《Mortal》


 Prologue

    Our tale begins with a young ranch boy lazing about just killing time...


    "Ehehehe~"I chuckle to myself in the hay. I''d just finally succeeded in one of my life goals. That is, I managed to dive from the ledge jutting out at the top of the old barn into a cart of hay. And it wasawesome!!I felt like an assassin, not sure why though, I mean why would an assassin jump into a pile of hay? Its not like people wouldn''t notice an entire person falling from the sky. Well, maybe if they were really small or if they were using some sort of cool magical power... Speaking of which the harvest festival is coming up, maybe I can meet a magethere and they''ll teach me the arcane mysteries!


    If I could convince a mageI had the talent I could become his apprentice and that opens so many doors. And its waaaaaay better than this ranch life. I mean seriously, no one wants to look after nor clean up for, the animals we raise here. We raise giant moths called Behemoths which just happen to be useful, I mean what other animal exists which has wings it can''t fly with but fortunately is the perfect location to grow cheese and are protected by all the cheese lovers in the world. And the variant of the species we grow on our ranch also produces milk (in exchange for a couple of extra lakes worth of crap). I don''t even know why they decided to name the mutated bastards Cream Behemoths; I mean they are as blue as a cloudless sky!


    Anyway my point is, if I could become an apprentice, I can work up to being a mage and thenonce I understand my powers I have the option to join up with one of the local militia groups or if I''m good enough maybe join the army or guards. Then I just work my way up and get my name known and next thing you know I''m a fully fledge master of the arcane with countless spells at my disposal crushing armies and conquering the hearts of women throughout the land. Not to mention the sweet reservoirs of gold mages are known to earn.


    But first, I need to something to amaze a mage enough for him to consider feeding me, let alone teaching me magecraft.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Hopping out of the cart I dust myself off and grab my flask I placed nearby prior to my aerobics. Taking a swig of it I put it back onto its place on my belt and prepare to practice my magic. I enter my mage pose; elbows tight at my sides with my forearm outstretched to the skies, knees slightly bent and breathe steady. Focusing on my core I attempt to draw in the energies of the world as I begin to chant.


    "Da mihi virtutem..."I plead to the mana in the air around me.


    "Ego enim infirmi..."I ask to lend its strength.


    "Da mihi virtutem..."I plead once more. For good measure of course, not because I thought it wouldn''t work.


    "Ego quaerere imperium!"I scream as I release the energy that had built up within me.


    The air before me grew dense as arcane powers worked their magic beginning to form something from the pieces of energy which dwell within us all. Bit by bit, little motes of light came together and an object began to take shape. Drained from my first attempt at magic and amazed the random chant worked, I simply watched this marvel only a power like magic could achieve.


    Maybe I wasgifteda genius!! In the future the peasants would cheer my name through the streets''Our Super Amazing Magic Emperor of the World Proh Logg''as I bestowed gifts of magic upon their mortal souls as I reigned as Supreme Leader of the whole world. Entire continents would kneel before me at the flick of my wrist; wary of both my power and wrath!


    ...Oh it looks like it''s almost finished.


    Stepping forward I put out my hand to catch the object that had been steadily made whilst suspended in the air, wouldn''t want to dirty my soon-to-be artifact of legend now would I? The lights slowly began to fade allowing the solid behind it to come into being. "Now I think about it this has taken quite a while hasn''t it, it must have some truly terrible power mwaha-" suddenly the object drops into my hand.


    *plop*


    "What the h-"


    *crunch*


    Before I have a chance to identify the rather fluffy creature I gave life to further my head is struck and I feel a wet trickle begin to flow from it. The world around me grows dark but not before a second blow strikes me once more, ending my life and my dreams of becoming theSuper Amazing Magic Emperor of the World...which come to think of it, the namewasa bit long.

 Chapter 1

    As the body slumped to the ground the limbs twitched seemingly unaware that they were now supposedly dead. So I choose to hit it again with my mace¡­and again.


    *twitch*


    You know what? I think I''ll throw another one in for good measure.


    *chirp chirp*


    ¡°Oh please say that¡¯s not you¡± I curse to myself hitting the mangled bodice of the humanoid cockroach in the chest once more. And to my horror, its carapace finally caved in releasing an explosion of viscera as my mace burst into its insides. As it turns out screaming or opening your mouth, no matter how much you regret your choice, is a horrible decision to make in this scenario. I''m pretty certain I learnt that lesson the hard way.


