"Young ones, you all should be getting to safety." An old frame came strolling out of the guild, and I halted my advance towards them. The guild master never seemed to be in a hurry and even now he held the same calm, almost haughty demeanor. "Do you recall the first lesson you were taught here? When faced with an opponent who you cannot win against, your first and only priority should be to run. I will entertain my old friend here, you all must leave."
Without a moment's hesitation the group retreated, Anabelle and the Calamitous grizzly had reached the guild and the old man standing in front of it.
" Rejoice, foul humans for I Gluttony have decided to make you all my loyal subordinates. I have come to bless you with eternal life and servitude … No that's bad it sounds too reassuring. I want them weeping in fear before I carve them up. Ah well, I'll just have to come up with it on the spot, I do suppose I have a little more time, seeing as we have a rather dreary welcoming party. No need to waste my theatrics on an old man."
The guild master hobbled forward closer to the pair "It is an honor to have you here, your highness. Might I inquire about the nature of your visit?"
Anabelle scoffed before dismissing the old man instructing the bear to proceed forward.
The guildmaster held his ground, even moving to intercept the pair. Though I wasn't certain what he had planned.
" Your highness, I would advise you to stop what you are doing, otherwise I will have to stop you. I am loyal to the crown, but the safety of my students takes precedent. I'm certain your father would understand. Even if not, I will live with the consequences of my actions."
…
"Say, your highness, would you care to hear the story of how I came to be the Leader of the adventurers guild?" The old man smiled, but Anabelle looked to be growing annoyed with the old man.
"Kill him."
With a wave of her hand the Grizzly charged forward towards the guildmaster as Anabelle dismounted from her perch. Its claws tore through the air with blinding speed but was stopped short of tearing the guildmaster in two.
"You young ones are always so full of energy, but rushing in how you get yourself killed. You should always be willing to learn more about your enemy."
The bear let out a roar as it was lifted off the ground and thrown by a person I hardly recognized. The guild master had grown to at least twice the size he was before, bulging muscles having grown to tightly fit the once baggy robes the guildmaster was wearing. His expression was unlike anything I had ever seen before, a deep seething scowl that invoked a terror overcoming my desire to eat him; my body wanting to run away from a human for once.
Anabelle looked shocked but quickly composed herself, "So 'wise sage', do share more of this 'wisdom' of yours." she quickly quipped, mocking the old man. Her eyes hungrily staring towards the building behind him.
"It would be wise to not underestimate your opponent." His form seemed to vanish, before appearing again in front of Anabelle. He wasn't holding back; and with a force that I'm sure would kill her, he threw a fist that was just barely halted by the bear's large paw, which deformed into a crater under the old man's hand.
Anabelle's face morphs into one of terror, and rightfully so. I knew the guildmaster was strong, otherwise he wouldn't be the leader of the guild but this was too much. The guild master continued his onslaught with a flurry of blows aiming for anabelle that the bear was forced to take instead. Anabelle started chanting a spell, which spurred the guildmaster to attack a little more desperately, but the bear held strong. The once terrifying beast had turned into little more than a pile of meat. The guild master's blows had shattered bones and claws, blown off pieces of flesh, and it was obvious that this thing wasn't going to last for much longer.
The bear did however manage to keep Anabelle alive long enough for her to finish casting the spell. The Guildmaster once again continuing his attacks was blocked by the bear but this time it was different. The bear started to glow a ghastly light blue as its body began to reconstruct, and I could feel a large amount of mana begin to swirl around him. The guild master stopped his attacks soon after he realized they weren't going to get through. The bear was different now. The blue light encasing the bear filled in the parts that had been lost to decay making it more complete than before, and far more dangerous. This must have been its true strength before it had died.
Seeing the transformation, the guild master let out a sorrowful smile, and a short whisper "Look at how strong you'd grown."
The Bear took initiative this time around and the true battle had begun. In mere moments the entire front hall of the guild had been smashed to pieces, and the surrounding buildings had been all but flattened. The two tearing through stone as if it didn't exist. I would have loved to stay and watch the fight but I wasn't allowed that privilege. Anabelle took off as soon as the battle between the two goliaths started. With the Guildmaster having met his match with the bear, turning his back now was akin to death.
I quickly followed her past the two and towards the castle. Thankfully she didn't make it very far. In front of the Castle the group that had initially stood to fight the bear had readied their weapons as Anabelle approached, anticipating a fight.
I could feel a tug on my mind, urging me forward towards her side. She was calling for help from any undead in the area, and I knew I wasn't the only one. The creatures that were roaming the city weren't too far away, and I doubt the group in front of me could take them all. I needed to end this quickly. That's when an absurd idea crossed my mind.
