Sanctuary: Safe Haven

Unfortunately for him, hope wasn\'t on his side today.

While Froja was deluding himself with thoughts of being saved by the wolves, the assailant looked more resigned.

His face showed acceptance of what would happen next, without caring about the consequences.

He saw the wolves rushing at him. If he was going to be mauled to death, he intended to complete his mission first.

He cocked his gun and aimed at the kid who was entirely focused on the wolves.

He fired all the remaining bullets in his magazine. He could have saved some bullets for the wolves, but it wouldn\'t have changed the outcome. As he saw Froja slowly falling into the lake, his body riddled with bullets, he muttered to himself.

"Fuck it, the pay was worth it anyway," were his last words before being bitten in the neck by a black wolf. More wolves joined in, and all he could do was scream as he was mauled to death.

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In the unseen realm, a hooded figure around 2 meters tall fetched Froja\'s soul as it was about to ascend.

The figure giggled before entering a swirling dark portal with Froja\'s soul in tow.

_____________

\'You fool, how can you always mess it up!\'

\'But my lord, I really got a good one this time.\'

\'You call this good? I should burn you to a crisp!\'

\'Show mercy, oh great one!\'

Froja heard bantering and screaming while he was asleep. He thought it might just be his fellow workers in the sanctuary and decided to scold them. The strangeness of the conversation didn\'t occur to him; he was just that absent-minded.

"Why are you all shouting? Shut the hell up."

Then there was silence. A silence that lasted for five seconds.

Froja sat up so fast that his head felt dizzy. First, why was he hearing people talking? He was dead. He got shot and fell into the lake. Was he alive? Was he back at the sanctuary?

Who shot him? Am I bleeding? He had so many questions, but the first thing that came out of his mouth was:

"What in the f*ck are you?" He looked at the creature that resembled a frog with human legs and the wings of a vulture. It looked like something out of a children\'s horror book. Froja could confidently say it looked like a gremlin with wings. The more he looked at the creature, the more confused he became.

He was so enthralled by this weird-looking creature that he seemed to ignore the enormous being sitting on an elegant throne with its right hand on its forehead.

"Perfect, now there are two idiots in this room," the being spoke lazily. Froja\'s attention was now on this massive being.

_____________

Ten seconds passed, and Froja only stared at the being on the throne with his mouth agape.

The tiny creature then tiptoed in front of Froja and summoned a stick out of thin air. He unceremoniously poked Froja\'s head with the stick.

\'I guess I did get a bad one,\' the creature thought as Froja\'s body slowly fell back to the floor and returned to Dreamland.

The tiny creature slowly turned his head towards the being. Earlier, the being only looked tired. Now, he looked completely resigned. From the looks of it, this wasn\'t the first time this had happened.

Unknown time passed before Froja started to get up again. Memories instantly flooded back. Thinking it was all a dream, he hurriedly rose, this time standing instead of just sitting up. He scanned the room, looking for that creature and whatever that massive entity was.

Wait. Room? Since when did he get into a room? Now that he looked closely, he realized it wasn\'t just any \'room\'; it was more accurate to call it a castle.

The whole place was gigantic. In Froja\'s mind, this place could only belong to a god because of its magnificence. If there was anything weird or out of place, it was the tiny creature staring back at him.

A typical reaction would be to run, scream, and throw in a few curses, but Froja was different. He had been caring for animals his whole life and had seen his fair share of weird animal mutations. He thought it might be a peculiar, unknown species.

Well, all those thoughts were instantly drowned when the creature slowly raised its tiny left hand.... and gave him a middle finger while grinning.

Froja was as confused as could be. Unfortunately, he didn\'t have enough time to feel anything else since a white glow started to permeate the surroundings. It got so intense that he had to cover his eyes with his hands. Shortly after the glow died, he saw the massive entity sitting back on its majestic throne when he uncovered his eyes.

"Are you God?" Froja asked.

The being shook his head. "I am, but I am highly different from the \'God\' you have in your head."

The massive entity stood up and slowly started to shrink. In a couple of seconds, the enormous entity that was the height of a skyscraper turned into a normal-sized human—well, as far as normal goes, since the entity was still glowing intensely.

"I\'ll cut to the chase; I need people to build my army. I assigned my subordinates to gather strong souls in different realms; you were one of them. However, now that I look at you, I can see what a waste and disappointment you are. I do not need a zookeeper in my army, so I will now discard you. Oh, and since you are the first being to tell me to shut up, I\'ll grant you a painful death.

I\'ll punish you as well for belittling my subordinate."

The god clapped his hands once, and soon, an earthquake ensued.

The ground beneath Froja\'s feet started opening up as if the earth wanted to consume him whole. He held on for dear life to the floor, but his grip weakened, and he started freefalling from the sky.

"Enjoy being burned alive, idiot," the tiny creature shouted after peeking into the hole where Froja had disappeared.

"YOU CAN SPEAK?!" was Froja\'s last word before screaming for his dear life.