(Continuing from last chapter...)
Shortly after that little trip, I arrived back at the camp and using the logs I gathered, I started setting up my resting place.
And once I finished, I sighed in relief before sitting down on the makeshift bed.
"I can finally rest..." I lay down, resting my head on the bag I'm using as a pillow. And once I got all cozy, I gazed up at the starry sky and began pondering.
'...why did we end up here?..'
'How did we end up here again?.. oh right, that book...'
'I wonder what Mom and Cole had for dinner... What are they doing now? I wanna see them. Can we even get out of this world? I miss Mom. Will we even get out? I miss them. I hope they're okay. I hope they don't panic too much...'
Then, my eyes started watering at the thought of them grieving for my supposed death.
'No... No, we'll get out. We'll definitely get out.' I thought before drifting off to sleep.
...
(Around the same time I fell asleep, a few miles from our camping spot...)
step... step...
In this dark and unforgiving forest, there stood a lone soldier. Wandering aimlessly with his guard up and his sword unsheathed, ready to strike at anything.
rustle... rustle...
But from the brushes, a familiar figure emerged which caused the soldier to drop his guard and call out.
"Captai—!"
Or at least he tried to. Because as soon as he called out, the captain quickly darted towards him and covered his mouth to silence him...
"Be quiet, Henrick," He whispered in an apprehensive tone. "It might be nearby."
"Hff... Mhm." The soldier nodded, understanding the situation...
And upon seeing him nod, the captain scanned the area once more before removing his hand.
"Get behind me and stay on guard."
Henrick followed his orders and stood behind. Now that he has found his captain, he asked in a strained whisper, "Captain Eindall, why did this happen?! I thought that this area was already clear!"
"I don't know." Eindall responded. "All I know is that we need to find the people our Priestess summoned before the Birchen does."
"What about the rest of our group?" The soldier asked, this time more calmly.
"... They'll be fine." The captain said in an unapologetic tone.
Silence hung in the air. Henrick's trust in his superior wavered as he realized the cruelty in his resolve. He took a deep breath and took one step away, betraying his captain.
"With all due respect, Captain... If you're just going to sit here and wait for them to die, I'll go find them myself."
"What?!"
Without another word, he thoughtlessly marched into the darkness, leaving Eindall baffled and alone to fend for himself again.
"Son of a-... SHIT!"
Seething from anger, he took his helmet off and threw it at the ground.
...
'Of all the forests there is in these lands, it just had to be this one... These accursed birch trees...'
Eindall, full of rage, muttered under his breath as he sat down to calm his nerves.
'My men are going to die out there... And it's all because of... Those worldhopping bastards!.. Once I get my hands on them, I SWEAR TO CAILIUS, that I'll make their lives a living—'
Before he could finish that thought, something oozed onto his head. In disgust and confusion, he reached up and touched it.
'—hell?..'
'Sap?.. In this season?..'
He slowly looked upwards, only to see a tall, pale creature, staring at him with it's soul piercing, golden eyes. It continued dribbling saliva, even growing a nasty, teethy smile at the sight of his head turning upward. The sight immediately breaking the captain's hopes of leaving this forest.
'Damn you all... Damn you all to Hell... DAMN YOU!'
"DAMN YOU, KING GRISH—!!!"
In the blink of an eye, the creature bent down to it's knees and...
CRUNCH!!
Bit his whole upper body clean off.
...
(Later in the night, at our camp...)
Rustle... Stomp... Rustle... Stomp...
"Mm..."
Rustle... Stomp... Rustle... Stomp...
"Mn... Hm?.."
I sat up and looked around in a daze, having been awoken by the slight trembling of the ground and the rustling of the foliage.
"Whuz dat sound?.."
...
Rustle... Stomp... Rustle... STOMP...
Y'know what, scratch slight out, this isn't even a slight tremble, it's a whole tremor.
'There's something out there...'
