Before I begin, this time I would like to mention that I posted chapter 2, then it glitched for some reason later (you may or may not have seen that). Anyhow, I have a temporary fix that should work. Also, a few minor changes were made in chapter 2 as of 10/1/17, but these changed a few words like "sadness" for words like "anguish" and "desolation" to list half the change. The smurfs belong to Peyo, and all other others I came up with.
I adjusted my glasses on my face as I trekked on, looking at the landscape around me. It was beautiful; full of colorful birds, flowers, butterflies… It looked like there could be no evil here, in this peaceful place. With a renewed pride in my step, I keep going.
A few days passed, and I felt the sense of loneliness that had started to develop fade a little, filled in by a sense of adventure. I had moved on upward, to some hills. The trees had started to thin out, leaving a few more bushes and grasses among the cliffs. A few caves littered the hills, but I dared not explore them. There's almost certainly nothing in there but trouble I thought to myself.
Strangely enough, I found what appeared to be a dirt road among the hills, for people about my size. "I've struck civilization! It can't be far away now" I told myself in excitement. As night fell, it started to rain, and the downpour started to become serious. Fearing the worst, I found a cave fairly high up on the mountain and decided to settle there for the night, as I'd catch a cold staying outside.
Taking some flint I had found along a creek yesterday, I started a campfire, laid out my bedding and the rest of my supplies, and decided that it'd be a good idea to make sure nothing else lurked in the back of the cave. Taking my spear and a brand straight out of the fire as a torch, I set out.
As I went deeper into the cave, I felt my heart start to beat faster. It kept extending further and further down in a long tunnel; it seemed nearly endless. Anything could've been out there, hiding among the few stalactites and stalagmites that littered the walls; I had learned fairly quickly that virtually all life, save some insects and a few other things, were bigger than I was. Although this made running and hiding easier, fighting became much harder and dangerous against even rats.
When I reached the bottom where it leveled out, I came across a nasty surprise; there was a massive spider web blocking the entire entrance. "Oh god, spiders. Why does it have to be spiders?" As I was about to hightail out of there and look for a new cave, I thought I heard muffled noise.
With all of my courage, I slashed open the spider web guarding the entrance, and pushed on. If anybody was alive down here, I had to rescue them; I couldn't just leave them here to die. I moved quickly; the tunnel emptied out into a large chamber, filled with spider webs everywhere, stretching across a massive array of stalactites and stalagmites. I heard a dripping somewhere, the only noise in this cavern besides my footsteps and my pounding heart.
That's when I noticed the cocoon shape on one of said spider webs. And how it was squirming a little. And all of the fellow cocoon shapes on nearby webs, in different shapes and sizes. "Hey, is anyone out there" a hoarse voice called. "Please, we've been stuck here for days, and we will soon become a meal for the spiders!"
Although the fact that the mystery person said "spiders" instead of "spider" freaked me out even more, I couldn't be a coward. Climbing up a stalagmite supporting the web, I barely managed to open the cocoon with the tip of my sharpened spear. And out fell a green troll, just about as tall as I was. He had a long black beard, stringy black hair, and emerald green eyes. He laid exhausted, looking up at me with wonder.
"H-hello?" I stuttered. I was dumbfounded that I was meeting the first sentient being in weeks!
"Please, let's get out of here first before we chat. The spiders will be back in any second."
"Sorry, buddy, but first I want to check on a few of the others." I replied as I climbed down and opened another cocoon on a web near the ground, revealing a small, tiny, adorable baby mouse.
I immediately checked the mouse's pulse, to find that he/she had one. Realizing they were unconscious, I began to work on the others. First I found a dead beetle (gross), then an unconscious hummingbird (don't ask me how it managed to get stuck in a cave), and after that cocoon, I found an even bigger one which spilled out a mouse, a little bigger than me. Said mouse looked around, with beady, black eyes, then up to me.
