User blog:Darknessabove/The explorer, Volume 1, Chapter 3: Ruins

A young boy was sitting in a hut, while a man was cleaning the inside, whistling as he went about, while the boy looked out the window, his blue eyes staring in envy at the other children running around.

Suddenly, the door of the hut opens, a large woman entering the hut, causing the boy to back away from the window, behind the woman, a young girl, who immediatly jumps at the boy, pinning him to the ground, causing the woman to grin slightly.

The boy head butts the girl, which causes her to flinch and fall off, his eyes glaring at her as the woman's face turns to anger, grabbing the young boy by the coff of his shirt.

"Know your place....boy"

Waking up to intoxication

Garth woke up, holding his head, which was currently throbbing in pain, his body feeling hot a bothered.

"ahh....ahhhhh" he panted, each breath only causing his body to flare up instead of cool down.

"ahhh....fuck......not this" he muttered to him self as he steadied him self, getting up onto his feet, it was pitch black, the floor felt....unstable.

"i....i need to...um...ahhh." Garth was having problems concentrating, his mind was cloudy....full of desire.

"I....need....ahh....need light" Garth muttered to him self as he pulled a object out of his back pack, forced to feel around due to having no light to see.

"Cas......ahhh....cc....cast: illumin....ation" Garth panted out, causing the object to start to glow, it was a smooth round orb, which emited a dark purple glow, bathing the area in a bright scarlett light at first....before changing to a more sun lit color, alolowing Garth to see his surroundings, though, he was at this point sitting on the ground, holding his head in his hands.

"it'll pass.....ahh....it'll pass" he kept muttering to him self, taking deep breaths as he kept rocking forwards and back wards.

"i won't gi....give in....i....i am....human" he shouted out the last part.

After a few minutes, Garth struglled to his feet, while his body was still feeling hot, he had at least gained clarity in his mind, enough to be able to think rationally.....enough to remember the dream he just had.

"Ahh...fuck.....fuck" he said as he hit a near by wall with his hand, causing the dust that had gathered on it to fly off as he hit it.

He looked at the wall he just hit, before looking at his hand, which was caked in dry blood, at first confused to how it got there, before remembering the events in the monster village.

"ah...haha.....hahahaha" he started to laugh, which echoed around him.

"ah.....ah....well....at least i know...ahh....never to make that concoction again" he muttered to him self smiling, before he started to look at his surroundings.

The walls were a tinted yellow, possibly form years or even decades of decay and poor maintaince, the floor was just covered with sand, the room....or more approiatly...hall way, was long and narrow, leading in 2 directions to his left and right.

"While....at least i can have a break...." Garth smiled to him self, before walking down the hall way.

"and give me time to renew my spiritual energy supply.......hopefully before any monster finds me in this state.

Echos of a era long gone

Garth continued to walk down the hall way, his hand gliding across the wall, parts of it crumbling as it did.

After a while, he came to a large room, the ceiling had partly crumbled away, allowing sunlight to penitrate into the room.

He started to walk into the room, looking around as he did, large pillars, which towered all the way to the ceiling, some had simply crumbled away, while others had stood the test of time.

Garth approached one of the pillars, brushing away some of the dust, he saw symbols etched into the pillar, extending all the way around and up the pillar.

Garths eyes widdened, if there was one thing he truly loved, it was this, discovering new, unseen things and since none of these symbols matched any thing he had seen, he got excited, his body numbing to the hot sensation he had been feeling earlier.

"Okay...okay...lets see" Garth brushed away more dust, moving round the pillar, trying to understand the meaning behind the symbols.

Part of the pillar caught Garths eye in particular, on it, there was a large person, partly covered by clouds, etched into the pillar, underneath, another person, smaller in size, who seemed to be kneeling.

Lower down, the same 2 people were seen, the larger one seemed to be handing something to the smaller one, but Garth couldn't make it out, that part of the pillar was damaged and worn away.

"Who were they....and what was that person handing the other one" Garth muttered to him self, before continuing to look around the room, spotting a throne back in the direction he had come from.

"So this was a throne room" Garth though to him self, before walking up to the throne, it had a stone base, which probally gave the throne structure, but in places, bits of rusted metal could be seen, along with fibres of fabric, the back rest had worn away, to the point where it barly reached above the arm rests.

"A throne which as decayed along with the kingdom it once belonged to.....a sad sight" Garth ran his fingers across whgat used to be the arm rest, which now was barely held together, crumbling away as he did.

Garth stared at it for a moment, before moving across the room towards what looks to be an exit to the out side world, many thoughs weighing heavily on his mind.

Ruins

Garth came to the exit of the building, stepping out, he was temporarily blinded by the shift in light.