    After puking and wiping my face mace on the grass, I pulled a piece of carapace out of my hair and recollected myself.


    Whilst I did this the little fluffy white rodent with large hind legs which the cockroach had spent all that time summoning hopped over to me. Intrigued by this new type of frog I¡¯d never seen but wary of more yucky goop I backed off cautiously. As I stepped back it hopped again towards me. I was worried by this little critter because the fluffy fellow took his time coming into being. Either that ¡®corpse¡¯ over there used to be a powerful mage or he was incompetent to the point that his spell took long enough for you to have grown old, got married and had kids.


    As I thought this the frog of potential doom and destruction changed the direction of his hop and suddenly started lapping up something from the ground. Relieved I was no longer its tar-


    Wait a minute.


    Its licking up my puke isn¡¯t it.


    It was indeed licking up her puke like it was drinking an aged wine.


    Glaring daggers at this little shit that made me shake in my boots I took two steps forward and it raised its head. In contrast to its pristine white fur the frog had two black beady eyes either side of its nose.


    Not that I cared.


    I proceeded to kick the fucker into next week.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Its body impacted on a tree in the forest I had crept out of earlier and flopped to the ground. Infuriatingly the bugger managed to get back up and pounded on its large hind legs into a hole of a nearby tree.


    Happy in the knowledge that some serpent or fox would get the best of the frog as it slept I calmed down a bit and looked towards my feet where there was an odd tingly feeling. Strangely enough there was a layer of frost where I had kicked the frog. Huh that¡¯s weird. Now that I think about it do frogs have long ears like that one did or teeth for that matter? And frogs don¡¯t usually have a belly like that? Was it pregnant? No¡­ surely not¡­ right?


    *crash*


    Hearing the sound behind me I whip out my mace innards and all, turning to face whatever threat this potentially demon frog poses. As I look to the burrow I saw it last and see something glitter in the evening air as it fell in a dust from a nearby tree. Suddenly from the entrance to the burrow a huge python encased in ice is thrown out colliding with the tree and shattering into bits leaving only a small icy mist to float to the forest floor.


    A white blob exits from under the tree and grabs the largest bit of python bringing it back to the tree, back to its den. I watch as it brings in the pieces. Brings in all evidence of its atrocities in how it acquired such a fine hole-under-a-tree. And as it grabs the last piece of snake that isn¡¯t serpent snow it gets up onto two legs and walks over to its new home, its little tongue licking away at half a snake head. Then it stops.


    And it turns.


    It is looking at me.


    The dipshit who kicked it.


    And waist deep in new found fear I just drop my mace and salute.


    I stand there arm to my head and don¡¯t dare breathe.


    That is no frog.


    It cocks it head to the side, deciding whether it would like some desert with snake stew. And fortunately it turns out it was on a diet and I was a bit more protein than it was after today. Shrugging it bounds it its hole and as it does I fall onto my ass panting for air.


    ¡°T-thank the gods¡­¡± I mutter to myself.


    In an attempt to compose myself I choose to dub the scary-ass-fully-monster; ¡°From now till the end of my days I shall refer to you as ¡®Mr. Fluffy¡¯ and I shall pray for your health, oh great one who is embraced by Cold!¡± I shout in the general direction of the tree it disappeared under. Absently I wonder if it¡¯ll be awkward speaking in bold.


    ¡°OI YURA GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE AND HELP OUT¡± startled at first, I realised it¡¯s the other members of my squad in the distance. Getting up, I clean what I can from my now rather filthy attire.


    ¡°I should have expected as much dealing with cockroaches. Its just fucking horrid.¡± I grumble as I make my way over.


    For those curious, Mr. Fluffy is in fact a lady and one close to giving birth also.


    She spent her night enjoy snake popsicles and wondered to herself quietly in her burrow.


    ¡°Where am I?¡±

 Chapter 2

    Wandering over to my squad, I see they managed to deal with the rest of the ranch without issue. When we had arrived to clear it out I had gone to deal with the ex-mage as we suspected he was some kind of insectoid assassin in training after witnessing him jumping off tall buildings into carts of hay. I was sent to deal with him as we knew he was a risk our main objective; to take control of the ranch.


    And that was what we had done.


    As I walked over I noticed three cockroaches writhing about whilst they were tied and gagged in roots which had sprouted from the ground, each of their hands embraced by handcuffs made of earth. I carried on ignoring the oddly-erotic scene of cockroaches being fondled as it¡¯s a memory I¡¯d like to never remember. This could only be the work of the minotaur twins Remy and Thane.


