Fateful Encounter

*GASSSPPPP!!!!!!!!*

"Wha!!".

I hurried myself off my sleeping position as I questioned with confusion about what was going on.

"(×××)"

I heard a voice speak in a foreign tone, and sharply, I sprung my body to the side before anything else.

Once I was sure I had made a distance between myself and the voice, that was when I took the leverage to see who spoke.

A pale brownish withered skin tone with the face of a tube-nosed bat with a humanoid body, standing at a height of four feet and a body mass comparable to a four-year-old.

It was ugly. I know that I had always referred to myself as ugly, but trust me when I say that my ugliness does not even begin to compare with what was in front of me.

It was as though I was staring at the ultimate abomination brought personally from hell.

When creations were being made, this being was not among the set. Rather, it was specifically designed, and crafted in a way that it would garner fear and hate from people whenever they look at it.

And i... I was one of those people.

Damn I was terrified out of my wits, and a burning crave to scream at the top of my lungs.

I quickly surveyed my surroundings, in search of a way out. I was too much In a hurry to pay attention to details, only going after my goal of looking for a way out.

And yes, I saw a way out, but It was not In a suitable position.

My only way out of this cramped hole I have been brought into is past the entity that is currently staring at me with those big eyes that look like they might pop out at any moment.

I never even bothered to think about how I got here in the first place.

What occupied my mind was getting out of here, and that I shall do.

Before the being could even react, I rushed past it and toward the entrance.

I saw its body twitch, and its hand stretched out about to stop me from moving. That was more than enough to motivate me to increase my speed.

I was quick, faster than the being could react to as I swiftly moved past it and got to the entrance.

I made no stops, not until I was sure I was in a safe position.

When I got out of the hole, I had planned to keep on running until I was in a safe place, which was far away from the being.

How wrong could I have been?...

Like I aimed for, I got to the entrance and was able to pass through it to get to whatever lies in wait.

However, what lies in wait for me on the other side? What I was faced with was a situation that had me perplexed, and at an utter loss for words.

Incredibly, I have yet to exhaust my brain and faint from all this mental exhaustion I am being put through by the situation.

What is it? What could have me so mentally exhausted when I haven't even done anything exhausting just yet?...

It is honestly not much, just the thought of being amid more of those scary being than I can count.

The same being that I tried to run away from is the same creatures that are lined up in front of me, occupying the spaces ahead as they all fixated their gazes on me.

I was being treated like an exhibition, a priced jewel that they are seeing for the first time.

At first, I was extremely terrified of them, but being awake for this long was enough time for me to notice the way they acted toward me.

They look terrifying, and feel terrifying, but are not doing anything terrifying.

If staring so observingly at me is a crime, then maybe yes they have done something terrifying.

But no, it isn't.

'What's their deal?...'.

At this point, I was beginning to question the validation of my surroundings and come to terms that some things were way out of place and needed proper restructuring.

First, I started with my surroundings. I needed to know where I was.

I see tall trees around me, the same kind I had been familiar with since my appearance in this world.

That was evident that I was still in the forest. Or at least somewhere with a similar setting to the forest I ended up in.

If there is anything that needs pointing out from the usual scene I am used to in the forest, it should be the hut houses built on the land, in a specific clearing.

The huts are poorly built with straps as their building materials, left with holes and parchments.

I am assuming those hut houses belong to the weird creatures in front of me.

This is merely an assumption based on the size of the huts along with the creature's body size. Including the number of huts and creatures present.

That number seems to clash, though it just might be my sight deluding me into thinking that.

I am still not in tip-top shape, so my way of reasoning can turn out distorted depending on how I view things.

Now that I had remembered where I was, it was time I focused on what exactly brought me here. How I came to be in their midst.

All the while, I was still standing at the entrance of the hut I came out from.

It is not as if I had no intentions of leaving there, but rather I couldn't.

The roads ahead have been blocked by the observing creatures. Attempting to leave the scene would mean having to squeeze my body through the crowd.

I preferred to take my chances the way I am, more so than going out there being in their very midst, our bodies rubbing against each other.

'!!!'.

It struck me while I was still a bit confused. I should have been dead!

I had just remembered what happened to me. In the presence of the macro Scorpio, I passed out after getting a hole drilled in both arms by its stinger.

Hurriedly, before anything else, I raised both hands to see how bad the hole had gotten.