"What is this..." …. "Where am I?" …. "Why is everything so dark like this?" ….
He found himself in a dark place, as if the darkness of night had swallowed him completely; a moonless, starless night. He tried to look around, hoping to see something other than blackness, but it was useless. It wasn't just his surroundings that were submerged in darkness, but it was as if he himself had faded away, as if he had no existence in this void.
It didn't take long for him to remember what had happened to him in the alley... his injury, the blood, the pain he had felt. A frightening question crept into his mind, he tried to convince himself it was an illusion, as if he was denying the truth or afraid to think about it. But the idea refused to leave, and finally, he whispered in a trembling voice:
'Am I... dead?'
Suddenly, the darkness around him began to change, to move, transforming from pitch black into a thick, gray mist that swirled around him like a vortex.
He felt as if he had been freed from the restraints that had bound his body, so he smiled with relief... but the joy soon turned to horror when he realized he was falling!
"Aaaaaaah!"
"What's happening?!"
"Nooooo!"
The falling intensified, and the color of the mist turned into a pale blue emitting a faint light, as if the whole world was pulling him downward. He violently pierced through the mist, until he saw the ground approaching at a terrifying speed.
He glimpsed a small child below him, and he almost collided with it!
He instinctively closed his eyes...
But he heard no sound of impact, and felt no pain.
He slowly opened his eyes, and saw a completely different scene.
He was no longer surrounded by darkness or mist, but by a forest — tall, slender trees, their leaves rising high like a distant green ceiling.
The ground beneath his feet was muddy, mixed with green and yellow patches of small plants, and the smell of last night's rain still lingered in the air.
He shivered when he felt the cold, and inhaled deeply the scent of wet wood.
He raised his head towards the sky, and found it covered with clouds the color of pale blue mist, without a sun, yet the place was illuminated by a faint, chilling morning light.
"There!"
"He's one of them!"
"Grab him,don't let him escape!"
He froze for a moment, then quickly turned to see the source of the voices.
He saw them — a group of soldiers rushing towards him.
Their metal armor covered their bodies completely, their helmets reflected the faint light, and silver swords shone in their hands.
On their chests, the emblem appeared…
Intertwining swirls of broad golden lines, curling around a bright point like a small ember.
Each curved line looked like an ancient rune, and the four edges of the emblem ended with sharp points like spears pointing outward.
The intricate engravings on each arm of the emblem gave them a mysterious aura, as if it were a seal of power that no one dared to break.
He didn't need to think much to realize that these soldiers did not have good intentions, and that they might kill him.
He returned his gaze forward as it was initially, then ran.
To where? He didn't know.
All that was on his mind was to escape from these soldiers.
But after moments, he felt something strange…
He was indeed running, his bare, cold feet sinking into the mud, hurting him whenever he stepped on broken branches or sharp wooden sticks.
However… he wasn't the one moving his body.
As if someone else was controlling it…
Or as if the body itself knew the way better than he did, knew where to go and where not to go.
He continued running, panting, until the sounds of the soldiers gradually faded.
And luckily for him, they were weighed down by their armor and didn't know the forest well, otherwise they would have caught him easily with his frail body and hurting feet.
Yet, he didn't stop.
He tried to slow down, he tried to change direction… but the body didn't obey him.
It continued running in a single path, as if striving to reach a specific place.
The more he ran, the smell of wet wood changed to the smell of smoke, and he began to hear distant sounds…
Pained screams, voices pleading for help, and the sound of swords clashing and cutting.
And finally, he emerged from among the trees.
To be shocked by what he saw.
Small, shabby huts and houses burning, Bodies brutally dismembered lying on the ground, The mud had mixed with blood until the color of the earth turned dark red.
Other soldiers, like the ones chasing him, wandered among the corpses, some on horseback, some raising banners bearing the same emblem.
He ran again into that burning village, among the dismembered corpses, his bare feet soaking in the blood on the ground.
He stopped in front of one of those stone houses that the flames and soldiers' swords hadn't reached yet.
He went inside, and looked around.
He saw a man in his thirties, handsome despite his features being marred by smoke and dirt, his long black hair tied back, wearing shabby gray clothes.
