Rodent wanted to be amazed at all the amazing things around him, the first demonstration of ‘adventure’ in his adventure, a problem and a plot that needed his help to be worked out—all the things he had craved as a child.
But as he stood on what had once been a massive boulder to even boulders that were then cloven into the flat ground, the lonely man looked around at the strange, ascending field, where mist still lurked, and a sky was still in the beyond—as though he were at the height of clouds, somehow.
Of course, the ground was covered in Deskar, a thick, high amount that flowed between the rocks and into the various ponds that poured into numerous holes. Rodent came to the ledge of the one nearest to him and looked over—seeing how it fell into an empty sky and seemed to disappear.
His head shook at how that was possible, at how, looking through his hole, he could not see the Deksar pouring from the others around it. His face tilted down in thought.
All I did was walk through a valley… yet it’s like I stepped out of reality… or into a mixed version.
All of this was well beyond Rodent’s pay grade, so he didn’t try to think too much about it, wishing only he had a smarter friend around to help him make sense of the stuff he was too stupid to figure out.
At this, the Deskar around the rocks raised a little, gushing over the stone and washing a bit onto it, causing a startling in Rodent’s heart.
Looks like everyone was right… it doesn’t seem like there’s an end to that stuff…
Rodent ended up sitting cross-legged, even as the Deskar washed closer like waves on a beach, little tendrils reaching out to latch onto the ground in the desire for him. Rodent’s heart wasn’t in it as he looked around, still feeling a breeze, alive and alone in this isolated moment.
Just then, he glanced to his side, seeing [Stick] and the Deskar coming closer to it—snatching it before the Deskar could. [Stick] was cold as his palms squeezed its material. Rodent exhaled. “Sorry about that, buddy.” He returned to sitting normally, resting the pole on his lap. “Doing okay?”
“A.m…f.i.n.e…” [Stick] said through vibrations that Rodent could understand as a language. “A.m…j.u.s.t…a…t.o.o.l…”
Rodent’s face scrunched and shook. “You’re not just a tool.”
“I…w.a.s…m.a.d.e…t.o…a.s.s.i.s.t…a.n.d…n.o.t.h.i.n.g…m.o.r.e…”
“Naaaaaaah… screw that.” Rodent waved a hand and looked away, seeing the Deskar washing closer toward them, and though this meant possible death… Rodent wasn’t scared. He didn’t have it in his heart to hold any fear. “You’ve got a mind of your own, right? Feelings and all that? Means you can decide a few things yourself.”
“…a.m…a…t.o.o.l…c.a.n.n.o.t…d.o…m.o.r.e…t.h.a.n…t.h.a.t…”
“Sure! Maybe.” Rodent looked at [Stick]. “Maybe you can’t spout legs and do as you like or hold conversations and that kind of stuff.” Rodent held up his hands. “But you got me, right? You’re more than just a tool to me.”
“…i…w.a.s…d.e.s.i.g.n.e.d…t.o…a.s.s.i.s.t…”
“That old man, right?” Rodent asked. “He loaned you to me before this whole thing happened. Never really did ask you about that.”
“…i…a.m…a…t.o.o.l…”
“Figured that was the response I was going to get.” Rodent looked to the sky and saw nothing there that would bring him peace. It would be the same as looking into the Deskar. He was content to sit there for once… to have this moment. “But even if you were designed to be a tool… I don’t think you just have to be one.”
Rodent shrugged as he thought about it. “I mean, humans were just kinda made—or evolved, or whatever.” He slouched. “But we kinda just do what we do. There’s nobody telling us that we have to be like this and that. Sure. The world will react in certain ways to us. But it’s still our choice in how we act first.”
Rodent could tell [Stick] was listening.
“If you just want to be a tool… then you can be a tool.” Rodent nodded and pushed against the ground, struggling as he stood, shaking his head to collect himself. He looked around for the next sign of what he should do. “But that should be what you decide—not because of what you were manufactured to be. Thinking and feeling mean you can come to your own conclusions. Just know that I’m more than willing to hear them out.”
Seconds passed.
“…I…w.i.l.l...t.h.i.n.k…a.b.o.u.t…t.h.i.s…”
“There you go!” Rodent chuckled and smiled in a way he had nearly forgotten since waking up. It usually took a lot to knock him off his game, but sticking too long in the past tended to have that effect on him. He shook it off. “That’s all that I ask for. Now, c’mon. We’ve got an apparent legendary sword to deal with.”
