When I opened my eyes, what greeted me first appeared to be a giant husk which vaguely resembled humanoid form.  

Of what creature you might ask?  

I couldn’t begin to fathom how a monstrously-large entity once treaded this land nor how it claimed to rest in this place. From its rate of decay, I surmised it must have been left to expose in the elements for a very long time, yet strangely it didn’t exhume a pungent odor as you'd expect from a rotting corpse. 

Oh, but that wasn’t all. 

A throng of willows encompassed as far as eye could see, and an ominous fog blanketed its roots like some scene fresh from a horror film, as if to give a sense of foreboding. In addition, a gigantic moon was jotting the sky, with what seemed to be spatial debris of some sort orbiting around its body. 

Am I hallucinating? Or was I dreaming? So far nothing was making any sense. It couldn’t have been that damned truck knocked me down so hard it sent me to some godforsaken place, did it? 

But one thing’s for sure. The surrounding area looked verily eerie, and it didn’t resemble anywhere near a bus stop. Heck, it doesn’t seem like it has seen a touch of civilization for over a millennia. Not one trace resembling human society can be found at all – everything was mother nature! Though that’s not to say that a little bit more greenery hurts the eye, but still... this is just too much. 

Anyway, where exactly was I?

To my surprise, my feet gave way instantly the moment I exerted some strength to stand up. The sudden jolt of movement sent me staggering back down just as fast. With my current state, it wasn’t looking like I’d get anywhere any time soon. It was currently dark, and the situation was starting to turn sour real quick.

Great. This is just great! I asked for some spice, and god delivered. As if being ran over wasn’t enough, the same truck somehow dragged me over to who-knows-where. The only silver lining is that somehow, I came out of it relatively unscathed apart from being sapped of my strength... that is... 

Huh. 

Mother, since when have you birthed to a son with a voluptuous pair of mountain peaks attached? Naked, too. In a daze, my hands reflexively reached out to it. Squish. The mounds of fat quickly contorted as it oozed out from the gaps in my fingertips, sending a tooth, teetering sensation down my spine.

This feels too real to be faked...

And now that my mind was alert, I noticed how lustrous locks of red hair had been dangling left and right to my side. 

That’s when––

Impossible, I gulped. 

My body eased up as my hands left to an uncharted region, but another kind of tension welled up inside of me as I tried to ascertain a very obvious conjecture. 

Abalone

Believe me when I say this was the perfect part to end this chapter, and not because I was being lazy! Also, I've taken a look at the result of the poll from the previous chapter. It'll continue to run for another week before I finalize it, so cast your votes now!