Shades of Indigo
It is curious how we are affected by the world around us. From the moment we are born there is an inborn curiosity to explore. To learn. Children are naturally curious about the world around them, and their world is shaped by their curiosity. Our body is a way for our brains to navigate the world, and our brains are the map of the world. The world, as in our concept, is in actuality very different from what we perceive. We can navigate it well enough. But what if you wanted to go beyond...
In a forest, there lies a hut. In the hut, there lies a bed. On the bed, there lies a person. On this person, there lies a destiny. And as this person opens his eyes, a new world lies before us.
The wind is rattling the cage of the hut he'd found solace in. Normally, he would be sleeping on the branches above the forest floor. The forest floor, he'd found, sapped the warmth from his flesh and found him waking up freezing. Plus, the branches offered protection against predators which might try to harm in his sleep. He's just happy that he doesn't move much in his sleep. Waking up free-falling from above would be terrifying. Cracking his eyes open and shielding them against the light crinkling through the crack in the hut, he tries to get a better look at wherever he now inhabits. Worn down, unused were the adjectives which first come to mind. At first glance it looked to be in pretty decent shape, but he could tell from the smell in the air that there seemed to be greater problems hiding in the wood. Rot. No place for anybody to live in for long. But maybe a shelter for a short while.
He's grown tired of running around alone, never knowing when the next meal is going to be. Never knowing where he is, or if a cold night will kill him. For once, he didn't feel death looming upon his awakening.
Rising up, he folds his blanket around his shoulders and lets it hang around his body for extra warmth and comfort. Being one of the things which keeps him warm, he doesn't have the energy to carry an extra blanket around him, essentially making it part of his attire. A thought goes through his head, 'better than yesterday'. And contrary to expectation, a smile forms on his face as he surveys his new home. Now, the only question is, for how long should he be staying here? Civilization... was not very civilized. And he'd rather avoid it as much as possible. That isn't to say the wilderness is more so, but at least more predictable.
The floor creaks with every step he takes, and his boots leave indents which sags the floor in ways it shouldn't'. 'You're an old lady, aren't you?' He muses to himself and grabs his sword from its place on the floor. Never too far away. Then, he steps outside. The icy winds signal the beginning of early morning, and the sun can barely be seen on the horizon through the treetops. Shielding his eyes with his hand, he looks at the distance and his eyes narrow. Slowly unsheathing his sword, his knuckles turn white as he grips the handle tightly and jumps down onto the ground. The force of his jump being the last the stairs of the hut could take, crumbling down. His lips curl downward as he cringes a bit, but quickly focus his mind back at the task as a distinct sound of cracking branches comes closer.
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A dark shadow moves unceasingly through the forest. As if drawn to some unseen source, perhaps like a shark smelling blood. It runs through the forest, its feet heavily patting the ground, rattling the trees around it and cracking anything unfortunate enough to come under its feet. Its nostrils flares as it draws heavy breaths, empowering its body to go faster. Jumping through the canopy the beast opens its eyes wide, its eyes almost popping out of its skull in excitement as it sees a man standing grimly before it.
The man looked like a haunting ghost, with tattered oversized robes rolled many a time around his body, giving no inclination of his body shape. Only his sharply defined features tell somewhat of a tale, because his hair covers his whole back in a mess of tangled dark web, and every exposed part of skin seemed to be covered in a dark substance mimicking soot. This heavy color made the whites of the man's eyes stand out like floating jewels, looking hauntingly at you. The beast grunts in irritation at what he imagines must be a dry husk of a meal.
Keeping the pace up it rushes towards the man with extreme agility, intent on severing his body with its long, sharp, nails. Its feet bury deeply into the ground as it prepares to jump from the ground, instinctively becoming airborne and time seems to freeze as something feels wrong. There is a coldness in the air which wasn't there before. The beast doesn’t linger on the feeling for too long, focusing back on its opponent who is now calmly crouching with a hand on the ground, the other holding a dulled sword. As the beast flies towards the man, the man jumps forward, underneath the beast, slicing its stomach open. Its entrails fly out, spraying the ground in shit, blood and gore. The beast crashes headfirst into the hut, intestines trailing behind it as its eyes are tightly locked in pain. In one last effort before death, the beast looks behind itself in horrified pain before life leaves its eyes looking dull.
