After August called for storyteller and no one responded, he thought now, he might actually be in trouble. When he made the deal with the storyteller August thought that he was the one profiting from it the most.
However, being stuck inside a dark room with various formless entities debating whether to eat him alive or not —he started to wonder if it was him who had got swindled while the storyteller actually was having fun.
'What's even happening?'
August stood up only to fall once again. But he never stopped trying. While the council of the formless entities were whispering about whether they should eat him or not August was finally able to reach the point where he could see the moonlight coming from outside.
Surprisingly, the light coming inside wasn't illuminating anything at all. It was as if the light itself was fearing the darkness of this place. Whether he could see his surroundings or not, the source of the light was something he was able to see clearly.
August moved forward, a wind blew past him trying to slow him down. He walked ahead despite the resistance. He was nearing it, the light was closer than ever. Therefore he ran towards it. Many entities were still debating and many were trying to block his path. It didn't feel like they were really trying to stop him though, August knew they were just playing with him.
"How will you even eat that thing?"
"What do you mean? With my mouth of course."
"No idiot. I mean you think you can eat before them?"
"So what? We aren't their subjects. I don't even know why we give them the first bite?"
"What do you even mean? This was the pact you fool."
"That is for the eclipse. Not for usual circumstances."
"What are the usual circumstances for us? Let him go already?"
Despite running away from them, August heard the whispers too well. For some reason he was updated on all the arguments that happened inside the council. Hearing these whispers he got to know about the rules that the entities were talking about. Apparently they had a pact with someone therefore they can't just eat anyone.
Which apparently was a good thing for August because the debate gave him just the time he wanted to escape this hellish place.
As the debate itself turned out to be his best bet of survival after he tried to cut the entities with his sword and it never even touched them.
The blade of the fallen star passed cleanly through an entity just like it was passing through the air.
Which made August fear this place a bit. If it wasn't for their internal strife, he would've become a meal by now.
The corners of his lips curled upwards in a smile as he was only some steps away from the door. From here August was able to see the metallic hinges on the wooden door sparkling from the moonlight coming from the gaps in between.
He reached the door and grabbed the handle, the only thing remaining now was to push the door and escape. However fate had something else planned for him, that was the moment when he heard the final whisper,
"You are a coward to let go of the food that came into your mouth by itself. You and the cowards like you can sit back and do nothing. I am not going to let this opportunity escape. My brothers who want to come with me?"
The crowd was silent until the one entity shouted in whisper,
"Me"
After that there were many voices that followed suit,
"Mee too"
"I will come with you"
"I trust you brother"
"I am already yours, handsome."
The entity who convinced the others, started laughing. As did August.
'Fools', he thought, pushing the door. The door opened and as he was about to set a foot outside the moonlight was suddenly replaced by darkness.
'Oh no. celebrated too soon.'
The door handle vanished in his hand. And the perception of gravity changed. The floor on which he was standing just a while ago had now become the ceiling somehow and he was falling down. For some reason August was aware that he was falling right into the mouth of a dreadful horror.
"Come delicious. Satiate my hunger"
"No"
"He's mine"
"First come first served"
"The early bird gets the worm"
"Enough with the proverbs, just share it"
August was falling and he could sense a gigantic maw of some entity— where he was about to land straight into.
He closed his eyes and spread his senses wide. Once again, according to his senses there was nothing, no one else in the dark place. Nevertheless August drew his blade and took an offensive stance midair.
He was ready for anything.
The moment when he was about to end up in the maw, however, never happened. August fell straight into a structure that resembled a fire pit situated just at the centre of the dark room.
At his landing many dust particles flew in the air. And he realized at the next moment being covered in dust.
It didn't take much time for him to realise that the particles weren't dust.
'Its ash'
Indeed he had fallen into a seemingly pit of fire, which was cold and there was no fire, hence only ash remaining. August stood up shaking the ash off his clothes. He sensed a strong pillar beside him which was circled by ash.
However the strange part wasn't even the ash, it was that the entities weren't attacking him any longer. It felt as though they were reluctant to approach the centre where August was currently standing.
He got the confirmation shortly after when the entities hissed at the pit.
"Greedy"
They said the only word and the next thing August saw was light incoming from the door. While the door was open now, the moonlight still did not dare to cross the boundary. It still was eternal darkness inside despite the light illuminating the places outside.
August was confused however, the only thing he knew at that moment was that he was saved and free to leave. Because not even a whisper was to be heard from the entities.
