Venturing Into The Unknown

Harrowed Plains of the Underworld, a name that portrays the land Altair is stepping on. The man named it himself.

At the moment it is a land of the unknown, a place filled with wonders be it terrifying or breathtaking.

The plains were empty but not completely devoid of life, grasses still grew, trees of odd sizes and shapes fluorished, the skies were gray but dense white clouds still filled it and even the mountains on the east and west looked so mighty high touching the gray skies of the underworld. Far away from the plains however jagged group of sharp dark stones created inequalities on the lands, a gray crimson mist looming all over it in which only odd large species of trees thrived and mountains that symbolized skulls of titanic creatures stood tall in the midst of the dark sanguine fog. The faraway place looked uninhabitable and it's sight was nothing short of breathtaking if not spine-chilling.

The gray crimson fog extended widely covering most of the plain's distant lands and the behaviour of the thick smoke was very peculiar as it looked like it is creeping near the gray desolate lands to enshroud it like a maroon plateau.

Altair himself was filled with doubt and is only troubled by things. How can a sky even exist underground? No matter how Altair pieced every little information he has in store, he could never comprehend as to why this is the case, he is now slowly considering the fact that this might in fact be a world created by Gods as much as he scorned to admit it.

One thing that concerned him more was that there was no Sun in the spacious horizon, how was there light in this gray lands then? How were the plants in this land able to grow with the absence of sunlight?

"What the fuck."

Altair looking up the gray skies tried to make sense of everything, he was now very perplexed to the point where he can't even say a single word he just stared emptily in the sunless horizon.

For a moment he closed his eyes and shook off the heavy mental burden, then glanced at the wide plains.

The harrowed plains was so wide, so vast, and quite unrealistically fluorishing even without the existence of a Sun, it truly is a wonder why haven't an ecosystem existed in this place yet. There are no living creatures that inhabits the area as far as Altair can see at the moment which is very weird considering that the lands are fertile enough to produce grasses that herbivores could feast on and with the herbivores' existence carnivores would also come into play now that they have some form of direct source of food. That is how nature worked it's wonders back on Earth at least, it was the World's cycle of life.

Then the top of the food chain eats the weak, the top of the food chain dies which in turn becomes a source of nutrients for the soil which in return becomes a source of food for the herbivores and so on and so forth.

Surely there has to be some sort of similar natural cycle that exists in this place right? At least something akin to Earth's. Well without any Sun Altair could really not expect normal-looking beings to inhabit the area or an average ecosystem to exist in the harrowed plains.

Without any Sun the Earth's life cycle wouldn't really exist in this place in any way possible at all, you can only wonder what could have nourished nature in this bizarre of a world, or for a bigger perspective how was this world even created in the first place.

Altair isn't interested on finding out, the place's cycle of life would not matter to him if there are no creatures to hunt, he is here to survive and will not be staying in this place for too long afterall.

Or so he thought at least.

When Altair started venturing out into the harrowed plains he had nothing. Because there are no creatures he could hunt for food here he intuitively scavenged for any items that is quite familiar to him in the plains, or just any items in particular that may be able to help him. If he wanted to venture out further he needed to ready anything he can possibly use for the dangerous expedition and without any food he needs to fasten his pace on exploring the fluorishing desolated landscape.

Endless fields of grass filled the entire plains for the most part of it, the trees constantly swayed as the cold breeze blew upon them creating creaking and whistling sounds that is rather unexpectedly pleasant to one's hearings.

With the continuous blow of the underworld breeze that is gently caressing Altair's frail skin the skies slowly darkened as time marches on.

Altair continued his scavenging hunt.

However, even after the constant searching for any items he could still not find even a single usable one available in the harrowed plains and the night was fast approaching.

"Damn, still empty-handed even after all the efforts."

Without any choice Altair simply looked for any place he could take shelter on for the night, and even that proves to be quite an impossible task. The plains was empty, not a single item or even a source of shelter is available in it, in other words only the grasses in the barren fields could serve as his night shelter.

Altair who is left without any options stayed on the open field with the tallest grasses to cover himself with their thin leaves, this serves as both his camouflage and source of warmth.

With unknown dangers that the plains present, this is a very dangerous gamble for Altair, however without any option this was his best bet at the same time.

Tomorrow he plans on venturing out far enough where he can find cave-like places to safely take shelter on, and if quite possibly find any useful items he can use in his journey. In any case he want to avoid being in the red fog's perimeter unbeknownst of both it's danger and effects and also the creatures that lurks within.