Beside him, a beautiful woman with long black hair, wearing clothes similar to the man's but in a faded color, holding a small child in her arms, and beside them a little girl, seemingly about six years old.
When he saw them, the protagonist tried to ask for help:
"Please help me… There were soldiers chasing me in the forest, I was running non-stop…"
But when he spoke, no one heard him, as if he was speaking inside his mind.
He heard his own voice, but no one else saw or heard him.
Then the woman's look at the man interrupted him, a mix of worry and fear:
"Gareth… what are we going to do?" "Mira is still an infant… she won't withstand the forest."
The man directed a look at the child in her arms, then returned to the woman.
"I know, but don't worry. We will flee north… we will go to Silver Groves village." "But we must hurry, Miaura!"
The man looked angrily at the boy who had been running in the forest:
"Oren! Where have you been?"
The voice inside the boy, wondering:
"Oren? I am not Oren… I… who… am I? I don't remember who I am."
The man interrupted him, saying:
"I was looking for you everywhere. Take this bag, take Vina with you, and go ahead of us to that tree you love to play near." "A tree… which tree? I don't know what you're talking about."
But his body moved automatically, grabbed the bag and the girl's hand, went out of the dilapidated stone house, looked to the left and pulled his sister's hand and set off in the opposite direction from which he came, thinking that no soldiers had reached this part of the village yet.
He ran, passing by some houses heading north as the man called Gareth had told him, but he was stopped by the talk of some approaching soldiers.
He pulled his sister and jumped behind a woodpile, pulled some wood and placed it in front of him to cover them.
"Help!!"
"Please... help us!!"
"Please let us go"
"Shut up or I'll kill you!"
"Please, please, let go...."
The girl didn't finish her words before one of the soldiers put a sword through her chest, ending her life.
'You idiot, now we only have these two left'
"You're the idiot,what if some other soldiers heard her, or worse, the commander?"
'You could have put something over her mouth,a piece of cloth for example'
"Where would I get cloth here...we're wearing armor, metal armor!"
The other soldier pointed to the girl and said 'Then cut a piece from her clothes,you idiot!'
The boy placed his trembling hands over his little sister's mouth and eyes so she wouldn't see or make a sound, because what he saw wasn't something suitable for children to see.
He saw five soldiers grabbing one of the village women. Two women were being dragged to a house near the boy and his sister's location.
Their clothes had been torn off, they were pinned to the ground. Two of the soldiers were holding them down and had put a piece of their own clothing in their mouths to prevent any sound, and they were preparing for what they were about to do.
Three other soldiers stood watching their surroundings, they looked afraid because they had sneaked away from the rest of the soldiers in the other half of the village and gone inside looking for any victims for their heinous acts.
He wasn't able to escape because one soldier was looking towards the woodpile, but luckily for him, the soldier turned his gaze elsewhere and was about to leave.
He felt a little relieved because once the soldier moved away a bit, only then would they be able to escape.
But his sister pulled his hand, which he had placed gently without pressing hard on her mouth, so as not to suffocate her and to allow her to breathe, making a loud breathing sound.
He quickly looked at his sister to put his hand over her mouth again, then turned his gaze back towards the soldiers and was stunned with fear.
The soldier who was about to leave approached slowly towards their hiding place.
The boy was so scared that the hand which he had relaxed to let his sister breathe, this time was pressing hard and trembling.
His eyes were tearing up from fear, his sister was in pain from the pressure of his hand, and even the one inside the boy was silent from fear, as if watching a high-definition horror movie.
The soldier came closer, and drew his sword.
The boy held his breath completely, the soldier extended his left hand towards the pile while holding the sword with his right, and placed his hand on the woodpile that was between him and the boy and his sister to knock it over.
The boy inside was trembling violently, it's over before it even began.
"Aaaaah"
"Please let us go"
"Shut up, you wretched woman!"
When the soldier heard that, he turned back and looked towards the house where his companions were, "Damn...that idiot is going to kill them before it's my turn, damn, why did we have to bring him with us" He said it before sheathing his sword and returning to them.
After watching the soldier leave, the boy took the breath he had been holding in fear of the soldier, his muscles relaxed from fear, and he almost fainted, but he held on because if he fell now he would die, and his sister would die with him.