He walked towards the door in a hurry and left never looking back.
— — —
"Aah… what the hell?"
As he walked outside from the door he was able to finally see his surroundings. It felt like he had spent many days inside that dark place. While he was finally happy to see his actual physical body, August also didn't know why it hurt like hell.
The pain was unbearable, enough to make him fall on the ground.
In truth, for some reason pain was always his companion. Physical or mental both loved him dearly. However he felt pain there was always a reason also.
Not today though, his hands felt like freezing and one of his hands had already received frostbite. His legs were shaking and his whole body ached. Maybe it was because of those entities or the ash perhaps? There were too many reasons for his injuries.
August gritted his teeth trying to endure the pain. His body was sweating and also bleeding, mildly though. There seemed to be a forest before him, so he stood up and walked into the darkness of the forest on the path that was only guided by moonlight.
— — —
August woke up feeling a soaring pain in his muscles. The sun was already above his head. Leaning against a tree, he wondered where he might actually be. He was supposed to start the first story so why wasn't the storyteller responding? Has something happened to them?
'Like hell'
Something told him he already knew what was happening, he just refused to admit. While August did not know where he was however, there was one thing he definitely knew. His responsibility, something he has to do.
He knew he had to return as soon as possible.
As the day got warmer, his stomach growled suddenly.
'Figures'
He didn't know how many days he had spent inside that dark place. Indeed, he had struggled quite a lot only to escape that hellish place. He took or tried to take many steps and fell a way more times, because the place was brimming with darkness he had no idea of time.
Only when the moon appeared a few days later, its light guided him towards the exit. It was only natural to feel hungry after all that.
August realised after sometime he woke up there was a sound of water flowing coming from somewhere. In a place surrounded by trees, he thought that there must be a clear stream of water. However, despite being hungry for a while now he wasn't able to move.
After sometime when August finally gathered the strength to stand up or maybe it was just his hunger driving him crazy, he stood up and started to walk towards where the noise of water rushing was coming from.
As the noise of the flowing water grew louder August realized he was nearing the water source. Passing through the trees he finally saw the clear water stream from afar. He smiled with relief and ran towards it ignoring the soaring muscles.
Suddenly August heard human noises as he neared the water stream. He hid himself behind the bushes and peeked at the scenario before. August wasn't sure if they were really humans or those entities from before.
As he got a look at them however, he immediately turned away in embarrassment. Apparently in the water stream there were girls, many of them …bathing. August cursed his luck because now he won't be able to go near the stream to drink water of course.
And god knows when these girls will be finally done.
He found a nearby tree trunk to lean on and did the thing he was best at, he endured.
As he sat there for a while doing nothing, the exhaustion he got from running seemed to be catching up with him. His eyelids grew heavier and he fell asleep.
"We don't know who he is"
"We should kill him"
"Kill him? Come on, have you really killed someone before?"
"No I mean we can try?"
"Yeah, good luck with that."
"But we don't know who he is? He could be a threat to us."
"How can you say that? Shouldn't we ask him first?"
"Yeah alright we should wait till he wakes up and kills us all with his sword. That's what you are saying, right?"
"I mean we should notify the saint first, don't you think?"
"We don't have time for that, sister. We know he's evil for sure, which innocent young man would peep on us young maidens like that?"
"You know what, I think you're right we should kill him."
"I was not peeping on you" August said immediately as he thought things were going south for him. A few minutes ago when he woke up to these girls talking with each other he acted as though still asleep thinking he might get to know something if he kept acting asleep.
However, August had to come out of his act to save himself from being killed.
He opened his eyes and saw at least seven or eight girls standing before, surrounding him in a half circle. They were easily around his age and some seemed even older.
As he spoke some of the girls started panicking,
"We're late"
"Just kill him already."
"Wait! Wait!" August screamed for his life, "I think there has been a misunderstanding. I can explain."
"Misunderstanding you say?" A girl spoke, "okay go ahead, I wonder how you will explain your degenerate act."
"I am telling you sisters. We shouldn't listen to him,"
"Just kill him already."
August had fought a decent number of abominations in his life. However, to him this situation seemed more life threatening than to fight a monster horde. If he did not choose his words carefully here, this situation could go south really fast.
He did not need his senses to tell him that only his instincts were enough.
Not to mention due to his injuries and pain he wouldn't be able to run very fast.
— — — — —