World 101/Chapter 5 - What's That Noise?

World 101
A Short Story By: Jennie Bean

-continued-
Chapter 5 - What’s that Noise?

“Damn spiders!” Tuck exclaims.  I look at him confusingly, not understanding how spiders could make this awful noise.  He reaches in his pocket and hands me a yellow slip of paper.  It reads:

'Wisdom: In the depths of hell, beware spiders that loom.  In the halls of the devil, angry cries will bring you to your doom.'

"Come on, Ruby," Tuck says as he grabs my hand and pulls me away from the edge.  He grabs something from his pocket and throws it down.  The purple glow stone!

"Jump!" Tuck commands.  We both are now on top of the stone, and a bright purple color glows from our skin.  Our surroundings change, and it becomes brighter.  Tuck is still holding my hand and is now dragging me off the stone.  We are back up at the surface!  I look around to see my home base a few feet away.  A sense of relief washes over me, and I relax.

"How did you...?" I start as Tuck lets go of my hand and gives me another yellow slip.  It reads:

'Wisdom: The purple glow will transport you far away from danger.  Use wisely.'

Well, I guess it was wise of him, for in that moment, we had nowhere to go but down. Those spiders must be huge to make that much noise.  I briefly wonder what would kill them.  Do they have a big fly swatter for sale?

"Ruby, we need swords to fight them off,” Tuck says while looking at one of the computer vending machines.  I blush and quickly brush off my stupid thought.  Tucks sells all of his rock material and receives sacksful of coins out of the machine.  "I think I have one diamond leftover to make a sword, and I can buy a steel sword for you."

"Wait a minute, you get a diamond sword, and I get a dull looking steel one?" I protest.  I sell what material I have left and save the purple glow stone.  I realize how valuable this stone is now.  If I'm stuck, I could always escape this way.  "Welp, down the hatch I go," I say as I quickly slip through my downward chute into the cave tunnel.  I find the green rock formation on the wall I found earlier and strike it.  This has got to be worth a fortune!  With my adequate iron axe, I collect it eventually and notice more behind it.  When the green stone is depleted, there is a glow coming from the burrow I created.  Gold!

There are about a dozen decent sized nuggets, and I scoop them up.  Feeling self-assured once more, I return up the long passageway to the surface.

Tuck glares at me. “I didn’t think you’d return” he says sullenly, sitting next to a fire. It looks like he just finished making his diamond sword.  For a moment, I feel slightly bad for going off on my own like that.  After all, he did get us out of a pickle. I see the glow coming out from my bag and begin to feel giddy.  I skip over to the computer and sell my gold and green stone.  I have enough coins and buy myself two diamond swords and a titanium axe.  “I don’t need the steel sword,” I smile.

Tuck looks at me surprised with his eyebrows raised.  I hope he doesn’t underestimate me anymore.

"Wow, Ruby...So, are you ready to fight those eight legged monsters?" Tuck says, letting out a small snort.

"No, but let's get this over with," I sigh.  We hop on to the purple glow stone, and immediately return near the steps I made, trickling down to the view of lava below.

Tuck takes off his vest and begins tearing it up in long strips and twisting it.  He knots the ends together and places one end underneath the purple glow stone.  "Here, this is wool and should hold us for part of the way down," Tuck says as he hands me the end of the rope.  I toss it down the step, and it swings off the edge.  I kneel down and slowly pull the rope, testing its strength.  Tuck's knowledge about fabrics is really helping us out here; the rope is strong and could probably hold both of us.  I slip down the rope and let my feet dangle.  I look down and get a wave of vertigo.  As I steady my feet on the rope, I see the spider and become frozen on the rope.

The spider's size is about three of Tuck put together.  It is brown with red eyes and is jumping, trying to get to me.  "Rrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaghh!"

I gulp and realize Tuck is reaching down and holding on to the top of my dress.  "We can do this together," Tucks says.  I begin to feel less tense and grab my sword from my bag.  I shuffle to the bottom of the rope and decide to drop, pointing my sword straight down.  "One, two, three!" I yell.  I drop, just missing the lava pool by inches. My sword goes straight into the spiders back and kills him instantly.  I feel the spider's skin brush against me, and disgusted, I back away from it.  I turn around to see Tuck falling behind me, and his knee hits the lava.  I run over and pull him away from the pool.  I rip the bottom part of my dress and wrap it around his burn.

"Rrrragagagagggg!"

