Hunger, a disheveled young man, was experiencing a hunger that seemed to never leave.
After being mugged of all his coins, which he had saved to buy food. His vision grew hazy, but he continued to look for something to feed on. Stopping momentarily when he overhears two rough-looking men conversing, grabbing the young man's ears towards their direction.
"There's an abundant amount of fruits in the forest, if only it weren't a monster zone."
The rough-looking man who had been speaking leaned back on his chair, crossing his arms, shaking his head. Then he cried,
"Not only that! Rumors say that it resides a great wol-"
Krey, rubbing the sweat off his palms, immediately took off. His mind was only repeating one word.
"Food, Food, Food, FOOD!"
leaving the outskirts of the castle walls, which housed those who had no place within the kingdom, being shunned from society, a place where not even rats would dare to step in.
Running past the field of lush greenery, sunlight beaming from behind him, the forest not too far from sight. Krey ran faster than he's ever had, despite being starved, the blades of the grass cutting his skin, he ran, dismissing the blood pouring out of his feet.
Upon reaching the forest, he stood just right outside the embrace of the woods with heavy shadows.
As he stepped into the forest, a sharp pain pierced him,
"Ugh!" he groaned.
Raising the bottom of his foot, a stab wound was there. Lowering his foot, he looked at the ground. It was a sharp thorn covered with blood, his blood.
He dismissed the injury, looking for another way to enter the forest, eventually he saw a path without any vines. Stepping cautiously, he entered the embrace of the forest.
At first, he didn't see any fruits, widening his strides, his eyes beginning to get shaky, sweat pouring down his face.
"Were they speaking rubbish, were they lying, where's my food, where, where, where."
Gripping his stomach, the hunger seeping in, being unable to ignore it any longer, he dropped to the ground, his knees harshly hitting the dirt, grasping on to the ground, slowly raising his hand, then covering his mouth, he began to chew.
"Damn it, why did I fool myself. There's nothing here. "
Slowly, he swallowed. He had just eaten grass. Feeling humiliated, his eye began to twitch, and a single lonely tear left his eye socket.
But before the eye drop was able to hit the ground, the wind blew, shifting the leaves, the sunlight seeping through the gaps, and shining light down on a green colored fruit, which had blended with the grass under the dark.
Tilting his head, he stared at the glistening green fruit.
"I-is that-"
Licking his dry lips, slowly crawled to the fruit, extended his hand, gripped the fruit, and raised it to his face.
"A pear."
A single chuckle escaped his breath,
"Ha."
Then another, and another, eventually he began to laugh manically, stopping. He punched the ground, the impact making his bones tremble.
"Why didn't you show up sooner..."
Not wanting to feed upon the pear, showing disdain towards the innocent fruit, jabbing it with insults by commenting on its looks, but the sun shone even brighter, making the plump fruit shine evermore.
Picking himself up, closing his eyes, his shaky mouth began to bite down on it.
Although the pear had humiliated him, it was juicy, the nutrition hugging his tongue, his stomach grumbled, so he hastily finished the pear.
Once he finished, he patted his stomach with a satisfied grin, but he hadn't fully satiated his hunger. Speaking to the first sacrifice that had helped with his craving,
"Don't worry, you won't be lonely for much longer."
Strolling in the forest, walking where the shadow couldn't hide the sunlight, searching for fruits on the ground.
The sun started to descend, the wind harshly blowing in his face, picking up berries from vines that were hidden amongst a wide, vibrant bush. Carefully picking the berries, then gently putting them in his pockets, being wary of them so that they wouldn't be squashed.
As he was finishing up, the starving young man's vision caught something from the side of his peripheral vision. It was crimson, glowing eyes piercing him as if an arrow had stabbed his soul.
Sensing the danger, he immediately ran away. is what he wished had happened, but in truth, he was paralyzed with fear, not being able to move away from his spot.
"Move, please, for the love of-"
The radiating crimson eyes had stepped out of the dark shadow, revealing a large wolf with fur as beautiful as the dark blue sky.