For now he will stick with this even with the tall grasses itching his face with it's constant brushing and swaying. It is irritating but this is where Altair's survival depends on, he would rather itch like hell than to be killed by the nocturnal beasts he doesn't even know of just because he decided to be stupid enough to continue, he was especially wary of flying ones that haven't exposed themselves yet since they can see him from high above if he ever tried continuing the trek.

Not one monster showed theirselves in the morning so it is only common-sense to assume that the beasts that possibly inhabit this place are nocturnal.

With Altair finally taking shelter on the grasses, night finally filled the skies with darkness.

Two moons presented itself on the now black starless skies, illuminating the plains with its' dull lifeless lights and the temperature of the plains significantly dropped making it even harder for Altair to survive throughout the night.

Hypothermia now presented itself as a threat to Altair's survival, so Altair enfolded himself tightly to keep himself warm and with both the grasses slightly preventing the cold breeze from lowering his body's temperature and the provided clothing covering his frail body Altair did not feel that much cold.

The night is as thick as the darkness that the chasm earlier was veiled by only this time with the moonlight of two moons faintly illuminating the landscape, even then the darkness was still thick.

Altair could not do anything but rest upon the tall grasses to warm himself and recover from his exhaustion, even with the threat of the unknown quietly patting him on the shoulders.

He needed this rest and so he closed his eyes, wishing for the best.

***

It was only an hour or maybe two that Altair was able to sleep soundly, he was woken up by the constant rustling of the tall grasses.

The breeze blew on the grasses but never did they rustled this loud.

With him being completely unarmed he have no means of defending himself from whatever is lurking in the tall grass.

This spells danger for Altair and he is now fully alert even with his body being completely exhausted.

'Shit.'

Rustling of the grasses were getting louder, setting panic inside Altair's body to alarm.

His instincts told him to run away, and he did just so. From being asleep just a moment earlier to now being pursued by an unknown invader.

He cleared his path as fast as he can with every step he took. He is almost unable to navigate through but thanks to the ever so slightly dimming light of the moons he was at least able to see what's in front of him.

Navigating through the tall grasses wasn't an easy task, with himself so preoccupied on navigating it to escape the pursuer he immensely slowed down and couple with the fact that running in this grassy fields proved to be also very difficult it will be in no time before the beast in pursuit catch up to him.

Altair panickedly ran away even faster but his efforts were in vain, no matter how hard he tries the beast is bound to catch up to him with this pacing.

He however was determined to escape it.

'What should I do? What should I do?' Altair tried to calmly organize a course of action inside his head.

'The beast is a lot faster than I, it seemed to have not detected me at all when I was stationary earlier, perhaps I should not be escaping it's pursuit with a footrace because then it would surely win.'

And so Altair slowed down on his tracks and immediately changed direction as silently as possible, and then he waited the reaction of the unknown beast. His course of action entirely depends on the step that the beast will be taking. If it is still somehow able to sense him through the tall grass even after masking up his presence through the use of silence then he is in a tough spot, he is very sure that he will be unable to escape it. If the opposite happened however it will be the most ideal scenario between the two that is with certainty.

The creature seemed to have stopped and stayed in place for a bit of time. Altair could feel the beast turning it's gaze towards him but luckily it somehow redirected it's course of pursuit towards the opposite direction where he was hiding himself, he can tell from the footsteps that is getting more distant by the second, his senses are getting sharper in these dire moments.

'Close call.'

The rustling sound of the grasses slowly faded in the distance.

Altair was quick to a scrap and slowly navigated his way out of this tall grass. He deduced that this might be the beast's domain and so he wanted to get away from it as soon as possible, or at least be as far away from the monstrosity as possible.

'This isn't how an adventure should be.'

The grasses brushed upon Altair's skin everytime he took a step, his steps as silent as a rat's. Everytime he takes a step he takes a moment to listen to the rustling sounds that the creature produced in the distance and is prepared to completely silence himself in the time of necessity. He was wary, afraid of the idea of being fodder to any of the monstrosities that inhabits the godforsakened place. Sheer fear is clear in Altair's face even in the darkness, he hasn't witnessed it yet but somehow a feeling of primal fear sinks deep into his own flesh, making Altair instinctively and constantly shudder.

Altair shrugged it off and played tough. Mentality plays a significant role into one's survival, thus he must not let the utter pessimism and fright get the better of him.

Whatever trace of Altair's thirst for blood before can no longer be seen displayed on the man's face given the dire circumstance. He looked more pitiful this way. Like a scared lost hound. He cannot feel even a sliver of his killer instincts, it was wary that Altair can never emerge victorious against anything here, for now it is tightly supressing itself to prevent irrational decisions from taking over Altair's state of mind.