    Remy had power over roots and her brother Thane, the earth. Both had the same chestnut fur; the only visible difference between them was that Remy had to wear a sarashi to contain her outrageous breast. And by the gods they were strong! But like many of their race they abhorred killing, I¡¯d even known some minotaur to become pacifists! Not what you¡¯d expect from a race of hulking bovine humanoids which could break bones like breathing, but definitely my preference as someone who owned non-metallic elven bone structure. I still had to be careful whenever Remy hugged me to make sure I didn¡¯t get suffocated by her chest crushed into a fine paste which Samantha would probably turn into some sort of baked treat. Actually... where was Sam?


    As I looked around to see if I could spot the squad chef, I was suddenly kicked in the shin.


    ¡°That¡¯s not fucking funny Yura¡± a disembodied voice below me vexed below me. Looking down I discovered that the voice actually belonged to a person. Well if you count children as people.


    ¡°Hey Cavendish, didn¡¯t see you there¡± I said sweetly.


    Glaring at me all the while the child kicked me once more. ¡°You¡¯ll call me Captain Cavendish whilst we¡¯re on mission¡± He said in a huff. ¡°What happened with the assassin-roach?¡±


    I glanced back at the three cockroaches still have a healthy session of BDSM with Remy¡¯s root construct, upon confirming they didn¡¯t have their feelers pointing my direction. Then I turned back to Cavendish and pulled out my still pretty gross mace to show him. ¡°Turns out he was some sort of mage, but I got to him before he noticed me and it is safe to say he¡¯s rather dead.¡±


    ¡°Well good job there, mages are such a pain to deal with at times. Things went smoothly for the rest of the squad and the only survivors are those three the twins dealt with¡­ and appear to be having a little ¡®session¡¯ with Remy¡± he grimaced, nodding towards the area the minotaur had their prisoners. I looked, curious to see what had changed since a moment ago and regretted it immediately. Ugh cockroaches. Thankfully I had thrown up earlier because honestly I might have drowned Cavendish if I wasn¡¯t careful.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    ¡°Samantha and Fred have gone to look at those weird blue Behemoths and Crow is sizing the place up for when the rest of the crew arrive tomorrow.¡± He said pointing towards one of the nearby enclosures where I could make out Sam and Fred¡¯s forms running around and examining the giant blue moths. I didn¡¯t bother searching for Crow because for all I knew he was everywhere. ¡°Anyway I made them promise to be back soon because I want to start setting up the forward base shortly. For now though you guys are gonna get to work¡±


    ¡®So these are the joys of being a leader¡¯ I thought to myself whilst wanting to groan.


    Signalling the twins over we got our orders, I was tasked to go hunting for something for us to eat and scout out some game trails for when the rest moved in. We were all members of a bandit crew large bandit crew called The Wolf¡¯s Maw and the boss would probably want to hold a feast when the rest made it hear. Being the suck up he is, Cavendish probably wanted to impress the boss. Thane got tasked with latrine duty which with his powers was relatively simple but less so when you thought about the hundreds of members in the band. And naturally as a Lieutenant to the boss, Cavendish wasn¡¯t doing anything other than ¡®ensuring everything is in order¡¯.


    As I walked away I¡¯m sure I heard him mutter to himself ¡°I¡¯m tall for a gnome¡­ right?¡± Glancing back, I¡¯m pretty sure he just shed a tear. I probably shouldn¡¯t be so mean to the guy huh? My ears weren¡¯t just good for listening to gossip after all; they allowed me to hunt with ease¡­well as much ease as chasing a fleeing deer with a mace could be.


    *grumble*


    Looks like my need to feed would surely win me the day and some sweet venison.


    I make a small prayer to the gods that Remy vanquish all the vile forces of evil in her path then head into the forest to hunt making sure to enter at the opposite side of the clearing to the warren of good old Mr. Fluffy; I¡¯m not suicidal.


    Remy got the most important job by far, eradicating all evidence of this farms former ¡®glory¡¯. The ranch we had taken over had been named by its previous owners no doubt but it was certainly not anything we wanted to be related to. Cockranch. That was the word painted delicately all over their property with an intricate drawing of the blue moths underneath, you could tell there was pride in it and they probably though the name was hilarious as it was a ranch ran solely by a family of the insectoid cockroaches. Even their comedy was gross.


