Thea's Reprise

Chapter 2: The Paratana

Third Person(Kris)

Kris took a moment to assess her surroundings before the paratana planted its feet. She scanned the area one last time to find any other way out of a fight. Realizing that there wasn’t one, she sighed, put her hair into a ponytail, and took the daggers on her hip out of their holsters. They were her father’s old blades, she hated using them, but they were the only close-range weapons she had. “Alright, let’s make this quick,” She said with a nervous undertone in her voice.

Kris banged her daggers together to make noise. The paratana roared and charged forward. Kris ran forward before slamming her daggers against its side horns; she planted her feet and held steady as it pushed her backward. The paratana continued to push her back for a few meters before she managed to stop it.

“It'd be so great if you rolled over and died for me…”

The paratana snorted and started to push harder. “Or not!” Kris felt herself being pushed back and winced, she might’ve been able to stop its charge, but she was not stronger than this animal. She looked behind her and saw a pile of rubble, giving her an idea. “Hey, you’re practically blind as is, so you wouldn’t mind if I made it official, right?” She jumped back, put her daggers up, and ran towards the pile of rubble as she frantically went through her bag. 'Alright mom, help me out here’ She jumped from the pile and turned around, facing the paratana that was about to puncture her with its horn.

“Got it!”

She pulled out a compound bow and loaded it with an arrow in mid-air. With the paratana inches away from her, she released her arrow and pierced the paratana’s eye. The paratana groaned in pain and rammed Kris in the gut. The impact knocked the wind out of her and sent her through the wall of a ruined building. She fell onto some crates and gasped for air, clenching her chest as she sat up and coughed. “Huh?” She glanced down at the crates she landed on and saw cans of food lying around, ‘That would’ve been convenient two minutes ago-’ She shot up to see the paratana in front of her, “Ngh!” She quickly jumped to the side but the paratana jerked its head at the last minute, slashing Kris's side before it crashed into the wall.

Kris held her sides, groaning as she saw the fresh blood on her hands. She looked to the left and noticed her bow was outside of the building. ‘I don’t think it’ll let me reach my bow this time’. She took her daggers back out. The paratana backed up from the wall and shook its head before turning to Kris and snorting. She clenched her blade handles and the paratana rushed at her again. Kris jumped to the side and slashed at its neck. Its skin, being hard as a rock, made her blade bounce off on impact, ‘Shit, my blades can't-’. Kris noticed the arrow in its eye.

"Oh."

Kris twirled their daggers and banged them together, “Hey! Over here!”. The paratana snarled and charged at Kris at full speed. She planted her feet and opened her arms before twirliing her daggers and stabbing the paratana in its eyes. It sped up and lifted Kris off the ground before ramming her into the wall, nearly bringing her to tears. “Gah!” She gritted her teeth and held onto her daggers, noticing they had now pierced its skin and reached its neck. As its horn pressed against her chest, Kris twisted her daggers up and sliced upwards, slicing the paratana’s neck open. It tried to continue moving, but quickly went limp, falling to the ground and letting out its last breath.

Kris slid down against the wall and hugged herself, still trying not to cry. Blood leaked from her shirt, slowly building up and overflowing in her hand. The building began to rumble and Kris looked up.

‘Stand up!’

She slowly got up, pulled her daggers out of the paratana’s eyes, and put them away. She stared at the dead beast, ‘You didn't fight it for nothing.' She crouched down and grabbed the paratana by its top horn, making her hands bleed. She didn’t want to grab here, but it was the only place she could; everything else was too wide. She started to pull as tears continued to build up in her eyes, slowly dragging the paratana out of the building; as she moved, her gaze switched to her bow on the other side of the building, then the exit, about a meter away.

‘Wait, if I take this, will I have time to get my bow back? I will if I get moving now but who knows when I'll get food again?’

These thoughts raced through Kris’s mind before she yelled at herself, “Just move!”. She continued to pull until she made it far away from the building, then ran to pick up her bow. Right as she grabbed it, the building fell and the shockwave sent her tumbling across the ground. Kris curled into a ball and hugged her bow, quietly sobbing from the pain.

‘Go get your food.’

She kept crying

‘It's not that bad.’

She kept crying

‘Cut it out already.’

She kept crying

‘Get up!’

Despite her objections, she continued to sob until she fell asleep.