When I awaken, the world is a blur of gray tones and indistinguishable shapes. Looking around I get the sense that I'm still in the forest, perhaps the very same clearing where I lost consciousness. The realization causes me to jump and look around for whoever knocked me out, but there's no one. Rather what I find instead are motes of vibrant light all about the area that stand out compared to the vague impressions of this gray world.
Looking at once such instance reveals a highway where this mysterious light begins below the ground and flows high above into hundreds of individual splitting paths. Following their trail above, I spot floating spheres of light, far brighter than these sprawling systems. Without realizing it, I find myself face-to-face inspecting one of these shimmering orbs, beating with lifelike rhythm. Several channels sprawl out from the source, each pulsing with every beat of the glowing heart.
With my immediate curiosity sated, I take some time to investigate myself, and there's one word that comes to mind. Ghostly.
I'm floating through empty space like some sort of undead specter, and similar to the motes all around, I too am nothing more than a collection of lights. Unlike the others though, my form is far more detailed, to the point that I can still make out each individual feather. This all must be that essence that I have only just begun to understand. But what does all of this mean, did I die? Is this the afterlife?
I look around for more clues and notice signs of life below. Again I discover a beating heart of essence, and within its grasp is a radiant stone. Beneath all that, is the faint outline of a dying glow, one that I recognize immediately.
Get away from there!
My anger outlines only one single option. Attack!
Swooping down on weightless wings, I extend my talons towards his exposed heart. When my phantasmal daggers make contact, there is no feeling of resistance as they pierce into the bright sphere. The core trembles in response, dislodging my talons and leaving blackened holes in their wake. Essence bleeds like a bloody river in eerie silence, flowing onto the ground, and more importantly, over my body. Already there is visible improvement. The essence pools within my physical body with colorful vigor, but there is a false quality to it. Unlike everyone else, my inner heart does not beat.
If one could see into my eyes, they would see burning wells of anger.
You did this!
Again I fly towards the creature that robbed me of my life and deliver another deadly blow to his core. This time I pull as hard as I can, refusing to let go! Soundlessly, each vein pops aggressively as they are severed one at a time against my onslaught. From their ruptured ends, the lifeblood of essence flows unhindered to the ground below until no light remains. As for the still beating core in my clutches, I pull it effortlessly from its home and offer it to my dying body.
Again, more essence flows into my body, but without a beating heart its just a dead, vibrant, husk.
With that creatures core no longer of any use to me, I let go of it and set my sights upon all the onlookers in the trees. Just thinking that all of them were watching as I was beset my that brute gets my blood boiling.
Once more on quiet wings, I soar effortlessly into the canopy and dive headfirst into the next victim. Taking hold of the silently beating heart in my beak, I rip it from its resting place and drop it next to my body, allowing the essence to flow like wine.
I don't know what's happening in the real world, but whatever I'm doing is finally causing a reaction from the rest of these creatures. Like a scurrying horde of rats, they all scatter to the four winds, but that will not save them. In this world, their exposed hearts shine like a torch in a black void. No matter how far they run, I will find them.
One at a time, I pluck their precious essence-filled hearts from their worthless bodies until the only lights that remain alight in this world are the countless swathe of trees that make up this expansive forest. During my hunt, I see other beacons in the darkness, surely other creatures that managed to accumulate enough essence to be detected by me. But I have no interest in them, they did not wrong me, and I am determined to make these arrogant little rats pay for what they did to me.
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Amidst my hunt, I am distracted by the first sensation I have felt since awakening to this new realm. A breeze from behind blows a cold wind through me, carrying upon its gale, traces of my own light. I can do little but watch as my precious essence is stolen and is spirited away deeper into the forest. Taking another look at myself reveals that I am no longer as luminescent as I once was, and I fear for what will happen when my time runs out.
With renewed haste, I dispatch the rest of the fleeing creatures and deliver their stilled cores to my body.
This time, when I get back, I notice a collection of onlookers in all shapes and sizes forming a ring around the clearing where my body lays. For now I ignore them, but if they try anything I will not hesitate to hunt them down in similar vindictive fashion.