"Thank you so much, but please, have you seen any children?" The mouse hurriedly gibbered in a feminine, high pitched voice.
"Sure, I found a baby mouse over there. They still had a strong pulse, but are unconscious." I responded without much emotion.
"Oh my gosh thank you thank you thank you!" The mouse said again in that rushed voice. She then moved over to the baby I found.
"Please try to grab some others. The exit is that way; just lay them by the campfire. If we stick together, we should have a much better shot of not being eaten."
"Okay, okay, makes sense, will do!" she said again before moving off to some of the others I had found.
"Hey you! Over here! I need help!" I heard an especially annoyed voice say. It sounded completely healthy, so I guessed this guest hadn't stayed here very long.
"Hello friend! I said as I rushed over. I noticed his cocoon was twice my height. "Come on, after I free you, try to save a few others, then we have to hightail outta here. And please don't eat me" I begged as I cut him loose, causing him, like all the others, to fall to the ground. Then I got a good luck at the fellow . He appeared to be some sort of otter, with whiskers and with brown eyes. He looked back at me with complete confusion, as if what I was doing was completely unnatural.
"Why are you helping me?" The otter said to me in his confused state.
"Because if I didn't risk my life to come down here to save you and some of the others, you'd all almost certainly be killed. And to be frank, that's cowardly and wrong. I can't just leave you here to die" I replied with a determination in my voice. "Now, come on, let's save as many people as possible before-"
"The spiders are coming, the spiders are coming!" I heard a familiar squeaky voice say.
"Come on! I cut a few of the others loose! Let's grab them and go!" I shouted with desperation in my voice.
"But what about the other victims?" The strange otter said./span/p
"Well, we'll come back for them later, but for now, we gotta go or we'll never get the chance to save them!" I replied while looking around for any signs of danger.
"Alright, let's-" the otter was cut off by the spider, just as big as him, that fell flat on top of him. Without thinking, I jabbed the spider with my spear into the side of it's abdomen, and it hissed and retreated, letting my new friend go. I helped the otter up and started running, away from the danger, and then remembered something.
"Wait! I cut a hummingbird and a troll loose, but they can't make it on their own! We should go after them!" I said while taking a sharp right turn, straight into a spider web. I broke through, taking the web with me, and tossed and turned only to get myself more stuck.
"Jeez, you really need to watch where you're going pal" the otter said sharply. From there, he grabbed me, and I directed him where to go while I was still wrapped up. The hummingbird wasn't there anymore; hopefully the mouse had grabbed him/her.
However, the troll was, and when the troll noticed us he begged us to "not leave him here." The otter grabbed him without a word, took us up the slope, and back to the entrance where I had put my gear.
I noticed that the mouse had stayed; thankfully, she had both the baby (which I presumed by the way she held him/her was her child) and the hummingbird. I also noticed a few other cocoons the mouse had brought back.
"I was able to get every last one, every last one" She said. "All the others were dead… had to be. I could tell by the smell" she put her tiny paws by her nose.
"Thank you so much" I said. I looked outside; it was still pouring down rain, but we had to move soon. The spiders almost certainly would follow us sooner or later, but I doubted that they'd stay outside for long.
"Well" the otter said with an emphasis in his voice. "I guess we should do introductions now, huh? We're right by a campfire. Why don't you start with telling us your name?" He asked while staring at me.
"Alright, um..." I said nervously, while he sized me up. The way he was looking at me made me really uncomfortable, but I decided I wouldn't let myself become dinner, if that was what he wanted; hopefully the others would wake up before anything… unnecessary happened, and then we could triumph by numbers if he ever tried any funny business.
"Well, I don't know."
"What?" the others said confused.
And that's that. I hope this chapter had enough action. Seeing how many more characters are being added, I think the next chapter will be in 3rd person pov, as will the rest of the story and possible sequels. This will occur unless anybody can give a good argument for keeping this is in 1st person pov. I want to give a good story, and, to be frank, I'm just improvising right now.