    The ranch was located in the one of the few safe passages through The Fangs; a range of mountains spanning hundreds of kilometres and separating the North from the South of the continent of Culcitra. This particular pass was in the Valley of Lavie, named after the Nature Spirit of the forest spanning the majority of the pass.


    The pass had a consistent stream of travellers going through between the Kingdom of Stengard south and the Valken Empire to the north. It was much quieter compared to the Royal Road of Legends; the main passage through The Fangs and always had traffic in the form of merchant fleets, mercenaries, kingdom forces or the occasional civilised tornado.


    Now one might think that the leader of The Wolf¡¯s Maw is a clever bandit indeed; settling into an area ripe with goods to plunder, land to eat off, a farm of rare livestock and tolls to extract from folk with no choice but to use this route. But actually the boss had¡­ ulterior motives. But we¡¯ll get to that later.

 Chapter 3

    I returned from the forest a while later with a successful bounty on my shoulders. Now then, before I tell you what it is, I want you to remember that I didn¡¯t choose it due to its inability to flee from me. Nor did I choose it for its stupidity to charge towards me when I was hungry and starting to give up, thinking I might have to eat the magic assassin¡¯s corpse and was pondering whether to get Sam to make it a broth in the hopes that it might smell nice.


    Anyway now that you know that; I returned to the ranch with a twin tusked boar on my back the size of 3 Yura¡¯s! That¡¯s right, three whole units of me, crazy I know. So carrying a boar on I looked like some knight returning from my oh so noble hunt attempting to woo themselves a partner with an odor of sweat their strength and might for slaying such a beast.


    Ooooh sooo dazzling and sexy~


    In this case most of the strength came from my desire to devour something which didn¡¯t have feelers. But the boar had come at a cost. Whilst swinging her mace to kill the beast so she could eat it was natural, the sticky icor from a certain bug on it wasn¡¯t so much on the meal she¡¯d planned out meaning she would certainly be going nowhere near the legs she had repeated whacked to bring the boar down. But there was one benefit from this; most of the inner juices had been wiped clean from the shaft and head. There were only a few tufts of hair on some of the spikes but the mace was clean and if it had a soul it¡¯d be (relatively) happy.


    ¡°Yura!¡± roared a certain chef across from the campfire that had been set up. If one was to closely look at the fire, they might notice it was made up of numerous signs with Cockranch painted onto them along with some giant blue moths.


    ¡°Hey Sam¡± I cheerfully replied to my best friend. Nodding towards the fire ¡°I guess Remy got the lot then?¡±


    ¡°Yeah I helped her light it up, the poor thing looked truly disgusted at what she¡¯d had to touch and went for a bath. I can¡¯t blame her; it is truly unfortunate Minotaur like her can¡¯t melt off their flesh to cleanse themselves.¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    ¡°Sometimes I wish I was born a Frost Folk, there are just soooo many benefits!¡± I said thinking back to a certain yucky incident earlier in the day that might never truly wash off. Frost Folk were definitely some of the coolest people you¡¯ll ever meet. They were a tribe of people who had adapted to living in the desert and overtime learnt to have complete control over their body temperature. Because of this they could bring their internal body temperature to subzero temperatures, forming ice and snow around their actual bodies. Over time this had caused most of the tribes actual body to turn into an almost crystalline state whilst they sculpted figures of ice on top of themselves with the cold produced. But that isn¡¯t the awesome part. To bring their bodies down to such low temperatures; they spew flames from their body.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that great. If you meet any tribe members it will always end up in an argument about how you should look. If anything they should aim for perfection and try to look as great as me¡± she said the flames flaring from her back in wings of crimson fury. And to be honest, I couldn¡¯t say she was wrong about her rather narcissistic statement. Sam had the body of a gravure model and she was quite literally an ice queen with pretty much everyone but me. Well¡­ as long as she wasn¡¯t cooking or talking about food. She was a bit of a food fanatic.


    As she continued Sam¡¯s flames burnt a bit brighter in the night air ¡°That¡¯s before even considering all the tension with the guys who fled to the mountains¡±


    ¡°The Trail Blazers?¡± I assumed as a lot of my best friends complaints focused around them. They were from the same tribe as the frost folk long ago but moved to the mountains to practice their belief in a body of fire. It was safe to say the two opposites rarely got along nicely but fortunately it¡¯s although both tribes are now widespread across the continent, there aren¡¯t many of them and so it¡¯s very rare they clash.


