"How long has it been?"
I realised that my thoughts have subconsciously drifted off, enticing my mouth to speak my thoughts. Beside me, voices of concern resounded.
"It's probably 5 hours."
"Is everything alright?"
"You holdin' up?"
I waved my hand in response, gesturing my wellbeing. With an important task at hand, there is little to no time for me to lax and take a break, even if it is something not on purpose. This time we are entrusted with a dangerous task that does not guarantee success. With that being said, underneath this cover of importance lies a trace of ambiguity. 'Head to this location, and obtain this object that looks like this.' No matter how one looks at this, people with questionable intelligence such at myself will also have my suspicion aroused.
Then again, it is not like we have any right to refuse.
Looking behind me, I raised my hand and signalled. Together, we did a thorough check on our equipment we wore. After a quick and habitual pat-down, I was prepared. They seem to be ready too. As we began to advance in the same regulated pace, my mind unwillingly started to drift off yet again.
Yes, just as how I had asked myself, I am unaware of the amount of time I had spent arriving to this point of my life. If there was any reason to this question that came out of the blue, the simplest would be that I have no idea of my own origin.
Birth? That's unreasonable. As far as I know, nobody clearly remembers the exact memory of how he or she came to this world.
Parents? I don't remember having any. I know for a fact that a child comes from his or her parents. Even animals give birth and lay eggs. Maybe it is weird that I am someone without his parents. However, there is something called an orphanage, where children without parents gather and spend their life together. If there are people like them, then I shouldn't be weird.
Come to think of it, the place where I stay at resembles an orphanage. It is a gathering of children without parents after all.
I think the earliest memory I can remember every now and then is the time just a little before joining our modest orphanage family. As clear as my memories go, I am sure that I was running furiously.
After that my memories blurred and I couldn't remember much. All I know was that I was brought to the orphanage where I belong now. From there, I was raised and taught skills and gifted knowledge. Occasionally, my saviour Mr Niterias would usher me into his room and give me a torturous study session of cramming information into my tiny brain. It was horrible then, but the usefulness it brought at times after a few years cannot be denied.
Of course, times at the orphanage can be both comfortable and painful, in various ways. We have a routine massage that involves multiple sorts of injection initially, followed by sitting in a chair made for relaxing our bodies. The chair is amazing. I always thought that it was the standard definition of what a chair is, but after comparing it to a normal chair, I think I began to worship that chair. Putting aside its appearance, it offers a full body massage that even includes the brain. Everyone always felt comfortable and relaxed after each session. I wonder what the secret behind it is.
As for the injections, as children of the orphanage we've gotten used to the prick so it was fine for us. I remember the injection alternated between vaccine and vitamins, or so we were told. Children from our orphanage never got sick. Well even if they did fall ill…
It didn't matter.
"Target sighted," a voice in front of me whispered.
Oops, the task, the task. I need to focus.
The girl to my left asks for our attention and began to brief us in a low voice.
It is our habit to confirm our objective and progress before every important moment so we can get it right. It is systematic and efficient; most importantly, I find it to be a very useful life skill. While reconfirming our instructions and goal, as well as the procedure, I subconsciously checked my equipment again. I hated the times I failed due to my carelessness in misplacing equipment.
"Remember. Eyes on the objective. Whoever gets it, run. The rest will follow up." (Girl)
We nodded in silent assent, and turn our eyes to the objective.
This time, the objective is an item of simple features, but unique and hence easy to spot. Finding it in this dark forest really is difficult. Thank goodness it is stupid enough to shine like a rainbow and not smart enough to camouflage into the forest. Hold on, looking down on a lifeless object in terms of intelligence just makes mine lower. Just what am I thinking right now?
The trees rustle not far before us.
Appearing in front of the objective, a creature rose above the thick forest growth. Under the pale radiance of the minimal sunlight that passed through the forest emergence, we clearly identify scales that shimmer a deep shade of green. Somewhere along the serpentine body, a gem of crimson lies embedded. The beautiful shine it gleams off the dim sunlight seem to possess a will of its own as it glistens with a deep instinct that all of us could expressively feel on our skin.
An instinct to protect.
"Scatter! We've been spotted!" (Member)
One of us managed a yell just in time. As we split in four separate directions, a loud crash echoed from where we were crouching just seconds ago. Despite the lush greenery that provides ample obstacles, a huge whip of unknown proportions had plummeted through from the skies and aimed at us.
