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Chapter 5 - The scream

  “No, I don’t think we should leave just yet. Let’s keep going for a little, and if anything weird happens we get back immediately” Milen spoke out.

  They continued to walk for a couple more minutes before finding another decision to make. The path was split in two.

  The three of them stopped in front of the bifurcation, and now they had two different options. One narrow and dimly lit, barely wide enough for their group to walk comfortably, and the other broader and more open.

  “Well, time to decide” Milen looked at both options and his eyebrows furrowed.

  “There’s no need to think. We take the narrow path, rift creatures prefer open spaces. Bigger paths give them more room to ambush us” Gareth wasted no time and said.

  Milen agreed and nodded.

  Relyn hesitated, he felt a strange sense of unease coming from that place, and it rapidly developed into more than just uneasiness, it became fear.

  This was the first time he felt fear of something he couldn’t see. True fear.

  “No… not this one,” he muttered.

  “There’s something wrong with that one. We should take the left.” Relyn continued and this time adjusted his voice to normal.

  “Aren’t you a first-timer? What do you know, mudmonger?” Gareth scoffed, turning to him with a mocking grin.

  Relyn raised an eyebrow and he stepped forward towards Gareth with his spear in hand.

  “All right, enough. We need to work together, not bicker. Relyn, don’t take it personally. People here can be... close-minded sometimes about you folks.” Milen stepped between them, holding up a hand.

  ‘About me? Do they even know anything about me?’

  “But the narrow path does seem like the safer option, our friend Gareth is not wrong.” Milen continued to speak, looking at Relyn.

  Relyn looked once again to that black narrow entrance and he felt goosebumps.

  “You two can do whatever you want. I’m going left” Relyn said and gripped his spear, walking again without waiting for an answer.

  Milen sighed, clearly torn, but after a moment, he followed right after Relyn.

  “What? You’re going with the mudmonger?” Gareth exclaimed, incredulous.

  “We stick together. That’s our best chance.” Milen ignored the words thrown at him.

  Gareth hesitated, glancing between the two paths. Finally, grumbling under his breath, he fell in line behind them.

  “When did we choose the first-timer to take the lead?”

  Relyn smirked, but said nothing.

  It didn’t take long, and Milen was already talking about his family again, so Relyn decided to ask something that was on his mind.

  “Can’t we just… go back now? We have something to show, we have been walking for a while already. They don’t want us to map the entire place, right?”

  “I wish we could, Relyn boy, but that contract they made us sign says we need to map at least 5 miles to get the full payment, if we go back now we’re probably getting half the money,” Milen laughed softly and explained.

  Skillfully and apparently used to doing that, with the tip of his fingers while still holding his spear, Milen pulled something out of his pockets.

  “But put a smile on your face! We’re only half a mile away, and then we’re done with this rift,” he said while looking at a green tablet in his hand.

  “Animals. Why don’t they send animals into this place?” Relyn asked another question that came to his mind, getting more comfortable with the group.

  “You decided to risk your life away and you don’t know anything about this place? By the Gods, your people really are nuts.” Gareth scoffed at Relyn’s question.

  “They tried this before. Different animals and different rifts, but they would never move a muscle, they just stayed still. We’re the only ones dumb enough to do this job.” Gareth continued.

  “Well, this crawler job shouldn’t even exist, if we just had enough hunters we-” Milen started to speak, but he stopped and crouched down.

  They heard low noises echoing through coming from somewhere in front of them. Scraping sounds, low growls, and heavy footsteps.

  “Go back! Now!” Milen spoke, his voice urgent.

  The three of them turned and started running back the way they came, but the sounds grew louder and closer. Before they could run much farther, a massive hound appeared from the shadows, almost matching their own size.

  Its black fur was thick and slick with sweat, its body was muscular and it moved with its sight locked in on them, as the creature’s yellow eyes shone in the low light.

  The hound lunged at Milen first, its jaws clamping onto the back of his leg.

  Milen screamed miserably and fell to the ground, his spear falling from his grasp.

  For a moment, Relyn felt like time had stopped.

