Bird's heart sounded like thunder in his chest. He was leaning against one of the walls in the cave, numb from his neck down. His head, however, was awake and thinking rapidly.
'Calm down, I need to calm down. Soon Sleeper will be here to take us. If I don't calm down soon, this whole trap will be ruined.'
After a few minutes of dreadful silence, the sound of six pattering arms could be heard approaching. Sleeper had finally entered the room. He took no time to dwindle, immediately going to Leonis and picking him up with one of his middle arms. Bird could hear the pebbles moving in the cave; his breath was shaky and heavy, not like someone who was supposed to be sleeping.
'Calm down, damn it! Breath in. . . Breath in . . Breath out.'
He was desperately trying to regulate his breathing before Sleeper came to grab him. Slowly, Bird's breath started to wane. He could hear Sleeper's deep breath closing in on him. He imagined a grotesque demon with hundreds of legs climbing the wall to grab him.
Bird was not too far off. Sleeper used its six arms to scale the ledge. You could hear its fingers tapping the stone individually. Sleeper then scooped Bird into its other middle arm and started to leave the room.
Bird noticed that Sleeper was oddly slow, but deadly precise in all of its actions. It never seemed to waste time; the creature clearly took pleasure in its sinister game. Bird had a feeling the creature would have been extremely difficult to kill if they had fought it head-on. Thinking about this, Bird felt a little relieved before realising he had not even seen Sleeper, nor did he know how far in the cave they were. With these thoughts on his mind, Bird chose to open his eyes for a brief moment to assess their situation.
Bird started mentally preparing himself for the horrors he was going to see.
'No matter what, I cannot be startled. I will stay strong. You will stay strong. Come on!'
Right before opening his eyes, he stopped. Something was off. In that moment before opening his eyes, Bird's instincts took full control of his body. They sent piercing signals through his mind.
"Do not open your eyes."
Bird felt that if he had opened his eyes, both Leonis and Bird would have ended up as heaping piles of flesh, left to be devoured by Sleeper. Whether this would have happened or not will never be known, but to Bird, he had just saved his and Leonis's lives.
Bird decided that he would wait until the temperature of the cave shifted to open his eyes and carry out the plan. Minutes passed in silence, then hours. To pass this time, Bird had started to repeat the plan over and over in his head.
'Aim for the eyes, stab, retreat. Aim for . . .'
Finally, the cold struck him and interrupted his numbing chant that flowed through his head.
'Its time.'
Bird hesitated and then opened his eyes. The sight left him speechless, but that didn't matter; there was no time for speech, he had to act. He swiftly took the knife from his waist and flung his arm backward with all of his might. As soon as his arm reached as far as he could flex it, his arm shot forward, plunging the knife into Sleeper's left eye. As Sleeper was stabbed, it released Leonis and Bird from its spikey fingers, and started to shriek.
'I... I did it! Oh crap, I did it! Retreat. I have to retreat!'
Bird grabbed Leonis, dragged him just out of Sleeper's range, and then violently shook him awake.
"Leonis, I did it! We need to hurry!"
Leonis stood up and looked toward the shrieking beast standing on two arms, trying to remove the standard combat knife from its eyes. After seeing that Bird had succeeded, he wasted no time summoning the orb of light on his finger, only this time, the light kept shining brighter, brighter, and brighter.
Eventually, the room was just light. Sleeper flailed its arms fruitlessly at the light until it felt a stinging release forcing it to focus its attention back to the knife in its eyes, but it was gone. Leonis had taken it back; he had slid under Sleeper's hind arms and kicked the knife out of place, flinging it across the room. After this, the Blinding light from Leonis's finger faded, and the room went back to normal.
For a second, the world seemed to pause. Bird was looking at the knife, Leonis was staggering because the orb of light had drained his stamina, and Sleeper was lost because it had been blinded. And then the world unpaused. Bird dashed for the knife, Leonis yelled Sleeper's name, and Sleeper dropped to six legs and leaped towards Leonis's call.
With Sleeper distracted, Bird easily grabbed the knife and turned to face the creature. He saw Leonis diving to the left, narrowly escaping Sleeper's fingers.
"Leonis, the knife!"
Bird threw the knife across the cave to Leonis's feet. Leonis grabbed the knife and assumed a fighting position. It was strange seeing Leonis take a fighting position. When Bird first met the man, he claimed not to be a fighter.
'Please say you were lying.'
Bird was praying that Leonis had been lying at the time. He hoped what Leonis showed while he trained him was not just a fluke. In the next few moments, Bird would know if he had been lying or not.
Using Sleeper's blindness as an advantage, Leonis took a step towards its left side. Sleeper swiped blindly, but Leonis was already on its right, swinging his knife toward its other eye. Leonis had used its blind side as bait to attack its right, but before the swing connected, Leonis was sent flying by one of its arms.
Sleeper didn't waste any time and jumped toward Leonis to finish him. Leonis rolled right and stabbed one of its middle arms. The knife didn't pierce through the arm, but barely broke the flesh. Sleeper took this chance to send four of its hands hurling into Leonis. Before its fingers could put holes in Leonis, he slipped under the creature. He stared into its body. It was no longer smiling; it was scowling with one eye closed, and a huge frown spread across its body.
Leonis ran to Bird and whispered.
"Its about time, I think it will probably try to flush us out soon."
Bird glanced at Sleeper and agreed.
Looking back at Sleeper, they both saw it turn slowly. It faced them, standing on two arms. They stared at each other for a moment. Sleeper was producing a look of pure hate. The creature then opened its mouth and started to release an ominous, almost transparent white fog. Sleeper had finally played its trump card.
Leonis and Bird both shot for the opening that had a small arrow marked next to it. Sleeper started to eerily crawl towards them, contorting its body, almost deflating it to fit through the opening, and then expanding again.
Bird looked back to see this terrifying sight and thought.
'What the hell? Why are we always the ones being chased?!'