Pained, cold, and weak.
Those words would be the only way to describe Kelric.
Confused, afraid, and intrigued.
Words that described his mental state.
Darkness, danger, and death.
The only words fitting for this environment.
Darkness swirled around Kelric’s weak body. He hadn’t woken up yet after the deep fall. The quiet filled the space he found himself in. It stayed for a moment as if it was a minute of silence for the deceased. The minute passed and many sounds returned. The sound of digging, the sound of flesh getting ripped apart, and the sound of something getting dragged on the floor. They all combined into a horrifying mess, even the gods couldn’t bear to hear.
Badum Badum Badum Badum Badum BadumBadum
His heart rate increased rapidly.
Gasp
Kelric woke up. His rapid heartbeat was the first thing he felt. He raised a hand to his chest while all other feelings caught up. He touched his chest with his hand. A muffled “Huh?” could be heard from Kelric. He looked down but couldn’t see anything, but he knew something was horribly wrong. He tapped his chest with his hand again. He didn’t feel anything, at least that’s what he thought. An indescribable pain hit him. If something had hit him or it was the pain catching up to him, he didn’t know.
He fainted.
The darkness swirled away from Kelric, it had been replaced by danger.
Loud and heavy footsteps came toward Kelric. They crept closer and closer until they stopped somewhere near him. The breathing of the large entity was clear now that it had stopped walking.
Kelric woke up again. He had faint memories of a few minutes ago. He knew heavy pain was coming. He prepared himself, but to no avail. The pain hit as hard as before, but he didn’t faint this time. Dying would’ve been better than enduring the pain.
The pain settled slightly, enough for him to think about something other than it. He tried looking around to see if there was something that could help him.
Nothing. There was nothing except darkness.
Something happened, something appeared. A small light flickered its way into existence. Was it far away, or was it a small light close by? There was no way of knowing. The light moved. Kelric wanted to trust it, but knew a glowing flower was the reason he ended up here. Loud footsteps were heard by Kelric through his muffled ears. The light was part of the entity. He could see it more clearly, the shape of the unknown entity. Had it seen Kelric? Had it heard him? Had it smelled him? It didn’t matter, it was coming toward Kelric. Fear enveloped him, and goosebumps covered his body. It came closer. He knew he had to be quiet. It stood in front of Kelric. A clear monkey-like shape could be seen. Kelric held his breath. It looked around and started walking away. Part of his fear left him, as he became more aware of the coldness of the floor he was on. The pain and cold mixed into something far worse.
He fainted once more.
Thud
The sound of Kelric’s body slamming into the ground echoed. He somehow managed to sit straight without realising it and now he fell again. This alerted the monkey-like monster. It gazed at Kelric’s unconscious body. Sounds came from his mouth as if it was trying to say something. Then it gripped him tightly around the leg. He didn’t feel it since he was still unconscious. It walked away, holding Kelric’s foot nearly behind his back, and pulled him along. It walked while breathing heavily and never loosened its grip once.
It arrived at its destination, it was unclear where it was. A big pit with faint lights was in front of the monster. It chucked Kelric into the pit and walked away.
The pit was quiet, unsettlingly quiet. As if something was eating all the sounds. Kelric’s body lay on a big pile of something. It seemed he wouldn’t wake up for a few more days.
A day passed. The pile decreased in size.
Another one passed. The pile regained its size, and something big and chunky laid on kelric’s legs.
A third day passed. The chunky thing on his legs was gone.
Sometime on the third day, he woke up. Pain rose up his body quickly. A horrid smell was present, it nullified most of his pain. He sat up straight while reaching for his nose with his right hand. He couldn’t feel or move his hand.
Memories from the day with the flower and the bears resurfaced. He remembered that the bear broke his hand like a twig, so he couldn’t move or feel it. He lowered his right hand and raised his left to his nose. He managed to pinch his nose to block some of the smell successfully. The smell still managed to come through. At least the smell was more bearable than the pain. He looked around and noticed the small lights around him. One of them seemed close by, so he let go of his nose, quickly grabbed it, put it next to him, and pinched his nose again. He picked up a small cube, about the size of a dice, that emanated obscure light. It was enough to inspect his body. But before he was able to do it something else came to mind. When he reached out to grab the cube the surroundings felt soggy, and the place where he sat felt soggy too. He wanted to inspect it. He looked toward the cube lying on the ground. He saw…
Flesh. Red rotting flesh.
He moved the cube.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Even more flesh. Everywhere was flesh
A realisation came to him. He wasn’t where he was before, now he was on top of the food pile of a monster. That explained the horrid smell. He knew that the monster could return anytime and eat Kelric. Imminent death approached. He had to escape. He tried to stand up. His legs gave up on him, so he had to crawl. He grabbed the stone, turned over to his belly, and started crawling. The pain was still gone because of the smell. He crawled through the soggy flesh, clasping onto anything to pull him forward. The pile of flesh went up, then down. Its angle downward was unexpectedly a lot. Kelric tumbled down the hill of flesh.
Then he hit something hard. The floor.
