Kayle shot up, a bead of sweat falling from his hair. He looked up and down yet could not find "down." He was not on a floor, nor was he in the air. He found himself in an undefinable void, not of black but of nothing, as if he were blind, but what he could see were vibrant, massive webs that, as far as he could see, went on forever, with every color, hue, and brightness that he could understand, as if he were seeing everything he had ever seen. It felt blinding and too dark to see at the same time, with his eyes dilating randomly as his eyes struggled with the impossible sight.. He was unable to even comprehend being confused; his adrenal glands worked overtime as his brain and body panicked, and he started to shake and seize. Sweat coated his body; he didn't feel any temperature; he wasn't hot nor cold, as if he were outside of the realm of atoms moving, as if his cells were still for the first time ever; everything was on high alert in this foreign environment. His material body was not what it had been. His mind perceived nothing he could ever hope to make sense of, yet he felt time, as if he had an atomic clock in his heart. It felt time in his entire thoracic cavity, only comparable to feeling the bass or drums in your chest at a live concert. He was aware of the feeling, but this emanated from his heart. He felt that as if it were his sixth sense. Seven seconds is all it was; he knew it as a sacred truth of the world. Then he was back to the reality he knew, but not the place he knew.

He lay looking up, splayed across the dark green grass of the forest, and soon found himself. His brain, unable to process the experience, didn't care as it had other duties. He soon realized that he felt nearly nothing but the time and sight then. He had no sense of touch, smell, taste, or anything to hear, but when he was back to the plane of particles and mass, he felt it all. He felt the damp, dew-filled grass as he felt to the ground, even the bitingly cold air in each cell. He heard the rustle of the leaves and grass and the squawks and chirps of animals he was not familiar with as his ears felt the wait rush past. His ears didn't hurt, despite what he just experienced; his eyes felt fine; his body didn't hurt; and his mouth was a vacuum. He was physically fine. But his body was still on high alert, and as he was flooded with sensation again he turned to his side and vomited. The acid and pain brought his mind sharp. After spitting out the burn to the best of his ability, he clambered up, legs still shaking and hands trembling from adrenaline. He found himself in a dense forest on all sides, except for the clearing he was in. It was oval-shaped to man-made perfection, as best as he could have done if he had an axe and a lot of time. At two points in the oval were two statues, both facing in. The one to his right was of rock and metal darker than obsidian. It depicted a towering knight with his sword pointing to the center where Kayle stood, the sword that was without a doubt as tall as the statue itself. The features of the knight and sword were lost in distance, and the monochromatic scheme of the knight provided little more than a silhouette. Across from the 'Fucking big knight' as he thought of it, stood a vastly smaller yet same deep black stone and metal statue; it stood holding out its small hand while the other was waiting behind the short body; it was held out like one does to ask for a dance. Yet the short statue had the same visibility as the knight; he could tell it was female; it had long flowing hair and an ankle-high dress on. He didn't get to observe the two masterpieces long as his head came down with a spitting headache as the adrenaline wore off. He could barely stand but he was used to headaches anymore so he just let the wave pass. As he stood, his headache subsiding, that pain was replaced by the need to survive. Alone in a cold, random forest, he felt exposed. He had his black jacket rolled up to the elbows, and his thin white shirt underneath did not help the situation. His dark blue jeans and ankle-high sneakers did little to keep the chilly, wet dew off him. He wasn't a stranger to the outdoors, but he wasn’t one who like to be stranded in a forest he didn't know without anything but the clothes on his back. He had a revelation: he has his wallet and his pocket knife. The wallet was negligible, but the three-inch pocketknife would be beyond useful in the middle of the woods. He quickly reached for this front right pocket and felt it was still clipped on. He sighed a deep, thoughtful sigh of pure relief. He felt the inside of his jacket for the pocket holding the wallet still there. It was a black leather taxi wallet. He was relieved to still see it there, although it wasn’t that important. He checked the wallet and saw his debit and credit cards and his two rewards cards. Hands still with a slight tremor, He opened the other half of the wallet and found his driver's license still safe which he thought was barely useful besides confirming who he weas to police if he got out of the forest. He looked at the slightly aged face on the card, the slightly tanned white skin matching his dusty blond hair that was slightly over-regulation. He smiled thinly at this thought about his old dress regulations. This card was getting older; it was already 4 years old, so he thought he would need to renew it soon. He thought on the about to expire card, then looked around once more, saved it and put it at the bottom of his to-do list.. He rolled down his sleeves and zipped up his jacket. The sun was low, but he couldn't tell if it was morning or evening. He prayed for morning. He stumbled to the knight and observed the fine details etched onto the statues, carvings of what he could tell were stories inscribed upon the large plate-mail, his sword etched with what seemed to be different people, all intricately arranged and carved onto the sword. Each person was different. The knight wore a fully enclosed helmet with a large curving set of antlers that looked less attached to the helmet but more like they were growing out of it. They were beautiful, a type of deer antler that was directed forward. He couldn’t tell what species. The knight exuded pure aggression, yet neither anger nor hate. It was a calculated and calm stance. The knight's right half of the body was hidden behind a large, simple shoulder cape; it curved and flowed, concealing the armor and subsequently the silhouette. Kayle noticed no words or signs anywhere on the statue. He walked back past where he was to the small female statue. He walked over, and while the statue held neither a weapon nor any armor, it sent a chill up his spine. It had a friendly human smile, yet the smaller, more focused eyes and the slightly sharper, thinner-looking ears made him feel uncomfortable around the statue. The statue was so lifelike, he felt like the black would reach out at him. He avoided standing directly in front of it. The dress on the woman was simple and functional. He couldn't find anything extraordinary about it except for the oddly non-human features, along with its unusually short stature. Kayle was tall; however, the statue's head was level with bottom set of ribs. He was so lost in thought about height and people of his past who were this short that when the statue creaked, he almost didn’t notice it.