The man looks behind himself, staring at those beautiful red ruby eyes in fascination, noting that they are slowly glazing over. Putting the sword across his shoulder the man looks down, sighs out loud to himself and scratches his head.
“Man, what a surprise, who would have thought I’d get rushed by a darkling so early in the morning” Rubbing his tummy he begins looking around himself.
“Well, it really couldn’t have come at a better time. Better they hunt me than me hunting them is what I always say” The man goes behind a tree and looks for some dry wood branches lying around. “But why would the beast be rushing towards me like that? It seemed to know that I was here somehow” The man glances at the hut as he digs a hole and piles all the timber into it. Making sure that nothing flammable is close by. “Is it the hut? Is there something in this hut?” The man looks skeptical as he pulls a log, he found earlier close by and rummages through his clothes. “Whatever it is, is it worth looking around for?” The man questions himself while pulling out a rock and placing it by the timber. Eyeing the rock with one eye, he pulls his sword in a quick motion, slicing at just the right angle to produce a shower of sparks. The man gains a satisfied smirk as the timber catches on fire and eyes the beast. “Well, first off, let’s have a meal. Shall we?” His eyes crinkles in satisfaction as he heartily waves his sword around. His steps seemed to have a spring in them not there before.
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The man eyes the bleeding corpse of the beast, inspecting it. If only he knew how to tan hide into leather, he would be able to get some warmer clothes. But as it is, he’ll have to do with what he has. In one swift motion he draws a smaller blade from his back, more convenient for specialized cuts than his sword. Pulling out all of the entrails, he inspects the meats. Often, when he guts the beasts like he did this time, the stomach acid, undigested food and other contaminants would infect the meat and make it uneatable. This also happens to be the case here. Giving up on the heart, and liver, he looks for the tenderloin. Knowing it Is the beast part of the beast. Cutting deeper into the carcasses he removed the tenderloin, finding it completely unblemished. Smiling in satisfaction he continues to remove different parts of the beast, while waiting for the firepit to really spring to life.
A couple of minutes later, there is a man sitting in front of a weirdly shaped bonfire. A few rocks seem to be jutting out on the sides, while there is a rectangular, flat, thin one, lying over the fire itself. The flames seem to be licking the rock, as if intent on devouring it, but to no avail. On top of this rock there lies tender meat, lined with white fat stripes and some kind of herbs covering it. The man responsible seems to salivate while glancing at the meat and the delicious smell coming off It, while continuing to put herbs on different parts of the meat. The man continues to turn the meat with a stick a couple of more times, while putting a few more readily done meats on the heat. The man then takes one which seems to be done, oozing with flavor, off the grill with a stick and takes a bite out of it. Breathing heavily through the mouth the man's eyes are wide open as the meat almost burns his tongue off but keeps on chewing with tears in his eyes. From the flavor or the pain, one couldn’t tell. After the first bite, the man continues to eat at a superhuman pace, for every meat grilled there is another eaten, until the man just simply cannot eat anymore. If you looked at the pile of meat now, over half would be eaten!
The man leans back towards the ground and stares at the sky, lazily noting the position of the sun in the sky. Suddenly, his heart makes a strange sound. As if skipping a beat, then to compensate, beat extra hard. Except, it keeps beating as if a drum being hit repeatedly. As if he was running a fever, a warm feeling seemed to spread through the man's body, making his skin feel cold at the same time. Sweating, while lying on his back, he seemed to have expected this. The man tightens his mouth in concentration while breathing in a particularly slow way, trying to experience this sensation to its fullest. This is the reason he ate as much as he did, for the more he eats, the more this sensation seems to come. And only when he eats the beasts, he’s named darkling's.
Darkling's have a bit of a unique existence on the continent. They didn’t always exist, one day, they just showed up, and have been there ever since. The man, seemingly still in his early twenties, was just a young child when the first Darkling's started their attack, sending humanity into chaos.
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15 years ago, Lothrune in the Kingdom of Germud.
