by Pirateaba
“Get closer…no, that’s stupid.”
She eyed the rock again. Well, if it wasn’t going to move…
Erin turned her away. She’d circle around. Far around. She began walking away.
Click.
It was such a small sound. But it made her freeze and then whirl around.
Erin caught the rock-crab crawling towards her stealthily. In just a few seconds it had covered nearly twenty feet. She stared in horror as it reared upwards.
Clickclickclickclickclickclickclick—
The rock-crab began its high-speed shuffle towards her. Two enormous claws and a pair of dark antennas—or were they eyes? – curled up from underneath the rock.
Erin stepped back, half-turned to run, and remembered what was in her other hand. She took swift aim and threw the seed pod she had been holding.
Bullseye. The seed core smacked the rock-crab right in the antennae and burst into a shower of pulpy liquid. Even at this range Erin could smell the toxic odors on the breeze.
If she was honest, Erin didn’t know what she expected. Pain, or shock from the rock-crab maybe. She’d nailed it pretty good on the antennae and she was sure that had to hurt. But still, it wasn’t as if the seed cores were that heavy. She expected the crab to recoil, and maybe get scared off by the scent at best.
What she didn’t expect was for the crab to freak out and start smashing itself with one of its claws. It was panicking, frantically scraping away at the spot she’d struck it with the seed core, ignoring the damage it was doing to its own antennae. At the same time the rock-crab was making distressed sounds.
It sounded like the loudest cricket in the world, only a lot deeper and echoing out from beneath the rocky shell the crab was wearing. That was enough to make Erin back up until she was back among the trees and the crab was barely visible.
Even after she’d gone a ways she could still see the crab doing an unhappy dance as it tried to scrape off the seed pod fragments.
“Huh.”
Erin scratched her head.
“Well, it’s good to know they hate fruit.”
Speaking of which…Erin decided to get more of the delicious blue fruits. As many as she could carry, in fact. Blue was now the color of breakfast, lunch, and dinner and she only wished she had more hands. Could she make a basket somehow…? Out of grass?
She kicked at a tuft of the stuff.
“…That’s a stupid idea.”
How about her shirt then, or pants? But that was a bit…well, there was no one around to see her except the rock-crabs, right? Even so, though.
“Too bad I’m not a streaker, huh?”
Erin addressed that comment to a nearby patch of patch of grass. The grass said nothing in reply.
With a sigh, Erin walked away. She slowly crested a small hill and found herself looking down on the fruit orchard once more. She also found herself looking at several short, green creatures. They were kicking trees and harvesting the blue fruits that fell to the ground.
For a few seconds they didn’t see her. Then one of them looked up and saw the slack-jawed human staring their way. He made a shrill noise and the others looked around.
“G-goblins?”
The nearest creature took a step towards her. It looked harmless. For a moment. Then it bared its incredibly sharp teeth and drew a knife. Its friends did likewise. They advanced on the young woman.
The young woman for her part stared in horror for two more seconds, and then pointed one finger. She opened her mouth and screamed.
“Gobliiiiiiiiins!”
The green skinned monsters stopped and stared as the young woman screamed and took off running at top speed. But they followed her doggedly despite the insane speed at which she sprinted. Humans panic and grow tired. They’ll catch her as soon as she slows down.
…Assuming she ever slows down.
—-
It is evening. The sun is casting long shadows across the plains. All is silent. Aside from the screaming rock-crab smashing itself and the screaming human, there is no sound in the world.
All is calm.
A single figure sprints across the grasslands. She is running as fast as she can. Behind her a group of squat creatures follow. It is nearly dinnertime.
Erin Solstice, age 20. A young girl—woman from Michigan with a casual interest in video games and a deep obsession with strategy games. Hobbies include snowboarding, watching Youtube videos, playing chess, shogi, go, etc. Dreams of one day becoming a professional strategy game commentator.
Currently—
Running for her life.
1.03
Erin found a stream running idyllically down a hill a few miles away from the inn. Its position and relative size meant that it was the perfect place for her to gather water or even wash herself should the need arise. All things considered, it was a windfall of a discovery.
She took three steps, leapt, and cleared the stream in one jump and hit the ground already running. The stream kept flowing as she left it rapidly behind. Not once did Erin look back, although her throat was burning.
She was being chased.
By Goblins. They swarmed after her, wading through the stream despite the strong current. And though they were small, their bodies were wiry and their dirty arms muscled. And they all carried weapons.
Generally they were daggers or short swords, but Erin had spotted what looked like a meat cleaver on one of them. She was too busy running to get a good look, but if they were like the ones she had met yesterday they were rusty, stained with dried blood and crusty substances, and sharp.
That, combined with the Golbin’s faces made them terrifying. Normal Goblins were supposed to look ugly, but not dangerous. In video games Erin had always seem them depicted as short, man-like creatures with beaky noses, pointed ears, and ugly faces. But these Goblins…
Pointy ears? Check.
Ugly face? Check.
Their noses weren’t too pointed, but they were definitely carrots compared to potatoes as noses went. But what really scared Erin were their teeth.
