Chapter 10: Back to the Home that the World Forgot

Chapter 10:
Back to the Home that the World Forgot

 

AS SOON AS THE OGRE’S FIST connected with the earth, Flum heard a terrible noise that sounded like a zipper being ripped off its track, while the ground heaved beneath her.

Her body shook, and her vision began to blur. Terrified, she looked down to find that the ground beneath her had turned into a series of teeth-shaped rocks that began to spin in a clockwise motion, much like the drilled-out core of the ogre’s face. To her horror, she saw that her legs were already being pulverized by the sawing teeth, sending pieces of meat and blood flying everywhere.

“Aa… Wha?!” The sight was so surreal that she didn’t immediately comprehend what was happening, even as she watched her own legs being eaten. Finally, the pain caught up to her and Flum began to scream in agony. “Aaaaaaaguh!!!!”

Her ankles, calves, and even thighs were already gone, and the rocks were still grinding. She couldn’t move with her legs destroyed, but if she didn’t, her whole body would soon be little more than ground beef, with nothing left to regenerate.

Sweat from merely enduring the sheer pain stung at Flum’s bloodshot eyes as she reached a hand out in Sara’s direction, still screaming in panic.

“Flum!!”

Sara ran toward Flum at full tilt before diving straight into her, using her momentum to knock Flum free of the jaws of doom. Flum mumbled her best approximation of an expression of gratitude to the girl who just saved her life before looking down at what was left of her thighs. They were ragged and tattered, great chunks of flesh missing where the uneven teeth had torn mercilessly into her body.

She began crawling ever-so-slowly away from the spinning jaws, wincing in pain as the open wounds on her legs dragged along the uneven ground.

A loud, lamenting groan rose up from the spinning jaws over the loss of its meal. “Ha…haaaaauugh!”

Flum’s legs had already started to regenerate, but the pain was still blinding. Though blood continued to spill from her gaping wounds to soak the ground, she was still alive, and she knew that she wasn’t at risk of dying. And if she wasn’t going to die, then that meant everything was okay. Everything had to be okay, because she wasn’t going to die.

Flum continued to repeat this mantra over and over to herself, though it did little to help alleviate the pain. It hurt so bad she began to wonder if pain could actually kill you. She heaved a few times, struggling to breathe, before finally throwing up the contents of her stomach and dropping weakly to the ground.

Sara had been told about Flum’s regenerative abilities, but to her eyes, the wounds Flum had suffered were too critical to do anything about. She worried that Flum would bleed out and die if she didn’t act fast, so she ran over as fast as she could and put her hands to the remains of Flum’s leg.

“Heal!”

Light accumulated around Sara’s hands before she willed it to gather around Flum’s legs. Heal, a mid-tier curative spell, was far too weak to do anything about such a massive injury, but Sara figured it would at least be enough to staunch the bleeding.

Instead, she heard a sizzling sound, almost like bacon thrown into a piping hot pan. When she looked down, she saw the mangled parts of Flum’s thighs were starting to melt.

“Nnngaaaaaaaaauuuuugh!!! Oooooowww!! Waaaugh!”

Flum’s face was tense as she did her best to fight her way through the pain or even to just stay conscious. She clawed at the ground with her bare fingers until her nails began to separate from their beds.

Sara stared on in shock. “What’s going on here?? I cast a healing spell, I know it!”

After a moment’s pause to reflect, she immediate realized what she’d done wrong.

“What’s… Reversal, right? So that means that a curative spell would have the opposite effect and… Oh, I’m so sorry Flum! I never meant to hurt you!”

Flum knew that, of course. She wanted to tell the other girl it was fine, but she was still battling just to stay conscious. Forming words was beyond her at this point. Even when she tried to, all that came out of her mouth were agonizing screams.

She took several deep breaths, in and out, in and out, in an attempt to refocus her mind., It looked like it’d be some time before she was walking again, but she still wanted to somehow comfort her young companion, who appeared on the verge of tears. Mustering up all her strength, she struggled to get the words out.

“It’s…o…ok…aaay!”

“Flum?!”

“Aah…haaaah… Haaa… Rather, you…you should…”

“I should what??”

“G-get out…out of here!!”

“Get…out?”

