Chapter 2: Discovery and Danger

Discovery and Danger

Wanderer walked in a haze through towering trees, overwhelmed by the beauty and majesty of the natural world around them, the Vessel could feel their Spirit bounding and leaping with joy within them, pushing them forward, as Wanderer took in every foreign sight and sound. 

As they walked they saw every leaf on every bush, every reflective puddle on the floor and heard the chirp of every bird, within Wanderer, a wish to stop and take in the world around them came to be, to allow their still forming mind to process all it had seen, to review each beauty in detail.

But their Spirit would allow no such thing. 

Already had the intricate leaves and needles of the trees around them, and the songs of the birds become boring and stale in its mind, the voice wanted more and so the Golem walked, faster and faster as the demands of the Spirit grew, the rocks of the ground began to cause damage to Wanderer’s malleable body, forcing their already unsteady hoofs to fall out from under them, crashing the Golem into the unfamiliar ground.

Wanderer once again felt the push to discover more, but the Golem had seen the results of following without reason, and as the demands of the presence mounted once again, Wanderer directed a single thought towards a place deep inside them, where their Spirit resided, “NO” they thought and the voice fell quiet.

Now afforded time to think, an uncomfortable sensation forced itself to the forefront of the Vessel's mind, looking down towards their hoof-like feet, gashes and wounds ran throughout their length caused by the splinters and stones of the forest floor, and from them stemmed a foreign feeling, in opposition of the constant joy felt by their Spirit, smaller than the wonder the Vessel felt when they looked upon the forest and sharper than the desperate feeling of being pushed forward, it was a feeling that was undeniably unpleasant and yet could not be without purpose, pain, they realised.

The voice called to them once again, not demanding or forceful, but a quiet suggestion with a hint of apology, calling the Vessel to mend their wounds by melding their clay body back together, and in doing so become whole again.

Wanderer bent down, with four soft hands they slowly began to renew their damaged body, with caution and delicacy the Vessel's feet slowly became whole again, as the Spirit guided them with knowledge written deep with their soul, till the Golem's feet were once again unblemished.

With their crisis averted the Golem began to inspect both the world around them and themselves, as they did so a thought passed through their head, ”look like?” half-formed in their nascent mind but enough, so they slowly walked over to a small pool of water, in which they could see their reflection.

Peering down they first noticed their head, bands of gold and bronze ran down the sides of their head and in the centre of their “face” were 3 golden jewels arranged like a pyramid, atop their head rested a long triangular sedge hat, made of clay with dangling golden talismans hung on black string from its brim, looking downward Wanderer saw a long torso, shaped like that of a man and textured like armour, with uniformly patterned bands of gold and bronze, four long arms, almost long enough to reach their ankles hung from their upper torso and four long fingers came from each, seeming almost claw-like, one of these arms, the lower left was half as short as the rest and lacked the uniform bands and structures of the rest of their body.

The Golem's legs were like that of a horse, but thicker and more stable, they seemed, however, unsuited to bipedal walking and caused much instability in Wanderer's gait.

With one of their limitless questions solved, the Vessel's mind fell to peace, their earlier desperation eradicated and so they resolved to wander the forest once again, slower but still briskly occasionally inspecting things that caught their interest or the interest of their Spirit.

As they walked down towards the lake the fog slowly became thicker till the Golem could see with less clarity than it could in the cave, droplets of water began to condense on their clay skin, and strange shadows danced throughout the vicinity.

The plant life around them slowly withered as they entered the mist, the once natural and verdant floor becoming barren and grey, and an occasional rock or puddle littered the area. As they peered forward they noticed a small carcass of a colourful bird, now partly decomposed, its bones clearly showed and the sight filled the Wanderer with a sense of sadness and foreboding, a simple thought passed through the mind of the Vessel, “Rest” and with that, it moved onward.