In the forest, a child could be seen sprinting through the foliage. His breath comes out in short bursts as he urges his legs to go quicker. His eyebrows furrowed and mouth set in a thin line, he seemed like a war general on the run from usurpers. His ears perked up as he heard rustling coming from beside him and quickly stepped to the side as another child the same age seemed to come barreling out of nowhere with a wide smile on his face.
“I got youuuuu” He screamed as he quickly tapped the war general on the shoulder then took off running while laughing. The war general being the competitive sort, stomped his feet into the ground like a petulant princess before running after the giggling child. As they ran deeper into the forest, the darkness seemed to shroud them deeper and deeper. Until they almost couldn’t see anymore. They were used to a bit of darkness while in the forest, as this forest tended to be extremely thick. Closer to their village the trees were small in number and shorter, probably trimmed by the adults, but here, deep in the forest. They reigned several tens of meters tall, all with thick arms reaching out and poking each other, competing for space among the treetops to get that sweet satisfaction of sunlight. The giggling child had been sprinting in ecstasy, and in that ecstasy, ignored where they were going. The competitive child didn’t care about anything, but to win this game of theirs. Seeing some glowing lanterns in the dark, the giggling child slowed down to take a closer look, getting a bad feeling from this. There aren’t many dangerous animals in their kingdom, most being hunted to extinction, but there still remained a few. Like, the bear, and the wolf. But none of them had eyes glowing like torchlights. The competitive child ran up to the giggling child, fumbling around in the dark, and hitting him in the shoulder, breathless.
“Got.. You... I...” His words trailed off as he too saw what the other was looking at. Scaring him into silence. Their eyes found each other and locked in a silent understanding. They would not say a word, they would back away slowly. Both thought that, maybe, just maybe, they hadn’t been spotted. Crunching sounds were made as the beast slowly began inching closer. Nobody knows who broke first, but at some point, they were both sprinting towards the village, faster than ever. The child so fond of laughing had always been quick on his feet, which proved to be a boon in this case. Because he didn’t need to outrun the beast... He only needed to outrun his friend.
Perhaps he didn’t think of it that way, at that moment he didn’t seem to think much at all. But, when hearing the blood curdling screams of his friend, he didn’t stop to turn back. When his legs and lungs burned with a thousand needles, he didn’t stop to catch his breath. Neither did he stop when he tumbled over, rolling around two or three times before standing up in impressive athletic feet. No, he just keeps on running. For in this panic, only one thing mattered. To survive.
He didn’t know how long he’d been running for. All that playing he’d been doing in this forest was paying off, though, because he knew he was getting closer to the village. The signs are all there. More light, more branches, younger trees. Once in a while a child would get lost in the forest, but as no one ventured too far, they would, most of the time, be found. Running into the village with a look of panic, he didn’t stop to calm down before he was inside one of the houses. He wasn’t aware of what was happening before a young woman, probably in her twenties, sat down in front of him. He wasn’t aware that he was crying before the same woman brought him into her bosom to calm down. He wailed loudly, louder than he’d ever done before.
Ruth’s bakery and sweets
A woman stood behind the counter, counting the days earning as she smiled to herself. Mothers' recipes never failed to make people come a second time around, but she must be doing something right lately, because word had gotten around that her bakery was the best. Customers had been flocking to her the whole day, so when the doorbell rang, she didn’t question who it was. A customer. Imagine her shock when she sees a child, no more than 10, tumbling into her establishments. All garments torn in places and bleeding from scratches all over. Tears and snot flying all over the place, mixing fluids into a cocktail of emotions she had never witnessed before. The child immediately goes for the window and tries looking out of it, as if searching for something. She couldn’t help herself as she sat down in front of him, hugged him drearily, not caring about the snot. She had to know what happened.
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The door of a certain bakery slams outward as a woman in traditional bakery outfit comes barreling out, shocking nearby passersby. Her smooth raven hair tamed by a red ribbon, in direct contrast to the frantic expression on her face. While carrying a child in her arms, she shouts loudly.
“Everyone! Listen! Listen up! There is a crisis! Gather everybody!” People turn to take notice of her, giving her all the attention while a man in farmer clothes, carrying a severe expression, slowly trots towards her.
“What is the matter, Linda? Is the child alright?”
The woman nods at the question and tries to put the child on the ground, he doesn’t let go, and so she sits down while holding him.