They had two rows of teeth. Like sharks. They had blood red eyes, like monsters in nightmares. Glowing red eyes. And they screamed as they chased her.
It didn’t sound like normal screaming. Erin was used to hearing screams, but they only came out of humans. The sound the Goblins made wasn’t a continuous sound but a kind of ululating noise that seemed to grow louder the longer they yelled.
Yiyeyiyeyiyeyiyeyiyeyiyeyiyeyiyeyiyeyiyeyiyeyiyeyiyeyi—
It made Erin break out into a cold sweat and she pumped her legs even faster to charge up the hill. She was in one of the valleys, but she knew she was headed straight for the inn. She just had to get there and, and—
That’s where they’d kill her. Erin would get to the inn, and they’d surround it, break in somehow and tear her to shreds. But what other choice did she have? None. She couldn’t run forever.
Already Erin felt like someone was twisting a knife into her side and she was gasping for air. She was no athlete. The only reason she was still ahead of the Goblins by a good bit was because they were short. She also guessed they were letting her use up all her energy before closing in for the kill.
Erin crested the hill, stumbled, caught herself, and saw the inn’s dark brown walls only a hundred meters away. She dashed towards it, throwing all of her energy into a desperate sprint.
The Goblin’s voices had faded a bit by the time she burst through the inn’s door way and slammed it shut. But she knew they were only minutes away at best so Erin stood up despite the agony in her chest and legs.
The door had a metal bar that could be slid to prevent it from being opened. Erin did that, and then looked around. Windows. The common room had so many windows.
“Oh you’ve got to be—”
She didn’t waste time on the rest of her sentence. Erin dashed over to one window and slammed the wooden shutters closed. Then she fumbled with the latch. It was a cheap bit of metal, but i
t might buy her a few seconds.
Erin sped around the room, fighting to close the windows as the Goblin’s shouting grew louder and louder. She slammed shut the last window and let out a huge sigh of relief. Then she remembered that the inn had a second floor.
The mysterious darkness of the second floor that had terrified Erin the night before didn’t even slow her steps as she dashed up the stairs. She ran in and out of each room as fast as she could, closing windows. While some of the mantles had succumbed to the rot, all of the shutters were mostly intact. She’d hear if they were being smashed in, at least.
Erin ran into the room at the end of the corridor and stopped when she saw the skeleton in the last bed. But even that didn’t slow her much and she closed the windows just in time to hear the Goblins start pounding at the door downstairs.
They didn’t get in that way. But as Erin sped down the stairs she heard one of the shutters break. And then another.
The first Goblin squeezed through a window as Erin stood petrified. The second and third were right behind him.
Erin backed up. The first Goblin came at her as his fellows spread out behind him. There were five—no, six of them.
Her legs were shaking. Erin tried to turn over a table but the Goblin was too quick. He lunged forward and she fell backwards with a small scream. He laughed and jumped for her, knife swinging.
Erin rolled backwards and felt a stinging cut on her leg. She scrambled to her feet and looked down.
Blood. It came from a shallow cut on her leg. She looked back at the Goblin and saw his grinning face.
…
It was a similar grin. Or smile. Or expression, really. But to Erin, it was the same face. The same as a human’s. Mocking. Confident. The kind of face young men—
He licked at the blood on his knife. Erin’s face froze. The fear that had been bubbling in her turned in an instant to anger. The Goblin didn’t notice, and ran for her, still grinning.
Erin’s leg shot up. She didn’t kick. It was just a lightning-fast shot right between the legs. She could have sworn she heard something crunch.
The Goblin’s face which had been so full of malicious glee froze up. He turned pale, made a high-pitched keening sound and toppled over.
The other Goblins stared in shock at their friend. Erin stared in shock too, but had the presence of mind to grab a chair before they could react. She raised it threateningly.
“Well? Come on!”
Erin swung the chair like a club. The Goblins ducked underneath it and advanced on her, swinging low.
A lucky blade slashed Erin’s leg and she cried out in pain. Instantly she brought the chair up and over her head and smashed the Goblin flat.
In movies, the chair would break off leaving Erin with the stumps in her hands. In reality the impact made her hands sting but the chair didn’t so much as creak. The Goblin on the other hand screamed a lot.
His fellows backed up as Erin held the chair up for another swing. Her leg was bleeding badly from the cut but she was more mad than scared at this point. Plus she had a chair. All they had were knives.
In fact, she had more than one chair.
“Eat this!”
Erin tossed the chair at one Goblin and clipped it on the head as it ducked. He fell down too, and meanwhile Erin had grabbed another chair. She used it like a shield, jabbing the legs at the nearest Goblin and forcing it back.
Faced with an unexpected threat the others split up and tried to circle around Erin. Accordingly, she tried not to let them. But even if they were surprisingly fragile, they were quick and hard to hit. Before long the remaining four Goblins were all around Erin, peering under tables, feinting at her from behind unheld chairs.
“Get back!”
Erin tossed her chair again and again, missed. But as the Goblins ducked she turned around and fled for the stairs. She had longer legs, but they were quick too and surged after her as she jumped up the stairs two at a time.
