Short Stories From Down Below by Winter Nyala (smallest ebook reader .txt) 📖

reflection.

“Who are you?” She asked when she saw me leave from the falls.

I twitch as I hear her. Grabbing my spear, I go into stance, ready for a fight. I thought she would pass by... I used my movements to speak for me. Saying, 'don't come near me, I'm ready for you, to fight if necessary.'

“I was just wondering who you were,” she replies to my movements, “I do not want to fight you.” She smiles and stepped forward.

I lower my spear a bit and tilt my head toward my cave behind the waterfall. Walking through it I wait by one of the walls. I wait for her to come, only if she would try, her life may be at risk.

Thinking to myself, But then again, if we're not fighting.

She takes her cloak off before she steps in the pool and swims to my cave. Hearing her splash, I head to the fire in the middle of the cave.

“There's a fire here, warm up!” I yell to her, not knowing if she heard me or not.

I put some fish near the fire, to cook. I roll my bed and place it near my food supply. I had other weapons in my cave, mounted on my wall. Like a mini Arsenal. Spears, swords, staffs, bows and arrows, and much more. Ever since I had escaped from His leadership, I promised myself not use my power.

I brought a robe and blanket when the strange girl came to the fire, “Warm up, and please don't touch any thing." I smiled before I left the cave, “You can eat the fish on the fire, once they're done."

“Don't worry I won't touch anything, and thank you.”

Dropping my robe, I jump through the water fall, and into the water beyond. Going to a cave under the water, I knew that leaving her there would keep this girl safe. For what was about to happen would scare the most heftiest of warriors. This beast would be furious, and all because I had to fight it.

I sighed, ~Just another job.~ Since being here I got a job as a hunter. Not the normal hunter, mind you. I hunted monsters, beasts if you will. Right now I was on a job, thus the reason for the cave as my home.

Swimming closer to the pitch black opening, bubbles started to come out.

No, not now...

I thought to myself.

In a panic, I went to breath in, but instead, forgetting I was underwater, I almost drowned. Squinting in pain from inhaling water, I heard the roar. Then It came, pushing me up to the surface, and surfacing It self. With the wave it created, it pushed me into the shallows and onto the shore.

The girl, hearing the splash, dives in the water and finds me on shore, “Oh my gosh, are you okay?!”

Barely conscious, I seen her coming, “No... Run!" was all I could get out, when It attacked.

This time It grabbed her by the foot and was holding her up, 20 feet in the air, over the water. I stood and picked my spear up that has washed up on shore.

“Ahh, Help!” she screamed to me.

I mumbled something and an amulet around my neck started to glow. I floated a little way up and readied my spear. Whistling to get It's attention, I threw my spear and it hits right in the middle of it 4 eyes.

“Here!” I yelled at her as I threw one of my knives from around my ankle.

She caught the knife and cut the tentacle holding her ankle. I caught her as she fell. Spiraling in the air, I throw her to the beast as she stabs it in one of the eyes. Cutting another tentacle I float up and grab her. As we slowly float down to the shore, setting you down, I sigh. The beast, sinking back into the water, makes another wave that washes up past our ankles.

Pausing I start to say, “I could use your help...” I lean against a rock near the shore, “Will you help?”

“Yes,” she comes to me and helps me to my feet, “I will.”

I start to tell her, “I need you to go back to the cave, grab a sword, and pick a weapon for you, not the bows. They're useless right now.” I cough out, before she goes, “there is a cave under the water. Meet me there.”

I step into the water, and she does the same, we swim about half way when I dive down and she speeds up to the cave. Once the girl is in the cave she grabs a black and silver sword, and an axe for herself. I enter the cave only to see the beast sleeps. Good,

I thought to myself, as the girl comes through the opening.

I close my eyes and the amulet starts to glow, once again, but this time the water level starts to drop. Leaving an area to move freely and to breath. As we gasp for air, the beast wakes.

“Damn it, get ready,” I tell her has I take the sword from her hand. “We have to find a way to decapitate It.”

Since sneaking up on the beast is out of the question, I start to stance myself. “Get ready!” I yell to her.

