“Gael, wake up” Athena tries to ruffles me awake, “I’ll get up in a minute” I groan

Athena saw through my deception and attempted to snatch the covers off of me, but I had been well prepared I was grabbing onto the covers with my hands and toes. Athena’s sheer strength flipped me making me look like an upside-down crab. I quickly roll into a turtle position- tucking under the blanket and using all my weight and to stretch the blanket away from Athena.

“I said one minute!” I snarl at Athena “Gael you don’t want to get into a tug-war match with me” she says, but I wasn’t backing down “You’re on bitch” I challenge

I hear knuckle cracking beyond the comfort of the bed sheet, making me sweet a little. “Aight bitch let's do this, but if I win you’re in for an ass whooping” Athena says with what I can imagine to be a menacing grin. It had started to sink In that I probably fucked up, but I didn’t want to get out of bed.

Thus our game of tug-a-war had officially begun.

Athena grabs the blanket with both hands and yanks it with the strength of an elephant, but I wasn’t letting go I hold onto the sheets for dear life as I get swung onto the floor making Athena’s eyes go wide seeing my determination, “Gael just let go; you got to get up either way!” she says swinging me around like a Beyblade.

I hiss at her while trying to withstand the sheer pressure by tightly grappling onto the blanket like a koala grappling to a tree. After withstanding Athena’s futile attempts at trying to throw me off she tries to slam me against the bed in a final attempt to make me let go, but even though It blew the air out of me I grit my teeth and held on “‘y’know what, fuck it, I don’t care anymore do what you want!” she complains and storms off out of the hut.

I won I grin to myself as I get back to getting comfortable in the bed and under the covers smiling as I get cozy.

Fuck I’m not tired. I come to the tragic conclusion; I had fought fiercely for my right to sleep and I couldn’t even enjoy it, so I just laid in bed looking up at the ceiling wood ceiling not feeling any more mentally tired, just physically. I groan as I leave the bed frustrated at the fact that I’ll never be able to relish my victory over Athena. I grab my shoes put them on and head out of the hut.

As I exited the hut I noticed Athena in the corner of my eye was waiting for me “Um well hello there I thought you left?” I say “Nah I knew you’d wake up soon after flinging you up so much, or well y’know be unable to fall back asleep. It had worked on you when we were kids thought it might work on you now as well” She shrugs “Didn’t mom tell you to stop flinging me around like a mace in the morning?” baffled at how unapologetic Athena was “I think you mean flail, but yeah mom did say that, but mom’s not here” she shrugs again

“Are you upset?” I ask wondering why she keeps shrugging like that “No, why’d you ask” she shrugs “Cuz you’re giving me attitude” I respond “Uh-huh and I don’t really care I’m the older sibling” She shrugs “Are you perhaps upset that I beat you in a contest of strength” I tease “say that again and I'll use you as a flail with your leg being the handle” she threatens

so that is the reason I think to myself.

oh this’ll be fun I think to myself with a grin.

“What?” Athena asks increasingly irritated “Athena oh the great Athena named after the goddess of war and wisdom; a symbol of strength, integrity, intelligence, and courage. Oh how shameful you must feel knowing you got bested at a game of your own specialty” I mock

Athena just looked at me for a good few seconds before putting a hand on my shoulder and gripping it really hard until I’m wailing in pain.

I honestly couldn’t even get mad I knew I had deserved it, but god damn was it worth it. I rub my shoulder to numb the pain and follow Athena as she walks off toward the big building as we walked we had once again been encountering monsters of all sorts of distinctive characteristics. Ah fuck I got to get used to this don’t I think to myself as I watch a floating ball of water with a flesh hand and dog ears pass by. Fuck I don’t want to get used to this, this can’t be good for my mental health. I walk closer to Athena “Hey are you okay dealing with these monsters?” I whisper

“First of all that’s rude nobody gets to choose how they’re born, and second of all you don’t know what they’re like so stop assuming things based on their appearance. That's called racism” Athena states matter-a-factly, as my eyes follow the form of an 8-foot white salivating werewolf with a variety of scars around its body.