I thought. The thing moving out there was big enough to make the earth produce small tremors upon stepping and make even the highest of the tree branches crack.
I finally processed the situation and yelled. "Who's there?!"
And upon doing so, the giant creature let out a surprisingly high squeak before leaving and bending even more trees.
Taking this as a sign that it was now safe, I jumped out of bed and hurriedly went to Lloyd.
"Hey! Lloyd, wake up!"
"Hm... Ah- uh, what..?" Lloyd opened his eyes and sat up.
"Something's out there." I said with obvious fear in my voice. "And it's not a rabbit or anything, I swear!"
"... Are you serious, Alex?.. It's probably just a deer... Or something... Just go back to sleep..." He slowly laid back down in the middle of his sentence.
Clap!
"Hey! Wake the fuck up!.. Wake up!.."
"How the hell did you not feel the ground shaking?!"
"Man... Shut uuupp... it's prolly juzt an earfquake or sum..."
"HEY! I don't wanna die to some random giant in another world and I sure as hell don't wanna die a virgin, so wake up!"
He shot up from the log he was sleeping on and pinched my ear. Dickhead.
"O-ow, Ow! Stop! It hurts!"
"I told you to shut up you dumbass!... grunt... Alright! I'll go!"
"LET GO OF MY EAR!" I yelled.
"Alright, virgin! Just stop yelling already, those pig things might find us again." Lloyd let go and started stretching.
"Hsss... I'll get back at you for that."
"Just shut up already."
...
Walking through the same place that I heard those sounds from, we see how much damage the
crunch... crunch...
"Y'know... yawn... everytime I go out at night, I've always thought of how loud everything gets."
This fact makes fear trickle down then shoot back up my spine, making me stop in my tracks and think that whatever's out there might hear us before we even hear it.
"yawn... What's wrong?.." Lloyd tiredly asked.
But after a bit of hesitation I say that it's nothing to worry to about, knowing that if I get put in a situation where I'm going to die, I'll be bringing Lloyd with me. And with that in mind, I went forward with him and searched the bushes.
...
"Holy shid." Lloyd, while pinching his nose, exclaimed with astonishment.
"Yeah, liderally." I said, doing the same thing as him, staring at the boulder-sized turd in front of us. "The flies are definitely gonna have a feast with this one."
"Blegh, are we supposed do be scared or abazed?"
"Dunno, but I ab definitely disgusted."
I looked around for what might've dropped this gigantic pile of excrement.
"Yeah, we should definidely be scared. Led's wake Clyde up." Lloyd said before he started going back the way we came.
"Waid for be!"
...
'Man, this forest creeps me the fuck out.'
After returning to our camp,I went over to the sleeping Clyde. Lloyd then sat on his log, watching me wake him up.
"Hey. Clyde, wake up." I said, shaking his shoulder to wake him up.
"Mm..."
shake... shake...
"Wake up, Clyde." I shook again, this time harder than before.
"Mmh... Stop..."
...
"Stubborn prick."
As a last ditch effort, I placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed hard enough to wake him up.
"A-Ah! Fuck, Ow!.."
"Wake the fuck up, there's something in the woods and we're leaving."
"Hff... Ahhhh... Hss... Ahhhh..." He whimpered and writhed in pain. Lil' bitch
"I think you squeezed him hard, dude." Lloyd said, feeling "bad" about him. The smirk on his face proved that otherwise, though.
"Come on, Clyde."
"I'm awake!... I'm awake... Jeez..." He yelled in frustation. "You could've just woken me up normally..."
"Just get up."
"Heard you the first time, you demented piece of shit..." He said before sitting up and putting his glasses on. "You don't need to repeat it..."
"Oh there's a piece of shit, alright. A big one, at that."
"The fuck do you mean?"
After a bit of recovering, he finally stood up, wondering about what was going on. Wanting him to see the absolutely epic piece of shit, we led him to the dung-site and explained the whole situation to him on the way there.