Running toward the beast, I slice one of the tentacles before it hits me and another before it hits you, “You gotta get up close!”

She moved her way closer to the beast and sliced a tentacle with the axe, “Watch out!” she yelled to me.

A tentacle came up and hit me on the head, knocking me off balance the girl came up and sliced the tentacle, “You okay?”

Not answering her I got up closer and stabbed the beast in the eye, “Come on, decapitate It!”

She moves toward me only to confront another tentacle, “It keeps blocking my path.”

Here!” I stab the other eye while fighting off another tentacle, “the tentacles are growing back,” gasping, “Its a Hydra!”

Hydra's are a pain to fight, and mostly I

fight them. The other hunters are too scared or not strong enough of a warrior to fight them. I have been in this business for a while but not as long as some, I mean I've only been here for less than a few years.

Working together we slice a way to the head once again. I slice part of the head before it tries to attack again, and then the girl comes up and slices it again before it heals. I use a spell and singe the neck so the head won't grow back.

Panting from the exhaustion of the fight, I grab a tarp that was sucked in from the current of the river, it empties in the pool of water, and wrapped the head.

“Well now...” I smile at her as the water starts to rise again, “bye now.” I jump in and start swimming toward my cave, head in hand. Throwing the head near my bed, I go to my weapons and put the sword back on the wall.

When she came back to the cave, she smiled back and asked, “do you want your axe back?”

I look at her and continue to pack the head tighter in the tarp, and sling my pack over my shoulder. I grabbed my spear and walked to the edge of the cave, to a path that was around the corner.

I stopped, “Don't be here when I come back.” I walk around the wall and onto the path, heading toward a shack near the edge of the forest. The girl puts the ax back on the wall and leaves the cave. She headed to her house, just a few miles out of the forest.

Parents Magic Forgotten?

My name is Freya, my parents left me a few years ago. Their reasons are unknown. All I know is that they were magicians. Not your cheap magic trick crap, but real magicians. I mastered the trade and now was traveling planet to planet, trying desperately to find them. Each world different. Each world getting harder and harder to journey through. The dangers are real. I have broken bones before and injuries so deep, I stay the night in a place that is stranger than any imagination could find. I have scars over most my body, yet no one but a distinguished few, can see. Charms, a wonderful thing, if you know how to use them.
Right now I am on a planet that is barren. Not much life in a desert place. I passed an abandoned village a few days ago, yet I saw a traveler unconscious in its streets. I passed through without stopping. I didn't want to start something that could include death of strangers. Even if they needed the release from their anguishing lives.
I now sat under a desert palm. The dead ferns surrounding the trunk, helped shield the desert winds. I hid myself in them and moved the ones that were no longer anchored to the ground around me. A few times in the night I spotted a few wild animals and used a small spell to drive them away. One was persistent and would not leave, thus making me show my self and use a stronger spell. I would not forget the eyes of that beast. They were deep and majestically gold. Almost like the golden coin hanging around my neck. This coin was no ordinary coin, it held the powers of an ancient artifact and as far as I can remember, I have had the coin since birth.
I was named after a warrior Goddess. Freya. Not only was she a warrior but she was the Goddess of sensual love and of war and death. Some used to call her 'The Lady' or 'Mistress.' She had two sides to her mysterious being. So did I. I would be loving to most dangerous animals and when it came to a fight, I used skills I didn't even knew I had. My parents were going to tell me something the day they left. It seemed urgent but they said that they had things to do and when the time was right, if they didn't come back for a while, I would know what that was. I now know because they never came back.

The night seemed long, just like they all do. Most of the time I don't even know the time and I just wake up and begin my journey once more. I only slept a few hours and then felt that one beast coming closer. I didn't want to show myself once more and thus I began my slow journey across this crazy land. The dunes shifted as I slept and made passage almost impossible. I sighed as I chanted a small spell. Making wings grow from my back, I took off and followed the northern star. There was a legend on this old planet, that there were once Wizards here and they held to most powerful artifacts in this known galaxy. I knew it was not true yet I had to see for myself. They could hold the powers I needed to find my parents.

I would keep asking myself if I really wanted to find my parents. I have been searching for years and had not found any new