“there’s clearly a line between racism and survival instincts” I whisper back which Athena doesn’t try to retort. We continue walking towards the big house passing by a multitude of creatures with distinguishable characteristics until we got to the house. When we walked in the group was talking and there was one voice that I didn’t recognize among them

As we entered we came to see only Andre and Brandon and a tall chestnut-skinned woman with curly black hair fading into blonde talking

As we entered the women glanced at us revealing skin as smooth as silk, mesmerizing green eyes, and perfect facial proportions with perfect body proportions to go with it, holy shit she’s gorgeous I think to myself. She almost didn't seem real, as if she was a realistic AI generated image. Athena seemed to think the same thing as she started gushing over her the moment she saw her.

“Oh my god how do you take care of your skin? It's so smooth!” she asks “Your hair is beautiful what brand did you get this hair dye from? What conditioner do you use?” she continues asking “Are you a model? You got to be a model!” she continues bombarding the lady with questions. The lady smiles revealing her dimples and pearl-white teeth. The lady then puts an arm around Athena and starts rubbing her head.

“I like this girl, she knows what's up” the woman smiles “I've been the only human woman in this village for too damn long, it’s bout time I got a new girlfriend” the woman continues to chortle “I was thinking the same thing,” Athena says clearly thirsty. The woman looks at Athena and starts laughing even harder “That's great, you got a sense of humor” she says wiping away a tear

“Aveline, please introduce yourself before seducing the children” Brandon facepalms “What the heck is that” she laughs and rests her head on Athena’s head “I'm Aveline as you just heard. Nice to meet ya. I heard that two kids came here a few days ago, but I was busy working on something, so what’s your names?” she asks with a smile

“I’m Athena he’s Gael” Athena says “ooo you both got some nice exotic names,” she says excitedly

“your name is also beautiful, what does it mean?” Athena asks

“Oh my name means a few things, such as life, desired child, and little hazelnut tree. My mom always liked to call me her little hazelnut when I was little though,” she says with a bittersweet smile. Athena seemed to pick up on this and tried to change the topic.

“What do you do for work?” Athena asks

"I run multiple non-profit companies around the world”

Athena and my eyes go wide what the hell she's basically superhuman “What the hell you’re like superhuman” Athena says causing Aveline to laugh “far from it, non-profits like the name suggests makes it hard for me to make money,” she explains “so, how did you make money?” Athena asks “umm well, I had multiple forms of revenue” She starts to think back “I did do some modeling,” she winks at Athena “I wrote a book as well, but my biggest source of revenue was from my other two for-profit companies,” she says

What the fuck this woman is literally superhuman I think to myself “What the fuck you’re literally superhuman” Athena echos what I was thinking causing the lady to chuckle once again.

“Thanks for the flattery, but while it does sound impressive, the only reason I've been able to deal with it all is because of all the people who have supported me so far” Aveline says

“yeah, but it’s still impressive regardless nobody can run a company alone” Athena says. Aveline starts to squeal and gives Athena a bear hug

“Oh my gosh you’re just so cute” she gushes “Brandon can we keep her? Cmon lemme keep her,” she asks Brandon “Sorry but I can’t really condone human trafficking” Brandon smiles “Just this once- cmon just this once” Aveline continues to play around with the idea of enslaving my sister “while we’re at it can I also keep the other kid as well; y’know like a two in one deal” Aveline glances at me “um Brandon so I'm just wondering if we’re going to go to the area now or later” I said changing the conversation.

Brandon looks at me for a moment before speaking “Yeah we can go now” he confirms “Andre, considering that Aveline is here, we should be getting our food soon, so I'll leave skinning it to you” Brandon tells Andre “Ok, gotcha,” Andre says stopping playing with his knife and leaving the door

“What's going on? Where are you guys heading?” Aveline asks “We’re going to the last mass teleportation location,” Brandon says causing Aveline’s eyes to go wide

"espèce de fils de pute fou” she curses “are you sure it’ll be safe? Won’t he be there?” she asks “It should be fine, the demons in the area said that he was in the moving woods” Brandon tries to reassure Aveline

Hmm, the people in our town must’ve thought that the elves would give them refuge because they have a good relationship with humans… one problem the humans in this novel aren’t exactly humans… But assuming that Ruthel is there he and the elves might come into conflict which could be good for us.

