There were twelve of us, classmates, left. Me, President, Jack and Jill, rabbit Aurora, jellyfish Dezire, goblin Polly, gremlin Paul, fluffy Leo, doll Reina and unicorn Vlad.

Rabbit Aurora, goblin Polly, gremlin Paul and unicorn Vlad still required fruits for sustenance, so we had to set out towards the garden. Me, President, jellyfish Dezire, unicorn Vlad and one of Aurora’s rabbits – the six of us finally set off.

Our first destination was the garden. When I saw it, I was amazed. I liked the green color, I could admit it. It calms you down. The lush verdant grass was almost one foot high. A lot of big branchy trees were covered with various fruits. The beautiful scenery seemed to soothe my troubled mind, to take away my worries.

“It isn’t right,” President noticed. “When we were here the last time, we took most of the fruits from some of those trees. And yet they are full of fruits again. Let’s bring them back for Polly to check them. Be careful.”

We took some fruits and left the garden. On my way back I felt that grass was trying to stop me, binding my legs, as if trying to warn me. I looked at others. The grass didn’t show any kind of attention to them.

Polly said the fruits were fine to which we could heave a sigh of relief. After the meal we set off towards our next destination – the right tunnel. Last time we were forced to retreat and it was still unknown where it led.

Restless rabbit Aurora vehemently protested against patiently waiting danger out. According to her, she has more than enough bodies to risk. She tried to explore one of the holes on the side, but it appeared they were too intertwined and it was too difficult and long for her to map through them without losing her way in them. And so we settled on exploring where the main tunnel would bring us. Our journey was uneventful. No hazy shades, no eldritch entities.

The tunnel ended up with a sturdy stone house with one room and a little shrine at the back. Inside the house was only a wooden bed, located next to the innermost wall. The house was rather small, I would hazard a guess that whatever used to live inside was smaller than an average human.

We were about to leave its premises, when eagle-eyed Aurora saw something glimmering under the bed. I reached out with my hand, as it so occured that in our group I was the only one who retained them, and pulled the object. It was a rusty sword.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Unable to spot any more clues, we returned. Gremlin Paul surprised me as he eagerly asked me to lend him the sword, his eyes round as if he saw a treasure. I didn’t have any objections and simply gave it to him.

And that was when everything went wrong. His body started to glow and then disappeared as if it never was there in the first place. With a clang, the sword fell down on the stone floor.

I stared at the sword, now adorned with precious stones, lacking any sign of age and rust. Gremlin Paul didn’t appear again like a magician after a successful trick. There was no cheers, no applause and most of us were already too exhausted to be too surprised. It might have been because it was far from the first time one of us disappeared.

In the end Polly took the sword and trudged to her hut in a daze. It seems that everything that happened with others didn’t hit her as hard as the disappearance of her only brother, her only kin in these dimly lit lands.

President was even gloomier than before. Our numbers were quickly dwindling. President decided that we needed to hasten and make it through the tunnel behind the garden. Jellyfish Dezire told me that I had changed a lot. Did I? It’s hard to keep track when it comes to assessing oneself.

Me, President, Dezire and Vlad set off towards the garden once again. This time we didn’t bring Aurora despite her incessant protests. President entered his gloomy “will die, but will not yield” mode after seeing yet another one of us disappear. The tunnel behind the garden was quite narrow at the beginning but was gradually broadening. Like in the garden, the floor was soil. Could it be a good sign? I hope so.

When the opening was as wide as a football field, we saw something. A giant black ape. It consisted of a painfully familiar haze. “Bereaved father,” a thought popped up in my head.

The ape flung one of its hands. Guided by instinct, I pressed my hands to the ground. From there a lot of vines sprung out, taking others back to the garden. It seemed that I was surrounded by some kind of golden light and unfamiliar symbols were flowing around me.

“President,” I guessed their origin. A lot of beautiful blue flowers started to bloom but only at that moment I finally felt it: they were not useless. Pollen from those flowers flew everywhere seeping through.

The giant didn’t stop his hand midway nor did a miracle happened. I knew that a hit from the ape would result in my wooden form being squashed. Abomination’s hand finally met its target. And the world lost its colors under the accompaniment of a loud crunch.