Sara was too absorbed in the tragedy that had befallen her friend to think of much else. However, the bizarre ogre-like creature was closing in on them. It broke through a clump of bushes and rushed in toward them, the flaps of skin still attached to its face squishing and squelching with every movement.

“G-got it!”

Sara swiftly wrapped her arms under Flum’s and managed to make use of her incredible strength to jerk Flum out of the way, despite their significant height difference. She broke into a run, carrying Flum, to put some distance between them and their pursuer.

Fortunately, the ogre could only run at little more than a jog. It clenched its fist and dropped low to the ground. Sara started looking frantically at the ground around her feet, worried it was about to unleash a repeat of its previous attack.

However, the creature didn’t strike the ground this time. Rather, it punched its hand forward, tearing through the air.

“Sara…run!!”

The beast was trying to capture the two girls in a twisting wind vortex that was coming straight at them.

“Nnngaaaaaaaaahh!!” Sara yelled as she sprinted as fast as she could.

The wind only picked up speed, overpowering their senses with its ungodly howl. At the center of the blast was a column of air so dense and powerful that it shredded anything and everything it ran across, including the back of Sara’s robe as she dove out of the way.

“Your flank!”

“Another attack?!”

The ogre wasted no time in pounding its fist into the ground. Bruuuuuuuu! Stones erupted from the ground around Sara’s feet and began to spin. She dove forward, narrowly avoiding being caught in the meat grinder from before.

The force of her leap took her straight into Flum, knocking them both to the moist, grass-covered ground. “I’m so sorry!!”

“Don’t worry about it!”

Fortunately, Flum’s legs had already regenerated at this point. She used the momentum of the fall to throw herself back up to her feet and summoned forth the Souleater.

Flum knew in her heart that she would never be able to beat this thing if she faltered. She had to go on the offensive. Hefting her massive black blade in one hand, she took off in a mad dash straight toward the ogre.

Once Sara got back on her feet, she looked over at Flum’s desperate charge and immediately realized what she was planning. She pulled her own mace off her back and traced an arc in the air as she moved in to flank the ogre.

The monster turned all of its attention to the rapidly approaching Flum. Just as the strange message in its stats had suggested, it seemed to be focused on her. It clenched its green fist and punched a blast of air at Flum, who fortunately managed to read its movements and narrowly dodge to the right. Fwoooop! The invisible attack whipped violently past, just barely missing her. Looking closer, she could make out the swirling jets of air surrounding the ogre’s fist.

The blast hit a wall of dirt, leaving a clean, round hole where it made impact. If Flum wasn’t careful, that could drill straight through her.

That attack had been different from the ogre’s previous ones. It had needed a few moments from when it clenched its fist to when it built up enough power to launch its attack, but this one had been instantaneous. On the other hand, its range was severely limited, and it lasted for only a split second.

Flum continued to close in on the creature, well aware of the danger she was in. But considering she couldn’t use magic, fighting at range wasn’t an option for her. Sara was much the same, with all her combat style focused on her mace. There was essentially no way for them to avoid battling the ogre up close.

The ogre turned back toward Flum and unleashed yet another attack. Luckily, its hulking, lumbering body was relatively easy to read. She continued dodging attacks, moving in closer and closer. By the time she was finally in range, Sara was already at the monster’s back.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!”

The nun leaped high up into the air and swung her massive mace around to gain momentum before cracking it down on her opponent’s skull. Kthunk! The dull thud of metal on skull reverberated through the air.

Sara used the force of the blow to throw herself back, putting some distance between her and her opponent. She ran her finger down her nose and smiled triumphantly.

“Take that on for size!”

It was a pretty good hit. A normal ogre would have been out of commission. However, this one just turned around slowly, as if only now aware of Sara’s presence. Its loosely connected flesh flapped in the breeze, oozing blood with every movement. The blood pumping forth faster was the only obvious sign of how angry the creature was.

“I guess…ya didn’t really feel that one, huh?”

“Then how about this?!” Hoping that the ogre was just resistant to blunt-force attacks, Flum lunged in. She swung the Souleater parallel to the ground, taking aim right at the ogre’s legs, and…

Thwump!

The blade smacked into flesh with a heavy thud but failed to do any visible damage.

“I’ve never heard of an ogre this resistant to damage before!”

As the monster raised its fist into the air once again, all of Flum’s hopes for an easy victory came crashing down.

“Flum, watch out!!”

