Man, strange plants sure are tasty
Kato woke up soundless as a man used to sleeping in dangerous places he’d long since learnt the value of noise. His eyes cracked open, slowly seeing nothing at first, his head pivoted, looking for anything.
Darkness was all that greeted him, painfully aware of how vulnerable he was Kato stayed perfectly still. His eyes were firmly closed, more liable to see things that were not there than the tangible in the dark. His mind focused completely on his hearing.
Minutes passed, and the only thing to break the silence was the slow beating in his chest.
Gracefully he sprung up, then in shock touched his stomach, nothing, no sign he’d even been involved in a fight just minutes before. Even more perplexing the dull ache that had been his constant companion for years had disappeared; his left shoulder was healed.
He rubbed it slowly, tentative his disbelief faded into acceptance.
A single tear slid down his face “the pain it’s gone” he whispered, a brief smile crossed his lips. Years ago, on a job he never should have taken, a nasty tumble had sent him falling farther than just the distance to the ground.
What good was a slow thief, it had taken far too long for him to prove himself afterwards. For days he had to deal with the inane "did you have a nice trip?" Question repeated again same words different faces, it was funny he guessed how a mistake he regretted to this day was nothing more than a passing joke to others.
He hadn't even finished the job, the only reward for his trouble, a bollocking from Maya. It was a miracle he’d survived and if it hadn’t been for her, he certainly wouldn't have. His shoulder had served as a warning to him ever since.
"Don't push yourself thats too dangerous thats too risky" now the pain was gone and with it that voice was fading. For years he had listened and now that it was gone, he felt free, pushed on, it was as if Cogul the defiler himself screamed for him by his side urging him to take it all.
Not one for second guessing a second chance Kato began to explore the room he found himself in, mapping out its dimensions and discovering that it was not a room as he’d initially thought, but a great cavern.
There were no caverns in Redusk, even to the most unreasonable man it was clear that he wasn’t there anymore. By itself this was alarming Redusk had been locked down before the 20-year-old Kato had ever been born, the great walls a constant reminder of the land his life was locked to.
The immediate question this raised was vocalised soon after “where am I?” Kato breathed out his hand running down the cavern wall in wonder.
But questions like this one were for people who could afford to waste their time thinking about nothing. Philosophy was for layabouts and fools. This had been Kato’s opinion for years now and it wasn’t likely to change anytime soon. He had never embraced Cogul, the Mendot’s god or any one of the opposing pantheon of gods that the Afodites championed. He was a simple man and would not be swayed so easily. He was clever or at least he thought so, he just didn’t like wasting time on things that only his thoughts really affected.
Following this vein of thought, Kato moved on tracing the wall until he found an opening. Even jumping with his hands stretched far above him, he could not reach the top of it. Silently, he followed the sharp turn of the wall, when after mere moments his leading leg crunched into a stalagmite. “Because of course I did” he muttered angrily. Kato scanned the floor around him, his eyes having partially adjusted to the omnipresent darkness, could now make out the stalagmites that littered the floor by the opening.
"Looks like teeth" he breathed out softly, the jagged spikes rose from the floor in a roughly semi-circular pattern as if following the curvature of a jaw.
Trying to ignore the startling imagery of him walking into a creatures mouth he pressed on into the belly of the beast.
When is enough, enough? The question had surfaced unprompted about an hour ago, or at least that’s how long he guessed it had been. With no way to track the time he relied completely on his instincts, the instincts that had presumably led him to this place to begin with. He paused, 'best not think about that.'
Roughly estimating he thought it had been around 3 hours now, but for all he knew it could have been twenty or none at all. The only confirmation of time's march was his stomach. Where before he had been surprised to feel no pain at all, now it felt as though a monster was gnawing away at his insides looking to escape... through him.
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It was as if he had awoken with the hunger of the dead. With no obvious solution to his cravings and nothing better to do he continued, resigned.
“Crack” the silence was broken so suddenly Kato was sure he’d imagined it. His footsteps nonetheless hurried on.
“Who’s there” his mouth spoke before his mind could catch it. He stopped and visibly face palmed, his silent journey over hours interrupted by what, boredom? And at possibly the most dangerous time of all.
He waited patiently, but only silence waited with him.