“Lukas is fine, Steve. But I fear...” Her voice chokes up at the last sentence, her emotions spilling over.
The eyes of the man widen in fear, and something akin to understanding. He takes two steps forwards and grabs her shoulders, steadying her.
“Tell me, Linda! What happened!?” The woman looks up at him in shock, her eyes tearing up.
“Rick... He... He is still in the forest! They were attacked by some beast!” She shouts out loud as the people nearby begin murmuring. An old man in particular looked thoughtful, rubbing his beard.
“A beast, you say? It’s been a long, long time, since anyone had ever been attacked around here” Everybody hears the old man and murmurs amongst themselves, hotly debating the topic. The man, seemingly deciding something, speaks, a loud rumbling tower above all the other voices.
“Linda, where is it? Where is the beast?” She opens her mouth to speak, but it is the child which answers. Eyes bloodshot from crying, fluids leaking all over the place, the child turns around and points towards the trees, trembling while whispering in a hoarse, hateful voice.
“T-t-that w-w-ay" Shocking everyone in the act of speaking up, believing him to be too traumatized to function. The brave boy shows his resilience in face of danger by recovering quickly. The man, Steve, eyes the boy for a second before nodding in approval. Turning to address the crowd, he speaks with power, a strange charisma flowing out of him.
“Gather all abled men! We’re going in, and we’re not coming out until we kill that beast!” The crowd cheers, some women shouting that they want to go as well, but the man shakes his head.
“You have to take care of the children; one dead is one too many” Steve somberly tells them.
“Spread the message! Count the children! Quickly!” As everyone rushes to fulfill this task, Steve turns around towards the woman and child. He looks pensive.
“Lukas... tell me everything” he says. Linda opens her mouth to protests but is silenced with a look.
The boy slowly opens his eyes, his mouth set in a thin line. He speaks, clearly this time, hate restrained in his every word. “I will” Steve nods
“Good, start from the beginning, don’t leave anything out” Linda looks between the two and just sighs. Knowing this has to happen, but her eyes open wide on the next words spoken.
“But Steve...” The boy looks up into the eyes of the older male. “When you go to kill this thing, take me with you.”
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Together, Linda, Lukas and Steve walk towards the outskirts of the forest. All three in wildly varying moods. The child gazes at the ground with a focused expression, as if in a bubble of his own, nothing could seemingly penetrate his concentration. The woman could be seen wildly flailing her arms around, enraged with Steve, who is scratching his head, looking rather put off by the situation.
“Look, Linda, Lukas is fast, even if something goes wrong, he’s not going to be the one to suffer” Unnoticed by the adults, the child clenches his fist at the heartless statement. His eyes seem to shadow over even further as he vividly remembers doing exactly that. The man continues, unheeding or unsympathetic, no one would be able to tell.
“I’ve seen similar cases to Lukas happen” The woman goes to open her mouth but is cut off before she’s able to get a word in. “Thing is, if we leave him to stew on this all on his own, he’s going to grow to fear the forest.” Steve looks thoughtful for a moment, before continuing. “Maybe not just the forest, this could really screw with his mind. It is absolutely best for him to confront whatever caused this trauma as soon as possible.” He stops walking as they reach the tree line, turning to look Linda in the eye. She averts her eyes, but keep mumbling
“But he’s just a child...” The man gives her a look of sympathy and sighs while scratching his head.
“It is because he is a child that we have to do this. It is tough love, Linda” he says, while looking grimly at the boy. The boy looks back up at him, he clenches his teeth as their eyes lock in a stalemate.
“I am not a child! I am a man!” He shouts loudly. Breaking the ice which has settled over the trio. Even Linda couldn’t help but give the comment a small smile. Steve laughs out loud and rubs Lukas head. “Sure, you are, kiddo” The child crosses his arms across his chest and puffs out some air. But for some reason, he doesn’t remove the hand.
Raised voices can be heard some distance away as the village processes the news. And what news it is. Inside a small house with a chimney there is a loud bang as a hand hits the table. A burly man stands up, his bushy beard seemingly vibrating in anger.
“What!?” The man shouts at a woman with red hair, crossed arms and lazy gaze.
“Rick is dead” She repeats, in a flat voice. The nostrils of the man flares in anger and he barely holds himself back from hitting the woman.
