La Naturaleza Mortal

Looking around, she could feel her pulse elevating and her animal instincts being awakened.

<i> I hope I’m not where I think I am.</i>

On a tree branch above her a bird cooed like a new born baby. She watched it carefully, hoping that her fear was mere paranoia. But the bird didn't even take two steps when a pile of strange orange goop swelled from the wood, covered the paralyzed bird in it's gunk and then lit it like a burning marshmallow. She had heard of this jungle before, but people had considered it a myth or a typical setting for scary stories to take place. Now she knew the truth, and this knowledge frightened her. The stories called this place, ‘La Naturaleza Mortal’— ‘Deadly Nature’ in Spanish. The stink of death overpowered this place. Rosa figured that this must be where all of the missing civilians from the kingdom were disappearing to. "That murderous King; he will pay for having disposed of innocent lives to this part of hell. I will get out alive and then he will regret having messed with our people."

After nature’s little murderous display, Rosa found it hard to trust her instincts. If a bird didn’t know the difference between danger and shelter, then how could she? Being in an open space surrounded by towering trees, she slipped swiftly to the sidelines. After looking around, she spotted a man made wooden sign further in the jungle. It was leaning sleepily at the foot of a tall tree that seemed to be leaking some viscous fluid from it's pores. She snuck in close enough to read the instructions that had been scratched by rocks or nails on the rotting wood. One sentence read, ‘One brings madness’ with an arrow pointing to the left and the second phrase read, ‘the other your last breathe’ with an arrow pointing to the right. A yellow fog had begun to fill the air which caused a distortion in her view of reality. Nothing seemed to make any sense, but she shook off her doubts and fear, determined to pick a side and live.