The fastest Goblin was hot on her heels, cackling with that strange laughter as he swiped at the back of her legs. Erin ignored the bleeding and hit the top of the stairs with the Goblin right behind her. He laughed evilly.
And stopped when he realized it was just him and the human female at the top of the stairs. He looked up. The big human female made a fist.
…
The fourth Goblin crashed down the stairs, face a bloody mess. The remaining three Goblins looked up at the young woman standing above them and hesitated. But she was prey. Prey didn’t fight back!
One threw a knife. It hit Erin in the stomach point first, but the toss was so weak it barely penetrated her skin. She grabbed it and leapt down the stairs.
Two hands on the handrail let Erin swing her legs up. She was no gymnast, but rage gave her a moment of athletic inspiration. Both her feet crashed into the face of the knife-throwing Goblin.
He screamed and clutched at his broken, bleeding nose. His two friends ran back as Erin landed on the ground. The bleeding Goblin waved his knife at Erin. She slapped him.
Crack. It was a good slap, the kind that made Erin’s hand go numb. The Goblin fell down stunned and his hand let go of his knife.
Erin stared at it. Then, before the other two Goblins could move she grabbed it. And when she stood up she had a very different expression on her face.
The remaining Goblins looked at her. They weren’t just two, not really. Their friends hadn’t been knocked out, just hurt. Already they were getting up while clutching their bruised heads and bodies. However…
The human female was facing them, knife in her hand. She didn’t look as frightened as she had been before. In fact, she looked quite angry. That wasn’t good. She seemed suddenly bigger, and the Goblins were keenly aware that she had just beaten two thirds of their number in a matter of seconds.
And she had a knife.
The Goblins stared at Erin. She stared back. Now they were all awake and upright, but they didn’t seem to be about to attack. In fact, they seemed sort of nervous.
Erin stared at them. They stared at her. Her eyes began to water, but she didn’t dare blink. But she had to do something, right?
“Boo!”
The Goblins shrieked and ran. They crashed out of the broken windows and ran as if pursued by demons.
Erin stayed where she was for quite some time, hands still half-raised. Eventually she lowered them.
She wanted to scratch her head, but nearly stabbed her eye out with a knife. Carefully, Erin put the knife on a table and then sat in the nearest chair. Her legs had lost all strength.
“Ha. Haha.”
Erin coughed and then chuckled again.
“Hahaha.”
Her chest hurt. Her arms hurt. Her legs hurt. Actually, her entire body hurt. She felt like she was dying. But.
“I can’t even laugh properly right now. Hahahahahaha…ha?”
And then she did laugh. She started laughing as she sat with her back against the table, bleeding onto the inn’s clean floor. She laughed and laughed until tears were in her eyes. And as she closed her eyes she smiled. Then she bumped her cuts and stopped smiling. But she still slept.
[Innkeeper Level 4!]
“…Hey. What happened to levels 2 and 3?”
1.04
The young woman sat in a chair and pondered. It seemed stupid. No, it was stupid. But there could be only one explanation.
“When you level in dreams, you level in real life?”
Erin thought about that for a moment.
“Huh.”
She sat in the chair for a few more minutes. Those minutes turned into half an hour, and then nearly a full hour before her stomach grumbled.
“Right, food.”
After another hour Erin decided to get up. Her body protested the movement, but her stomach overruled her legs. She got up and reluctantly stumbled out the door.
Her legs hurt. As she stepped outside Erin felt at the back of her legs and winced.
“Right. Knife c
uts.”
She should wash that. If she had water. But since she didn’t and the wounds were already scabbed over, Erin left it and started walking.
It was a long, long walk back to the fruit trees. Erin was only glad she remembered where they were. She was even gladder than there weren’t any suspicious rocks along her route, but that only made her warier. Could they burrow? Were there grass-crabs?
If there were, they didn’t seem interested in her at the moment. Erin found the strange, spindly trees easily and picked an armful of blue fruits. She sat and ate fourteen. It wasn’t that she was hungry so much as really thirsty. She sucked as much of the blue juice out of the fruits before gathering as many as she could carry and walked back to the inn. The seed cores she left where they lay.
…Actually, now that she thought of it…
Erin doubled back and grabbed two seed cores and placed them carefully on top of her stack of blue fruits.
“Just in case. I should also get a bow and arrow or something, right? Too bad I have no idea how to shoot anything. Or have any idea how to carve a bow. You carve bows, right?”
Erin thought about that as she walked back over the sloping ground, taking care not to trip and break the seed cores. How would she make anything, anyways?
“Um. Is it three bars of iron and two sticks to make a pickaxe? Or can I make a wood sword by punching trees? Why couldn’t this be Minecraft instead?”
But now she thought of it, Erin remembered the trees.
“Firewood. If I could cut the wood away, that is.”
She thought of the incredibly stiff branches.
“…Nope. But wait a second. What about fallen branches? Or—”
She turned around and started walking back. But when she got there she found neither helpful twigs nor larger branches anywhere in the orchard.
“Weird.”
Frustrated, Erin kicked a tree and dodged another falling blue fruit. She added it to her armful and walked back to the inn.