“You better not be shitting me, Grace. I do not care if you are a woman, I will kill you with my own two hands if you are” He states gravely. The woman raises an eyebrow at the man and considers taunting him but resists in consideration of the circumstances. She uncrosses her arms and gives the man a look of sympathy.
“Am sorry, Harold” The man pauses, looks at her in shock and deflates.
“Since even you are being a softhearted fool, it must be true, huh?” He states sadly, falling back into his chair. The woman takes two steps forward, as if uncomfortable with the action, and puts a hand on his shoulder. They stay like that for a moment before the man speaks up once again. His eyes hidden from view, but you could hear wet droplets hitting the table. “Who... Who did this? Rick is not stupid enough to get himself killed like a loon” His voice rumbles as he speaks, increasingly louder with each syllable. The woman tightly grabs his shoulder, causing wet, blue eyes to meet red, ruby ones. Her voice is strained as the words force themselves out.
“Not who, Harold, what” she tells him. Taking her hand off his shoulder and throwing it onto the table. “We’re going to kill it” she states as she walks towards the door. Leaving her hand on the handle, she questions him with her back turned.
“Are you coming, or are you just going to sit there and mope?” Creaking could be heard as the burly man stands up, bringing a smirk to the woman’s face.
“You know damn well am coming” A light sound occurs as the knife embeds itself into the doorframe, drawing her eyes to it.
“And am bringing my own knives”
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Linda, Steve and Lukas are standing before the tree lined outskirts of the forest with grim expressions. Lukas ear twitches as he hears some kind of ruckus coming from the town.
“I can hear them” he tells them in all seriousness. “They’re coming”.
Steve looks down on the boy, smiles while appreciating the gesture. Linda gives him a side eye, then sighs. “Fine, you guys, I am leaving. Leaving all this masculine, hard tasks up to you all.”
Crunching leaves can be heard as a woman with red hair steps into view from behind a house. “Masculine, you say? These idiots couldn’t hunt a deer if it was right in front of them”.
“Grace...” Linda mutters.
A large, burly man comes into view from behind her.
“Absolutely, calling a child masculine... don’t make me laugh, I am not in the mood” He rumbles.
Steve turns to greet the newcomers with a smile on his face “Harold, Grace, always a pleasure”.
Ignoring him, Harold unabashedly continues “You’re bringing a kid? Really? This isn’t a picnic, Steve”
Steve frowns in response. “He was there, Harold. He, more than anyone, deserves to be here” As if remembering something, Steve massages his eyes. “Am sorry, Harold, I didn’t...”
He is sharply cut off before he manages to continue “Save it, the only one who needs babying is that kid” Grace side-eyes the man for a moment, then shrugs and steps back. The gaze of the two men meets, and sparks seem to fly from the intensity.
“Lukas has promised to listen to me, if I say run, he runs. Right, Lukas?” Lukas nods and Linda takes this as her cue to leave, hunching down in front of the kid. “Alright, I have to leave now, you better take care of yourself! Alright?” Lukas nods once again, blushing profusely when she plants a kiss on his forehead. Seeing that, she smiles and walks away. Grace's voice travels to her ear as she walks past her. “You’re really going to let the kid go? Are you crazy?” She keeps walking without responding, in no time she’s already gone.
Close to the town center a group of burly, bearded men with pitchforks, swords and bows seem to be walking in a certain direction. Too preoccupied with their own banter, none of them notice a woman with tears in her eyes walking by. They soon reach the forest line and see the Mexican standoff between Steve and Harold. A tall man with deep seated black eyes and a scary smile, laughs and shouts loudly. “Hahaha, I’d never thought I’d see the day where Steve gets into a fight with someone” He seems to take humor in the situation, causing Steve to scratch his head and Harold to cross his arms. A glint seems to travel through his eyes “But, this isn’t a normal day, is it?” Both men nod and compose themselves, deciding to focus on the matter at hand. A certain air of intensity seems to fall upon the group of men, making Lukas sweat from the sheer pressure.
“Steve, you were there first. Tell us, what exactly happened?” The man demands. Steve takes a look at Lukas and sighs. The number of times this topic has been repeated is already starting to wear at him, he can only imagine how the kid feels. Shaking his head, he puts on a practiced easy going smile and steps forward. “Well, it goes something like this...”
