New World

Devilish little eyes belonging to little grass bearded humanoids all lock on to Robina, giving her chills. “What the?!” she exclaims as they bare vicious little fangs at her. One of them begins ringing a bell and the others start becoming more agitated at the presence of the red haired girl. She quickly pulls a sword out of the ground and starts sprinting away from the little creatures, which give chase. All she can hear behind her is the clamoring of the bell and the impish howls of her pursuers. “WHAT KIND OF SECOND CHANCE IS THIS!?!” she frightfully yells while running at top speed.

‘That dream… Selvara? This is definitely not home!’ the thoughts race across her mind even faster than her legs can carry her. “Was I sent here just to die again!?” she chokes out in between labored breaths “CHRONOA!!!! WHAT A JERK!!!!”

She notices that the creatures are a little bit slower than her, and she’s running faster than she ever had before. “This is crazy!” she looked around for a place to hide, ‘I think I can shake them that way!’ She spots a dirt roadway. Most of the creatures give up chase once she reaches the road, however one of them seems highly intent on reaching her.

Robina looks back and blows a big raspberry at the lone creature that is still tailing her, “Go back to your creepy little friends already!” she pleads, feeling as though she can’t run much longer without a break she begins to slow down. ‘It’s gonna catch up!’ She feels the intense pangs of her flight or fight response radiating throughout her body. She looks at the sword, still in her hand “looks like I’m gonna have to fight!”

Robina stops, kicking up a cloud of dust in the process. She turns and grips both hands tightly to her sword, and only now does she notice that the blade has been broken nearly in half. ‘Just my rotten luck! This thing is garbage…’

The creature shows no sign of slowing its advance towards her, by now she can see that it has horrible little claws as well. Its body is covered in clothing made of grass, and what she can see of its skin is a sickly green. It looks like something made of moss and grass comes to life from a nightmare, and the look in its eyes screams hunger.

“Okay you little nasty, I’m not backing down!” she readies herself as the creature is only steps away now. It lunges forward once it’s close enough, claws at the ready and mouth wide open. ‘Wait for it’ she prepares a swing.

Her sword starts to glow, but she doesn’t notice. She bets everything on this one swing, hoping that her strength is enough to keep her safe in this moment. The volume of its growling grows with each passing moment, she steadies her breath. She can almost smell it now, the sick stench of fouled earth and rot. “GO!!” she swings, “AWAY!!” her blade connects. The monster takes a nasty slash across its torso, the force of which almost cleaves it in two as it is slammed into the ground with her dull broken blade! It lets out a painful howl as its wound spits out green blood, earth and grass. It weakly swings a hand towards her from its prone position before its limbs crumple against the road. Its kin watch in horror as they see one of their own felled by the girl, they quickly disappear back into the forest. The sound of the bell limps out of earshot, like a pied piper leading away rats.

Robina looks on, making sure that the others have left. Only the motionless one remains before her, once a fright and now a pitiful sight. She drops her battered weapon on the ground and she slumps to her knees to catch her breath, “Jeez… I mean what the heck?!” She sits on the ground for a moment to collect herself. Looking around, she sees that the trees look like something from the tropics she’d seen in her textbooks. “Where even am I?” she stands up and dusts herself off, looking down either direction of the path. The path winds through a tunnel of trees in both directions, concealing their end points. “Well I guess it doesn’t matter which way I go” she looks at the now deceased creature and decides to go in the way opposite to the direction that they came from, worried that there may be worse things in that direction.

Each step she takes away from that area makes her feel a little less worried but she keeps her guard up, certain that this place will be her doom if she isn’t on her toes.

The sound of bird songs dance across the trees lightening Robina’s mood. The sun sits high in the sky, suggesting that it is nearly noon. She walks for a long time before coming across a sweet smell, and she sees the height of the trees changing. “An orchard?” Short trees glisten with ripened fruits, “Mango's?” She plucks the sweet fruit from the tree, its enticing and distinctive red, green and yellow skin promises a delightful meal. She takes a few more and puts them in her pocket, before opening one to take a cautious bite. “Oh wow! It’s really sweet!” it disappears before she can realize it, “Guess I must have been really hungry” she lets out a satisfied burp and continues with her journey. “I really could use some water, this trail can’t be that much longer… can it?”

She passes through the short trees for some time before another smell catches her interest, “that smells like…” she sniffs the air, “bananas?”

The familiar welcoming smell carries on the cooking fires that waft down the trail, almost invitingly. Small houses slowly come into view as she makes her way through the grove, “alright!” Her excitement re-energizes her as she sprints towards civilization.