The water’s surface sparkled in the midday sun, made a cool green by the mosses and kelp below Yuta’s feet. He glanced around at the wolves surrounding the riverbank for a moment, as they scampered over rocks, and circled around trees close to the shore. His eyes tracked the pack leader as it swept through a brush of silver tipped grasses.

Yuta squinted and focused on the reed.

*Is that silvered foxtail?*

Yuta took in a big gulp of air and disappeared under the water. The cool water filled in around his luxurious locks of hair. He made easy work of the swim over to the shore, and worked his way over to the reeds. He wrestled a dagger free of its sheath at his waist and sliced through the plant matter, before shooting off back to the center of the stream.

Yuta burst up from the surface of the water and shook his hair back out of his face. The silver tipped reeds glinted in the sunlight as he held them up close to inspect.

*Yes! Now I only need a binding agent*

He swung his head around searching through the shoreline for any other plants he might be able to use, when a glimmer of red shone out from below his feet as he was pulled along by the current. Yuta dipped under the water in a flash, and scraped off a thick slice of red moss.

His eyes grew wide with an intense focus as he emerged from the water, and began picking away at the plants to extract their best parts. He then carefully ground the plant matter together in his hands and moulded the goop into a gelatinous ball.

“Haha! To think I was getting concerned”

He drew his sword from its sheath and glided the goop along the blade’s edge.

Yuta looked further downstream at a collection of low hanging tree branches, and waited for the current to take him there. His hand gripped firm onto one of the low hanging branches and he hurled himself out of the water and perched himself upon the branch with his sword tip pointed out to the pack as they closed in.

He sneered with a devilish glint in his eyes as the pack leader leapt onto the shoreside edge of the tree. It snarled and snapped its jaws, as it put one paw in front of the other.

“Don’t think I’m an amateur” he said as he jolted his weight on the branch to unsteady its footing.

The wolf looked down at its feet, but then reassured in its own abilities, pressed ahead.

Yuta gripped his free hand around a neighboring branch and wedged his feet into a solid foothold.

“Come on”

ROW ROW ROW

The wolf sped along the remaining distance of the branch and leapt through the air with bared fangs.

SWIP WOOSH WOOSH

A drop of blood sliced through the air as Yuta’s blade sliced across the cheek of the wild animal. He heaved his body back and forwards to swing the branch back and forth, slipping himself out of the way of the wolf’s jaws, and abandoning it to the waters below.

It crashed into the water with a thud, as Yuta quickly flicked his sword tip back into position, ready for the next attack.

ROW ROW ROW

Another wolf burst forward, only to be toppled into the water below Yuta’s feet.

Yuta flicked his sword tip out, again, and again, until the wolves began to hesitate and linger by the waters edge, looking out into the water with concern.

“You all wanna die too? Drown in the river? I have enough for all of you!” he said with a lilt in his voice.

“Hahaha!”

“Don’t you get it yet? Attack me and you’ll drown just like the others”

Yuta flung his head to gaze down stream at the bodies of the wolves as they drifted downstream like wooden statues, struggling to breathe as their heads ducked in and out of the water.

“Come get it!” he said as violently shaking the branches around him, “I’ll take you all on”.

The wolves paused for a moment before rushing after their pack as they floated downstream paralyzed by the silverfox. Yuta checked left and right before leaping to shore and then sprinted into the woods as fast as his legs could carry him.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

The trees shot past, over and over again until Yuta finally came to a stop. He held onto his knees and took in big gulps of air as he tried to catch his breath. His eyes flicked back to where he had come from and blinked with relief as nothing had followed him.

He gripped his fingers into a fist and cried out in a wild howl.

“Aooooo!”

“You stupid fuckers”

“Aoooo! Hahaha!”

He nodded his head enthusiastically as he greased his sword with some more of the green goop.

TICK TICK TICK

“Huh?!” Yuta said with a slack jaw, as he turned.

It was as if the trees themselves began to move, as an enormous grey skinned praying mantis pulled itself out of one of the tree trunks behind him. Each of its slender legs, clacked as found its footing in the dirt and leafy debris. Yuta trembled and stumbled backwards as the creature’s enormous head loomed over him, clicking its mandibles.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuck!”

He balled up his fist full of goop and tossed it at the creature. It splat across the creatures mandibles and triangular jaw line.

SIIIIISSSSSSS

It hissed and shook its head as the toxin frothed on impact with the soft flesh inside its maw.

SIIIISSSSSSS

Its enormous spearlike foreleg shot at Yuta like the crack of a whip. Blasting into the dirt as Yuta squirmed just out of reach, and took off running through the trees.

