Chapter 1: End and Beginning

End and Beginning

Darkness saturated the cave.

What little light entered from the surface reflected off golden-bronze imperfections in the stone walls.

At the base of the cave lay a dwindling store of clay, bands of the golden substance found dotted across the walls, blatantly present.

But to the single being in the cave, none of this mattered, their four hands dedicated with fervour to shaping the clay into their own image.

They were desperate, the process that would be slaved over for months at a time was being rushed into just a few hours, mistakes and imperfections were becoming obvious with every stroke, they ached to fix them, but there was no time.

Shouts and voices could be heard from outside the cave entrance, their time was up, this would have to do.

They cried out, not in the voices of man or animal, but in the language of the spirits.

They cried out to the spirits of power, pride and revenge that had led to the previous successes of their kin.

But no spirit of power would guide a Vessel so weak, no spirit of pride would guide a Vessel so incomplete, and no spirit of revenge would guide a Vessel so incapable of carrying out its eternal grudges.

They cried out again, begging any spirit to guide their creation, their child.

But one by one, all that heeded their call, rejected them.

The voices outside began to echo off the walls, their haven had been found.

They cried out one final time, for anyone, anything, to help them.

And one final spirit heeded their call.

A spirit that was weak but burning with inner fire, one that finds power, not within themselves but the world around them, that clings not to the past but races toward the future, the spirit of exploration.

And now they had only one thing left to do, they provided their child with all they had left, not even enough to harden their clay body, and imbued them with a single message.

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“Survive, my little Wanderer”

And with that, they turned to dust.

The first thing Wanderer felt was dust, it completely covered them from head to hoof and for a moment they lay in ignorance of the world around them, happy to lay motionless and blissful until a voice deep within them sparked them forward, urging them to start moving, to escape, to survive, What the Vessel was escaping from they had no knowledge of.

Still, Wanderer followed these directions all the same. The Golem attempted to stand on 2 legs and immediately fell back into the dust, thrown off balance by their four arms, the lower left being shorter and malformed.

Their previous shortcomings, however, did not deter them. 

They tried once again to stand in the isolated darkness of the cave, attempting to compensate for their weaker side, this time they managed to stand for just a moment before crashing back down to the cave floor. 

Not deterred by their failure and the urge to leave growing ever stronger, they stood once again, their soft clay legs and hoofed feet managing to slowly guide them forward across the rocky floor.

With every step, they took their next grew more confident, and soon Wanderer noticed something unfamiliar, light, wherever this light found itself resting the walls sparkled in gold and bronze, a sight that caused the voice, his Spirit, to sing in admiration and wonder.

Hurriedly, the Vessel rushed forward to examine the sparkling ore, finding it hard and rough like the floor on which they walked, and in their inspection noticed that they themselves sparkled under the foreign illumination, in shades of gold and bronze, and unlike the ore in the walls it was malleable, much like their unhardened clay body.

Once again their Spirit urged them forward and so the Golem did, intent on reaching the source of the light and all that is beyond until on unsteady feet Wanderer gazed upon a sight far beyond that which they could have imagined.

A great forest lay before them, massive trees of pine and spruce carpeted the mountains and hills, a pine tree larger and taller than any other sat atop the largest of the mountains, its boughs stretched farther than Wanderer could see and at the top of the tree, white snow shone under the light of a blue sun.

Below the tree lay a massive lake of water, surrounding the entire mountain on which the tree rested like a moat. Mists and fog rose up from its banks, casting ominous shadows on the land around it, where they touched no trees grew and no life could be seen.

And as Wanderer comprehended the world around them, the first true thought passed through their mind. 

“Beautiful”

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