Pink

Randurn and Kylantha were getting frustrated. After attempting to hunt for three hours, they still hadn’t gotten a single kill. Perhaps it was their poor synergy. After all, they were an unlikely team. Randurn was a strong, stout man from the far north who had a strong taste for beer, a grumpy attitude and preferred charging at the prey while whooping loudly. Kylantha was a female elf with a slender body and long, silver hair who liked to hide and wait in a bush, shooting arrows at any unlucky prey that walked by. She was always very calm and seldom got angry or upset.

The last time they had seen a deer, Randurn had fallen into a massive hole shaped like a three-toed foot. His loud yell had scared the deer away before Kylantha could shoot it.

“Why do you hide in that bush?” Randurn angrily exclaimed after they had given up and gone back to the camp. “It wastes so much time, and if we walked around, we could’ve gotten a nice big dinner.”

“You scare everything away with your useless whoops,” Kylantha replied calmly. “If you want to do it your way, then why not split up?” They both knew that wasn’t happening. The last time that they had split up, Weldon, who was a close friend of Randurn, had gone missing.

Weldon was a red-haired, freckled man who was very tall, overly curious, loved shiny and valuable things, and liked to try out very stupid things, like eating shiny but smelly red berries that incapacitated him for three days. When Kylantha and Randurn heard a gurgling scream from the cave that Weldon was supposed to be guarding the supplies in, they rushed to the scene, but all they found a bunch of slime all over the ground and walls, an open and empty chest that wasn’t there before, and the horses and supplies gone. Ever since this incident, prey in the woods had been exceedingly scarce.

After the two companions had arrived at the grove where they had made their new camp, they ate some sweet purple berries found growing on a bush nearby, then went to sleep. Randurn fell asleep quickly, snoring very loudly. Kylantha admired the trees in the forest, the majestic mountains nearby, a pinkish thing on a nearby mountain, and beautiful stars in the sky. She thought about Weldon as she drifted off to sleep.

The next day, they continued on their journey to travel to the city.

Randurn was particularly irritable. “Didn’t even eat breakfast,” he grumbled.

“You know we have to catch up on lost time,” Kylantha chided.

“Wish I had some ale.”

Kylantha smiled. “If you did, how would you continue to walk to the city?”

Randurn chuckled as he said “Whatev-.”

“WHHHLLLLUUUUUUURRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

Randurn’s remark was suddenly interrupted by an abomination, which burst out of the woods in front of them and charged at him and Kylantha, horrendously bellowing and gurgling. It was an utter monstrosity, giving off a disgusting, repulsive, stench that made Randurn nearly regurgitate the breakfast that he hadn’t eaten. It had red fur atop its many heads and countless splotches of red among its pink body. Each head had a long, snapping jaw like a crocodile, but immeasurably worse, being skinless and filled with razor-sharp, serrated teeth. It had a silver pendant around its main body. The many eyes were the worst, sunken and empty, and dripping slime. Were they even eyes? The creature looked like a mountain of pinkish giant worms, each writhing and twitching like someone being burnt alive. The whole body was covered in a thick coat of slime, causing each step the abomination took to give a sickening splurch.

With astonishing speed, the monster stampeded at the two friends. While it did so, a couple of heads gobbled up nearby trees. The heads could extend an extremely long distance away from the main body, hideously stretching like a man’s face being pulled apart. One extended with a repulsive lurch and ate Randurn’s sword that he just drew. Kylantha shot three arrows in quick succession, each eaten by a head or stuck in the layer of slime on the creature’s skin.

“It’s a Pink!” Kylantha yelled. “Run!” Pinks are one of the most horrific, monstrous, and powerful creatures of legend. According to ancient stories, Pinks could level cities, topple empires, and defeat entire armies. Even the wise elves had thought them but a myth, but here one was, alive and ready to devour all in its path.

Randurn didn’t need to be warned. He quickly turned and ran away, but was forced to turn and fight them when the Pink caught up with him. Backing up and hacking at the monstrosity’s head multiple times with an ax, Randurn cut a gash in the creature. But the wound seemed to not affect the creature; it didn’t even flinch and continued to fight as if nothing was wrong. Meanwhile, Kylantha shot countless arrows at the Pink, trying to distract it. However, the arrows were just absorbed into the slime around the creature, which had focused its remaining heads on Kylantha. Randurn was facing the same problem, the stones he threw did not affect the Pink.

But as Randurn was struggling to fend off the monster, he stumbled and fell into a massive three-toed footprint that the Pink must’ve made. Instantaneously, he was fending off four heads. Randurn struck the Pink multiple times, but his blows had almost no effect on the creature. A couple of Kylantha’s elven arrows managed to pierce the thick layer of slime, but they likewise had practically no effect. After a few strenuous minutes of fighting, the heads retracted from where Randurn was.

Randurn was covered in slime. Kylantha’s face turned pale, her eyes widening in pure horror and terror as she watched Randurn let out a gurgling scream and slowly transform. His body twisted and contracted, becoming horribly grotesque. What was once Randurn had its eyes and hair fall out, and grow multiple, wormy heads from where they once were. Shrieking and gurgling the entire time, Randurn became a Pink. He now looked like the first creature, but was smaller and had no red hair or splotches. Kylantha was frozen in terror, and there were tears in her slanted eyes as she wondered if this was the fate that awaited her.

When the two abominations charged and extended heads at her, Kylantha snapped out of her trance and sprinted swiftly away. But the two monsters were too fast, and Kylantha had no choice but to fight them, just like Randurn.

Eight days later, three Pinks attacked the city.