I've updated this chapter, its a bit different now so it might feel strange with the next chapter, if you see this

  UPDATED, on the next chapter, it should be fine.

  Chapter 1: The Beginning

  Life can be a cruel thing. I’ve known that all my life. His thoughts pour out of him, like an open faucet, as he remembers his life up to the very moment he finds himself in. He remembers his mother, his terrifying mother, the woman who ruined him. The thought makes him seethe with anger.

  "STOP!! FOLLOWING ME!!" He yells at the sound of running footsteps, with each second that passes, the sound grows closer and closer.

  Adventurers, he thought, I don’t know why they are after me, but one of them is certainly a woman.

  The ordinarily dark cave begins to light up red, with It, a stream of heat. The creature turns around to see’s four things. A large ball of fire, covering nearly the entire hallway, the next thing he sees is a small child running towards the ball of fire, and finally, he sees, a woman and man chasing after the girl.

  The girl had summoned a ball of fire so that she could see the hallway, she is clever, far more intelligent than an ordinary child, but her heart betrays her, it was beating fast, her mind, rampant with hundreds of thoughts. Thoughts of her parents, thoughts of their safety, and thoughts of her dear friend who was still in a dangerous place. She wants to save them, but how can she, when she can’t even save herself?

  In the distance, the monster sees, a large hole, the bottom nowhere to be seen. The monster tries to stop, but then remembers the fireball, the monster jumps into the hole, making sure to grab hold of the stone floor beforehand.

  Swizzz, the fire passes him, he gives a sigh of relief, imagining what would have happened if he had jumped a second later. He sees the adventurers roasting Marshmallows over his roasted corpse.

  The footsteps grow closer, they aren’t stopping like he did. Do they have some way of jumping over this hole? As he thought this, the little girl falls into the hole, her eyes open with fright the moment she realizes that she has stepped onto nothing. She tries to grab hold of the stone, to find wooden branches dangling about. She doesn’t question why there are branches near the hole, nor does she think of the monster that had been ahead of them only a few seconds before. She can't afford to think of that, instead, she grips tightly on the branches, with all her might, shutting her eyes in fear of the Adventurers that would surely find her.

  "Ahh!!!" A scream fills the dark hole, then a second scream. The young girl feels her leg yanked by a strong hand, the man's weight is too much for such a small girl, her hand begins to loosen its grip on the branch. Her tears start to sear her cheeks.

  I want to see my mama and papa again, she makes her final plea to gods, as her hands slip off the branches, her body falls into the darkness.

  The adventure lets go of her realizing that now they were both going to die. He tries to listen for the girl’s screams, but it doesn’t come.

  He didn't know it why, how could he? The Girl was safe, she didn't fall into the dark abyss like they had; because at the last moment as she felt her body drop, her arm was grabbed onto by branches, they coiled around her arm. She nearly screamed as she heard her arm make a popping sound, but she stood silent, in fear of what had taken hold of her.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Her dark vision is weaker than most, but she can identify walls and some shade of grey. She can see the monster in front of her. It is made of splintered wood mashed in some horrid way, its only organs a beating heart at the center and its eyes, held by a vein of wood, towered above, peering at her.

  It is the monster, he grabbed hold of her before she could fall. He couldn’t watch and let a child die, it is against his nature, against the job he had in his previous life.

  He looks at her, wondering if he should let go or save her.

  She is only a child, he tells himself, but she will grow up to be a woman.

  Women can't be trusted, they will hurt others.

  That’s a ridiculous notion, and you know it!! Save her!!

  NO!! what if she hurts someone when she is older.

  Then I’ll deal with it then.

  Save her, what if she is good? What if she is like...

  There is no one like her. The monster stops his conversation, the mention of her disturbs him. The exception to the rule. The only good Woman, though she was still considered a girl at that time.

  The monster begins to lift the child out of the abyss and into the equally dark pathway.

  The girl whimpers as she softly rubs her arm, it hurt so much, all she can think to do is hold it to soothe the pain.

  The monster knows what has happened. Her should is dislocated, he thought, when I grabbed her arm, her body must have pulled it hard enough to dislocate it. The monster learned the Human Anatomy, and that of many other animals, in his previous life, he wasn't the best of his class, but he is the only one to retain the information for this long.

  The monster reaches for the girl, she flinches, her tears fall thicker than before. He tendril gently wraps itself around her should, the girl feels as sharp pain and she yelps with a "Agh!" , the pain quickly subsides.

  He saved me, she thinks, as she looks at her shoulder. The pain is gone, but it’s still sore.

  The monster, now content with his job, begins to walk off into the dungeon halls. His stomach growled, as his eyes searched for a poor monster rabbit to appear before him. It is what has been sustaining him for the 6 days he's been in the dungeon. At first, he was scared, but now, he almost felt comfortable in the dungeon halls, shrouded in darkness. Life wasn't too hard, he hunted for food and ran from stronger monsters, it is simple, far simpler than life with others.

  “mei hal!!” the sudden scream, makes the monster turn his eyes towards its origin; the little girl looks at him, the monster almost giggles as he sees her struggling to make eye contact. He knew his body is now that of a monster, but he didn’t think the reaction would be this strong.

  "Sei thaes, ji." The monster intertwines his wood, forming something resembling a human face. The girl jumps backward, not expecting such sophisticated movements from a monster of such a low intellect. The face looked at her, tilting the head to one side. A near-universal sign meaning "I don't understand." She didn't expect it to understand, she didn't expect it to respond. The monster before her isn't normal, it didn't hurt her, it even helped her, it saved her.

  “ha sem ji roa” She says as she points to herself and then to it, asking if she could go with it.

  The monster responds in kind. "No" of course he doesn't actually speak, to him, speaking is making clacking sounds with the wooden tendrils near his eyes. It terrified the girl because all she sees is the human-like face split in half and clack as it opens and closes shut.

  His words aren't lost on her because in the same moment as his speech, he points to her with a human hand, that he forms using wood, and then points to the opposite direction of the monster. Then he points to himself and points to a different direction.

  His meaning is clear, “Let’s go our separate ways”

  The little girl stands her ground, she shakes her head and walks close to the monster, grabs the human hand, looking him straight into its bright green eyes.

  The monster responds by lifting her by her hand, moving her face close to his.

  If refusing her doesn’t get her to listen, I know what will, the monster thinks as he begins to change his face into something more monstrous.

  His new face is filled with jagged teeth, its nose sharp, his eyes shifting into an expression of anger.

  “he, hehe” The girl begins laughing, counter to the monster’s expectations.

  Why is she? He thinks, I thought that that would work, look at her, laughing like an idiot, what if I tried to eat her?

  The monster puts the girl down In surrender and nods with his newly made face.

  “I guess I have to get her safely out of here now.” the monsters frowns, knowing that his peaceful days of slaughtering monster rabbits for food are over.