Please be enough…
At this point, there is so much essence that has pooled around my body that it has leaked into the surrounding area. Even with all of this, it remains as still as before.
With no more hope to revive myself, I give up and lay down beside my dead body. I tried so hard, against all odds, all for it to turn out like this. I can't even close my eyes and let them rest, this cruel form denying me the most simple of comforts.
In silence, the two of us lay.
The overflowing essence that leaked into the ground beside us has faded, and the light within begins to wane.
As death creeps closer, I remember the first time I witnessed a miracle, by a pair of tiny little hands. I've tried a couple times to recreate such a thing, each attempt marked by bitter failure. Now however, it feels right to try it one more time.
Sitting over my body as a parent taking care of their sick child would, I hold out a spectral wing where my heart should be. From this position, I allow my own lifeforce to flow freely towards my dying body.
Once I begin, dizziness follows soon after, but something unexpected happens. From a time long, long, ago, fragments of my memory return. Thousands, upon thousands, are brought before me, each of them sheltering a tiny flickering light that pales in comparison to the inhabitants of the world around me now. Without fail, every time they approached me, their candle-like light would be extinguished. In the beginning, I begged for them to stop, but they never heard my cries. Again and again, all I could do was nothing but watch as they wordlessly offered their pygmy flames into a bottomless chasm. Trapped and helpless, how could I forget spending so many years in such a state?
Distracted by the faint memories, I failed to notice the slight cues of life stirring around me. The rich smell of the forest, the stirring of branches.
As I lay bent over my own body, I can feel the slight beating of a once-stilled heart.
What a relief…
---
Blinking my eyes, I am once again immersed in a world of brilliant colors, no longer that strange, abstract realm.
I'm alive!
Before I can rejoice further, the morbid smell of death washes over me and I realize I am surrounded by dozens of dead bodies scattered about the clearing. The one closest to me is the most predominant, a large gorilla-esque creature coated in white fur with green markings, not to mention a plethora of scars. Wait… This looks like…
Without even finishing the thought, I rise up and get a closer look at the other corpses. Each of them have their chest gored out with most of their internals hanging gruesomely on the outside. But more importantly, they are clearly the same species. In my maddened state of mind, I remember hunting down each and every one, but I never knew what I was hunting. All I could make out in that foggy world was the traces of their essence…
From the corner of my eye, I see a creature cowering behind some ferns, a canine of sorts. I don't get long to look at it, for as soon as I lock eyes with it, it flees into the underbrush. As if a silent alarm had been sounded, all around I hear a collective group of creatures flee the scene as well.
Before I move too far, I get a closer look at myself, just to make sure I'm still in one piece. Sure enough, I seem to be fine, even crazier is that I notice my wing has recovered! Not only that, but I'm pretty sure my chest has healed as well! Seeing how I'm good to go, I head away from the scene of the crime.
Back when I was trying to escape from that giant gorilla, I remember seeing Koko's pendant dropped purposely behind me. A cruel display of intelligence on the ape's part, I assumed that he was killed and eaten. But seeing all these apes has me thinking, it might have been something else. I thought it was dumb luck that he managed to get us away from those dangerous spore pods, but I think the reality was that he found his way back to his home.
As I search through the bodies, I hope that a certain little trickster is missing and by some miracle he made it out safe. Deeper into the jungle I trek, flipping over what remains of the bodies to confirm he wasn't involved.
On my way to where I think the next corpse might be, I can't help but reflect on what happened. Would anything have changed if I knew this was Koko's family? That alpha of their troop surely didn't have any reservations to spare me, matter of fact, I practically died. I'm still not sure what happened, I can't even figure out if I did kick the bucket or not. Is this what fate really has in store?
Answering my question in cruel fashion is the discovery of a corpse that tried to hide in a hollowed out tree. The scene is a bloody mess, just like all the others. However I'll never forget this one. For wrapped in the arms of the brutally murdered ape is a small motionless form. One with tiny paws that I remember chasing after me during the time we shared in that underground prison. Those verdant marble eyes that sparkled with the joy of curiosity.
…
Cyii?
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