“Oh my god, oh my god, this forest is fucked. What the hell is with this forest?”

He panted as he weaved back and forth through the trees trying to lose the creatures line of sight.

CLACK CLACK CLACK

CLACK CLACK CLACK

The creature’s limbs crackled as it moved in short bursts, and leapt from tree to tree.

Yuta spun his head up to the tree tops to follow the sound. His eyes shook as they locked onto the creature as it had already flung itself to a position above him.

“Ahhhh!” he screamed as diving out to the side.

THUMP

The creature’s weight pounded into the ground, as each of its forelimbs pierced deep into the ground. Its head tilted in irritation and confusion as Yuta scurried away. It flicked its head up to regain sight on him, and pulled its forelegs from the earth before calmly slinking back up into the trees.

“Ugh ugh ugh!” Yuta moaned and gulped, as the horrid feeling of impending doom circled him from all sides once more.

“No! Get away from me!” he croaked between labored breaths as he smacked from tree to tree.

TICK TICK SISSSSS

The creature lowered itself in front of him, and opened its maw wide to reveal its barbed proboscis of a tongue. The sharpened fleshy tube shot at him like javelin, as he raised the tip of his sword to deflect it. Yuta saw it all as if in slow motion and just pulled his head off to the side in time for the creature’s tongue to shoot past his ear.

The sword sparked as it clashed with the armored shell of the creature as Yuta rushed past.

SISSSS TICK TICK TICK

Yuta fled through the trees in a state of panic he had never felt in either of his two lives, and searched with wide eyes for somewhere to hide. His eyes caught onto a cave in the distance and he shot towards it with everything he had.

Veins bulged to the surface on his forehead and sweat poured from his hairline, as he pumped his legs as hard as he could.

*Come on!*

*Please!*

*I have to make it*

SHIKKA SHIKKA SHIKKA

Rattling sounds came from deep in the belly of the large insect, as it grew excited by the prospect of its feast. Its abdomen undulated and swelled as it took in air from small ridged holes in its side.

TACK TACK TACK

THWOMP

“Oh no… Please… No!!!” he screamed as the insect crashed down in front of the entrance.

SHIKKA SHIKKA SHIKKA

The creature’s eyes shone in a ray of light that broke through the canopy, as it lifted its foreleg for the killing blow.

Yuta’s body shook in gutteral terror as he felt the creature had a fix on his position, and that there was no way to escape. His eyes had no other choice but to fascinate upon the barbed tip of its raptorial.

“But…”

“It’s not fair”

Tears welled in his eyes, as warm liquid oozed down his thighs.

Yuta’s feet sunk into countless grains of golden sand. The lapping of waves sounded from not far away, as the giggles of his sister and her friends carried in the breeze. He looked out to the ocean as a dark cloud rolled in.

A blast of salty air smacked him in the face, as the winds shook and tore at everything around him. By the time he could turn his head to check for danger, it was already too late.

THUNK

The umbrella’s wooden shaft has sliced out the other side of his chest already. He had nothing else to do but grasp it in horror, and to accept that his life had now come to its end.

*It’s okay I guess…*

*Once you accept it, it isn’t so bad*

*Maybe I’ll get to go to another world this time*

THUNK

A splash of blood and guts blew across his face. He could do little to stay on his feet as his body jolted from an impact.

THUNK THUNK THUNK SPLOSH

ROOOOOOOAR

Two dark horns stuck out from the giant mantis’ abdomen, before its shell was torn in half and tossed to each side. The black muscular creature stood at the mouth of the cave with seething red eyes, as they glinted for a moment in the sun. Its monstrous form stood frozen in time for a moment, as the momentum of torn flesh flung free from its vicious attack.

Yuta was silent for a moment, as he looked up at the creature as it stood far taller than any man. With dark ivory horns on its head, which looked like a mutated bat of some kind. Its fangs peered out from behind its curled lips, and its enormous claws flicked at the end of its muscled hands.

*It’s a rageclaw?*

Yuta thought to himself innocently for a moment, before time unceremoniously restarted.

ROARRR

“Its a fucking rageclaw!!!”

Yuta said as he clenched his abdomen tight and scrambled to his feet.

“Oh god!”

“If I’d gone into the cave I’d be dead. Wait, what am I talking about, I’m still fucking dead”

Yuta’s feet carried him like swift wind, as the adrenaline in his system took over, sending him shooting through the trees like a wildman.