His eyes adjusting, he was standing on what seemed to be a small balcony, though, it wasn't much of a view since the sand reached up to it, looking around, he could see bits of stone juting out of the sand.

About 150 metres away, he saw what looked to be the top of a tower, the sand had pretty much buried the tower, only leaving the top exposed.

"I wonder how much is buried underneath this sand" Garth though to him self, before he sat down, resting on the old stone slabs which made up the balcony floor.

Garth placed his hand over his right eye, it was throbbing in pain.

"Ah.....blasted thing" Garth muttered in irritance as he covered his eye, his mind filling with images, sound, light.....and darkness, as his eyes closed.

Surprise

A large woman exited a wooden hut, which had a leaf roof, her tanned body covered in tribal tatoos, her long black hair fluttering in the wind as she looked behind, her green eyes staring at the entrance to the hut as she started to yank on a piece of rope she held on to, which ran into the hut.

A few moments later, a man in his late 30's came out, his body was well built, healthy, strong, typical of all men that had become the husband of a monster, he walked behind the woman, wearing ntohing but a small lion cloth around his hips, which barly covered his genitailia, short, brown hair covered his head as he looked at the amazonian with his blue eyes, the look of happiness on hsi face as he knew what was going to happen soon.

After a short walk, they came to what seemed to be the center of a village, in the middle, 8 wooden poles, 7 of which had men tied to them, every part of their body exposed to the amazonians around them, who were looking at them with a hungry look.

The amazonian then tied the blue eyes man to the post, ripping off his lion cloth before standing up, staring at his erect member.

Members of the tribe started to play instuments, the sounds coming form them causing soem to sing, while the 8 amazonians that were standing by the wooden poles started to dance around the men, as they did, taking off their own clothing, though they hand't much to begin with, dropping it on the floor as they danced around, showing off their body to everyone around.

As the music began to slow down, the 8 amazonians positioned them selves in front of the men, standing over them, before bringing their faces in close towards the men.

The blue eyed man and the green eyes amazonian looked at each other for what seemed an eternity, before the amazonian opened her mouth.

"Tell me, who does your body belong to?" she asked the man, staring into his blue eyes, which showed no resistance,oh no, his eyes showing complete submission to the woman in front of him.

"My body, from the tips of my toes to the hair on my head, my mind and my spirit, it all belongs to you, Gillia Hawkguard" he replied in a loving, but respectful way.

"Yes, it does, Gareth" she replied to him, a sinister grin on her face.

The music started back up again as amazions around started to chant and cheer, with the ones by the poles lowering them selfs, about to mate with the man, along with consuming their spiritaul energy.

The spectators around looked as the 8 amazonians, 1 by 1, lowered them selves on the men, groans being heard from the men as their members were enveloped, becoming one with the amazonians.

But just as Gillia was about to become one with Gareth, the sound of a male shouting caught her attention and that of the tribes women

"Surprise" the voice was heard saying, quickly followed by several of the amazonians being hit in the head with strange, rugged metal orbs, which promptly exploded in a cloud of smoke, causing the amazonians to run, the smoke irritating their eyes and throats as several of them had coughing fits.

After around 10 seconds, the smoke started to clear, with Gillia coughing and looking around, she saw all the men had been knocked unconscious by the smoke, something in it which only effected men must of been the cause, though she did not know what.

She continued looking around, barly able to see due to the effects of the smoke, she saw the image of a person jumping from the rooftop of one of the huts, in the direction of the cages used to hold men that had been captured or who had resisted the amazonians.

Gillia couldn't quite see who it was, but she didn't have to, there was only one person who would do this.

"Jack"

Commotion and sandbeasts

Gath opened his eyes, lookin up at the sky, he let out a heavy breath, closing his eyes again as he held his head.

"Twice today, guess thats what happens when i've taken in to much demonic energy" Garth muttered, moving his hand over his right eye, before sighing and getting up, just in time for some entertainment.

"Fucking hell, keep running" the sound of shouting drew Garths attention, there were a group of cloaked individuals, 5 of them, who were running desperatly, looking behind them occasonally as they did.

"Look, over there" one shouted as they pointed towards the same tower that Garth had spotted earlier.

As they started to run towards the tower, Garth noticed some of the sand behind them raising, then lowering, which was slowly getting closer to the group.

As they got close to the tower, the sand stop rising.

Suddenly, the sand rose, flying in the air as a large, scale plated beast came out of the sand, attempting to grab one of the cloaed individuals, almost catching them as they dived onto the tower, the worm diving back into the ground again.

The cloaked group sat there for a bit before entering the tower.

"Fuck" Garth said as he looked out towards the sand.

Beasts beneath the sands

Garth paced back and forth on the balcony he was on.