She barely managed to hop back in time, leaving a crater where she’d stood only moments before. Flum readjusted her blade, made sure to keep some distance between her and the ogre, and faced her opponent. She had hoped to win by keeping to close quarters combat, but that clearly wasn’t working. Sara’s mace had no effect, and her Souleater didn’t even leave a scratch.

She looked past the ogre and made eye contact with Sara, who nodded.

The girls moved in unison toward the center of the clearing; the ogre immediately gave pursuit, though they were much too fast for it to keep up.

“What’s the big plan?”

“All we can do…is run away!”

Had the path they’d taken to get here not been blocked, they wouldn’t even have this problem right now. The girls kept moving through the verdant clearing, looking through the gaps in the trees until they spotted it—a hole in the cave wall. Judging by its size, it was probably what the ogre had used to enter the clearing in the first place.

“Are we really going in there?” The worry was evident in Sara’s voice. This was tantamount to running head first into a hornets’ nest.

“What choice do we have? There’s nowhere else to run to, anyway.”

If it came down to it, Flum was willing to use herself as a decoy while Sara got away. At the very least, she knew that she could regenerate.

Their decision made, the two broke into a mad dash for the hole in the cave wall. Beyond the opening, they could see the tunnel extend off into the distance. It looked man-made.

Flum glanced over her shoulder and screamed. “How did he…ack!”

Ogres were generally large, unwieldy, creatures that moved at a lumbering pace, and she had figured this one was no exception. However, one quick backward glance proved her wrong. The ogre was sprinting right at them with perfect form, like a trained runner. Their hard-won lead was quickly disappearing.

It was clearly pushing itself beyond its physical means to do this; Flum could hear the sounds of muscles tearing and bones popping as it moved, the blood pouring from its face turning a deep burgundy. However, it showed no signs of pain or any intention to slow down. It was almost like it was being controlled by some completely different entity.

…But now wasn’t the time to think about that.

The tunnels they now entered were narrow, giving them few options to avoid a direct assault. Finally, the girls found themselves at a dead end, or at least what appeared to be a dead end. There was a massive chasm in the ground right where the tunnel ended, but they had no way of knowing how deep it went.

“It’s a dead end!”

“Not quite!”

“You’re not planning to go down that hole, are you?!”

“There’s no way we can face it with our backs up against the wall like this. If we don’t keep going, we’re done for!”

The ogre continued to close in as they debated their options. As far as Flum saw it, if she was going to die, she’d prefer it to be at her own choosing. It was the same decision she made when she first met Milkit back in the cell.

That memory was the final push she needed. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slapped her cheeks.

“I’m ready for this.”

With some final words of encouragement, said more to herself than anyone else, she ignored the voice screaming in the back of her mind to stop this insanity and took the fateful step over the ledge.

“Let’s go!”

“G-gotcha! I’m with ya, Flum!”

Sara threw herself over the edge into the darkness right after her.

Up above, they could hear the ogre stop at the edge of the hole, the fleshy remains of its face staring blankly after them.

 

***

 

THWUMP!

After a brief sensation of weightlessness, Flum’s body slammed into something soft. A moment later, she felt Sara slam down next to her.

She quickly got to her feet and looked around. It was dark, but she could still make things out.

“Where are we?”

“It looks like part of the tunnels, but…gyaugh! What’s that smell??”

Flum immediately brought her hand to her face to cover her nose but quickly realized that it was covered in a thick, goopy liquid. She slowly lowered her gaze, and when she saw what had softened their fall, she let out a scream.

“What, what??” Sara looked concerned, but Flum couldn’t bring herself to tell her what it was. Instead, she pulled Sara’s face into her chest.

“Nngah, what’re you doin’??”

“Listen, Sara, just close your eyes.”

“Hrmph?”

“Just listen to me, okay? Whatever you do, don’t open your eyes until I say so.”

Sara finally nodded against her chest. Flum began to move down the squishy mound with the younger girl clutched closely to her. Her face contorted with each uneven step.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

She continued to murmur to herself as she slowly picked her way through the pile of bones, rotten flesh, and the remnants of what had once been human faces.

No matter where she looked, all she saw was carnage. They were standing atop a literal mountain of corpses. The majority of them were human, though Flum saw some monsters in the mix. Most of the bodies were twisted and contorted in bizarre ways.