"What the fuck?"

Kayle flinched and fell to the ground due to his weak legs, and shuffled back from the now shifting female statue. A glow emerged from the statue; it didn't have color; it was just bright. He looked away; he couldn't look at it; it hurt too. He heard a voice speak, he thought, but he soon understood that one came from his mind. Loud and impossibly clear. He understood it as if it were his own thoughts. It was an authority he could never wish to argue with.. He was no coward, as one would understand, but just as the mouse fears the owl, he feared the voice. The voice was feminine, yet with a regal tone that made zero confusion about the power at play. The second tone complimented the first as if it were a song, a ravine deep voice, steady as steel, as if every word said had been practiced since it was thought.

Stolen novel; please report.

'Kayle Hermann, the once great hunter, you will be our Herald. Once great now lacking purpose.”

He felt truly scared for the first time for years. He was a brave, if stupidly so but the voice was too much.

"You have a chance—a chance not only to live again but to be wanted and to be great again. We offer you this opportunity not out of pity but out of need. We need a tool to use in the realm you inhabit."

‘What the fuck’ He less asked and more stated. The constant reminder about how he used to be great didn’t help his mind.

The voices did not answer. They had made their offer; it was up to him to accept it.

He sat there for 10 minutes calming down and trying to comprehend what was going on and at first he thought he was drugged or had hysteria from some sort of heat stroke but no, he knew what those experiences were like. He finial sharpened up and accepted what he was hearing and chose to listen instead of cowering from it. He was dead apparently; but he had a chance to not be dead? He would have to be a tool; he could do that. He didn't know what would happen if he refused; he was scared of going back to the Seven seconds. He stood weak but determined now as he wanted to accept. Reasoning being he didn’t have much to lose if he was apparently dead although he couldn’t remember why he had died.

“Okay I’ll have to accept” He stated

There was silence; even the winds had stopped, he instantly missed it.

"Kayle Hermann. You will be marked as Herald." The Authority said.

As the world herald was mentioned, his right eye melted out of the socket and drained onto the grass. Naturally, Kayle yelled and panicked, but it did not hurt. He felt nothing, and even could still see, and something new took place in the socket. It was another eye, which was different; yet he could not tell why. He stopped panicking and regained his composure; the eye didn't even feel weird in his skull. It was not something he wanted to happen again. “Oh” he said to himself as he accept what just happened.

