Rachel let out a loud yawn as she slowly began to open her eyes. She noticed a few beams of sunlight passing through some of the cracks in between the twigs, realizing that it seemed to be morning. Right as she attempted to sit up, she instantly felt weighed-down by something that was wrapped around her. Once she managed to wake up a little bit more, she noticed that it was Leon's arm that was keeping her from moving. Assuming he was asleep, she gently grabbed the lower part of his arm, attempting to move it out of her way. However, his arm merely tightened its grip around her instead.
"Leon, let me go." she said in attempt to wake him up. She managed to move around so that she could face him, knowing that she could wake him up easier that way. She then began forcefully attempting to push him away.
"Wake up already! You're squishing me and it's very uncomfortable!"
In only seconds, Leon sluggishly opened his eyes, soon realizing what was going on. "Oh, sorry Rachel…" he said, quickly releasing his grip and sitting upwards.
"…Anyway, it seems to be morning now." Rachel said as she sat up as well. "I think we should probably start searching for something to eat." Right after saying this, she pushed open the shelter door and began leisurely crawling outside. Leon followed behind shortly afterward. Rachel stretched her arms out a bit, still uncomfortable after being in such a cramped place for a while. "Ugh, why did you have to build that shelter so small? It's very uncomfortable in there."
"Well it's not like I had enough time to build a decent shelter." he replied, standing up beside her. "So anyway, where should we start searching for food? We could either hunt some animals or gather fruit."
"I think gathering fruit would be much easier, although we don't know which ones are safe to eat…"
"And does that mean we should start hunting?" he asked while drawing out his blaster.
"I guess so…" Rachel replied, pulling out her own blaster as well.
Without saying anything else, Leon cautiously made his way into the rainforest, along with Rachel following closely behind. She began listening closely to her darkened, ominous surroundings, hearing the distant sounds of creatures moving around in the brush below, and climbing around through the dense trees. She gripped tightly to her blaster, preparing for anything that could attempt to attack them.
After about ten more minutes of maneuvering through the obscure forest, Rachel noticed Leon freezing at what seemed to be the top of a short hill. Since she was lagging behind, she was unaware of what he seemed to be looking at.
"Leon, why did you stop?" she asked, carefully stepping over a somewhat small rock as she continued walking towards Leon. "Is it finally some type of animal that we could hunt?"
"…No, but come up here and look." he said, turning back to Rachel. "…How did you get so far behind anyway?"
"I got kinda tired and all of this brush slowed me down." she replied as she approached Leon's position. As she finally stepped beside him and gazed downwards into a small, nearby clearing, she was surprised as to what she was looking at. What she saw in front of her seemed to be a large, darkened arch carved out of stone that had a torch placed on both sides. It seemed like a normal structure that someone could have made, except what she noticed on the inside. Filling the space in between the arch was a purplish-red colored mass of darkened, pulsing energy.
"…What the hell is that?" Rachel asked in a somewhat shocked tone.
"I don't know, but at least we know some type of intelligent beings lives here…" Leon replied. "That couldn't have been naturally created…" After Leon began stepping forward into the clearing towards the mysterious structure, Rachel immediately began to cautiously follow behind. As they approached the arch, she could feel a chill run down her spine as if she knew something was terribly frightening about this, and whatever its purpose was.
After stepping in front of it, Rachel began speaking once again. "…What do you think this is used for?" she asked, gazing into the ominous corpus of energy. As she stepped to the side of it she watched Leon pick up a small rock on the ground and throw it through the energy. She peered behind the massive structure, not seeing the rock that Leon threw inside. "It seems to be a portal of some sort…" She looked back at Leon as she noticed him backing away.
"…I know what this is now." he said with a seemingly uneasy tone. "This structure is what we call a demon gate… I've only heard rumors about what one of these looks like, but I'm sure that's what it is…"
"…And where exactly does the portal lead to?" she asked, cautiously walking over to Leon in order to get a further distance away from the gate.
"It leads to a place that is known to Grox as Tartarus… I believe the humans who lived in this galaxy a while back called it Hell…"
"Wait, why would anyone want to create a portal to Hell? Who would even want to go there anyway?"
"Only the Demon Lords can construct these gates, so the purpose for building this is going to be deadly for anyone who might be on this planet."
