sʜᴀᴛᴛᴇʀɪɴɢ [Kingdom of Loathing fanfiction]

Chapter 4

Raven

***

Here I was now. Near the Spooky Forest's entrance. The club in hand, I walked foward, deeper into the woods. The atmosphere around me became darker. It was as if the sun would never rise up, in this area. I walked there for what seemed to be a long time before falling to a path, splitting itself into three parts. On the left, I could hear the smooth runoff of the stream not so far from where I stood. In the middle stood an old pebbles filled road, probably leading to somewhere I wouldn't like to go. On the right, nothing else but a thicket of dark trees. My urge to explore it was unbarable. But at the same time, I had a quest to fulfill. My senses told me that I should probably follow the stream. This is what I did. The river was going downstream. That probably meant something, I told to myself. With the water down to my feet, I stepped foward to where the stream was guiding me. I surveyed as well my surroundings, checking any random encounter that I'd make while going down.

It has been five minutes now that I walked. I made one or two more steps foward, until I stumbled over some kind of rock (blame it on... it) and fell down my knees. Cool water landed on my body, at the exception of my back and the back of my head. I huffed out of annoyance before standing up. To my utter disgust, I was now facing a puddle of worms, wriggling around the flithy, stagnant water. I cringed.

"Yuck... so these are the larvas the Council has sent me to ?"

I wondered aloud with an awful feeling. I looked over the mass of twisting beings. They were all awful-looking. Asides one, that one that I spotted, that was looking kind of cute. It's whole body was a leaf-green color, and had little silver rings at the end of it. I approached it carefully, then, with my jar in hands, I caught it while it was trying to escape by swimning. I looked at it wriggle in the jar. I decided not to afterwards. It was still pretty gross, mostly this close. I held firmly on the jar then followed the upstream with it. I actually followed it to the top, climbing up, my feet to the ground. It was now getting slippery, certainly after the large amount of time that I dipped my feet underwater. But I still managed to walk to the narrow entrance that was now facing me. I squeezed my body between these two walls. Once I managed to get to the end, I took a deep breath of air. It sure was tight (I almost felt the jar crushing to my breasts at some point). I took few steps foward. I almost stumbled again over something mysterious. I looked back before saying :

"U-Uh, pardon me for stumbling this way, m-"

I was about to excuse myself, but as I turn my head down, I let out a scream of terror. Just behind me was lying no others than the corpse of an explorer. I was about to let the jar drop, at this one moment. My breath was being quivery to such sight. I tried to calm it down. Lucky for me (and for you, most certainly), the body was still intact. That allowed me to recognize who, alas, died before the age.

"... Hey ! Isn't that Chester Meatpot ? The one who travels with a lot of Meat on him ?! ... forcibly... since he's called MEATpot..."

I scanned my horizons before approaching the body, squating down in front of it. I placed the jar nearby, checking his pockets. Since there were, no booty traps (like no traps at all, if you prefer) on him, I took the opportunity to pick Meat from his wallet.

"... Whoa ! Three hundred Meat ? Sounds impressive, how could he even travel with this much- oh ?"

As I replaced the wallet back in place, I looked upon a group of six people. They all seemed to chase after something... and that something was no others than a three-holed coin that was rolling down the path. They were all cursing at it while running as well.

"HEY, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING, YOU CASUAL ROLLING THING ?? COME BACK HERE !"

"DANDYDOO, TRY TO STOP IT WITH YOUR MUSIC !"