The rageclaw relished in its kill for a moment, and dashed over on all fours to the mantis head. It wrapped its thick lips around the huge bulbed eyes of the insect, and sunk its teeth into its grey flesh with a satisfied grumble. The eyes burst with juices like a rotten fruit, and slid effortlessly into the creature’s throat.

AWK AWK… AWK

It guzzled down the creature’s best bits as quickly as it could, and took its time in licking its lips, before it gazed out into the woods following Yuta’s movement through the trees. It peered up at the ray of light still peering through the treetops, and slunk back into the shadows of the cave.

Yuta’s strained breaths carried through the trees as he smashed through a patch of brush. His footsteps thudded against the woodland floor as he powered through the trees in his athletic body. Flashes of sunlight broke through the canopy as the woodlands thinned. He scurried down a dirt covered hillside, skidding and sliding his way to the bottom, and blasted out of the brush into the sunlight.

The sun drenched his skin in golden light, he covered his eyes for a moment as they adjusted, and then continued through the long grass into open pastures. The lush grasses whipped against his knees as he rushed far into the fields. His eyes darted from grass patch to grass patch as he went.

“Come on, there has to be some out here” he mumbled to himself as he searched.

The grass swayed with the warm breeze as he looked around the fields nervously, glancing over to the treelines in case monsters were following his scent.

“Hazel grass” he said as he spotted a patch of caramel colored grass in the distance.

He burst his way over to the thick patch of grass that to the untrained eye looked dead from rot and he pulled his dagger. Kneeling down into the brown grass he hurriedly dug up the roots. Dirt scuffed in all directions as he hacked and slashed and pulled to get through the tough roots.

PLONK

He reeled back as the grassy patch tore free of the dirt.

“Haha” he said with a smirk sliding across his face.

Bringing the grassy roots to his eye level he admired the little brown bulbs dangling in front of him. He swung off his pack and stripped off several handfuls of the bulbs, piling them throughout his things without hesitation.

He ripped up another grass patch, and then another, shovelling handfuls of the little brown bulbs into his mouth between chews.

“Ugh,” Yuta said before gulping down another handful “So good”.

PITOO!

A brown glob of his spit pooled in his hands for mere moments before he slathered it all over his skin.

“Track me now, stupid monsters”

He glared up at the sun with one eye.

“Oh yeah, natural sunscreen too”

He quickly dug up several more roots and shook the little bulbs off into his pack. He then popped up out of the grass and took a sharp right turn to head north.

As the sun arced through the sky Yuta continued to jog through the grass towards civilization, every so often stopping to gulp down bulbs of hazel grass. His lips smacked as he could barely keep the ooze of the bulbs in his mouth. With laboured steps he made his way over the peak of one of the large hills dotted through the pastures.

A cool wind swept up through the grasses as he looked out to a circle of cabins in the field.

“Nice, guess I made it” he garbled between chews.

He strode into the village with a confident strut and tossed down his pack at the foot of a statue at its centre. The image of the goddess of harvest stared down at him lovingly, as the sun set behind the mountains in the west.

“Anyone home?” he yelled out.

“Who’s there?” an elderly woman called out from behind a door.

“An adventurer”

“Adventurer?”

“Yes I’m on my way north, I’m just looking for a place to rest the night”

“Oh another one? Didn’t you mention a man who fell at the bridge sweetie? Looks like he survived” the old woman mumbled behind the door.

The door cracked open and with it the sweet smell of a roast carried in the air. Silvia stood behind the old woman with her forehead scrunched as tight as it could go, and one eyebrow raised.

“I thought you were fish food”

“Nah, just had an unscheduled detour. I’m fine though, thanks for asking!”

“Huh?”

“Oh don’t be like that, you should be happy to see me”

“Well yeah, I’m glad you aren’t dead and all… But how do I put this, you kinda suck, we could have just snuck past that troll if you weren’t strutting around so full of yourself”

“Full of myself? Come on”

“You know, you might be physically strong, and capable enough to get out of a pinch but… I don’t think that matters if you don’t have the sense to avoid it in the first place”

The elderly woman ushered Riyu in and pulled out a stool by the dining table.

“The roast will be ready in a minute, take a seat”

Riyu nodded and slumped down in a seat by the table, spreading his legs as wide as possible.

“I’m so tired, holy balls, I ran all day to get here…”

“Ugh” Silvia grumbled under her breath, “Look, I’m glad you made it out alive, as it is one less dead adventurer on my conscience, but don’t get all cosy… You and I are done, from now on I am going to make my own way”

“Ha! As a solo adventurer!?” he said incredulously.

