Lord Keiser ordered we sit.
We sat, till the sun started to drop.
Lord Keiser stood, picking the spears as he walked towards the corpse.
Soon, He ordered us over.
"No 1. Get me something to cook with."
He already held a bloody slab of meat in his hands, cut from the large corpse.
No 1 moved like a blur, gathering a couple of branches and twigs in seconds, even climbing trees when necessary.
She returned, then dumped the branches on the ground as ordered.
"No 3. Dry it" Lord Kaiser said, pointing at the branches
That was my number.
I crouched, placing my hands on them, slowly I robbed them of their moisture, then also I dragged moisture out of the earth.
When I was done, a ball of water hovered in front me.
It was pure. Drinkable.
Lord Keiser arranged the sticks making a small campfire with ease.
We sat near the fire as ordered, watching Lord Keiser cook.
Once we ate, I split the water at Lord Keiser's request.
We ate.
We drank.
We waited.
.........
......
It didn't take a minute before the threat revealed themselves.
They burst out in a flood, bending the trees in their path.
They made no sound as they dragged themselves along the ground.
They were fast—Very fast.
The tide of flesh flowed in my direction—formless blobs of skin without limbs or heads rushed in our direction, rippling and rolling like water.
Their flesh tore open, revealing holes that sucked in anything they touched.
Dead. We were all dead.
I gripped my staff so hard it hurt.
Others took their spears, stabbing into creatures that had no bones or organs.
They all failed to make a dent. Or more accurately, the creatures reformed themselves after being pierced
Spears broke. The pieces were swiftly swallowed under flesh.
'What was I to do with this?'
A push flung me to a tree.
I hit hard, slumping to the ground—dizzy and in terrible pain.
A blurry figure slowly and gently dropped from the sky in front of me.
Hair flowed around her like waves. Beautiful. Peaceful.
"....Blink twice if you're alright, Hey...hear me?" The blur shook me till my eyes slowly cleared, revealing Kendali.
"You're safe" She said.
I took a look around, pulling myself into a sitting position. The monsters were all gone, just as quietly as they came
'Did I fall..... asleep?'
"They weren't trying to attack us,and so we just let them move along. Luckily there were no casualties." Kendali said, pulling me up.
"I pushed you a little too hard, but you were the only one who still stood in their path" Kendali continued, she must have been the one who saved me.
"Hey? Can you hear me?" Kendali shook me again, grabbing my attention.
"Thank you." I forced out, still dizzy and in pain.
'The sun looked like it was setting soon but something felt dangerously out of place.....
Kendali stared at me with a confused expression.
"What were they running from?" I asked. There had to be something missing.
"We already checked. Nothing chased them" She replied, her expression easing.
Another quick look showed that nothing had happened. Many seemed to have lost their spears to the monsters and Ren and Theo looked frustrated, like they completely lost everything they were working on.
Everyone else gathered themselves into small groups.
Slowly in the distance the sun continued to fall.
"We need to follow the monsters" I said to Kendali in a hushed tone, "Something just isn't right."
"That's madness!! You want to chase the creatures?" Kendali shouted, attracting everyone's attention.
I cringed at how loud her voice was, 'Doesn't she realise there's a reason I spoke in a hushed tone?'.
People already started to gather round us.
"The boy's not wrong is he? Those were the only living things we've seen all day, they would need water and food too." The fat lady said. Surprisingly she made a solid argument but it was nothing like what I was thinking.
"Are you guys Insane?" A girl said, "We only barely survived that, and they weren't even attacking us".
"I think it's a good Idea" Ren said sharply, "we can observe how they survive from a distance."
"Really Dad? This is a bad idea."The girl cut in again, pulling my attention, did she him Dad? They didn't even look alike in the slightest, and Ren still looked kinda young.
"Karin, I think it's best we all leave." Dahlia said, trying to hold her by the shoulder. The girl pushed her off almost immediately.
"It's a bad idea, and I'm not going." Karin said.
"Then stay." Another voice spoke."If Princess here wants to stay then she stays. Simple enough."
No one argued on that.
"I'm staying behind too." Kendali spoke, moving to stand beside the other girl, though the girl also moved away from Kendali.
And so we left the two girls behind, cutting our numbers down to 8.
.......
Our journey was long and painful.
The ground sloped upwards, and in the distance the tower still stood firmly.
Luckily for us it wasn't hard to follow the trail the creatures left behind.
The sun slowly fell behind the tower, stretching its shadow to unnatural lengths, It was then I realised what exactly felt wrong.
In all the days I spent in the wood house, or maybe just a day, never once had the sun dropped, but now it was about to disappear over the horizon.
'How odd'
Finally we caught up to the beasts.
They piled themselves up on a small hill, hundreds of the fleshy creatures squeezed themselves on the hill.
Abruptly the sun dropped below the horizon, instantly sinking us into darkness.
The world was illuminated only by the faint moonlight.
"Do you hear that?" Dad called immediately.
I tried to listen, but I could only pick up a faint sound....
It sounded like..... water?
Or maybe....?.
"Climb the trees!!!!" Dad screamed, carrying my mum and helping her up a nearby tree.
My eyes widened it was water. Water running in our direction.
"Hurry!!! To the trees!!" Dad screamed, he was already helping a third person up another tree before I finally moved.
I rushed to a tree just to realise I'd never climbed one before, but with the wave steadily approaching none of that mattered.
Before I pulled myself high enough I heard a branch snap loudly.
My heart completely stopped.
Then Immediately a scream came from another tree, making me realise the crack wasn't from my tree.
The water touched my feet, spurring me back into motion.
The scream continued, then disappeared downhill with the waves.
I pulled myself to the sturdiest branch I felt, hugging the body of the tree as tightly as I could.
My head started to feel numb as my breathing came in rushed breaths.
'Don't break. Don't Break.' I screamed in my head, as sweat poured down my face even in the cold, wet air.
My body hurt from holding unto the tree so tightly and yet below me the water continued to rumble, shaking every tree it passed by.