Dawn- An age of Darkness

The smoked catfish was grilled instead of made into a soup. It was decent- at least edible. But eating was the least of our concerns, in this foul-smelling place.

Purr! Biteria was purring as she slept. She had her fill and looked too cute. She was on Brenda's lap. My jealousy level spiraled up. Come to think of it, I'd actually forgotten about her all day thanks to my lovely thoughts of this lovely forest.

I finished and kept the first watch. The environment was soothing. But whenever the wind blew, faint smell of rot and blood made its way into my nose. I was constantly reminded of where we were. It wasn't good for my heart or for my lungs. But then again, was anything about these two forests good?

The sky shimmered and there weren't any clouds but something about this place made me very skeptical. The last time I came here, it was filled with undead even though Misrael was here. However, now that she was gone, there wasn't a way to keep the undead here. They could have easily invaded the village, but there weren't any signs of that either. In fact, there was not a single undead even at night.

What is going on here?

Around midnight the old man woke up and my shift ended. Nothing had happened till then. This only made me more suspicious.

"Take some rest, I'll take it from here," he said.

"Thanks but, I think we should be extra careful. Something isn't right about this place."

"Yeah, I feel it too." He sneezed and wiped his nose. Maybe it would have been better to wake up Jowy instead.

"You sure, you okay?" I asked, still skeptical.

He chuckled. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

"A geezer?"

He chuckled harder and went a little ahead. "But doesn't that just make you a brat?"

I went to sleep. I couldn't care less about that geezer: he was good enough on his own.

The three ladies were sleeping right next to Jowy. I lied down as well. As I closed my eyes I instantly fell asleep.

***

"Who's there?" It was the same voice. The same darkness.

This time the dripping sound was much clearer.

I tried the same maneuvers and just like last time, I didn't have a body either. Was my consciousness floating around?

"Someone- Anyone…." The voice was sad. I felt it in the air. Maybe there was no air, but even so, I felt it. I felt her sadness pouring inside me, her pain tearing me apart. "Save me?" The voice was barely a whisper.

I didn't know the girl. I didn't know what this place was. But strangely, I felt something. I felt like I'd been here before. I felt like I'd heard that voice before. More importantly, it felt like I knew her.

"I will," I said. Of course, I wasn't going to help random strangers who'd kidnap my soul and asked for help, but strangely, this felt too real to be a dream. And she felt too familiar to leave alone.

"Then I shall wait for you…. my savior." The voice faded.

***

ROARRR!

I woke up hearing a loud roar. Jowy and the others woke up too. My head ached and I felt groggy but I had a crisis to deal with.

"What was that," Alisa said. Her long ears twitched and she wore an expression that instilled fear in me as well. "Som-something is coming…"

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it wasn't good," Jowy said.

The old man came running. "You guys awake?"

"Yeah," Brenda said. "I'm awake now."

"This ain't good, I was taking a leak and-"

Why does everything always happen when you guys take leaks?

It wasn't comforting to know that. Was taking leaks prohibited by the gods or something? Every single time? This couldn't be a coincidence! Maybe we should have made a rule about when and where to take leaks.

"Old man, what is that-" I couldn't finish.

There was something behind the old man.

It was on four legs and had dark red, glowing eyes. And probably the biggest damn thing I'd seen all day, towering over even the largest of trees in the forest.

"That is what I was getting at." The old man turned around and prepared his normal sword. But his sweats were glistening even in the dead of night, under the stars.

The monster had two heads. One of a lion and the other, an alligator.

"I don't like the looks of that thing…" Brenda said.

Sweat poured down my forehead and my legs cramped up. I couldn't breathe for a second. I couldn't tell if it was my blood that went cold or just our surroundings. But it was definitely freezing. "Looks should be the least of our concerns."

I ran towards the old man and prepared for a fight. Jowy and Brenda positioned themselves behind us. Alisa was quivering behind them.

"Think we should run?" The old man hissed.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that since the moment I laid my eyes on that thing... But, is that even possible at this point… " Brenda hissed back.

If the old man was considering retreat, I couldn't even imagine what this thing was capable of. At the very least it looked as strong as the undead we fought back in the island where I got my sword, if not stronger.

"Daarc, this isn't something we should mess with. I think we should retreat for now." Joey whispered. He was far away and yet his voice reached me.

If we all shared the same sentiment that there was no arguing over it.

The old man was hesitant to fight too. Seeing him covered in sweat raised my blood pressure. Even I could feel the immense threat the monster posed. But strangely it didn't seem like an undead or a typical monster. Something was different and although the monster stood far from us, it didn't roar or charge. As if, it was checking us.

"No!" Suddenly there was a scream; it was Alisa. Her face was pale and she shivered as she twitched.

"Don't be afraid. We are all here." Brenda comforted her.

"But that's…"

I couldn't relate if she had memories concerning lions or was it that she was just afraid of them.

But this was the moment when the monster changed gears and started to groan. It was going to attack us and running away at this point, didn't seem all that practical.

"Old man."

"Yeah."

With my signal, he brought out the mystic blade and I bought out my sword. I rechecked my knife so that I could draw it in an instant if necessary. Although I was nervous about this monster, having the old man was reassuring.. Besides, I was actually not critically injured for once.

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