The elderly woman waddled over with a pitcher of fresh squeezed lemonade and placed it on the table. Riyu picked up the pitcher and guzzled it down before waiting for Silvia to respond.

“Yeah, and what is so wrong with that?”

“Don’t monster hunters work in teams? Wasn’t that your dream?”

“Better to struggle on your own than be burdened with disappointment”

“And I’m the disappointment?” he said as leaning forward with a raised eyebrow.

Riyu flicked his long luscious hair, and leered at her without reservation. “Maybe you just haven’t gotten to know me well enough yet?” he continued.

“Don’t”

“Don’t what? Act like what I am? A handsome and capable adventurer, getting the short end of the stick because you are hung up on some idea of changing your standards. Please…”

“You have no idea how creepy you saying that is do you?”

”Come on, you are setting your expectations too high. No one can meet them, just put that stuff aside and be reasonable with people, rather than holding them to some impossible standard. Things happen, people do things, it’s just something to move past”

“Is it though? I’m not into giving benefit of the doubt anymore, it just gets thrown right back in my face, I’m not that naive”

“You make this too complicated, just relax!”

“I swear to god I’ll hit you if you keep talking, just shut up and have some food” she said as she took a seat at the table.

The roast was steaming and bubbling with juices. The fresh sprinkling of herbs from the windowsill gave off the sweet scent of lemongrass and thyme.

“Now hold on a moment” the woman said as she slid it onto the table, “Let me cut it so the it can cool”

Riyu nodded, and swivelled his head around in the chair to gaze at the statue, “Is that Isabeth, goddess of the harvest?”

“Her third avatar, yes” the woman looked out at the statue with a loving gaze for a moment before snapping back to reality and picking up the carving fork, “She came down not far from here actually”

“I’ve always wondered about how avatars get here. What happened?” Riyu said as he slammed his feet up onto a stool next to him.

“I still remember it actually” the woman smiled, “I was just a little girl at the time, knee high, I was playing in the field with my sister, bless her soul… She passed a few winters ago, but she was always so full of light. She turned to me as we were playing and asked me why the sky was bleeding”

“Bleeding?”

“Yes, there was a great big streak of red painted in the sky, and before we knew it, it grew bigger and bigger until it exploded down beyond the hill”

The elderly woman paused for a moment and sliced into the meat with a knife and carving fork. She huffed and puffed as she cut off a few sections before continuing the story.

“Sure you don’t want me to help?” Silvia asked.

“No no, I’ll be fine, now where was I?”

“It exploded behind the hill”

“Oh yes, my sister she dragged me all across the village and over the hill. My uncle was screaming at us to stop and to stay back but there was no stopping my sister. As we came into sight of her… Oh my... Isabeth was so beautiful it just took your breath right out of your body. We stood there gazing across at her as she stepped out of the burning fields and she looked right back at us with her emerald eyes”

“You actually saw the avatar of a goddess!?” Silvia said as beaming at the old lady “Wow!”.

“Oh, not just saw her, I talked to her too!” the old lady said with pride as she slid slices of meat onto each of their plates.

“What did she say?” Riyu said, cutting in abruptly.

*This has to be part of the main quest, I bet it was why there was an event to throw me off the path. Silvia is so stupid she thinks the troll attacked because I was being noisey, it would have found us anyway, she just doesn’t get how it works*

“Oh I can barely remember now, it was something about Calypso’s cursed lover. A paladin or some such, and she was here to set things right”

“What do you mean?” Riyu pushed.

“Oh no no, I can’t divine to know what the goddess was talking about, I was a little girl at the time and I only heard fragments of her tale. All I know is that Calypso had left her a message in the world winds centuries ago and that Isabeth was mad that Calypso no longer remembered what it was about”

“World winds?” Riyu asked.

Silvia chimed in, “They are traces of spiritual memory left behind in the divine realms aren’t they”

“Are you a child of faith dear?”

“Not exactly, but my brother joined the Clergy back when I was little”

“Oh wonderful, having faith in your life is a special thing dear”

“Wait, why would Isabeth try to get to the bottom of a memory of Calypso if Calypso herself no longer cared about it? That doesn’t make any sense”

“Isabeth is a cunning woman, as sharp as they come, she knew something was off and was determined to set it right”

“What happened?” Riyu insisted.

“Oh I don’t know, she left town and lived her life in our realm for a time before returning to her own”

“Hrm… So a goddess came to earth to find out about Calypso’s secret… Interesting. What about the crash site where she landed, is there anything there?”

“Oh yes, do you want to visit the caverns? If you eat your fill I’ll take you to them”