    ¡°Yup those traitorous hot heads¡± suddenly grinning she plucked the boar off my shoulders like it weighed nothing. ¡°Anyway thanks for getting dinner, I have some special plans for what I am making this time, go grab me some milk and cheese from those Cream Behemoths and then have a bath afterwards, you stink!¡± She holds her nose with on hand and winks at me.


    Ignoring the fact that an amalgamation of fire and ice can smell and the fact she¡¯s now carrying the boar with one hand effortlessly, I ask the more important question ¡°Cream Behemoths?¡±


    Chuckling she just waves me away whilst saying ¡°Fred should be in the barn with them, ask him to help you out¡± Accepting my fate as a lowly delivery girl if it meant I¡¯d get to eat something nice, I trundled along to the barn I¡¯d first arrived at the ranch by.


    Before I entered the barn I noticed a certain body was missing and its previous location had smear marks leading away to a certain burrow in the forest. Deciding not to think about what flavour a cockroach ice pop would taste like I put the obvious conclusion as to where the body went out of my mind.

 Chapter 4

    Walking into the barn I see there are some of the blue behemoths around the place feeding, resting and relieving themselves. Looking again, those two over in the back seem to be ¡°relieving stress¡± together; I guess even giant blue moths have to come from somewhere.


    Turning away from the show I notice two of the crew sat down at a table near the entrance. One a young lad with golden locks, reading what looks like a manual whilst checking out some of the farming equipment lain out around the table. Looks like this was where all the tools where kept. The other resident is a hooded man in robes as dark as the deepest of wells his face draped in shadows as per usual. On his shoulder sat his namesake, a crow.


    As the barn door slams shut behind me, they both turn to assess me.


    ¡°The protagonist has arrived!¡± I declare.


    Crow simply grunts and nods his head in my direction before returning to scribbling on one of the many maps around him. How did he get so many already? We¡¯ve only been here a day.


    ¡°I hope this protagonist brought back something nice from the woods¡± says the youth placing a set of shears back onto a wall rack.


    ¡°I managed to snag a twin tusked boar¡± I reply ¡°Sam wants me to get some milk and cheese for whatever she¡¯s brewing, said you¡¯re the one to ask¡±


    ¡°That I am! They don¡¯t call me Fred the Farmer for nothing after all¡± he chuckled walking over to the table. ¡°But now I think about it, this will be my first time taking it from a cream behemoth, but I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll figure it out. That handbook over there is really useful, glad I got one of the captives to ¡®lend¡¯ it to me¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to touch the moths Fred¡± Crow said in his typical gruff tone ¡°There should be some stored over there¡± the crow on his shoulder raised a wing in the direction of some barrels and crates.


    ¡°Amazing work as always Crow¡± I complimented the hardworking guy. I liked to imagine that, under all those shadows, he blushed a little. Unfortunately though, red cheeks didn¡¯t fit with his colour scheme. ¡°Where are these so called Cream Behemoths then? Other than these blue freaks, all the behemoths I¡¯ve ever seen are a dirty brown¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Fred spoke up ¡°actually, these ¡®blue freaks¡¯, are them.¡±


    ¡°But they¡¯re bl-¡±


    ¡°I know Yura. I know.¡±


    This is just one more reason to hate cockroaches.


    After coming to terms with the fact some people have no naming sense. I packed up some cheese and Fred grabbed one of the barrels of milk and we headed back to camp. Crow decided to stay for a bit and finish up some of the maps. He was probably working on some plans to set up The Wolf¡¯s Maw¡¯s new lair. The guy just loves designing lairs for not so good hearted groups and he was a workaholic to the core. I should save some of what Sam makes and bring it him later. The silly guy will starve himself before he stops his work.


    We got back to camp and gave Sam the stuff. Remy was lounging around the fire looking better than she must have been before. Her brother Thane had the prisoners encased in earthen chairs facing the fire. Kind of cruel to make them watch the remaining signs of their life before we arrived burnt to a cinder but I don¡¯t think they could cry so it¡¯s fine. Turns out Thane had been taking them on a toilet break when I arrived so maybe they didn¡¯t have any fluids left for tears.


    Leaving Fred to talk to Sam about the food, I headed into the main ranch building to try find a bath before we ate. Whilst I was searching for the right room I may have come across a certain gnome captain standing on a stool whilst looking at his reflection in the mirror. I was going to walk in but decided I didn¡¯t want to risk him preventing me from eating so I continued my search for a place to wash.