“Brandon I get that you know what you’re doing but you should wait at least a week, no?” she asks “It’ll probably be fine” I interject “Chances are that if he went to the woods he’d get into a fight with the elves. Furthermore, he probably doesn’t want to leave his kingdom for a long time” I shrug

They both look at me before Brandon speaks “Well, there you go, we’ll go now, I hope you're ready” he glances at me and Athena

“Wait wait wait that doesn’t mean anything, “A long time” is relative, and we don’t know if he’ll actually get into a fight with the elves, you’re just going off of assumption and not fact” Aveline tries to stop us.

“Aveline please we gotta go” Athena pleads with Aveline which causes Aveline to look at her with a worried expression “Ok..fine, but I’m coming with you” she says

“no you’re not” Brandon shoots her down

“you literally just said that it should be safe” she scowls

“you’re our main source of food, even if I were to die, this village would still be able to flourish, and you know the fear of losing a family member” Brandon says which seemed to shock Evaline “Brandon… FUCK FINE, BUT YOU’RE TAKING DAISY WITH YOU” Aveline declares and whistles an ear-piercing whistle.

Within moments it felt like an earthquake had been occurring slowly and steadily the shaking of the earth rattling the very room we were in. When the shaking reached its peak it had stopped entirely Aveline then started speaking “Mook omo ans” she said to the ground with a motherly energy

The ground had started to shake again as if it was a way of confirmation “Whoa what was that?” Athena asks shaken up literally and physically by the living earthquake “That was Daisy, an earthworm” Evaline explains my eyes go wide “You tamed an earthworm? That’s possible?” I ask baffled at the statement “I can tame any creature under the right conditions” Aveline explains “anyways you all have to stay safe, run away at the first sign of danger” she orders us “And you; we’ll be having a talk when you get back” she points at Brandon which causes Brandon to sigh “sure Ave, let's do that” Brandon sighs “is that attitude I hear?” Aveline looks at Brandon incredulously “No ma’am” Brandon tries to save himself “Better not be” Aveline threatens “Well alright kids let’s go” Brandon encourages us to follow him and so we do.

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Brandon took us into the backyard and we followed him into a section that was further back until we had gotten into the crystal woods I had gotten lost in before. Although when I was last here I had felt all sorts of monsters around me lurking and watching, but right now I felt nothing as if we truly had been all alone in the middle of a dark forest, which was eerie in its own way.

After a bit more walking Brandon finally walked up to a random tree and the roots that make up the tree started to unravel revealing another spiral staircase within the tree illuminated by abnormally bright fireflies “Well let's go” Brandon casually tells us to follow him

As we headed up the spiral staircase made of tree roots Athena was completely encapsulated with the sights, but honestly I had seen crazier things in the past two days- hell in the past two hours, flashy fireflies seemed kinda dull in comparison

Midway through our escalation, Brandon spoke “Hey Gael, I just wanted to apologize for how I acted earlier, I get you were half asleep and didn’t really mean to offend anyone” Brandon apologized startling me “Hey, don’t worry about it, but why did you react the way you did? Is there something wrong with touching Karfi’s horn?” I ask

“That- that's not for me to say, you can ask Karfi, but don’t push him to come out, and I go by what I said before, don’t ever touch his horn with your hand,” Brandon says significantly calmer than before “and while you’re at it you should also apologize to him when you have the time,” Brandon says “ok, I’ll do that” I confirm not knowing when ill do it, but I'll do it eventually.

After a bit more walking we reached the top of the spiral staircase. Brandon went up to a random wall within the tree and then the roots began to unravel once again revealing the red sandish savannah we had been in just days prior.

Strange I’m feeling kind of nostalgic; no, no I'm not, I take that back. I hate sandy and dry places.

