Shadows- a Danplan fanfiction

Horrible Ideas

The man clumsily stumbled out of town, clutching his book tightly to his chest as he took insecure steps.
He had never left before and had no idea what the outside world would be like.
Besides he had never been taught how to fight, he only knew how to surrender, or pray.
'Why was I even sent to do this job?' He asked himself in panic.
It didn't make sense in fact, but he had to be respectful with his elders, so he had no choice.
He was a soon to be monk, sent to remove evil spirits from the nearby forest. Probably his superiors only wanted to get rid of him, considering they had never been fond of his lack of faith.
He'd always been too scared to go on missions like these, but now he was forced to go, alone nonetheless.
Needless to say, he was terrified.

Meanwhile Daniel was leading his group through the forest, trying to follow Jamie's vague instructions on where the village was.
"I think we should turn left here..." Daniel mumbled thoughtfully.

"Then I suggest we go right." Stephen countered.

"But that's not what they told me!" Daniel complained.

Stephen glared at him angrily. "Why though? I mean it could be a trap for all we know! Plus it's close to the known kingdoms! What if we get cought, huh?!" He ranted uneasily.

"I think we should all calm down." Hosuh said softly, trying to stop the fight that was about to happen.

Stephen angrily muttered something under his breath, but settled for just glaring at Daniel instead of saying anything.

Hosuh sighed. "How about we take a break. You're all very tense, it might help you." He suggested softly, trying to calm everyone.

Anne shook her head. "I need food!" She complained, clutching her stomach dramatically.

Daniel nodded. "Yeah, we can buy stuff once we get to town." He reasoned.

Stephen rolled his eyes. "If town exists that is, besides, we can still just hunt like we used to. What's the big deal?"

Daniel sighed in annoyance. "You know what, fine. Let's just all go into different directions and get food. We will meet again here.
Tomorrow we will go to the village though." He gave in.

"Alright, but let's make two groups!" Anne said excitedly. "I'll go with Hosuh!" She immediately claimed.

Daniel and Stephen glared at her. "You can't be serious..." They said in unison.

Anne smirked. "I think it's a glorious idea!" She said happily.

Hosuh nodded. "Why not. That way you two can finally sort out your differences and I don't have to deal with it anymore."

With that, Hosuh and Anne chose to go right, while Stephen and Daniel went left.

As expected, Anne was extremely good at hunting. She was an experienced thief, so if course she knew how to quietly creep up behind her prey, and catch it in a vulnerable state.

Hosuh quickly realised that he wasn't being very helpful, so he decided to search for berries or mushrooms.
He was no expert, but he remembered going to the market to buy mushrooms when he was younger, so he had a rather good idea of what they had to look like, to be qualified as edible.

The silver haired male quickly got caught up in what he was doing, so he didn't even notice how Anne disappeared.
He only became aware of the fact that he was alone when he was done collecting everything.

"Anne?!" He called out loudly, hoping the other wasn't too far away. "She's probably going after something she saw in the distance..." He mumbled to himself. It was actually quite realistic, considering Anne's tendency to recklessness.

Hosuh sighed, but eventually decided it would be better to go to the place where Daniel told them to meet.
It was getting late, and he didn't want to wait until it got dark.
Besides, Anne was pretty smart and had a good sense of orientation.
If she wasn't there already, she'd get there soon.

With that in mind Hosuh took his first step into a random direction.
Then he stopped on his tracks, realising something fundamental.
He had absolutely no idea how to get back.

Sure, he remembered they went right, but they had taken so many turns while hunting, that he completely forgot where he would have to go.
He hadn't worried about it before, because he knew Anne would remember.

Slowly but surely Hosuh realised it. He was lost.

Meanwhile the brown haired man was still walking around rather aimlessly.
How was he going to find those evil spirits anyway?
How was he going to perform an exorcism all on his own.
His big hope was that he wouldn't encounter anything and could just get home quickly.
He just wanted to be a simple man with a simple life, nothing more.
Then again he needed to make his caretakers proud of him.
He needed to defend their holy land, even if he would loose his life.
The only problem with that was that he had absolutely no motivation to die for his religion.
He just wasn't that brave or noble.

As he stomped insecurely through the forest, like a puppy that had just learned how to walk, he suddenly heard a weird noise. It sounded like something moved behind him, causing a stick to crack under its weight.

He jumped up, startled, clutching his book even tighter.
He turned around in pure panic.
"Wh-who's there?" He asked in a scared high pitched voice.

When he met with the eyes of a hungry predator, he remained absolutely voiceless for a moment, processing what was happening.

Before him stood a gigantic creature with bright yellow eyes and dark green scales.
It's breath, which smelled of decay and rotten flesh, causing an extreme heat around him.

Hosuh had decided to wait where he was, hoping Anne wouldn't forget about him. She did know he had a bad sense of orientation, after all.

But all the calmness he still had was shattered, when he heard a loud, high pitched scream, echoing through the wood.
By now he could tell that separating the group had been a horrible idea.

Author's comment:
A cliffhanger at its best, wouldn't you agree?

Welp, sorry people, this chapter is a bit of a filler, but I think you'll really like the next one because there will be a lot more action!

I wonder if you've understood who our mysterious character is...

Thank you for reading, girlfriends, boyfriends and none binary lovers! See you next time!