    About half an hour later I returned outside, hair still a bit damp but overall I felt so much cleaner than I did before. I sat down at a chair at the table Thane had fashioned for all of us and just in time, because Sam began serving up a dish of Roasted Porkchops with Cheese Sauce. It had nice blend of herbs which went nicely with the pork and the sauce was so nice and creamy harmonising the dish. Oh! So that¡¯s why they¡¯re called Cream Behemoths~


    After taking a portion to crow in the ranch I headed into the ranch as Thane and Cavendish were taking first watch for the night. Finding a small room with an empty bed I placed my mace within arm¡¯s reach then jumped in and thought a little about the rather hectic day I¡¯d had. Whilst I was looking around the room something catches my eye. There¡¯s a picture frame on one of the walls with a painting of cockroaches. Three of them standing together, two tall cockroaches and a shorter one. A little like a family.


    I rolled away from the picture on the wall in an attempt to forget it.


    To forget that I am sleeping in a bed which belonged to a cockroach.


    To forget that the short cockroach was probably the tall ones son.


    To forget that this is probably his room.


    To forget that I killed him.

 A message from the author

    Hi everyone!


    First off I want to say thank you for reading Mortal up till now, you''ve given me some form of confidence in my writing and for that I am grateful.


    The reason for this chapter is that I am going on hiatus.


    I''m not sure if you can call it a hiatus this early on into a novel with barely any content but that is what it is. I have a really good mindset with where I want to take this light novel but at the moment, I don''t think I have the experience required to pull it off.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I''m going to see what I am able to do and how I can improve by writing one or maybe two other short light novels and try to improve my technical writing skills. One more thing to improve is the length of chapters because currently its around 1000 words per chapter but I would like to push that to 2000 if not more.


    Unlike most hiatuses though,I will return.I''ll probably be back come the middle of September but I''ll definitely return before the end of October.


    Sorry about the wait but if you like my writing (which would honestly amaze me) I should be putting up a new fiction by thursday.


    Bye~

 Chapter 5

    Walking through the forest I thought back to the mornings events. Not long after waking up the rest of the Wolf¡¯s Maw arrived in full force and made their triumphant entry. Some bastard had gotten their hands on a horn of all things. Wanting the world to know of their latest acquisition they blasted it out in an ear wrenching groan of a sound as the bandits exited the tree line. To a tired and groggy me, I almost shat myself in fear that some kingdoms army was about to run me down, but fortunately I saw the worn out clothing and familiar faces before any accidents occurred. At the time though, I promised to myself that I would find whoever owned that horn and stuff it so far down their throat they would have to eat through it.


    I continued making my way through the lush forest, keeping my senses aware of danger because I knew just how dangerous it was to carelessly have mild flashbacks in the middle of a wild forest inhabited by all sorts of creatures which wouldn¡¯t mind a Yura sandwich. Or soup. You¡¯ve got to keep the possibilities open; you never know what danger you might face.


    As soon as we gave our reports of the ranch, the camp started getting put up and Crow began directing people to places their tents were and weren¡¯t allowed to go. The boss decided that she wanted a feast to celebrate their arrival and so Cavendish being his shameless bootlicking self told the boss what a great idea it was and how he would prepare one right away.


    Obviously for such a large force, a large amount of food was needed and if they didn¡¯t want to deplete all the supplies already brought with them, they were going to have to hunt. This is when I found out that my hunting duties yesterday in fact spread further than I realised. Since I hadn¡¯t been able to scout much of the forests surrounding us I was only really able to give advice to a couple of the hunters going towards where I had previously and I also gave a quiet word to some of the hunters going in the direction of Mr. Fluffy to be careful of ¡®strange furred frogs with ears¡¯.


    As he had likely planned when he sent me out yesterday evening, Cavendish got me to show him the game trails I¡¯d found which would have the best chance of getting something good to impress the boss. ¡°The glory belongs to me tonight Yura!¡± he¡¯d said gruffly ¡°don¡¯t you dare show me up or you¡¯ll get what you deserve¡±.


    Now you are probably wondering to yourself why I was letting the shrimp force me around like he was doing, I should just kick the shrimp and see how far he flies. But alas, the midget had friends. A whole posse of midgets followed the man. Gnomes like him tended to stick together and rightfully so, when you¡¯re that small, there are times you need the strength of numbers. Unfortunately, in a bandit gang that use tends to be as a threatening tool.


