“STOP RUNNING, HUMAN!” A loud and grating voice shouted. “ALL I WANT IS TO HAVE NIBBLE ON YOU!”
“I said, NO!” Samuel Edwin Calderon cried at the top of his lungs while his legs zipped across the sandy/stony ground. “Leave me alone, you ugly thing.”
“WHO ARE YOU CALLING UGLY, HUMAN!” The loud and grating voice protested with all its claws, mandibles, six legs, six eyes, black chitin, and tipped tail that would just love to spear itself into something. “I AM THE EPITOME OF BEAUTY! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA JUST HOW MUCH I AM DESIRED?”
“OH… What is that?” Sam spontaneously shouted back. “Is that a female in need of a strong and beefy SCORPION KING?”
“WHAT?... WHERE?” The Scorpion called out with obvious desire.
“Behind you!” Sam shouted without even looking back, but even if he had not, the lack of thudding sounds scraping after him told him all he needed to know. Undoubtedly the Scorpion Spirit had stopped to check and flex its mighty claws and spiked tail at nothing but air. Meanwhile, the little distraction afforded Sam a small bit of hope to successfully leave behind the Spirit of Earth and Poison, probably.
Unfortunately, not even a few moments later, the Spirit bellowed out its anger. “YOU DARE DECEIVE ME, HUMAN! NOW I AM GOING TO EAT YOU WHOLE INSTEAD JUST TAKING A BITE!”
As if his body, or better said, his Soul, understood the task before it, Sam suddenly gained extra juice for the single purpose of running faster towards a rather rocky-looking set of stones. How and from where the juice came was set aside because all of Sam’s focus went on not losing his footing.
That was something he had trained against, but as his training had taught him, it was better to not lose his footing instead of knowing how to best recover from tripping in the first place.
Regardless, as the thudding behind him neared, Sam hoped with all his might to find himself a decent hiding ground, preferably one small enough to fit him but not the Spirit in question because the Spirit was of the lowest class if it could not even catch an unaugmented human, a close to fifteen year old one at that. Then, as Sam inched closer and closer to the rocky grounds, a vague coldness spread from his chest, and with it, he felt this strong urge to angle his approach towards one particular side of the rocky grounds. Already on the verge of collapse, Sam simply did as the urge bid him and soon enough he found himself within an alcove of hidden cave-like indentations that led deeper into the crevices. Stuck for a second, with a clear situation of too many options to choose from, Sam simply picked one of the smaller ones and dipped inside.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Once inside, he had trouble making sense of his surroundings since the environment had quickly gone from super bright to super dark. As a result, multiple times Sam felt his body, his Soul, scrape and hit the tight rocky walls. Still, in his mind, taking those hits beat turning into scorpion dung, especially after Sam soon discovered a dead end.
Not liking the fact that he had to backtrack his way back, Sam chose to follow his instructor''s advice on first resting his mind and body before diving into a situation that needed clear and fast decisions to be made.
While stuck inside an almost completely dark environment, Sam would occasionally hear the Scorpion Spirit shout its anger into thin air, and when that was not enough, his ears noted scraping sounds as big claws tried their best against rock. When the sounds were not coming closer informed Sam which proved more resilient of the two. Thankfully, of the two it was obvious who had more patience since the Scorpion Spirit left after it had vented its feelings.
<i>No… I should not discount some kind of ploy.</i> Sam voiced in his mind or his Soul. Whichever was more appropriate. <i>Even if it was not that smart, it had intelligence to some degree. Yes… Best I stay here for a while. Then, when nothing has been heard for a while, I will start searching for a way out.</i>
<i>Yes… That is what I will do.</i>
As promised to himself, that was indeed what Sam did, or better said, he did nothing aside from pondering about his bad luck in encountering the Scorpion Spirit barely moments after arriving… wherever he had arrived, to begin with.
At first, Sam had tried being courteous, but when the Spirit kept edging on about its desires in nibbling at him, it was obvious that the Scorpion would not be the choice of the day, thus Sam had simply tried to ignore the Spirit and walk away.
Obviously, the Spirit did not give up and that was how he ended up in his current situation.
<i>Wait… That rush of energy and that sudden urge to hide in here… Could it be the protection mentioned by the Red Wizard and Mother’s Protection Charm working in tandem to keep me safe? Yes… That has to be it.</i>
<i>Wait… I do not know about the Ritual Protections… but would this not mean that the Charm is unusable for a while? How long then? Does its recovery depend on the Material Plane or wherever I ended up in the Spiritual Plane?</i>
<i>No… No… I need to stop thinking about it like that.</i> Sam shook his head left and right in an attempt to dislodge the already stuck ideology of relying on things out of his control. <i>I have been taught about situations like this. Desperate thoughts lead to desperate choices being made. I need to think differently. Yes… The Charm may not work for a while, but it has accomplished its duty, so now it''s up to me to prevent being eaten by random Spirits.</i>
<i>Yes… That is it.</i>
<i>Only now does the true seeking begin.</i>
<i>Only now does my quest for a Patron start.</i>
Nodding with fervor of understanding his current situation, Sam changed his mindset before quickly recalling everything he had been taught by his instructors, about bad situations and how to best overcome them. Then, after what could only be a few hours, Sam stood up and slowly made his way back out of the dark crevices he''d hidden in. Thankfully, having been within the darkness for so long, his eyesight had adjusted somewhat, so he had a much easier time leaving than entering. Yet, no matter how much Sam walked or how many bends and paths he took, he just could not seem to find his way back to the surface.
It was as if he was stuck in a maze of some kind.