From The Top

SCREEEEEE!!!

Uh! How many times have I warned them not to bother me before I can wake up?! Can they all not remain quiet for a few hours?!

Opening my eyes, ever so slightly…

It’s too early in the morning. The sun hasn’t even come up yet…

Is all it took to realize…

…wait…

That I am not where I am supposed to be.

…where is Anika?

That same hollowing screech echoes again, this time grabbing my full attention. As I look around to find the culprit, I notice the white and gold marble walls that surround my bedroom have now vanished into empty black spaces. The pillars that sustained the walls seem to have remained, but are now decorated with the skulls of humans and strange creatures that I cannot distinguish.

The darkness engulfs me, making it difficult to identify my position in the vast room. As I stretch out my hand to find my way across the room, I realize that my bed is nowhere to be found. I find myself lying on a bed of hollow sand; thin enough to see the stone cold floor underneath, but also thick enough not to make contact with it.

A prank? If so, surely an expensive one.

Hah. Why would any of them go through all this trouble?

After all, I'm too old for such things.

…huh?

As I raise my right hand towards my right eye in an attempt to quell an itch, I am taken aback as I see hands that belong to a child. I look down further; the arms of a child. Even further; the legs of a child. And finally; the body of a child. My clothes are rags. My hair is tattered. Although, the medium length, rough style remains familiar.

…again?

That same damn noise. Yet, it sounds a bit different.

It’s getting closer.

I finally rise to my feet in haste, and in doing so, the pillars surrounding me begin to fade, while twisting counter clockwise in order to throw off my sense of direction. In the midst of their exit, the hollow eye sockets of the bones that decorate the pillars, regardless of their positions, seemingly turn to fix their nonexistent vision towards me. A barrage of laughter ensues from the mouths of the bones, echoing across the vast darkness and even deafening the incoming screams for a short while.

Are they all…mocking me?

Finally, all that is left is myself and the darkness. I cannot make out any light, but my eyes slowly begin to adjust to my situation.

1…2…3…6…6 paths.

At first, I cannot see there being a wrong choice, as every path surrounding me looks the same. However, the strange noises I have been hearing since this all started comes to mind.

With these paths, there is definitely one that could lead me to facing whatever that thing may be. So there’s a ⅚ chance that I can escape it.

My teeth begin to chatter as I realize the odds. Unfortunately, I have never been much of a gambling man. Anything less than one hundred percent to me means absolute failure.

But I cannot just stay here, since the odds are that it can probably also come to me…meaning a one hundred percent chance of meeting it if I do absolutely nothing.

Suddenly, a familiar voice pops into my head.

Right.

I turn to the path most equal to my right. Out of every path…my intuition is telling me to take this one.

An 83% chance of success. Nothing to worry about.

All it took was five steps towards the right path…to realize my intuition is rooting against me.

Ah…this is why I hate gambling…

A monstrous creature, although no larger than a full-grown ostrich, steps out slowly from the same path my eyes and intuition were directing me. Its figure resembles that of a stork with black diamond encrusted chest plate and talons. Such a design is not one that even the most artistic of human minds could be capable of.

My focus sways towards the rest of the creature’s body, noticing its disgusting form. Its wings look as if they have gone for a swim across the River Styx, causing its feathers to droop down like a cheap mop that has just completed its daily task. Its beak, verily decayed, and cracked open to the point you could see its yellow and black tongue. And the smell? Such a foul stench that would violate anything with nostrils.

What…is this thing?!!

There was definitely a wrong choice. And I had made that exact choice. If I had chosen any other path, surely I would have escaped this menacing creature.

Yet…my focus remains squarely…on its talons and chest plate…

…magnificent.

The creature lets out a blood curdling scream from such close range, throwing my senses in disarray. I freeze, unsure of what to make of the situation. My heart pounds, louder and louder, as the creature opens its mouth like a baby bird waiting to be fed by its mother.