The mood is somber as everyone intently listens to the tale. Steve is not a bad storyteller, and tries to give as many facts as possible about the case.
“In any case, we don’t know much about this beast. We only know it’s fast, attacks on sight, and has glowing eyes looking like lanterns in the darkness” Hands on his hips, his eyes tell them the gravity of the situation. The dark haired man in hunter gear scratches his head.
“Well, Steve, that doesn’t really tell us anything at all, now does it?” He says awkwardly. His words have a profound effect on everyone, lightening the mood.
“For all we know, the beast could be an oversized cat,” He says. Knowing that cats eyes seem to glow in the darkness. Surprisingly, Steve nods at this, agreeing with him. Seeing this, the dark haired man continues in his matter of fact tone.
“It’s always good to be on the safe side, though, good job man” He smiles his scary smile again, causing Steve and everyone around him to sweat. Ignoring them, he claps his hands.
“Alrite, all the slow people can leave” He smiles. Harold looks at him and scoffs
“Am not leaving, Ragnar” Ragnar grins evilly at him
“Suit yourself, but for everyone else, I really suggest you do so” A man in nice, ornamental clothes, looking like he ate pudding for breakfast, speaks up.
“We’re just going to slow you down, aren’t we?” Ragnar crosses his arms and nods at him “Yes, you are. More importantly, however. This beast is fast. If you can not keep up, there is a real chance you’ll die here today” His tone solemn. Most of the people there agree with him. It would be a real tragedy if more people died today. And with that, a good chunk of the people are gone.
Nodding in satisfaction, he grins evilly once again, then shouts “Alrite, everyone, let’s go! lead the way, kiddo!” Lukas looks at him in stupefaction.
“Me?” He croaks.
“Who else?” Harold booms
“Only you know the way,” Steve smiles. And so, Lukas became the pathfinder for this warband led by a smiling maniac.
Deeper in the forest, the trees begin to grow taller, and the mood more somber. Life seems to drain from the faces of the people present as they scour every corner for life. Some collide when they abruptly stop their pace.
“We’re here” Lukas tells them, a haunted look in his eyes as he spots the ground drenched in blood. Ragnar moves forward while speaking loudly “Everyone, stop, we need to inspect the ground for traces” Grace swiftly falls into step. Steve raises an eyebrow, noting that Grace plants her feet in Ragnars footsteps, so as not to disturb the soil. Crouching down, they begin inspecting the area. In the middle of the forest floor there is a dried puddle of blood. Flaking off and blowing into the wind. The roots all around have huge scars on them, as if cleaved with an ax. Ragnar frowns as he sees it.
‘This might be a tad bit more difficult than we thought’ He thinks to himself when Grace nudges him in the arm. His attention is drawn by a paw mark on the ground, easily the size of a human handprint. His eyes fly open at the sight.
‘A lot more difficult, I mean’. A little to the side of the print, he can see the mark of something being dragged across the ground. ‘Well, nothing for it, let the hunt begin’.
Everyone waits with bated breath as the two premier hunters of their village do their work. The mood intensifies when they see Ragnar and Grace standing up. Grace sighs as she looks at Harold, puzzling them. “Alrite, there's good news, and there’s bad news” She smiles, a cold, beautiful smile “The good news is, Rick might still be alive” Harold immediately jumps in “What?! Why? Why do you think that!?” He pleads, shocking everyone. Pointing her hand to the ground “That root, there’s a nail stuck in it. A human nail.” Ragnar gains a look of realization “He struggled, he must have been alive to struggle” Grace nods. “Then we must go, at once” He urges.
“Hold your horses there, cowboy, I understand you’re energetic, but there’s the bad news too” Dropping a cool bucket of water on the conversation, Ragnar continues “The bad news is, this thing is larger, stronger and definitely more deadly than anything we could have ever imagined.” Most of the people present clench their fist tightly, Steve steps out. “We knew this would be dangerous, whichever way we look at it, the stake is much higher now” Everyone nods at this, causing Ragnar to grin evilly once again. “That’s exactly what I like to hear, let’s go save that kid”