could react, he ripped the
knife from my fingers then pinned both of my wrists above my head.
Terror seized me as he leaned over me and snarled directly in my face. Every muscle in his
body tense with anger.
A whimper escaped my throat as I turned my head away and squeezed my eyes shut, certain
this was it.
Several seconds passed.
The growling gradually faded into a low rumble, then silence. Confused, I slowly cracked
open one eye.
The native was still there, hovering over me with an expression that could only be described
as annoyed.
My breath caught in my throat.
Growing up, I had heard countless stories about Xanadis's natives. Savages. Monsters.
Bloodthirsty predators. Yesterday I would have thought the same, but seeing one this close in
the daylight, I can't help but compare him to a normal person. He looks so—human?
For a brief, embarrassing moment, my fear became tangled with something else entirely.
His gaze swept over me, taking in my torn clothing and disheveled appearance before settling
on the bruises around my throat.
Something shifted in his expression.
It was gone almost immediately, but for the briefest second it looked suspiciously like
concern.
The realization slowly dawned on me...He wasn't hurting me.
In fact, aside from tackling me and taking the knife away, he hadn't actually tried to harm me
at all.
The moment I relaxed, however, his expression hardened again.
He scoffed and barked something at me in his native language. The words sounded sharp and
irritated, almost like a reprimand.
Then he released my arms and stood.
I stared up at him in bewilderment.
This was the same individual who had killed a man the night before without hesitation. The
same towering predator that had chased me through the forest.
Yet instead of tearing me apart, he seemed...angry at me.
As if I had done something stupid.
The native glanced down at the knife he had taken from me. His tail flicked behind him in
clear annoyance before he secured the weapon at his belt.
Then he turned and walked away.
I slowly pushed myself upright, staring after him in disbelief.
He wasn't after me?
Thinking back on the previous night, I remembered how he had attacked the exile first. How
he hadn't even acknowledged me until he saw the knife in my hand.
He could have let the cannibal kill me, but instead he saved me...was the knife the only thing
he wanted?
I stood there watching the stranger disappear into the jungle, feeling more lost than ever.
I had no weapon, no food, no water, and no idea where the crash site was. The only thing I
still possessed was the small tracker hidden in my sleeve, and that wasn't going to keep me
alive.
The native, however, knew this world. He knew how to survive here. And despite having
multiple opportunities, he hadn't tried to kill or eat me.
It wasn't much of a reason to trust someone, but it was more than I had with anything else on
this planet.
Taking a shaky breath, I ran after him.
The forest was rough and uneven, yet somehow he moved through it effortlessly. By the time
I finally spotted him again, he was already several dozen meters ahead.
"H-Hey! Wait!" I called as I scrambled over a fallen tree.
He didn't slow down.
I hurried after him and managed to close the distance to only a few seconds.
That was apparently a mistake.
He spun around with a snarl and slammed me against the nearest tree before I could react.
The blade on his tail pressed against my throat.
Fear instantly replaced every ounce of confidence I'd managed to gather. "I-I'm sorry!" I
blurted, throwing my hands up. "Please don't—"
His silver eyes narrowed as he looked me over.
After a tense moment, he seemed to realize I wasn't carrying a weapon and had no intent to
harm him. The pressure against my throat disappeared, and he stepped back.
I let out a shaky breath.
The native scoffed and turned to leave again.
"W-Wait!" Without thinking, I reached for his arm.
He flinched away instantly, and the blade on his tail swiped through the air on instinct.
I yelped and stumbled backward, clutching my forearm as a line of blood appeared across my
forearm where the blade had cut through my suit.
The native stiffened as he realized what he had just done, and for a moment, something
unreadable flashed across his face. But just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone.
He snapped something at me in his language that I couldn't understand, and I ended up
flinching back at the harsh tone of his voice. He didn't even give me a chance to react or
respond before turning to walk away, again.
Despite my lack of understanding when it came to his words, the meaning behind them was
impossible to miss.
Go away.
He wanted nothing to do with me. My shoulders slumped.
As he disappeared into the jungle once more, I stood there lost and unsure.
Why had I thought this was a good idea?
The natives had every reason to hate humans. We had invaded their world and filled it with
criminals and exiles.
Of course he wanted nothing to do with me.
As I stood alone in the forest, clutching my injured arm, I couldn't help but realize the only
reason I'd followed him in the first place was because I was less afraid of him than I was of
everything else.