A steady drip, drip, drip is what I awoke to. The repetitive noise felt calming yet out of place. I forced my eyes open as my consciousness fully returned. Blinking away the drowsiness, the sight that greeted me was breathtaking. A myriad of lightly glowing blue and green crystals lined the rocky stone roof that I stared up at.

My mind was blank for a few sparse seconds before a cacophony of thoughts echoed throughout my mind. My room isn’t made out of stone. There isn’t a leaky faucet in my house. And what the hell is with those glowy rocks?…. THAT DEMON SHIT WORKED?!

I clutched my head as a familiar emotion overwhelmed me momentarily… Panic, pure unadulterated fear. My heart rate skyrocketed and I tried to force myself to calm down by taking a couple of deep breaths and reasoning with myself. Okay… I’m not in my house anymore… Ritual was magical, yep…. FUCK WHAT DO I DO… I-I should prioritize my life before anything else in a situation like this. I have to keep myself safe and sound.

I slapped my cheeks and stood up. My body felt slightly sore from laying on what appeared to be hard stone. I gave the place I was in a good look. A hard, cold, gray stone made up most of the room including the walls and roof. It was rough and seemed as if it had formed naturally. A stalactite periodically dripped water into a small stream that went deeper into the cave. The cave was lit by strange fluorescent mushrooms, as well as the light glow of the crystals. I was at what was seemingly a dead end with one way to go. There were also a few strange old runes seemingly engraved into the stone beneath where I had awoken. They seemed vaguely similar to the ones I had used to make the original demon summoning circle.

After getting a good look at the place and deciding I was in no immediate danger, I decided to take stock of what I had: I was wearing a simple white tee and a pair of sweatpants with nothing in my pockets. In other words I had a whole lot of nothing. Well that wasn’t very helpful… Guess the only thing left to do is to walk the only direction I can.

I took a moment to steel myself before going down the path. As I walked I noticed a few peculiarities in the strange cave I found myself in. First off, the crystals I had noticed earlier. They radiated some sort of glowing energy that I could see; and when I swiped my hand through the energy it seemed like it was absorbed into my hand with a slight tingling sensation. I swear I could feel it as the energy gently flowed through my body towards the center of my abdomen before settling there and fading. The blue energy felt cool and malleable, while the green carried the feeling of growth and vitality. The final peculiarity came from the darkness. It came in the form of a strange clicking sound emanating from the murky shadows, putting me on edge.

As I advanced down the one way path the sound only grew more intense. It came to a crescendo before suddenly stopping plunging the cave into an ominous silence. I continued my advance as silently and warily as I could manage before arriving at a small cliff's edge.

The sight that greeted me was a beautiful one. The creek to my left flowed off the cliff I was standing on, into what I could only describe as a massive jungle inside a similarly large cavern. On the roof of the cavern were huge stalactites with literal tons of the strange crystals attached to them. The crystals lit the cavern well enough to allow for fairly decent visibility from my position. The bizarre lighting as well as the foreign plant life and massive crystals hanging from the stalactites made for quite the extraordinary sight.

Besides the jungle, the first thing that caught my attention was a small plume of smoke slowly floating up in some distant part of the jungle. The smoke flowed up and out of sight into the higher sections of the cavern. The smoke seemed consistent and remained small. That means that it’s likely man made. Perhaps some other people are stuck in here… or they may be natives I suppose. Well only one way to find out I guess.

Quickly arriving at a decision I slowly traversed down the side of the cliff. It was a precarious climb yet manageable thanks to my rather outdoorsy youth. As I landed, a bit more roughly than intended, I glanced around taking in the scene. The jungle only lit by the brightly glowing crystals above gave off a rather ominous feel with it’s thick canopy blocking most of the light making it quite hard to see in. The complete lack of path as well as the plentiful greenery made me thankful I was at least wearing pants for traversing its depths.

I took a moment to gather myself, closing my eyes and focusing on my goals. First, find out about that fire, always remain cautious and wary. Learn more about where I am and act based on it. For now I need to focus all my energy on survival.. GOD THIS PLACE IS HOT!

As I finished, I opened my eyes with a determined yet notably irritated expression set on my face. I slowly trekked into the thick jungle, wary of everything with my eyes darting every which way.

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About an hour had passed and the weather had only gotten hotter and the air more humid. I was heavily sweating and slightly panting as I adapted to the water filled air. My shirt uncomfortably sticking to my back and the occasional lash from a rough plant had me in a rather bad mood. However I was gradually approaching the area I had seen the smoke originate from, or at least I thought I was. It was hard to be entirely sure while traversing the jungle. I continued advancing, listening to the sounds of bugs, birds and other strange creature’s calls.

