*WARNING: Though this work has humorous elements it does delve into serious issues that may disturb certain audiences, including sexual assault. Though such acts will not be detailed or described, it will be directly mentioned and referenced which includes immediately after or before the act.*
Nathan crumpled the glowing paper in his fists; a contract that condemned millions of people to a new life. Everyone will suffer at the hands of his decision, but it was the best thing he could do to ensure he could survive. That’s what was at stake here, his life. The hooded figure before him is all too pleased with how everything has headed and the direction Nathan’s interference has pushed it. The sixteen-year-old teen could just feel the man’s smile emanating from behind the shadowed veil hiding his face.
The Contractor rubbed his hands together as the contract glowed brighter, “If there is one certainty, boy, it is that power always corrupts. Before the end of the year, it will change you, and there is not a thing you can do about it, ‘hero.’” The vile creature mocked that last word, every syllable laced with derision.
The glow of the contract suddenly burst, now unbearable to even look anywhere Nathan shut his eyes, but it still pierced the lining of his lids further blinding him. As the remaining moments of standing in that prison cell ticked down the teen sealed his resolve. He stood straight and shook his head, a solemn vow that he would do anything to prove The Contractor wrong. He is going to be a hero, and he will not let anything change that.
Everything went dark.
******
The region of mountainsides promptly named as the Veins of the World due to its mysterious landscapes, stretched on for miles and throughout it filled with valleys and tunnels none have ever fully mapped. Few brave scholars ever traverse these perilous caverns, only those desperate or ignorant ever enter alone. One such soul rushed out from one of its caves, the feminine figure with raged breathing dashed into the small bundle of foliage hardly worth calling a forest, but it was all she had for shelter.
She screamed as the once mighty trees crashed all around her, pelting her skin with shards of splinters and twigs, the leaves strapping themselves to her like wet rags. Gagging the petite cat girl crawled under the remains of the trunk as claws came down, bending the trunks and branches under the weight of its massive paws. Her torn clothes shredded down to nothing more than worthless rags from the long rush to safety, they barely even covered her properly.
Tears streamed down her face, the layers of drops blurring her vision as her attacker continued to pester the remains of the makeshift fort guarding the prey. Harshly the girl shoved her sleeve into the rivers allowing her eyes to see through the mist of dirt and sawdust. All she needed was a clear opening to dart out and escape, but the growling followed her from above the torn layers of greenery, the monster’s impatient sniffing for a snack proving too much for the little one.
Panic overcame her and the feline crawled out from under the wood and threw herself down the steep hill. A desperate maneuver that resulted in pain massaging every inch of her body, the rocks, and sticks as the masseuse. The world spun around wrecking every ounce of equilibrium that has been keeping her on her feet. Unable to keep track of up and down she curled up and covered her head, her shifting only made things worst. Her body spun and rolled, her arms, legs, back, everywhere just kept smashing into hardened stone.
The lip of the edge acme quick after and before she understood what is happening her heart fell as she felt gravity take hold and smash her frame into the rocky ground below. The wind flew out of her lungs cutting out all mindset of escape. She convulsed on the ground desperately gasping for air, she might as well be drinking it through a straw. A roar brought her to her senses, and she propelled herself up to her elbows. Her eyes wide her head lifted up to see where the noise came from.
To her dismay, his desperate attempt to flee proved to be unfruitful. A gigantic creature, mouth-bearing fangs the size of a man, eyes the color of sour lemons bearing down on her with intense passion; A wolf that could eat an elephant within seconds to sate its hunger. It stared at her just atop the ledge she fell from, slowly dropping down to crawl menacingly toward her. Its sadistic ritual of toying with its food brought a glint to its eye. The catgirl tried dragging herself back, her breath still tumbling into her lungs unsuccessfully made running impossible. Her back struck the end of a surface, stopping her retreat. Her hope of escape dashed the girl’s ears dropped to the surface of her head as she looked up to witness the cliff face that condemned her life.
A victorious snarl retook her attention, bringing her down to the wolf who leaned back readying for its pounce. The feline clambered against the wall as if to meld with it and disappear from sight, but luck wouldn’t be that gracious now she was cornered. With the last remnants of her breath a hoarse whisper came out, “Muris. Help. Help!” before losing every bit that she had collected.
