“Look, kid are you sure you want to be heading out into the woods” says a large gruff man glancing over the hunt request before him “you have heard the rumours going around haven’t you, autumn never comes this early Kim”
“Bah, I’ll be fine old man” a young man puffs out his chest “I was just promoted to C-class last week”
“No need to be so uppity, fine you be on your way then” the man shoo’s him off “but don’t blame me if you get yourself killed”
“Humph, I’ll be fine what’s some dumb spooky forest gonna do, it’s just rabbit hunting, hardly a dangerous thing about it”
He turns away from the counter heading back out into the lobby of the guild, patrons making good use of supplies they ought to be saving as well as the usual hooded figures sitting in corners waiting for some daft fool to take on their “quests” despite regulations
Exiting the large stone building he walks past the small piles of stone that litter the roads as he quickly jogs off towards the gates, weeds getting crushed underfoot followed by his waving to one of the two elven guards on shift.
“Hey James, how’s it looking out there?”
“It’s been a bit quiet Kim, you headin’ out for a hunt or something” The lithe man responds.
“Yeah I am, can you believe old-man Koft reckon’s it’s too dangerous out there!” He chuckles to himself “he’s probably just gettin’ soft”
Raising a brow James replies “ya know Koft’s never been one to take these sortsa things lightly, you should watch yourself out there especially with whatever’s causing those rumours”
“Oh, not you to James, what’s next, the Rabbits’ll tell me to be careful as well?” Shaking his head Kim continues “the lot of you’s are too paranoid, I’ll be fine” he remarks before heading down the main path to the forest.
“The Rabbit dens should only be an hour or two’s walk from the gate” thought Kim to himself as he walked along the foliage ridden path, the autumn leaves contrasting the now greying woods, each step louder then the last as the dying leaves get crushed.
“damn, how am I gonna be able to sneak up on the buggers like this” he whispers to himself “Unless” glancing up towards the canopy above, many beams of light passing through the space left by the few clusters of leaves that remain
“Perfect” he says as he climbs up the side of the tree using a hatchet he carry’s on his waist as leverage to help.
By making quick jumps across the short distances between trees, the problem of noise was greatly reduced allowing him to make his way to the clearing the rabbits call home, although slower than usual it’ll be more then worth it if he manages to catch several of the buggers without having to set up those annoying traps.
On the other side of the clearing, he can see a couple Rabbits gnawing at what appears to be several pieces of fruit hanging from a couple bushes with vibrant pink flowers covering them.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“The hell? springs not due for another half a year yet” Kim whispered to himself, a habit that tends to scare off prey far more often than he wishes it would “Whatever, I need to take whatever opportunities I can get, these buggers are already slippery enough”
Wielding his hatchets Kim makes his way around the clearing sticking to the treetops along the outer edges, Kim almost directly above the pair of hungry fluff balls readies himself to strike
“I’ve never really tried to do a surprise attack like this, but what’s the worst that could happen” Kim thought right before leaping down the two small axes viciously hitting their marks killing one rabbit instantly and bringing the other near death
“Woo! Nailed it”
*THUNK*
“Huh, what was that?“ looking down his face paled, his hands covered in blood and not just that of the rabbits, his eyes lost focus as he found the cause.
Roots, the ground had been torn up to reveal that massive roots had burst out of it tearing apart everything they had passed through, including his stomach. Especially his stomach, his blood, his stomach acid, hell even some of his last meal poured down along the roots flowing into the ground.
“Oh dear” the tired-sounding voice of a woman spoke out behind him.
He turned his head as far back as he could, hoping to see whoever it was and whether they’d be able to help him.
“Please.. oh god.. please help me, it hurts, it hurts so bad” tears began to form in his eyes, he felt so tired, he attempted to clear them to better look at the person behind him.
It… it was… it was a green woman, as tall as an elf but ludicrously proportioned with breasts as large as her own head far perkier than they should be, a waist incredibly thin leading down to the wide and fertile looking hips, her decency covered only by a few large leaves, large wooden horns sprout from her forehead whilst each half of her hair took different forms.
The left side of her hair being a collection of bright green leaves that rest just past the her shoulders, whilst the right side being an incredibly long set of thousands of tiny leaves in the form of shrubbery reaching to the floor, a vibrant pink near her feet which even lacked toes to a rich green near the horns atop her face.
This creature, for clearly no human nor elf, could have such an absurd figure and features looked down at him with her deep amber eyes, a sad and tired expression on her face as if she felt upset, not that he was dying or in pain but upset with the situation as a whole.
“It’s okay dear, I’ll help you” she says calmly as she approaches the impaled man
“Oh, Thank the heavens, it’s hard to breathe, thank you so much Miss”
“It’s okay, just rest your eyes… I’ll have you dealt with in mere moments”
“I feel so tired, thank goodness” Kim thought to himself “I don’t know what I would’ve even been able to do, god I’m so tired”
He let his eyes begin to close looking forward to being able to rest feeling the embrace of the earth around him, he didn’t even realise at what point the earth had swallowed him nor would he ever know.
Spoiler: Spoiler
[https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3oRNTYp2K7RRGFcPoJ2C-kU5b_V0aZRPtN34OvsgPXmU6INrQZowHsEfxcf4kkd2dG9h2ekfp6j_vzo=w1680-h919-rw][https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/lpfFJSlUgAN27MT-wGJKOxqja2UstOenOQvt-lP4MbN2ruwIBRLpD0OqlswRlx4vOWs-23yOSHG6pAw=w1680-h919-rw][https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/300880673281933312/370170204409430016/Celsa_Cream_WBorder.png?width=573&height=573]
Image of Crèam, the dryad.
I hope you enjoyed reading this.