It was an ordinary bright sunny day, people laughing about such and such, talking about such and such.
"Shalma! Tell me, just *where* do you think you're going?" The sound of a frustrated mother's voice echoed through the street.
Everyone quickly went quiet and looked, it was quite unusual for there to be any sort of ruckus around these parts. Then some of them sighed, some of them chuckled, and some of them simply rolled their eyes when they saw who that message was meant for.
It was always the same golden eyed rascal, her hair as dark as the night matching perfectly with her black perfectly fit sweater and skirt, her sweater having two little loops on the back on it.
Her handle clicked as she turned around while swinging her bag over her shoulder, "I've decided that I'm finally done reading about 'The Pit'! I'm going to go there myself and see all of the amazing and horrific things I've read about it first hand!"
Her mother raised her finger and started dragging her back by it with telekinesis, "And I've told you countless times those are just fairy tales. No matter what you say you're going to stay in this village and contribute to it."
She tried to fight against it without having to ditch her bag but failed, "Ugh! You're so annoying!"
She took her backpack and handed her two large bags and a rifle, "Good, I hope I am. I still need to annoy you another seventy-five years. Now go collect some things from the nearby forest, only use the rifle if you have to."
She sighed and put both of the bags over her shoulder, sliding the rifle into the loops on the back of her sweater as she walked into the woods.
She walked around while kicking various rocks. Rambling about how annoying it all was, though she did digress because she understood her mother's worries. After all 'The Pit' was still mostly unexplored.
In fact people had relied on a small group of five people for years upon years to explore it. Yet they only cleared eighty-seven of the estimated three hundred floors before dying of old age.
She climbed up a tree near a lake and started picking some manploges and placing them in one of her bags. Which she'd neatly hanged on a sturdy branch.
Then she heard some bubbling sort of sound coming from the lake. She ignored it at first, then she heard a big splash.
She looked down, laying down on the branch as she took the rifle off her back.
It was just a guy. A seemingly normal guy with grayed hair and hazel eyes, his large garments soaking wet and weighing him down.
Or they seemed to weigh him down at first. For a moment he was struggling to stand, then he suddenly stood up with no issue while looking around.
'Maybe super strength, but if we're going wild here, possibly something to do with gravity because he's still drenched,' she thought as she kept a close eye on him.
She'd already mapped out multiple escape routes the second she saw him and had come up with various ways to kill him or at least slow him down.
"You can come out, I won't hurt you. I'm just extremely lost," he said before looking directly at her. "Also put that little... thingamajig down, it probably won't work."
She tied her bag tight and threw it over her shoulder, keeping her rifle in hand the entire time and jumped down.
She quickly aimed at him, "Who are you? Why did you come out of the water? Where do you need to go?"
"I'm just trying to find my way to Qoatl, do you know the way?"
She put the barrel to his forehead, "What's your name? And what is your business there?"
"Name? That'd be nice to have. But as to what my business is there, it's not for a little girl such as yourself to know."
"I'm not little. I'm nineteen. Now tell me what your business is," she nudged his head back slightly.
He cackled for a moment but promptly calmed down, "Well to put it simply, I'm a traveler. I heard they have many stories of this place I want to go to called 'The Pit'. Have you heard of it? I'm sure you have if you live there."
"And if I refuse?" She asked while making direct eye contact with him. An intense glare piercing into his soul.
"I'll give it to you, you can look intimidating. But looking intimidating isn't the same as being able to kill," he said as he put his hand around her neck, his fingers turning to razor sharp claws.
Without hesitation she moved her rifle slightly left, pretending to put it down. This caused him to loosen his grip.
As soon as he did, she shot him in the eye and took a large step back to avoid getting hit. Using this chance, she struck him back onto the ground with the butt of the rifle and ran for the mountains.
Eventually, she made it to the base of the mountain and hid behind some rocks. She knew he wasn't dead because she heard him laughing as she ran, so she planned to use the time she'd bought herself to prepare.
She lifted her sweater up to her clavicle and reached into her cleavage pulling out some three hundred BoZ bullets she'd hidden in there. Then she slapped the barrel of the rifle hard causing it to fall down and put a bullet in it before pushing it back into place.
As she heard footsteps, she quickly put the rest of her bullets in her mouth and moved them to the inside of her cheek with her tongue.
Barely hiding her ammunition before the rock she was hiding behind shattered.
"There you are. Now, could you kindly lead me to Qoatl? I really don't want to get the blood of a child on my hands."