    So I accepted that I was just going to have to wander around the forest for an hour or so doing nothing at all for the simple fact that I just really didn¡¯t want to set up tents. It was so complicated and boring. Doing nothing was boring too but in this forest full of the unknown who knows what she¡¯d find. Maybe some handsome dude washing himself in an open air hot spring with a body like a sculpture! Oooh maybe four handsome dashing young men! And they all want a piece of Yura! ¡­but they¡¯re not cannibals. Oh I wish it would happen so so much!!If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Unfortunately for this heroine she was no longer having mild flashbacks and so her awareness of the forest around her. So she didn¡¯t notice the steam rising from past the thick bushes she was making her way through.


    When she finally noticed the steam her heart beat intensified. Her body stopped as she realised that on the other side this bush, the four young men she had wished for bathed! And to prevent any of them pre-emptively covering their bodies before she ¡®just happened¡¯ to stumble through the bush, she made a mad dash through the remaining foliage between her and her harem salivating from the mouth all the while.


    But alas; we can¡¯t have all that we wish for.


    Bursting through the bush into the clearing I was welcomed by the steamy scenes of a hot spring. A veil of mist hung in the area covering all the important bits on the leathery flesh. Wait what.


    I rubbed my eyes and saw what appeared to be a grey-green thing with a round snout upon his head with some holes where I assumed the nose was. It copied my actions, apparently assuming the heat had got to it and as it opened its eyes again I noted that they were a dark yellow with vertical slits running through the pupil. Hot liquid rolled down its body and there was what looked like a shell on the ground behind it. The middle of its torso seemed to be paler than the rest of its body tone and there was a thick tail coming from his pelvis.


    Noticing my gaze he followed it looking down at himself. I saw him visibly shudder as he must have realised what I had seen. It was of course his massive green-


    ¡°SCRREEEEEEE!!??!¡± suddenly I was hit with a wave of sound as whatever I had found having a bath covered himself with his hands, each finger adorned with a sharp, thick claw. But the sound (and quite a bit of the embarrassment) sent me to my knees as I instinctively tried to block that wretch ear piercing scream with my arms. And remain like that for a couple of seconds even after the scream had ended.


    Ears still ringing, I gathered myself and steadily rose to my feet. As I did, I caught sight of him tumbling as he desperately tried to pull his shell over his head. His flailing about certainly wasn¡¯t helping him hide that thing. Ahem. Getting my dazed mind together I pulled out my mace just as he managed to pop into his shell. My legs were still shaking. I don¡¯t know what that scream did to me but I knew that if he did it again, I wouldn¡¯t be able to stand.


    He turned towards me as I slowly regained composure, too slowly. With anger on his face and liquid which could have been water or tears, he dropped onto all fours and headed towards me. And that¡¯s when I realised he must have been further away from me than I had thought, he was huge! Sheldon, as I decided to name him, was 6ft tall standing on all fours and he seemed to hold his bathing time dear. Just as I regained control of my body he did something I didn¡¯t expect for one his size.


    Sheldon charged.

 Chapter 6

    As Sheldon¡¯s rushed towards me I leapt to the side, rolling back up onto my feet in a crouching posture ready to dodge once more. If he was going to keep coming at me like that, this was going to get very dangerous, very fast.


    The greyish green monster had just finished its charge, decimating a large part of the dense bush I had struggled through to enter the area around the hot springs. It turned to face me once more as steam emanated from his shell and skin. Either the mist was a lot more humid than I realised or Sheldon had washed his shell before having a wash himself. How it became wet and steaming was irrelevant now but it did mean that there would be no chance to grab that shell whilst it was wet because it was smooth already without the added slippery coating.


    I prepared myself as Sheldon attempted another charge. When he was a couple of meters from colliding with me I pushed off the ground with my legs upwards and to the side sending me through the air just shy of his path. As he went by I noticed a green blur head rapidly towards me from behind him and managed to pull my mace up just in time to block.


    The tail hit me like a log, blocking it with my mace had only managed to negate some of the damage I might have received. I flew diagonally over the hot springs from the impact and fortunately landed on the ground and tumbled a bit before forced myself to stand up and be ready for Sheldon when he came again. Realising he couldn¡¯t reach me on a different side of the hot springs, I gave myself a chance to catch my breath.


    That blow had winded me proper and if I hadn¡¯t been sent careening like I did, that might have been the end for me. Sheldon was currently huffing and stamping his feet, obviously annoyed I hadn¡¯t been smeared across his shell like some macabre decal. If I was a huge tortoise of death I probably would be annoyed I didn¡¯t die too.