“I’ll tell you right now this is the time you guys can choose to go back, you may have to witness something you don’t want to see” Brandon looks at us with compassion and pity in his eyes “Let's go,” Athena says “we already said we’d go yesterday”

“Yeah, even if we don’t go, it won’t change what happened. The only thing we can do right now is confirm the safety of our family and friends and act accordingly.” I agree with Athena.

Brandon takes a long pause “Are you sure?” he asks. GODDAMN IT MAN STOP FEEDING OUR ANXIETIES I internally scream at the man “Yeah” I simply state “I agree. Besides, I can smell it already” Athena says with a grimace

My eyes go wide. Wait what the hell? how close are we to it? Assuming that Athena has the nose of a shark that’d mean we were a mile away from it. Holy shit the massacre practically occurred right above the village!

Brandon nods “I’m surprised you can smell it, but yes the mass teleportation took place about a mile away from here” Brandon confirms my fears

“Great it's a short way away from here; it’ll just be like a quick stop at Walmart” I fake a confident grin. Shit, we gotta move quickly Ruthel might be a lot closer than I thought. I internally panic

“Well the teleportation, occurred over there.” Brandon points over Yonder. Without any further hesitation, we started heading towards the massacre.

I was at the vanguard during our expedition getting more and more jumpy the more we walked. I just wanted to get there and get back as fast as possible. Athena was at the back getting more fidgety with the more distance we covered. While Brandon was between us and was the calmest between the three of us. Was he confident he could take on Ruthel if he fought him? Nah, probably not, if anything it’s probably an escape plan he’s confident in.

After what felt like an eternity of walking with the frequency of scorch marks sweeping across mountains and the ground increasing closer we got. I had started to smell it too. What smelt like the burning of leather, and another metallic smell had mixed within the air. Things that a large portion of war books I have read would have described as The smell of blood and Iron.

Athena’s eyes had started watering profusely at this point, and even Brandon was grimacing, but I wasn’t waiting for them. I didn’t even know how long we’d been walking, any more stalling would be dangerous.

Right now we had been climbing up a mountain that had been split in half; the top half of the mountain had toppled over and was leaning against the base of the bottom half of the mountain. Huh is this perhaps?

As we reached the plateau of the split mountain the horizon came into view. The first things we saw were the collapsed form of a humanoid skyscraper, the rising suns, and a large number of corpses which kinda looked like squashed bugs from this distance. Wait the suns are rising? How long was I asleep? Ah fuck it, it doesn’t matter.

“Athena do you want to just stay her-” I glance at Athena who was hugging herself shivering like crazy with battered breath and watery eyes.

Brandon was already with her rubbing her back trying to reaffirm her telling her everything was going to be okay with not much progress being made to calm her down.

I quickly go to Athena “Hey-hey it’ll be alright, Athena do you want to stay here?” I ask “Sorry but she can’t do that” Brandon rejects my offer for Athena “Why the hell not!? She clearly can’t go!” I yell at the man who can turn me into paper mache.“In case Ruthel comes by we need to be able to hide/escape, If she’s here it’ll take me at least a minute to get up this mountain from down there, within that time- well you can guess what’ll happen” Brandon explains making me click my tongue

Shit do we blindfold her and block her nose now? Fuck it let's do it.

“Do you have anything to blindfold her with?” I ask Brandon, and he shakes his head in dismissal causing me to click my tongue again. Well whenever a character is in need of some fabric, they always have their own clothing to use. I think to myself as I rip a part of my sleeve and put it around Athena’s eyes, which she pushes away

“Dude don’t act tough right now you clearly can’t handle this” I scold her “Shut up I need to see this” she scowls at me “I’ll see it for you just put on the blindfold, You can barely stand up” I urge her to put on the blindfold “No, I’ll be fine” she argues an unconvincing argument. Goddamn it why are you so fucking determined to be traumatized for life. “Just put on the goddamn blindfold Athena!” I yell at her “I'll be fine” Athena says taking a deep breath, and within that one breath Athena stops her shaking, and her watery eyes entirely.

