The day was bright, the sun warm. A breeze set the leaves dancing and the grass asway.

Merigosa lounged on a large stone, worn smooth by time, a few meters off a placid lake. Songbirds fluttered branch to branch; they twittered their songs to each other. Merigosa gazed up at them.

A sharp, keening cry overtook the chatter and, in a rustling of wings, they scattered.

Merigosa tensed, lifting her head as she scanned the treeline; she glanced at the lake and sky as well. Nothing was amiss, which only caused her concern to grow.

She waited, and watched, but the birds did not come back. No birdsong drifted on the gentle breeze, no birdsong merged with the lapping of water on shoreline, and no birdsong covered the snap of a twig.

Her head pivoted to the noise, body coiling tight before she froze; two eyes stared at her from the forest, undergrowth shrouding the lowered body beneath them.

They stared for a moment, then two, each waiting to see what the other would do. Offbeat by milliseconds, they moved nearly as one.

Merigosa launched herself towards the water: the terrain she felt safest in.

The creature launched itself after her, long limbs quickly eating up the ground beneath it. A sound broke from its throat: raspy and guttural, stuttering yet angry.

A shiver racked her body at the mangled call, and her already rapid pace quickened. If her wings weren't still bound in chains, she could coil her body and spring into the air: beating her wings to carry her away from danger. But she couldn't. And the danger followed, snapping at her tail.

She felt its drool splatter against her scales. Once, twice. Then teeth skidding across her tail; the third time its teeth broke her skin, but couldn't keep its grip. After that it gave up—on grabbing her tail.

It was alongside her now, its six limbs keeping it at a steady stride that would soon outpace her. It's two tongues flopped out of one side of its mouth, long enough to touch its shoulder as they dangled behind. The snarl on its face almost looked like a grin, and what must have been excitement gleamed in its golden eyes.

The water was so very close now, but almost seemed to taunt her as the waves resided.

A strangled-sounding bark left the thing as she hit the water, head ducking under as her body slid against saturated sand. I made it! A brief wave of elation washed through her before realization struck: the transitions to water had slowed her down, taking precious seconds.

It felt like a boulder landed on her back, and suddenly the sand she was sliding against before was billowing around her, blinding her as she whipped her head around to snap at the claws digging into her skin.