'Getting real sick of this now' he thought bitterly. He made an effort to internalise these feelings and moved forwards. He stepped on something that immediately folded beneath his foot, now this is different! he thought excitedly. He examined the ground around him vigorously, his hands trailing the ground searchingly.
“Mushrooms” he whispered, “different” his mind cautioned, “food” his stomach growled. His fingers hovered over them as his instincts warred within him, the pros and cons being weighed carefully as he debated whether or not he could afford the risk, 'If i ate them it wouldn't be safe becau-' "Nom!" Kato engulfed the fungi, his stomach roared as his hunger screamed victory. “That was smart” he said before visibly face palming again for the second time in such a short period. He gathered some more, they would be useful later he assured himself deliberately avoiding the thoughts that rebuked his impulsiveness as he focused on stuffing them into what he now realised were unfamiliar pockets.
Kato looked around suspicious, no one did anything without reason and this felt like an expensive gift, even more concerningly he didn't remember dressing himself, 'really hope I didn't get rescued uh kidnapped by a deviant' he rubbed the back of his head, this was confusing.
Just minutes later the surroundings began to grow brighter, and brighter, and strange symbols crossed Kato’s vision. “Ahh man this is why you don’t eat strange mushrooms isn’t it, I really wish someone would have told me this beforehand, because in all scenarios the logical move would be to eat plants that you don’t know without any prior knowledge. He sighed loudly, “This is fun”. If he stopped to think he would probably have noticed that he seemed to be becoming less and less cautious, but he did not.
He continued on noticeably louder than before, until he emerged into another large cavern, this one was of stark contrast to those that had come before it. A large reflective pool filled the centre of the room and glowing fruits hung on large vines that coated the ceiling.
Kato sprinted and dive bombed into the water, the liquid exploded out from beneath him, and he began furiously drinking.
After Kato had his fill, he stood up drenched and stared at the rippling features beneath him. He stood slightly above average height at six feet tall; he was skinny and with pitch black hair in a fringe haircut that slightly curled on the left side of his face. Kato looked down shocked, his hair used to be blonde, his eyes ran over the rest of his reflection. His eyes once emerald, were now much darker and flecked with red. Apart from that he remained, at least visibly, he thought the same. He had slight stubble and an ever so slight point to the top of his ears that many of the citizens of Redusk shared.
Kato turned, somewhat shocked, but those who had nearly died as he supposed he must have, were bound to have some changes, he reasoned. After his dad disappeared his mother’s hair turned a startling white, he came to the conclusion that this response to overwhelming stress must just run in his family.
He turned, his previous fervour regarding the water now mostly forgotten and regarded the fruits hanging around him. They glowed a light blue and looked somewhat like an ortic, a juicy oval shaped fruit from Kato’s home. The most striking difference between that, and the fruit in front of him was the somewhat scaly texture and of course the glowing. 'I don’t think fruit is supposed to do that' Kato thought blithely.
He looked around the cavern, seeing nothing more he returned back to the fruit, looked at it with distrustful eyes. “Can’t live on mushrooms forever” he paused “please don’t die, please don’t die, please don’t die” he repeated the words as if this mantra would protect him. Then in one swift movement he picked the fruit and bit into it only to be greeted by the warm taste of blood filling his mouth.
“Owth sharp” Kato spat out the scaly exterior of the fruit that had lodged into his gums and proceeded to throw the fruit across the cavern. He sighed angrily, and a moment later picked a different one. Learning his lesson Kato bashed it against the ground to reveal its fleshy interior.
He looked at it, his eyes even more distrusting than before, then shifted his eyes to his pocket the bulge of the hallucinogenic mushrooms evident. He bit into it.
Second after he collapsed, the flavour was unlike anything he’d ever had. Perhaps the Stormwhisper family had eaten something like this but for him this was truly special. Over the next few minutes Kato repeatedly gorged himself.
His body began glowing light blue, but in his gluttony he either did not notice or did not care, glowing brighter and brighter till on the twentieth lumen fruit as Kato had taken to calling them, his muscles suddenly expanded outwards then contracted and the glowing abruptly ended.
Kato felt surprised, but more than that he felt strong, really strong, “maybe this place won’t be so bad after all” he remarked. He was much more jovial than before and flexed his still skinny, but less so arms in front of him.
“?//?//????//????”
Kato turned suddenly looking for the source of the strange noises a creature stood slightly hunched looking at him, a vicious sneer marring its features.