vitriolic

malign

    after walking for hours, you finally managed to make it to dadaupa gorge, where you know a hilichurl tribe stays. your feet hurt like hell, and you still felt some phantom pains in your leg from the arrow, but you had made it and that's all that matters.

   you walked slowly and carefully so as not to disturb any of them, but your plan was foiled when a twig, that you couldn't see in the dark, snapped under your weight. while you looked up in shock, all the hilichurls drowsily sat up.

   "olah unu!" one of them shouted at you. "um, hi! i'm not sure what that means, but can i stay with you guys for a while?"

   "yo mosi mita!" said a different hilichurl this time, before handing you a bowl of soup with large chunks of meat in it. "i'll take that as a yes. thank you."

   "ya odomu!" as soon as the hilichurl, that you had affectionately dubbed kari, got done speaking, a cryo abyss mage came out of the large wooden structure at the end of the camp. it didn't look surprised at all when it saw you, almost as if it was expecting to.

   "your grace, we have been expecting your arrival." the mage said, while bowing. "excuse me?" it seems you just get more questions the more answers they give you.

   instead of answering your questions there, it took your hand and led you into the structure it had just come out of.

   after you had been told multiple legends and myths about a creator that looked exactly like you, you were to stunned to speak. "i can't believe those humans couldn't even recognize their own creator." the way it said humans was admittedly a bit unsettling, but considering how it had been one of the first creatures to show you any form of kindness, you decided it was probably correct in the way it views humans in this world.

   "well, it's getting pretty late, i should probably get some sleep. is there anywhere i can lay down for the night?" you decide to not bring up the fact that you're human as well.

   "yes of course, we will always make room for you, your grace." it then led you to a small space on the opposite side of the structure, and told you where everything else was.

   you settle down on the surprisingly comfortable bed, and manage to fall into a fitful sleep.

    after the most stressful day of your life, you were hoping to wake up and find out it was just some wildly terrifying dream, and then you could delete the dumb game from your computer, and never have to think about this again. but, sadly, when you opened your eyes in the morning you were still in this hellish nightmare.

   you sat up and stretched out all of your sore muscles, then made your way outside to see what was going on with your hilichurl friends. what you saw when you got to the top of the stairs almost made you change your mind about this world being horrible. there were a few hilichurls sat around a table, with some mitachurls and sana hurls cooking around a large pot.

   you didn't have long to take in the comforting atmosphere before the abyss mage from last night noticed you and let everyone know that you had arrived. soon, a hilichurl came to escort you to your place at the head of the table.

   after you all ate breakfast, the abyss mage came to talk to you about finding a better spot to hide out while the abyss came up with a plan to expose the true impostor that had taken over the throne. you were admittedly still pretty uncomfortable with the whole god thing, but if it kept the monster who decided to hunt a person for sport from making decisions, you would do anything.

   it was soon decided that you would be moved to liyue, where a couple more mages would be waiting for you. the plan was to wait one more night while the preparations were made, and then you'd be hidden in a shipment of cargo that was headed the same direction you were going.

   at nightfall, the mage brought you to a secluded lake, and told you to wash up while it found some clean clothes so you could change out of the blood covered ones you were in. when you asked where it got the clothes however, it just said they had been left behind by an adventurer.

   you knew it was lying, but decided you didn't care how you got new clothes, as long as you could stop the nauseating feeling of dried blood covering your skin. upon closer inspection, you saw that the mage had added an extra cloak with a hood, and a mask so you could conceal your identity while making the long trip.

   tired from two day's worth of fear, suspense, and barely any sleep, you sluggishly made your way back to the wooden structure with your bed, and fell asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow.