Chapter 28: Chapter 1

Thunder erupted from afar as the birds fled the trees above us, causing golden leaves to rain on my sister and me. With abruptness, the wind swirled around us without direction for a few moments before falling still.

The sky diverged an extra glow that dropped below the horizon, separate from the morning sun. Flocks of birds trilled all in the same direction through the sky, away from the source.

A vigour fed my hopes as my mind thought of one word: entertainment.

My head swivelled to Yuridia as her light blue eyes drifted toward me. “What was that, Kade?” Yuridia whispered as her breath filled the crisp autumn air. She stepped back, her wicker basket of berries pressed against her hip. “Let’s leave.”

Leave? Absolutely not.

I was not about to miss this adventure. The cause of that sound had to be explored. Nothing happened in this quiet village and exploring had long been devoid of pleasure. The most exciting part of my day was pulling rabbits from their traps.

Frankly, a mind-rotting environment for those who held anything beyond the most basic of physical needs. My mind required stimulation outside of what was for dinner.

I grabbed my satchel by its strings. “I don’t know, but you should go home. Mother will worry if you’re absent for too long, and I want to check it out.”

My occasional disappearance was normal. Expected almost.

This, however, was too dangerous to drag her along. I knew I should take my advice and go with her, but I preferred the latter if it was death by boredom or adventure.

Yuridia clutched at the bottom of my linen shirt. “Kade, don’t. Please.”

I lovingly patted her silver hair before I spun away from her grip, walking backwards with a smirk as her hand hung in the air long after I was out of reach.

This shouldn’t surprise her. She was just upset I wasn’t doing what she wanted.

“You know me, sis, always checking the end of a rainbow—it’s nothing dangerous.”

That was a colossal lie.

It seemed dangerous as hell, but I wasn’t telling her that.

Was I a liar? Kind of, but it wasn’t hurting anyone but myself. There wasn’t any malicious manipulation going on. I just compelled her to feel less concerned through a lack of details.

Yuridia’s face never showed anything but worry for me, and this was no different. “But that’s not a rainbow”—her hand fell to the side of her brown dress—“curiosity will get you killed one day, brother. It’s astonishing you’ve made it to sixteen—come back, Kade.” She stomped her foot, knowing her protests were in vain.

Her theatrics would not work on me like the boys in the village. Even Father gave in to her overused whining. Someone had to deny her whims, or this actual manipulation would get out of hand.

Anddd there was also a little self-satisfaction in telling her no.

I shrugged. “Phew! Good thing I have nine lives,” I replied before escaping deeper into the forest.

My name echoed behind as Yuridia gave her final complaints.

The woods were silent except for the crunching of leaves and pinecones under my boots. I swerved around the white trunks of the birch and the brown bark of pines that shared the mountainous countryside.

The booming sound was far, but the scenery made my jog feel less time-consuming.

The autumn season was definitely my favourite, and I spent much of my time outside then. I loved watching the trees tire of sustaining the delicacy of green throughout the hot summer, shedding their vibrance for the maturity of gold.

Although the weather was cold, it wasn't frigid, such strenuous activities like woodcutting and... farm work were less painful.

Ah, yes. My personal hell in the fields.

The monotonous sweeping of the scythe for hours on end made me want to scream. Rather than being lazy, my lack of motivation was due to the repetitive nature of the task. The bundling of the wheat and toting it to the barn was by far the worst part.

Putting that misery to the side, the abundance of vegetables and wheat was great at dinner time. Yuridia had a knack for cooking, which provided some spice for my rather bland existence. Her soups and pies were the best.

My stomach rumbled at the thought.

I needed to ensure I got home quickly after this, or she’d probably refused to cook. Yuridia's temper was annoying and spontaneous with its degrees. She was likely to make me pay for this, but I would just play the cute brother for a few days, and she would give in.

Sigh… I was such a hypocrite. My theatrics didn’t differ from my sisters at all. I just didn’t run around town batting my eyes at the opposite sex for attention.

I leapt over fallen trunks, travelling further into the dense woods with my thoughts.

After such an enjoyable few months, winter came along with its harshness. The changing of the leaves was truly bittersweet. My already unbearable boredom was not ready to spend most of my time indoors.

Then there was my mother, who would not let a moment go unused. She would sit me down and force me to read and write throughout the winter. My only escape was braving the cold to cut wood or watching father train with his sword in the barn.

It was beyond my comprehension why those things were important to someone like me, who lived in the middle of nowhere. I understood the maths part of her lectures because there were quite a few idiots in the village that couldn’t even count coins. But the other stuff lacked importance to me beyond the basics.

Several white-antlered deer jolt me back to reality as they hopped by, thudding the ground with their hooves.

I should have taken their fleeing as a warning. Or the squirrels and other forest critters that flocked behind the deer with instinctual fear.

