Survival struggle

The moment the dwarf's teeth dug into his arm, the seemingly crushing weight disappeared. Atsu swung his machete toward the dwarf's hairy chest twice but only achieved a red mark. His opponent retracted it's teeth and waved six dark red claws towards his face . By now, other dwarves had started wading into the water. They held big cudgels and clubs . ' A matchet would have killed me faster you dwarves!' Atsu thought and gasped as he ducked the threatening claws. He looked for leeway to use his charm but not a chance presented itself . The dwarf kept lunging at him like a wild animal. He looked at the shores once again, trying to catch a glimpse of his equipments, but something told him it was a futile effort. The dwarves might have done what they could with it already. He instinctively looked at his hurt finger to calculate his next course of action, but a stunning sight met his eyes when he did. His ring finger had healed and developed a dark red claw . Atsu's eyes opened in disbelief as he tried to study the sight, but a vicious stab from the dwarf's claws brought him back to "reality". He cursed and stomped the dwarf's chest, pushing away the claws from his tummy. Even so , the dwarf didn't slack in scraping his legs as he fell to the water.

One thing was starting to get clear now. He has walked right into the domain of dwarves. And the fight was to mark their boundary and punish Atsu for washing in their waters. Or so he thought. Atsu is brought to his senses as the taste of blood spreads in his mouth. A cudgel had slammed into his ear giving birth to a loud ringing sound that echoed in his head.

Atsu struggled to keep awake. His consciousness was slowly slipping away. He felt a few club blows on his knees and succumbed to the pressure. He managed to take in some air before splashing into the water. He knew it was only a matter of time before one of those dreaded clubs fell on his head. Memories of his sister kept roaming his mind and the oath he took to save her was the only thing that made him clutch his will tightly. He believed his world to be over when everything suddenly became still. He opened his eyes and looked around.

Atsu soon noticed a torch blazing above the water. Everything was calm as though he had just awakened from a nightmare. He gathered himself and swam upwards, unsure what had happened. When his head broke the water, a familiar spear caught his eyes ,a thick calico sack slept beside it and a familiar tail was slipping out of it's mouth . ' My stuff ...' Atsu was unsure what had happened. But the sight of his belongings lightened his mood. He started wading towards the river bank when all of a sudden, he noticed short figures breaking the surface around him .

Now the night was here and Togbui Tsali's constellation was brighter than before. Atsu listened as his fear described to him the gravity of his situation. He swam towards the river bank with an incredible speed. A few claws managed to get him anyways, but it never slowed him down. His desire to survive was greater than ever. He was stunned to see odd patterns covering his wounded spots but he shoved that thought for now. He needed to get to dry land before activating the charm and that was his ultimate goal. He crawled out of the water like a lizard, but the dwarfs were still faster surprisingly. The first attacker grabbed his legs and pulled him down. He made a sound similar to a low toned mocking laugh as though he were teasing Atsu's escape styles

but his face remained cold and ugly. The torch spiced up his looks as a ruthless villain willing to kill anything for a few cowries.

Atsu's eyes opened wide when he thought he heard the dwarf speaking. Just a few minutes ago, all he could hear from their lips were undertone giggles and constant outbursts of laughter which they would quickly suppress as though afraid of disturbing the quiet of the night. But now he could clearly hear the dwarf say... " Join us or die kid, there's no way we would let you leave with our secrets. You've seen too much " . Without thinking, Atsu gave voice to the first thought that came to his head " Never" . The dwarves looked very threatening. Never smiling and ready to chew on flesh like agbelikaklo ( cassava fries). Atsu doesn't want to join such a horrible company, giggling and laughing like mad men with twisted rows of teeth.

" We're you not trying to kill me just a moment ago? What changed in your damned hearts all of a sudden?" A few dwarfs joined them and one with an exceptionally broad chest replied " We attacked because we thought we could bruise you well enough. But you seemed too ready to die." The dwarf giggled again but words were what reached Atsu's ears " You were not the first night hunter to discover the god river kid, countless hunters have crossed paths with it's spirit mode. The wise ones branded it as a bad omen and chose to leave with their lives and never return, whilst the stupid ones like you decided to explore and take a bath.This area of the river is the only part that seems to move uphill. It connects to our domain and that's what you just discovered. You will have to live with us to preserve the secret or die a gruesome death." Atsu spat blood. He wiped his lips and feigned confusion. All the while, he had been inching towards dry land . Now that he found it, all that was left was to activate the charm. " You couldn't bruise me well enough you said?" Atsu said as his fingers stretched for the task at hand. He couldn't afford to let the charm be snatched before he is able to do anything with it.

The dwarves ignored him once three others joined the group. They had purposely delayed because they were unsure if they could manage Atsu's weight by themselves. The increased number cleared their doubts and they grabbed Atsu's hands and legs as they tried to march him back to the god river. They were giggling all the while anyway, giving Atsu clues of what was about to happen " Endure it kid, the transformation would be over soon."

Atsu now realized that washing his wounds in the river had been a mistake. Though it healed them , it added dwarf features and properties. He now understood how he got a claw on his ring finger and a tattoo on his arm. He had cut his ring finger to confirm his consciousness a while ago before taking the dip. After rising again in the dwarf plane, he got a teeth bite on his arm and scratches on his right leg. Now both had healed and were covered with strange tattoos.

Atsu swung his arm and resisted with a force he was never aware he possessed until then. His actions made the group stumble a bit . He seized the opportunity and swung his newly mutated ring finger at a dwarf's leg, giving it a sharp cut on the thigh. It gave an outburst of laughter and dropped Atsu's leg. ' These are really sharp surprisingly. Machete for humans, claws for spirits' . While these thoughts are occuring somewhere in the corner of Atsu's brain, He was struggling with two dwarves as they tried to pull him to the floor. He stomped and swung a nearby cudgel at his feet. He wasn't going to risk bending down to swing a single claw. After all, the dwarfs had twelve. Atsu grabbed the rough sand of the river bank and threw it into their eyes. The dwarfs dropped his legs to care for their eyes.

But almost instantly, another set of dwarves had risen from the sand and lunged at him. Atsu felt an unbearable weight far greater than before descend upon his shoulders, but thankfully, he had already foreseen this coming. His hand shot into his hair the moment the sand left them. They came back with a small bundle of kporti leaves and mouse herbs, tied with a strand of Atsu's own hair . As the new set of dwarfs prepared to make their jump, the not - so - well chewed teleport charm was already descending into his tummy. Atsu's smile startled the dwarfs a bit. 'Who would smile under the pressure of such a crushing weight?.' As they pondered this, a terrible wind threw sand into their eyes and hindered their vision as Atsu form turned into a sand man. A stubborn dwarf still managed to direct his reckless descent and aimed for the sand man's shoulder . He sunk his teeth into them on contact but felt the sand giving way as his body slammed the hard floor beneath.

An owl hooted and a dog howled it's complaints as the sounds of laughter and giggles filled the peaceful night.