The walls of the cavern were primarily a dull grey, marked in places by a familiar corkscrew pattern. It brought to mind the face of the ogre they just escaped from.

“What the hell is this place…?”

She’d pulled Sara in close to shield her from the dead bodies until they escaped the room, but now she wasn’t sure whatever lay outside would be any different. Questions continued to race through Flum’s mind as they approached the exit to the chamber, which was marked by a door that hung ajar. Thankfully, there were no corkscrew markings on it.

She peeked through the gap in the door. There were no monsters as far as she could see, nor any more dead bodies.

With a sigh of relief, Flum stepped out of the room and quickly closed the door behind her before finally letting go of Sara.

“Can I open my eyes?”

“Yeah, it should be all right now.”

Sara opened her eyes and glanced around the room.

“Huh, it’s pretty dark in here.” She walked over to the wall and grabbed a crystalline object affixed to it. “Think it’s okay to get a little light?”

Though they looked different from the ones in the capital, it was clear this was the switch for operating the magical lamps in the tunnel. All you needed to do was concentrate and apply a little magic to turn it on.

Flum nodded and Sara focused her energies on the object. A moment later, lamps embedded in the ceiling of the tunnel blinked on one after another. Once their eyes adjusted and they got a good look at their surroundings, the two were left in awe at the sprawling complex that stretched before them.

“This is…amazing.”

“It looks…futuristic.”

Flum reached out and touched the grey wall, as if to make sure it were real. It was cool to the touch and felt like some sort of metal. Since they had fallen down a pit to get here, that meant they were even deeper underground than before. She could only imagine the sheer technical skill needed to build and excavate such a massive installation underground, to say nothing of the money involved.

“Let’s look for a way outta here.”

“Yeah. Fascinating as this is, I think our lives are worth more.”

The two moved deeper and deeper into the complex until they came to a fork in the tunnel. First, they went left, only to find that led to a dead end. They backtracked to the fork and went right, which continued on for quite a way. The further they went, the darker it got. Flum figured they needed to find another light switch.

Unlike the left-hand path, this tunnel led to a door. Flum put her ear to it and listened closely but heard no sounds of movement. Holding the Souleater up in one hand, she slowly pushed the door open before running her hand blindly along the wall next to it.

She felt the familiar sensation of a crystal object.

Since her stats had always been zero, Flum never had the chance to actually use one of these things before, but she figured that it must be similar to how she used Scan for the first time. Mustering up her courage, she closed her eyes and let the magic energy flow from her hand into the crystal.

After a moment, the lamps in the room turned on, much to Flum’s relief. She spotted a wooden desk, a cabinet, and two bookshelves, plus a sofa and table that seemed to be set aside for receiving guests. The room was a fair bit smaller than the corpse-filled one they just left behind, but more than adequate for a single person’s use. The furniture looked expensive and well made, suggesting the room had been meant for an important person.

“All the shelves are empty.”

“Yeah…”

While Sara was searching the shelves for a map, Flum was busily staring at the walls. The familiar corkscrew pattern pockmarked the walls throughout the room, ranging in size from small to large. She ran her fingers across the metal and felt that the dent ran quite deep. Whatever made it had to be pretty powerful to deform metal like that.

Sara walked over to Flum’s side. “What’re you lookin’ at, Flum?”

“I don’t know, but I saw something similar back in the room we landed in.”

“Look, it’s rotating.”

“The ogre that attacked us back there had something similar on its face.”

“That’s right. Ugh, gross…”

This spinning thing seemed to latch onto walls, humans, and even monsters. So, was this facility built to handle those things?

Flum shook her head. She needed to focus on getting out right now. She moved over to the desk and began to search it in the hopes of finding something useful, but one of the drawers seemed to be stuck.

“Stuck?”

“Yeah, I think it’s locked.”

“Can’t we just break it? I mean, there’s no one here.”

Sara was right; they were in a dire situation. Flum pulled out the Souleater and stabbed the tip of the blade into the lock, shattering it and the surrounding wood. The drawer then easily slid open.

Inside, she found an old, faded notebook. Flum picked it up, and Sara jogged over to her side to see what she’d found.

It looked like some kind of journal.

“It’s been about two days since we lost control of it, and we’ve finally heard back from management telling us to destroy everything. I asked when we’d be rescued, but there was no reply. I can’t help but wonder if that ‘everything’ includes us, too.”

