Where I run they follow
I can hear them closing in on me. Their screams haunting the unfamiliar world around me. I do not know what kind of a creatures they are or why they want me, I just know, no matter how far I go they eventually catch up.I need to leave my little camp and this warm fire. Pack it up fast. Their piercing screams are getting louder and they are getting close. I can almost hear the subtle bravado in their shrieks, as if they know they’ve already gotten me.
Grab the hex knife, the water jug, and the stag bar and shove it back into the sling. What else do I need? MY PSY-CAX! With frantic movement I grabbed the glowing orb. What would be the point of any of it, if I forgot this. A last glance of the site, revealed that everything needed was now in the sling.
I looked around at the unfamiliar landscape. In front of me was a dark black rock field dotted with a few short red weeds growing at the lighter gray parts. Behind me were strange purple and pink trees that formed the dark thick forest I had came from several hours ago. Adjusting my vision out towards the dim tree-line, I could barely see the shape of a figure: tall, sharp, and unnatural.
Before my eyes could fully adjust, I turned my body and dashed through the open expanse. The beast let out another chorus of his shrill scream. I felt the black slate shake beneath my heels as if even it trembled in fear of my predator.
Pouncing my feet off the ground, I ran faster than I had ever. Sprinting through the heavy air of the dark environment, it began to fill my breath with dust that I couldn’t resist to cough up. Even though it had only been minutes, the atmosphere sweltered my lungs. From behind me, I could hear its scream clearly, it sounded gurglier than it did before; as if it didn’t mind the coarse air and was salivating in anticipation of a meal.
To the right of me, I felt friction push on my arm, as if something had barely missed it. Does the monster have range on me? He has never launched anything at me before. It doesn’t seem like he even slowed down to throw; Can he do this while running at full speed? vish Another whisked over me, pushing my hair down and dropping small pieces of cold slate onto my neck.
I quickly glanced up to see what was scraping past me. That’s when I saw another dark silhouette standing a close distance away directly in front of me. Not able to slow down to avoid its reach, I opted to keep my speed and dash past it. My heart pounding and thick air pushing against me, I approached the silhouette.A scream echoed from behind, the other monster doesn’t sound like it has slowed any. If the silhouette in front grabs me, both of these monsters will devour me whole. I set my eyes to the silhouette in front and cry towards it, “Die” as a pitiful last attempt to intimidate it.
The silhouette doesn’t move and stands unmovably tall and unusually silent. The closer I got the more I could make out. It had a rough, rocklike skin and jagged edges. The darkness of the environment left much to be imagined, but I knew my best tactic was to hit it head on.
Crashing into the beast, I was knocked on to my back. Confused and dazed, I rolled myself onto my feet and took off past my adversary. It didn’t seem to move, it didn’t seem to care, it didn’t even make a sound. I now felt pounding pain that had shattered against my right thigh from the impact. Looking down, I could see black slate dust splinters on my new wound. Nearly falling over from the pain, I straighten myself out and stare forwards towards many more silhouettes. More monsters? There has to be hundreds of them. How?
Obviously outnumbered and in sharp pain, I slowed my pace in defeat. Maybe it will be quick. Maybe they’ll make it humane. No, these monsters seem to be the kind to play with their meals, I’m foolish for thinking it would be a fast and painless endeavor. I have no where to go; they’ve gotten me. I might as well, find a quick way to incapacitate myself, so that they consume me while I cant feel.
No. I won’t give myself up for a monsters dinner. If I’m going to die, I’m going to make these freaks hurt.
Filled with the impulsonic rage of an inescapable death, I give a heavy scowl to the closest silhouette, as if my countenance would weaken it. It was then I realized, that the silhouette was just a tall rock spire. All the silhouettes in front of me were black slate rock spires. They were never a real threat. I was afraid of rocks! Just dumb- an earthquake of a scream ripped into my ears from behind me. The real threat was still following and it had gotten significantly closer.
Hearing the noise, I throttled myself forward, pushing hard on the ground with both my left and right legs. Bad move. As soon the ground’s force shocked through my right thigh, I crumpled. While shakingly staggering back to my feet, the pounding steps of the beast behind thudded its way toward me. I scrambled on, relying heavily on my left leg to carry me away.