He moved the wood he had placed aside, pulled his sister's hand, and began crawling behind a house until they were out of the soldiers' sight, then they stood up and started running quietly.
"Oh my God, what was that!"
"That soldier almost killed me and the little girl!"
Said the one looking through the eyes of the boy Oren, from the inside, with relief.
He moved further and further away until he reached the wall that separated the northern border of the village from the forest.
The wall protected the village from the north. It was tall, but not too tall, five meters high, built of stone, an old, dilapidated wall.
Plants and weeds covered most of it, and it had cracks and parts of it had fallen to the ground.
The person inside Oren looked at the wall and said sarcastically:
"I think that protective wall needs someone to protect it."
Oren passed through the collapsed part of the wall, moving away from the village to the north, through those tall, slender, wet trees, heading to the tree that Gareth had told him to wait at, carrying his sister on his back because she was also barefoot.
There were thorns and broken branches on their path, his sister wouldn't have been able to walk on them.
He quickened his pace until he reached a large tree, taller and bigger than the rest, an old tree bearing scratches and breaks, with words and symbols carved into it.
The person inside Oren looked through his eyes at those words, written in symbols and letters closer to ancient runes:
"Entry forbidden... turn back from whence you came." "Proceeding is dangerous." "Return to the village and do not come back here."
He said, surprised:
"What language is this... and how can I read it?"
He put his sister down on the ground, and they sat to rest and wait for their parents.
Oren was catching his breath with difficulty from exhaustion and fear, but he finally managed to rest a little.
He took the bag he had with him, and took out a single apple. The apple was small, containing rotten parts, but he couldn't complain, as their only food was what was inside that bag, and it didn't contain much: four pieces of puffy bread like rye bread but it was hard, five apples, a small bag of money, and another bag containing some nuts.
He took a small bite from the sound part of the apple, and gave it to his little sister because she couldn't bite with her small teeth.
Crack.... crack....
There was a sound of branches cracking behind the tree, from the path they had come from.
Oren heard the cracking sound, happy, and began to feel as if his parents had arrived.
But he went to look, and found five soldiers very close to him, at a distance of twenty or thirty meters.
The one inside Oren said with anger and anxiety:
"Damn, how did these scoundrels catch up to us!"
Terrified, he threw their only food on the ground, picked up his sister and fled north, leaving the bag containing their food in its place.
While running, one of the soldiers at the front spotted him:
"There he is... he's running away, after him!"
The soldiers ran after Oren, but they couldn't keep up with his speed, due to the heavy armor that slowed them down, and they weren't used to being inside forests, which gave Oren a chance to escape.
He looked back, and found that he had distanced himself from the soldiers.
His eyes were tearing, either from fear or from joy because he had actually escaped from them.
But he stopped suddenly on the dry edge of the river, which was sweeping away water, rocks, and some tree trunks with great force. He stood on the completely dry edge, one more step and the ground would have collapsed and pulled him with his sister into the river.
The feeling of fear and terror returned to him. He heard the sounds of the soldiers behind him approaching. He turned to see if they had gotten closer, and there he saw a fallen tree on the river, forming a bridge that might allow him to cross to the other side. He felt overwhelming happiness because the tree's small size wouldn't allow large people like the soldiers to pass over it.
One of the soldiers spotted him and shouted: "There he is! He's heading for that fallen tree!"
"Grab him before he reaches the tree... or else he'll escape!"
He listens to them as he runs, and realizes that they won't be able to cross the tree. A smile of hope drew on his features, but... his joy was interrupted.
A thrown knife from one of the soldiers pierced through his little sister's back, reaching his own back as well.
"Aaaaah... Aah!"
"Aaaaah...!"
A voice screamed inside Oren in pain, as if he was the one who had been stabbed. "How... how did this happen?" "How... do I feel that?"
He said it from the depths of his being.
Oren fell to the ground, and his sister fell near him. He wasn't severely injured, but the wound was enough to make him bleed and feel a burning pain.
Oren looked at his sister beside him with eyes full of fear, tension, and terror. He was violently shocked when he saw her lying next to him, the knife piercing her back and coming out of her chest. From the intensity of the shock, the expressions on his face didn't change except for hints of astonishment and tears streaming from his eyes.
"Nooooo.. Damn it.. no.. no.. no!" "Nooooo...!"