Though there were no dates, judging by the condition of the paper, Flum guessed the entry was around ten years old.

The entries continued, growing darker as they went.

“Succession by heredity is a pointless system. I never wanted to be here. I wish I could have slowly worked my way up the ladder and gained recognition, but here I am. We’ve managed to confine all the test subjects, but the energy seeping forth has started to have strange effects on its surroundings, even resulting in some casualties. We don’t have much time left.”

Test subjects? Flum wondered if that was referring to the mountain of bodies they found.

“So they were doing some kind of experiments here, and the ogre was probably one of them.”

“Some sort of man-made abomination. It sounds like they lost control?”

The writing seemed to grow even more frantic. It hadn’t been neat to begin with, but now the author’s hand was moving erratically across the page.

“For god or for country, what is the point of this? I don’t care anymore. I only signed up out of a desire to do what was right. Are countries not the creation of man? And by extension, am I not a part of this country?

“I don’t know what they’re thinking anymore. I did what was expected of me, but perhaps I wasn’t thorough enough. Perhaps I failed to make the right connections. I’ll be the first to admit that my knowledge was limited and that I failed to establish meaningful relationships. Is this all my fault? I don’t think so. I did what was right, dammit!

“I am me. Me. Myself. Around and around we go… No…we do not. Me, I, right. Always. But what is right? Yes, it’s all connected. We’re all connected. This circular knowledge leads to wisdom. So that is what is right. Right?”

The author was now writing in large letters, filling entire pages with only a few words. It was quickly becoming clear that they were losing their mind.

“Circular wisdom… Connections?”

“I don’t get it, either. Maybe it has something to do with the energy they said was seeping forth?”

“Agreed.”

The next pages were even harder to read. Flum had to run her finger across the letters to try and understand them, and even then, they hardly made sense.

“I want to be connected, to be one. That is the way to enlightenment. We… Yes… That is what we have always been aiming for, have always sought…have always believed. Now that we’ve attained what we had so desperately sought, I wonder why I fixate on these small things that matter not?

The researchers are all connected. Finally, it’s my turn. But to where? Will I die? I don’t know. Wisdom is found in a plane of existence beyond the mortal realm, and I must go. But…what if it’s not safe there? Before true wisdom can be attained, peace, order, and control must be preserved.”

Only one thing was written on the final page, the words spiraling in a corkscrew fashion.

“Flum Apricot”

The two girls stood there for a moment, speechless. Flum’s hands began to shake and the paper began to crumple up in her grip.

“That again…?”

“Flum…?”

“This journal, it’s pretty old, Sara. And yet my name…the name of some unimportant girl from a tiny little village… Why is my name in this notebook?? I don’t get it!!”

Her anger and fear all came together in one confused outburst. Flum threw the notebook to the floor and began breathing heavily, her shoulders heaving up and down.

“All I ever wanted was to live a simple, ordinary life back in my hometown. I know that’s not possible anymore, but after meeting Milkit, I thought we could at least live together in peace in the capital. But this… What the hell is all this? Why is my name here, in a place that I just happened to end up in by nothing more than happenstance?!”

“I’m…I’m so sorry.” It was, after all, Sara who had led Flum here in the first place. She clenched her fists tight, trying to fight back the tears that blurred the edge of her vision.

Hearing Sara’s sobs brought Flum back to reality. Though it did little to ease the fear that clutched tightly at her heart, she knew that it wouldn’t be right to take her anger out on the other girl.

She knelt before Sara and looked her in the eye as she gently stroked the young nun’s hair. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to blame you.”

“No, it’s all my fault. If I hadn’t found the information about this cave in the first place, then you would never have ended up here.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Sara. If it weren’t for you, I never would have learned about where to find the kialahri.”

“Oh, Flum…” Sara could no longer hold back her tears. “I’m so sorry, Flum. You’ve got so much to be afraid of, and here I am, seeking comfort from you. I should be comforting you, not the other way around.”

“Don’t worry about it. Besides, you helped me get myself under control.”

Pulling herself together to be strong for Sara had allowed some of the fear racing through Flum’s mind to subside. In that way, she was actually thankful to have Sara along.

Flum wiped the tears from Sara’s cheeks and looked around. “I don’t see any maps in here, so I guess we better start checking some other rooms, yeah?”