"Seek out the last shepherd; you will get the answers you seek. We will direct you when needed. Do well and heed this; in silence is pain an-"

The voice stopped. Not ended as last time but stopped. It was unnerving. The light was gone, and so was the sun. He figured the sun was just set. It did nothing to ease his fears. The light and the voices are gone. The female statue stood in the dark as he looked at it. He turned to see that the knight was gone, and as he turned back, he saw to his horror that the female was gone now too. Alone in the dark, in the forest, in the silence.

"What the fuu…um Hello?"

Silent still but the winds started to flow again. A, what he thought to be, Coyote Howl was carried on the wind. That's something he thought. He didn't know what to do; he knew that the voices said to go to the last shepherd, but he knew nothing of the sort. And he was lost, so he decided that the first order of business was to not be lost. He remembered where the sun last was in the sky. It had been low but now it's concealed by the horizon. He felt alone, scared, and above all lost. He stood looking around for minutes. He faced what he thought could be south based off when the sun once was and walked. Hood up face in pockets just to preserve heat in the cold. But as he walked to the south part of the oval clearing the howling sounded again, danger close this time. He stopped and dropped to a crouch and pulled his knife to his hand. He scanned the edge of the woods and still saw nothing but he knew he heard it. He had never fought a animal but knew he could ‘kick the shit out of a coyote’ And the knife was if it was anything else. He felt a chill coming from behind, a physical cold creeping onto his back. He turned to check what was emitting the freezing feeling and saw three creatures. Like a coyote he had imagined but impossibly black and tall. Each were easily four feet tall but the oddest part were the length of the creatures, they were easily seven feet long with extra pairs of legs to support the length. “Fucking what” he said before the ‘centipede dogs’, as he thought of them, moved to attack.

He reacted quickly and chose to take the offensive as he knew he couldnt run. He targeted the left most one. They didn’t seem smart as he jumped on it because it seemed to freeze out of confusion. He had lunged knife first into its large head. With the knife hand stabbing through their ice like body and his other arm grabbing around its head. It reacted to though however and roared up like a horse. Nearly flinging him off but he held on and even applied more pressure witht he knife until he heard a large crack as his knife hit something deep in his head. It fell apart into mist that fizzed into thin air as he fell back to the ground. He didnt even bat an eye at how it had died or disapered. He felt it was right on a deep level. The other two were on him instantly as he lay on his front from the fall. One got his right arm which caused him to drop the knife and the other his right leg. He shouted in pain but shifted to his side and brought his arm down with the large dog still clamped on and his leg up which was also still clamped on, they were strong, but he felt stronger as his knee hit the arm creature hard, knocking it hard off. The leg one then felt a large and heavy hand grab the side of its head with his left thumb punching through its eye to hold the creature still while his right hand punched down on its skull. The first hit broke its icy bones, and the second and third broke though and hit a large blue orb in the middle of the head. And as he beat down on the orb it shattered like glass and the dog turned to mist leaving large holes in his leg where it had chomped down on. He wasn’t done yet as the final creature recovered and tried to bite down on him again but with his whole body free he caught the jaws of the creature and kneed it again in the throat and it crumpled like a regular animal would. He got on top of the black creature he beat down on his large skull like the last. Until it too faded away. He sat on his knees now with blood leaking from his busted knuckle skin, and his bitten limbs. He didn’t know why he felt so good killing them. He barely had a thought the whole fight. Its like he already knew what they were and how to kill them and that he should without second thought. It was instinctual. He had never been one to really hesitate but that lack of conscious thought scared him as he came to his senses. They felt to him as almost to dumb to be animals but were obviously reacting when hurt like ones. He thought they felt based off of animals but more just an imitation beucase there is no way something like that would actually get hurt from a kick to a throat when they didnt have blood that should have been there when he stabbed or beat them. He had only his own on himself he noticed and had that first ratinal thought in a while. 'What the fuck was that' He had already go though some strange things already today he thought so he barley thought about black ice creatures. He limped up to standing and picked up his knife which lay near. He just wanted to get out of this place and so he walked into the forest.