The guardian is enraged. In spite of that, the fury that should have exploded flashily seems to flow within the forest concealed. Animals usually reacts with fight or flight when provoked. Since they lacked the mental capacity to stay composed, any other form of reaction is highly unlikely. In other words, the guardian we are currently facing is more than just an average animal. Throwing quick glances at my surroundings, I made my judgement instantly.
"It's a divine!" (Me)
I yelled to spread the message, then instantly darted to the left. The next moment, the tail came smashing through several tree trunks, narrowly missing my side. As I thought, it has a keen auditory sense. While this may be stating the obvious, there is still something worrying me. Were we really spotted by hearing alone initially? Touch is out of the question, unless we were unlucky enough to stand on it somehow. We would have to be cautious of its range of sight and smell, but unfortunately we do not have spare time to check them.
"Bait!" (Member)
Somewhere to my right, a call resounded, followed by yet another crash. The volunteer pulled out a device from his vest and hit the button. Immediately, a gush of invisible wind blew past me. A peculiar scent overwhelmed me and I resisted the urge to empty my stomach. This special sulphur bomb is made to overwhelm one's sense of smell, but anyone caught in its range equally suffers its dense concentration of rotten eggs. Holding my breath, I dashed to a position where I could observe the general situation as much as possible.
There was a momentary silence as the horrible smell continued to spread. Unlike what we had come to expect, the guardian did not thrash around.
So it doesn't react to smell?
Seeming to have the same thought as me, the volunteer (as bait) yelled again.
Immediately, a crashing sound followed.
As he continued to distract the guardian, occasionally throwing stones to try and agitate it, I spot the girl who briefed us just a distance away. I barely caught sight of her hand signal before she silently sprint towards the objective in a curve. A beat later, I followed behind to enact a standard formation.
As the bait continued to yell, the last person of our group suddenly appeared beside the objective and yanked it in a showy manner. As though having eyes behind its head, the guardian changed its target and swiped its tail from below, pulling along rocks and roots to send them flying. They smashed towards where our member was, but he had jumped backwards and immediately backtracked.
The guardian changed its target, and began to snipe the escaping thief with his tail.
Almost simultaneously, the girl appeared and grabbed the objective silently.
I silently rejoiced.
Now all we have to do is retreat…
Crash.
Followed by a scream of agony.
Before the girl can even resolve herself to steel her nerves and escape upon hearing the death of her team member, I see a large shadow rapidly flying towards her from behind.
An audible crack resounded as the girl's body twisted at an unnatural angle.
Her face will likely haunt me in my dreams tonight if I ever escape to sleep again.
The force that was enough to crack a human spine sent the objective hurtling towards me. In my efforts to force down my emotions, I caught the objective with my body which sent me flying in the same direction as well.
Fortunately or not, the impact directed me away from the swinging tail, and smacked me against a robust tree trunk, sending all the air out of my lungs. My vision was knocked out along with my breath as well. Subconsciously, I bit down on my tongue in an effort to remain awake. Luckily I didn't bite it off. I immediately pumped power into my legs and stood up.
I have to keep moving.
I have to keep moving.
My legs strained themselves to work. I ran with all my might, not caring about hiding anymore. In my mind, I have the objective, and my priority was to escape. I pushed away the thoughts of my team members in an attempt to remain calm. Within my hands nestled the objective that shone a hue of rainbow. How ironic it is that I was praising its low difficulty to spot just moments ago, and yet I find myself despising this exact characteristic right now.
I have to keep moving. But I also have to be aware of my surroundings. Convincing myself as such, I swivelled my head to have a quick glance.
By chance, I discovered the fate of the last remaining member, the volunteer to be the bait.
Emotionlessly, I yanked my head to face the front and put more energy in my legs.
I have to keep moving.
I see. Even if you could have continued yelling, we wouldn't have heard you if the top half of you is in its mouth huh. And I was wondering why I could not hear you anymore then.
Silently, I gave myself a cruel and horrible joke. I forced myself to laugh within my mind, trying to numb the surging emotions within me. I did all these while running away in the dark forest, with occasional sounds of crashes and roars of anger behind me. They slowly began to fade away, but I continue to run. Any reason like 'the trees stop its huge body' will never be enough to halt my current advance.
How familiar. Looks like I'm running away in the dark again. Yet another self-depreciating joke popped up in my mind to supply my internal guffaws.