  ‘Run. Fight. No… there’s no fighting that thing. I need to run right now ’

  The growls and screams in the background reminded him that he had to make a decision and he instantly did so, running back the way they came from.

  Maybe he wouldn’t make it to the end, they were too far from the entrance now and the beast was obviously faster than he was, but he had to try.

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  Living another day was what had always guided him. It was the one goal he had in his mind at all times.

  Just a second later, he turned his head to look back and assess what was happening, and unexpectedly, the beast was still behind.

  Milen had been bitten twice on one of his legs, and he had also lost his spear, but he hadn’t given up yet. Everytime the hound would look up to Relyn or Gareth, Milen would hit it with a punch.

  “Run boys, run!, I’ll keep him busy for a while!” he closed his fist and landed another punch on the beast that barely made it bulge.

  The beast tried to bite his arm, but its mouth closed just a moment too soon and lost Milen’s arm by a couple of inches, which gave him the opportunity to hit it once more with his fist.

  ‘What’s happening? Is he insane?’

  For some reason, Milen didn’t seem worried about his own survival.

  He obviously had no chance of getting out alive in his situation, but he wasn’t even trying, he chose fighting and dying here.

  Why?

  “Run, Relyn boy!”

  ‘Is it for… us?’

  And why was it so difficult to watch this happening?

  For a second, Relyn didn’t think.

  He gritted his teeth and just ran back with his spear in hand. He thrust it with all his might into the hound’s sides, forcing it to completely release Milen and let out a loud growl.

  With the corner of his eye, he saw Gareth still frozen in place.

  “Do something! Go get Milen!”

  The hound started shaking its body to release itself from the spear, eventually breaking it in half, and it immediately launched forward into Relyn's shoulder.

  Relyn screamed in pain.

  The beast’s teeth were buried in Relyn’s left shoulder and he could even feel its hot and smelly breath on his face.

  In a desperate attempt to get himself free, he gathered his strength again, closed his right hand into a fist and slammed it into the hound’s jaw.

  The impact echoed loudly through the place, forcing the hound’s head to move to the side. It staggered, stunned for a moment, giving Relyn just enough time to catch his breath.

  He felt immeasurable pain in his shoulder as he caught sight of his own white bone exposed through the bloody wound.

  He glanced down and saw it, the spear he had thrown earlier had lodged itself in the beast’s stomach and blue blood was dripping from the wound.

  ‘That’s it!’

  He knew that open wound was his only hope now. Its fur and skin were too thick to try to pierce again.

  Relyn tried to run and take advantage of it, but his movements were slow and clumsy now, and for some reason his legs were in pain.

  He tried to go faster despite the increasing pain, but it was all to no avail.

  Noticing Relyn getting closer, the hound turned its head to look at him again and its chest started to puff, as if it was preparing to attack him again.

  Aware of his own condition, Relyn felt a sudden wave of regret when he met those large, yellow eyes staring back at him, the deepest regret he had ever known.

  He, who had avoided people for so long, was now about to die for two of them. What a joke. What a mistake that was.

  There was no winning, he should have known better.

  Relyn thought about running the other way, but his body wasn’t much responsive at this point.

  The beast growled and ran in his direction.

  Strangely, looking at the approaching beast, there was a sudden peace.

  The peace that only comes when there is nothing left to do.

  Then, there was a loud thud somewhere else in the rift. And soon after, a low scream echoed from the ground and the walls.

  At some point, even the air seemed to carry that voice, its high-pitched tone rising rapidly until it became almost unbearable. A horrendous, piercing noise filled with misery and desperation.

  The pitch climbed higher and higher until Relyn felt as if his ears would burst. The only thing he could do was scream together.

  And he wasn’t alone, Gareth and Milen were already on the ground, clutching their ears, both screaming as well.

  Barely opening his eyes, Relyn noticed the hound was quickly running away.

  Eventually, the sound died down and everything went back to normal.

  After a long time, he clutched his shattered left arm with his good hand, steadying it as best he could, and took a step forward.

  Gareth and Milen stared at each other with pale frightened faces.

  Gareth’s shaky voice asked.

  “What the fuck was that?!”

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