Time for chapter 5. This one is called "The Creature". I hope you like it.
The Creature[]
Djura, Cynthia, Ian, and I continued on in the dungeon. It was quiet. Too quiet. It seemed too good to be true. We continued following the bloody footprints, hoping to find something. So far, we had not seen a single living thing in the dungeon.
Suddenly, after several minutes of nothing happening, we heard something moving close by. Djura gestured for us all to stop, and we did, then crouched down, and started moving slowly, which the rest of us did as well. We snuck up to a nearby doorway, and looked through it. There, we saw the creature. It was a hunchbacked, bipedal beast with thick, dark gray fur, a wolf-like head, big, pointy ears, humanoid hands and feet with long, black claws, and, unlike most beasts, it was wearing clothes, which consisted of tattered, orange pants, and a heavily torn, brown trench coat that was not buttoned, revealing the creature’s chest. It stood about 7 feet tall, and was feasting on a dead beast.
As Djura was about to start trying to sneak up on the beast, it heard something nearby, and scurried off, heading in the opposite direction of us. “This isn’t good”, Djura said. “I’ve seen many beasts in my time, but none like this one. We’ll have to be smart about how we deal with it. Let’s keep moving.”
We entered the room that the creature was in, and took a look around. It appeared to be some kind of crossroad-esque room, with four different paths leading out. The room contained 8 cages, four in each corner, and the other four by the different pathways, which all contained skeletal remains. The floor was covered in dry blood, and there were several chains hanging from the ceiling.
“Alright”, Djura announced. “I want us to cover the most ground that we can, so I want two of us to go down each of these tunnels. Ian and I will go through the one on the right. Cynthia, Sakharine, I want you two to go down the one on the left. Got that?” he asked.
“We got it”, I responded.
“We’ll get going now”, Cynthia responded.
“Good. Let’s go, Ian”, Djura said before leaving.
“Come on, Nathan. Let’s go”, Cynthia said to me.
Cynthia and I began heading down the tunnel, and it was almost exactly the same as the rest of the dungeon. The only noticeable difference was that there were some strange markings on the walls, and there was pretty much a complete absence of lighting, unlike the other areas we’ve been to so far, which were all lit with a big lantern hanging from the ceiling.
“What do you think of this, Nathan?” Cynthia asked.
“Of this whole situation, or just the creature?” I asked in return.
“This whole thing”, she said. “I’m not liking this so far.”
“I don’t like it that much either”, I responded.
“Why did you come here?” she asked.
“I’d rather not give all the details, but it has to do with a bad choice in my love life”, I said. “What about you?”
“I owed Jason a favor, and, since I’m a good sister, I agreed to go on this journey with him”, she said, and then paused for a minute. “Why do you wear that mask?” she asked randomly.
I thought for a second. “Well”, I began to say. “The main reason is because I am a bit insecure.”
“Why?” Cynthia asked. “Is something wrong with your face that you don’t want people to see?”
“Yes”, I responded. “Something happened, and it had an effect on me that will last the rest of my life. Can we not talk about this anymore?”
“Sure.” We continued on in silence for a minute, before Cynthia decided to start a different conversation. “Can I ask you something kind of random?”
“It depends on what it is,” I stated in response.
“Do you ever feel like you’re being watched?” she asked.
“Not really”, I said. “Well, not very often, at least. Why? Do you ever feel like people are watching you?”
“Pretty often, actually”, she said. “Sometimes, I find that men tend to stare at me.”
“That’s because you have big breasts”, I whispered to myself.
“What did you say?” she asked.
“Uh... I said that you have pretty eyes”, I said.
Cynthia smiled. “Thank you, Nathan.”
Not long after that conversation, we ended up in an almost identical room to the one where we had seen the creature. It also had 4 different paths, and was filled with cages. Not long after we entered, Djura and Ian appeared opposite of where we came in. Before any of us could say anything, we heard growling coming from above us. We looked up, and saw the creature hanging from the ceiling. It let out a loud howl, and then jumped down toward us. We all tried to get away, but Ian was not as lucky as the rest of us, and the creature lunged at him, viciously clawing at him, before proceeding to bite his head off. I took out one of my pistols and shot the creature in the chest, injuring it, and causing it to run away.
Djura crouched down by Ian’s headless corpse, and let out a sigh. “Damnit”, he said. “We can’t take his body with us. We have to leave him.”
“I wonder how the others are doing”, I said. “I hope they’re alright.”
“Hopefully we can meet up with them somewhere along the way”, Djura responded. He then looked around the room, and spotted a weapon rack by one of the walls, and walked over to it. “I think both of you should get one of these weapons. You’ll need them.” I grabbed a bloodstained longsword that looked like it hadn’t been used in a very long time, while Cynthia grabbed a pair of small daggers. Djura then drew his blunderbuss, and took at stake driver out a large bag on his belt. “Let’s go kill that thing.”
End[]
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Tell me what you think in the comments. I'm going to start working on the next one tomorrow. Have a good day.