“I am getting drowned!” I yelled.

“No, you’re not; relax.”

I was...

in my bed.

When I look up, I notice a young woman holding a bucket.

It was my neighbor also my best friend “Rose”.

“Are you awake now?” She said smirking.

“Yes, thank you for pouring the entire contents of the well on my face, but please don’t do it again.”

“Okay, I just have to throw you in the well then.”

“Hehe, That’s a well-made joke. Wait, what are you doing here anyway?”

“I came to check on you because there was an earthquake last night.”

“I’m alright, but I fell asleep before checking my house.”

“Don’t worry, I already checked to make sure there was no harm.”

“Is that so? I appreciate your thoughtfulness.”

“Heh, This is how you should have act from the start.”

“And now I don’t.”

“Is that so? I guess you don’t want the food I brought here, then.”

“I do,I do.”

“Good boy,come on let’s go down stairs.”

I got out of bed and we went down the stairs right away.

I walked into the kitchen, and I noticed a feast of sardine sandwiches.

“Thank you for the food.”

“Don’t mention it.”

We sit and ate the breakfast in silence.

After we are done eating, she gets up and...

“Now then, let’s go fishing.”

“Fishing?”

“Yup.”

“Why?”

“There’s really no reason; I just want to go.”

“Well, I guess I have to since you provide me food.”

“I can’t feed you unless we go fishing, you know.”

“I know,I know,let’s go then.”

I decided to go with her without much consideration.

We were like this since we were kids; one of us would come up with an idea, and

the other would just go along with it.

“Let me get my fishing rod from home, and we’ll meet in front of your house.”

“Okay.”

She left soon after.

I decided to do the same and start searching for my tools.

I went upstairs once again start looking under my bed.

“Junk...Junk...Junk...”

I should tidy this place sometime.

“Oh, here it is.”

I finally found the trunk where I stored my fishing gear.

I pull the trunk by grabbing it from both sides.

“Here we go.”

“And in 3...2...1.”

*Clack*

I heard a stone smack against my window.

“She is here.”

I went outside and saw that Rose was waiting for me.

“All set?” She asked

“All set,let’s go.”

We begin walking south, towards the sea.

Our village is located in the continent’s extreme southeast.

Seas are to the east and south, and high mountains are to the west.

Thereby making it nearly impossible to travel by foot to our village.

One can only enter this village from the north, and to do so, they must pass through a guard-heavy city.

I doubt that we will ever be attacked by bandits given the current situation.

I am sure this village is the safest place on the whole eart-

*Smack*

Suddnly I felt a huge pain on my neck.

Rose slapped me from behind,

“We have arrived, so you need to stop talking to yourself.”

I turned my head to look at the sea.

“It’s peaceful here.” she said.

“It would have been more peaceful if you weren’t here.”

“Get ready to fish and put an end to your nonsense.”

I do as she says and cast my fishing rod,

she does the same.

Silently, we look out at the water.

After some time, she breaks the silence.

“So umm... how is things?”

“What things?”

“You know... life.”

“Bad.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I chop logs for free all day, sit on nails, and my friend is attempting to drown me.”

“Besides them.”

“Why are you asking this? What is this all of sudden?”

“Just a quick check-in to see how you’re doing. I know it’s been difficult for you since your family left.”

“I’m good, I can live without them; why are you bringing this now, it’s been years?”

“I just wanted to-”

*Vrrrrr* *Vrrrrr* *Vrrrrr*

Her voice gets cut down by the buzzing noise.

“What is this sound?” I said

“It’s coming from... the sky?”

We both look up and saw an X shaped creature flying above us.

“WHAT IS THAT!” She yelled.

“A bird?”

“I’ve never seen a bird like that.”

*VRRRRR* *VRRRRR* *VRRRRR*

As we talk the buzzing gets louder.

We glance up again and gasp.

The flying creature was heading straight towards us.

When it gets closer, we stumble and fall behind.

Now that it is nearby, we can see that the flying monster has sharp revolving claws above its body.

It approaches my face up-close. I close my eyes and then...

“It went away.” Rose said.

We gaze at each other, puzzled.

“I don’t know why it fled, but let us also flee.”

“You are right.”

We gathered our belongings and started running towards the village.

After some time of running, we realized we weren’t being pursued and slowed down.

“Hof, hof. What exactly was that?”

“It looked like a bird made of iron.”

“Yeah, and it had claws that rotated.”

“We’re fortunate that it didn’t pursue us to the village.”

“We need to inform the village elder of this.”

“You are correct,” she agreed, and we began walking towards the village elder’s house.

Rose began repeatedly pounding on the door as soon as we arrived.

The door finally opens after some pounding.

“Hmm? What is going on with you two? Why are you breathing so heavily?”

village elder says as he gets out.

“A flying creature charged at us and attacked.”

With fear in her voice, Rose says.

“You should warn the other people in the village not to go near the sea to the south.”

We continue to tell him the whole story.

“Pffft... Hahahahahaha.”

Elder laughs as if he heard the best joke of his life.

“We are serious here.”

“Of course you are.”

He manages to say while laughing.