"..." Clyde stood in astonishment and disgust. The sheer amount of feces in one place really messes with a person's sense of reality. "Holy shid."
"I know, righd?" Lloyd said. "I said the sabe thing!"
"Waid, if dhere's poop dhis big, then thad beans—"
"We know! Thad's why we need do leave!"
"Whad if id's friendly?" Clyde asked, having a strange sense of optimism in his voice.
Lloyd and I exchanged looks. It was obvious from our faces what we were both thinking. 'What a fucking dumbass'.
"Friendly?" Lloyd scoffed. "Yeah, sure, friendly enough do crap us a landmark."
"Tsk... Ha ha, Lloyd." He sucked his teeth in annoyance. "Always godda be the comedian."
"I mean he is righd, Clyde. You really think something dhad drops a turd this big will be friendly?" I shot at him, pointing at the steaming pile of excrement.
"I dunno, baybe it's a gentle giants. They're not always carnivores y'know."
And then, as if nature took our side of the argument, the ground quaked, shaking the forest floor.
"... You still think id's friendly?" Lloyd said, his lips curling into an annoying smirk.
Clyde, now clearly irritated, stood his ground and tried to prove us wrong. "Well, the big guy probably just has indigestion. Happens do everybody."
"Sure, dude. Whadever, I'm leaving." Lloyd began walking back towards camp. "You're welcome to stay and examine that thing's butthole if you want."
"C'mon, Clyde. Let's just go get our stuff and leave." I said before catching up with Lloyd.
"...Hrnnggg..." Clyde stood in place and looked at the abhorrent excrete one more time. "Ugh, waid for be!"
...
(Back at the camp... Again...)
"—what I'm saying is that just because something is big, doesn't necessarily mean that it's also dangerous!"
"Oh yeah? Tell that to, I dunno, every big thing that could possibly kill us? Let's see... Elephants, falling trees, meteorites, Bears-"
"Umm, but a meteorite isn't alive, duh doy." Clyde interrupted, thinking it was actually a good point.
...
"Y'know for a nerd like you, you're pretty fucking dumb. I got a question, why do you keep defending that thing? Do you have a kink for giants or something?"
Clyde's face flushed from embarrassment. "Wha— No! What the hell, Lloyd?!"
Lloyd slung his bag over his shoulder and smirked.
"I'm just sayin', Clyde. One minute, you're talking about how gentle the giant supposedly is and next thing I know, you're already courting the crap fountain itself."
"Pfft." I barely stifle my laugh. "Heh... L-Lloyd, stop or you'll make him cry. J-Just get your stuff, Clyde!.. We... We need to get going."
He stared down at the ground, with his face having a frown comparable to that of a sad little boy, sulking over his spilled milk. "You're all laughing at me..."
Lloyd took a deep breath and sighed.
"C'mon... We were just messin' with ya." Lloyd walked over to him and picked his bag up. "Now, come on. We need to get going before the big guy chooses us as it's next meal."
Clyde, still being a whiny mutt about it, reluctantly agreed and finally walked along with us.
We walked through the forest, away from our camp and away from the giant's territory. It was still kind of dark and the moon still hasn't gone down all the way, but we still went forward.
"I hope run into a town soon..." Clyde said.
"Yeah..." Lloyd replied. "What time is it right now? The sky's getting a bit lighter."
"Lemme check."
I reached into my bag to find my phone.
"Man, you're lucky you still have your phone. Mine cracked when we fell."
"Yeah, mine too. All of my progress in Senseless Stone Six is gone..."
"It's 4:58 AM."
"Wow, we woke up that early? I blame you, Alex." Lloyd remarked.
"But isn't waking up early good for a person? Bumass flunky."
"Hey, you flunked school too, you hypocrite."
"Yeah but at least I know what the word 'Effable' means, you lowlife."
...
____________________
Current Heroes' Party
Alex Grayson (Level 1)
Lloyd Edwards (Level 1)
Clyde Myers (Level 1)