They were monsters. Monsters. He wasn't sure he’d seen anything so beautiful and ugly at the same time. They had the perfect body, the perfect hair. They clothes molded to their bodies, giving off this illuminating body shape. They were literally glowing in his vision. But their faces…God, was it horrifying? They had serpentine eyes and a long tongue that hung out of their mouths. It was longer than a lizard, but the same shape. They had fish scales at the side of their faces, and two inward slits in their noses. It nearly gave him a heart attack, to look at all that beautiful body and then see something wrong on their face. His hunger immediately vanished and he was ten times weaker than he was before. They looked like reptiles and humans in one.What the hell were these things? He had to imagine it; he really had to. His hunger had caused these hallucinations to him, that’s what happened. No way would this be happening, because if so, where would they have come from? Yeah, it had
He woke up slowly. It was the kind of leisure sleep that you wake up from, the one that came from a sleep-lagged dream. He stretched as he opened his eyes, yawning and looking around him. He felt good. Maybe he was lazy a bit, but still good.Draven turned to the side and stretched. Everywhere was calm and peaceful, except for the hunger in his belly. He didn’t even notice it until it came in full force, tearing him from within. He groaned and sat up. The game was really out for him; making him remember he was hungry as soon as he got up. What was he doing here anyway?He looked around him. He was lying on lush green grass that had stinging insects, but that was fine. Everywhere around him was green; except for the person who was several feet away, bowing over a brewing pot. Draven squinted his eyes to see in the sun, even though light was shed from him as he was under a tree. The boy looked little in his vision, or was hunger beginning to get to him that he couldn’t see much?“Hey,”
Draven momentarily forgot about the food. Something was very, very wrong. “The women were not real?” he asked the boy. “If they aren’t real…?” The boy shook his head in disappointment, as if the old man in front of him could have done better than those lines. Draven did not want to think of himself in the same sentence with ‘old.’ The game was definitely playing on both his inward and outward appearance. “What are they then?” he pressed further. “They were very much real,” the boy said to him. “They exist because people have been dwelling in the outside world for far too long.” “What do you mean?” ‘It’s pretty simple, really. People die and then don’t return early to the game, so those inside the game suffer the consequences.” Draven straightened. “I don’t understand…” “What don’t you understand?" I’ve laid it out pretty well. I don’t have time to waste on someone who fainted because he was hungry. If you were that hungry, why don’t you just pluck fruit and eat it? How hard ca
After some hours, Draven had reached his threshold. He knew that this was the end, and that he'd got to stop moving around like this. The map was nearly gone and he was desperate and famished. He wanted everything at once; a breath of fresh air, food, water and rest. Leo was so close yet so near. His last location was just an hour away, and Draven had only thirty seven minutes before the map would vanish. The worst of it all was that he was beginning to forget.His theory had been correct after all. If the map vanished, he would forget his earlier mission of looking for Leo. He needed to get as fast as he could, before his hallucinations would overcome his ambitions and he started from square one. He regretted not ignoring his body needs; at least if he had, he would have covered much distance by now.He sped up his walking process, trying to keep up with the map and his memory. He only took a few steps when he heard the roar of a monster behind him. Draven turned slowly. He had neith
The girl laughed. She leaned over and peered at Draven from head to toe. The beastly bear had stopped stomping its hoofs on the ground now; it was instead chewing contentedly on the grass by the road. After chewing, it would spit it out and then continue again.The girl’s partner started to laugh too, stretching his arms far and wide. Draven was too tired to be uncomfortable being the bit of the joke. He just wanted to take a ride. He was sure that the distance he needed to cover couldn’t be done on foot, so it was a miracle that he had come across these people who were stupid enough to tame a beast.“You actually have audacity,” the girl said. “It isn’t a decent amount, you know? You better be careful and hold that mouth of yours tight.”“I need help,” Draven moaned. “Please, I’m dying.”“You were going to die a moment ago, so what difference does that make?”“Please,” Draven said. “I’m not talking about a literal death. I mean that I would die in despair if I did not get to my desti
Draven scowled. This was exactly why the game is survival of the fittest. The fact that the boy sought his solution by snatching the map from him and killing him wasn’t really surprising. At least they had made the decision and notified him in his presence. For the others, they would just act stupidly and use you however they liked. Look at all the women he’d ever come into contact with in the game; they always used him and wanted to kill him afterwards—at least he and Leo had undergone it together. The girl smiled patronizing her brother. They had to be siblings. The subtle love and rivalry between them was quite obvious. The girl was the leader, but the brother liked to insert his opinions here and there—half of which she would accept and the other which she would reject. Draven imagined that it was hard for her to work with her brother as he was increasingly overbearing and tried to brush off her rule at any chance. “We cannot take what rightfully belongs to him,” she said to her
Being alone in the game was terrible, and Leo was alone. He’d been drunk the last time he was Draven, and for the better part of the game he’d been depressed. It first started when he realized he was alone. He spoke to the air and the seas around him, hoping for a snarky remark from them. At least if Draven was here, he’d have something to say. She guy always had, always had one something to talk about. The key problem now was that he couldn’t wait for him, as much as he wanted to. He needed to move on and continue the game; that’s just how it is. Occasionally, he wondered if Draven was still in the real world and if he would ever come back. The time difference was so not the same, but Leo knew that his friend had spent way too much time outside. He wondered at one time if he was going to remain there forever or not. He chewed on his juicy fish as he walked down the paved road. If he was here with Draven, they would have at least taken a rest and probably a bath. Leo hadn’t had a b
Leo contemplated what she had just said. He wasn’t exactly in the mood to help her, but he was trying to emulate Draven’s way of life to remember him more, and he was sure that this was one thing that he would do. On the other hand, when she was in a position to help him, she hadn’t. This was crucial to him; if she had tried to save him, then he would still be in the game. He still didn’t understand why the guy was still over there… was he simply finding joy in the world and now seeing the game as useless? Or was it the wealth Leo had left for him? He wondered now if that was a mistake. “Please don’t delay any longer,” Lara rasped out. Leo curved his sword in the air and chopped off the monster’s head. It was squeamish when it disengaged from its body, as though trying to roll and connect back with its body. Leo once again felt he was making a mistake, but he hit the head over and over again, ignoring the squeaky sound of the monster until it ended. Lara cried as she removed the wo