Chapter 312 (2/2)

The second sniff was met with a cacophony of noise. The komodo dragon hissed. The two headed lion stood and growled dangerously. The turquoise frog released a bubble of phlegm that popped audibly. But most violently, the crimson eagle screeched, taking a step forward, its wings spreading.

Very quickly, the gorilla drew back, and carefully used one of its very large fingers to point towards a purple, eggplant seeming fruit in the corner. After retrieving the banana, Jemma gave the gorilla its desired fruit and continued on around the circle.

The rest of the divvying up of the fruits proceeded smoothly, with each monster carefully peering into the basket and indicating their desired fruit. Some Jemma was able to guess, while others were more perplexing to her. For example, the turquoise frog wanted the prickly fruit, which Jemma was very careful to set down in front of it without puncturing her hand on the spikes. How would it even eat it…?

It was only on the second to last animal, the crimson eagle, that there was a problem. The eagle peeked down into the basket at the two remaining fruits, giving them both careful regard. It seemed supremely torn, its golden eyes flicking back and forth between the two options. Jemma grew intensely nervous, the shaking in her hands more pronounced. After fully 5 minutes had passed, and the shaking was starting to affect her ability to stand, Jemma felt a spurt of energy and just picked one out of the basket and set it before the crimson eagle.

Anything to end the prolonged torture.

It seemed satisfied at first, but as Jemma moved to walk away, it shrieked and pecked forward, aiming for the fruit that remained in the basket. Jemma’s body instantly lurched to a stop, unable to move with the crimson blur that was rushing towards her.

Then she had a large hand on her shoulder. The world seemed to slow.

At the edges of her vision, she could see the world falling away, fading to a blackness. There was a low mist on the ground around them. With increasing volume, a ticking rose to dominate the world around her.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The crimson eagle seemed to slow, its beak shuddering to a stop midway to the basket in Jemma’s hand, as if it was caught in some sort of bog. It shrieked again, but it contained none of the arrogance and pride that it had previously. Now it was confused and fearful. But that confusion drove it forward, a desperate rush towards the basket.

Smoothly, a finger slid past Jemma’s shoulder, sliding to meet the peck. As soon as she saw that finger, Jemma began to tremble, much more violently and uncontrollably than she had in the past. Her whole body was racked with wild shakes.

Because when she saw that finger, she didn’t see a finger, but rather a cold, sharp tip of a spear, the edge thick with the stench of death. She became hyper aware of the hand on her shoulder and the cold, vicious energy it released.

All at once, the strange images faded away, and the crimson eagle twisted and hopped backwards, squeaking plaintively. The cook dropped his finger.

Every other monster was carefully not looking at the cook standing behind her, just like Jemma wouldn’t dare turn to regard the man. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but that thick stench of death around him in that moment filled her with dread.

That’s what the world was now. The world was an empty place where only through killing can you survive.

Woodenly, Jemma turned to the final monster, the metallic dog. It was probably the most eye-catching, and the smallest of the monsters in the inner circle. The fur of the dog was a beautiful mixture of silver and copper, its teeth pitch black as it panted.

What was strange was that after Jemma placed the fruit in front of the dog, the dog ignored it and trotted towards her. She was so numb from the previous experience that she didn’t even react as the dog walked up to her.

She felt something damp on her hand and looked down to see that the dog was licking her hand. Then it looked up at her with its pitch black eyes, its concern for her clear on its face.

Jemma began to cry.