We were at the well again. I had told to Dani and Lia that the well could transport one to wherever they wanted to go and also that I had seen Rozy and how she was being treated by the vile sorcerer. Dani and Lia had agreed that they would go to the temple that contained the artefact as they were ready to do anything to rescue Rozy. The chieftain and his men had come too, while Slia had stayed back at the village. The chieftain hadn’t known about the existence of the well or about its powers and he was very interested in learning more about it as he could use it in the future for the interests of his village.

It was Dani who would go into the well today.

“Be careful,” I said to her. “If you find yourself in a dangerous situation that you cannot deal with then when the notification comes asking wheter you liked the experience or not then say that you didn’t and select the option to come back here. Is that clear?”

Dani nodded, determined. I kissed her on the forehead. She cast a last glance at the lot of us and then jumped into the well.

And then the wait began. It was a very edgy kind of wait. The first ten minutes were easier, the next ten were harder and it only kept getting harder from then on. Nobody spoke as we waited Dani to return. I was just hoping that I would not be regretting sending her into the well. Then there was always the possibility that Dani had entered the temple and she was overcoming the obstacles required to acquire the artefact. Obviously it was going to take a few hours or more. Perhaps it might even take a day or two. In the quest to save Rozy I just prayed that I would not lose Dani as well.

Finally an hour had passed and still Dani had not returned. Lia went close to the edge of the well and peered down into it.

“Can I go where Dani is?” Lia asked me.

Technically it was possible. She just needed to tell the well to transport her to the place wherever Dani was. But I did not want her to go. I did not want to be left alone wallowing in the suspense of whatever might have happened to the two of them.

But just then Dani shot out of the well and landed on the ground. Lia and I rushed to her. She had a wound on her leg, a wound of considerable proportions that was bleeding heavily. She was also panting heavily.

“How did you get hurt?” Lia asked Dani worriedly even as she checked her wound.

“Worms, big ones,” Dani said wincing, “one worm bit me.”

“Let me fix it for you,” Lia said as she placed her hands near the wound and closed her eyes. Dani meanwhile kept speaking to me.

“The well transported me to a place from where the Wahaki mountain was only a few kilometres away,” she said, panting, “There was this ancient temple… All about the outside of the temple were massive worms. Some of them were feasting on the remains of a big elephant. I was trying to get inside the temple, but there were simply too many worms. Even though they moved slowly their numbers alone made it impossible to get into the temple, and then one sneaked up behind my leg and bit me and I had to return.”

“But you have been gone for almost an hour,” I said, “the well provides the opportunity to return within minutes of getting to another place.”

“I asked the notification to wait for my response,” Dani replied, “and the notification told me that it could wait for a maximum of an hour and after that the well would consider that I was either pleased with the experience or trying to abuse the services of the well.”

“There you go,” Lia said. She had been able to heal Dani’s wound considerably. The blood on the wound had turned into a scab. “It’ll heal soon.”

Then Lia turned towards me.

“You said you can use the well only once,” she said, “do you want me to go to this temple and bring the artefact. I promise I would not return without the artefact.”

I shook my head. Worms had attacked Dani and I didn’t want Lia to face the same situation. Dani had at least her arrows for protection and Lia could only heal. I looked at the well, a new idea coming to my mind. Xoris had said that the well was like a person. The best thing about people was that their decisions were liable to change.

“I’ll go,” I said.

“But you can’t,” Lia said, not understanding.

“If I do not return after jumping into the well, then you will find me at the village,” I said. I had no intentions of going into the temple, just whether I could convince the well to transport me to a place, in this case the village of Collosi.

And without another word I jumped into the well, Once again I found myself hovering in the inside of the well and waited for the well to speak to me through notifications.

I recognise you! You were not pleased with the experience I provided! Didn’t I tell you that I shall not transport you again?

“Please,” I said, “I didn’t like the previous experience, but it was not because of your fault. The fault was entirely mine. To be honest the transportation service that you provide is one of its kind. I was filled with emotions the last time and made the wrong choice. It was my entire fault. The service you provided was an excellent one.”

Hmmm. I had never thought about the idea that a bad experience could be the fault of the person using my service and not necessarily my fault. You say that the services that I provide are one of a kind, but it is not so. There are other wells like me, many of us have not even been used and are just waiting for someone to find us. Of course, I am the only well of my kind in this part of the world.

“I have never used a well like you before,” I said, very honestly. “I would be very grateful to you if you allow me to use your services again.”