Dropping all the spells I had in place to control myself I give in to the call for help, and a sense of pleasure fills me from finally being of use to my master. Moving to her side, the crowd takes a step back, as I reveal myself. Caroline falls backwards in terror as Jacklyn and Emmy let out gasps begin to cry in disbelief. Blake and Grant held true, still ready to fight but there was pain in their expressions, Julien had frozen. Anabelle was elated with their reactions, I was left feeling guilty from the pleasure I derived from their helplessness, but I also felt warm. They truly did love me. It hurts a little to know I would come to betray that love but I am a greedy person. I will be the only one of us to die.
At Anabelle's side my body finally relented to my will even if briefly, so for the last time I smiled; Laughed, a low, broken, haunting cackle, and with every ounce of strength I could muster pulled Anabelle and myself into the depths of the void.
Falling into the void I experienced the same weightless feeling as the time before, where I couldn't tell down from up. I slipped right through the threshold, however Anabelle wasn't the same story. She was difficult to take with me, the magic within her objecting entry. I had anticipated resistance but this was something else. Regardless, I had already committed and I wasn't about to back down; my mana was burning up but it was working. I was shaving away at Anabelle's magic and the restraints slowly pulled her deeper. Upon realizing what was happening she desperately tried to escape, but anything she tried was dampened or dispelled, even my connection to her had seemed to vanish. Something about her demeanor had suddenly changed. It was desperation, fear unlike anything I had seen thus far. This was ingrained, personal. She recognized the void. She was familiar with it.
Once fully submerged she began to drift off with me. She struggled for a moment before she slowed, then closed her eyes and she stopped, suspended in the weightlessness. A red smoke left anabelle's body, and I felt the void shift. Incorporeal at first, the mist began to take a physical form. A massive corpulent humanoid creature decorated in mouths with countless clawed limbs emerging from them began thrashing about attempting to escape towards the rift. The creature was managing to claw its way upwards and before long it would breach the rift. Once it escaped I wasn't sure I was going to be able to stop it any more.
In its frenzy one of its limbs smacked into me, launching me away from the portal. I don't know how to stop myself, so with no other choice, I force the portal closed and pray I can find my way home.
"YOU BITCH! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE!" I hear a voice blare in my mind. The creature had trained it's eyes onto me and a long dysmorphic arm grabbed my body and launched me towards it.
"OPEN IT BACK UP! NOW! I-I'LL KILL YOU!" The creature screamed into my mind, but I don't want to deal with him right now.
Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I didn't know how to open up another portal. My mana wasn't responding how I wanted. I spent most of it pulling the three of us into the void, and now I couldn't push it out. It was like trying to hold water in a ruching river. Whenever I tried to use mana I would lose it, it would wash away or just vanish. Even if it worked I don't know where it would lead. I didn't know where we were in the first place.
The creature started screaming louder and more dramatically while its hands began to vise around me. I almost wanted to laugh at it as it struggled. It was it's idea to attack us, it was it's fault that I had died. It had caused me so much grief, did it think that throwing a fit was going to give it what it wanted? Did it think I would forgive it for being so pretentious?
'Looks like we'll be stuck here together forever' I try to convey to him. I couldn't tell if he could hear me, but the screams had turned even more desperate. Upon realizing I wasn't ever going to help him he crushed me, but his voice had started to wane, and it wasn't long after he had disappeared completely. I started feeling sleepy again, and I drifted off with the grimm hope that I may never wake up.
____________________________________________________________________________
Tonight I had a dream. It wasn't like a lucid dream, or conscious slumber, but a real, true dream. One that sits on the edge of your mind just outside of your grasp. A lingering smile frolicing on the fringes of your heart. It was a beautiful dream of colors and lights, and smiles, laughter, and joy. There was a man who cradled me, in sturdy, powerful arms. His touch was warm and gentle. I wanted to stay there forever. His touch had healed my body, and his voice had soothed my howling soul. His face was lost to the precious dreamscape, just beyond the faint of light restrained by my eyelids. I reached out to touch him but I couldn't ... quite ... reach.
I sat up and wiped the tears out of my eyes, as they worked to settle. There was a road, and trees, trees withered and warped, twisted. The sky, it was dark but not night, less light than devoid of darkness. The sky was missing? Where am I?
A ringing split my eardrums as memories poured in. I was dead. Killed in the forest, a forest, but not this one. I was running from something; no towards something, but where? What was I after? I started breathing harder, as the sound of crunching gravel snapped me awake. Illusion and reality blended together and I shakily got to my feet.
'What was that? What do they want? I'm scared. What was going on? Where am I?' I ran into the treeline, passing dozens of trees that all looked the same, a looming scorched wood. The crunching of dry golden leaves under my feet filled my ears. It hurt. Why was I running? Why was everything so loud?
