Conversation Between Two unknown Characters:
° "Do you believe in fate?"
• "No..."
° "But why? Don't you think it matters whether it really exists? What's important is that people find hope by believing in it and having faith. Right?"
• "I'm not interested in false hope..."
° "I disagree with your way of thinking! Sometimes, even if it's false, one must have hope to survive. People have always needed something to rely on and trust in their nature—a partner and companion, a commander and leader, a god and guide..."
• "I don't need such things to survive in this race of life. The only thing I need is my own reason, logic, and reasoning..."
° "Interesting, I like you!! You're someone who doesn't blame an imaginary, unreal thing called fate for the failures in your life or the areas where you've been negligent and caused your own regression and downfall!! I must say, you're truly an interesting person. Unlike most of your kind, you don't try to exonerate yourself by blaming the earth, time, and the universe!!"
• "Yeah, yeah, now can I go...?"
° "Oh yes, why not? You're free to leave. Until we meet again, adios!"
◦•●◉✿ P̘͎̀͊ă̶̸̝ͦ͊̿͋͞û̶͙̽̿͆̈s̩͙͖̋͛͟ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊ ✿◉●•◦
Descriptive Passage:
A lush and incredibly beautiful forest stretched out before the eyes. Pine trees dominated the landscape, standing tall among the other trees. Several woodpeckers perched on the branches, busily pecking at the trunks. These woodpeckers had golden crests, purple wings, bright red legs, and long, phosphorescent green tails, paired with shining dark pink eyes. Around the trees grew bushes of wild fruits or ordinary shrubs, alongside grass, greenery, and flowers. Amid this natural splendor lay a boy, his clothes and appearance suggesting he didn't belong to this world. He had collapsed among the bushes, unconscious. His garments were relatively torn and worn, as if he had emerged alive from a fierce struggle. His cream-colored hair was caked with dust and mud, swaying slightly in the gentle breeze that also rustled the leaves of the trees.
A little farther off, among the wild raspberry bushes, a pitch-black hand rested on the ground. It seemed to have emerged from the depths of absolute darkness and shadow. The hand appeared utterly black and profound, its severed end glitching with dark blue hues. Unstable particles of dark blue dust floated into the air like dandelions. Suddenly, like a swamp, the blackness spread from beneath the hand, extending half a meter around it and staining the ground. The glitches and blue dust infected the corrupted earth as well. The hand itself began to tremble faintly without shifting from its spot. Then, for a brief moment, waves of dark blue energy—mingled with black, malevolent power—radiated outward. The force and density of this energy could have crushed a star, yet it left the forest unscathed. In that same instant, with the speed of a blink, a single eye with a dark blue iris materialized on the palm of the severed hand!
◦•●◉✿ P̘͎̀͊ă̶̸̝ͦ͊̿͋͞û̶͙̽̿͆̈s̩͙͖̋͛͟ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊ ✿◉●•◦
Mysterious Voices:
???: "Don't be such a child!!"
???: "You've always been, and still are, my dear brother."
???: "My son, I love you in every way! Both when you were with me in research and when you turned to writing!!"
???: "Yes, brother Kelvin. I always trust you."
???: "Cousin, as always, you're humorous but charming, huh."
???: "My dear nephew!! I'm glad you're playing such an important role in achieving this great and noble goal!!"
???: "Yeah, you're a good author... I like your writing style too. Okay, why not... I'll be your editor..."
Suddenly, his blood pressure and heart rate spiked sharply. A severe headache gripped him, and as he gasped for breath, he regained consciousness. He quickly shifted from lying down to sitting, pressing his hands into the ground around him. Cold sweat dripped from his brow as his heart raced and his breathing quickened. His eyes darted around, scanning the bushes, grass, birds in the trees, the trees themselves, and even the white clouds drifting in the blue sky. His memories of the events before waking were vague and hazy, as if a cloud had shrouded his mind. Slowly, he placed his right hand on his forehead and spoke in a calm, confused, and pained tone:
"What happened...? Where am I now...? Ouch, ouch, my head!!"
He pressed both hands to his head and leaned forward slightly.