A sharp snapping sound resonated from the branches above me and my attention was immediately drawn up. Only one thought ran through my mind at that moment.

I’m fucked aren’t I.

The sight that greeted me wasn’t a very good one. Something that looked like a jaguar with two extra hind legs and a tail covered in sharp bonelike protrusions was the unpleasant sight that greeted me. One of it’s legs had snapped a rotten branch of the canopy above me, sending the branch tumbling down and producing the loud snap. After a split second of staring at each other blankly, both of us leapt into action. It pounced for me and I bolted. Sprinting full tilt to the left, I barely managed to avoid its pounce as it landed on the ground crashing into where I had been a split second ago.

Sprinting with wild abandon and weaving between trees I quickly realized I was much slower than it. As it closed onto me I came to a quick decision. Grabbing a sturdy looking stick off the ground I skidded around a tree and swung desperately at the creature. It hit it squarely on the nose causing it to make a slight yelp in what seemed closer to surprise than pain. It stumbled backwards for a split second before leaping straight for me. Unable to get out of the way in time I decided to try the next best thing and not let my throat get bitten.

It crashed down on top of me, it’s sharp claws digging deep into me spilling my blood. I barely managed to get the stick between its mouth and my neck, however I wasn’t sure how long that would last. The stick slowly cracking, and adrenaline pumping, I made a decision no sane man would ever attempt.

I released one hand off the stick, only holding it off for a split second as the weight pushed my arm back. I grabbed another, smaller stick off the forest floor with my right hand and attempted to stab it in the eye.

I swung with all my power and the stick sunk into its right eye with a disgusting shunk. A loud yelp came out of its mouth as it scrambled back its claws sliding out of the incisions they had made. The pain had yet to set in due to adrenaline and I quickly forced myself to my feet, dropping the sticks and stumbling slightly due to the panic. The monster had fallen over and was pawing at its bloodied eye socket desperately. I stumbled away in the direction I hoped was where the smoke had come from.

However it seemed that wasn’t the end of it as an ear-splittingly loud roar came from behind. I looked behind me and the beast was standing again, right eye closed with blood leaking out of it. Its single remaining eye glared at me with unmatched fury. Out of sticks and wit I decided to pull out my last trump card.

Falling back into an full sprint I yelled as loudly as I could

“HEEEEEEEEEEELP ME!”

And as it seems, my plea for help would not go unanswered.

As the monster was closing onto me, a massive figure burst out of the brush at a ridiculous speed, slamming into the side of the monster with the force and delicacy of a freight train. The stupid cat’s back was rammed into a tree and a massive snake tail from whatever had helped me constricted around it.

Sprinting while looking behind you is apparently not the best idea as my foot caught on something sending me tumbling to the ground. My head and vision spinning I forced myself up into a sitting position and looked behind me. The monster was being manhandled by what had helped me. Getting a better look at it, it seemed to be a young and tan woman that was extremely muscular. Her most obvious feature was the fact that her lower half was that of a snake. She had pure white hair that was braided down her back. Her eyes were a piercing green with snake-like pupils and she was wearing what looked like a fairly tribal outfit with a thin, close-fitting, wraparound shirt that ended above her belly button as well as a wraparound skirt thing. She had pointed ears and sharp teeth which were currently digging into the monster’s neck as she constricted it with an insane amount of strength. Every time the monster tried to move it only opened itself into being squeezed tighter by the massive snake tail.

A loud crunch sound rang out as its bones finally gave into the force, ending its life. I stared blankly at this sight until I suddenly felt a hand grab onto the back of my shirt and lift me up. Looking behind me I found a similar looking snake woman holding me up with one arm by the hem of my shirt. Deciding against struggling I simply gave out a tentative wave and a slightly scared “Hi?”.

She simply stared at me blankly in response before shrugging and throwing me over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and advancing quickly through the forest. Looking behind her the other woman carried the crushed jaguar monster thing like it weighed nothing. Realizing how outclassed I was I decided against fighting back. The wounds inflicted from the monster began to burn as the adrenaline wore off sending spasms of pain from my shoulders and legs throughout my body.

This shit sucks…. At least I lived though I guess… Also the snake ladies are hot…

Realizing my thoughts were drifting I decided to close my eyes and try to process everything that had happened today. All the while being transported like a sack of potatoes to wherever the hell they were taking me.