The Path of Giants by B.T. Narro (best novels to read .txt) 📕

It was time to admit that she had been wrong.

She dusted off the sticky golden dirt from her gray tunic. Then she used her fingers to brush it out of her black hair as best she could.

Now what? she asked herself. What am I supposed to do now?

There was a sound of something large moving across the forest. She darted behind the nearest tree and poked her head out for a look. It was a lumbering beast on four legs, fur the color of wildfire. She hurried back behind the tree after just a glance, not wanting it to see her. She felt vibrations through her body as the giant thing moved away.

She didn’t want to stay here next to the portal, but she felt even worse about walking away from it. What if she got lost? Valinox had said he would come back for her, but would he know to look for her here in Fyrren?

She had to admit to herself that he might never help her again, even if he did come to Fyrren. So she wasn’t going to stand around here waiting for him.

She decided to walk in the opposite direction from the large beast. There seemed to be a clearing a ways ahead, perhaps an end to the forest, or it might just be a river.

The dirt felt light, more like sand than the dense dirt of Curdith Forest. It seemed to settle more like sand as well, animal tracks showing up much more clearly. She realized this only later when she saw long squiggly lines as if snakes had come through here.

It wasn’t a moment later that she thought she heard something moving on the ground behind her. She turned around as a golden snake, the same color as the dirt, jumped at her face.

“Ah!”

Eden jumped back as she made a square of dteria in front of her head. The snake’s bite was blocked, giving her an up close view of its fangs stuck in her clear energy before it fell back to the ground. It jumped at her again as soon as it landed, but she was more ready this time. She hit it with a blast of dteria, sending it soaring away.

She ran the opposite way, again toward what looked to be an end to the trees, but it was a long way. She eventually came to a stop, turned around, and waited. She didn’t hear or sense anything. There was just the sound of her loud breathing.

She reminded herself of the direction of the portal, then continued toward the clearing. After just a short time, however, she seemed to sense something to her side.

All she saw was a strange-looking bush shaped like a mattress. It didn’t seem to be made of leaves but some other material, dense and appearing strong enough to support her if she was to lie on it. It looked soft as well, comfortable. She thought about taking a moment to rest on it, but she didn’t trust this forest. Something could sneak up on her.

Suddenly, the mattress of leaves morphed into a many-legged animal that darted toward her. It resembled a spider but with a square body. Eden shrieked as she ran away.

The creature was much slower than her, bumbling about and eventually falling over itself. It seemed to give up after that, walking back the way it had come.

She stopped there to catch her breath. Soon, she heard something, like wind but softer and more localized. She turned toward the sound, in the direction she had blasted away the snake. It looked as if the golden forest floor was undulating.

She cursed as she realized what it was. A river of snakes was headed straight for her.

Eden ran her fastest toward the clearing. She wasn’t going to stop this time until she made it there. It was a long run, forcing her to slow halfway there. She was struggling for breath by the time she made it.

The trees did come to an end, but all there was before her now was ocean and sky. She checked over her shoulder. Not finding anything coming for her, she took another moment to look out across the ocean far below.

It was vast. She couldn’t find a speck of land anywhere in sight. Something resembling an eel, but so much bigger, jutted out of the water. It made half loops with its body emerging from the sea. She couldn’t see its face, and she didn’t want to. It seemed to be longer than any boat she had ever seen.

Eden backed away from the edge. She felt a prickle down her back as she sensed movement again. Scanning the ground, she found a rock just smaller than her hand and picked it up.

The sound of a few snakes spread around her.

“Come out you bastards!”

But then she saw just how many there were.

“Ah! Help!” she screamed.

With the long drop into the sea behind her, every other route was blocked by dozens of snakes. She scanned the forest but saw no other life.

She looked over her shoulder once again. She nearly jumped, but she stopped herself as she remembered the enormous eel she had seen. Even if she survived the fall into the water without breaking anything, she didn’t know what lurked below.

Her survival instincts kicked in as she blasted a swarm of snakes to her left, knocking a few of them straight off the cliff. One snake jumped at her, but she managed to get the rock up in front of her face and felt the thud from the other side.

Two more dove at her head. She ducked and didn’t have to worry about them anymore as they fell off the cliff.

The rest were nearly at her ankles, but the snakes all seemed to be hesitating now. It was as if all of them were waiting for another snake to make the first move now that so many had fallen.

No, she was wrong, she realized, as she saw