all of my devils are free at last
all my secrets revealed
I can help you!
Those four simple words are music to her ears. Perhaps she should not be so trusting (certainly she has seen enough this day to warrant such distrust), but she would not be Divide otherwise. And maybe she would have been a bit more skeptical were she less exhausted, but she is, and so we shall never know. Whatever the reason, she takes this two-faced man at his word, barely sparing him even an odd look (though she has never seen a creature such as he before) as she bends her head to drink deeply of the cool water running at his feet.
At first she is too absorbed in the bliss of cool water sliding down her parched throat that she does not notice the stones growing around her. But as they grow to stunning proportions, as they begin to slam together, she jerks her delicate head abruptly upwards, ears swiveling madly and eyes wide as water dribbles down her chin. ”What… ?!?!” she starts in voice verging on panic.
Before she can finish the sentence however, the beast (god?) with two faces is speaking again, this time the other side swiveled to face her. She might just now be realizing that she may have been a bit too hasty to trust, but still she listens. She listens because she can see no other way out - not until the shimmering doors appear before her.
She could go back, but she shudders at the thought. Besides, she has made it too far to give up now (even if she does feel rather battered and bruised). Still, the creatures beyond the doors in front of her look rather horrifying in and of themselves. She is offered a choice, a warning, and for that she is grateful. She drops her head in a shallow dip in an effort to portray her gratitude before he disappears just as Time had before him.
Taking a deep, fortifying breath, she glances at the two doors, gaze flicking back and forth as she attempts to make a decision. The giant at least looks potentially capable of reason (though who actually knows with these horrid beasts?), so, for that reason alone, she decides to go through the door with the giant (besides, she stands about the same chance of escaping unscathed either way - slim to none).
She shivers as she enters the chill of the dark tunnel. The sweat has cooled on her skin, leaving her unexpectedly cold. Her bruised muscles are stiffening, lending to the already tense feeling of dread at the trial she knows is coming. There is a dim light that seems to lead her way, allowing her to walk without stumbling. Exhaling a nervous puff of breath, she continues forward as quietly as possible, trying her best to ignore the aching of her abused bones. Perhaps, if she is stealthy enough, she can slip past the club-wielding giant without his notice.
Unfortunately, that would not come to pass, however. Though she tiptoes along as quietly as possible, based on the nearing sound of low grunting and shuffling steps, it soon becomes evident that danger is not too far off. Biting her lower lip to muffle a small groan of dismay, she presses herself against the high wall of the large tunnel (a tunnel clearly made for a massive creature). Maybe, just maybe, she is small enough to avoid his notice.
No such luck however. As he rounds the next bend, his small, dull eyes lock on her as though a magnet had drawn his gaze. Drawing in a sharp breath, she shrinks back as he considers her with a somewhat dim expression, eyes blinking slowly. He is a hideous creature, with thick, pebbled skin, stringy dark hair, and a filthy, swinging loincloth wrapped about his waist. Not to mention the odor...
With a satisfied grunt and a slight smile, the odiferous beast raises his club (a club that looks rather like the trunk of a tree he had simply ripped from the ground and denuded) and swings the cumbersome thing at her. With a yelp, she rockets forward, away from the arc of the monstrous weapon even as it slams into the wall near where she had just been, shaking loose dust and rock.
”Wait!” she shrieks as she skids to a halt on the other side of the tunnel, eyes frantically following the movement of the giant. ”Can’t we talk about this?!”
Backpedaling frantically, she stares at the beastly thing as it turns to look at her with a rather dumbfounded expression on its face. It doesn’t take long for those leathery features to stretch into a scowl however, as it responds to her in a low, barely intelligible growl, ”Dinner no talk.”
Oh, crap. Well, so much for the reasoning part of her plan. ”Well,” she huffs, sounding a bit more brave than she actually feels. ”I am definitely not on the dinner menu tonight.”
As he raises his club to swing it at her again, she bursts forward, using the distraction of his upraised swing to bolt past him and skid around the corner. As she passes, she can feel the wind of the club as it swings far too close for comfort.
She does not stop to look back; the thundering of footsteps is more than enough to inform her that the massive beast is in hot pursuit. His nearby roar only confirms what she already knows. Any noise she makes is easily drowned out by that terrifying sound. Unfortunately for her, her legs are much, much smaller and slower than his immensely long ones. It does not take him nearly as long to catch up as she would have liked.
To her credit, she does manage to catch the arc of his swing from the corner of her eye. With a yelp, she does an incredibly awkward twisting leap in an attempt to escape. Even so, the club manages to catch her on her retreating haunch, causing her hind end the spin out quite alarmingly. She loses her balance, resulting in her spinning towards the wall in in a rather interestingly flopped and splayed position. On the bright side, the giant was not quite expecting that, and his lumbering steps carry him several hundred yards past her before he finally slows enough to turn, giving her the time she needs to scramble back to her feet.
Her left haunch and flank is terribly sore, not to mentioned scraped and bleeding from the club and impromptu slide across the floor. On the bright side, this pause has given her time to note the light of (hopefully) an exit not too far in the distance. As the giant begins lumbering back towards her, expression mutinous, her eyes dart to the huge beast as she works to formulate an escape plan. He might be large, strong, and absurdly fast, but her smallness gives her one advantage - agility.
Starting forward, doing her best to ignore the pain in her hind leg, she meets him part way. Shifting, she places herself at one side of the tunnel, and as his club begins it’s terrifying arc, she throws herself in the opposite direction, giving him just enough time to commit himself to the swing before she darts around him on the other side. A simple, but quite effective trick if she does say so herself.
She can hear the slamming of the club, the shower of gravel, the heart-stopping roar of anger, as she gallops as fast as her injured leg will allow towards the end of the tunnel. Towards the light that shines like a beacon. As the thunder of feet starts up behind her, she bursts through the exit. Skidding to a halt, she squeezes her eyes desperately shut as she is suddenly blinded by the whiteness of the chamber she had just entered. After a moment of adjustment, she is finally able to squint her eyes open, allowing her to glance around in an attempt to survey her new surroundings.
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Word Count: 1355