"…And right now, we are currently the only ones standing directly in front of it…" she nervously replied. "…I think we should just leave before something comes out of it…"
"Yes that is probably the best idea right now…" Leon said as he began walking around the gate, making his way towards the forest behind it. Right as Rachel began following alongside him, she could have sworn she saw a threatening, horned figure in the shadows of the forest behind her, that was staring intensely at her in the corner of her eye. She stopped immediately and quickly turned towards where she saw the being, only to see that it was no longer there.
"Rachel, what is it?" Leon asked as he briefly stopped and looked back at Rachel.
"Sorry… I thought I saw someone watching us…" she sighed, turning back to Leon. "I guess being around that portal started to make me paranoid or something…"
Right as Leon turned back around and continued walking towards the forest, Rachel began to feel extremely lightheaded, seeing the environment beginning to blur around her. Only after a few seconds, she immediately stopped walking and collapsed to the damp forest floor. As her vision began slowly turning back to normal, she gazed in the direction that Leon was walking to see if she could see him. However, he was nowhere in sight. Focusing back on herself, she noticed that a sickly, dark aura was now radiating off of her body, which nearly caused her to panic. She attempted to call Leon for help, however she strangely was unable to speak. It was as if something was preventing her from doing so. Then, right in front of her, she noticed a large buildup of dark energy began to form in front of her. As the energy faded, she once again saw the mysterious horned figure in its place. As she saw the darkened figure beginning to slowly approach her, she immediately made an effort to stand up so she could run away from this creature. However, she soon realized that she could no longer move.
"Get away from me!" she attempted to shout. But instead her voice merely continued to remain silent. Right as the figure stopped in front of her, its darkened appearance seemed to fade away, revealing its true form. The creature appeared to be a heavily armored male Grox. A few strands of his jet-black mane could be seen coming out from under his horned helmet. His intense eyes appeared to be the same as any regular Omega Grox. However, she knew that he couldn't be one of them.
"Hello Rachel." the Grox said with a malicious grin, having a slight demonic tone in his voice. Rachel struggled to ask him how he knew who she was, but still she couldn't speak. "I know that you are wondering what is happening right now, so allow me to explain in the simplest way possible." After saying this, the Grox kneeled down next to her. "I bet you've noticed the dark energy that is now coursing through your body. I caused that to happen simply to watch you suffer. Now, you better listen closely to what I have to say. You and that Grox will NOT interfere with my plans. If you even attempt to do so, both of your souls will become mine."
After the Grox stood back up and turned around, beginning to walk away from the area, Rachel noticed that the strange aura was no longer around her. She was going to ask the Grox who he was, but instead she decided to remain silent since she didn't want him to stay around her any longer.
Only seconds after Rachel saw the ominous Grox vanish in a black cloud of smoke, her vision instantly began to blur almost to where she couldn't see at all. Right as her vision refocused, she gradually noticed Leon kneeled down beside her, shaking her shoulder as if he was trying to wake her up.
"…Who was that guy Leon?" Rachel asked after Leon seemed to have realized that she was awake.
"…What are you talking about?" Leon asked in a confused tone. "No one else has been here… You have been unconscious the entire time anyway so how would you know?"
"Oh… I guess I must have been imagining that or something." she sighed. After her eyes managed to focus off Leon for a few seconds, she immediately realized that they seemed to be inside what seemed to be a small, wooden structure, yet much larger than the one they stayed in the night before. She leisurely sat up and looked around some more, noticing that she seemed to be on a simple bed that was padded with a large amount of exotic leaves. "I see that you worked on our shelter while I was unconscious…"
"Actually I didn't make this…" Leon replied, standing up. "I managed to find a sentient species of canines known as the Ke'zuka that live on this planet. Well, actually they found us but at least we know there is intelligent life here."
"Well that's good I guess… Anyway, what should we do next?"
Before Leon could reply, a tall, bipedal, wolf-like creature abruptly entered the room. As Rachel moved her gaze towards the creature, she noticed that it seemed to have strange, white-colored markings painted on its thick, gray fur. She also noticed that it was clothed in lightweight armor and cloth.
"Ky'le tsuro yhyka!" it said in an urgent tone. Rachel looked at the canine with a strange expression, soon shifting her gaze back to Leon.
"Um… what did he just say?" she asked him, noticeably confused.
