KITMON DEMONBOARD ENTRY, DECEMBER 2019

It was a cool, winter morning, and although the sunshine glittering on the surface of the snow, and the red holly berries showing through on blanketed branches were breathtaking, the sights were a daily occurrence this time of year. What was really special about today was that it was one of Mistoffelees’ rare outings around town!

As hesitant as he’d been, one of his closest friends, Cream, managed to convince him to come out and take a walk in the snow with him. So, now, here the tom cats were. Laughing loudly and talking softly as they padded along the icy path around the outskirts of town, sandwiched between a wall of buildings to their left and a sea of trees to their right.
Although they were having great fun together, a lull in conversation finally fell upon them, and Mistoffelees let his eyes wander to the forest’s entrance beside them, a small smile forming at the sight of the twinkling icicles hanging from the trees, catching the light like crystals and glimmering with the snow.

“It’s beautiful.” He thought aloud, absentmindedly, getting a bit startled when Cream shot back: “What is?”
Shoulders bouncing with a slight jump, his ears twitched before he turned his head, chuckling sheepishly. “The forest, don’t you think?”

Cream had stopped now too, head tilted, staring wide eyed into the woods with the other. He was right.. It was a pretty sight, but Cream was a bit more concerned with what could be going on within the depths. Eyes narrowing, he earned a mischievous smirk as he began to speak again.
“It is..” He started, turning his head to look at Mistoffelees, “...Have you ever been inside?” Cream questioned, making his friend’s smile fade, and his ears stand up in surprise.

“Well… Not really,” Mistoffelees began, scratching the back of his head.
“Oh!?” Cream exclaimed, grinning no, as he leaned over the other, grabbing his shoulders to make him look at him--it’d be easier to tell if he was lying this way.
“What do you mean-- not really- huh!? I mean, not really means some, right!?” He interrogated, excitedly, making Mistoffelees brows knit as he averted his eyes, smiling shakily. This was more attention than he felt he deserved for just walking in the woods!
“I mean not long!” He clarified, hesitantly, “I’ve gone in a little bit… Just to get wood for certain toys before. Not too far in though.. And I didn’t go poking around! I got what I needed and then left!” The longer Mistoffelees talked, the more he said, wanting to take precautions before Cream got any crazy ideas.

It was to no avail, though. The other kitmon had already decided exactly what he wanted to do. Letting his friend go, now, Cream tried to bite back some of his excitement, and seem more casual, but he couldn’t help rubbing his paws together in anticipation.
“So how ‘bout we go in now, then?” He suggested, tilting his head downward and looking to Mistoffelees under convincing, lidded eyes.
“That’s a bad idea!” Mistoffelees yelped, quick to turn it down.
“C’mon!” Cream pleaded, grabbing Mistoffelees’ paw and tugging it towards the woods, as he took a step back to it. “You’re like an old pro! Not far! I just wanna see if we can find anything cool! There’s probably bones, or pelts. You could find something neat to use at work, y’know!”
Mistofelees stayed put, though. He was starting to come around--he couldn’t stand disappointing others--but he still wasn’t so sure about all this.
“There’s a reason you think it’s so cool I’ve been in, though. You know there’s demons there, and they get especially hardy to handle the winter.” He reasoned, voice nearing a whine as his eyes darted nervously between his friend and the trees.
“Not far. Just in the edges.” Cream repeated, dropping his lower lip exaggeratedly,
“Please!?”

Mistoffelees could only stand to argue for so long. Finally, he walked forward to meet the other, looking down to his paws with a furrowed brow. “Fine.” He agreed, making Cream cheer humorously beside him as he was pulled off the path. Maybe he was being too careful.. There wouldn’t be anything just a couple yards in, right?

As they took their first steps between two trees, into the woods, Cream started to chuckle excitedly, eyes wandering the ground before him in search of anything to pick up. Mistoffelees, on the other hand, hung behind him, searching the horizon for anything approaching, paw clutching the other arm that hung at his side.
He was shoved out of his focus, though, at cold, wet slap on his belly. “Aie-!” He squealed, holding his paws in the air as he sucked in his stomach, looking down to find the snowball Cream had just launched at him. “Oh.. my god!” He exclaimed, shuddering as he looked up to his cackling friend.
“I’m going to get you!” Mistoffelees laughed, reaching down with a spread paw and scooping up a clod of snow, sending it flying right into the other’s chest.
Cream let out a shriek, but starting acting immediately, scampering off through the snow as he packed his next snowball. All the worry from before had been forgotten, and the two kitmons were once again cracking up with each other as they played. It was easy to lose track of where you’re going when you’re only focusing on aiming at someone, though…

“Woah!” Cream groaned, voice wobbling as he tripped forward onto his hands and knees, making Mistoffelees stop in his tracks. Dropping his snowball, he rushed over to the other.
“Are you ok!?” He asked, coming to kneel, to get a closer look as Cream rolled over.
“I’m fine, just got freaked out ‘cause I stepped on something.” He explained, lifting his foot paw and grabbing it, turning the bottom towards his face.
“Is that blood!?” Mistoffelees whined, as he spotted a dark, red mess on his friend’s paw pads.
“I don’t think so, it didn’t hurt..” Cream explained, calmly. Without thinking about it, he stuck out a finger and scooped some of the goop up onto it and popped it in his mouth. Mistoffelees had winced, disgusted at this, but second guessed himself when Cream began to smile.  
“Oh it’s good! I think it’s fruit! Try it!” He hummed.  
“I don’t wanna eat something off your f-!” Mistoffelees had began to protest, unable to finish due to the finger being jammed in his mouth.
“Eugh, Crea… Oh my god that’s amazing.” He agreed, grinning now.

