I felt the magic ebb and flow around me, coursing across my skin like the touch of a nervous lover as I knelt on the dirt. I stared at the small circle of runes that I'd drawn in the earth before me, and whispered the primal words of magic to shape my spell. The runes glowed one by one until the whole circle, no more than two feet across, was lit with a dull light.
I leaned back until I was comfortably sitting on my feet and admired my work. Each rune was precisely made, and glowed with a faint green light. Technically, the runes didn't need to be so exact, but it never hurts to be careful when you're tampering with the primal forces of the universe.
I smiled briefly, then reached for the stone bowl beside me and slowly poured its contents, water from a nearby river, over the runes. They flashed briefly, then their luminescence was transferred to the water soaking them, which rolled gently down the incline. The water touched the lake beside my camp and dissipated, spreading out until its light was gone. I nodded at the lake, satisfied with my work, then turned to tend my fire.
A few more branches for the flames, and a few small logs beside the pit I'd dug to hold my small campfire. It was just big enough to keep the chill away, and all I would need until morning.
I crawled into my small tent, stripped down to my small-clothes, and curled up in my bedroll to let my exhaustion take me.
I felt my mind slip into a vague doze, and drifted on that border between waking and sleeping. I was suddenly pushed into wakefulness, and I blinked through my tiredness to look around. The light from my fire was a dim red glow on the canvas of my tent, evidently almost burned out. I strained my ears listening, but couldn't hear any noises that might have woken me up.
Reluctantly I slid out of the comfortable warmth of my sleeping roll, silently pulling my knife out from under my pillow. I stepped out into the chilly air, and looked around. The trees were still, and the calm lake, hardly ten feet away from my camp, showed a reflection of the cloudy night sky.
I shivered and pulled at the shift that served as my nightwear, still looking around. Giving up, I pulled another log onto the fire, hoping to stoke a bit of life into it.
I turned to go back to my cozy tent, but stopped when I heard a noise. It wasn't a particularly loud noise, but enough to get my attention.
I turned back to the lake and saw remnants of ripples marring its otherwise smooth surface. I took a few steps towards it, and waited to see if the movement would recur. As I crossed my arms over my breasts to try and keep from freezing, I saw another shift in the water's surface. I decided the small sound of something touching the surface must have been what woke me. I turned back to my tent, and heard it again. Odd that I'd even hear such a faint noise over the normal sounds of the forest...
I froze in place as the thought occurred to me. Normally, a forest is full of sound, even on an autumn night like this. Crickets, frogs, and owls should call, and small bugs and bats should be flying. And yet, there was nothing.
My instincts screamed at me, telling me to run, or to duck down and hide. But I sat there, frozen, until I heard another splash in the water. This time was louder.
I turned slowly, and saw a bulging form protrude from the water, like a whale was breaching the lake's surface.
The form surged towards the shore, closing far too fast for something so large.
I turned away again, ready to run for real this time.
By the time I was facing away from the lake, I could already hear the telltale splash of something big moving in the water. How could it already be at the edge of the lake?
I managed a full stride, but stumbled on my second step as my foot hit a clump of weeds. As I staggered, but managed not to fall, I felt drops of water striking my arms and sides as the splash caught up with me.
I took another step, then pitched forward as my right foot tangled.
I rolled over and reached to untangle my foot from the plants, then gasped as I saw the offending obstacle. The thing wrapped around my ankle was some kind of tentacle. I grabbed the oily-black tentacle and pulled at it, but to no avail. It was tough, and as thick as a rope.
I yanked back, trying to wrench my leg out of its grip, but there was no give. It was too strong.
I reached out and managed to seize a good sized stick, and turned to strike at the tentacle. It was then that the creatures emerged from the water.
Its great form rose up from the lake, shedding water in every direction. I could hardly make out any details, mere shapes in the dark. The clouds chose that moment to pull away from the moon, giving me enough light to make out the creature - a mixed blessing.
A scream ripped from my throat as my eyes made sense of the images: a great round maw rose up out of the water, crowned with three red eyes the size of dinner plates. The tentacle on my leg seemed to have come out of its mouth, like some massive tongue. And there were at least two more just like it, but maybe more. The rest of the creature was like some nightmarish worm with wide fins on its side. It was easily fifteen feet long, and probably continued under the water.
I screamed again and flipped onto my belly, desperately scrabbling at the sand for purchase. I thought I might have a chance, until a second tentacle slapped onto my left leg, wrapping around my knee and thigh.
It pulled with tremendous force, and I slid along the wet sand, helpless to alter my trajectory. My shift rode up as I got to the water's edge, exposing my bare cunt to the cold air, and I screamed again as I splashed into the water.
Then I was under water, and struggling to make it back to the surface, being pulled along all the while.
I twisted and got my head above the water again, and came face-to-face with the creature. Its maw opened wide as another tentacle shot out, wrapping around my other leg. I flailed one arm towards it, and another tentacle wrapped around my wrist, trapping it in place.
