3.1.4.1. The Six-Legged Trouble

CHAPTER FOUR

THE FOOL AND THE MAGICIAN

The Six-Legged Trouble

Two shadowy figures enter a dark, lightless cave. One looks like a man holding a sword, and another a woman with a stick. The man charges into the cave hastily, and the woman is trying to stop him in vain.

The man looks around, and he finds all sorts of bones lying around in there. Those must be its victims, he says. He tightens his grip on his sword and moves on forward. He doesn’t stop to examine the bones. He just wants to do his thing quickly and gets it over with.

As he walks on in the dark cave, he trips on more bones there, and some of them are human skeletons. This monster preys on humans too! Omigosh, what have I got myself into!? I must return and join her!

As he turns his head, suddenly he is greatly shocked at the sight of a gigantic moving form with big, round eyes like a fly’s; and the snappers on its two front legs look like overlarge scythes. The man is horrified, and starts to shiver. The monster looms closer to him and the faint moonlight from outside the cave shows its original form – a giant mantis. The giant mantis swipes its left snapper at the man; it misses his head about an inch. The man doesn’t know where he can cut the giant mantis with his sword. The man tries to run through its legs, but the mantis’ snappers block his way. The man doesn’t have another choice but to run away farther into the cave, and he runs.

The man runs as fast as he can. The giant mantis walks quickly after him. Soon the man finds a dead end, and he is now greatly panicked. Holding his sword with two shivering hands, he stands leaning against the wall, making his last desperate effort to defend himself and buy some more time. But he is mistaken. The giant mantis appears in front of him, rushes and slashes wildly at him. The man rolls and runs here and there, and then around the giant mantis. But in the narrow dark cave, he can’t see clearly in front of him and his torch is lost. Then he bumps into something – the giant mantis’ back. He falls, and soon he can only see a pair of shiny, round insect eyes and shiny scythe-like front legs, and the scythes dart towards him – towards his death. A few inches away from his death, he hears a woman chants loudly,

‘Voltarus!’

A blinding light comes, and then all go black.