The group silently walked back, the man’s words swimming in all of their heads. Hero bit his lip. If his theory was right then Sunny is Omori, making them the dreamer. Hero’s only questions are how did he enter Sunny’s mind? Why did Sunny create this world in his head? Is everyone else aware as well?
Hero let out a quiet sigh, out of all the things to get wrapped into it had to be his old childhood friend’s weird brain.
...Okay maybe weird brain was a bit rude, creative would be the right word.
He honestly hoped Sunny was doing okay in the real world though, cause what the man said about the darkness lurking underneath, might be bad news.
The group made their way up the tracks only for Kel to run into a boulder blocking the way.
“Ouch! Stupid rock, now I am going to get a headache…” Kel grumbled.
“Well, that will teach you to be more careful!” Aubrey scolded.
“Please don’t fight right now. Is there another way?” Hero asked.
Omori did a quick scan around before shaking his head no. Hero groaned to himself and Kel turned towards Aubrey, “Hey, maybe you can break it!”
“...Kel I couldn’t break a block of cheese the last time we were here, what makes you think I can break a boulder?” Aubrey asked.
“Weird logic of this land. Can you at least try? I will give you anything you want if you do!” Kel bargained.
“Ugh, fine.” Aubrey sighed and spun her doll around a couple of times before smashing it into the rock.
Surprising no one, the rock didn’t break.
“Told ya. Now, I want my ten dollars back.” Aubrey grinned.
“What!?” Kel yelled in shock.
“I mean, it isn’t like you used it already...right?” Aubrey tilted her head.
“...” Kel nervously turned away and began whistling.
“OH COME ON!” Aubrey stomped her feet aggressively before taking a deep breath, “Now you owe me twenty. That is final.”
“What!? Hey, come on! I don’t even know if I have twenty dollars in my house.” Kel grumbled the last part out to himself.
“Gee Kel sounds like a personal problem.” She stuck out her tongue at him.
“What did I just say about fighting?” Hero rubbed his forehead, feeling more exhausted than he already was.
“Sorry, bro…” Kel apologized, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.
Omori looked at the group with curiosity for a bit before looking down. He then proceeded to walk back the way they came, making another motion for everyone to follow him. Hero and the others obeyed as they walked back to the minecart at the entrance.
“Oh! We can use this as a ram!” Kel’s face glowed in excitement.
“Alright, everybody in one at a-” Everyone already hopped in before Hero could finish speaking. He groaned and hopped in as well, once again becoming cramped by Kel and Aubrey taking up most of the space. Omori pushed the cart a bit forward and the group was off.
Once again it began slow but as they continued it quickened its pace, eventually slamming straight into the bolder and smashing it to bits. Hero was surprised it didn’t knock the group backward. He was even more surprised when he saw a giant castle in the distance.
Passing under some trees and losing sight of the castle, Hero proceeded to look at Omori. Omori just so happened to be looking at him, almost as if he was trying to read Hero’s movements.
It felt unnerving. He hopes to god he is just being paranoid but something tells him that isn’t the case.
The minecart made a sudden stop and everyone proceeded to crawl out.
“Ow...my legs feel cramped…” Kel complained.
“I can’t even feel my legs…” Aubrey muttered.
“I said for everyone to go in the cart one at a time, no one listened.” Hero rolled his eyes as he scolded the duo.
Omori turned away from the group and walked towards Mari who was conveniently sitting nearby.
“Oh! Hello little brother!” Mari greeted the boy, getting up to hug him. Omori’s face didn’t change but you can tell he was grateful.
She looked towards the rest of the group as well, “Ah! Nice to see everyone is okay! Congrats on making it through the forest!”
“It was nothing!” Kel grinned.
“It was awful, there were rabbits but with spider legs. Absolutely horrifying.” Hero shivered, remembering those bunnies. They were probably going to haunt his mind for the rest of his life.
Omori nodded in agreement with Hero’s words.
“It wasn’t that bad! It was actually really cute, you both are just mean!” Aubrey yelled at the boys.
“I have no regrets helping Omori kill it.” Hero shrugged.
“...I am going to bully you next.” Aubrey threatened.
“Can I join?” Kel asked.
“No.” She declined
“Aw,” Kel pouted, “Why not?”
“Cause I am bullying you as well,” Aubrey rolled her eyes, “Thought that was obvious.”
“Fine. You win this round.” Kel sighed.
“Don’t mean to interrupt the banter, but I think I should warn you of something before you go on ahead.” Everyone was suddenly focused on Mari, “I heard some skittering from up ahead. It sounds really big and could be dangerous. I have some food over here so you guys can rest up before heading over.”
“Sweet! Thanks, Mari!” Kel smiled as he took the food Mari made for them.
“Kel! Share!” Hero yelled as he had to distribute the food amongst the others after taking it from his younger brother’s hands.
“Aw, man…” Kel groaned as he was handed a smaller portion than what he wanted.
“Deal with it Kel.” Hero sat down as he began eating.
“Did you know that there used to be a big library here? Apparently, it was so badly taken care of that it sunk into the ground.” Mari randomly decided to share a fun fact with the group. Perhaps out of boredom.