"I'm not really sure, but that's why I have this…" he replied, pulling a device off of his belt. "I knew I would need this eventually. It's a translator. Whenever one of them speaks, this device translates it into English. And whenever we speak it will translate it into whatever language they use." He soon pressed a few buttons on the device and looked at the creature. "Could you repeat that?"
The creature's response was nearly the same, but after a few seconds it sounded out of the device, now in English. "The shadow was seen again!" he shouted.
Rachel remained confused, even though what he said was translated. "…Shadow?" she asked.
Leon looked over at Rachel. "A few of the hunters said they saw a creature made of darkness. They say that it has attacked and killed off four in their group, and has been causing a lot of problems around here."
"…What if it's a demon?" she asked. "You know from the portal? Maybe that's the one who I encountered earlier…"
"I don't know, but we are going to help them with their problem. I agreed to help them, and that's the only reason why they are letting us stay here."
"…So we are seriously about to go and attempt to kill a creature made of darkness? How is that even possible?"
"We'll find a way to defeat it. It just might be… difficult." Leon soon began walking out of the structure, soon stopping at the exit and looking back at Rachel. "Well come on, you're not going to stay here the entire time."
Rachel quickly stood up and walked towards Leon as he and the Ke'zuka exited outside.
"Is the creature anywhere nearby?" he asked, looking at the Ke'zuka as they walked.
"No, it killed a few of our hunters who were in the wastelands and then ran back towards the mountains." the canine replied.
"So I'm guessing it most likely lives somewhere in the mountains. We'll go out there and check sometime soon."
Rachel moaned in annoyance after hearing what he said. "I'm hungry…"
"Oh, you haven't eaten yet…" Leon said, looking at Rachel. "Well then we'll go after you get something to eat."
The Ke'zuka soon looked over at Rachel. "Since our hunters were distracted from their hunt, you won't be getting meat anytime soon. But there is plenty of fruit if you are able to eat it."
"You can eat while we look for the creature." Leon said, still focused on Rachel. "We need to kill it as soon as possible." He soon looked over at the canine. "We also need some of your people to help us to kill it. I don't think we can defeat it alone."
"I figured you would say that." he replied. "You will need about two medics, five warriors, and a guide. Since I am good at navigation, I can lead you to the mountains." He soon stopped and turned back to Leon and Rachel, as they stopped as well. "Stay here while I recruit the others."
As the Ke'zuka began to walk away, Rachel began to complain again. "…Can't we go and get some fruit before we leave? I'm really hungry…"
"Can't you just wait?" Leon sighed, moving his gaze over to Rachel. "Besides, he told us to stay here. It probably won't take very long."
"I hope so…" she replied. "Because I need food soon… Or something to drink… I don't know, I just need something. Anyway, how long do you think it will take to get to the mountains?"
Right after she said this, the Ke'zuka and seven others approached them from behind. "It will take a few days." he replied. "The mountains are far from the village."
As Rachel and Leon turned around, Rachel noticed that the canine was holding a medium-sized wooden bowl filled with a few exotic fruits and water.
"I brought this for you since you said you were hungry." he said, holding the bowl out to Rachel. She took the bowl from him, immediately picking up one of the fruits and taking a bite out of it.
"Alright, now before we go, let us introduce ourselves." the Ke'zuka said. "I am Kelnka. The warriors' names are Teyik, Anur, Ki'nā, Tsuen, and Ulkir. The two medics are Ki'lā and Adelu."
Rachel looked over at Leon and whispered in his ear. "I'm gonna have problems remembering all of those names…" After saying this she continued to munch on the fruits.
Leon seemed to ignore her, still focused on Kelnka. "Alright. Anyway, lead the way."
Kelnka said nothing and began walking towards the forest, along with the seven others as well. Rachel and Leon soon started following behind.
"Rachel, finish eating soon before some type of predator shows up." Leon said, looking at her. "I don't want you to be defenseless."
"Don't worry I'm almost done." she replied, finishing up the fruit. She then began to drink the water that was in the bowl as well, tossing it aside after she drank the remainder of it.