"My memories are so vague... Completely vague... Why can't I remember anything...?!?!"
He tilted his head toward the sky, hands clutching the sides of his head. His wide, furious eyes reflected his confusion and bewilderment. Without realizing it, tears streamed down his face, and his sobs broke free. A tangle of emotions churned within him, plunging him into emotional turmoil. As Kelvin grappled with this critical moment of inner collapse and personal disarray, a voice sounded behind him. It resembled a woman's voice, though not entirely feminine or human—tinged with a mysterious, almost mocking tone, yet calm, controlled, and slightly irritated.
"Stop crying and wailing. You might just attract danger with all this noise, you stupid boy."
Kelvin froze, shocked by the sudden voice.
"Huh...?"
He slowly turned his head, then his body, toward the source of the sound, eager to identify it. What he saw defied all expectations—a strange, unanticipated sight. A floating black hand, wreathed in dark blue flames, hovered before him. At the center of its palm stared a single eye with a dark blue iris, locked onto Kelvin's gaze. For the second time, he was struck with even greater shock and froze.
"Ha..."
"Haaa..."
"Haaaaaa...????"
With fear, terror, and anxiety, he dragged himself backward across the ground, swallowing hard as his body trembled.
"A-a floating hand with a creepy single eye that talks...?! This makes no sense at all! Don't come closer!!! Whether you're a demon, a spirit, or whatever you are...!!!"
As he scrambled back, his back hit a tree trunk, halting his retreat. With no choice, he shut his eyes in fear and crossed his arms over his face. The single-eyed hand, adopting a poker face, sighed softly and drifted closer.
"Didn't I tell you once that making noise only draws danger to you, you stupid boy???? And you idiot!!! If I were an evil being, I could've easily finished you off while you were unconscious and quiet! In fact, I'm the one who kept you, a miserable wretch, from dying and helped you stay alive!!"
Kelvin's fear lessened slightly at the hand's words and tone. He lowered his arms from his face, wiped his tears, and opened his eyes. For a moment, he stared at the hand, then spoke in an uncertain, skeptical voice:
"I'll trust you only on one condition..."
"You don't have a choice, but fine, tell me what you want."
Kelvin hesitated, wrestling with himself, then continued:
"You... said you saved me? So that means you know who I am, where this place is, and how I ended up here...?"
The single-eyed hand paused, seemingly lost in thought. After a relatively long silence, it replied:
"I don't even know exactly what I am or how I came to be. I only remember opening my eyes to existence beside you. Something inside me keeps echoing that I must accompany you. And somehow, in an unknown way, I have limited but special abilities. One of them is healing, which I used to save you. Hmm..."
For a moment, the hand's thoughts seemed to drift to something that piqued Kelvin's curiosity and deepened his confusion. He asked:
"What's wrong all of a sudden? Did something happen?"
The hand refocused on Kelvin.
"When I was healing you, I noticed a kind of barrier on your soul. A barrier—or something you could call... a curse? That seems to be why your memories are damaged."
Kelvin was stunned, even a bit terrified by this revelation.
"A-a curse...? But who would curse me, and why...? What harm have I ever done to anyone...?!?!"
"Don't ask me so much—why do you expect me to know, you stupid fool?? If it weren't for this voice and whisper inside me, I wouldn't even bother saving someone as confused as you!"
As Kelvin and the mysterious hand bickered, a dagger suddenly flew from behind them, hurled from among the trees and bushes. It pierced the right side of Kelvin's chest. Immediately after, the clamor and shouts of strange creatures with repulsive voices grew closer. In shock, Kelvin looked down at the dagger embedded in his chest as blood trickled from his mouth. The single-eyed hand, acting instinctively, flared its blue flames brighter. A dark blue aura briefly enveloped Kelvin's body. The dagger was expelled, clattering to the ground, and his wound and bleeding healed at an astonishing rate. The hand then spun around and saw a group of short, green, dwarflike creatures with long noses and ears. Clad in tattered leather, they wielded crude weapons like stone axes and spears, advancing toward Kelvin with wild, sinister grins.
"We don't have time for crying and whining—run!!!"
