Arpious of the Planes
Chapter 20 Escape And Despair (Sophia POV)

"ARE YOU JOKING?!!!"

The scout in front of me has just brought back terrible news. While they were scouting the outer layer of the [Mountain of Twighlight] they were noticed by one of the most dangerous creatures... Blood Crawlers. One by itself is not even a challenge, even one of the older kids in our village could easily kill one of them. The thing is, when they are in a group they are practically unstoppable. Together they have the greatest synchronization in their attacks because of their hivemind, even though they don't have a leader, they are all in a mutual relationship, so if you are spotted by one of these bloodthirsty creatures, the rest of them will follow after.

"How much longer until they get here?" father calmly asks.

"Chief, they should arrive here in 5 minutes, please make your decision fast," Says the scout.

Dad mumbles to himself but it seems like he's struggling so I whisper what I was thinking about.

"Remember that little group of spirit elves and elves, we should lead them there, and once they distract the blood crawlers we make a dash away and replace a new place to stay,"

Dad relays what I just whispered to the scout in front of us.

"Just as expected from our venerable chief and chiefs daughter! We shall proceed with that plan of action, may I have command over evacuating everybody," the scout says.

"Granted," dad says.

Once the scout left we were escorted by the two guards inside the room outside. The scout did great work at his job because in under 2 minutes everybody was ready to leave. We immediately all ran as fast as we could away from our village but the horrible scene I've only seen once before in my life happened again.

FWOOSH

Dark red creeps into the white and blue sky staining it with what looks like blood. Not long after it starts to rain, even though it was just rain that looked red it still felt like blood. We ran through the bushes and branches tearing up our clothes and occasionally scratching our skin.

Not even a minute passed from when the sky turned red and you could hear the clicking of their mandibles that is only unique to blood crawlers in the distance. The sound made everybody shiver uncontrollably.

Suddenly it was like a chain reaction. All of the kids and teens suddenly dropped to their knees from fear of the sound. We had stories back in our village that described the blood crawlers but compared to the real thing, it was like you only hunted mice your entire life but then you suddenly are forced to fight a dragon.

Their parents knelt down beside them telling them to get up, but it seems like their legs weren't functioning properly.

"Leave them behind if you want to survive!" dad says.

I was shocked by what he just said but when I turned around to look at him blood was trailing from his palms while tears ran down his face. His nails had dug into his skin from him clenching his fist so hard, it must've been a hard decision.

Some of the parents had left their children behind while crying profusely, while others had decided to just accept their fate and die with their children.

"We're almost there, do not give up hope!" says the scout from before.

Soon we saw a clearing that leads outside of the forest we were just in. I would have been excited because I've never been outside of the forest but this occasion had life or death involved.

We saw a line of spirit elves and elves but also... a lady with feathers, wings, and talons?! There is also a type of crawler and a fox standing right beside it.

"HELP US!" calls out one of the men in our group.

As I look back towards who said that I see our group's headcount was cut in half. Suddenly we were all restrained by the ground wrapping around our ankles causing some people to trip. Then it was getting harder and harder to breathe.

"Damn... gonna... pass...out," I whisper with my remaining breath.

...

"CHIEF!" I hear waking me up.

All of the memories flood back from before I pass out and shiver. I look around and see that I was inside a cave about the size of the village's town hall. The longer I look around the more my vision unblurred showing me a display that makes me gasp in fear. Dad was getting held up by the lady with feathers from before. He was screaming in pain and just as I was about to call out for him he started to crumble into stone.

"No... *sniff*... this can't be happening," I whimpered as I covered my mouth.

"Does he have any relatives," the lady with feathers asked.

Nobody replies which ticks her off, making her interrogate one of the other Amazonians. He seemed like he was ready to die until she grabbed his head making him snap. He points directly at me making everybody else infuriated at him.

She walks towards me but it feels like time has slowed down. An unknown pressure felt like it was crushing my chest. Each step she takes sends a shiver down my spine and it feels harder to breathe. The closer she got the clearer her face became, everything was normal until I saw her eyes... HER EYES! They were not normal, her left eye was a dark yellow with a black X going through it, while her right eye was dark grey with a dark yellow diamond shape around her pupil.

I don't even know how much time has passed since she started to walk towards me but it suddenly felt like it resumed once she asked me a question.

"You were supposed to thank us... right?" she says.

I dare not talk back to her so I immediately start nodding in agreement.

"Good girl... now what is that outside?" she asks.

What is she talking about...

I see the dark red sky outside and the bloody rain pouring down.

"T-they're c-coming, THE BLOOD CRAWLERS!" I scream.

She walks away from me and the unknown pressure from before was lifted off from me giving me a chance to breathe better. It seems like she was going to fight the blood crawlers which is impossible. Nobody has ever fought off a wave of blood crawlers, at least of what I'm aware of.

The elves, crawler, fox, and half of the spirit elves follow her out of the cave whilst the remaining spirit elves blocked us from exiting. Once she left everybody came to check on me. I didn't realize until now that I wet myself which is not something fit for my age, I'm already 19!

Once everybody found out that I was still okay they let out a heavy sigh of relief. We then all watched the raging battle that was occurring outside through the gaps in the spirit elves. Nobody tried to escape since everybody was still recovering their stamina from running for so long.

Nevermind our stamina, IS THAT EVEN A BATTLE OCCURING OUTSIDE! No matter how good the crawler's teamwork was they all were torn, cut, and smashed to pieces. The women covered in feathers didn't even have to lift a finger.

The one-sided massacre ended in the lady covered in feathers side losing only a few spirit elves while there were hundreds of dead blood crawler corpses everywhere. The bloody rain and clouds returned to their normal state of grey clouds and clear rain. All of us were shocked by the outcome of the fight when she came back to the cave.

I have to say something! I have to apologize! What should I say!

I made my decision to bowing down just this once for the sake of my people. My dad is gone but as his daughter, I have to do what's best for the survival of us.

I got up to be blocked by a female elf which was quickly dismissed in a threatening tone by the lady covered in feathers.

Kneeling down on the ground while slamming my forehead onto the ground with my hands in front of me I plead in the most respectful tone,

"Thank you for saving us! Also on behalf of my tribe, I humbly ask for your apology. Our arrogant behavior from before has angered you so please forgive us!"

To be honest I only woke up when dad crumbled into stone so I don't know what happened before but I'm sure it was related to how prideful my people are.

"Before I forgive you... tell me why did you lead the blood crawlers in this direction,"

How does she know about this? Did one of the Amazonians leak information while I was still knocked out to survive? What do I do, she'll surely eliminate all of us now?!!

"Don't you dare make up some useless bullshit," she says angered.

"F-f-forgive u-us," was the only thing I could say.

She talks about how she wants all of the manpower that I have, which by doing this I would become her servant... but I can't do that I still have the pride of the chief's daughter. If we're to submit to somebody that would just display me as weak to my people.

"I never suggested it, it was an order, you're my servant now!" she says angrily.

The same pressure from before appears and the only thing I could reply back with was,

"Y-yes m-master,"

This was in order to survive, if we didn't do this now we would become mincemeat.

She starts talking to the elves about how to split us up into their designated jobs. Also, I would join her group of maids. I don't know what a maid is but I was assigned to the female who tried to block my path from before.

[Congratulations you are now a servant of [Arpious]]

Master leaves, leaving me with the female elf which has a fake smile on her face, it was clear she didn't like me.

"Alright, you are going to be the best maid for master, SO NO SLACKING OFF!"

"Y-yes... umm, may I know your name?"

"It's Aika, alright make sure to remember what I'm about to tell you,"

"Yes, Miss Aika,"