Rodent focused on the present and on the ground of the stone itself, where some of the Deskar had washed upon it, trying to get closer to him. He swallowed, looking outward, and saw the display of Kularlro Forest.
Closer to it, the Deskar rose higher and became thicker, even as it flowed into the various ponds and the massive holes attached, becoming as tall as walls upon reaching the forest itself.
There, they reached half the height of the trees, which seemed too big for this world—an unimaginable height, width, and size. Rodent felt smaller than an ant standing before and gazing at them, coming to chuckle at how someone like him was supposed to somehow survive in there… yet the only way was forward.
Rodent stepped toward the Deskar on the stone, tiny tendrils shooting out from the Deskar, though it seemed warded off from Rodent. He hadn’t stopped smirking and smiling as he raised his boot over the puddle, and without thinking, he placed his foot down… the Deskar cleaning out of the way.
“Y’know… I never figured out the whole deal with you.” Rodent squatted as the Deskar filled around him, leaving him a small circle in which nothing could advance. “Eating away at life. Scaring people. Seeming like the end of the world itself.” He wanted to poke them with Stick… but decided against it. “But what are you? What is it you want?”
The Deskar, retracting its tendrils, started having moving images on its surface, which made Rodent blink as he watched, seeing the hospital back home. His heart started to hurt as he saw his friends as kids, all on beds or against a tree, a setting sun out of their windows.
The next image was a graveyard, one with a few tombstones—though more were starting to sprout up until the field was full—and Rodent stood alone.
Before he could speak, the image changed to the village, of the people huddling together in dark corners, shrivelling until they collapsed.
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Rodent blinked.
“You said you were gonna die first, Rodent!”
“I-Is there… i-is t-there a-anything a-after? I-I’m… I-I’m scaaaaaaaaared.”
“WHY DO YOU GET TO LIVE!? WHAT ARE YOU EVEN GOING TO DO WITH IT? TELL STORIES? PLAY PRETEND?”
Rodent snapped out of the images and whispers, the latter seeming to float from the Deskar’s surface, causing him to stand and nearly tumble into the Deskar. At once, the man felt something, something that he did not allow himself to feel often.
Despair.
When he felt it, the circle around him started to shrink, and the Deskar became thicker as it grew closer, seeming ready to breach him. Rodent blinked, his head starting to nod, everything clicking.
“I… see.” His head kept nodding as he turned around, a smile coming to his lips, arms spreading out. “Is that how this works? You evoke and then feed off the negative in living things? That’s what you are?”
“Despair.”
“Despair.”
“Despair.”
“Despair.”
“Dude. No way.” Rodent waved the notion away and then rubbed underneath his nose. “If I was going to do that—I would have done that comfortably in my own world.” He looked around at the sea of Deskar, of that which was reflected upon its surface, the voices that came rising out. “I’m here to help in whatever way I can. You’re not going to take that away from me.”
“Who are you?”
“Who are you?”
“Who are you?”
“Why is everyone always so interested in asking me that question?” Rodent asked with a shake of his head, always turning as if addressing the storm. “I don’t have to be anyone to do what feels right! You won’t break my foundation.”
“Everything decays… everything dies… despair is natural… people will starve… all will perish… regardless of your actions.”
“And who cares?” Rodent threw up a hand while the other rested on his hip. “You think I’m that kind of an idiot? One who doesn’t know that, at the end of all this, everyone dies anyway?” He stepped forward, stomping where the Deskar was, becoming animated. “I just don’t care! I might not be useful—but I can still give people a good time before they can go! Can still show them that someone cares and is willing to go through all this trouble for them—that is able to smile regardless so that they might be able to do the same.”
“It… is all… pointless…”
“And you get to decide that? You get to decide what a stick battle is worth to a couple of kids? Or everyone gathering for a dinner that lasts the whole night? You think, in those moments, we care about what comes after? If it’ll mean anything in the end?”
Rodent clenched a fist. “You showed me my friends! Yeah! They’re all dead, gone, and probably forgotten except for by me—but my life is still affected, I still hold our moments greatly as I suffer through what comes next. Things don’t have to last.” He walked forward and off the stone into the sea of the Deskar, which cleared out around him—revealing land to his boots.