As they waded through the gloom, the shadows began to grow longer, eerie sounds echoed through their depths, sounds of roars and growls that caused an unfamiliar sense of fear well within the Vessel, throughout their journey through the mists their Spirit projected an ever-increasing sense of unease, spiking at every muffled roar and twisting shadow and pushing the Golem to move at an ever-accelerating pace to escape the choking fog.

Without warning a scream erupted from the voice, begging Wanderer to dodge an unseen attack, but their warning came too late.

A vicious creature came darting out of the swirling mists, it was a cool white with the body of a feline, four tusk-like teeth extended from its mouth, intent on ripping its prey to shreds, ribbons of pale blue extended from its torso, trailing behind the monster and fluttering with abandon.

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Massive claws tore through Wanderer's clay body, leaving jagged gouges in their back, the Golem was forced into the ground, flailing as their spirit screamed in their mind, imploring the Vessel to run away as fast as their feet could carry them.

In spite of the Spirit's warnings, Wanderer could hardly get back up on their feet before the beast came to finish its prey, in a split second the creature's jaws had torn a chunk out of the Golem's neck as it pounced upon its victim, resolved in ending the clay animation's life. 

In a moment of desperation, the Vessel’s hands searched desperately for anything that could fend off their attacker, and in a stroke of luck, their bottom right hand grasped something long and hard, without hesitation Wanderer slammed it into the head of their attacker with strength that only a Golem could muster, the monster, not expecting their prey to be capable of fighting back while so injured was caught by surprise, taking the full brunt of the attack and becoming dazed.

Compounding upon their momentary success, Wanderer attacked again, harder than the first and as the hit landed a loud crack resounded throughout the fog and the beast went limp.

Now out of immediate danger, the intense pain from Wanderer's wounds became immediately apparent, forcing itself once again into the forefront of their mind, and so they set to work repairing their wounds, slowly moulding their neck and back into its original shape till the marks from their battle were barely visible.

With their crisis averted and afforded time to think, a great number of thoughts ran through the Golem's mind, thoughts of shock as their view of the world suddenly twisted, no longer a place of peace and wonder but a terrifying place where a fog-beast could be waiting around every corner, thoughts of guilt and despair at having killed a living creature, even a terrifying and aggressive one like the fog-beast.

But as their thoughts roiled in turmoil the calming voice of their Spirit broke through, there was an element of discomfort to their voice, as if distressed, yet still, they guided them to leave these thoughts behind and keep moving, that these things could be left for a better time, in a different place.

Swayed out of their stupor, Wanderer began to inspect its luck-given weapon, it was a bone, long and straight and from a creature far larger than any they had ever seen, blood stained one end of the old bone from where it had killed the Golems attacker, they began to think over what creature the bone had come from, at first their mind wandered to ward the beast that had attacked them, but it was far too large for that, the bone was too large to have come from any beast they had seen in their travels.

As they pondered the origin of their long-dead saviour, a dreadful thought overcame them, they were placed moments away from death by a beast that would be half the size of the one that their weapon had come from.

In this moment of realisation, the once-forgotten growls of monsters in the fog now became incredibly apparent, suddenly every shadow was a monster waiting in the darkness and sound felt just a little closer than the last.

With a sudden start, they began their journey once again, their top right arm clutching their makeshift weapon as if it were their only lifeline, the fight had ruined any sense of direction the Vessel once had in the choking fog and so, with a mild nudging from their Spirit, they cautiously but briskly progressed through the gloom.

Gradually the ever-present growls of monsters grew steadily closer, each one more terrifying than the last, causing panic within Wanderer and spurring them on even quicker than before, at some point they abandoned their previous stealth and instead began racing through the mist.

A roar shook through Wanderer's body, alerting them to the presence of imminent danger, without even turning they dashed forward as swiftly as their clay body would allow them, but still, the monster was fast approaching.

At the very edge of their vision, they noticed that the rocky ground on which they fled dropped off suddenly, urged by their spirit they darted toward the edge.

 Wanderer could almost feel the breath of the savage beast on their neck as they reached the edge, and without a moment of hesitation, leapt into the depths below.

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