We wait for him to stop laughing.

And then he talks.

“Look I understand that you are going through some hard time and need some fun but you should stop making up things like this.”

“It’s not a joke, I swear to the god under the sea.”

“You said the same thing last week when you lied about a dragon kidnapping Pickle.”

“I-”

He intrups before I speak.

“And even if you are telling the true it let you go didn’t it?”

“It did bu-”

He intrups me again.

“So it didn’t want to eat you then.”

“We can’t know that it may have gone to call more of it’s friend so that they can feast on us.”

“Isn’t it better to kill your prey before you call your friends so that they won’t run away?”

“That’s-”

“Enough, Enough, if you two have the energy to make up stuff like this then you sure to have energy to chop some logs.”

In the end he didn’t even listen us.

“Maybe he is right,maybe it was peaceful animal and flew away because it was scared.”

Rose said as she chopped a log in half.

“Animal? I never seen an animal like that before.”

“There is lots of animals that human kind yet to see.”

“Okay I try not to thing about it then.”

“Good boy.”

The wooden door opens once again,village elder and his granddaughter comes out.

“You two done yet?”

“We are.”

“Good,it’s almost time to let Pickle out again.”

“Okay,Okay I will deal with it.”

He nods.

I turn to Rose and say:

“You should go home before it’s dark.”

“I’ll do so, see you then.”

“Bye.”

She turns her back towards me, walks a few steps, then stops and turns her head to face me.

“It was fun today,let’s do it again sometime.” she waves her hand.

“Yeah.” I wave back.

After she is gone, I look back to village elder who is now searching his pockets.

“Now... where did I put the keys of the cellar”

“Oh,I still have it,I forgot to gave it back yesterday.”

He looks at me with an annoyed face.

“What are you waiting for then move.”

“Sure,Sure.”

I start walking towards the cellar.

I hear a happy humming behind my back, I look back to see elder’s granddaughter, Angel following me.

I sigh and continue on my way silently.

We repeat the same process as yesterday.

Unlock the cellar - let the girl play with Pickle - Cut Pickle’s left leg and make a soup with it - And let Pickle into the forest.

scrach the third one.

When the animal is gone, I turn to girl and gave her the cellar key.

“Give this to village elder.”

“Okay.”

“Good girl.”

Same as yesterday I return the girl to village elder,her grandfather.

I start walking towards my home, and when I arrive, I notice a basket in front of my door.

There was a note on top of the basket.

“This is your share.”

And a painting of a small fish.

I take basket inside and enjoyed the food.

After I finished eating, I went upstairs to my bed and slept.

*sniff* *sniff*

I can smell burning wood.

I regained consciousness and stand up.

I walked towards the open window next to my bed.

As I approach the open window, a rush of cool air hits my face, carrying the scent of burning wood.

I lean out of the window and look around to see if I can spot the source of the smell.

In the distance, I see a faint glow and smoke rising in front of my house, indicating that the source of the burning wood smell might be close by.

“All the logs that I chopped today have decided to come and haunt me, I guess.”

I sigh and went downstairs to check on the fire.

I open my front door and get outside.

“This is the biggest bonfire I ever saw!”

“So... who is the witch?”

All of a sudden, the bushes behind the bonfire began to rustle. A cellurk emerged from the foliage with its back to me,

pulling something with its teeth. I cautiously walked towards it.

“Pickle is that you?”

As soon as the animal heard its name, its ears twitched and it dropped whatever it was pulling.

It turned to face me, and I noticed the red ribbon we put on him yesterday. It was Pickle!

“What are you doing here? taking a break from hunting for fruits?”

I reached out and petted Pickle’s head. After a few moments, I withdrew my hand.

As soon as I let go, Pickle turned back to whatever it was pulling earlier and grabbed it with its teeth.

It started pulling again, and after a few more tugs, it became clear what Pickle had been pulling all along

“Rose?”

“Is she sleeping?”

How come she didn’t wake up after getting pulled all the way here?

And why is Pickle pulling her?

Pickle kept pulling her a blood trail followed her!

“WHAT THE HELL!?”

ROSE’S LEGS WERE CUT DOWN AND SHE DIDN’T HAVE HALF OF HER BODY!

I NEED TO GET HELP QUICK!

While I was lost in thoughts, Pickle grabbed Rose by her collar using its teeth and threw her towards the bonfire.

“NOOO!”

“I shouted as I tried to run to save Rose, but Pickle jumped on top of me and made me fall.

In front of my eyes, Rose fell into the flames. I heard screams coming from the fire:

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“PLEASE, SOMEBODY HELP!”

She was still alive!

I struggle to free myself from under the animal, but it’s no use. It’s too heavy.

More cellurks come from all over the forest, dragging legless village members towards the fire.

They throw everyone into the flames, and the screams grow louder. I watch in horror as they burn, feeling powerless to do anything.

I buried my face to ground trying not to see anything.

Some time passed and the screams eventually faded away. But then I look up and noticed that the cellurks from all over the forest were coming towards me,

their eyes glowing with a terrifying red light. They grabbed me with their teeth and threw me into the flames with the others.