Come on!" I said anxiously, as I help him up.

Another spider approaches.  I feel so vulnerable on the ground, and this spider looks twice as big as the first.  I pull up my sword as a block and wait to see what the spider will do next.  As it jumps and launches at me, I swing the sword cutting one of his legs off. Yes, I can do this!

It retreats slowly, and I continue to strike my sword at him, slashing into his hairy brown back.  It puts its head down and becomes lifeless.  I feel something sharp behind me, and I twirl around fast.  Tuck strikes his sword so fast, flinging the spider into the lava pool. That was close; the spider was about to take a bite out of me!

"Thanks!" I smile, "Let's get away from here.  The blue brochure is below this hell."

I pick at the granite-looking stone ground and continue down.  Tuck and I collect what it seems to be hundreds of very dense materials. “How deep is it?” I ask.


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Stay tuned for the story's conclusion in Chapter 6 - How Deep Is It?

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Thank you to Total Miner for being the inspiration to my story.  Thank you to the bf and friends, who motivate me to actually do things.

World 101/Chapter 4 - Who Is That?

World 101
A Short Story By: Jennie Bean

-continued-
Chapter 4 - Who Is That?

Startled, I quickly turn around. "Help, help!" I hear.

"I'm coming! Where are you?!" I scream.  I run down the small passageway.  A few slabs of some kind of igneous rock are blocking the path, and I use my new iron axe to quickly clear them away.  I come to the end of the path, where there is a lighted torch above me.

"Hello?" I prompt in a low cautious voice.

"Hi!" he says as the loud response makes me tilt backward and drop my axe.

"Whoa, you are right behind these blocks.  Are you okay?" I ask nervously.

"I am stuck, but not hurt.  This andesite is trapping my leg and preventing me from reaching my axe," he says rather calmly.

I pick up my axe and smash the section of rock in front of me.  I spy a piece of green cloth coming out from the next block in. “Okay brace yourself,” I warn and strike the next portion of andesite.

The man in front of me is not what I expected to come out from this rubble.  He gets off his one leg with ease and gathers his fedora hat and shiny axe.  He is garbed in a green vest, white shirt, khaki pants and sandals.  I notice he has a similar watch with a blue arrow.  I look down at mine, and my spinning blue arrow has returned...Whew!  It was just the earthquake that hindered the signal.

He stands tall before me and glares down at me with his bright green eyes.  “Thank you,” he says with a slight side smile that makes me weak.  Oh dear.  I break my stare and timidly look down at my axe handle.

“What is your name?” he asks as he puts his hat on.

“I…I don’t know,” I stumble, “I don’t remember anything before I woke up in this world.”

“I guess this world really does suck you in…literally too,” he winks, “Call me Tuck.”

“Tuck…” I said, testing out his name, “Are you the survivor?”

He laughs and bends down to look at me closer, “You mean the one who placed all of the blue and yellow scrolls around here?”  I nod.  “No, I'm just an explorer here and a garment maker back home,” he looks off in deep thought.

“A garment maker?” I ask, surprised.

“I create 2-D and 3-D clothing models from a very high-tech computer application. I am exceptionally good at it,” he explains smugly.

“Neat,” I say, trying not to roll my eyes.

“Okay, Ruby, let’s find where this next arrow takes us,” Tuck says with a sigh.

“Ruby?” I ask, scrunching my forehead.

“A nickname for you,” he says confidently, eyeing me up and down.

I start to protest this harassment, but realize he is referring to my ruby red dress. Oh.

Tuck strikes the next few portions of rock material, and they disappear so quickly.  It must be the special shiny axe he has, though I wouldn't doubt his strength alone.  He continues the original path he created, and it aligns with where the arrow points.  I follow and knock some rocks down, but feel useless, as Tuck is so much faster.

"Where did you get that axe?" I ask out of curiousity.

"I made it with diamond and titanium that I found in a treasure chest.  It's pretty much invincible," Tuck smiles and continues.

"Wait, the arrow is now pointing straight down." I said, and I start building steps down off to one side.  The last rock breaks off, and there is now an opening that drops down.  "Fire!" I gasp.  There is a huge pool of hot lava partly below us, and I try not to slip off the last step.

"RRaaaarrrrroughgoughough!"  What in hell is that?

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Stay tuned for Chapter 5 - What's That Noise?

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Thank you to Total Miner for being the inspiration to my story.  Thank you to the bf and friends, who motivate me to actually do things.