She had become completely stoic to the massacre of our entire town in a single breath. I knew what she was doing, and I knew it wouldn’t end up good.

“FOR FUCK SAKE ATHENA, STOP ACTING TOUGH AND PUT ON THE GODDAMN BLINDFOLD!” I yell at her desperately trying to keep her from being a dumbass.

“Gael please I have to go” Athena pleads with me.

Bitch do you think you’re going to get character development!? I internally scream in my head “WHY ARE YOU SO DAMN PERSISTENT!?” I yell at her Athena pauses before she speaks

“For a multitude of reasons really; feeling as if I have to truly face it before I can move on; having the obligation to face our family and friends where they died; not wanting you to see such a scene by yourself; etc. etc.” she shrugs

“That doesn’t matter, those feelings won’t help you grow; if anything they’ll lead you to a darker place. You won’t be able to just shrug this off Athena” I argue back

“And you will?” she retorts

“I will” I state confidently in the heat of the moment startling her and myself in the process

“Will you?” I ask trying to change the topic from me to Athena

“I will” she confirms

She's Lying

“I’m sorry to cut your talk short, but we can’t stay here forever. We should get looking for your parents” Brandon interjects

Shit, I forgot we’re on a time limit.

I scruffle my hair goddamn it. What if we just go back home and come back another day? Would that even do anything? Athena would still persist in following me. Could I convince Brandon to just take me in secret? That’s probably my best option.

“Athena, we’re going ba-” I glance at Athena only to notice she’s sliding down the mountain towards the massacre. "THIS BITCH!" I exclaim as I immediately follow behind her.

As I slid down the mountain I forgot that I didn’t have much of any athletic ability, so my slide quickly turned into a roll as I lost my balance amongst a few rocks.

Oh shit I’m dead

I grip my eyelids together tightly and cover my head only for me to notice a few seconds after my fall, that I wasn’t another meatball at the bottom of the mountain. Brandon was holding me up, so I wouldn’t roll into the afterlife.

Brandon was descending by jumping from rock to rock in contrast to Athena’s reckless slide through the rocky terrain. Brandon was following close to Athena; perfect yelling distance for the shit she pulled earlier.

“ATHENA WHAT ARE YOU DOING, WE’RE GOING TO COME BACK LATER!” I yell at her “We’re already here it’s better to find out now than later!” she answers “Also you were probably going to just come here with Brandon in secret later anyways, weren’t you!? She correctly accuses me

“No, why would I ever do such a thing!” I lie through my teeth causing Athena to frown at me

“Ugh, yeah I was going to come with Brandon alone, so what!? YOU DON’T HAVE THE MENTAL FORTITUDE TO HANDLE WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE!” I yell at her

“I TOLD YOU I HAVE TO SEE THIS GAEL” Athena loses it “FOR FUCK SAKE WHY DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO PROTECT ME!? BECAUSE NEWS FLASH DIPSHIT YOU’VE ALWAYS AND ALWAYS WILL BE WEAKER THAN I AM!” Athena screams at me causing me to recoil, but Athena also seemed to flinch at what she said as well.

she does have a point though. Who do I think I am? Who am I to try and stop Athena from facing her fears? Do I have any right to try and stop her? I just wanted to protect Athena from emotional trauma because I know she’ll take it much harder than I will, but is that really enough of a reason to keep her from going?

“Gael- listen I-” Athena gets cut off when a nearby tree warps to entrap us in a ball promptly stopping our descent and then drags us hundreds of feet into the ground within mere seconds.

Before me and Athena could even scream Brandon covered our mouths with tree roots, keeping us from saying a word, and when we thought that it had gotten quiet, a shaking sensation started approaching us until we had once again felt the entire ball shake and roll, but this time we had no longer been under hundreds of pounds of dirt and rock, but in a much looser, mushier, wetter environment.

Were we eaten?

