Rexxie pressed his large nose into the grass and sniffed deeply. He quickly caught the scent he was after. He was looking for Lyanna’s favorite pink star shaped fruit. The other rexs liked to make fun of him for being smaller than them, but Lyanna was always sticking up for him. Going on this very important quest for her was the least he could do in return. It would no doubt be a dangerous journey, but Rexxie knew he was ready. He would leap every hurdle and crunch every foe between his mighty jaw.
Rexxie squared his shoulders and set off across the Splinterlands. He followed the scent through the woods and into a clearing. A branch snapped to the right of him. He looked up and made eye contact with a terrifying orc.
“What’s a baby rex doing on my land? You best turn around and get your scaley green hide back home before I use it to make a rug!”
The glint coming from the sharp edge of the orcs battle axe caught Rexxie’s eye. Rexxie wasn’t a fan of axes, they bit and stung the same way the older rexes teeth did when they picked on him. But Rexxie couldn’t back down, this was his very first quest and he had to see it through. It would take more than one cranky old orc to stop him. Rexxie took a deep breath and let out the biggest most ferocious roar he could manage before running towards the orc, one ground shaking step at a time.
Rexxie barreled forward with so much force, that he accidently ran straight past the orc who knew enough to step out of the way of something big running towards him. Rexxie tried to turn around but ended up tripping over his feet and landing on his nose with a great thud. The orc laughed loudly.
“Go home baby rex. You can come back and try again when you’ve learned to stay upright.” Rexxie shook the dirt off of his nose and pulled himself back to his feet. Angry at having been laughed at, he lunged at the orc gnashing his teeth together harshly. The orc dodged him again and sliced at the side of Rexxie's face with his axe. Rexxie winced from the pain. His pride wouldn’t let him back down, but he didn’t want to get anywhere near that axe again either. Rexxie closed his teeth around the trunk of a nearby tree. He pulled it out of the ground by its roots and in the same motion swiped it at the orc. It made contact and the orc went flying and landed far away with a thud. The orc stood back up shakily and realising that his axe was underneath Rexxie, ran away into the trees. Rexxie roared proudly before continuing on his journey.
The fruit’s scent led him to a cave. Rexxie hunkered down and squeezed himself into the narrow passageway. For the first time ever, Rexxie was very happy that he was small for a rex. He barely fit as it was, any bigger and he would have collapsed the cave around himself. When the cave finally opened up, it was into a large cavern filled from wall to wall with fruit bearing trees. Light streamed in from a hole far above him illuminating all of the pretty fruit.
The fruit was much to small for Rexxie to pick without crushing them, so he decided to take an entire tree home with him instead. He pulled one up and went back to the small passage. It wasn’t easy to maneuver the tree through the passage but, after getting stuck several times, he finally managed it.
When he made it back to the clearing he looked around cautiously for the orc. Once he was convinced that the orc was nowhere to be found, he stepped out from beneath the trees. A shriek tore through the air.
“What have you done to my beautiful tree you imbecile?!” A forest spirit pointed at the tree in Rexxie’s jaw accusingly. Rexxie tilted his head to the side in confusion.
“Look, if you give the tree back I’ll make you a deal. I’ll brew you a potion that will make you grow bigger than all of the other rexs. So just give it back, okay?” Rexxie considered the offer. This morning he might have taken it, but he was so close to completing his quest just the way he was that it seemed silly to throw it all away now. Rexxie shook his head. The forest spirit shrieked at him again and called him several not very nice words before stomping off into the forest.
When Rexxie made it back home he ran straight to Lyanna. He dropped the fruit tree at her feet. He was so excited that his tail wagged back and forth uncontrollably. Lyanna’s face lit up with a smile.
“Thank you Rexxie, this is wonderful!” She planted the tree with her magick and several new fruit blossoms appeared in its leaves. “Now I can pick my favorite fruit whenever I want straight from my own garden! I hope you didn’t go to too much trouble for it though,” she said examining the cut on his face.
That night, after Lyanna had tended to his wound, she baked a pie from the fruit to celebrate the completion of his very first quest. The other rexes didn’t seem very impressed by his accomplishment, but Rexxie couldn’t be happier. Now he knew that he could do everything that they could do and more. He curled up in bed that night and dreamed of all the quests that were to come.
Front of the card:
Don’t let his small size and puppy dog demeanor fool you, Rexxie is as ferocious of a rex as you could ever hope to meet!
Thank you for reading! This is my entry for the Steem Monsters writing contest found here:
https://steemit.com/contest/@steemmonsters/steem-monsters-common-card-fantasy-story-contest-week-8
If you like to write I highly recommend you jump in! It's a really fun world to write for <3