    This wasn¡¯t my first time fighting a beast I didn¡¯t recognise and I had realised early on that my greatest advantage in this fight would be my agility. As long as Sheldon didn¡¯t scream again, all I would have to do is dodge the charges until he got tired and then I could start working on taking the bastard down. I was lucky to have not fallen into the water as although I wouldn¡¯t have a lot of cuts and grazes from my landing, I would have been slowed down by my wet clothes. Against the pretty bad odds of ¡®dodge or die¡¯ that its power presented me, I had considered running away. But the hot springs would be a really nice place to laze about and not do work once we had settled in; as long as its current resident was very dead.


    But that blow had knocked some sense into my head, because a hot spring is useless to the dead. As I was about to try my chance at running into the forest and looping back round to the base the impossible happened.


    Whilst I contemplated the situation, Sheldon had huffed and stomped his way steadily away from the water¡¯s edge. Then when he reached quite a distance away he ran towards my direction, steadily building up speed but head straight towards the water. Just before he reached it he hopped into the air pulling in his head and limbs except his tail which struck the floor flipping then shell and swiping it to spin the shell at a ridiculous pace.


    Then the shell hit the water.


    And span across it.


    Water sprayed into the air in arcs behind the spinning green shell as it rapidly approached me. There was one more thing I had determined whilst contemplating how to survive. I needed to keep moving so it couldn¡¯t charge at me easily. But I hadn¡¯t expected it could charge across water. Getting up once more, my mind raced for ideas of how I was going to survive this but only one came to mind.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Deciding this could be the end for me I strengthened my resolve and roared at the beast ¡°Know my name beast! I am Yura Fuwuhl!¡± which was pretty impressive considering how quick this was happening.


    As the shell hit the bank it tore through the bank before it sending the dirt flying yet it continued its path of destruction unyielding towards me, slowing down fractionally. And so I jumped. Up and up I went. Closer and closer, death came. As I reached the peak of my jump I was above the shell but it was almost upon me. Drawing all my strength to my arm I swung my mace over my shoulder and down towards what I hoped to be a softer underbelly.


    Mace struck shell. Shell struck elf.


    And Yura flewthrough the air once more. It seemed to have become a bad habit.


    Then she crumpled into the tree.


    <hr>


    I was a mere pebble in an ocean of pain. It coursed through my entire being and made its presence known. Hammering me with overlapping waves of agony. There was no gaps, no breaks, just pain.


    I took thin raspy breathes of air through the side of my mouth that remajned. I had strucksomething with enough velocity that as my face collide with it there was no resistance. My skull had simply caved in and the little function I had remaining in my brain knew I was dying. Or dead already I thought in horror.


    Is this all it would be, the rest of my existence spent staring at the grass with foggy eyes. Hearing a what sounded like distant shouting as what was left of my hearing slowly died down and my vision grew dark for a moment.


    "Yura Fuwuhl" chuckled a voice which seemed distant but I could tell it was close.


    Then I felt a pressure on my head and then my sight was bright beyond compare. My vision suddenly darken as a face popped into existence. It felt so familiar. Maybe this was one of those God''s people spoke of.


    "What a suitable name for an idiot like you. Yura Fuwuhl indeed"


    Wait this voice is famili-


    *splat*


    Something wet just landed on my eye and it burnt.Pain was everywhere and I had already lost the feeling of everything below my waist but she knew this feltwrong.


    Every instinct in her body screamed at her to get it off, this vile invader to her body. Regardless of how broken she was she needed to do this. She needed to see. She needed to blink.


    And so she did.


    "Wait you''re still alive?" Said the face. The feeling in my forehead built in pressure.


    ''Yes!''I shouted mentally ''YesI am! I''m not dead''


    My vision started to clear up and I could see who the face belonged to at last. The face of the one who would save me.


    "Better put you down myself then" said Cavendish.


    Why was it him. Hislittle face disappeared for a second and the weight on my forehead vanished before coming back full force as he stamped down. In his hand he held a rock of reasonable size. Usually this probably wouldn''t phase me. But paralysed and on the end, I knew where my fate lead.


    My body wouldn''t move anymore and I could only simple stare at the gnome with a rock about to kill me. To watch as he smirked how the glee of what he was about to do shone in his eyes. To listen as he spoke the last words I would ever hear, unable to retaliate in the slightest.


    "I want you to remember who you are as you die bitch. Yura Fuwuhl and you should never have thought you could steal the boss from me!" he said bringing the stone down.


    This dipshit thought I w-