She quickly turned to look at him and aimed the rifle again only for him to demolish the barrel.
"The same trick won't work twice. And that little strip show isn't going to distract me, so give up and tell me where to go."
She spit out a bullet in his face and struck it with the butt of the rifle hoping it'd blow up in his face, but it didn't.
"Nice try kid, but I'm starting to get tired of this," he said as he slowly raised his arm and made his claws a little longer.
Thinking quick, she put her foot on his shoulder and pulled herself up so that his face would be at her abdomen. She then quickly shoved the rifle underneath her knee and cupped his face.
An in-love looking smile spread across her face as she looked down at him, "I finally realized what you are! You're one of the dragon's from those books~!"
He let his guard down slightly and lowered his arm, "Uh, yeah... What's with the sudden switch up?"
She stopped smiling and gave him a cold look as she put what was left of the barrel of the riffle against his eye and shot. The sound of the bullet bouncing in his skull until it blasted out of the back of it audible throughout the forest.
Then she felt a sudden sharp pain in her side as he cut her deeply on her side.
She fell over him onto the ground and landed hard on her head, giving her a mild concussion as she moaned in pain. She gripped the injury tightly and winced.
Slowly, he turned around and pulled her up by the hair, "Now you have no choice but to tell me or die."
He threw her up high into the air. After a couple seconds, he jumped up after her and caught her by the neck.
"Now point at which of these towns it is. And if you dare point me to the wrong one, there will be consequences worse than death."
She pointed at Qoatl while sobbing, her hand shaking violently as she did.
In a split second they were at the town square, where everyone saw her condition, saw them man grabbing her by the neck, and started panicking.
"I don't understand, why are they so scared?" He said as he let go of her.
Looking at her he gasped and quickly gave her a weird looking peach with swirls on it, "I'm so sorry! I toats went overboard my bad! This will help, trust."
She hesitantly ate the peach and in a couple seconds she was healed. Although the pain was still there.
"Books about 'The Pit' right? I own the best one around. But... You better not hurt anyone here. If they mess up in any way take it out on me. And please don't hurt my mom when I take you there," she said with a shaky voice.
He agreed to it and she took him home, making sure that he didn't see her mother and that her mother didn't see him, but she made him scratch the wall so she'd know of the danger.
She laid down in her bead and tried to calm her breathing as he read the ultimate book about 'The Pit', a book she'd made for herself that was every book about the Pit combined into one.
He quickly shut the book though and put the back of his hand on her forehead.
She flinched hard awaiting the worst, but was surprised as she felt him slowly pulling her sweater back down, "Excuse me, sorry if this is uncomfortable. Also, you have a fever, don't worry, that's a normal reaction to eating that thing for the first time."
He gently put a blanket over her and sat down next to her on the bed, "We got off on the wrong foot here. I got hostile after you wouldn't answer because I had been on a long underwater journey through some laje systems trying to find this place and I ended up letting my frustration out on you. I also didn't answer your questions, which considering the situation were reasonable. I don't have a name, I'm just a traveler, and I answered the other questions in the moment or with my explanation."
She looked at him and sighed, "Well I did aim a gun to your head so I'd say I was also pretty rude myself."
"Let's try to get along from now on. After studying up on 'The Pit' I plan to go there and find my friends who got lost down there. I won't go into detail on that."
"Take me with you! I'd love you find your friends! I know it might sound crazy for the girl you just nearly killed to ask you, the person that nearly killed her to take her with you, but. And big but, I've been wanting to go there for years and my mom just won't let me."
He thought about it for a moment and agreed to it hesitently, "I guess I owe you one for the nearly killing part and you helping me anyways. But I don't see why you don't just rebel against her and leave anyways, even if it's with nothing. I'm sure if you just walked and walked even if she somehow took away your stuff she'd chase after you and either try to stop you physically or give you back your stuff. Which considering what you did against he, I doubt she could stop you if you really wanted to go."
She stared at him for a moment before answering, "You're right, this whole time I could've just done that! But, I guess I just didn't want to hurt her."
"Doing something as dangerous as going to 'The Pit' would hurt her no matter what. I'm sure if she found out what I did to you it would hurt her deeply, especially knowing she allowed you to go into those woods alone... Probably let you go into those woods alone, I shouldn't assume."
She smiled at him, "You know besides the whole anger-issues part you're actually really nice and understanding! Don't worry, take your time reading that book. I'll be ready to depart whenever you're done there and we'll find your friends down there!"