Sweat profusely dripped down Altair's entire body which simultaneously get dried out by the breeze, he felt that if his heartbeat goes any faster it will create an elusive impulse that might alert the monster in the vicinity of his location and so he is trying to manually control it's beating. It took a lot of effort to both slow his heartrate and breathing down which slowed down his flee, he needs to manage this however or else he risk being gnawed on alive.

As he continued his sluggish escape for what felt like hours the other side of this endless fields can finally be seen even with the thin tall grasses covering his line of sight. It was an ecstatic sight. Altair still proceeded carefully though, rash actions will lead to a certain fatal fate and he knows that and to correspond to that intuition he treaded even more cautiously still silently navigating throughout the fields. Altair can only feel the tension rise up intensely. The end was near it was almost at the reach of his own hand.

Then, an abhorrent grievous roar resonated filling the barren grasslands with a myriad of dreadful echoes.

Altair was almost running out of time, the monster now knew of his whereabouts and is approaching him in an avid berserk wanting to maw viciously on his mortal flesh. It was unseen making it more of a terrifying predator but Altair sensed it miraculously even from a far away distance. Intuitively Altair made a ran for it.

The beast was fast approaching excessively and hungrily panting it constantly trailed Altair's whereabouts on an unbelievable pace.

Altair on the other hand struggled on his forced escape nearing the end bit by bit very slowly. He mustered all of his strength and sprinted as fast as he can, he reached his hand out towards the narrow opening of the grass and leaped out of it.

He finally got out of the grassy domain of the field lurker. Tired and out of breath his body fell down to it's knees, a wave of sore muscle pains flooded Altair's body his knees were shaking, his torso looked like it was about to explode from breathing in and out exhaustedly and some parts of his body filled with small stinging cuts from rashly moving through the razor thin grasses. Altair was now outside the grassy fields.

Now what?

Being out of the fields doesn't necessarily mean he is now completely safe, the monster was still in pursuit of him afterall, who's to say that it will stop it's chase when he exits it's grasslands?

Then, Altair felt a sharp pain in his entire body out of nowhere keeping him stationary in a more pitiful manner, now helpless, tired and afraid what could he even do now? His fate was sealed.

'What is this?!'

Altair with a sorrowful expression didn't see the wave of agonizing pain coming at all, it came straight from oblivion to mess things up for him.

'Aha..fuck this shit.'

The man with nothing left to do with his body in constant paralyzing pain accepted that he is meant to die again in this hellhole.

Not anything went right for Altair in this place at all, not even once did he thought that he can survive this place even for a short time.

'Well at least I survived until dawn, must have been a new record or something.' he simply thought still feeling a wide array of excruciating pain that is constantly making his body scream for mercy. Altair can only endure it's severity unable to do anything else, he already felt like dying again.

Soon after the monster presented itself to him.

A massive standing lycan with a grotesque figure its body severely deformed like a hunchback with a number of rotten flesh where countless amount of maggots wriggling in its decomposing flesh, its lower body consisting of 3 set of muscular hind legs in which rot still took over, its nails in both it's hand and feet while not perfectly sharp is still a very formidable weapon. Its head and arms larger than the rest of the body, 2 set of arms settled on both the right and left side of the disgusting beast both armed with a set of 3 razor sharp bones on its elbow, it's head severely wounded exposing its thick black skull on its surface, 4 eyesockets existed with no eyes filling up the hollow and it's maws consisted of razor sharp deformed fangs and teeth it's nasal flesh slowly falling apart from the rot.

Now that Altair took a closer look at the harrowing beast he can't help but be more frightened his face grimacing.

As the beast slowly approached him, the pain that came from the oblivion intensified.

'HUH??!!'

A burning rotting sensation ate through Altair's flesh, an indescribable and unbearable pain. Altair cannot help but be empty-minded and be breathless, the torturous pain was just too much for him to handle that he no longer felt like moving or breathing. Paralyzed in both fear and agony the monster continued to approach him slowly ever so slightly making the pain in Altair's body worsen. His eyesights now taken away from him, an empty hollow and blind feeling now replaced his vision. A certain sensation of both his insides and flesh being burrowed through by countless gluttonous maggots is all Altair could really feel now, every millisecond felt like hell.

'I've had enough, just kill me...'

"JUST KILL ME YOU SHITFUCK!!" Altair screamed in pitiful desperation.

The beast took it's moment and glared at him with it's hollow eyesockets, flies coming out of it.

"KILL ME!!! KILL ME NOW!!!"

The being then responded with an agitated roar and ran towards him in a frenzied manner.

A wave of endless harrowing pain striked Altair's body making him jerk intensely.

Then, blood rained on his entire being.

"Hey! You alright there bud?"