I tried to breathe, but the roots over my mouth made that nearly impossible. I try to reach to roots of my mouth only to notice all the other roots holding my body in place. I couldn’t move. I try to free my arms, in a futile attempt, then my legs, once again in a futile attempt, I try to scream in a futile attempt. I had been stuck in a ball hundreds of meters underground in the stomach of a monster in pitch-black darkness. I was incapable of doing anything other than crying. Fuck Athena is right I'm powerless. I don’t want to be so fucking weak. I don’t want to constantly be at the mercy of these monsters. I cry at my feeling of helplessness

“Shhh, Ruthel is going to pass by us soon. Can you calm down?” Brandon’s voice whispers through the dark narrow dampness of the wooden ball. I calm down and nod. Then the roots around unraveled from limbs, and my mouth, allowing me to finally breathe. It seemed like Athena had been in the same position as me because when Brandon released the roots from my mouth I noticed that I wasn’t the only one breathing heavily.

“What happened? Were we eaten?” I ask as calmly as possible “Yeah, we’re in daisies belly in case Ruthel tries looking underground” Brandon says casually

What in the actual fuck is going on at this point.

“So our escape plan was to get eaten alive by a giant earthworm?” I ask hoping with all my heart that this wasn’t the case

“Uh, um yeah” Brandon confirms

What in the actual fuck is going on at this point. I ask myself again in disbelief. “So we should be safe now?” Athena asks a good question

“Uhm, good question,” Brandon agrees it’s a good question

FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, I internally scream in my head

“It’ll be fine” I go against my every instinct to have a mental breakdown

“I love your optimism,” Brandon says

Buddy, I'd sucker punch you if you didn’t possess the power to toss me into orbit. Okay, no, let's calm down Brandon wouldn’t do this if he knew that Ruthel would find and kill us underground, this should have given us a good chance of survival, probably.

“So, what’s the chance he finds us?” I ask “Depends, If he looks for anybody underground 50/50, but if he just flies by we should practically be safe,” Brandon says causing me to breathe a sigh of relief “Where did you get that ratio?” Athena asks

“Well if Ruthel looks underground he’s guaranteed to find Daisy, and he might find our ball, but he might think we’re just some boulder a rock worm ate along its daily stroll” Brandon explains “So basically it all depends on how thorough Ruthel is” Brandon summarizes causing me to breathe even easier “yeah, okay, then we should be good” I sigh laying against the wall of the ball.

“Is Ruthel not a thorough worker?” Athena asks “Well,” Brandon and I speak simultaneously, but I let Brandon continue “No, he is. He does all his assignments flawlessly, but Ruthel is also logical, if he has no reason to believe his targets will be somewhere, he won’t look there.” Brandon explains and I continue “Ruthel has no reason to believe we would be hundreds of meters underground” I explain

Athena also sighed and lay against the wall of the ball when she heard the explanation. “So how long do we gotta wait?’” she asks. “Until he goes past us,” Brandon says. So we should be waiting too long I think to myself. I relax into the balls and wait for him to pass by.

And as I thought after what felt like five or so minutes we heard rumbling “Is th-” Brandon covers Athena’s mouth

Oh shit he’s here

Brandon immediately uncovers Athena’s mouth

Oh shit he’s not here

“Alright, you kids ready to head out?” Brandon says with a smile I imagine him having

“What was that?” Athena tries not to yell “Ruthel. He passed by” Brandon explains “Oh, ok?” Athena accepts the explanation

After confirming that Ruthel had left, Brandon started getting us out of the ground, but first, we had to get out of Daisy. Brandon starts levitating the wooden ball and carefully gets us out of Daisy’s belly. After we got out of Daisy’s belly, it was only up from there. We started tunneling upwards until we eventually got back to levitating, but this time we weren’t in the stomach of a giant earth monster.

Brandon unravels his roots and we’re blessed with the sight of grass, well mostly rock and sand. but some grass. Never thought a hobbit such as I would revel at the sight of vegetation.

I glance at Athena who’s face is distorted into one of horror from looking behind us. I glanced to see what she was afraid of, and I realized that since we came back up we were now at the base of the mountain and the massacre was now within a few blocks distance from us. Everything was visible, Everything was tangible, and everything was real.