-I need to keep going!-
She could feel her energy draining as she pushed her legs faster and harder.
Suddenly one of her paws caught on a protruding root, tripping the weakened tiger, and causing her to roll many dozens of feet. She only stopped rolling when her back slammed into another, bigger tree.
For a moment, she considered just laying here for the rest of forever, but she knew she had to continue on.
So with her shaking legs protesting, she forced herself to her feet once more. As she attempted to steady herself, she winced terribly but managed to hold back even the faintest whimper from escaping her throat. Still panting, she was off again.
It was a little while before the trees began to thin out and there was enough light to momentarily blind the sprinting tiger.
A wall of ferns was up ahead. They rose high enough that when she jumped, the tops of the leaves brushed agains her underbelly.
On the other side of the wall was where the trees opened into an meadow with bright green grass intertwined with summer flowers. It was many miles long and even more wide. Only along the horizon could the wall of trees be seen again.
A brook sang happily from where it cut a path through the many acres.
"Wa..ter.." She panted. She could almost see the clear blue surrounded by the startling white sand. But she could feel her speed decreesing. She knew she wasnt running much faster than her average jog but was using just as much muscle as she uses to sprint.
No matter how far or fast she ran, the brook seemed to get farther and farther away. Small black dots started clouding her vision as her brain started to shut down from exaustion and lack of proper oxygen.
Finally she stumbled to a stand still. The tiger's dirty head hung so low, her black nose was centemeters from the dirt. Tremers shook her legs and she eventually lost balance, falling onto her side. Her sides heaved, her breathing dangerously uneven and shallow.
She could feel her body shrinking here and there, ears moving down the side of her head, her muzzle contracting back into her skull, until she was left in her now mangled and bloody human form.
The bubbling brook was taunting her and her dehydrated body as her heavy eyelids drifted closed over blue eyes.
"What..have.....you done...now....Echo?" She accused herself.
She could no longer hold onto consciousness and the world around her desolved and she slipped into the black. Sadly Echo didn't realize that the sandy shore was a mere two feet away and the water was only four.
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