Cast Out (Book 1 Done; Book 2 In-Progress)

Chapter 4: Part 2

Wahshi POV

"YOU HAVE FAILED!!"

The words rang out like a gong, echoing in our ears and reverberating throughout the forest. We all looked around, searching for the owner of the voice that had said that.

Scanning the area, I didn't see anyone that could've have said anything. The only things around us were a lot of plants, vines and trees.

A LOT of trees now that I think about it.

'There's something not right here.' I mused. 'Were there always this many trees around us?'

Yes, it was a forest. I knew that, and it was completely obvious. But looking around, I realized that the number of trees around us was ridiculous!

Huge trees surrounded us on all sides, without even an inch of space between them! Vines hung down from their branches in thick ropes and the grass had grown 3 feet tall where it neared the trees!

The thing that tipped me off that something was wrong was the most glaring fact. We were suddenly in another clearing!

'Sh*t!' I cursed in my head. The other things might have been coincidences, but the fact that we were in a clearing sealed the deal for me. Why? BECAUSE WE WEREN'T IN ONE A FEW MOMENTS AGO!

It was completely obvious. Whatever or whoever had done all this had us completely surrounded. We were in a clearing with nothing to use for cover, with no rough terrain, rocks or trees in the clearing that we could make use of.

All of our paths to escape were gone. Huge trees surround us on all sides, with no space in between them. 'If I hadn't been convinced before that there's trouble, I am now. There's no way that's natural.'

We wouldn't even have the chance to worry about that though, if we couldn't even get past the grass that was half our height. The expression "blades of grass" didn't seem like just an expression with this particular species of grass. Even though they swayed just like normal grass would, parts of them were rigid looked sharper than Zhang's sword.

That, and the fact that there was no wind to make the grass sway clued me in to the fact that going into the midst of that was not a good idea. Even if it did turn out to be normal grass that had grown tall, it was big enough that thinking monsters might appear there might not just be my paranoia.

Mysterious, dangerous surroundings? Check.

All paths of escape? Check.

Mysterious, loud booming voice? Check.

All of this info flooded my brain in only a few seconds, and it didn't look like it was going to be an easy fight for those three. Especially since I'm here, and they'll at the very least try to make sure I don't die.

None of this was looking like something I can even remotely handle. But if something's trying to take me down, I'm taking one of whatever it is, with me.

My eyes darted around, and it looked like no one was paying attention to me.

Good.

I wasn't sure what it would look like to them if I accessed any player abilities, but I didn't want to risk it. On the off-chance that doing something like that could be recognized by other people, it was better to do everything as discreet as possible.

Calling up the [inventory] with my mind, I quickly took stock of what I had. There really wasn't much.

1 iron dagger. 10 copper pieces. 5 pieces of stale bread.