"Fuck, a sandworm of all things, these bastards are dumb but thats not much of a disadvantage when your an armorplated beast that can attack and retreat before the enemy as a chance to run or hit back" Garth moaned, hitting his head several times to try and think of a way to get to that tower the cloaked group had entered.

Suddenly he stopped, clicking his fingers as he grinned, before grabbing a hand full of sand.

"Lets use that lack of intellegence to my advantage" he said, before he began casting a spell, a mixture of spiritaul and demonic energy swirling around him, before it moved, creating a sand construct....a golum.

The golum was composed completely of sand, though it looked like soemthing a child had put together, its legs were different lengths, it had only one, very short arm and what resembled a half eaten head looked at him, a glowing eye staring at him.

"Okay, heres the plan....huh.....sandy...yes..sandy" Garth said to the golum, who couldnt' really reply due to the lack of a mouth.

"Your gonna run over in that direction, away form the tower, while i run towards it, hopefully the sandworm will go after you, without chasing me" Garth said to the golum, who seemed to nod and start moving, the right sid eof its body going up and down due to the different leg lengths.

Garth watched as the golum ran at a surpsiing speed for sucha  crude construct, waiting for the tell tale signs of a sandworm.

"There you are love" Garth said with a smile as he saw some sand bulge behind the golum, the bulge following the golum.

Garth went to run to the tower, but just as his foot hit the sand below the balcony, he felt the ground beneath him shake.

"Oh you got to be kidding me" Garth though as he dodged to the right, barly avoiding being engulfed by a sandworm that had erupted out of the sand where he had prevouisly been standing.

Garth looked at the sandworm, its outer body was typical of all sandworms....multiple red eyes, brownish scales, though the red patterns on some of her sacles made her different from other worms.

The sandworm turned its head to look at Garth giving him a view of the inside, a fleshy woman was inside, resting her head on her arms as she smiled, he red eyes looking at Garth as she opened her mouth.

"Not...that...easy" she said, before diving back into the sand below.

"Oh fuck me" Garth said to him self, before he started sprinting towards the tower.

A surpising adversary

Garth was running at full speed now, dodging occasionally as the sandworm erupted from the sand in an attempt to grab him.

"I had to encounter a worm with intellegence...i had to encounter a armorplated super beast....WITH INTELLEGENCE" Garth kept shouting at him self in his mind.

If that wasn't enough on his plate, the other sandworm from before was heading towards him now, his golum had shattered when she had leap on him and now he was the only one left to target.

"Shit shit shit, he said as he continued to try and reach the tower, big red (the nick name he'd given the worm with red scales) was not doing what typical worms did, instead, she kept trying to cut him off, blocking his way and trying to make surprise attacks from angles which made it difficult to dodge, especially since all her attacks were executed in such a way that she spent as little time above ground, which meant she could continously attack, compared to the usual "worm spots man, worm jumps at man, which usually resulted in a long wait inbetween attacks as they put so much effort into the attacks that they shot out the ground".

"Shit...ah...need to rest" Garth though to him self as he spotted a stone pillar sticking a good 4-5 meters out the ground, immediatly sprinting towards it and climbing it, the top was barly enough to sit on.

Garth looked down as he saw a bulge of sand circling around the pillar.

"Well......this sucks" Garth muttered to him self, trying to remain calm and think of how he coudl get out of this situation.

The tower was now 50 meters away from him, but that was more then enough distance for the sandworms to catch him.

He looked down again, seeing only one bulge, he started to worry.

"Okay...wheres the other one" Garth though to him self, though he quickly found out.

Big red came out of the sand, extending up the pillars length, till its head was at the same height as Garth, pointing its mouth towards Garth, yet again showing him the woman inside.

"No....escape" she said, motioning him with her arms to come to her.

"Yeah, well screw you big red" Garth replied to the sandworm, before having a "shouldn't of said that" moment.

"Name not....red, name, milisa" she replied, before moving her mouth towards Garth in an attempt to grab him.

"Time to move" Garth said as he jumped off the pillar, rolling on the sand before quickly rushing to his feet, running towards the tower again.

Milisa quickly dived underground again, while the other worm quickly started to follow Garth.

Flashy escape

Garth was running at full sprint, tyring to reach the tower, with one worm behind him, though milisa had all but disappeared.

"Crap, i'm gonna get caught before i reach the tower, time to employ plan W" Garth muttered to him self, pulling 2 devil gems out of his backpack.

Plan W was a......flashy escape method, involving the use of 2 devils gems, one loaded with a air spell, the other with a fire ball, the air spell was used first, surrounding the user in a shield of air, before the fireball was used, which would create an explosion, catapulting the user away from the explosion, protected by the airshield.

