Novels2Search
Trapped in the lands between
Chapter 4. Crabtastrophy

Chapter 4. Crabtastrophy

They walked down the paved road, the area was a lot more open, save for a hill here and there he could see a swamp down to the left of the path, it was then, when he realized how damn thirsty he was. "Hey, Irina you want to take a rest by the lake maybe get something to drink? Also, there's something cool around there I want to show you."

She nodded. "Yeah, I haven't drank anything all day."

"Right, come to the left, there's a bit of a decline so be careful." Galus said, taking her by the hand, leading her around any rocks or roots he could spot, he wasn't exactly sure how blindness effected people's spacial awareness, but he'd heard their spacial awareness could skyrocket given long enough, he had rather great spacial awareness for being not blind, though that could be the fact that his instinctual part of his brain was shown to be larger than average on a brain scan, and it had ended up being part of why he'd grown up with anger issues, but it wasn't without benefits, an odd spacial awareness was one of them, being able to pick up slight noises, or people's shadows, or even just the slightest shift in light would tip him off to someone's presence.

After carefully guiding her down near the lake shore, he let go of her hand and knelt down next to the water trying to remember the best way to drink water without a cup, god damn it why did he wish for this, if he could just find a bull horn or a water skin. He sighed, and just resolved to plunge his face into the water and glug it down.

After coming up for air he sat back onto the ground, it was funny, he was so used to chemicals being in his water that this water tasted oddly... Sweet, likely from plant life growing in and around the swamp. However, part of the flavor tasted familiar, he remembered his friends dared him to take a sip from the lobster tank in his local restaurant, it had not only tasted of salt but had a funky taste to it, he tasted that same funk here but to a larger degree.

He looked around, he saw a couple crabs he had mistaken for rocks earlier coming out of the mud, he looked around, this place looked, familiar. That was his thought until he saw something shift beneath the water, had that rock just moved? No, wait... "get away from the water!" He yelled pushing Irina back as a huge crab the size of two minivans parked side by side erupted from the water.

Galus grabbed his cleaver, than shook his head grabbing his bastard sword from it's sheath on his back. He backed up early tripping over Irina who was crawling back in a crab walk. He also suddenly had the urge to slap himself for making puns in this situation.

It scuttled forward it's massive claw raised and he realized he was not strong enough for this shit, and the second massive crab only reinforced that assumption.

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He quickly sheathed his sword grabbing Irina and hoisting her to her feet and not a heartbeat later they were running away with their hearts in their throats and their tails between their legs like true heroes. It pursued them for a while, but they weren't the quickest and all around weren't made for long winded chases, not to mention they weren't going to get too far away from the water. Everything about them screamed ambush predators, made for short bursts of speed and finishing it's prey off quickly, it wasn't the kind of creature that could chase it's prey down, unlike say, wolves.

Irina panted beside him, she looked at him, probably able to pin point him due to him holding onto her wrist. "So... What... What was that cool thing you wanted to show me?" She asked, still trying to catch her breath.

Galus nodded, rather exhausted himself. "Well, there's a dragon roosting around the lake, thought it'd cement that I wasn't crazy if I..."

She looked at him, her mouth agape. "You thought I'd think you were less crazy if you intentionally walked into a dragons territory?" She asked, a bit of actual sarcasm in her voice, she grew up so fast.

"Yeah, that was pretty fucking stupid not going to lie, but atleast we weren't in it's territory yet... Oh crap..."

As he said that he spotted a something up above the lake, he watched as Agheel dove like a god damn eagle and grabbed one of the giant crabs that was just getting back to the lake, and took off for a distant cliffside where he could just barely make out a nest, it let out a mighty roar as it flew off with it's prey desperately snapping its claws at empty air and its legs grasping for purchase where there was none. Honestly the sight was beautiful and he fucking wished he had a sketch pad with him to draw that down.

Irina looked over at him. "Well, good news is, you're not crazy, bad news is you're stupid, we could have died."

Galus, couldn't disagree, once again this world proved it wasn't the game he remembered, and if he kept treating it like a game he was going do die horribly...

That entire damn lake is it's feeding grounds and probably further up northeast as well if the placement of the nest was anything to go by, though he was confused about the nest, he thought that only Greyoll could birth new dragons, maybe it just didn't want to sleep in swamp water or on rocks in which case who could blame it. But now he had the image of a new player logging in and getting double teamed by both the tree sentinel and Agheel.

He sighed, dusting his trousers off. "We're half way to the place I promised. There's someone there I think can help us, if she's in a good mood."

Galus saw a shift in Irina's bandages, probably her raising an eyebrow in incredulity. "I get the feeling you're not telling me something."

He sighs, nodding and forgetting she can't see again. "Well, for one, she has a bodyguard who will probably try and kill us on sight considering it's a pumpkin head, you know, one of the big beast guys with the brass torture devices that your people put on their heads like paper bags. She's also a Glintstone sorcerer who went rogue from the academy of raya lucaria, she's headstrong and doesn't take no for an answer. Trust me, you'll see when you meet her."

Irina sighed, she looked like I just told her she was going to be babysat by Hitler, then again, growing up in the golden order does have a tendency to breed single-mindedness and bigotry so Galus guessed he could understand. "Listen, she's an awful human being but is probably the definition of she's not so bad once you get to know her, I'm sure you'll get along somewhat well, she's also an accomplished sorcerer and is still revered in the halls of raya lucaria to this day, she even has a portrait in their hall of fame, trust me, if there's anyone who can actually protect us, it's probably her."