Elias was sitting on a smooth rock, staring at the thin stream in front of him. Unlike his surroundings, his mind was anything but tranquil. Questions moved and pulsed in his mind as his imagination ran wild.
Why did the new combat warrior call him?
Did he offend someone?
What could a combat warrior need from him?
His stupor was broken by a strange, otherworldly sound, as if thunder had struck right beside him. Elias, however, did not dare move an inch; he immediately stopped his breathing and tried to sense any movement around him.
There were myriad kinds of Requim beasts after all; Elias could either run or wait, he chose to wait until he was forced to run.
Requim beasts could have hundreds of different mystic powers. While the most common ones were not that unique, the true predators wielded unique magical powers.
"Are you Elias Kiefer?"
He sat frozen; combat warriors did not have such mystical powers, only powerful Requim beasts do; who is to say that a Requim beast cannot imitate human voice?
Ah man, my cheek is getting really, really itchy
"You are a smart kid."
The voice paused for a moment, as if studying Elias's face.
"Don't worry, I am a priest."
Unconvinced, Elias still did not move; there were two reasons for his distrust. One was that priests were quite rare even outside the woods; it would not make any sense for a priest to talk to him. Second, why would the priest lie that he was merely a combat warrior? Won't his title benefit him in a small tribe?
If a priest had entered the tribe, there would have been an uproar. Any priest did not have any reason to lie, even when hiding their identity they could easily hide it and still call themselves a priest.
Elias's purple hair fluttered as the shadows in front of him swayed and changed form; before he could react, however, he felt a sudden jolt in his body. It was similar to being stung by a bee; Elias jolted as the fleeting pain disappeared; before he could run, he heard the mysterious voice again.
"You are the heir of a false treasury of a divinity now; grow strong and find it.
You will find your father there."
A similar but much more devastating sound thundered as Elias fell to the ground; confused by the dreamlike sequence, he raised his head and laughed. How amusing it is, a priest or a Requim beast did something to him which he could not even comprehend, then proclaimed that he is heir to the false treasury of a god and just left.
How comical!
How laughable! He had almost believed it for a second there.
After a while of waiting, Elias simply left the riverbed and went straight to his sister; after all, he had a plan to execute.
The orange sun swimming at the end of the horizon was long covered by the great cloud when Elias started to go through the plan once again with his sister. While rehearsing he could still feel the bitterness of wasting a whole Dawnlay for that joke of a priest.
Elias stood up and stretched as his sister looked at him with a hint of confusion in her bright red eyes.
"Now, let's enact the plan, shall we?"
His sister's red eyes stared into his soul, asking a silent question. Seeing that Elias was acting oblivious to it; she simply asked
"What? You actually want to go to that pond?
"I sure do"
"Didn't you say that we were planning it for fun?"
"I sure did"
"So we are not going"
"Come on, we spent so much time planning this. Why would you want to waste our effort? "
…
Unnoticed, a swift shadow passed behind a man covered in bright green leaves bounded by thin vines. The man was wielding a long spear and a small knife; stationed as a guard of the pond of strength. Usually there would be more guards like him, but it was the festival of strength, so defenses were spread thin.
The time was of relative peace anyways so chances of an infiltration were low.
If the guard was not feeling lazy and at peace, he would have heard faint sounds of metal scrapping against a rock.
Come to think of it, he had started feeling dizzy after eating the candy a sweet girl gifted him.
…
Elias sighed sharply as he entered the area around the pond, quickly hiding themselves in the dancing tall grass as they used animal skin to cover themself, not wearing any leaves — who would like to produce the sound of leaves rustling in front of a pond with no trees in sight.
Porel was a relatively flat grassy area, while it was too huge for Elias to know about most of it's places, he knew that trees were sparse.
Elias's third eye widened as he saw the breathtaking pond; the pond had an extremely rich and unfathomably deep glow surrounding it. He sighed in regret for his sister, who could not see the true beauty of the pond.
Ah, coming here was worth it!
Going even near the pond was borderline illegal in the tribe.
Heh, like he cared.
The light is similar to the lights combat warriors use, but only much more ethereal and mystic, it's so awe-inspiring it's funny
Well, Elias was not really sad about her sister not opening her third eye; he would rather have her ignorant of mystical arts and beautiful lights than have her do that gruesome ritual. Pushing ugly thoughts aside, he embraced himself in the sweet smell of victory
"Now what"
"We do something every mortal is forbidden to do, of course"
They spent quite some time staring at the immaculate pond.