The younger girl smiled back at her and gave a firm nod.

 

***

 

Despite their best efforts, they failed to find either a map or anything that appeared to be an exit. The facility was vast, and the further they explored, the more indentations they observed in the walls. They even found entire hallways that were twisted.

“This place is really bizarre.”

“Whoever built it must have thrown a lot of money at the research being conducted here.”

“If they could actually harness this kind of power, it would be an unstoppable weapon.”

“Even the demons wouldn’t stand a chance against it.”

The sheer size of the facility, the technology that had gone into its creation, and the fact that it was all built underground made it pretty likely that the government was involved. Probably with some aid from the church, considering they had gotten rid of all the medicine makers to fill their own coffers. Everyone knew they were corrupt, but to think they’d go so far as to experiment on people…

Flum bit down on her lip, trying to fight back the rising anger she felt.

As they continued down the unending, nondescript grey hallways, she heard an unfamiliar sound. It was quiet but stood out starkly in the silence.

Flum and Sara both stopped instantly to listen.

“Was that…a voice?”

“Maybe someone’s still alive!”

Flum reached out to stop Sara before she could take off running. They didn’t know for sure that it was a person. It could easily be a monster.

They began moving forward again, taking slow, measured steps.

“…lp…meeee…! Some…oooooone…!”

The voice grew clearer as they moved. It was a woman calling out for help.

“Aaaah… Heeeelp me! Please, someone, heeeeeelp meeeeee!”

At the other end of the hallway, they finally spotted a woman with long, white hair, clad in a lab coat. She was sitting at a turn in the hallway with her back up against the wall and her knees held tightly against her chest, which partially explained why her voice was so muffled. Though Flum couldn’t help but wonder why she was covering her face if she needed help…

Just to be on the safe side, she had Sara hang back while she approached the woman alone.

“Aaaah… Heeeelp me! Please, someone, heeeeeelp meeeeee!” The woman continued repeating the same thing, over and over, even once Flum was standing right in front of her. She had to have heard her coming, though Flum supposed it was possible the woman thought she was a monster. Or maybe she just wasn’t of sound mind anymore.

At any rate, she’d clearly been through some kind of ordeal. Flum put a hand on the woman’s shoulder to try and comfort her. Her cries stopped the instant Flum touched her, and Flum relaxed for a moment, comforted that the woman finally seemed to be calming down and acknowledging her presence.

“Are you okay, ma’am? Please don’t worry, I’m human.”

The woman slowly turned to face her. Except that wasn’t the right word, as the woman had no face. There was just a pulsating mass of meat and blood where her face should have been. Her long bangs were drenched with blood and stuck to the wet mass in the center of her face, as was the front of her lab coat, which she had been holding tightly against her knees.

Some of the blood gurgling from the woman’s face spattered onto Flum’s cheek. It felt warm to the touch. What was left of her mouth turned up into a smile. Her voice sounded muffled as she spoke.

“I fooooound you.”

She grabbed Flum’s arm tight with both hands and leaned in close.

The bizarre pulsating spiral in her face spun even more violently as it took in Flum’s arm, gauntlet and all. Flum froze for a moment at the bizarre sensation of being enveloped by the warm, fleshy organs before the sheer terror of what she was experiencing caught up with her.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaugh!!!”

Much to her surprise, she couldn’t yank her arm free even with the enhancements from her cursed equipment. The woman was simply too strong. Much stronger than any normal human. And things were about to get worse. Flum realized that the sound of pounding footsteps, which she’d initially assumed was Sara coming to her aid, was coming from around the corner and closing in fast.

The new arrival screeched to a stop just out of sight, before sticking its head around the corner to peer at Flum. Thick, dark blood oozed from its drilled-out face and stained its muscled green body.

“Aa…aaaaaaah.”

It was the ogre that Flum thought they had escaped from. These hallways were human-sized; there was no way it should have been able to fit…unless it had been crawling on all fours the whole time.

“N-nooooooo!! Eaaaaugh!!”

Flum twisted her head from side to side in a vain attempt to get away from the slowly approaching beast. It was rapidly becoming clear that the woman’s screams had just been bait, to lure her or some other kind soul into a trap while the ogre lay in wait.

“Letmego, let me go! Let! Me! Go!!!”

“Fluuuum!!”