A chilly breeze explored the wild jungle causing the flowers and leaves to wilt in gloom. What once were lush evergreen trees that stood so firm, as if the roots were clinging for their very life, had now turned into gnarled, twigs of hopelessness.  Scarlet, amber and auburn leaves littered the forest floors; some hugging on tight to the vines that slithered across the muddy ground. Snaking through the dense, murky floor, chocolate streams rippled, oozing out their swampy remnants. There were barely any stars in the sky, and no clouds cluttered it. The dark backdrop was painfully dull and motionless. Except for the flashing lightning, that lit up only a streak of the sad out-there sky. It was as if a single firework thundered furiously here and there causing the jungle to light up and then turn back into despair.

At one point, the lightning struck so hard an image of some kind of bright orange creature could be seen, just for a second. All of a sudden, the horrid lightning stopped and the only sound heard was the breeze, but it was interrupted by a fearsome ear splitting growl. This creature had glowing, yellow neon eyes that surrounded its oval shape pupil. Its fur was a flame-and-coal mix: amber like the centre of the sun and its stripes as black as the night sky. Its muscles rippled up and down as it prowled the jungle night. A flick of its tail swished up; it was long, furry and had a dominant pattern of the same obsidian stripes that complimented its entire body. In certain lights and angles you could see its jaw as strong as steel consisting of a set of razor-sharp, pearl  teeth that was stained red of some kind of dead animal's crimson blood. As its stealthily progressed,  its wolverine like claws scraped across the ground and dug hard into the dry ground. They were as big as saucers making a distinct imprint of a large paw in the soft mud beneath it. It let out a final roar towards the sky almost like it was arguing with the lightning for disturbing its hunting at night.

Author: Shreya, Year 9