The monster was close enough I could smell its unmistakable odor: A burnt plastic and metallic fetor of decay. I jolted my head to see what kind of demon produced such a stench. I immediately saw its sharp teeth protruding in every angle from its head with its evil neon eyes cut into the dark orifices between them. I snapped my eyes back frontward to see the edge of a cliff. Where am I going to go? A cliff? Theres nowhere to go and I cant outrun the creature forever. I’m not going to make it.
Studying the cliff closer, I saw glowing orange particles make up the glass-like wall at the edge of the black slate cliff. A flume! If I could just get there I might have a chance. Motivated with this new realization, I begin to feel excitement pulsate through my chest. The monster realized this too, and stopped with its theatric screams and acts of intimidation; it was trying its hardest to kill me now.
Screaming loudly, I lept off the edge of the cliff head first toward the glass-like barrier. Once I hit the reflective wall of particles it absorbed me in and I began to float weightlessly forward.
Reaching out its arm towards me, the monster lept off the cliff as well. Its claws barely missing my leg. When it crashed into the wall of particles, its momentum was stopped and it was flattened against the surface similiar to mud being splattered against rock. The particles then bounced the monster off its surface into the foggy void below, where its silhouette faded into darkness.
The flume softly welcomed me. The small orange particles that lift me, feel like soft bubbles on my skin and they lightly carry me off toward a new destination. I look off to my side and see the orange glowing particles shift out of my vision, as if I was a rocket ship gliding past the stars. I don’t know where exactly they’lI take me, but I know I will be safe for a while. The soft atmosphere and euphoric colors beckons me to sleep. I give in, close my heavy eyes, and fall into a deep slumber.
A Break from the Fire
I awoke to the glinting reflections of the midday sun that shined from hundreds of silvery flattopped flowers. These flowers reflected the blue atmosphere with a steely pastel hue. Burms filled with with rows of these flowers fill the meadow around me. A brisk breeze brushes across the burms causing a wave of glittering light to wash over the silver flowers. For an instant it seemed as if I was watching a tide of molten metal ripple across nature and leave trails of soft silver in its wake .
I picked a few of the best looking flowers I could find before beginning my more important task: Finding out where I am and consequently where I would be going.
To get a better idea of my location I began to hike up the nearest burm. As I did so, I noticed my once aching legs and even the rest of my body, for that matter, weren’t hurting anymore. I have been completely healed. No, I feel more than healed. I feel more put together, more muscular; I feel stronger than I ever was. I also feel strangely electric and energetic as if I was completely recharged and reset.
The flume must have done this. The flume that had opened when I was at that cliff. Who had enabled it? Was it opened just for me? Is someone looking out for me? Flumes are difficult to operate, not to mention dangerous to operate. Opening a flume would have certainly given away the gate wielders position and those monsters would have collapsed onto their position. Perhaps that was why I was dropped in a field and am not at the other end of the flume? Maybe the gate wielder was ambushed and killed? Or maybe they switched off the flume and fled before the monsters could pinpoint their position? Who is even powerful enough to open a flume and willing enough to take that risk? And also why would they?
As I wandered for miles through the silver burmed fields, I couldn’t help but wonder who was out there and why they would risk it. I didn’t have any answers, but the idea that maybe someone was looking out for me, filled me with a hopeful warmth.
…
I wandered for days in those silvery fields. I had aten the last of my stag bar and drank the water that occasionally dewed on the steely flowers. It would take the collection of dew from 10-18 flowers to get a fullfilling gulp of water; but I could always find silver flattops with water at all times of the day. They seemed to stretch endlessly, as if the sea of blissful steely waves of flowers would always provide peace and water and that the rows upon rows of flowers would never end.
But the rows of flowers did end; rather abruptly too. Before I knew it I was away from the burms and on a rock path approaching what seemed to be a large city. The strangest thing was that I had never even noticed I was leaving the fields. One second my feet were feeling the ground covered in soft silver; The next I was clanking the soles of my feet against stones without the field anywhere in view. I suppose I must have zoned out and not realized that I left those flowers fields.
Approaching the city, the first thing I saw was gargantuan pillars of quartz that pierced into the sky. Then I saw neatly made walls that consisted of dark black rock and that were ordained with a silvery metal. Cutting into the wall was a gate that forked into the ground. Beside the gate and mounted against the wall was a sign that read, “Splinter -The City of Blades”.