The wolf snarled and lunged. A flare of orange blinded the sky, and the catgirl slammed her eyes shut, twisting away and covering her eyes awaiting the flash of pain to pierce her hide. Her internal countdown started and she dreaded the critical zero she felt looming over her. The intense wait began only to then continued. Confused she relaxed, but only slightly, her fear wouldn’t allow her to die seeing those blood-stained teeth. No one should have to die alone with that being their final sight.
A whimper interrupted her sobbing. With one eye still closed the fragile feline looked toward her killer, her somber face grimacing at its sight. It lost all interest in her, rather it is looking up, and backing up with its tail crammed between its legs. Following its gaze, the cat girl’s mouth dropped. The orange of the sky still burned intensely, like a ball of flame right above them. The sky melting like marble collected a drop building up, ready to plummet over them any second. The catgirl could only blink in awe. Was this a god’s intervention, an act to save her life? It bulged ever more than burst, rippling the sky with vibrate colors like a drop in water while a figure descended at a rapid pace.
With a whine, the wolf dropped down to avoid the impact, but this flawed duck did nothing to move away from the descending cataclysm. The figure smashed right into it, erupting rubble and dust into the air, clouding all sight within seconds. The cat shut her eyes as the cloud rushed toward her, her arms throwing themselves over her face to shield it from the debris. The dust rushed over her and around her arms regardless. She coughed out the offending dust, hoping to whatever god that saved her that it didn’t ruin the air she had finally been able to bring back into her chest. Using the dirty shreds that were her sleeves, she furiously wiped at the muck clamped around the edges of her eyes. With mild success, she reopened them to wash out the rest with rapid blinking. Very little did her sight clear, but it was just enough to witness the man who saved her.
The figure rose as the scattered soil settled, and his glowing orange eyes met her startled green ones. The figure was in dusty old robes, a hood draping over his head, and thin strands of leather wrapped around his face as a clumsy mask. The sight froze her in place: the glow, the power, the war-torn clothes. It couldn’t be, but who else could it be if not him. She pushed herself up as much as she could, her breathing still erratic and her feet not quite sturdy yet.
The strange man dusted himself off, the downward curve of his brow alluding to his irritation, “That was not a few minutes. Stinkin’ tutorial; where am I now?”
Tutorial? Does he mean Tuoral? The goddess of knowledge and enlightenment? It had to be him, only has he ever had this much strife with the goddess. “Rakon.” She spoke.
The man froze, then looked at her realizing she was there. At first, he looked relieved to see her, but immediately the look blinked away as he pondered the gibberish ushered from her mouth, “What?”
The catgirl pushed herself to her feet, eyes never waving from his. “Y-you are Rakon. Lord of power and might. The irrefutable creature of strength.”
He blinked, “What?” That didn’t clear anything up at all. He didn’t know of any ‘lord of power.’ He scratched his head, looking her up and down thoroughly, “Are you a black cat?”
Startled by the strange question she looked down at herself, her once lovely golden fur is now coated with soot and twigs. Embarrassed by her appearance she bowed her head, face alight with a blush. “I-I-I apologize for my wretched appearance, sire! I-I was running for my life and got dirty.”
“Oh, that’s not a problem.” Nathan wiped his gloved hands together, ridding himself of the remaining speckles of dust. He knew he was going to be thrust into the game, but did he have to be shot down like a bullet? Not to mention being immediately called a sire before doing anything spectacular completely threw him off. All he did was land and already he’s being praised, on his butt no less; Is this really what playing an RPG is like?
Wait, he was being incredibly rude. Nathan sighed, his hand reaching up to rub his head as various sentences floated around his head, formatting his response to best recover from his discourtesy. Unfortunately, he has never been very sociable. “Err, My name’s Nathan. Who’re you?” That came out wrong, why did he have to go crashing down to earth so tired? Stupid tutorial.
Flinching at his ‘true name’ she further dropped her head, much to his growing annoyance. It was one thing to be called a lord, it was another to visibly see someone treat him like royalty. “I-I am just a simple Yato.”
“A what?” This is getting even more awkward. Nathan rubbed the brim of his nose, releasing a tired breath. “That’s not what I asked.” He mumbled under his breath. His mind quickly compiled different routes to take this, if there was one thing he knew about role-playing games it’s that getting to know the characters was vital. One could easily lose track of who’s who without some form of guide and he was horrible with names. It took his years just to remember his friend… damn it. He really hated his life sometimes.
She jumped to attention, fumbling over her words. “I-I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean- I mean, I understood what you were asking, but I thought that-you know- that you thought I was someone of importance, maybe. Though I am not, I’m only a wretched-.”