“Right!?” Cream affirmed, starting to jerk his head back and forth, before twisting behind him, eyes glued to the ground. “See if there’s more around here! I just found another one!”
He instructed, holding up a fat berry and shaking it in the air for his friend to see.
“Okay!” Mistofelees chirped, crawling on his hands and knees as he searched the snow for more. One, then a half of one a few feet away, one more a bit above that.. Where were all these coming from?

He couldn’t see any more close to him after the first three, and Mistoffolees sat back on his haunches, frowning in thought. It was now that he noticed how far they had gone. They’d reached a large, blank path between two sides of trees, snow outstretching before and behind him for as far as he could see, the horizon just a haze of white; the snow and trees in the distance blurring together into a cloud. Suddenly, Mistoffelees felt very, very small.
As he stared over the top of the hill quite a ways away from them, getting lost in his thoughts and growing anxious, it took him a moment to process the form breaking up the tangle of trees, a dark silhouette due to the sunset beaming through the cracks of the forest.
“C-Cream, I think, I think we- we need to-,” Mistoffelees had gotten up sooner than he could speak, eyes wide, frozen in horror as the thing reared its head, a large pair of knitted antlers separating from the shadow. Cream finally looked up, wondering what his friend was stuttering about.

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” A voice bellowed from within the brush, just a few feet to their left. The two smaller kitmons’ heads snapped to their left, a fiery, yellow glow catching their eyes, pulling them to the mass of black and orange lumbering through the trees.
“W-We didn’t mean to come in so far-!” Mistoffelees stammered, now more worried about whoever was approaching him than the beast he’d spotted in the distance.
“I don’t care what you meant to do, you need to get the hell out of here!” The stranger growled, stomping over in front of them, his hunched posture only making him appear larger as he puffed up his chest and shoulders, a guttural growl rumbling from his throat as he loomed over the other two.
Cream was frightened now as well, knees too wobbly for him to rise to his feet as he scooted back still on his butt, carving a wide path in the snow.
It finally processed that the stranger speaking to them was just another kitmon, but everything about him was terrifying. A string of drool dangled from his lower jaw to hang in front of his muscled chest, as he bared every single one of his glowing, thick teeth. His yellow eyes were piercing, boring into them as he glared down, his paws clenched as he spread his fingers out wide, hooked claws bared in warning; a warning they didn’t take.

Roaring, the kitmon swung for them, putting his entire body behind a ferocious swipe of his claws, coming only inches from their chest. Truth be told, he knew he’d miss, but he needed to get them out of here somehow, and a threat appeared to be the only way.
“Quit staring and move your asses! Rubus is going slaughter you if I don’t first!” The larger kitmon howled dropping to stand on his hands and paws, in a more feral posture, letting foam spilling from his lips to the ground beneath him as the two finally stood to get out from under him, who were still facing him as he let his jaw hang open while he growled.

Finally, adrenaline kicked in and Mistoffelees and Cream were on the run, sprinting as fast as their weakened legs could carry them through the snow bounds, tripping and stumbling, but never stopping as the kitmon behind them gave chase, each stride launching him closer to them as the two naive kitmons desperately tried to speed up. His massive weight made deep craters in the snow with each step, but nothing seemed like it could slow the beast after them down. Mistoffelees was running so hard he couldn’t feel his legs, flying from the heart of the woods and not slowing down once as they wheezed to break through the outskirts, not even realizing the kitmon pursuing them had split from them long ago to exit from a different side.

The two flung their bodies, chest first into the hill beside the path they had started on, slamming painfully into the ice with a telltale, fleshy smack!
Mistoffelees and Cream wheezed hollowly, breathless as they sprawled out on the ground, too shocked to cry, but definitely scared enough to. They couldn’t speak at all at first, going at least a solid five minutes without saying a word to each other. Mistoffelees was too thankful they got out to care about I-told-you-so’s and I-said-you-saids, but Cream on the other hand, was a bit faster to recover than Mistoffelees.. A bit faster, and a bit more guilty.

Finally, as his panting slowed, he picked up his head to look at his friend, his ears lowered and his eyes averted.
“Hey, Mistoff?” He started, making the others ears swivel towards him, but nothing else.
“Yeah?” Mistoffelees responded, muffled slightly by the snow.

“You were right.”