"Damn... no!"
Said the voice inside Oren, angry and sad.
Oren, the thirteen-year-old, burning with sadness, said:
"My sister... Vina... Vina!"
"Vina... please!"
"Vina...!"
He crawled slowly towards his sister to pull out the knife, but a strong kick to his right side from one of the soldiers prevented him, throwing him to a place near the river.
Then the soldier said: "Damn you... you caused us all this exhaustion and fatigue, you bastard!"
Another soldier said: "See? I told you there was someone near the house!"
One of the soldiers asked him: "But how did you know?"
He replied with full confidence: "When we were in that dilapidated house, I heard a sound by the woodpiles. When I wanted to go see, I came back after hearing Grant's voice. I was afraid that fool would kill them before I could enjoy one of them! And when I looked from a distance, I found that the wood had changed position. I went to check, and I saw footprints next to the pile leading to the corner of the adjacent house."
"But I wasn't going to do that! I was just scaring her!" replied the soldier who kicked Oren, whose name was Grant, angrily.
Then he turned to Oren and grabbed him by the neck: "So you're the one who ruined our fun, you dirty little sorcerer!"
He said it angrily before punching him in the stomach, causing Oren to spit sticky saliva onto Soldier Grant's face unintentionally
Which made him even more angry.
"Aaaah...!"
"Damn... I felt that punch!"
"It's... painful, you bastard!"
Said the voice inside Oren in pain, but no one heard it.
"You deserve that, you filthy!" Grant said it before punching him again, but this time in the face, then let him fall to the ground.
"Your kind makes me want to vomit, you dirty sorcerers!" he said before kicking Oren again in the stomach.
Oren was in severe pain and could no longer move.
"You are the ones who bring ruin and destruction with your rituals!" he said with another kick.
One of the soldiers, grabbing the harsh soldier's arm, said: "Grant.. stop! Sorcerer or not, he's still a young boy! You shouldn't do this!"
Grant looked at him with a threatening gaze and said: "You pity him?!" Then he continued: "Never pity these sorcerer heretics, no matter their age or gender! All sorcerers are the reason for what we are in now!"
After saying that, he kicked Oren hard this time, and he was smiling as he did it, as if he was enjoying it.
"You dirty heretics, you are the cause of the suffering we are in!" He wanted to kick Oren again, but a roar interrupted him.
The roar was like a lion's roar, but it was different: a mixture of distorted human screaming and intermittent bestial roaring, as if the entire forest was screaming with him. To spread fear in the soldiers' bodies. They looked everywhere around them: above, below, in the sides of the forest.
The atmosphere became darker, even though it had been lit by morning light just a moment ago. And the darker it got, the more the soldiers' armor shook with fear.
"Wh... what's happening?" said the voice inside Oren, in pain from the blows he had suffered.
"Th..th..the Devil has come to kill us because we harmed one of his worshippers!" said one of the soldiers, trembling with fear.
The harsh soldier Grant drew his sword, trembling: "Y..y..you coward! Do you expect to be a knight of the Church With your cowardice ?!"
Then he directed his gaze and sword towards the forest and said:
"dr..draw your swords! We will defend ourselves! We..we are soldiers of God, we will never lose!"
The other soldiers followed him and drew their swords, looking around warily. One soldier looked right then turned his head left, and when he wanted to turn his head back to the right, a terrifying scene interrupted him: the soldier in front of him, a monster stood behind him!
When the soldier shouted calling his friend, all the soldiers directed their gazes to the same place. And in a single moment, the monster twisted the soldier's head half a circle, directing the soldier's gaze towards himself! Then it tore off the soldier's head and the soldier's features didn't change! The monster opened its mouth and swallowed the head After the helmet fell off .
The soldier's headless body fell twitching to the ground, revealing the monster's true form.
It was five meters tall, so thin that its ribcage was visible. Yet, it managed to tear off the head of an armored soldier. Its skin was pitch black, its limbs long. Its head was an animal skull with horns like tree branches, long claws, and its hind feet were like those of horses.
When the soldiers saw the monster's form, they panicked and wanted to flee, including the harsh soldier Grant who pretended to be brave.