Another sound, a scream tore through my head, and I tripped over a protruding root, moving far faster than I had anticipated, sliding across the ground and hitting my head against a tree. Then I was on my feet moving again in the old forest, I was hungry, hunting for something, but there was more, an urge to pass the edge of the forest, but I couldn't.
My feet swept out from under me and I fell back into an ocean of darkness. A demon cursing my existence as I fell deeper and deeper. The screams faded and soon the demon had all but turned to dust. I pitied the poor creature. It was as if I could feel the very sense of doom that awaited him. Whatever happened he did not pass peacefully.
My body was dark and heavy, the haunting screams leaving me in cruel anticipation. It was lonely, and empty, but a lone spark shone below it rising, giving me hope. It was my creator.
" Interesting. How is it you managed to wander here, my lost little lamb?"
Striding elegantly through the void he stopped in front of me and I felt my heart flutter. A featureless face, like a mask, with two wisp-like eyes that looked to disappear into beautiful white voids of their own, raised his hand towards my forehead. I reach out to touch him. I feel his power embrace me.
"Fuck. Off." A voice squeaked. A depraved and wretched voice.
I was enraged. Who said that? Who was brazen enough to utter such words towards father. The man's eyes narrowed in my direction and I felt a chill run down my spine. No I didn't say that. Stop looking at me like that.
"Now who gave you permission to talk back?" The man boomed and I winced in recoil. Why was he being so mean to me? I wasn't doing anything wrong.
His hand touched my head, and-
" I said. FUCK. OFF." Some father I had. Trying to take control of my mind. Like hell that was going to happen again. Wait … father? What was happening. Why would I think of him as a father? I've never seen this creep in my life.
The creature laughed at me which tripped a nerve and I tried to swat at him in indignation but I was too broken for it to work.
"Interesting … I suppose you must be my daughter then." The man's face contorted into something that almost looked like a … smile? A shiver runs along my spine
"Such violent progeny I do find myself with." He mused with a smile
"What are you talking about? Who are you? What do you want?" I start getting nervous. I'm in no position to stop whoever this was. I was immobile and in pieces. I was entirely at his whims.
"Calm yourself, all will be explained in time. Your mother sent me to retrieve you. Well, that's partially true at least. Let's leave it at that for now. You're soon to have other more pressing concerns."
With the snap of his fingers I was back. Surrounded by golden leaves and black charred trees. As my memories were stitched back into place, the world seemed to spin. No matter how many times it happens, suddenly becoming conscious never gets any easier. Even then I couldn't mask the smile that crept up my face. Lifting my hands up in front of my face I clenched and stretched out my fingers, staring at them with complete disbelief. Starting on my right then onto my left, I began to count them.
"One." I extended my index finger
"Two."
"Three"
"Four"
"Five"
"Six"
"Seven"
"Eight"
"Nine"
"Ten."
Wiggling my fingers they all began to move and my smile widened. Yep, they were all there. And they were all mine. Sprawling out in the leaves I grab handfuls and force my arms up above my head, then open them letting the leaves fall over my face. As the leaves fall onto my face lightly brushing against me, I can't help but start to laugh.
Sitting up in the pile of leaves I kick out with both of my feet, knocking aside and crunching leaves as they wiggle. Grabbing two arms full of leaves I jump and flick out my tail tossing the leaves into the air and I give a little twirl as they fall to the ground. There were some pieces left in my hair, caught in tangles that I'd have to fix later, but I didn't care. I could move again!
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. The woodland air was warm and inviting. I wasn't cold. The smell was crisp and almost sweet. The stench of decay, now a bitter memory. There was no void. No emptiness. I'm whole again. I start to cry.
I slowly trace my hands along my body, all the places that had been eaten. All the damage I had done to keep myself restrained, and to keep others safe. All the suffering, all the pain, all the grief; gone without even a blemish. I wanted to pretend it was all a dream. A lovely twisted dream. No one was really dead, I didn't die again, I didn't hurt anyone.
" Crap, I have to get back to class." I say absentmindedly playing into my delusions
" Mrs. Himeko is going to be super mad at me if I'm late. I've had such good attendance too." Choking on my tears I stand and look around, but there isn't anything I recognise. The sky, ground and trees were all foreign.
A brief image haunts me. I can still imagine everyone back in the class, listening to Mrs. Himeko. Lyric, Tanya, Emmy, Caroline, Julian, Gram, Eric.
Had I saved them? Did it work? Are they waiting for me? The thought sparked a revelation. I need to get back. I need to apologize. I need to make sure they are ok. I didn't want to lose anyone. I need to make sure I'm not the one that's lost.
I couldn't help thinking back to the figure I had met. My 'Father'. A deadbeat father he may be, but I suppose I would accept his gift, if it meant I could live again. Just this once.