For crying out loud, he didn’t expect her to hear him. Of course, he would botch up a meeting with someone who has literally appraised him as some lord, “Please stop.” His hands desperately waved her down to cease the nervous spiel. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t hesitate to obey. “Can you not insult yourself when I’m just trying to get your name? It’s rather depressing.”
“Yes sir.” She swallowed, “I… I am known as Rina of Oam. My father is Buse of Oam.” Her lips then froze stiff, refusing to utter anything more least she invoked his wrath further, her eyes fearfully traveled his form as she awaited his next words.
Rina. He knows that name. Right, she was the character that received much criticism and debate. Most everyone loved her character, some even went on several quests with her at the start of the game before even starting the story. The biggest thing about her happens at the beginning, and everyone keeps talking about it. He intentionally ignored it just so he could play without the spoilers, so that wasn’t very useful. He did get the game to enjoy it, after all, he didn’t need some controversial story arc to ruin the full experience.
“Lord… Rakon?” Her voice was hesitant to ask. She could see he was deep in thought, but they couldn’t keep going on in silence
Shaking the thoughts away he crossed his arms, “I’m not a lord, I’m not even old enough to own anything,” Rina’s brow arched, unsure how to take that information, “and my name isn’t Raw-corn. It’s Nathan. I’m just some kid from Earth.”
“Earth?”
The sixteen-year-old teen scratched his shaking head, “It would take too long to explain. Where’s the nearest town? I really need some sleep.”
Startled by the change in subject Rina screwed her face in thought, the nearest town was several miles away, that’s where Muris and her were running toward. The thought of her close friend snapped her to what she nearly escaped from. Panic reached back into her chest causing her to leap forward, seizing his sleeve and tugging on it urgently, “Muris!”
Stunned at her outburst Nathan quickly followed her toward the valley’s exit. Finally, next to her he looked down at her, she was only a head shorter than him, “Uh… Where’s Muris?”
“She’s over here! Please, they’re going to kill her! She told me to go in this direction while she distracted them, but one of them followed me!”
He didn’t want to sound insensitive, but he thought she was talking about a town. Who was Muris? Who was they? Why were ‘they’ trying to kill Muris? This sounded dangerous, but hey, this is an RPG. As the protagonist it was his job to take on any task given to him by random NPCs, this didn’t seem any different. Maybe he could level up.
They cleared the exit and stood before a cliff-face, the precipice diving down into the next valley below. Nathan deflated, his dumbfounded eyes scanning the whole canyon, “We just exited a valley, why are we heading into a deeper valley?… What kind of mountains are these?”
Rina tugged on his sleeves, pointing down the cliff wall, “There she is!” Nathan’s eyes quickly scanned the floor below stopping at the sight of a fleeing shape.
The red scales of the female slightly glistened in the dim sunlight piercing the clouds above. The strange flaps on each side of her face appeared to be a cross between horns, a neck frill, and ears; it gave her a dragon-ish head. Made him think of dragons anyway. Her clothes were tethered and worn out from age. These two together looked raggedy, to be frank. Why are they all the way out here? It’s not like he was any better, he only picked this outfit because the coat looked nice and he didn’t tell that goddess woman were to drop him off.
“Is she a lizard?” He asked absentmindedly.
Rina pulled away from him, nervously wringing her hands together. “She’s my guh… best friend.” She finished slowly like an actress trying to remember her lines. Her face tightened into an emotionless state while her eyes widen and stare intently at Nathan, studying his face closely.
Nathan only stared back, less stiff and unsure. After several seconds of this uncomfortable staring contest, Nathan looked around carefully, “What are we waiting for?”
Relaxing Rina spun and dove down the valley, sliding on her feet like she had a snowboard. Nathan blinked at her impressive athleticism watching as she neared the bottom without even slipping up once. Humming he tentatively took a step and immediately fell down. Now sitting he raised a hand and shouted down at her, “You clearly overestimate my abilities!”
At the bottom, Rina leaped off and scuttled on her feet. She turned her descent into a jog along the floor as she rushed to her friend with a refreshed smile, “Muris!”
The female lizard skidded, barely catching herself from face planting into the rocks beneath her feet. “Rina!? What are you doing, I told you to run!”
With a wave behind her, Rina smiled warmly, “I brought help.” Once she turned around the feline’s ears dropped in surprised confusion. The only thing behind her is some rolling stones. Smiling sheepishly she caught sight of the disapproving scowl of her friend.
