CHAPTER 7

With his short sword in hand, Kopius started walking. It was slow moving at first. Not that Kopius was in fear of falling or slipping on uneven terrain, instead, he marveled at the small slice of world he found himself in. Everything from the sound of his foot falls, the texture of the shrubbery, to the way the clean air filled his lungs with each breath. He could feel the friction ridges of his fingers when rubbed together gently and his knuckles would pop with that familiar sound. When Kopius reached up to run his hands through his hair he stopped walking and focused on his skin. The deep bronze was similar to that of ancient Greeks and he briefly wondered if he had made up the blueish tint he had seen in the caves. I saw what I saw, Kopuis mumbled internally.

“Whatever.” Kopius said aloud and continued up the ravine.

Roughly ten minutes of walking and the canyon started to narrow, casting a longer shadow on the floor and surrounding area. There were considerably more large rocks and boulders mixed in with the plants and grass. They weren’t poking out of the ground like in the cave but looked to have fallen from a great height. The boulders were embedded in the ground rather than having looked pushed up.

Kopius walked up to one of the larger rocks and started to circle it when he saw a bush tucked behind it with bright red flowers. It was a pleasant sight to see a vibrant color finally. The beige and green of the surrounding area, drowned out by the gray cliffs and rocks, had made for little aesthetics. As he approached the bush, his stomach saw what his brain had yet to register: food.

With a tight grumbling knot awaking in his belly, Kopius’s eyes grew large and he smiled. Sitting inside each red star shaped flower were golf ball sized looking berries. Only a handful of flowers could be seen on the bush but their red pedals made them stand out. Hunger and curiosity pushed Kopius closer and he could see the inviting fruit, much like deep red raspberries on steroids, sitting in the open pedals.

“Yesss,” Kopius half hissed as he moved forward. His hand was a mere foot from his prize when the bush rustled.

Kopius froze.

An onlooker might think that Kopius was in the process of introducing himself to the fruit bush, his arm outstretched as though to shake hands. Yet Kopius, in the nanosecond following the sound, was connecting the dots on an old adage about something looking too good to be true. The next two nanoseconds shifted his stomach from aching hunger to ‘ya done fucked up’.

The next few moments were a blur as Kopius’s instincts took over and he attacked the bush. With a bellow his sword arm came arcing down to cut the bush in two but all he got was a thunk when his sword hit the ground. The bush had quickly retreated back into a large borrowing hole that was not visible before. Kopius also quickly retreated, getting as much distance between him and the garbage can lid-sized hole. As he reached the other side of the ravine, Kopius turned quickly. Heart pounding he focused on the hole, sword in hand, ready to fight. He didn’t have to wait long, as whatever was coming out of the hole made a screeching bellow of its own. A moment later, the bush shot out of the hole.

Quick as can be, the bush monster closed the distance to Kopius in two blinks of an eye. Its long body, scaled with four legs, skipped across the terrain like a smooth rock on water. Much like getting a high and tight fastball, Kopius bailed to the side, avoiding the lunging creature and its gnashing maw. He hit the ground with his shoulder and rolled to his feet, glancing back at the animal he barely dodged. The beast had rammed head first into the cliff wall and appeared to stumble momentarily before shaking its head vigorously. The bush, being attached to the beast's head, made violent rustling sounds as it swung it about. The monster looked to Kopius to be some kind of small alligator/mole crossover experiment gone wrong. It was at least four feet long with stubby legs, scaled on its stomach with hair running across its back. Not knowing how long this thing would be dazed, Kopius did what Cory could do best. He ran.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“I hate…” Kopius huffed as he turned to run.

“...this fucking…” he puffed, his momentum building.

“...game!!!” he finished, now in a full sprint.

A screeching roar ripped through the ravine as Kopius had started his flight. Like a panther huffing on helium and roaring in the jungle, the sounds echoed off the walls. The mixture of noises came dangerously close to throwing Kopius off balance. He used a few jutted stones to propel him over boulders and had only looked back once to see he needed to be moving faster.

The monster weaved through rocks and over the terrain as though it was on rails. Kopius pushed harder and found that his Earthly speed, though formidable, was no match to what he could do now. The ravine was narrowing ahead and looked to fork again shortly. He took the path to his left and kept running. The world was a blur as Kopius moved as though one with the wind. His breaths had started to come faster and shorter, his thighs and stomach also feeling that early burn of exhaustion.

“Ok, ok, ok, ok” Kopius said in quick succession, realizing that the running would come at the same price as his climb in the cave. Though the strength and speed were greatly increased, so was the proportional stamina drain. He had the nagging impression that he would soon not be able to run or fight. Streams of sweat ran freely down his scalp as he navigated the terrain and formulated a plan. A plan, that if not enacted quickly, would result in his death and the answer to his respawn question.

Another helium laced screech ripped through the ravine and this time Kopius did falter. He stumbled and then slipped, the sword he had somehow held onto this whole run flew from his grasp as Kopius hit the ground hard. He rolled to the base of a large boulder, quickly getting to his feet. Just as Kopius was getting his bearings the bush monster had already leapt and flew like a spear straight at his head.

With the grace of a petulant child refusing no for an answer, he buckled his legs and fell back to the ground. For the second time, for however long this pursuit had transpired, Kopius had dodged near death and the bush had hit a wall. This time, however, Kopius was beneath the falling monster and was inexorably crushed to the ground, face first.

With half the air knocked out of him and a mouth full of dirt, Kopius coughed and strained to catch a breath. He wiggled and wormed, trying to free himself but he was pinned. For all of the struggling on Kopius’s part he had not felt the creature move. He paused as best he could and gauged that, dead or not, he wanted no part of anything to do with this creature. Pulling his legs in as much as he could, he leveraged himself to do a push-up. With his hands placed down, Kopius used whatever strength was left in his body and pushed.

He pushed, digging knee and toe into the ground until, like tipping a wheelbarrow, the monster slid off. Kopius got to his feet quickly and moved back, not taking his eyes off the creature. He chanced and looked quickly about, searching for the lost short sword. He found it close by, up the path in the direction he had been running. Snapping it off the ground, he backed up the path until he saw the beast move.

It shuttered at first, the red flowers swishing back and forth as the animal lay there. As it tried to stand, Kopius had turned to run. Several seconds into his sprint and Kopius heard the bellowing screech from the beast but much further away than the other times he had heard it. Making a right when the ravine forked again, he could see trees and what looked like more open space. He raced into the glade only to find a dead end. Frantically he looked for anything to use or anywhere to go. Trees at the back of the glen were dense and cast dark shadows, so he ran there hopeful of hiding. His eyes had to adjust to the darker space and once they did he couldn’t believe his eyes. There, embedded in the cliff wall, well within the dense trees, was a wooden door.