I woke once more, comfortably warm, the screen having blocked the morning's light; I managed to sleep a little longer. Crawling out of the shelter, I made my way to my latrine. Once my bladder and bowels were empty, I then checked my fish trap. Pulling out several fat trout, I once again set to cooking my breakfast. I drained my water skin and refilled it once more.
With a full belly and a water skin on my hip, I realized that I didn't have any real work to do. My base was as secure as it ever would be, and I couldn't really stockpile any food, as I had no way to preserve it. Pondering for a moment, I decided that exploration was in order. I strapped my sword to my hip, and pulled the gate out of its place, turning it, and myself around to replace it where it came from.
I first followed the beach further along my original direction, planning to reach an equal distance from where I had started originally, once there I turned into the jungle. Doing my best to keep my current distance from my base as I went, I continued moving through the brush.
The plants around were unfamiliar yet at the same time fully familiar. It was strange, despite knowing nothing about this land, she felt fully at home, even welcome. When I reached just shy of the halfway point of my arc, five more Lizardmen came rushing at me, hissing with their clawed hands outstretched as if to catch me. Rage filled me at their very sight. I drew my sword and prepared to attack. One of the lizardmen had a leather chestpiece, so I targeted him first. Running past the first three of the creatures, I dodged to the left, then thrust into its right armpit, causing a fountain of blood to shoot out, and I felt the crunch of bone as the sword smashed through his ribs, shredding his heart and lungs in the process.
Ripping the blade out, I found it mutilated and useless, but the spear sticking up behind his neck was perfectly fine. Snagging it, I whipped around, smashing another of the filth in the ribs, which snapped the spear shaft but sent him flying. Using the broken butt of the spear as a cudgel I then brained a third, even as I thrust the speartip into a fourth. Leaving only the fifth alive, I rolled and came up with another sword in my grip, raising it just in time to catch the feather-light swing of the final lizardman. His blade rebounded off mine, and I quickly slashed across his middle, spilling copious amounts of blood, and his entrails too. He dropped his blade and futilely attempted to stuff his slashed guts back into his belly for all of ten seconds before he passed out, bleeding to death.
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I marvelled at my victory, five against one, yet they were no challenge for me, even with the inferior weapons I had to use. I scavenged what I could from their corpses, including the chest piece. Though it wasn't sized for me, it was a marked improvement compared to having my upper torso on full display. I kept every weapon, even if mangled, and used some of their belts to tie them into a bundle.
Hefting the weapons over my shoulder, I continued on my trek. Kicking each of the lizardmen's corpses towards the sea, I could tell they would fall far out into the water. When I reached near the halfway point, I noticed clear ruins in the distance, further in a straight line from my base, having been built right next to the river I had set up beside. The ruins were well worth investigating, in my opinion; I practically felt drawn to them, like it was my destiny to go there.
Much of the ruins were flooded, making me skirt around most of them; however, there was a flooded tunnel that, for some reason, I felt I must enter. Stashing my weapons behind some stone blocks and removing the leather chest plate, I waded into the water. Seaweeds grew on the bottom of the sunken tunnel, wrapping around my feet as I waded through them. The further into the tunnel I went, the taller the weeds grew, until they were caressing my womanhood. The slippery, slimy sensation was quite unpleasant, particularly due to the fact that I had no cloth covering that area.
The roof of the tunnel dipped down, forcing me to submerge in order to swim further into the structure. My instincts screamed at me to turn back, yet the compulsion was stronger, pulling me forward. Before long, despite how much the seaweed caught at my legs and stroked across my breasts, I found myself able to surface into stale air.
As I crawled out of the water onto the stone floor, I shivered in the cold of the tomb-like structure. My feet made wet slapping sounds as I walked deeper into the ruins, yet around me were clear signs of opulence. An eerie green glow permeated the corridor as I moved further in, unable to turn around, despite no physical item preventing me from doing so.
The ominous glow failed to cause sufficient fear to break the compulsion that drew me ever closer to a throne, on which white dust lay piled under a circlet of gold, adorned with an Emerald Gem from which the glow pulsed. A maternal voice rang out, ephemeral in the stale air of the ruin. "Welcome home, my descendant!" My heart pounded in terror at the disembodied voice. The Emerald Gem shone brighter, and from the light came the image of a beautiful woman, wearing the very same Circlet that was sitting in the dust on the throne.
"Calm yourself, young one! You of all existences need not fear me. You are of my blood, and thus my only heir. You are the Queen of Shallarah!" Her warm, gentle smile calmed my heart, and the compulsion was released. I could leave, but I no longer felt the need to do so.