Hmmm. I guess I will let you. You have opened my eyes to an entirely new concept. I had always thought that a bad experience of my users was always my fault. I am thankful to you for enlightening me on this. I believe I have lots to learn! This is very exciting. So where would you like to go?

“To the village of Collosi, the house of the chieftain please.”

There you shall go!

I began to fall again, a hole opened at the bottom and through it I landed inside a room in the house of the chieftain.

I got to my feet. The landings were always soft, even if I hit a hard surface.

There was something about the room that felt familiar and made my heart beat a little faster. Was it Slia’s room? Shit.

I turned around. Slia was standing a few metres away from me. She was dressing and was looking a different way and hence hadn’t seen me till now. I would have gladly sprinted out of the door if it had been open… but it wasn’t.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

And then Slia turned towards me. She was topless. I gasped and she looked up to see me. Her eyes widened in fright.

I didn’t know what to do. I fell to my knees and clasped my hands.

“Please,” I said, more like begged, “I came here accidentally.”

Slia let out a shriek. And all I wanted to do was cry.

Just then a notification popped up in my vision.

Were you pleased with the experience provided by the Well to Everywhere.

Yes/No

I would have gladly selected ‘no’ and taken the option to return to the well. Except I wasn’t very sure now if the well would allow me to use its services again if I told the well I wasn’t pleased with its services this time either.

Yes, I am pleased with the services, I thought and a big smiling emoticon appeared in my vision and faded in a few seconds.

“H-how did you come here?” Slia asked me in a shivering voice.

“It was the Well to Everywhere,” I said and I could barely select my words carefully even as my heart beat rapidly, “I was trying to get the well to allow me to use its services a second time and it worked and I came here. But it was not my intention to come to your room. I think I should have been more precise and selected the guest room. I am sorry! Please, this was a mistake.”

Just then there was a knock at the door and a servant spoke from the outside.

“Slia, I heard you shout. Is everything all right?”

Slia was dead silent for a while, as she seemed to try to think what to say. My heart pounded. Darn it, this was surely a really embarrassing situation. The well should have known better not to transport me to a girl’s room when the girl was half-naked, I thought miserably even though I knew inwardly that the fault was my own.

“Yes,” Slia said finally, much to my relief, “everything is okay.”

The servant left and I attempted to get back to my feet.

“No!” Slia said in an undertone. “L-let me dress up.”

“Okay, okay,” I said and then waited for a few minutes.

“It’s done,” Slia said. I slowly got back to my feet.

“I am really sorry,” I apologised to Slia, feeling my cheeks go hot, “I really didn’t mean to come here.”

“It’s… okay,” Slia said.

Just then I noticed a strange sight through the window behind Slia. It was occurring on the road outside the chieftain’s house. A man was being chased by two monkeys.

And immediately the next moment a stone hit the window, cracking the glass panes but thankfully bouncing away. A monkey appeared just outside the window and began to remove the shards of glass to get inside the room. The monkey was soon joined by two more that were carrying spears. With the spears they were able to remove the shards of glass faster.

Slia noticed my attention being fixed behind her and she turned. The moment she saw the monkeys she let out a shriek.

Next moment there was another shriek from a different part of the house from a servant, followed by shouts of “Monkey! Monkey!” and then the servant was suddenly silenced and after a moment there were cries all about the house.

“Get behind me!” I said to Slia.

She ran behind me as I pulled out my sword from my scabbard. By now the monkeys had been able to remove all the glass shards from the window and they entered the room. There was a very malevolent air about the monkeys. These were not normal monkeys by any means, but were the slaves of the Wahaki.

And then three more monkeys appeared outside the window. They too entered the room.

I gulped. I had no idea how I was going to hold my stand against six ferocious monkeys,five of whom were carrying spears. The five armed monkeys approached us slowly, wary of the sword that I had in my hands. The unarmed one remained behind and watched us.

A monkey on the left made a sudden movement, but he didn’t attack. Instead a monkey on the right attacked with his spear. I had to fall backwards, almost on Slia, to avoid the spear from sinking into my stomach. I swung my sword so that the monkeys went some metres back. But they were getting excited. I could see it in their eyes that they could barely wait to kill me and Slia.

I gritted my teeth. There was a small table on one side of the room to my left.

“Get that table for me,” I said to Slia.

“Okay,” she said. And with the monkeys watching she went and quickly grabbed the small table and pulled it near me. I lifted up the table, such that it was like a make-do shield for me. I swung the small table at the monkey on the right and then attacked the monkey that was immediately in front of me. My sword made a cut on the shoulder of the monkey and he fell backwards. The monkey on the right now jabbed at me with his spear, but I held up the table.

