First Step

       “Oh crap?” Corbin asked, standing back up. “What’s ‘oh crap’?”

       “I saw something up on the second floor,” Valerith began. “There were carvings in the walls of a person and a Sivketh’s fang.”

       Sylvarien looked at him.

       “How will we do that? If we try to take a part of their body, they will simply absorb us as food.”

       Valerith thought about their situation.

       “Maybe I could take it from afar?”

       “How would you accomplish that?” Sylvarien asked. “Only I have the power to barely pull one apart. Even with whatever you can create, they would not wish to create something that could seriously harm them.”

       All three of their brains racked through different ideas in unison.

       “What happens when one dies?” Corbin asked. “I know they explode when killed by someone else, but what about if they die naturally?”

       Sylvarien’s face turned sour.

       “It could potentially work,” Valerith said. “Sivkeths are basically immortal, but when they reach their stomach’s capacity, they die. Unfortunately, after one dies, two more are birthed from the original’s corpse about 30 minutes after, then it disappears.”

       “It would be very risky,” Sylvarien confirmed. “Newborns are very hungry. They lose all of their senses besides hunger, making them savage and quite dangerous to be around. They only become safer when they are satisfied which is a few years after they are birthed.”

       “Could we not just wait for one to die then immediately grab a fang before the new ones fully birth?” he suggested. “How long would it take for one to die?”

       “Not a good idea,” Valerith said. “They live for around 200 years. You wouldn’t live long enough to do that. However, we could try to find one that has recently died.”

       Corbin looked down at the ground, disappointed.

       “Does this mean that we’re going to have to walk another week to get back to the original spot we came from?”

       “Do not worry, we will not have to walk very far I think,” Sylvarien said. “We were hiding from them on the way here but now we are looking for them, so it will maybe be less walking. Unless we do not—”

       Valerith covered her mouth and stopped her sentence.

       “If you say we might be walking longer than before, it will most certainly kill his mood,” he said only in her mind.

       She nodded slightly to let him know she understood.

       “We should find a dead one pretty quickly,” she happily lied to Corbin.

       Valerith sighed.

       “Nice.” Corbin gave her a high five. “That’s what I like to hear.”

       “You’re terrible at lying,” he said directly into her mind again.

       Corbin was already at the temple’s entrance, ready to go.

       “Are you slowpokes coming along or not? I’m ready to get this fang thing and move on.”

       Sylvarien and Valerith both went over to Corbin, letting him lead the way out.

       “Do you know what a ‘slowpoke’ is?” she whispered to Valerith.

       “I’m not sure,” he said. “I think it’s another saying from his world.”

       “What did you say?” Corbin looked back at them.

       “What is a ‘slowpoke’?” she asked.

       “Ah, it’s just a thing we say in my world to tease other people who are doing something slower than someone else.” Corbin got more energetic as he was explaining to them. “For example, if you’re eating food with someone and they’re still eating while you’re done, you can call them a slowpoke.”

       He didn’t even realize that he’d crossed the barrier of the city and into the forest as he was talking.

       “This is good,” Valerith said. “He might not complain about walking if he’s talking about stuff from his world. Keep asking him stuff.”

       Sylvarien nodded.

       “So, what kind of food do the humans in your world eat?”

       “That’s a fantastic question!” Corbin said. “In the place where I lived, we have a lot of fast food, which is just unhealthy food that’s fast, but it’s very convenient so a lot of people eat it. However, my favorite food is stuff that is derived from food in the medieval era.”

       “The medieval era sounds fascinating,” Sylvarien kept him talking while Valerith watched around their location for any Sivkeths. “Could you tell me more about that?”

       He fell back to be in line with her while walking.

       “Absolutely!” Corbin looked ecstatic. “The medieval era, or Middle Ages, started about 1500 years ago right after the fall of a mighty empire called the Roman Empire and lasted until around 500 years ago.”

       Sylvarien kept nodding her head, listening to his words thoroughly since as well as distracting him, she was interested in Corbin’s world.

                                                                       ***

       “And that’s why people say that the pink crayon tastes the best. Do you want to talk about the markers next?”

       They had been walking for hours with Corbin nonstop talking about random things. Even Sylvarien was bored of his talking at this point. 

       “Wait, be quiet,” Valerith said to both of them. “I can sense a Sivketh to our left.”

       “Is it alive or dead?” Corbin asked.

       “I’m not sure, I can’t tell that. It isn’t moving though, that’s a good sign. I’ll check it out, stay close behind me.”

       The three of them squatted down and quietly snuck toward the Sivketh’s location.

       “Can you see it yet?” Sylvarien asked him.

       “We’re almost there,” he said. “Just a few more meters away.”

       Valerith stopped two meters away from the location and Sylvarien looked from behind a tree for him.

       “Oh my!” she exclaimed quietly. “It is dead. I cannot tell how long so let us get in there now and grab the fang.”

       They went up to the Sivketh’s corpse and let Sylvarien try to break a fang off.

       “How long is this thing?” Corbin asked. “It’s massive!”

       “They are normally around five meters long by the time of their death,” Valerith said. “The hatchlings start off at half a meter.”

       “This fang… will not… come out!” Sylvarien struggled to pull the fang out of its mouth.

       The fang wiggled slightly, and a small crack echoed around them.

       “Keep going!” Corbin cheered her on. “It’s almost out!”

       Sylvarien’s hands were turning paler as her grip tightened on the fang. She positioned her foot on the Sivketh’s body for more leverage and gave one final tug before it completely snapped off from the base of the fang in the mouth.

       She fell back on her butt with the fang in her hand.

       “Holy shit,” she said out of breath. “Finally got it out.”

       The Sivketh’s corpse ripped open and two small heads emerged from its body.

       “Run!” Valerith strictly commanded them.

       Without hesitation, the three of them turned tail and ran the opposite direction.

       Sensing food around them, the hatchlings began to emerge from the corpse even faster. Their intense hunger controlling them.

       "Faster! They’ll catch us!” Valerith said.

       The hatchlings fully emerged from the old Sivketh’s corpse and slithered after the three of them with incredible speed.

       They began to feel the Sivketh’s tug, slowing down their running as they approached the three of them.

       Valerith, thinking quickly, turned around and created the biggest thing he could sense that they wanted.

       A tree appeared out of nowhere and got flung at the Sivkeths who absorbed the tree full without turning to see what they were absorbing.

       “You two go!” he shouted at them. “I can hold them off just fine!”

       Valerith turned suddenly and created a bunch of random objects that the hatchlings wanted, throwing it at them all at once.

       The sudden wall of items slowed them down just a little.

       Seeing that Valerith was the closest, they targeted him.

       “He is going to kill himself doing that,” Sylvarien said. “Here, take the fang and hide as best as you can. We will find you once we are done beating these hatchlings.”

       She handed Corbin the fang and ran a few steps to stand beside Valerith. Before she could get to him, a screeching sound filled her ears. She fell to the ground and stopped moving completely.

       This wasn’t just her problem, Valerith and the two hatchlings both stopped moving as well. 

       Sylvarien screamed out in pain while Valerith and the hatchlings writhed around on the ground.

       “Hey.” Corbin ran up to her side. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

       The screeching faded into silence after another minute.

       It felt like the world stood still for a moment. Sylvarien and Valerith stood back up and looked around while the two hatchlings stopped attacking.

       Suddenly, the two of them turned their attention from Valerith to Corbin and dashed towards him.