The great cloud slowly rolled off the horizon, leaving a sky made up of thousands of hues of crimson, orange, and blood red on the edge of the horizon like a painting. A new Dawnlay was starting.
The subtle sound of bugs and insects chirping and chittering mixed with the sound of water flowing gracefully from a stream nearby could be heard as Elias tasted the weird flavour of mist surrounding the pond.
It was the 21st Dawnlay of the 24th day in the 9th millennium when the festival was reaching its climax.
With each Dawnlay being around 20 hours long and there being 400 such lays in a day, the new millennium was young.
This was the time for guards to end their shifts and for new ones to replace them, giving Elias and his sister a small time window to break the biggest rule of their tribe — they were going to take a dip in the pond.
Using the pond greatly enhanced combat warriors' strength and even gave them inspiration; why would Elias get so close to the easy cheat and not use it?
Getting up from the tall grass Elias fixed his animal skin and vines and glanced at his sister
"You are taking a dive in there too, right?"
"What? No!"
Elias stayed quiet and gave his sister a long look, and started to walk towards the pond; his sister followed him hesitantly
"What is that sound?"
Aubrey seemed disturbed and slightly… Scared? Elias stopped and tried to hear something, but he heard nothing noteworthy.
"Its just the bugs"
The sound of bugs had become louder, their chitter slowly getting on his nerves, but he had better things to do; he took one more look at the pond and took a deep breath before glancing at his sister.
Ha, she is right! these bugs are so loud today.
She was trembling; damp with cold sweat and shocked to her very core. Before Elias could react however, she… pushed him towards the pond.
She pushed him towards the pond!
At first Elias got cheerful, but what he saw happen next turned playfulness to pure, utter horror.
Elias, wearing animal skins bound by thick vines, was falling into a magnificent pond. His purple hair dancing in front of his eyes.
A huge centipede was opening its giant maw as it inched closer to a girl with radiant red eyes; saliva was already falling on the beautiful girl. Elias's eyes widened as his sister's vines snapped and animal skin flew. The enormous insect tore off her fair leg as bones cracked and tendons snapped. Before Elias could see the hideous creature feast on his sister, he was already in the pond.
Nothingness
That was what Elias felt when he found himself in a strange place; not paying it any heed, he covered his head and pulled on his hair
"What the fuck just happened… no, no, no, this can't be real, this is a dream, yeah, it-" Elias stopped his mumbling as he looked around for a second
Familiar
This was not the first time he had come here, and that meant that this was not a dream. This revelation made Elias shudder; he shouted and wailed. He bit his lip to distract himself, but it was futile. So he did the only thing he did best — laugh at whatever this world can throw at him.
He laughed at himself, after all, he was the one who brought his sister to the pond.
He laughed at his tribe, after all, they were the ones supposed to keep the children safe.
He laughed at the warriors, after all, they could not stop the insects from killing.
He laughed at the gods for whom the festival was arranged, after all, the god was supposed to bring fortune.
Then he came to his senses.
"Where the fuck am I!?"
Is this the place I lock my memories?
Elias contemplated deeply: should he lock memories of his family and friends? Would he be himself if he locked such core memories?
Would these memories haunt him, even if they do, what good would forgetting himself do?
What does he truly desire?
Why did I come to this pond?
Why did I want to go outside the woods?
What drives me?
Elias tried to laugh but ended up choking himself, but no matter; when he peered into himself he found a small but prevalent desire, constantly eating him.
Strength.
I want to get stronger
I want to be owner of my fate
His hand moved forward, shaking as a golden key manifested out of thin air; The gold key had intricate designs with ghosts and symbols embedded in it, shining brightly as if something beyond divinity itself resided in it. The ghosts wailed soundlessly as the metal shone without light.
He had made his decision. If he desired strength, then he should desire it wholeheartedly; he should be ready to sacrifice everything to achieve his ambition — then why shouldn't he spare himself the trauma and help himself grow?
If he cannot sacrifice himself for strength, then how can he sacrifice anything else for it?
Wind blew frantically as a lock appeared out of thin air; it shone with bright light as a colourful slate of glass rose from his head. The sculpture-like glass slate shattered, and its pieces entered the lock, so did Elias's key.
Damp, A young boy with wet dark purple hair sticking to his face walked out of a radiant blue pond. He tried to take a deep breath, only for his senses to be assaulted by the horrid stench of blood that enveloped him as he stepped onto a dark red puddle.