But such warnings couldn’t tame my mind’s curiosity. It only invigorated the spring in my step that thrust me forward without pause.

There had to be something exciting going on here. I couldn’t imagine how that noise was produced, which amplified my interest even more.

The further I made it into the wood, the harder my heart thumped in anticipation.

Finally, amusement! I was almost giddy at the possibilities.

Another roaring sound echoed, but this time it carried a pressure that blew my silver hair back.

The forest ground swirled up, sending a loamy smell into the air. My forearm rose over my face to shield myself from the stinging mist of dirt and pine needles.

Once the forest had settled, I dusted off my clothes and picked needles from my shoulder-length hair before resuming my enthusiastic run.

After hiking deeper into the woods, I began to notice that trees seemed to lean back as if the wind or something pushed them over. I soon reached a location where foliage was blown down flat, which stopped me abruptly.

Should I keep going? A sense of danger pervaded the situation now that made me nervous.

I had already wasted so much time that turning back was going to feel like a serious letdown. Yuridia was already mad. I might as well make this journey worth it.

Agh. What should I doooo.

Some of the trees were removed from the ground while others were snapped in half like twigs. Although the trees were not burning, they emitted a light haze as heat danced in the distance. Such a sight was odd, given it was October, and I even contemplated wearing a coat this morning.

Screw it. I’m going forward.

As I trekked by the battered foliage that had been flattened and stripped of its leaves, I approached the edge of a… cliff? Unlike near the ocean, which was in the opposite direction, there were no steep drops like this around.

A pulsing hum vibrated the air as I stepped to the rim and saw what I could only describe as a mountainous light purple crystal hovering over the ground.

In the middle, it appeared slightly cracked, and colours of blue flickered through it occasionally. It was by far the largest object I had seen in my life.

There was little space between it and the ominous dark clouds rotating around its peak. The shiny crystalline surface captivated me, reflecting the early morning sun that emanated a beautiful array of blues and purples on the ground.

The hole this object sat in was vast, and all the surrounding trees were charred to ash, leaving a desolate ground beneath it.

I gave my approach towards this anomaly some thought, but eagerly tossed my satchel behind me before gliding down the rocky crater side. I slowed my momentum with my heel, which took a thrashing on the rough surface.

Mother was liable to be annoyed at me for tearing these boots up only days after fixing them. Father was the true craftsman in the family, and in his absence, Mother tried her best but lacked any talent in that area.

I loved my mother dearly, but besides her literacy that she utilised to teach the town’s children, she was just a pretty face, and my father seemed satisfied enough to wed her.

After a few minutes of a zigzag slide, I came to the bottom, sinking into the knee-deep ash on the ground that reminded me of snow. Some of the soot still held glowing embers, emanating warmth.

I journeyed toward the crystal’s pointed bottom that spun in place slowly, letting off arcs of lightning. One of the violent eruptions struck the ground in front of me, sending me to my ass and hurling ash into the air.

Following some coughing from breathing in the dark-grey powder that snowed down on me, I continued forward like an idiot.

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There was most definitely some validity to my sister’s concerns.

My curiosity was such a burden at times.

If I was not treated like a child and left behind when the village embarked on a hunting trip, I might not have all this angst built up. While murdering animals was not the most stimulating thing for me, it would at least be something to do that didn’t involve my hands bleeding from swinging a wooden handle all day.

Once I reached the bottom of the towering crystal, I walked up to it with sheepish curiosity.

The air was heavy and smelled of burnt wood the closer I got. I stared at the immense surface that cast a chilling shadow over the ashy beach below. The godly-sized jewel was so enormous that the sky was no longer visible from the base.

My pointer finger rose towards the glossy surface as static nipped at my skin. The moment I touched the smooth glass-like surface, a glowing white light illuminated before a humming sound horned, and I contemplated my departure.

A vibrating pulse shook the ground and sent a ripple across the ash bedding.

Yep. Time to go.

I spun around, waded through the soot with haste, and climbed up the crater’s rocky side. Regret for my curiosity continued to build as the charging pulse grew louder and warmth pushed at my back.

Rock crumbled under my step, causing me to lose progress, and I frantically clawed at the gravel to stop my decline. My fingertips bled as the ash floated, and my heart quivered, no longer with excitement but fear.

The air roasted my skin as if I had stayed in the sun for too long, and my teeth clenched from the burning as I approached the lip of the pit.

<Error> flashed red before my eyes, startling me, and I fell to my elbows, sliding down the incline a few feet.

Moving my head did not help as the window followed my sight, regardless of my direction or if I closed my eyes. Red numerals of sorts rained down around the words as they flickered. The sporadic blinking pained my head, but there was no escaping its warning. Much like a bee, a buzzing filled my ears that damped the crystal’s threats behind me.

Was I hallucinating? What was this vision before me? I had never seen something so foreign as this. The words were not my language, yet I knew their meanings without hesitation.

