Adam opened his eyes, his sight was blurry and every inch of his body hurt deeply from the fall and the lightning hit really did a number on him, his ears were ringing a bit and part of his clothes where got hit were burnt. The tree branches though did help him survive the fall and his body was in the shape that he could continue on foot but surely some rest was needed.
Adam rubbed his eyes and shook his head and slowly started seeing more clearly and the ringing in his ears stopped. The pain was still there making every movement more difficult than the last.
He brushed leaves and broken branches off of his clothes and relied on his sword as a walking cane to get on his feet, he sighed and clenched his jaw he wanted to shout from the pain but it wasn't wise to do such a thing in an unknown place like this.
He looked around for a while his half-burnt hand-crafted wings were stuck in the tree branches but didn't matter, Adam preferred walking after that fall and his backpack and all his stuff were ruined all except his sword, it was still in a perfect shape.
Considering he was in a forest he had some hope to find some fruits and water so with unsteady steps he kept moving holding his breath with each step he took and paused every now and then but he kept moving forward.
Green leaves on tall trees blocked the sunlight making the air cool and extremely fresh with the scent of greens and a pleasant calmness which ruled in the atmosphere, sound of woods creaking and leaves rustling made the forest even more peaceful sort of magical even, but at last it was the sound of the flowing water of the river which gave Adam the most hope and made him walk just a bit faster.
What he saw put a smile on his face, hot springs near a small waterfall it was like a dream coming true.
His body was in dire need of some rest so without doing anything else he got naked and got in the natural hot springs. It took a few moments for him to get used to its warmth but slowly every fiber in his muscles loosened up and he got relaxed he closed his eyes the hot water calmed his pain and for a time Adam thoughts turned to a blank page thinking about nothing and enjoyed the moment to the fullest.
"it's perfect" he muttered.
When he opened his eyes again thick heavy mist surrounded him which made him think, how long has he been in the hot springs it didn't feel like a lot though. Time passes quickly when you are tired but not this fast.
He waved his hand around in search of his sword and when he found it he grabbed on it tightly and started getting out. It looked like the hardest thing in the world like his body was screaming at him to stay in the hot water and rest more but this forest was getting suspicious more and more and he felt fine enough to stand up and remain steady without relying on anything except for the burnt part of his back, it still hurt but not enough to hold him back.
It took a while for Adam to find where he took off his clothes no matter how close they were to him the mist was unusually thick making watching around almost undoable. He put on his pants soon as he found them and tied up the sleeves of his shirt around his waist. Putting it back on would just hurt his back more.
His skin remained just as wet with the constant touch of mist on his skin, drying up was something that would not happen for a while but it was the cool air that was making his body shake and trembling his chin, he rubbed his left hand on his right arm just to warm up a bit but it seemed useless he really wished that he didn't get out of the hot springs now.
'what was I thinking?' he thought.
His chin trembled even faster to a point he searched for the sound of the flowing water just to get back in the hot water but the sound was gone like it never existed which was even more strange since Adam was sure that he only took a few steps away he could not, he cannot get that far to lose the sound.
"what is going on here?" he whispered
It was like the mist was blocking his hearing too he could only hear the air he was breathing in and later only the sound of his heart beating in his chest.
'this is not real' he thought moving around blindly.
'this is a dream' he closed his eyes rubbed them a few times then opened them again and there it was a tall dark shape looking down at him with a jawless bony face and empty eyes sockets gazing at Adam in a sinister way with horns on his head as tall as a man and a grey long tongue reaching for Adam's neck slowly wrapping around it. The stench of dead bodies along with warm rotten air coming from the creature's mouth reached Adam's nose it was disgusting.
The creature whatever it was, was unearthly. absence of flesh on parts of his body and on his face made it look like the dead and the shape of his skull was a reminder of a dead elk's skull but no animal nor human can have tall hands such as his and dark liquid something like blood but thicker dripping from the tip of his sharp nails on the ground disappearing in the mist beneath them.
The creature's sticky tongue slowly started to tighten up making Adam choke and gasping for air, it lifted Adam up toward its face as if the creature could see through its empty eye sockets.
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To unsheathe his sword looked like an impossible thing to do as Adams' hands felt heavy as his legs danced around hanging in the air as he tried harder and harder to breathe, still in shock and panic Adam forced his hand to grab on his sword's hilt and cut through the creature's tongue falling on the ground awakening the pain in his body making everything harder again.
The creature unleashed a deafening wail and faded away in the mist. Though the thick mist seemed defeated to swallow his dark shape in itself, Adam with one hand rubbing browses on his neck and guarding himself with the other one pointing his sword at the creature as he got back on his feet. The pain in his body was making him weaker and weaker by the second so he forgot about running because he couldn't get too far and with the mist blocking his sight it was not right but charging at the creature was even worse except it was his only choice. Adam took a deep breath the pain was spreading like a disease in his body and stiffened muscles were against his will but he denied them all.