Then screaming started. The two looked up and jumped back as Nathan came rolling down the hill yelling, bouncing off nearly every single stone during his fall with the grace of a paper bag filled with rubber balls. Finally reaching the two at the bottom of the hill the teen found himself belly-flopping at their feet. Surprisingly it didn’t hurt, but damn if he wasn’t freaked out when he felt his foot throw out from under him just trying to follow the cat. How’d she do that so deliberately?
He pushed himself up and onto his feet, shaking off the rocks that gathered in his coat. “I just got comfortable in this!”
“Lord Rakon, are you okay?” Rina’s voice was tender and scared, her arms clutched together and pressing nervously into her chest as she took a step toward him.
Muris was far less concerned. Her hands went straight for her hips and brow dipping with scrutiny, “That’s help?”
Nathan wiped off his shoulders once more, “I have a name you know, and no it’s not this Row-corn.”
“It’s pronounced ‘Rah-Con.’ Rina, who’s this idiot?”
“Is name-calling necessary?”
Muris glowered at him for his questioning before looking back at her companion with a far gentler expression. Rina’s foot rolled back and forth under the gaze of Muris. It was like an adult waiting for a child. The fact that he was the subject made it strange seeing that he wasn’t being included in the discussion. “H-he dropped down from the sky and… saved me from…” Her eyes dove down to the ground, her perky ears drooping again. She felt ridiculous now, Nathan did nothing to express the power he had earlier, instead he looked like a clumsy oaf.
“He killed it? This idiot?” The lizard shoved a finger in his direction.
“Can you leave out the insults?”
Again, she just glared at him, “Fine, if he’s so powerful he can deal with the alpha.”
Nathan looked around them curiously. “Alpha?” He finally asked. There was nothing more than boulders and rocks all around them. He hasn’t even seen a mountain lion, which to him was weird.
The side of the mountain crashed, mounds of rocks and soil went flying as a massive wolf twice the size of the one that chased Rina barreled right for them. Its red eyes bored into the trio, its black fur emitting smoke and shadows that overcame the light shone on it, and its glossy teeth were stained in red.
Muris slid up next to Nathan with a smug smile, patting him on the back. “Fight on, Rakon.”
Nathan didn’t even hear her, he was too busy staring in shock with his mouth open and eyes trying to rocket out of their sockets. “Wait, what am I suppose to do?”
Rina smiled, hopping up and down with enthusiastic air punches, “Hit it.”
“HIT IT!?” He shouted back. They wanted him to fight it? Maybe if he had a stick of dynamite he could give it dysentery, but he was not just going to go over there and punch a maniacal, rabid, macro-wolf in the nose. Did he really look like an idiot, because that would explain the lizard girl’s insults?
Muris elbowed him on the side, “Don’t forget it’s pack.” Just then several snarling animals came charging out of the new hole, all glaring at the small snacks they were excited to have.
The two friends didn’t expect to feel strong hands grabbing the back of their shirts and pulling, “No way! Run!” He spun them around and tossed them in front of him. The two didn’t even break pace as they tore down the valley and turned the corner to get away, the wolf pack’s incessant roaring right behind them.
At the end of the valley, Nathan spotted a cylindrical, stone bricked structure built into the side of the mountain. “Who builds a tower in a valley?”
Muris turned and slapped him, “That’s a staircase, idiot!”
“Oh.” Sheepishly Nathan rubbed the spot her hand connected with, “That makes sense.”
Muris reached the door first and pulled on the metal ring attached to the knob. The door swung open slowly allowing Rina and Nathan to rush in. Muris followed only stopping next to Rina when they noticed Nathan going back and grabbing the door. With surprising ease, the teen pulled it shut and turned to them with a smile, “Are we good?”
The door smashed inward, and a massive black snout began chomping at everything around. Nathan went flying as he felt the wooden surface crash into his back. Muris and Rina stumbled away, falling onto their backs and crawl away from the frantic snapping. The female lizard squealed, “Shit!” As she spun around and pushed herself up.
Nathan slowly pushed back against the door pressed down by the wolf’s insistent knawing, “Language!” He criticized loudly over the snarls.
The two females stared blankly at him, then Muris couldn’t contain the offensive disbelief next to Rina’s uncertain one. The reptilian woman recovered first, “Is this really the time to criticize my choice of words?!”