After they stepped into the dense forest, Kelnka began to speak. "First, we are going to be travelling through the forest. There aren't many predators here, but they are active at night. So we'll need to get out of here before nightfall. Next we will be entering into the wetlands. It is very dangerous there, and we'll need to be careful. It is also easy to get lost there. After that we'll be crossing over a river into another forest. It's extremely dark there, even during the daytime, so it's very dangerous. Poisonous plants and insects fill the place, and it's extremely mountainous there as well. After a while we will reach the wastelands. That place isn't filled with predators like the others, but there are a few dangerous ones. It's also extremely hot as well, having almost no plants or water. So we will need to prepare before we go there."
"Um… question." Rachel interrupted. "If the wastelands are so dangerous then why were your hunters out there?"
"Certain animal species are important to our tribe." he replied. "Anyway, once we go through that, we will enter the mountains. It's similar to the forest before the wastelands in the beginning, but deeper into the mountains is more like the wastelands, except extremely rocky. And like those two places, it's extremely dangerous. Plants and animals are unable to survive there because of the intense heat. The deeper you go into the mountains, the hotter it gets. That's because it's extremely volcanic."
"I don't know how we are going to survive this…" Rachel whispered in Leon's ear. "Especially since he described almost every place as extremely dangerous…"
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll survive." Leon whispered back. "…I really hope I'm right about that…"
"Yeah, because after we get passed all this stuff, we are going to have to fight a demon and hopefully kill it before it kills us… By the way, where are we going to be sleeping? Some of those places don't seem safe enough to spend the night in…"
"Well I guess we are going to be building shelters along the way. We just have to trust these people to keep us alive. Since the have obviously explored these places before, they probably know how to survive anywhere around here."
"That's good… I hope they are going to give us time to rest occasionally… I'm not use to walking far for so long…"
"I'm sure they will." Leon replied, laughing slightly. "That is if you complain enough."
"That won't be very hard." Rachel laughed. "I'm an expert at complaining."
"That's always good… I think. By the way, you might want to watch out for that bu-"
Right before Leon could finish the sentence, Rachel walked into an extremely tall, thick bush, tripping and falling down. A somewhat deep tunnel was below it, in which she fell in as well. Only the bottoms of her feet were visible outside the bush.
"…ouch…" Rachel groaned. As she slowly attempted to stand back up, she could hear the Ke'zuka laughing and talking amongst themselves nearby. She guessed they were talking about her. "Hey… this isn't funny at all…" she said with a slight laugh.
"…Rachel, are you alright?" she heard Kelnka ask. "You seem to be very deep in that bush…"
"That's because it's not just a bush…" she sighed. "There is a tunnel under here too…"
"Um… that's not good…" he replied. "Tunnels don't just appear out of nowhere here, and a certain species of animal digs tunnels under bushes…"
"Well I don't see anything down here… But then I can't see very good in the dark… Anyway can someone pull me out? I don't want to stay down here any longer…"
"I'll pull you out." she heard Leon reply. She soon felt him grasp onto her ankles, attempting to pull her out.
Right as she began to feel herself being pulled out of the tunnel, she heard something in front of her growling deeply. "Um… Could you please hurry? I hear something down here…" After saying this, she felt something slimy lick across her face. "AH! Something just licked me! Hurry up before it eats my face!" She began to thrash around wildly in panic, attempting to help push her way out of the tunnel as well.
"I'm trying to hurry!" Leon shouted, continuing to pull her out.
After a few more seconds, Rachel shot up out of the tunnel and exited the bush, running over Leon and knocking him over with her force by accident. "That was terrifying…" she said, looking down at Leon as she lay somewhat comfortably on top of him.
"If you thought that was terrifying, wait until you get passed this forest." Kelnka replied. "That was nothing compared to what is in the other places we will be going. That creature you were near wasn't even carnivorous."
"That's not good…" Rachel sighed. "I'm probably gonna be hiding the entire time…"
"…Rachel, can you please get off of me?" Leon asked, interrupting their conversation.
"Oh, sorry…" she replied, slowly standing back up. "Well you were comfy while it lasted. Why didn't you say anything earlier?"
"I thought you would have stood back up sooner…" he chuckled as he got back up.
After Rachel turned back towards the Ke'zuka, she noticed them now beginning to walk away.
"I guess they aren't gonna wait on us…" Rachel whispered.
"Well we do need to get far enough before it gets dark." Leon whispered back. "We should be following them you know."
"Right…" she laughed slightly. Soon enough, they began to follow behind the group once again.