"aaaaaah" Adam cried and charged toward the creature without
thinking twice started waving his sword at him like madmen even land a few heavy blows on the creatures grey rotten flesh on his tall legs. The creature threw Adam away as if he had no weight and he hit a tree then fell down. Adam felt lifeless at that point, the creature was far more powerful than him.
It was getting closer to Adam with his sharp nails at tow scratching the fallen leaves and wet mud beneath his feet as its newly grown tongue hanging from its jawless mouth on its skinny chest.
Adam tightens the palm of his hand around his sword's hilt standing up with all his strength left coughing blood and laying his back on the tree and keeping his guard up awaiting his end hopelessly.
The creature threw the sword away with a flip of its wrist and grabbed Adam by the neck with its left hand lifted him up and slowly shoved its sharp tall filthy nails in Adam's gut and chest with its right hand. The sight of faint amusement could have been felt on its dead lifeless face in a disturbing way. It was something that could be felt rather than watched but it was there the creature was enjoying torturing Adam.
Adam's rage suddenly flamed inside his body not like before this time it came from the depth of his existence as if there was a wrathful beast inside him was awakened. A violent, hatful beast in him was screaming for blood. He grabbed on the creature's left hand looked it in the eyes as Adam kept the creature's head up. His reddened eyes and wet long hair covering most of his face he coughed more blood and spat some of the warm blood in his mouth on the creature's face.
"I just fucking hate dying" words came out of his mouth as more blood dripping from his teeth and lips on the creature's left hand. He pushed his body closer to the creature's face, the creature's nails were now deep inside his body but the pain was gone. The old hatred in his veins was burning the pain in him away. Adam cracked the creature left hand's bone by a heavy blow of his elbows then grabbed both of its horns with both hands like his life depended on it and started bashing his head against the creature's bony head like a mad ram, sound of cracking bones, creatures' screams and Adams heavy shouts echoed in the mist, he kept doing it until his face was covered with his blood and creatures' head was deformed. The creature's head was dragged down to Adam's height. He shoved his horn in the tree keeping it still and started breaking the other horn with his hands then pushed the separated horn deep inside the creature's left shoulder.
Adam released his body from the creatures' left hand as the dark creature screamed like thousands of voices were screaming from
one body begging for the pain to stop and trying to free its horn from the tree like a trapped animal.
Adam cried loudly and got near the creature, left and right punched it in the face flapping sound of his punches throwing at the creature's face breaking what was left of its face, and finishing it painfully with all the life he had left inside him.
"I'll kill you again and again and again till you die for real, ahhhhhh"
He spat blood on the creature's face and finished it off with one last knee attack against its neck crushing all the bones in its neck and shutting it up forever. Adam stood on his feet for a few more seconds looking at the broken creature, then fell on the ground as if his ghost leaving his body lay on the leaves and swallowed by the thick white mist.
_ _ _
Adam opened his eyes again looking around with panicked wide-open eyes finding himself in a cold sallow part of a swamp surrounded with bloated bodies floating on the motionless water he felt skulls and bones beneath him where he sat. he jumped out of the water and garbed on the branch of an old dead tree and lifted himself out of the swamp and dragged himself out of the wet mud and started checking on his body see if he was ok.
His clothes were on him soaking wet and there was no mark of wounds on his chest or browses around his neck only the burnt part of his back which was hit by the lightning. Adam looked around once again he was in a forest and he was fell from the sky but the forest was not the same. It was a ghost forest with leafless trees empty of any kind of life except for ravens and wolves –
Which were busy feasting on thousands of forgotten dead bodies laid in every part of the forest with a light fog covering parts of in distant in the twilight weather.
'what is wrong with this place' he thought 'am I really awaken now or is it another dream?' his mind was puzzled but the cold was forcing his mind into one direction to get warmth first.
'This time everything looked real for real' he thought "but so did the last two times" he whispered to himself walking quickly just to get out of the forest as fast as he could and start a fire.
The pain in his body gave up to the numbness of the cold as he passed through dried trees and tried to not look around too much and keep walking toward the east even if it was his end he didn't want it to happen in this damned forest at least he was sure of that and that was enough motivation after what he experienced in there.
He moved and moved until nothing was around him but the light fog and an endless swamp he smiled weakly and faintly surprised by how he survived all those unfortunate events in the past and still finding himself in godforsaken land with nothing but mud and fog. Adam took a few more steps he couldn't feel a thing anymore the cold finally did its job "well at least I'm not in that forest" he muttered and fell down on his face in the muddy ground and the last thing he remembered before passing out completely was to be getting carried over some bodies shoulders.
"I think your fate is doomed with a circle of you dying and falling on the ground and somebody picking you up and saving your life, don't you think my friend?' the stranger said with Adam on his shoulders taking him away in distant empty lands.