The spearhead pierced through the table and almost sank into my chest. I pulled the table free from the spearhead and then smacked the head of the monkey with it had. He was immediately knocked out cold. The monkeys began to howl as they got more excited. One of the monkeys ran away and then from there he threw a spear at me. I ducked and the spear flew over my head. There was a gasp from Slia standing behind me and I turned and to my relief saw that the spear had only sunk into the wall of the house right above her shoulder and not into her. Slia pulled out the spear from the wall quickly. So even she was armed now.

The monkeys were getting scared. One of them was down, while another was bleeding while one had lost his spear. The sixth monkey that had waited behind now came forwards and took the spear from the unconscious monkey. This one was quicker than the others. Before I knew it the monkey made a jab towards my stomach. I made a quick movement, such that the tip of the spear grazed the side of my stomach, tearing my tunic. Pain shot up from my stomach but I knew that it was only a surface cut. I swung my sword and cut the spear into half. I was quickly able to pick up the half with the spear head and I now threw this at the monkey.

It hit right in the monkey’s chest. The monkey struggled pathetically on the floor for a minute and then it ceased all movements. The other monkeys began to jump up and down. Agitated by the death of their comrade, the four monkeys that were still standing attacked me at once. I swung my sword blindly in defence. Slia too jabbed at the monkeys with her spear. By the end of it, all the four monkeys were dead while I had a gushing wound on my arm. Slia thankfully had missed injury.

“You are bleeding,” Slia said. She tore a part of the bed sheet and quickly wrapped it around my arm to stop the bleeding. “That should work till you can get the services of a healer—”

Slia let out a shriek. I turned my head and saw that the monkey that I had knocked out cold was standing and had picked up a spear of his fallen comrade. The monkey was still rather unsteady, not having fully recovered from the blow on the head. But he staggered towards me. I stood up from the bed I had been sitting on, grabbed his spear and deflected its tip away from me and then I sank my sword into his chest and threw him away.

After a few sluggish movements on the floor the monkey died.

“These monkeys are slaves of the Wahaki, aren’t they?” Slia said.

“I am pretty sure they are,” I said, observing the six dead monkeys and making sure that none of them were breathing and were really dead.

I looked outside through the window. People and monkeys were fighting each other outside. Thankfully, the monkeys seemed to be not interested in the fight anymore and many of them were fleeing away. Slia opened the door of the room. There was a servant some metres away on his knees, panting.

“Are you all right, Slia?” he asked. “I was attacked by a monkey and had to kill it.” And then his eyes widened when he saw me behind her.

“Rabbi saved me from the monkeys,” Slia said.

“Why are they attacking us?” the servant said. “We are not friends with the Wahaki, but the last time they attacked us was a while ago, and there was a dispute behind it. This time there is no dispute.”

From another door, two maids appeared, supporting a third maid who seemed to have been hurt on the leg by a spear, and the servant went to assist them. I went outside and sat down on the steps of house. The wound on my arm was feeling like a fire and I tried hard to keep my mind off it. Slia too came and sat next tome. I watched as the monkeys were being chased away by the villagers all about the village of Collosi. After a while all the monkeys had gone. The servants of the chieftain’s household gathered the number of monkeys that had been killed inside the house on the front yard. There were nine of them. Six of them had been killed by me with assistance from Slia.

Slia called one of the healers and asked the healer to fix my wound.

“That’s an interesting wound,” the healer said as she examined my wound, “almost looks the same as mine,” she indicated at a small wound she had acquired on her forearm that looked like a mini version of my wound. “But I can fix it.”

I thanked the healer once she had joined back my flesh together and made my blood clot at an accelerated rate and form a crust over the wound. The pain gone, I could finally think more clearly.

The first thought that came to my mind was that if the monkeys had attacked the village, there was every possibility that the monkeys had also attacked the chieftain and his men who had been outside at the well. I at once made up my mind to run the distance to the well. But I needn’t have worried so much because just a minute later the chieftain and the men that had accompanied him as well as Dani and Lia showed up at the gate of the house.

Dani and Lia told me that since I did not emerge again from the well, they had decided to wait for a while there and see if I would come out. But after a while one of the chieftain’s men had seen a number of monkeys move towards the village of Collosi. Hence they had decided to come here to see what was going on, only to find all the dead monkeys and the injured people.