Midas inhaled deeply, assessing how he currently felt. He wanted to see how well he was to gauge how much effort to put into his next actions.
’Im still a bit dazed I guess...’ He mused, finding it hard to concentrate in the present moment, ’I wonder what happened to Earth... I mean... did I just happen to disappear? Has it actually been years, like it has felt? Or did it happen instantly?’ These questions weighed heavily on Midas’ mind.
’Eh... whatever. Its not like anyone would care about me on that planet anyways. Why should I care about it?’ With this, he was able to focus on the mission.
’Right now, I feel tired, but okay. I have a decent amount of energy, so maybe I should try to make a small lean-to shelter.’
He saw several large palm fronds on the ground. They had clearly fallen from the several tall palm trees all around the coast of the island.
Unfortunately, the palm trees didn’t seem to be bearing any coconuts. That would have been a real easy way out for him...
’Still, I can use the palm fronds as a roof on the side of my half tent. Should be pretty easy to set up.’ He said to himself as his mind began searching for sticks he could use.
Right at that moment, however, Midas felt a sudden itch on his left arm--as if a fly had landed.
When he glanced, he noticed a small red mosquito the size of a penny on his wrist.
Midas’ eyes instantly widened, and his face contorted into a horrified and disgusted look.
"HOLY SHIT!" He screamed, having never seen such a giant mosquito before. Despite it being small compared to him, it was still huge in normal earthly conditions.
The mosquito didn’t flinch, stabbing its mandible into Midas’ arm before taking a large swig of blood into its mouth.
Seeing this, Midas nearly fainted. However, he found the option of fainting on the spot to be impossible due to what happened next.
As soon as his blood was drained, the mosquito began to grow in size.
Midas quickly brushed it off him, but the mosquito didn’t fly away or fall.
It floated in the air at arm’s height, growing in size until it became no smaller than a large dog.
By this point, Midas was already running for the hills. He ran inland without any thoughts in his head.
’Shit!’ He cursed inside, ’If there is a demon mosquito like this on the coast, there’s probably a lot worse in land!’
Just as he was about to glance back past his shoulder to check on the bug, he felt his front foot step into an unfamiliar, squishy object.
It wasn’t anything like the rough grass he was running on earlier. Far from it.
It felt like he stepped into some sort of fleshly ball.
Looking down, Midas noticed a round plant on the ground. It was a large reddish purple flower the size of a football.
The flower petals curved inwards, creating a ball-like shape. Midas, however, seemed to have accidentally stepped right into the center of this plant.
As he took his foot off, a massive cloud of green smoke exploded out of the plant.
Sin fell back onto the ground, the horrible smell quickly overwhelming him. His eyes teared up as an ugly and sour expression appeared on his face.
After a few coughs, he covered his mouth, ’What... the fuck is going on!?’ He felt like luck was fully against him.
’I don’t know whether spawning on this island is a good or bad thing, but seeing how bad my luck has been, I feel like its the latter...’
As the green gas escaped into the air, Midas stood up and looked around to check on the mosquito.
For some reason, the mosquito seemed to have disappeared, no longer on his trail.
*BZZZ*
’Damn... I can still hear it buzzing around nearby. Something must have made it lose track of where I am.’
As he decided to take a step forward, he felt a stinging pain in his left foot.
He furrowed his brows aggressively, looking down.
A laceration had cut across his shin all the way around to his calf. For some reason, it wasn’t bleedingly heavily, but it definitely hurt like a bitch!
He could barely walk, but he wasn’t terrified by the situation. More so, confused.
’How the hell did this happen!?’ He angrily shouted in his mind, not wanting to make any noise.
He happened to notice a fallen log with a few branches sticking out beside him. One of the curved branches had thorns soaked in blood.
’Tsk... looks like I scratched my leg when I fell from the green dust explosion.’ It was annoying, but he had no other option but to move right now.
*BZZZ*
The mosquito was still nearby, so it wasn’t like he was out of danger.
He moved for a few dozen feet before coming across an opening. It was a piece of land about 100 feet in square size without any trees but one in the center.
The tree in the center was large, but its branches started close to the bottom of the trunk.
Midas’s eyes widened as he saw several small fruits on the tree. All of them slightly looked like pears, but much more tubular and skinny. They were yellow in color, and plentiful.
Walking closer, he noticed a fruit higher up in the tree that was glowing brightly for some reason.
The fruit was illuminated by a moving rainbow color, as if it was a pool of rainbow liquid.
*BZZZ*
Just then, the mosquito popped out of the bushes and flew straight toward Midas like an arrow.
Midas felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise slightly as he almost shirked.
’Shit! Its onto me! I have to quickly think of a way out of this situation... There is a way, right? Right!?’
He doubted it himself as he stared down the mosquito that was rapidly approaching.
’There is no way I can outrun it. Especially not in the state I am in right now. I have no idea why my leg isn’t bleeding, but running isn’t going to help that. Plus... who knows what lies beyond the shrubbery. Maybe a damn tiger dragon lion beast from Mount Olympus will be on my ass next.’
He dreaded his luck so far.
The mosquito was mere feet away now, so he began to climb the tree in front of him with nothing but panic and urgency in his mind.
Thankfully, it was easy to climb. There was a bunch of branches close by, and Midas wasn’t too unathletic during his life on earth, so he had at least climbed a few trees here and there.
As he reached the middle of the tree, he looked down and saw the mosquito flying up.
However, it seemed to be struggling with maneuvering around the branches closely bunched with each other.
Just then, a sweet aroma filled the air. Midas’ nose couldn’t help but perk up from the delicious smell suddenly dominating the atmosphere.
His stomach grumbled, his body reminding him how hungry he was.
He saw the source of the smell. Right next to him, the rainbow fruit was pulsing with a sweet and rich aroma.
Without hesitation, Midas grabbed the fruit and stuffed it into his mouth.
He closed his eyes, his nostrils flaring as he took delight in the meal.