If there's an octopuse down there...

I took a few steps back. Readying myself for the plunge once more. This time at least having a moment to prepare rather than doing it out if desperation. I could see the ledge, see the bottom, see the water below. What must have been a sixty-seventy foot drop straight down into a small lake. A lake with Eros knows how many large ass rocks now sitting rifht where I'd land...

No, no time to think like. Right now they think you're dead. Right now Mors and Nori are running back to the village expecting you to show back up any moment. To appear like a hero in some story. No time to think about the nump. The bottom. The impact. Time to go.

I launched into a full on sprint. Running as hard and as fast as iI could. Needing to clear the rocks. To get as far away from the cliff face as possible. Planting my feet at the edge I sent my body flying. The highest I'd ever jumped off was only twenty feet, at most. Jumping off of a rock on the river. Now, in a single day I'd beaten that record handedly. The first, an unknown distance, but it took me several seconds to hit the bottom. The second, tripling my record, easily. One hell of a story at least.

The water came quicker than I'd hoped. Quicker than I anticipated. Just before hitting the water I bring my legs together, cross my arms, brace for impact with a boulder the size of a Volkswagen. Only to find nothing of the sort. Instead I plunged into cool water, blue and clear, sinking down what must have been a hundred feet and never once touching the bottom. Of course it only felt so, but I still never touched the bottom of the pool. It **** me to swim back up the hard way. Struggling for what little distance I could make with one leg still being numb.

As I break through the surface once more I dont feel anything dragging me back down. No abyssal horror beyond my understanding. No giant beast. Instead I'm met with thick forest surrounding the water on three sides. Behind me I can hear rocks still falling. Other than that, silence. Probably because of the explosion.

Once onto the shore I took the moment to examine my leg. Blood still trickling through the wounds imposed by the abyssal beast. On the positive side my leg had just started to regain feeling. Though weak, it also brought with it a metric shit ton of pain. All the cuts in my skin burning as if they'd been lit on fire. It almost made me wish the numbing toxin had stayed in place.

After cleaning off my wounds once more I had to keep moving. Finding a large stick nearby I used it to keep weight off my leg. I hoped that the century long hike through the cave hadn't done irreversible damage to my muscles. Especially without any healing ability or potions. Just suffering until I can get back to civilization. Fucking beautiful. Exactly how a simple quest is supposed to go. Find a kid, save a kid, almost die multiple times. What else could go wrong?

And of course something just had to. Not twenty minutes into my leisurely stroll through the quarry forest I started to hear the sound of brush being trampled. Something massive crushing everything underfoot. The worst part, it seemed to be following me. Edging closer and closer every minute, yet at no point did I see anything. Whatever stalked me knew to hide. Knew to avoid me. That denoted intelligence, danger. Something too smart to be a dumb beast.

It tracked me for almost an hour before i had to finally stop to rest. My leg was throbbing, the muscles torn and abused. The numbing sensation long gone and replaced by red hot pokers all over the place. Least it didn't kill me, i thought to myself. Could be that bit worse. Yet i still had that sound of massive feet crushing everything under them.

I dropped. I had to. My leg was shot, my arms were tired from having to use the stick to hobble along. My back ached from the attack earkier that knocked me out. All I could do is collapse down onto a large, moss covered, log and wait for whatever monster waited just out of view to make its debut. To launch into an attack I'd have no hope of surviving.

"Just come out already! Get it over with!" I yelled out at whatever stalked just out of sight. Whatever knew to keep its distance while making sure to keep me under watch. "God dammit! Just get it over with!"