But the monster was fast. It jumped on one soldier, throwing him to the ground and tearing off both his feet, as if it was intelligent and knew that if it cut his legs he wouldn't escape. Then it ran after the soldier who had gone further, ignoring the closer one. It got closer and closer, until its skull got close to him and bit the shoulder of the soldier wearing armor! The monster lifted him high and threw him violently to the ground, killing him instantly. Then the monster immediately ran after the remaining soldiers.
Only the smart soldier and Grant remained. The smart soldier used his intelligence and hid in a small hole in the ground. As for Grant, he ran to a place not far away but couldn't hide well.
"I don't want to die.... I don't want to die...!"
He kept repeating these words, his face covered with tears, snot, and saliva, a hysterical look of fear on Grant's face. He was a coward who pretended to be brave, and this type of person is the most cowardly.
Meanwhile, the voice inside Oren, afraid of the monster, was screaming: "Wake up!... Please wake up and run before the monster comes! Wake up, please!"
And suddenly, Oren woke up. He looked at that headless soldier, and the other without feet. He tried to stand but couldn't, as he was badly beaten and had a bleeding wound on his back. He looked to the right and left, saw a nearby tree, and decided to crawl towards it to lean on it and stand.
He started crawling until he reached the tree, and tried to stand but his hands wouldn't help him.
Meanwhile, Grant was surrounded by darkness from all sides, the sound of the hideous roar that instilled fear echoing around him. And he was still repeating the same words. The monster's skull appeared in the darkness with its black skin color, as if floating. Grant looked at the "floating" skull, frozen in fear, having soiled his shiny armor with foul urine. The monster approached him and slowly opened its wide jaws, slowly covered Grant's head with its own head, as if knowing he wouldn't move from fear, then bit his head off and spat it out beside his body. And the monster disappeared into the darkness.
As for the smart soldier, he was hiding in that hole covered with broken branches. The monster approached the hole. There was no one in front of it, so it turned its gaze away and was about to leave. The smart soldier felt relieved, his nerves relaxed, and his armor made a slight friction sound. The monster heard it, turned its gaze back, but this time towards the hole. The monster brought its skull close to the hole. The soldier could no longer hold his breath, so he let out a loud exhalation. The monster roared in his face!
"Aaaaah....!" screamed the soldier before the monster's claws pierced him.
Meanwhile, Oren had managed to stand on his feet. He tried to look right and left to find a place to escape to, until his gaze fell on his stabbed sister and he cried bitterly. But his crying was interrupted by that hideous roar, so his eyes widened and he looked to his far left and found the monster's skull "floating" in the darkness.
The monster approached and slowly opened its wide jaws. Oren cried and feared more.
"! Damn.. what are you waiting for? Run!" shouted the voice, forgetting that no one could hear him.
Those who pretend to be brave are the most cowardly and may freeze in place. But Oren wasn't pretending bravery, and at the same time he wasn't brave. He looked at the river a few steps behind him.
When the monster saw him looking at the river, it roared and then rushed towards Oren.
Oren pushed himself off the tree, bringing him closer to the river. But the monster got very close to him, until it placed its jaws directly over him.
But... the muddy ground collapsed beneath them, and pulled Oren and the monster into the river.
"Aaaaaaah..... "
The voice that was inside Oren screamed a loud and intense scream before the scene changed and he woke up on a bed with a yellowish-white cover and a chair beside it.
Three men entered, two in their twenties while the other was an old man with a small beard.
That old man approached and sat on the chair next to the bed.
"Where... am I?"
"What....happened to me?"
He said it in a trembling voice, nervous and a mixture of pain and fear.
"You are in my clinic, Professor.... you suffered a severe injury to your chest.... How do you feel now?"
The old man said it calmly.
"I feel... severe pain"
"Dizziness..."
"My head....hurts"
He said it, his breathing heavy and intermittent.
"That's normal... because you lost a lot of blood, that's why you feel like this, but don't worry, all you have to do is rest and eat well and you will recover completely." "What injured you like this,Professor?"
Upon hearing the word 'Professor' directed at him, he raised his head in surprise before asking:
The Professor said in a heavy, economical voice, as if every word was pulled from the depths of his mind: —"Who is …the Professor… and why do you keep saying it to me?"
"Do you know who I am?"
The three of them looked at him, astonished by what they had heard.