Get exploring

I sat there, on my scuffed knees and scraped hands staring down onto the ancient metal signage. I was more confused than anything. Baffled by how a zoo that was over a hundred miles away from me was only a couple dozen. Had I been transported somehow? Had the zoo itself been moved? I didn't know. I couldn't know. So I knelt over the metal sign unable to really comprehend what I was looking at. I couldn't make sense of it. I knelt there, confused and screaming in my own mind before I finally registered another voice calling out to me.

"Sir! Sir! Are you alright!?" It took me a moment to recognize Mors calling down to me. As I looked up I could barely see the shadow of an outline looking down the hole. Blocking out the sun.

"I'm fine, Mors! Just... slipped. I'm alright! Back off of the hole a bit! You're blocking the light!" I pushed myself off of the ground as I finally, really, took in the area I had found myself in. Large, easily hundreds of feet in any direction. There were different areas sectioned off within the space. Most of them buried in rubble, or little more than more steep drop offs. It took me a few minutes of walking around before I had realized, they were enclosures. I really had found myself in the zoo, somehow. I didn't recognize any of it, at first. It seemed as if the zoo had been swallowed whole, compressed, and buried for a thousand thousand life times. Looking up once again I could see why most of the space hadn't been opened up to the outside world. Thick tree roots made up most of the ceiling, where the stone gave way. The walls themselves were massive, utterly massive, slabs of stone. Flat and impossible to climb. I silently thanked Mors for giving me the rope. Without that, I really wouldn't be able to climb anything around here.

I **** myself to keep walking as the reality set in. Somehow, either I or the zoo had been transported hundreds of miles. That, or the entire damn continent had been smashed together and rearranged. None of which brought me any comfort. I **** myself to keep walking, I followed the stony paths that had been formed over countless centuries. Though, I didn't care to think about what had formed them. Not when the path itself was so large, nearly ten feet wide at its narrowest, almost twice that at the widest. I peered into the enclosures as I walked. Almost all of them completely destroyed, or flooded entirely. I could see fish, eels, and even more swimming in some of the larger flooded spots. I couldn't make out what any of the exhibits were. There weren't anymore signs to guide me. Whatever had saved the zoo sign hadn't been so lenient with the other exhibits.

I continued to walk for sometime before I found one large exhibit that had survived far better than any of the others. The walls that once held the animals in was in shambles in most spots. It was still in ruins, but the water hadn't flooded it, or the rocks hadn't buried it. Instead... instead something else covered the floor. Countless bones littered the ground. skulls from any animal I could think of, spines that had been snapped in unnatural angles, and anything else I could imagine. The entire floor of the enclosure was buried in skeletons that had been torn a part. Limb from limb, and then some.

I stared down into the hole as I tried to fathom what I was looking at. Some kind of kill pit, or maybe... a den. Fuck, it was a den alright. The whole damn area was just a dining hall for whatever had decided to enjoy many long feasts. As the realization came to me I **** myself to step back. I had done plenty of exploring for a single day. I didn't get more than a few feet away though before I heard a hard slapping sound against the stony floor. I spun on my heels and drew my sword. Not more than a twenty or so feet away stood some kind of, well, a dinosaur. I couldn't think of any other way to explain what I was seeing. Roughly the size of a large crocodile, with even more spikes. Long and painful looking teeth lined it's lipless mouth. Eyes sat on either side of it's impressively large head. Two tall horns jutted out of each from shoulder. With three long rows of jagged spikes that traveled all the way down from it's head to the end of it's tail. Its feet were wide and tipped with a splayed out set of toes ending in long talons. Whatever this damn thing was, it had my number.

In a past life I wasn't exactly a zoologist, but I could tell this thing didn't come from an alligator. They went millions of years without change, what's a few more. No, this thing had to come from something else. Some other large reptile. In the moment I didn't have any idea, but after a long while I realized what it may have been from. This beast of a lizard was a Komodo Dragon, or at least it's great, great, a million greats, grandchild.

With my sword drawn I held it in front of me, I waited for the impending attack. I braced for whatever was coming. I tried to, at least. I held my sword out in front of me in anticipation when something I wasn't planning for happened instead. In an instant my leg felt on fire. A sudden searing agony that pushed far beyond the pain dulling affect that Eros had put in affect. For the first time since he had altered me I felt true pain for the first time, rather than discomfort. In a frantic attempt I swung my sword down at the smaller lizard that had latched onto my leg. It's fangs dug deep into my calf. I could feel the flames radiating from the bite. My nerves were on fire from my foot to my upper thigh. Everything on my left side felt as if I had bathed in magma.

I swung my sword down at the beagle sized beast as hard as I could. Trying to break it's hold on me in any way I could. Not until finally managed to embed the blade in it's scaly neck did it finally break off of me. The sword only dug in a few inches, not even enough to a kill the beast. Though I was immediately thankful for it letting me go. It took a few tugs but I managed to tear the sword out and go back into a ready stance. I attempted to, at least. Instead I stumbled back and fell down to one knee. One throbbing knee. I had to use the sword to stand back up before the smaller creature tried to go at me again. With it in my sight that time, I was able to slash at it's neck again. Barely accomplishing a glancing blow. Its hard scales making my blade miss completely. Though I was able to at least stop its attack.

With the juvenile beast deflected I decided to not press my luck. If my sword was that useless there was no point in trying to fight the pair of them off. Rather than throw my life away like an idiot, I decided to run, limp, away as fast as I could. When I looked back the adult lizard hadn't bothered to move. Likely letting the hatching give it's best shot. I thought back on the event later. They weren't in any rush. Kamodos hunt by biting and waiting for their prey to grow too weak to fight, or die. The adult was just waiting for me to fall over dead at any moment.

I ran as fast as I could deeper into the system. Deeper into the zoo until I saw a small crack in the stone work. The only reason being the soft glow emanating from the crevice. When I looked in it was a strange sight. Not until I managed to squeeze in did I realize what I was looking at. A fossilized, in lack for a better term, security office. The now long gone monitors were covered in crystal. The desk had become incased in stone. Even the security equipment had been coated in crystal or rock. Blocks of stone that looked vaguely like radios or the lockers that were completely swallowed by thousands of years worth of glowing crystals. It was incredible, if mildly sobering.

I slumped back against the wall of the space as I sat my bag down next to me. With the moment of peace I looked at my leg. still bleeding profusely. Every passing moment my body screamed more and more. If not for the changes from Eros I would have been doing so as well. Screaming until my lungs caved, rather than doing so internally. I peeled the pant leg up until I could finally see the damage the little demon had inflicted. Large puncture wounds all over my calf from it's bite. What concerned my the most, however, was the sickening color. A deep, gangrenous green. Far worse than what had happened to the boy, Bry. The only thing I could think of was the fact that our attackers were different. He had gotten bit by an adult, while I was attacked by a younger one. It had injected me with everything it had.

I didn't see a way out of it. I opened up my bag and pulled out the last of my health potion. One or two final gulps. I just hoped it was enough to at least stop the poison from taking me out. I raised it up to my lips and took a long chug. Leaving maybe a shot or two left at the bottom of the bottle. Barely enough to heal a scratch. Nowhere near enough to help me again if I needed it. The worst part wasn't the lack of potion left over. Nor the pain that persisted after I chugged it. No, the worst part, by far... was that it tasted exactly like licorice.