Screaming from fear and recent pain, Kelvin leapt up and ran with all his strength through the trees, the hand flying alongside him.
"W-what just happened?! I was dying... The pain was unbearable for a moment! Forget that—what are those things?!?!"
The hand, keeping an eye on the five grotesque creatures behind them, answered:
"I told you I have healing abilities, you idiot!! As long as the damage doesn't kill you instantly, I can heal you. Those are goblins—they've never known humanity or civilization. Just run if you want to live!"
Kelvin, feeling his body weaken and tire quickly, panted anxiously:
"True, I don't remember my past, but I'm sure I wasn't an athlete!!! Why don't you help a little?! You just saved me from death, but I still need help!!!"
"I don't have a physical body, you dumb fool!!! And only you can see me, as the call inside me says—and the evidence proves it!!"
The goblins, reveling in the thrill of a hunter chasing weak, delicious prey, closed the distance with every moment. Kelvin, gripped by a severe nervous breakdown and anxiety, shed tears involuntarily.
"I'm sure even with your healing, I won't survive five psychotic killers!!! What the hell do I do?!?!"
As he ran, he neared a long, steep slope in the forest and decided to descend it. But with his rotten luck, his foot caught on a tree root protruding from the ground. He tumbled head over heels, rolling down the slope with groans of pain until he reached the bottom. The hand followed swiftly, its tone a mix of irritation and alarm:
"Hey, you clumsy oaf!!!"
The goblins behind them slid down the slope, angling their legs to control their descent, and approached Kelvin, sprawled on the ground with the hand circling his head. Drool dripped from their mouths as they gripped their weapons, some licking the stone blades with twisted glee. Kelvin struggled to sit up, his head spinning and body aching. Seeing the goblins' expressions and his dire situation, despair crashed over him like a bucket of ice water. It felt as though the world had ended, his story over before it began. Sounds faded around him as his mind drowned in negativity and hopelessness. Staring blankly at the goblins with tears streaming down his frozen face, the hand spun around him, shouting in a frantic, urgent tone:
"Boy!!! Boy!!! Snap out of it, you stupid idiot!! Get up and run, you wretched fool!!"
One goblin stepped ahead of the others, clutching a stone axe with both hands. Raising it high, it leered at the dazed Kelvin with a wicked grin, its face shadowed with menace. In one swift motion, it swung the axe down—and then, absolute darkness!!!
For a few moments, nothing was visible. Only the sound of a head being severed and blood spilling rang out. Kelvin's senses snapped back into focus, and he stared at the goblins. The hand seemed startled too.
"W-what happened...?"
The hand, gazing at the scene ahead, addressed Kelvin with a tone of mild shock and awe:
"Did you know that in your bad luck, you're incredibly fortunate...?"
"What do you mean—huh...?"
Kelvin saw the lead goblin's head, apparently severed by its own hands, lying on the ground. Roots had erupted from the earth, coiling around its body and forcing its arms into a motion that decapitated itself. The four goblins behind it were ensnared in similar roots, thrashing like wild beasts caught in a trap, screaming and struggling. The roots tightened, crushing their bodies with increasing pressure. The sounds of snapping bones and squelching flesh filled the air as blood poured out, sticking to the roots and pooling on the ground, staining it red. Kelvin, overwhelmed by nausea and revulsion at the grotesque scene, clapped both hands over his mouth and bowed his head. He nearly retched several times, squeezing his eyes shut to block it all out. Then, a calm yet stern woman's voice broke through:
"A human. In the depths of the forest—what are you doing here...?"
Startled, Kelvin opened his eyes and gaped at the sight before him. The hand, seeming to recognize the speaker, whispered to him:
"A dryad..."
From the mouths and skin of the goblins' corpses, tree saplings and flowers sprouted. The spilled blood transformed into lush green grass. Amid this stood a woman. Her legs below the knees and arms below the elbows were wooden, her bare body cloaked in plant-like tissue. Long, dark green hair trailed down, its ends resembling tree branches and leaves, and her eyes glowed a vibrant green, like spring leaves.
"I'll repeat myself. A human in the depths of the forest... what are you doing here...?"
{End}