I continued to run, my tears finally stopping, as the three little goblins chasing me screamed and screamed. They were creepy to say the least, and all held little knives ready to slash at my body. Due to my size and being double their height, I am easily able to outrun them, but looking back as I ran made me almost drop to my knees and cry once more.

Their pointed, sharp teeth were all bared, and I could tell these animals looked hungry.

At some point, I made it back into the big open corridor with all the paths that I originally entered into. I looked for the old, worn down door, and when I spotted it, quickly dashed towards it. I hurriedly shut it, and as I did, it creaked and groaned, making a loud noise. Shit! Im screwed.

I looked down at the weapon the hologram had me choose. It was your basic sword, the hilt going into a t-shape, however the lace was anything but basic. It was white and gold in colour, and had an elegant design, something you would see a king have. The blade was shaking. No, I was shaking. I tried to calm myself down, however breathing techniques did nothing. I looked around the room, and there was still nothing other than the chest filled with that strange stone and a wooden shield, and the table with the light.

I picked up the light off of the table and made my way back to the end of the room. Shaking as I did so, I tried to prepare myself. The monsters are smaller than me, but have a long reach, so when they attack, I need to be careful. Almost on queue after thinking this, I see an eyeball peek through one of the big holes in the wood.

A grin appears on the goblins face, and it shouts something I can’t understand. That’s when I see two other sets of eyeballs appear, all in different openings within the rotting wood. The door begins to open, slowly, and my heart sank. All three goblins had found me within seconds, and were grinning as they walked towards me.

I felt like a deer in headlights. I was backed up as far as I could go, and now there was truly no where to run. They continued their approach, their green faces snarling as they did. The one furthest back stood by the door, standing in front of it. It was probably standing there just in case I got past the other two and would never allow me to leave. Not alive anyways.

I grabbed my sword with two hands, and moved into a fighting stance. “Stop coming forward!” I yelled, and the two closer goblins froze, looking shocked as I spoke. Wow, I did not expect that to wor-

I almost finish that thought when one of the goblins points at me and screams so loud my ears begin to ring. Then, the screaming one starts to charge, swinging it’s knife while it does. I brace myself, swallowing the saliva in my mouth as I do, and raise my sword to swing it at the goblin. It easily dodges under my swing, and as it stands up from its summersault, it slashes my stomach.

An intense pain washes over me, and my face goes pale as I see blood. My blood. I swing again, back at the goblin, and it quickly moves out of the way and walks back towards the other two, smiling and laughing as it does. I fall to my knees, clutching my wound as I do so. When I look down at my hands, I watch as the red blood pours out of me.

Fuck. Am I going to die? There is no way I can die here. I have so much to do, and so much to see. My life was just getting good. I can’t… I can’t afford to die here.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I move my vision back towards the creatures, looking at the one that slashed me. It still had a huge grin on it’s face, showing it’s fanged mouth as it smiled. Fuck that goblin.

I try to stand, but quickly fall back to my feet. Absolutely no way will I die here, to this stupid green monster. My eyes began to burn with a fury I never knew I had, and my breathing hastens. I could hear the three goblins chattering, and saw one of them even lick their lips, as if these fucks thought they won already.

No, I won’t be dying here. Not without killing them first.

That’s when it happened. It was a strange feeling at first, and even stranger was the visuals I was seeing. The goblins must have been shocked as well, as I heard one quickly gasp, and the others stopped speaking. There was no sound to it, even though it felt like there should be. I watched as the blood - my blood - my blood that was seeping out of my wound and onto my hands and the ground, grew brighter and brighter, until it all turned into a white colour, and moved backwards… towards me… towards my wound. In seconds, all the blood that came out of me was returned, and when I moved my now dry hands off of my wound, I was greeted with just a cut shirt, and no gaping wound that was pouring out blood.

What?

——————————

- Kelly -

This time, I had to squint my eyes as I exited the portal. Sounds quickly rushed my ears, and as I looked upwards, I noticed a bright blue sky with a warm sun shining down upon me. White, pretty clouds filled the air, and a cool breeze touched my skin. If it wasn’t for my bleeding leg wound, I would have relished in this view for just a moment longer. I snapped back into reality, and was greeted with a large water fountain made out of a grey marble stone. The fountain had three layers, and a light blue water was flowing from it. Etched into the marble were markings of different symbols, people, flowers, and more. It looked like it was straight out of a movie, or from a princes castle.

That’s when I tumbled, falling flat on my face. Shit, I guess I lost way too much blood. Or the poison is killing me. This is not good.

That’s when I started to hear noise behind me. I attempt to turn but don’t manage to do so from the fatigue that I am feeling. All I can hear is what they are saying.

“Help! Someone help! We have a fallen adventurer that is injured!” It’s the sound of a young girl, most likely somewhere in the low teens. I hear their footsteps get closer as their shouting continues, and the girl bends down as she reaches me. “Hey, are you okay?”

I go to ask the kid if she’s stupid as I am laying here, bleeding, but no sound comes out of my voice. Damn, guess I lost my speech now too. But no you dumb child… I am not okay.

After a few seconds of the girl inspecting me, I notice a set of hands turning me over. They do so abruptly and without warning, and I get to see the face of the people around me for the first time. The girl on my left, who I am assuming is the one that first came over to me and yelled to get the help of others, has long, brown hair, tied into two ponytails, and tanned white skin. Her face is littered with freckles, and she has a slight chubby build, wearing a a brown long sleeved shirt that has even darker brown overalls over it. Her clothes are dirty, as if she has been playing outside all day.

The next person I notice is a man. He has black hair, and dark brown eyes, and is sporting a straw hat. He has a black moustache on his lip, and is quite built. Not fat, just like he works out all day. I realize he must have been the one to turn me over as it was done so fluidly, and the young girl was too small to be able to do that.

Lastly, I notice two other woman standing over me, looking at the injuries on my body. They both looked extremely concerned, and I saw one of them turn their head and wave, probably motioning to others to come over. Both the ladies looked the same… wait, that’s an understatement. They were twins! They both had brown, medium length hair done in the same way, having it fall down just past their shoulders. They had white cloth headbands on, each with a flower. The wore brown dresses, and apart from one having a bracelet on, I couldn’t tell them apart.

“Marketh,’ the woman with the bracelet spoke to the man that was crouched by me “take her to the inn, I’ll go to the church and have Mister Morgan come over right away.’

“You got it ma’am” said the man named Marketh, and he quickly picked me up with both hands, cradling me like a baby. The woman quickly took off, and was surprisingly nimble for her bigger stature.

Welp, this is embarrassing, I think to myself, not really able to form many other thoughts. Being carried by a random man was not on my bucket list. The pain in my leg is now throbbing, and even the slash to my arm is starting to tingle bad. My vision starts to blur further, and shortly after the man picked me up, I am passed out, the last thing I witness is the young girl trailing behind us, staring at me.