It was a sunny afternoon when a big helicopter was forwarding across the biggest jungle in the world, the Jungle of Artemis.

It is said that the jungle covers almost two million square kilometers of the land, as big as one of the biggest countries on the planet.

Inside the chopper were two armed men and a young girl.

The girl's name was Ceres, the only daughter of Vulcan Forseti one of the richest men in the country of Agartha.

He owns four out of seven six-star hotels, two out of three top fruits, and vegetable plantations, three out of ten top malls, and so many legal businesses across the globe.

His riches were the main reason why many people envy him...

But due to the fact that he's not a bad type of person, he has many supporters and friends too.

Every year, there's annual bidding where every top 100 wealthy people from the country and some chosen from the offshore may join.

The items that were open for bidding were all rare, and sometimes extinct. From unique gems, archaeological treasures, mutated animals and plants, to special drugs...

Everything can be taken home if you're capable enough to win the bid.

One of the highlights of this year's bidding event was a special serum. It is said that it can give people a unique ability, and for what specific ability it gives, no one really knows for it's untested.

Well, every person has his or her own different innate ability. So for what talent one could obtain, it may differ...

Though that was what it claimed, once again, it has not been proven yet.

The scientist who made it had an accident, and due to some chemical reactions with his experiments...

The entire laboratory was blasted.

He didn't survive there, even all of his works had been burnt to ashes. When people checked the place, everything was already beyond repair.

The only thing that they were able to recover was a fireproof box where inside it was a canister with a note.

The scientist was a popular one, he had been studying more about genetic mutations of both humans, animals, and sometimes plants.

After taking the canister and the note, the government chose to place it to be auctioned in the said event.

Though people really didn't know the effectiveness or side effects of this great masterpiece, the note alone was more than enough to be counted on...

For it came from an accomplished technologist.

This kind of creation no matter what shouldn't be owned by a horrible person, or else, it would really be a catastrophe.

So Vulcan and his friends aimed to win it no matter what was the cost, for it might do harm to everyone in the long run later on.

After the series of naming prices, the bidding finally ended and Vulcan was the victor.

To celebrate, Vulcan brought all of his friends to one of his hotels.

When they reached there, they saw his wife and daughter warmly welcomed them...

It was a joyous party and when Vulcan was a bit tipsy, he put the canister that he had won in Ceres's beautiful shoulder bag to keep safe.

Well, no one would actually believe that the thing that he had bid for billions would be under his child's care.

Ceres thought that it was a gift so she took good care of it without even checking to not spoil the fun...

But after a short while, she felt bored and headed to the roof deck to enjoy the picturesque scene of all the buildings around.

Since her family's hotel tower was the tallest amongst them, she really enjoyed the view.

Then suddenly...

A man with a black handkerchief approached her.

She didn't even notice him, the man quickly covered her nose and mouth. The only thing she remembered after that was her consciousness slowly fading after someone tried to make her breathe something.

Ceres then was brought inside a helicopter and departed.

"Take good care of the girl, our boss needs her unscathed." The one who pilots the copter said.

"Don't worry, I have a daughter too. I am not expecting that boss has this weird fetish. So savage!" The other guy replied.

"Hey! Be careful of what you say. She will just be kept as a hostage in exchange for the thing that boss lost in the auction."

"Well, whatever. Why not take the mom instead?"

"Hmmph."

After a night on that helicopter, Ceres woke up with all of her limbs tied.

"Mister, what's happening?"

"Oh, girl we took you away. Don't worry, we won't harm you. We just need you in exchange for an important thing that our boss needs." The one who drives replied.

"I see, will my parents be worried?" She was anxious.

"I think our boss already told them about you. So you don't need to worry." The other guy comforted her.

"Where are we going?"

"We will bring you to our hideout, it's safe in there. Come on, cheer up! Don't be scared, our boss is a kind man okay? His son is very sick, he just needs to have the serum that your father had won. Hoping that it could somehow cure him." The one who pilots the chopper answered.

"Oh, okay."

Ceres felt that those two guys were actually nice people. The way they talk, the way they console her, and their gestures towards her say so too.

Along the way, they were just talking... Sharing stories and everything. The other guy even showed her some pictures, they were photos of his wife and daughter.

Ceres, on the other hand, became even more open.

After an hour, the pilot talked.

"We are now approaching the Jungle of Artemis. You two kids behave yourselves okay?"

"You are the kid!" The other guy blurted while Ceres just nodded her small head.

As they were approaching, the other guy noticed that Ceres was actually having a hard time viewing the different sights outside the window, so he slowly carried her up to enjoy watching.

"Beautiful, is that an elephant? Wow, it is my first time seeing them freely running outside a big cage." She asked.

"Oh that thing, what is that uncle?" Ceres added when she saw a weird animal chasing a lion.

"That one is a mutated animal or a beast, called Electric-Qilin. They are very fast and have an innate ability of electricity like an electric eel." The other guy replied.

"Oh, how about that weird-looking huge bird flying?"

"That is a Roc, a mutated bird."

