Dream Demon (Mune Fanfiction) English
by Kip Supernova
He was on the border between day and night, dusk had always given him protection. At least until now, because they had discovered him and also his secret. Alb's lungs burned like fire, his breathing rattled and there were tears in his eyes. Tears of despair, but also tears of pain, because he was truly not a very sporty faun, and the run through the forest, over rough terrain, over trees and rivers, hit him hard.
As a faun, Alb was very slim and wending, but he didn't have much stamina. And those who were chasing him, shouting angry, furious words after him, were not only fitter and stronger than him, no: they were also armed!
"There he is!" Alb heard one of them call, and the next moment a stone just barely flew past his left ear. He flinched in shock, looked around briefly, and then crawled like a spider up the trunk of a large, old tree to the first branch, looking desperately, looking into the distance. The temple ... it had to be somewhere. After all, he was already on the night side of the planet. But there was nothing to see, not even the moon ...
I have to go on ... Alb sought protection in the large, broad Bamba leaves that protruded from the foot of the trees - just in time, because his pursuers had seen him as he was on the tree! But not now, because Alb's fur color helped him to protect his health - if not his life - for once! Because the Bamba leaves had a light gray color at night. Alb's fur was snow-white, but visually it merged with the leaves to form a structure that at first glance might look like a mixture of light (Alb's fur) and shadow (the leaves) to a viewer.
His pursuers ran past him; Alb crouched under one of the leaves, holding her breath, staring at the feet, which appeared just before his nose on the soft forest floor and were gone the next moment. They hadn't seen him!
Alb waited a few more heartbeats and listened to the steadily moving footsteps and voices of his pursuers until he was sure they were gone and he was relieved to take a deep breath. He laid his head on the soft forest floor, closed his eyes, and let tears of sadness and fear roll from the corner of his eye to his hairy cheeks. A quiet sob could be heard in the otherwise very calm and peaceful forest, but apart from a few birds and bright butterflies, no one heard Alb cry.
After a while, Alb got up slowly, wiped small, dried leaves and crumbs from his fur, and sighed. He was standing in the middle of a beautiful forest, a wonderful night, illuminated by bright plants and insects, and felt at the end of his life. How many times had he dreamed of seeing this forest, feeling the soft, damp ground under his feet, smelling the scent of leaves and needles, and making his sounds vibrate in his big ears.
But Alb was hunted, hated, spat on and thrown at with stones - from one day to the next. He barely escaped the death that his own people wanted to inflict on him!
With his head bowed, he trudged north through the undergrowth, where the Temple of the Moon Guard was supposed to be going. Alb had read that at least once in the forbidden books.
He reached with his paw into the leather case he was carrying around his shoulders and took out the page torn from a book and looked at the map.
"Between day and night, moon and sun, light and darkness, the temple of the moon watcher follows his path," Alb whispered to himself the words that were written on the card in a squiggly writing. "The North Star shows the way when it is brightest in the sky."
Alb looked up at the sky, and indeed: The north star was flickering and seemed to want to point the way like a lantern at night. He folded up the page of the book again and carefully kept it in his pocket like a gold treasure. Then he wiped his tears from his face with the back of his paw, took a deep breath and said firmly: "Go on, don't give up -"
The next moment a blazing pain shot through his skull; he staggered and was briefly deaf; a heartbeat later he felt a second beat. In total, three large stones flew towards him from the side. The first two hit him in the ear and brushed the back of his head, he was just able to avoid the third, if involuntarily, because Alb staggered a few steps forward, painful, then he went down on his knees.
"I got him! I caught him, now he won't escape us!", He heard someone roar accompanied by the dull throb of pain in a head - it was Sved, this Faun had never been the brightest and most peaceful, yes clear that bastard was proud of what he had done!
Alb tried with all his might to straighten up again, but his muscles failed him! Nausea rolled over his entire body and he could have screamed with anger and fear at the same time, but there was only a hoarse gasp from his throat when Sved and the other pursuers reached Alb, grabbed his arms, legs and neck and through the undergrowth like a sack of flour grind. They laughed and hooted like hunters who had made loot!
Alb felt warm blood running from the wound in his ear over the back of his head. He cried and wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn't because at least if he had to die he still wanted to see the moon. At least one last time ... the moon ... the moon ...
They threw him down a hill toward the river. Alb knew this place, he had often been here to write poetry and watch the moon. But his poems were ... He was overcome with sadness and fear now, because he rolled the mountainside over stones, small bushes and hollows in the ground, which caused him further pain. His tormentors laughed and roared away.
"Get out of here and never let you look again!" He heard her roar. "ELSE WE WILL REALLY KILL YOU!"
Haven't you already done that ?! That was the last thought Alb could still grasp, and before he landed in the cold water of the river with his wiry, lean body, he was already unconscious.
***
"Sved, are you sure it was a good idea to let him live?"
Sved shrugged. "He's on the other side of the river now and hopefully far enough away. He didn't really want to leave the village, the little demon."
"But if he's still alive, falls asleep again, and ..."
"Knev," Sved sighed and turned to the others, some of whom were grinning and proud to have finally got rid of the "White Demon", but were also unsure if what they had done was right and said: "Believe me. He is far enough away. And if he stays away from the temple, we can all go to sleep again."
"But Sved," Knev gasped and ran alongside his buddy, who was already on the way back. "What if they are still there when Alb is no longer in the village?"
Sved snorted contemptuously. "Then we go hunting again and finish it. Dead demons cannot do any harm."
***
