Tales of Juniper Davidson: The Sword of Biremes

Chapter 13

I hated being sad. I hated crying. I hated those moments when my chest would constrict and my vision would start to swim.

I hated that I was in an entirely different world, all by myself. I hated that I had no idea what was going to come next. I hated that I had no survival skills whatsoever.

This was why I always pretended to be so bubbly. I hated this weak and fragile side of me.

I wished that I was back at home with my boring, mundane life. I wish I was back to my predictable livelihood.

I slapped my cheeks until they were rosy. "You will not think negatively. This is your life now. All you have to do is survive." I spoke a few words of encouragement to myself.

"You need to stop depending on that Lawson kid." I curled my hand into a fist.

"You need to stop being so weak." I swung my fist back.

"You need to survive." I propelled my fist forward toward a tree trunk.

I hit the tree with a weak punch.

"Oh who am I kidding?"

I swung around so that my back was facing the trunk before sliding down in defeat.

I stuck my hands in my pocket and felt something. I grabbed it and took out the hilt– the thing that started it all.

I had completely forgot about it.

I took it out and fingered the jewels that was encrusted into it.

"Why am I here?" I thought aloud while raising the hilt up to the light.

The light danced around the hilt. Sparks of rainbow reflected onto my hand and on its surroundings.

I gave out a large sigh before standing up.

"What am I doing?" I questioned as I made a swinging motion with my arms.

"Why am I dwelling on self pity?" I did a little twirl.

"I am better than this!" I leaped into the air.

"I will survi–!" I knocked into a tree and fell to the ground once more.

I looked down and rubbed my aching head to relieve the pain. "That's what I get for trying to do ballet." I muttered to myself.

I looked back up and doubled over in shock. The trees that were around me were all cut into cube-like pieces.

"What the heck?" I exclaimed. "What just happened?!"

Movement to my right caught my eye. Over in the distance was a blur coming towards me. I squinted my eyes to see more clearly.

I gasped. A hoard of beasts were coming towards me.

I stood still for a moment before adrenaline started pumping into my veins once more.

"Gosh darn it!" I yelled as I ran to the clearing where Lawson was.

As I neared our makeshift campsite I called out to him.

"Lawson!"

He ignored me and went back to cooking the poor rabbit that he killed.

Oh heck no.

I ran up to him and smacked the rabbit out of his hands and into the fire before running over to the tree I was resting and grabbing my backpack.

"What the heck, woman!" Lawson yelled. I noticed he wasn't calling each any of the pet names he came up with but didn't comment.

I grabbed his hand and started running.

"No time to explain! We have to run!"

He gave me an incredulous look.

"What did you do this time!?" I ignored him and kept on running.

A loud roar shook the ground. I looked back to catch a glimpse of a huge creature towering over the large trees. It's red eyes flashed dangerously as they trained on the two of us. We must have looked like ants.

This creature had the face of an angry goat with a halo of fur. It's arms were thick and muscular, and it's legs were like a dragon's. It's tail separated into three sections, and each of them had a thick plate of spikes.

"You angered a Chanbium?" I heard from Lawson. "I thought you wanted to look at flowers!"

Another roar shook the ground as another beast joined this Chanbium thing.

"And a Merliya!?"

This beast was blue with greenish scales blossoming from its chest down. Fangs could clearly be seen from its mouth.

A bunch of wolves with specks of gold scattered across their fur seemed to be flying with a gold trail behind them directly towards us at an alarming speed.

"And a pack of Wolvoles!?"

I stopped running for a bit before raising an eyebrow. "You mean wolves."

He looked at me as if I was crazy. "We are not in your home planet, June. Those creatures are called wolvoles. They can fly." He said slowly–like one would do to a small child.

I gave a minuscule smile before saying softly, "That's right. I'm not home."

A small growl snapped us out of it. Lawson grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me down to the ground just as a wolvole lunged at us.

This time, Lawson was the one leading. Not me.

The forest around us blurred as we ran. Lawson maneuvered the two of us under tree branches and through vines with precision and accuracy.

Suddenly, he pushed me away just as a large black claw crushed the area I was in. I looked up and saw the Chanbium inhale before bellowing out a cyclone towards Lawson.

Lawson was propelled into the air and whisked away by the Chanbium's breath.

I had no idea how it could bellow out a cyclone. I mean, it could have just been a simple monster and puff out air. But no. It needed to be special and go against the laws of logic.

A thought struck me.

I was now alone.

I had to face all of these monsters by myself.

I looked down at the hilt in my hand, and my eyes narrowed. I got into a fighting position. My dominant arm held the hilt in front of me while my other arm hung by my side. My feet were shoulder length apart and were bending slightly.

I was ready.

The Wolvoles howled. The Chanbium roared, and the Merliya hissed.

I smirked.

Bring it on.