“Huh, so are you saying I could be standing on a bunch of old books right now?” Kel asked.
“No, it sank somewhere near the castle.” Mari pointed to the castle in question, “It sucks it got built over…”
“Where did you get this info from Mari?” Hero asked, genuinely curious.
“Some shadows here and there, if you focus hard enough you could see them as well! They are so nice!” She answered.
Hero couldn’t tell by the tone of her voice if she was joking or not. Maybe he didn’t want to know.
The gang finished eating and parted ways with Mari, walking up the path that Mari said she heard skittering from. Hero just hoped it wasn’t a giant spider, he would prefer the shadow figures Mari mentioned.
They ran into a sprout mole who seemed out of breath, almost as if it was running from something.
“Hey little dude, are you alright?” Kel asked the creature.
“N-No! There is this terrible beast up ahead! I and my other sprout mole friends were going to see a show and then that thing began attacking us!” It shouted, “H-here! Take my tickets! I don’t even want to go with that beast blocking the path!”
The sprout mole ran away only leaving the group behind with four tickets. Hero doesn’t know why they would even need these but shrugged it off, who knows, he might be able to use them on something later.
The group began to move on, a little bit slower than before though thanks to the warning of a beast. Suddenly corpses of spout moles began to pile up on the side of the trail making poor Hero feel bad for them but also terrified at what could have caused this. They were annoying, sure, but in no way did they deserve this.
The group finally made it to a clearing with a few trees. More bodies laid around as well as the sound of multiple feet moving came from in front of them. Hero listened closely, his whole body going on edge. He could hear whatever it was biting into something with a crunch.
Out of the darkness it spat out another dead sprout mole, almost hitting Omori who luckily dodged out of the way in time.
The sky grew darker and the beast slid out of the shadows, slowly twisting and turning as if it was mapping out the area in its head.
Finally, it settled its sights on the group in front of them. It ran forward, quickly turning so they couldn’t escape the way they came before it began to attack.
“HOLY CRAP WHAT IS THAT!?”
Hero couldn’t blame Aubrey for yelling because it was terrifying. W-was it made of dead sprout moles?! That is horrifying!
Its centipede-like legs moved quickly, trying to find ways to corner everyone so it could easily kill them.
Omori quickly pulled out of his poems and skimmed through them allowing himself to become sad from them.
Hero charged forward and hit it with his Baking Pan, knocking it right in the jaw. It didn’t seem to like that though as it hissed in pain and anger.
Before it could do anything to Hero, Kel decided to let out a shout, “Hey, you creepy loser! Get over here!”
The centipede ran forward to Kel who tried his best to run away from it. This fails as it grabs his leg and throws him into a nearby tree.
“OW! YOU SUCK!” Kel groaned in pain as he rubbed his head.
Aubrey decided to use this opportunity to attack it from behind. She smacked it deadset in the middle causing it to yelp in pain.
Omori’s eyes scanned the area looking for a chance to stab the beast when he noticed a sprout mole walking in on the scene.
The centipede also happened to notice the mole. Instead of continuing to attack the group sprinted forward and grabbed the poor mole in its mouth. The mole was confused about what was happening, clearly lost on the whole situation.
“Let it go!” Hero shouted as he ran forward and tried to hurt the monster again. The centipede dodged as it bit down on the mole, sucking out its blood(?) and healing itself.
It dropped the corpse and ran at Hero who tried to block its attack. Omori came over and stabbed it a few times, taking a few sprout moles off its body.
“That’s it! Rip off the sprout moles from its body! That way we can kill it easier! Omori, look out for other sprout moles it might use to heal!” Hero commanded.
Everyone nodded in agreement and began to work. Aubrey and Kel began attacking from the sides while Omori kept watching out for sprout moles, pointing some in the other directions and just simply killing other stubborn ones.
Hero kept the beast distracted by having it chase after him, luckily it likes to follow people with charm.
“Kel! You keep getting in my way!” Aubrey shouted.
“Yeah? Well, you keep getting in mine!” Kel yelled back.
Both children were enraged and at this point tearing the centipede to bits. Once Omori deemed that there were no more sprout moles nearby he joined in on stabbing the crap out of it.
“Guys! Let’s attack all at once! One! Two! Three!” Hero yelled as he and the others charged forward. Kel wacking it with his ball a few times as Aubrey pummeled its face. Hero managed to smack it into a tree as Omori was able to stab it right in the heart!
The being hissed but eventually, the light faded from its eyes allowing everyone to know that it was dead.
Hero sighed before he noticed four sprout mole masks laying on the ground. He doesn’t know why but he feels they may be important later.
“Gee, that was,” Kel huffed, “exhausting…”
“Tell me about it…” Aubrey agreed.
“You know, at least you weren’t the one distracting it every five seconds!” Hero came back at them.
“True…” Kel sighed, “At least it wasn’t a spider! Ain’t I right Hero?”
“Kel, shut up…” Hero groaned.
He secretly agreed though. At least it wasn’t a spider.
Hopefully, the worst is done and over with.