Well, in THEORY thats how it worked, Garth had not tested this plan (which he had though up after using an airshield to guard him self from a very angry hero.....really angry, who was throwing fireballs at him like they were going out of fashion, which ironically helped him escape, though, he ended up landing into more trouble afterwards, buts thats a story for another time), so this would be....interesting, to say the least.

"Alright, i hope these fast cast spells work, air first" Garth though to him self as he pumped a tiny bit of spiritual energy into the first devil gem, causing it to shake before flying up, gathering air around it as it did, before the air surrounded Garth, giving him an invisible shield.

Garth went to use the second gem, but before he could, Milisa erupted from the ground beneath him, knocking him off his feet and taking him into her mouth as she flew up int eh air, she'd put a lot of force into this jump, to ensure Garth didn't dodge out the way.

Garth had managed to grab hold of the edge of Milisa's outter mouth, who was a little displeased he had not simply fallen into her arms, though in a few seconds that wouldn't matter since gravity would caused her to start decending again, and a few seconds after that, Garth woudl be forced into her waiting arms, wether he liked it or not.

"I'll cuddle you....lots" she said as she started to move her main body towards Garth, who did not seem so eager to share a cuddle.

"Sorry, but i've got a tower to explore" Garth said as he started to use the second devil gem, which started to shake, the gem begining to heat up.

Milisa sensed the enegry in the gem and immeidtaly covered her main body in a sticky, fleshy membrane, while tyring to close her outta mouth to prevent Garth escaping, but she was to late to do the latter, as the gem exploded with firey energy, catapulting Garth high into the air.

"ha....hahah...it works.....brilliant" Garth said as he laughed, though as he stopped ascending and started to decend, he realised he hadn't taken into account the landing.

"Shit" Garth said as he tried to rumage through his backpack, made difficult by the fact he was spinning in the air, which caused the contents to scatter all over the place, though he managed to grab one gem, throwing it towards the tower that he was rapidly approaching.

The gem hit the tower, at first, doing nothing, much to Garths horror, but then, the gem burst with light as he hit the tower.

Descent into the unknown

"So THATS what it does" Garth said as he lyed there, attop a mass of slime, the gem he had used must of been the one that he was testing magical compression on, in this case, he had compressed a mass of slime into the gem, which he had "aquired" from several slimes, though he had to do so sneakily since he didn't fancy being glomped.

He got up, wiping off the slime that had stuck to hsi clothing as he looked around, the many devil gems he had vreated and imbued were now lying across the sand, much to hsi aggreavtion, he'd of gone and collected them, if it wasn't for the fact there were 2 hungry sandworms after him, waiting beneath the sand.

"Some of those would of been great for breaking into order store rooms" Garth muttered to him self sorrowfully, though he quickly stopped and stepped back as Milisa arose from the sand, staring at him.

"If you wanted...to get sticky....i could of made you allllll slimey, darling" she said meekfully, her main body swaying from left to right.

"Yeah, well, ya can't get me here, its solid rock....SOLID ROCK, no worm cuddles for me" Garth said as he laughed, relieved that he had gotten away from his pursurer.

She simply smiled as she shifted her entire body out of the sand, wriggling onto the tower that Garth was on, though he wasn't to worried, for all her wriggling, he coudl just go insdie and that would be that, though what came next made him start bricking him self.

Milisa's started to convulse as her large, outta body started to shrink, while he main body inside started to come out of the mouth, the outter body moving towards where her "feet" would be on the main body, forming a large, long tail.

Garth rubbed his eyes in disbelief as this happened, his jaw dropping as he saw the transformation, sure, he knew that many mamono could transform them selves, but he'd never though that sandworms had the capacity, and yet here he was, watching this sand worm named Milisa body transform into that.....of a lamias?

Milisa stood there, well, when i say stood, it was more like her tail was now holding her upper body up, as she grinned at Garth, who was right now shaking as he pointed at her.

"But thats cheati....oh shit" Garth said as he had to dodge Milisa's charge, who was very determined to get a hold of him now.

"You know what, i think you need some alone time, so i'm just gonna pop in here" Garth quickly muttered out, before running into the tower, with Milisa slithering behind him in close pursuit.

One things for sure, Garth would never underestimate a sandworm again.

Chapter 2

Chapter 4

Index

Authors notes:

Finally finished this chapter, i would like to say thanks to safnar for springing this idea (the one where Garth is thrown towards the tower), thank you safnar, along with any one else that as patiantly waited for me to finally finish this chapter, the next chapter will be a mix of stealth, ingenuity....and Garth running away from mummies (not the ones that cook a roast on sunday or ask you to do the laundry).

That said, i'm gonna finish strange world, chapter 1 first before starting that chapter, since i already have the main chars first fight in my head, its gonna be positivly explosive (really....really explosive), till then, i'll be off.

Laters.