'This has to be my only chance.'
After countless moments of torture in the small span of few minutes, David finally saw a chance to escape the direwolf. Although he was terribly confused as to why the alpha was still dragging him endlessly instead of just devouring him in the depths of this wild jungle, he was also grateful that wasn't the case.
He placed his palms on the padded ground as the alpha carried him like a ragdoll. Then he raised his body weight on his hands as he now felt the skin of his palms tearing and burning due to the friction alone.
The speed of the alpha direwolf was just that fast!
Through whatever little vision his eyes allowed him, he saw a tremendously thick tree appear in their path.
The tree was massive, its gnarled trunk twisted with age. Long, curved branches protruded from the stem as hundreds of thousands of leaves sprouted from their bases. Together they formed a canopy over their head.
From the branches, aerial roots hung limpidly in the air. Beneath the tree, dark shadows pooled on the ground covering everything from view.
And just below the canopy, little fireflies fluttered in the air, their luminescent body glowing in a rhythmic tandem.
'This better go well or else I am truly done for.' David maneuvered his hands as he slowly pushed them to his right. His body jostled everytime he inched towards the direction of the tree. At this point, he could see trails of blood seeping out on the soil from his hands.
But he didn't mind that...no, he wanted to "mind" something. He was a human as well and as such, the pain he felt was tearing his soul away. But he could only grit his teeth and hope his plan succeeds.
He didn't want to be the food of this alpha. For God's sake, he had just transmigrated!
"Give me a break already!" He shouted out as he lunged towards the tree with all his strength as they passed by it.
His fingers clung to the twisted trunk of the tree as the alpha direwolf suddenly felt a jolt. In the next moment, its feet halted as the alpha was wrung out of the land and it hit the tree as well.
David felt the tail loosen its grip on his leg. Instantly, he kicked it and freed himself.
'The only way of escape is this tree. I can only hope that this alpha shall go away once it realises it can't catch me anymore.'
Without wasting any time, David landed on the ground. At that moment, he realised that the ground wasn't solid land but rather it was completely muddy. He even felt few roots that were sticking out of the mud and touching his feet.
"A swamp in the middle of a tropical grassland?"
First the unnatural moon and now this strange geographical structure. Tropical grasslands have a completely different set of climatic conditions from that of a swamp. And yet here, both co-existed in the same area.
He would probably have tried to find out these answers but with a hungry alpha behind him, he couldn't dare to do so. Instead, he quickly started climbing the tree.
Seconds later the direwolf crashed against the tree as it started to claw at the trunk in order to reach David.
Meanwhile, David was in a dilemma himself. Even though the bark of the tree was roughened and had enough cracks and hooks to climb the tree easily, his feet were slick with mud. As such, he was slipping at every try to climb up the tree.
Finally, with great efforts he reached the intersection of all branches. Then swaying left, he jumped and propelled himself on a thick branch. Although almost all the branches he saw around were strong and durable this branch was thick enough for him to stand without any fear of losing his balance.
From his vantage point, he looked down. The alpha direwolf was circling the perimeter of the tree as it growled continuously.
"Hungry eh?" David chuckled at the direwolf as he felt his own hunger rise as well. While with the group, he had only drunk some water. And now this body looked like it needed a meal as well. He squinted his eyes at the branches but very unfortunately, this tree didn't look to bear fruits.
David sighed, patting his belly as if trying to express his sorrow and comfort it.
Few minutes later as David was finally starting to get comfortable by leaning on the tree trunk, the clouds up in the sky parted. The pinkish moon once again started appearing in the horizon.
Unnoticed by him, the first ray of the moonlight touched the leaves of the tree. And the next moment, David heard a voice echo in his ears.
"Do you want to be free from this direwolf?"
This question jostled David out of his leisurely thoughts. He looked around him cautiously, trying to find out the source of the voice. However, there was nobody else to be seen except for the direwolf which suddenly stopped growling.
It too looked around itself as the hairs on it's furry back stood out in alert.
"Don't you care about your life? Why the hesitation?" The old-aged voice returned but this time, it had an edge to it. As if it had been asking the question for a long time and now had grown impatient.
David asked surreptitiously, "Where are you? Atleast show up before speaking to me."
"Oh?" The voice seemed to be taken aback. Then as if realising the problem, it laughed dryly.
"Where am I? Maybe I am the one on whom you are sitting?" It offered in response.
David instantly stiffened as if expecting something to be waiting behind him. Slowly he craned his neck towards his back. Seeing nothing, he sighed in relief.
He couldn't track the direction from which the voice was coming. It was echoing in such a manner that it wasn't possible to tell as well.
"I almost fell for your prank. For a moment, I thought that you are really the tree. How foo-"
He couldn't even complete his sentence as the voice returned back but this time it was extremely annoyed and argued back.
"Do you really think I am joking with you? I am the tree you are sitting on, imbecile! What type of young people are the Hermann clan producing nowadays that their youth have even forgotten the basic manners?"
David looked at the tree, his mind already calculating different ways to escape this.
The voice continued in a croaking tone, "Nameless, you are really lucky that you are alone here. Had any elder from your clan been with you, they would have skinned you alive for disrespecting me."
In a soft tone, David asked with widened eyes. "Who are you?"
"You don't even know me! Tch, why even bother with my name? I had one. A long time ago, I think. Now your simpleton clan gave me a simple name and worships me like a God."
A pause followed the declaration. Then in an expectant voice as if it was already sure of something, the tree said.
"Yes, I am the one you and your people worship day and night.
I am the Ancient Tree. Your so called deity."
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A/N: Just to clarify, I shall be releasing at the rate of 1 chapter per day for the next few days. The moment I get the contract, the release schedule shall accelerate to 2 chps/day.
Also, if you are liking the story do donate some power stones :)