Benjamin was screaming as dirt and rocks flew past his face, scraping his already ruined clothes and leaving bruises on his body. He tried to grab at the earthy walls to no avail, only hurting his fingers even more. To the point that his fingertips were starting to tear. Screaming out in pain, he was scared.
But it didn't take long before the thing grasping his leg lets go and Benjamin falling hard on his legs, and then on his back. Knocking the air out of his lungs, he didn't know what to think with the pain coursing through his entire body. He felt his hand move up, Vita opening its mouth to speak again.
“You don't look healthy, all covered in bruises and blood. Want me to help?” Benjamin took a second to register what was said before nodding, not being quite sure what would happen. But the pain in his body lessened and the many wounds on his body started closing. Checking his body again, he was both surprised and thankful for the help his hand had given him. However, he still didn't know where he was. Other than he knew was somewhere underground in the dark.
He said a quick 'thank you' to his hand before fumbling around in the dark.
The floor felt hard and cold, something between a rock and bricks. It was also covered with what he guessed was dirt, since it smelled and felt like it. He crawled forward as he felt the ground, eventually bumping his head on a wall. After holding his head for a second, he checked and confirmed that the wall was the same as the ground. So, using the wall to feel his way forward, he started to slowly walk forward. The ground and wall didn't change much, either being more dirty or less. But he did, at times, hear something. It sounded like his neighbor's dog when it walked on the rocky road, but different. And then there was the slight 'yip' sound that came with it. Yet without his sight, he couldn't be sure of what was happening. Fear appeared in his mind, as muffled as it felt, and stopped moving.
His hand moved up to him, he felt it. It urged him to move forward, but Benjamin shook his head. It was too much, too dark. His hand seemed to pick up on this and stretched out before him. And with his palm up and fingers stretched out, a small flame abruptly appeared above the hole in his hand. Unlike something like a torch or campfire, this flame stood almost perfectly still.
“Woah, hand, you can do magic?” He tried to lean closer to the flame, but his hand and arm moved further away.
“Woah to you too, why are you trying to move closer to a fire? This is not magic, and my name is Vita.” Vita finally revealed its name and while Benjamin was confused as to how it made a fire without magic, it was nice to finally be able to see where he was. It was some kind of tunnel made of large squares of rock and a dirt roof. It would explain why the place was so dirty and how he had been pulled through it. Now, what pulled him down, he wasn't sure.
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The sound of the maybe a dog came again, much closer than before. Both Benjamin and Vita turned towards the source and waited for whatever it was to come around the corner. He took a step back and tried pointing Vita towards the corner, and Vita allowed it.
The creature that stepped around the corner had a face that laid somewhere between a dog and a crocodile, but its eyes had a certain amount of sharpness to them that hinted at its intelligence. Its torso was flat and wide, its shoulders small and its hands ending in small ape-like hands with blunt claws. Its lower body didn't show anything inappropriate, and it had a distinctly reptilian tail and feet similar to a dog's paws. It stood upright and was around the same height as the boy, if not a bit smaller.
It was also brandishing a large root like a club and was giving our duo the stink eye.
In a burst of movement, Benjamin turned around and ran for his life, the Kobold ran after him a moment later. It yipped and barked at Benjamin as they ran through the tunnels, skidding around corners as they did. It was the first time poor Benjamin had seen a monster with his own eyes. While he knew that kobolds weren't considered a threat to even farmers, that was with a fully grown adult in mind using a weapon of some sorts. He, despite what Mom used to say, wasn't quite an adult and didn't have anything like a weapon on him. Doing the only logical thing left, he started screaming for help.
“Hey, hey! Why are you screaming for help!? The only other things nearby are that monster chasing us and its friends! You'll have to either find a place to hide or find something to fight with.” Vita screamed back to Benjamin, but there were a couple problems with that—He had no idea where either of those were to be found. Sneaking a peak over his shoulder, the number of kobolds had risen to four, but he thought he could hear more of them. He jumped when he almost collided with a kobold that popped out from the side, but the small change in his position had saved him. As he ran around yet another corner, a thought crossed his mind.
“Vit- uh- Vita, couldn't you use the — to scare them?” He gasped out between breaths, not being able to add in the part about using the fire. The air didn't taste good anymore. But the small glances he managed to catch of his hand showed its mouth moving around in thought. The number of kobolds after him had increased to six somehow while he was talking.
“Well, I could do something that might be scary. It will keep you alive, and we might even look really cool. But since I am a good horror, I'll ask for permission first.” Benjamin simply nodded, and after doing so started to feel a change.