Time became a blur to Arin. Wandering through nearly identical terrain day in and day out accompanied by nobody suitable — or rather, nobody he found suitable — to converse with becomes boring. The only thrills he experienced on any given day were found in the sunrise conquering the void in the morning, that same sun being overcome by that same darkness, and the decapitation and devouring of a scythed insect. He was also slowly starting to enjoy climbing up the towering trees after collecting an insect's head. Climbing was the only thing Arin had encountered so far in his life that he actually possessed some innate talent for, after all.
But all of these thrills were events that quickly fleeted, collectively only filling barely an hour of his day-to-day life. The rest of his time was just mindless travel towards the sunrise.
Arin wasn't alone in his boredom, either. Even though he knew that it was for the best, he was sick and tired of being either cooped up in a small box awaiting Arin's signal. He tried to spark up conversation with his companion many times, but all his attempts were to no avail. Arin tuned out Renota's words completely, making the powerful charisma that they were backed by all but useless.
They both subconsciously hoped that anything, good or bad, would happen. Their lives were pointless if nothing was happening in them.
As if the world was answering their subconscious hopes, something large and distant appeared in the horizon. The only problem was that they didn't know yet if the world's answer was virtuous or malicious in intent. But that was something they would have to find out themselves.
***
Arin had thought that the tall maples littering the grassland were already large enough, but apparently, they weren't. Before them was an unimaginably large oak tree, its bark an extremely dark shade of brown and its leaves nonexistent. Its roots were lumpy and equally imposing as the tree itself, each one easily tall enough to rival a small mountain. The tree's shadow, which was luckily not facing Arin and Renota, was nearly as dark as the void of night. The shadow was so lightless that many white lights had risen from the ground and were wandering within it.
The side of the tree facing them also possessed its own absolute darkness, in the form of a small opening at its base. The opening looked somehow both natural and unnatural, and was filled with an absolute darkness, appearing almost darker than the moonless night since it greatly contrasted with the sun-bathed environment.
Arin, and even a risk-taker like Renota, would usually never even consider going into somewhere so unknown and possibly dangerous intentionally, but they were currently not their usual selves. Absolute boredom allowed them to make ill-advised and outright stupid decisions, even if they were aware of the consequences. The two young men were absolutely aware of how idiotic it is to just walk into a possible threat without any reason, but their thoughts quickly both came to a similar conclusion.
'What if it's safer in there than it is out here?'
Of course, it was most likely more dangerous in the tree, but their minds didn't allow themselves to ponder that possibility, craving a thrill of some kind.
During their travel towards the 'small' opening in the tree, they realized that it was actually not all that small. It was visibly larger than the giant trees found across the grassland. The sheer scale of the leafless tree was enough to scare them away from entering, but their curiosity overpowered their fear, only by a hair.
Once they had both took their first step into the darkness of the great oak, Renota ignited his flames, bathing a minute amount of its interior in yellow light. Strangely, the interior's floor and walls were not made of wood. Instead, the floor was made out of ancient stone tiles, while the wall appeared to be made of a single giant piece of smooth gray stone. Everything seemed to be lightly dripping with cold water, with no sign of slowing or drying any time soon, or ever. It was hard to believe that they were actually in a tree, and not a man-made structure.
Arin began to ponder the possibility that the tree was actually constructed by some long-gone civilization, but his thoughts were quickly interrupted when a cut appeared on his face.
The cut was small, almost unnoticeable. But it was still enough to put Arin on alert. He began to scan his surroundings, searching for something that could've attacked him. Nothing turned up, so he-
Another cut appeared on Arin, this time on his right hand. Soon after the second cut, he was suddenly drowned in a storm of tiny cuts. The cuts by themselves were inconsequential and weak. However, since there were hundreds of these tiny cuts appearing on him every few seconds, they were no longer something Arin could ignore. After a few moments, Arin was already drenched in his own blood, all leaking from tiny cuts all over his skin.
The swift creature attacking Arin, whatever it was, seemed to be very weak. It couldn't even cut through his clothes and was only barely able to leave a mark on his skin. But its incredible speed allowed for not just one or two tiny marks to be made on Arin's skin, but hundreds. If this continued for enough time, Arin would bleed out.
Renota wasn't doing much better than Arin, maybe even a little worse. Since his clothes were not made of exquisite materials like Arin's were, they suffered a plentiful amount of damage alongside his skin.
While Arin grit his teeth trying to think about how to deal with an opponent that's too fast for you to see, Renota took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and then extinguished his flames, returning the oak's stone interior to darkness. The lack of light did not do anything to halt the swift creature's assault, but it did change something about their situation. Now that the sound of the yellow flames burning was gone, the sound of the creature bouncing back and forth was clearly audible.
Renota planned to grab and crush the creature, his grasp based on where he heard it coming from. Arin picked up on this plan when he heard the creature leaping around him. He, too, took a deep breath and closed his eyes, attempting to grab the creature.
It wasn't difficult to hear where the creature was coming from, but reacting to its constantly shifting location was incredibly tough. Arin tried again and again to grab at the creature, but it always was able to leave five cuts on his body before he could close his fist. He wasn't quite fast enough.
Suddenly, he heard a squeaking noise beside him. It was quickly followed by the sound of Renota's fists becoming engulfed in yellow flame. In his hand was a putrid little creature. It resembled a naked mole rat, other than the fact that razor-sharp claws extended from each of its tiny fingers. It was also more grotesque and larger than a mole rat, although it was still small.
Its insides weren't any prettier, as Arin learned when Renota mercilessly crushed the rat in his fist, causing guts, blood, and bone to drip from his fist onto the floor all the same. In case its disgusting appearance wasn't enough to make Arin want to throw up—which it was—its gore's scent was also unbearable.
Arin, who was leaking blood from his skin and vomit from his mouth, no longer was curious as to what was within the giant oak tree. He hadn't even spent more than thirty seconds in the tree, but the encounter with the swift rat was enough to make him completely discouraged in exploring it.
All he wanted now was to leave...