He nearly passed out but hung in there. The floor was cold. The flesh gave out heat which he overlooked then. Kelric began crawling again, picking up more glowing stones on the way. Eventually, he faced a wall. It was rough like the ground, like a normal cave wall. He had distanced himself quite far from the pile, which caused the smell to lessen but bring back the pain. He held out his pinky-so he didn’t drop the stones-against the wall, to not lose it and find openings. After an unclear time of doing this, he found an opening. He was wary of going inside it but knew it was probably safer. He traced his pinky around the opening. It was small but big enough for Kelric to fit in. He crawled in it with hopes it wasn’t a dead end. The start was easy but the further he went, the tighter it got. (please don’t take this out of context) Eventually, it widened again.
A large crystal shone brightly. It revealed a small area big enough for a shelter. Kelric crawled further and sat against a wall. The first feeling of calmness since the flower arose. He had found a good hiding spot with a light source. He took deep breaths to calm himself even more. He looked around the area, but that got cut off by sharp pains. Kelric fell to the ground realising the pain-nullifying smell was gone. This time there was no enduring it.
He fainted again.
“So do you plan on helping him now, Geus?”
“I mean. Do I even have a choice? You summoned me here.”
“Of course, you have a choice. But he’ll die if you don’t help him.”
“Okay. Why don’t you help him yourself then?”
“He already received help from me. And you know I can’t get on the Gods' bad side.”
“Well, so can’t I. Besides, how could I even help him? There’s nothing special about me.”
“You’re kidding, right? You’re the only person who has ever escaped from here. You don’t call that special?”
“It didn’t feel that special to me.”
“Doesn’t matter. Give him your book, Geus.”
“My book? Do you mean my diary? How would that help him?”
“You can’t be serious right now. Your diary literally contains everything about this cave. You mapped out most of this cave. Noted all places with drinkable water, all safe spots, and so on. How is that not helpful?”
“O right I did that. Totally forgot.”
“Just hand me the book, I’ll go deliver it”
“Sure, I hope for you the Gods aren’t peeking.”
“They never once looked down here.”
“Alright, if you say so.”
BANG
A loud sound, resembling something falling, woke up Kelric. He gasped as he sat up. He looked around the space while controlling his breath.
The opening he was in was big enough for him to stand and wide enough for him to lie down. A giant white crystal-with a faint green touch-gave light to the opening. The crystal was about the size of Kelric and would probably sell for a lot.
Then he noticed…
“A book?” He said while reaching for it. Luckily for him, most of his wounds seemed to have healed. He pulled it over to himself and wiped the dust off the book. It had no title. He flipped open the book.
Journal day 1, it began.
I don’t know how I ended up here and I don’t know how to escape. I’m writing this in hopes someone will find it one day.
Kelric knew not to trust anything since this could be another monster’s trap. He still read it in hopes that it wasn’t.
My plan of action today will be to rest. I’m not going out of here. The monsters are way too dangerous and my leg hasn’t fully healed yet.
This line got rid of the suspicions Kelric had about the book, it seemed real to him.
It’s been a few hours since I last wrote. I’m getting hungry and thirsty. I already ate everything I had. I’ll have to find a food and water source. But not today.
Kelric realised now that the book may contain a way to survive this place. He skipped a few pages until a food or water source was mentioned. He found one.
Day 5
I feel sick. There are no plants here. I had to eat the meat. I was going to starve. I had no other choice. I hope I will find something else to eat in the future. I’d rather die than survive on the rotten monster meat.
Kelric felt his stomach drop. Eating the monster meat, there was no way he wanted to do that. But if it was an emergency he would do it.
My throat is dry. I haven’t drunk anything yet. Tomorrow I will set out to go look for a water source. If I don’t find anything I will have to resort to drinking blood.
Kelric couldn’t bear to read more details about it and flipped to the next page.
Day 9?
I don’t know what day it really is, but that doesn’t matter. I did it, I found water. The journey was long but I took some water with me. I still haven’t fixed my food problem. I get constant stomach aches. I have started writing everything important I’ve found in the back of this journal, so I can find it easier later.
Kelric immediately flipped to the back of the book. It was filled with info. He read a random part of it.
Reliable food source 7, found on day 787.
I found a big bush of blackberries.
Directions: Exit the pit through the main exit. Make sure the Gorgoret don’t spot you. Make your way to Water source 2. Once there, climb the right wall and enter the opening. Turn around and enter the opening in front of you now. A big bush of blackberries is now on your right.
Safety: 7/10 Once you get past the Gorgoret it is mostly safe
Distance: 4/10 Water source 2 is quite far away. It takes a few hours.
Reliability: 6/10 Rating may change depending on the time of year. (Update day 1123 2/10 The bush has started to die, and barely any berries grow anymore.)
The information that Kelric found was highly helpful in making sure he would survive. He flipped through a few of these pages to look for the closest food and water source.
The closest food and water source were food source 1 and water source 9. Both were available in the pit. Food source 1 was the monster meat so he looked for another.
Food source 2 was the second closest, but the safety rating was a 1/10. Food source 2 was reached by infiltrating the Gorgoret base and stealing their food. As for water source 9, it had a safety rating of 9/10. It was just on the other side of the pit.
Kelric flipped some more through the pages of the book, intrigued about what was in it. The book guaranteed his safety and he knew it.
A safe place and a way to survive had been found, but is the book’s writing still correct?