RED MOON

The day was over, and the night began. Clerk— on the other hand, was still unclothing his victim. The trousers reeked of urine. “He must have wet himself when he was hiding, cowering in fear”.

Pulling out Scummy’s trousers, he saw a wheel on his right leg, it had a slight brown color with rock patterns on it.

“Ehhh!, his a noble, his clothes must be quite expensive, Lucky me”.

KUUUEERRHH!

“Damn, that creature’s really fast”.

Finally pulling the trousers of his legs, he tied all three coats to his waist, held his trousers with one hand, wore his black shoes and set off eastwards since the monster was coming from the south, running in the opposite direction might probably not be the best option.

At least he thought the creature would spend a little time dealing with Scummy, buying him more time to escape further.

“Rest in peace my good friend, Scummy. You were of a real help”, Clerk said, with a straight face while running.

Looking back, the moon began rising, it provided little light, helping Clerk find his way through the forest. For a while he kept running—he was scared that the creature might catch up with him.

Feeling exhausted he stopped, hiding behind a tree to catch his breath. Looking up, he saw the moon, fully risen.

“Cool!, what a beautiful crimson moon”.

Still staring at the moon, he felt a strange urge to chase after it. His body started feeling weird. All of a sudden he could now see really clearly in the dark, everything looked much detailed than during the day. His ears began aching. He could hear almost every single thing— down the sound of the organism’s blood flow.

It felt like a thousand ants were walking over his skin because he could feel every single vibration or shift in the atmosphere. His nose picked up more scent than his brain could process. He kept staring at the moon, bleeding from all sense organs on his face.

His face became pale, puking his guts out, he gradually lost balance of his environment. Sitting on the ground, resting with hand covering his ears, and closed eyes, he tried to regain his senses.

He felt a rumble. He thought it was an earthquake, until a small size creature passed him. Looking at the creature he wondered where it was headed. He saw another one, set out, then gradually their numbers increased. They were a headed west, opposite the direction Clerk was headed for. Up in the trees, some creatures swung from branch to branch, each headed westwards. Then finally looking In a distance, he saw a great amount of dusty haze, in it where different creatures and monsters, all headed in the same direction, westwards, from where the blood moon rose. Clerk realized, “This isn’t an earthquake, it’s a stampede!”.

He would definitely get stomped on if he didn’t seek refuge. Clerk got on his feet immediately and began climbing the tree behind him. Slow and steady he continued climbing the tree until he reached a height he considered safe from the stampede.

Sitting on a branch, he looked down at the stampede below him and wondered. “Is this strange looking moon responsible for all that’s happening now?”

“Why does it seem like I’m undergoing a mutation”.

“That damn voice didn’t mention anything about this”.

He felt something moving in his fingers tip, it felt bumpy—squirming around as if wanting to burst out free. His stomach made a growling sound, he was as hungry as he’s thirsty. Not for food. Not for water. But for something different.

As he slowly lost consciousness, he remembered the grin the black veil made before he revived. Slowly closing his eyes the last thing he heard, was a growl.

Twwiipp!

His eyes snapped open to an environment painted in blood. The ground beneath him was soaked, thick and congealed, sticky against his skin. Clung unto the air were the smell of rotten flesh, ruptured bowels, and iron.

Everywhere he looked, the ground was littered with remains—slaughtered bodies piled in heaps, their shapes twisted beyond recognition. A creature with too many eyes had been torn open from it’s throat to belly, it’s guts spilling out in a slick mountain of wet coils.

To his left, a creature’s head had been torn clean off—its spine dragged out with it, dangling in strings of meat. It’s body twitched as though refusing to die. Nearby another monster’s chest had been caved in with such force that it’s ribs jutted outward through the skin, white shards poking from the gore. Everywhere he looked, he saw nothing but shredded corpse.

He felt nausea but he couldn’t puke. He stood on his feet, staring at his aching palm painted in blood. Was the blood his or the monsters…?”, Clerk thought.

But he remembered nothing.

“Did I do this?”, Clerk wondered, refusing to accept any fact that proved he might have done it without knowing.

Running out of the slaughter square, he saw more heaps of various other dead creatures, some of them were especially dreadful and disgusting, those ones had strong smell same as the creature that attacked Scummy.

“This will definitely attract other monsters.”

The day had not fully broken but he saw many creatures headed towards the slaughter square opposite him. He had to keep sneaking and dodging their sight.

“I didn’t see this much creatures yesterday.”

Moving forward he saw the clothes he took from Scummy hung over a tree’s branch. Climbing the tree to retrieve it he thanked the tree.

“Oh Thanks, for keeping my clothes safe, I owe you, Mr good tree”. With the clothes in his hands, he proceeded to find a river. Since the creatures where all distracted eating, 

the forest was rather free.

 Remembering the survival shorts he normally watched on his phone, back on earth, he was able to find a river, although not quickly.

Before approaching the river bank, he surveyed the enter surrounding for possible threats. Seeing there where none at all, he proceeded. On constant high alert—like a mongoose, he hurriedly washed the clothes and 

blood stains off his body.

After that, he retreated back to Mr good tree, hung his cleaned clothes on its branch to dry of, the sat on the other branch by the left that seemed wider to analyze everything that had happened so far and what he had to 

do next. 

Still butt naked.

He took his time to inspect every corner of his body, trying to spot any slight difference. He noticed his fingers tip had slight marks on them indicating that something had cut him, but he couldn’t remember anything from the last night or why he had the 

cut.

“Hmmm… what really happen that night”, Clerk was in deep thought, trying his best to remember. Then he saw the wheel on his thigh. Looking at it he noticed that it had revolved from the first rune and towards another. Not towards the second rune, but the third. Before his eyes a set of runes appeared—like a system wall, but not quite, the language it displayed were strange, but Clerk understood it 

clearly.

—3RD REVOLVE: SPELL FORGER

—GREETINGS, MR RANDOM.

Clerk’s eye glittered in awe.