"Do they actually have bleeding eyes? Was it injured? Oh, why it seems like it's slowly getting bigger?" She asked.

The guy looked back to see. He then became terrified and abruptly cried out after that.

"No! Sebas, that Roc is injured and will bump into the helicopter!!!".....

Booooooooooooooom!

It was already too late though...

Before the pilot could even make a move, the Roc already hit them.

The other guy protected Ceres, as the helicopter was descending. He tightly embraced her while both his eyes were closed.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaam!

After a short while, another loud sound was heard.

The outer part of the helicopter was smashed!

Even the inner part was shattered, it was a miracle that Ceres only have few scratches all over her body.

A spark then formed near the fuel tank afterward.

Though it didn't explode due to the impact, it cracked including some fuel containers near it.

The spark became a small fire and slowly moving towards the pilot's body. It was thanks to the water vessel that was also damaged, that the fire was not advancing too fast. Yet, it was not enough to fully prevent it.

The man couldn't move even a finger and really having a hard time breathing too. Then suddenly...

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

A scream was heard. The pilot's body was slowly burning. The pain, suffering, torture, torment, and agony, were felt by him all at the same time.

He was literally burning alive!

Ceres heard him whine and woke up for that reason...

All kinds of emotions were flooding inside her, she was watching a person being burnt alive like literally.

But what could she do? She was just a young girl that had a very small body frame, she couldn't even carry her bag at school without any help.

Ceres wanted to help him, but she couldn't even help herself. She couldn't untie her limbs as well.

She didn't have any other choice but to keep eyeing on what was happening to the pilot, as his distance was not too far from hers.

With some blood and sweat mixed flowing on her eyes, she couldn't close it. She couldn't even have a wink...

Since that was the case, why not just watch closely and see what would happen next?!

After a couple of minutes, the man stopped moving. It seemed like he already accepted his fate and just died silently.

While Ceres was still observing, she returned back to her senses when she saw that the fire was now slowly moving right next into her.

She became restless and shouted for aid!

"Help! Is anyone out there, help me please..."

As she was asking for help, she felt something.

Plop plop plop plop plop

Something was actually dropping down from above, that made her right shoulder wet...

Ceres looked slowly above and she saw the other guy!

She could see that his neck was broken while his eyes were still open looking warmly on her...

The man was already dead, and he wasn't even able to close his eyes before he died.

He actually checked first how Ceres was doing and when he saw that she was fine after what happened, he became satisfied up to his last breath.

Ceres was wearing a white dress with a red ribbon on her waist. With the blood that was leaking from the guy's position, her right shoulder was being painted in red.

After contemplating, once again back to reality!

She was shocked when she saw that the fire was now reaching her feet.

"N-no! Don't!..."

She cried out! She was now scared to death and couldn't even move her feet for she was cornered! She could only look away from it.

Crsssssssstkkkkksss

Then she heard a weird sound on her feet.

Out of curiosity, she looked quickly and suddenly smiled.

Opportunity!

This was what she needed. The thing that was burning now is not her shoes but the rope tied on her.

She first calmed down and slowly moved her lower limbs...

Finally!

A big portion of the rope was burned, she then used a big amount of her strength to forcefully break the rope.

Afterward, she immediately stood up and moved away.

"Now what to do? It's scorching everywhere. How to break this rope on my hands? Hmmm, alright let me try this."

She went to an area where the fire was not blazing and placed her wrists that had been tied in order for her to burn the rope.

"Ouch! Hmm, it hurts mom."

Ceres felt the heat for a part of her skin was burned...

She endured it, her first priority now was to free her hands on the rope so she could move on to her next plan.

"Oh, finally! Everywhere is ablaze, so what's next? I no longer have any other choice, let me do this!..."

She went to the guy and carefully took his jacket off, she had a hard time doing so for the man's half body was actually being pressed by the helicopter's rotary-wing.

"Uncle I'm so sorry, I need to do this. I will always pray for you! And if I survive later, I will try to look for your family and assist them when they need any help. Uncle, may you rest in peace."

When Ceres was already able to remove the jacket from his corpse, the blood rushed through her body.

She didn't mind at all, she was focusing on thinking about how to leave as soon as possible!

The next thing she did was, she poured the remaining water from the vessel on her body and soaked the jacket wet.

She wore it and quickly ran with all her might going outside the burning area.

Afterward, she heard some explosions! And the helicopter was now scorching all over.

"Hooah! That was close! Uncle and Mr. Pilot, may you both rest in peace."

After that, she didn't rest even for a moment.

Ceres was afraid of those weird animals that she saw earlier that might come feed on her.

She then walked away to look for a safe place to stay...

Then, a short while had passed. She saw a small cave not too far from where the helicopter had crashed, she slowly went inside to examine if there were something in there.

After checking, Ceres became really happy!...

Aside from the stones and some wall carvings around, the inside of the cave could be said to be a very vacant place for her to stay.

But she still made sure that the cave was entirely safe. Afterward, she sat at the corner and fell asleep.....

