Kai and the Arthviil Warriors

Kai ran as fast as he could. The forest was dark and the sounds of the chase behind him were terrifying.

What am I doing? I'm in over my head! Kai thought to himself. He knew that his pursuers were more than ready to kill him.

"I'm dead," Kai said out loud, trying not to panic. The hunters were gaining. He could hear their footsteps behind him getting closer, if only he could make it to the hilltop ahead of him. It was his only hope.

The forest thinned out in front of him and he sprinted forward while looking back at the pursuing men. They would not be stopped.

Kai ran up the hill, but there was no escape in sight. There was a cave on the hillside ahead of him and he ran towards it, hoping that maybe it had a way out somewhere or some water, or something that might slow down his pursuers.

As he entered the cave, he spotted a light at the end of the tunnel further inside. He was almost there when suddenly he tripped and fell to the ground. Luckily for him, he hit a soft patch of dirt on the ground instead of hard rocks so he didn't hurt himself too badly but still needed to crawl forward from where he lay on his stomach as fast as possible. He looked behind and saw them running up to the entrance of the cave just as he made it to the light at the end of a tunnel that opened up into another cavernous room with what looked like a lake at its center with a waterfall running down into it from above and all around it various stalagmites nearby that stuck out from the floor like giant teeth sticking out of a rotten gum line. Kai crawled quickly away from the tunnel's entrance and towards an exit across from him at one end of this second room but just as he was about to reach it, one of his pursuers reached out and grabbed his collar with one hand while pulling out a knife with the other and began to drag him backwards towards them where they stood by that same tunnel's entrance and yelled "I've got him!". Kai struggled against this man's vice-like grip as best he could but then turned around and saw another man holding another knife appear from that same tunnel's entrance who was dragging out someone else also by their collar in similar fashion: It was Gaius! His friend! He tried yelling "Gaius!" but all that came out was a muffled grunt as his voice was being muffled by his captor's strong grip on his collar. Gaius had been captured too!

For several moments they struggled against each others captors before finally making it back over to where they had been standing by where they had first dragged them out from that tunnel's entrance, next to that other hunter who had dragged Kai out earlier who stood tall with an angry facial expression as if cursing them both for having put up such a fight against them as if daring them both to try doing something about it again. Then without warning, Kai felt something cold and hard being pressed against his neck which caused all movement on his part stop immediately followed by a sharp prickling pain against his skin which grew more intense until suddenly everything went dark for Kai once again...