“They just have to last for long enough for us!” Rodent smashed a fist against his chest. “Things for our generation are meant for our generation. Then, the next generation will find their next thing. I don’t care for immortality or longevity! The people of the future won’t care the same way we did about our own. It’s to our own that everything counts!”
He continued storming forward. “So try it! Throw your stuff at me! I don’t care! Nothing will stop me from the stuff I feel strongly about—no matter how stupid it sounds.” He paused for a moment. “And look at you! Not willing to touch me… only preying upon what is weak… who are you to speak?”
Silence for a moment.
“Your… enthusiasm… can only… hold… for so… long…”
“I already told you,” Rodent responded with anger and spite. “It’ll last long enough.”
“You… still… are no match… for the Sword…” There was a low chuckle across the surface. “Even… if you were… now… it is too late…”
“Didn’t ask… don’t care.” Rodent strode forward. “I’ll do what I need to do.”
With that, he carried forward, the Deskar splitting before him, images and voices still shown and heard, though none were strong enough to hold the man down. He carried ahead, coughing a bit, having pushed himself. But he put that aside and dealt with it.
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It was near the forest where Rodent focused on how tall the Deskar had become, acting like a building that never ended as he walked through its base, a tunnel opening before him but not stretching very far.
The images and voices in the tunnels were worse, but Rodent was too mad to care, not paying attention to what would depress him.
He walked blindly, knowing the general direction, ensuring that he didn’t sway in his stride or else he would be lost in this underground place. Soon enough, he passed through to another cloven stone, the last one which seemed to be clear of the Deskar.
In the center, something rested, creating a cone of space that actually allowed a view of the sky again—which was blocked by the starting of the trees.
Rodent blinked and looked at the item… coming to see a notebook… and a necklace laid over it.
His heart started to beat.
Rodent ducked down and picked it up.
The necklace was blue and oddly shaped, and it felt familiar to the ones he saw back at Beatrice’s house. Examining it, he felt energy, positive energy, like seeing a streetlamp after walking a long time in the dark alone.
Carefully, he put it in his satchel and focused on the notebook.
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Forgive me… I would write the date… but I do not know how long I was gone… which could have been days or it might have been weeks… the time feels both short and long… and there is a central conflict inside me.
I am sorry I did not leave a note for you sooner.
I… needed to ensure you could pass through the Valley of Belief yourself.
As you can guess, my friend, we are not in normal lands.
We are both in and not in this world anymore. We are in a different dimension, a failing one, that is becoming undone. The challenges and trials meant for the Successor have fallen, broken apart, or no longer remain. Deskar is rampant here… and it flows everywhere.
Deskar, of course, comes from despair, a negative energy that we generate and give unto it. There is no way to stop what already is. We cannot stop the tides, close the holes, and remove it all together. Not even the Sword, if it were drawn, could make a difference here.
Things are actually as hopeless as they seem, friend.
The forest exists. You can clearly see it before you. But it exists… if the Sword is real… then the Monster is too. The Sword seals the Monster here… but what happens if the Sword is to be drawn? In truth, I underestimated this fact. How can one draw the Sword without weakening the Seal on the Monster?
The Seal is weakening. That can be the only reason for the Deskar spilling like this. Soon… the Seal will become undone… and then what? The Sword is failing.
Why is it failing? How can we restore its strength? The Hero sacrificed his life to have enough strength to defeat the Monster one last time… so what will we have to do?
In truth, I never expected to make it this far, but for the world… I resolved in my heart to leave my doubts. No matter what, the Sword needs to be pulled… or else the Seal will break eventually. I can only think that, once pulled, the Sword will empower the holder long enough for them to then empower the Sword.
I am unable to go back. Steinith will not believe a word of what I say—will not venture to get the most worthy person to come here.
And what I saw from the Valley… I doubt many have a pure enough soul to make it here.
One has to be great and good to wield the Sword.
I have etched a path in the trees to reach the center of the forest to the resting place of the Sword. Deskar can only be warded off by Brar. The necklace I have left… has been with me my whole life… and holds… a great deal inside it. That is the only reason these pages will have remained for as long as they have.
For me, it is day, but I worry for you, friend, if it is now night for you.
I will do my best to pull the Sword and record everything I can should I fail in doing so.
May it help you.
And may you help those that I care about.
~ Issac Fila.