I, however, didn’t have time to dwell on what was befalling me as I climbed higher and higher before the steaming wind thrusted me up and over the crater’s rim.

It took my body an easy ten feet above the ground before I crashed and rolled across the trunk-splintered floor. Shards of wood slid under my skin while others tore it.

Another window arose in the top corner of my vision with a green bar, as the error vanished.

After stumbling and falling to my knees a few times, I kept my footing, sprinting towards my village through the forest. My feet tripped over the branches littering the ground, impeding my escape.

Thoughts of panic scrambled about my mind as I pushed forward with fear-driven haste.

It wasn’t long before I glanced up again and saw the addition to the glowing frame. A yellow bar appeared under the green one.

And as soon as the yellow bar blinked, a burning sensation in my lungs and side developed with a quickness. I came to a clumsy stop with my hand on my knees, trying to catch my fleeting breath.

A moment later, I was flung into a giant boulder by tremendous pressure from behind. The impact caused a tightness in my chest and prevented me from taking any meaningful breaths.

It was as if I were swallowing fire when the air finally entered my lungs. Taking shallow breaths did little to prevent my insides from burning as the searing air pinned me to the rock.

I guess this was better than getting speared by a branch.

Upon regaining my composure, the heavens decided that my concept of safety was a challenge as a flying piece of splinted wood plunged into my shoulder, crushing the bone in its path. A sharp pain bolted through my arm, and with tears in my eyes, I clenched my fists.

I’ve had many injuries in my life from my risk-taking, but this one, by far, was the most severe.

<Shoulder Damaged> flashed over the green bar with <-27> as I tried to understand the purpose of this vision.

I prayed that when the green bar hit zero, it didn’t signal my death because it was becoming increasingly low.

With dread, I looked at a rush of blinding light rolling towards me like an ocean wave, intensifying the blazing air. Everything it touched vanished, and despite closing my eyes, I could not block out the illumination.

The brightness consumed me, and every inch of my body exploded into a scalding misery.

I screamed, but nothing came out as it felt like I was lit on fire.

Seconds elapsed like minutes before a surge of numbness flowed over me as if someone had tossed freezing water on my burning skin.

There was no pain, only awareness, as I felt like my mind was just existing without a body.

I didn’t believe in a god. Sure, I had heard of the fallacy of the Valkyrie and the Fallen, but had I ever seen one?

Hell, no.

Maybe Yuridia was right about me getting killed one day. I expected death to be more… dark.

I wasn’t sure how long I was like this, as it appeared time was not a concept here. Thoughts were repetitive, and at times, I swear I could hear the whispers of my sister and mother. Their voices seemed distant and muffled, yet loud at the same time.

When any semblance of sense returned, it felt like my weight was moving forward with swiftness. It was a sensation that only birds would understand soaring through the sky. The direction I travelled had a purpose, and I’m not sure how I discerned it, but it was evident.

In an instant, the blinding white light was dispelled, and I lay next to the rock as the area around… flickered.

The trees bent strangely before snapping back into place like a bowstring. A leaf fluttered down from above, but as it landed on my chest, it burst into… numbers before disappearing.

Again the appearance of these symbols was unfamiliar, but the understanding of their purpose was clear: counting.

I patted myself, ensuring I was real, as today’s events had seemed like a dream… maybe a nightmare… possibly a delusion.

My shoulder and fingers were completely healed, and even my clothes were spotless. They had been filthy with ash before.

What was happening? Curiosity was killing me, but I didn’t want to feed into this madness anymore.

I crawled to my feet as I surveyed the forest that was now rooted back like the giant jewel never existed… where was the crystal? It should have been visible here, yet when I looked up, I no longer saw its purple surface.

Those antlered deer from before stumbled around a ways ahead of me, disoriented, before collapsing to the ground like they had lost consciousness.

Did they circle around because they were running in the opposite direction from me before? Why would they come back?

This, too, was odd.

Running my fingers through my wavy hair, I groaned. “What was going on?” I yelled into the forest as my voice echoed a few too many times to be normal.

As I ambled over to a tree and touched it, my hand moved through the surface, and it flickered into numbers before vanishing.

Everything looked… broken. That or I hit my skull.

That was it. My head was injured. Mystery solved.

A nervousness for my mother and sister was building, and I was eager to check on them. If I didn’t arrive home soon, they would send a search party out for me, and I wasn’t looking to be in any more trouble than I already was.

My eyes glanced up at the window in the corner of my vision, appearing to give me a warning.

So that was real.

<Reboot> flashed as my green bar only held a sliver of colour. Three symbols that had no meaning to me lined the bottom.

Turning towards home, my body gave out, and I crashed to the ground. I appeared paralysed and couldn’t move my arms or legs more than a few inches. The environment warped, and everything became distant before my eyes took on a heaviness and holding them open was no longer an option.

Yuridia was to be so furious with me.

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