The next day...

It was already around seven in the morning when Ceres woke up. Some parts of her body were still aching, she also felt hunger.

The last time that she took a meal was yesterday, two hours before the incident...

As a growing child, she needed to not skip a meal to get nourished.

What happened yesterday was very intense to the point that she wasn't able to check the entire place thoroughly or had time to even ponder for a bit.

When she reached the cave, she became complacent when she saw that everything was fine, she then just fell asleep.

After going back to her senses, she stood up and slowly walked outside.

It was weird though that she couldn't hear any birds or even crickets that were making any sound.

Well, due to what happened yesterday, every creature near the area was frightened and chose to stay away!

As she walked into the area, looking for something to eat, she saw an apple tree.

It was not that big, yet she could see some ripe fruits on it.

She slowly climbed on, though it was hard in the first few steps, she realized a trick to do it just fine.

In every step, she would look for a bulge that was made of a severed branch and would move his feet one at a time as she slowly pacing up.

"Yahoo! Finally, I will be able to eat now."

After a moment she managed to pick some fruits. Ate them happily on the tree, while enjoying the view of nature all around.

After filling her tummy, she relaxed a bit.

"Oh, is that where the helicopter crashed? I will go there later and scan the area."

She was very satisfied now that her tummy is full. So she once again was to do her moves, but this time it would be her going down the tree.

It is funny though, she felt that it was actually harder to go down rather than climbing up.

Perseverance is the key!

In just a short while...

Voila! she made it.

With some apples that she dropped while still on the tree, she went back to her cave where she left them and forwarded outside once again to probe the area.

While she was walking, she saw a big rock not too far from the cave.

This rock was actually at the bottom of a hill, but what amazed her was the water coming out from a small hole in the middle part of it.

The flowing water was very clear, so she tried to drink some.

"Is this what they called water spring? I thought the water should be coming from the underground? Hmmm, Oh! Maybe it's coming from that hill? Alright, no time to waste. I still have a lot of things to do."

Although she was only nine years old, she was smart and she loved to watch survival and wildlife-themed films. So she wasn't that ignorant at all...

What were always featured in those films that she watched were the regular animals that all are aware of, they seldomly shoot mutated ones due to the fact that they are very dangerous and most of the time, aggressive!

Adding what she experienced yesterday, it made Ceres mature a little bit...

She went back for a moment, took the jacket that she used yesterday. She then washed it properly and placed it on top of a rock nearby to dry.

Though she couldn't do it better like what their family workers do, Ceres was most of the time being curious about all things around her...

So she always sees them while they were doing their job.

"Even without some laundry soap, it should be fine. I did everything as I had observed from the nanny."

When the jacket was set, she then advanced to the place where the copter crashed. The entire place was actually destroyed by the impact and fire.

Everything was almost turned into ashes.

She didn't lose hope...

Ceres still searched for anything that could still be useful and assessed the area properly.

After a short while, she recovered two army bags, a canister, some flat metals, and metal-sheets that were still fine to use, and some grilled meat...

Yeah, bird's meat from the big Roc that hit the chopper yesterday. Unexpectedly it also fell near the helicopter and was roasted.

The bags were made of super high-quality fireproof materials, though that was the case...

Due to the extreme heat, their locks were crushed.

The canister was the one her father entrusted her!

Due to her weak body and poor strength, it took her a couple of hours just to bring everything inside the cave.

Ceres was still busy when suddenly, she heard a scary loud sound!

Ssshhhhrieeeehhheeeeeekkkk!

Flap Flap Flap

She was scared to death when she heard it.

But still...

Out of curiosity, she carefully peeked outside to see.

"Wow! what a beautiful red big bird, also a mutated bird? Oh, some fresh wounds. Was it the one who injured the giant Roc?" She asked herself.

Exactly!

Every territory has an overlord. When the red bird reached the area, it fought the Roc in order to own the place.

When the Roc had been defeated, it chose death rather than submitting...

So it was badly injured by the other one.

When it can no longer endure the pain, it flew swiftly to escape and hit the helicopter...

It was due to the fact that its eyes were cut, and the Roc couldn't see anything!

When the big bird was already far away, Ceres also moved out going to the spring to freshen up and drink some water.

Afterward, she has already finished everything there is to be done. So she went back to the cave, ate some grilled meat, and checked all of her carried stuff from earlier.

From the first bag, she believed that it was owned by the other guy...

She saw a dagger, a gun, five bullet boxes, family photos, five pairs of men's clothing, protein bars, and books of mutated animals and plants, world history, and basic knowledge about fighting and shooting!

She suddenly opened the book about mutated animals and plants, to first look at what kind of beast was she able to catch a glimpse of earlier.

"Hmmm, beautiful big bird and red feathers... Oh here, Phoenix!"

•••

Phoenix, one of the mighty mutated birds.

They have the ability to produce fire all over their body, it was due to some combustible gasses that they can emit and bioelectricity that is enough to produce some sparks.

They are strong, fast, and very intelligent avian beasts!

•••