His legs, finally realizing the danger he was in, caught himself from falling onto the ground from the shock of a huge, intimidating wolf, which had already begun to drool as if telling the young man that it was going to eat him.
Putting the berries that he was holding in his mouth, swiftly turned away and began to ran, as he ran, a loud noise was being made behind him. Turning around, it was from the wolf.
The wolf was ferociously chasing him down, leaving imprints on the ground, even making a few trees tumble. His face turning pale, picking up his pace, he jumped into a nearby bush to conceal himself.
The wolf, being blinded by the desire to eat him, ran past the bush that was containing him.
Gradually moving deeper in the bush to better conceal himself, he leaned back, however he lost his balance, his entire body following suit, as he began to fall. His life began to flash before his eyes; surprisingly, it didn't contain much.
"Ah, I've lived a boring life. Such a shame."
Hitting the bottom, he opened his eyes.
"I'm alive?"
Looking around the barely lit room, the only source of light was through the seams of the bush, sunlight crawling through into the cave, which appeared to be a cave.
However, there was something intriguing in the middle of the cave, it was a statue, erecting from its position. He walked towards the statue, then around it.
"Wow."
Gasping, he stood before a grand statue of what appeared to be someone important. The statue held a dull, unique-looking sword that was composed of every part needed to be called a sword, however, it didn't have a hilt.
The sword, which wasn't carved from marble like the main body, upon closer inspection, the statue's eyes fixated on something behind the young man.
"I wonder if this person is a hero? perhaps."
As he was thinking to himself, he heard a growl behind him. It was a pack of wolves, two of them being smaller compared to the one in front of them, showing their fangs and imposing their menacing aura.
"Curses, more wolves."
Unconsciously turning around, his hand pulled the sword out of the statue's hand, breaking the glorious statue's fingers in the process, twisting back to face the wolves, they've already begun to lunge at him.
Not having anytime to think, he swung his blade onto the main wolf's temple. But because the sword was dull, it didn't cut through, only doing minor blunt damage.
Being pushed back, he reversed his grip, holding the handle with both hands. He struck downwards, but the wolf had already anticipated this, so it moved to his side, preparing to bite down on his ribs.
Noticing this, he shifted his body weight and lunged back, but the two smaller wolves were already there, while the main wolf was seeping his attention, the smaller ones had anchored themselves to an optimal position to hunt their prey in a coordinated attack.
Realizing he couldn't move out of the way fast enough because the inertia from his lunge was already pulling him, his instincts immediately acting, he sword his blade above his head, piercing one of the smaller wolves through the inside of its mouth, however he couldn't do anything about the other smaller wolf, looking down, it was biting on his left leg.
blood dripping out of his pants, tainting the only pants he had.
"Get the bloody off of me!" He says, gritting his teeth,
Pulling out the sword, he once again reversed his grip, then pierced the biting wolf through the temple, eviscerating its brain.
The main wolf, witnessing everything, howled. Saliva foaming out of its mouth, its eyes turning bloodshot, becoming a crimson color, the same set of eyes as the wolf above the pit, putting all of its weight on its two front legs, and out of nowhere, it lunged at him with terrifying speed.
Gripping the sword, the adrenaline relentlessly pumping throughout his body, he did a horizontal slash, but because of his inexperience in swordsmanship, the flat blade was facing towards the wolf instead of the sharp end.
Luckily, he had swung at one of the wolf's legs, which made it trip onto the ground; he had just destroyed the wolf's knee.
Taking the opportunity, he stood up and began hatching at the wolf, continuing to strike with the sword despite its eyes already having grown dark, the crimson color escaping its vessel.
The sword escaped his clasp, his lungs needing more air than they already had, clasped his chest, breathing through both the nose and mouth.
Slowly cooling down, he picked up the blade, then looked around the room. There was a door, which the statue's eyes were fiercely glaring at. Walking towards the large and thick door that was made from a tough, shining material, a stone sign with a carving above it read,
"State thou name."
He didn't know what the carving fully said, but he was able to understand the word "name". Opening his mouth, he muttered,
"Krey."