The creature, the bird. Myself, the prey. This strange location, its mother.

Hah…surely a prank would never be able to go this far?

The creature lunges its head towards my position. As the two corners of the creature’s beak encircle my head, my vision begins to lose color. I can do nothing but breathe in deeply, accepting my fate in this immensely strange situation.

Actually…whether it was to accept my last moments, or to keep my neck thin enough as a last attempt at survival, I do not know.

But it seemed to work.

Centimeters away from snapping my neck in two, the creature is interrupted by another at the last second, pulling it away to the right side of my body. The empty snap of the creature’s beak terrifies me, but also signals my survival.

After staying frozen in place for a brief moment, I let out a breath as a sigh of relief, and slowly turn to my right. I see two creatures engaged in an intense fight, with their talons and chest plates acting as both their offense and defense. However, the first creature to reach the area, resembling that of a stork, seems to stand almost no chance against the incoming challenger, resembling that of a great swan. Both seem to have black diamonds coated across their vital points, but the incoming challenger certainly seemed to be a more experienced fighter. Not to mention…its own black diamonds seemed to have even greater weight and a tougher exterior than its foe…

…magnificent.

Before a winner is decided, another interference occurs, snapping my attention back to the situation at hand. However, this time, it is an arrow, piercing directly into the eyes of the now former incoming challenger. The strange creature resembling a swan screams, causing it to panic and swing its talons wildly across the constricted area.

Oh, no.

Both of the strange creatures are now heading in my direction.

I accept my fate. I may still have my intuition and developed mind, but surely with such a childlike body, I could never hope to survive any longer than I already have. Perhaps it was a dream all along, and my mind just couldn’t tell the difference.

I sure hope I wake up quick-

Suddenly, I feel myself flying through the air in the nick of time, dodging the incoming onslaught of talons that were sure to pierce through my fragile body. After landing on the ground, I finally notice a stranger clutching me, so as to protect me. An onslaught of screams comes from the same direction that the arrow had been shot from, as well as from the strange man now on top of me.

Wait.

A well endowed chest?

An onslaught of screams comes from the same direction that the arrow had been shot from, as well as from the strange woman now on top of me.

Before I can make sense of all of it, the woman covers my eyes, and whispers softly into my right ear.

“Don’t be afraid. We’re here to save you.”

With only my sense of hearing left to make out the situation, I decide to remain quiet. Clashes of weapons against weapons. Screams of horror coming from familiar human-like voices. Screams of agony from the creatures that had come to take my life. Blood being spilled across the thin sand floor. Names being echoed across the halls. Until finally…

Silence.

Is…it over?

The woman lets me go, and after a brief pause, I stand up to see a party of six people; three of them lay dead on the floor, meaning they were originally a party of nine. Looking towards all of the original nine, I notice that they all seem to be mixed in age, most being teenagers or young adults. Traces of a dark liquid is splashed against some, while one of them seems to almost be covered in it.

Considering the earlier fight between the two creatures, this must be the blood of those vile things.

Although it is difficult to make out their faces and the content of their attire in the darkness, I notice the one most covered in blood is the first to move towards me. He rips off a piece of the rags that cover my petite body, and slides his finger across his face to recover some of the dark blood, before placing it neatly across the tip of the cloth. A small blue flame lights up, illuminating their faces in greater detail.

“So what do you think? We’re pretty strong, right?” The young man finishes with a confident smile.

With the flame’s help, I slowly begin to look around the area, and confirm my suspicions. The creatures have been killed, as there were splotches of their blood everywhere. However, their bodies were now nowhere to be found, perhaps disintegrated upon their deaths.

A feeling begins to well up within my throat, making it hard to breathe and even harder to swallow the foam rising on the inside of my mouth. Fear, anxiety, relief. All feelings that one would think to feel in that moment. And of course, those can all be applied to my current psyche.

Yet…the largest ball of emotion swelling up on the inside…is displeasure.