Mulling over her response the teen turned to look at the little bit of muzzle trying to crush the door into him. He turned back to the two and shrugged, “I guess not, sorry.”
“‘Guess not?’” Muris repeated, her eyes bulging.
Rina grabbed her friend’s arm and shook it, “Can we do this later?! Help him!”
Mumbling in rage the lizard leaped forward delivered a swift strike to the wolf’s nose with the bottom of her foot. The creature yelped at the sudden sting and pulled itself back out giving Nathan the chance to throw off the door and rush after the two females already darting up the flight of steps. The three raced up the steps, Nathan quickly catching up and passing them. Each of them could feel the whole structure shaking as the barking outside rattled the skin of the planet.
Just as the noise died down the sides of the tower came caving inward, forcing them to leap over ruble and dive under some of the bricks. Nathan looked at the sides of the stairs with disdain, just as a snout smashed into the tower and pinned him against the side. Rina screamed and stumbled back just in time to be caught by Muris who pulled her away and covered the feline with her own body.
Nathan gawked as he stared right into the red eyes of the alpha, “No! Bad dog! Sit! Play dead!”
It snarled at his shouting and pulled back, reeling to thrust back at him. Instinctively Nathan curled his hand into a fist. His eyes instantly glowed a strong tint of orange, the light leaking out of his clothes, the air instantly warming up, the wind flying from his form. Just as the wolf lunged at him he threw his fist right at it. The two females felt his fist flying through the air, its drag pulling on them as both knuckles and nose made direct contact. As if the side of the valley suddenly erupted like a volcano, the walls shattered and splintered. Stone blasted out of the sides, the air throwing itself out into the valley. The alpha’s head vaporizing in an instant before shredding the rest of its body, the other wolves’ pelts were peeled off their bodies before the rest of the remains flung down the gorge. The walls of the ravine flew off like a wave of loose rocks, tripling its diameter. In seconds the valley became warped, wider, and empty. There wasn’t a single stone, as if the whole place was carved by man itself.
Nathan gaped at the destruction slash cleansing of the once threatening mountain ravines. His eyes traveled down to his fist; not a scratched, not a tingle of pain. It felt like he just hit the air, he wasn’t even sure he even touched the wolf. “What the hell?” He muttered staring down at his outstretched fist, it still smoked from the attack.
“Language.” The snarky voice of Muris brought him down to earth.
He deflated at her word and sighed, meanwhile Rina is beside herself jumping up and down, clutching Muris’ arm. “See, see! It has to be him! It has to!”
Uncomfortable, Muris rubbed the back of her head, “I… Rina, there’s a difference between killing a pack and… I mean, he ran from them for Pete’s sake.” She turned to face him once more, looking him up and down. “You did save us though.” Nathan nodded. Shifting between her feet her face grew puzzled, almost as if disappointed with herself. She nodded in return before quickly rushing up the stairs.
Rina watched her go with a smile, “That’s her way of thanking you. I know she’s a bit… aggressive, but she is golden at heart. Her being rough is just how she expresses how she cares.”
He shrugged once more, scratching his shoulder as he went, “I feel the love.”
The feline snickered at his comment then rushed up the steps. It really didn’t feel safe in the stairway right now. Once she was out of sight Nathan turned back toward the clearing. Even the once cloudy sky was now bare. With shaking hands Nathan looked down at his fist. Eyes traveled over the limb carefully and in awe. His fingers unraveled themselves to loosely flow before contracting back into a tight form. Looking back up he scrutinized the torn-up wall and carved canyon. Yep, it’s real. So he destroyed the side of a building and defaced a natural landscape.
“Cool.” He nodded before hopping up the stairs after his new acquaintances.
Off in the distance stood adventuring scholars whose mission was to scavenge the mysterious mountainsides. Their once-proud mission was to finally map out the extensive maze of tunnels and valleys belonging to the Veins of the World. Now they just stared in pure horror at the sight of it. Now the thing to know about the Veins of the World, there is a center ‘vein’ that stretched across the whole length of the region. It went on for miles and they stood at the end of it. This center not only is twice the diameter it used to be, it now stretched a mile longer. The perfect smooth carving could have only been done by one thing. The scholars quickly retreated, not daring to look back.
The news of this discovery spread swiftly and the center was dubbed the Ventricle Vein forevermore. For years the story spread how it was created, and because of that none ever dared entered the region again. The fear of bringing doom from the giant worm that had moved in was just too great.