His arms and legs flailed around wildly as he continually fell. The speed of his descent began to lessen until suddenly his body stopped falling and just hovered in the air. A second later, his body landed flatly over some kind of surface.

His hands felt for the surface with his fingertips digging into it. Dirt. This is dirt. He felt overjoyed to find himself out of that overwhelming darkness and feel something normal for once. He pushed himself up carefully and looked up towards the sky. It was so dark that he couldn’t see a thing.

He stepped forward finding himself incapable of seeing anything ahead. As he took another step, his foot landed in a hole causing his body to propel forward awkwardly. He began to roll down what must’ve been a hill.

Eventually his body stopped rolling with the help of a sharp bush digging into his body. “Ow!” Kiran readjusted himself along the still-sloped surface. He sat himself down and scratched his head feeling his arms scratched up from the bush that helped keep him from rolling any further.

Well now, this is far from an ideal start. At least it appeared he hadn’t broken anything. That was good. But figuring out a way to deal with this situation was admittedly troublesome. It began to dawn on him however, that he needn’t struggle any further.

Slow down Kiran and think of a solution. You can use magic to see! Yes, that’s right. I’ll use a spell to allow myself to see my surroundings. He began to snap his fingers hoping to use a minor light-based spell Lorek had taught him. Compared to other kinds of spells he had learned, this was one of the easiest spells to learn and cast.

He contorted his fingertips in a specific way to cast the light-based spell. However, no matter what he did, the spell would not work. Perhaps I’m doing it wrong. Let me try another spell.

With different finger contortions, he tried to summon another kind of spell such as fire. However, the fire would not appear either. Really now? Did I forget how to cast magic or something?

Alright fine. If there’s one kind of magic I know, it’s summoning a sword.

With a familiar mental projection of a sword in his mind, he outstretched his hand and began to utilize the process of summoning it into this physical reality. However, strangely enough, it too would not work.

With all of his might and concentration, he tried with all of his being to summon the sword as he had done hundreds of times before, and yet, no matter how hard he tried, it would not work.

He put his back up against the hill as he gazed at the endless darkness around him. Sweat trickled around his brow due to him trying so hard to cast even the most simple of spells. None were working for whatever reason.

Since he had few other options to try, he figured he’d try them all. He pulled out the dead arcane root in his pocket hoping that just maybe, it would give him some kind of power.

It did not.

The root did not glow or exude any energy. He expected this of course. But he had some hope that perhaps it would give him something to work with. Kiran ended up stuffing it back into his trousers pocket sighing in defeat.

What am I to do then? I can’t see a thing out here. I can’t use magic. I have nothing at all that might provide me light.

He had made it back to reality, only to end up in another precarious position immediately.

Knowing that sitting around doing nothing was a surefire way to end up nowhere, he carefully stood up and tested each step before fully committing to it. His descent eventually led him to a more flat bit of land.

The rustling of trees occurred as the wind blew by. He maneuvered by bushes and trees that he had to work hard to avoid running into.

No matter how much time his eyes had a chance to adjust, it was never enough to see far ahead of him. There was just the faintest bit that he could see but a part of him thought of it as nothing more than his imagination.

I could always wait to travel until daylight breaks. Perhaps I ought to do that instead and just conserve my energy for now.

He chose to do that instead. He sat down with his back up against a tree and began to whistle a little to keep himself entertained. When he grew tired, he fell asleep and woke up with the faintest bit of glowing light obscured by the branches of a large dead tree. He eyed the glowing orb-like thing only for it to stir into action and begin to flee.

Kiran began to pursue it. It provided enough light in this dead forest, that he could see his surroundings somewhat ahead of himself.

“Wait!”

Tree after tree motioned by him. The glowing orb-like entity floated high up above trying its hardest to get away from him. He kept up however hoping it would stop.

His pursuit came to a sudden end as his foot got caught on something and his face went plummeting straight into the dirt below. He pushed his arms against the surface looking up to see the glowing light hovering up above.

It felt odd for it to not simply run away any further. Instead, it chose to approach him hovering up above. Is this thing taking pity on me? It made him wonder if it felt guilty that he had hurt himself trying to pursue it.

Kiran peered up lifting an arm and hand towards this glowing thing that decided to approach him instead of running away. As it came closer, he began to notice what looked like a butterfly in a translucent orb-like barrier that surrounded it.

A slight bluish glow existed in the mostly white light that exuded off of it. As he could nearly grasp onto it, it pulled back away as if it were afraid of him.

Kiran pulled his arm back smiling towards it. “I’m not going to hurt you whatever you happen to be. Are you a familiar?”

He had never seen a familiar like it. It didn’t seem like a familiar. Its form was quite unlike what familiars were at least from what he understood of those beings.

“I’m a little lost you see,” he said. “I truly have no idea where I am. Would you be able to help me?”

At first it just hovered there but it began to motion up and down in a way that suggested it said yes. “You will?” It motioned up and down again and began to move away.

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Kiran got up and began following it as it kept a decent pace. With this light it provided, he could wander through this dead forest with ease compared to before.

“Can you speak?” The orb didn’t make any motions to respond to that question. He didn’t get the impression that it could. If it responded it did so only with simple motions of its corporeal form.

While it led him through the forest, he began to try to cast a few spells. None would work. Of course they don’t. That would only make my life much easier and I can’t have that now can I?

Time passed by as the butterfly led him further through the forest. The environment stayed practically the same. It did begin to shift however after a couple of hours of walking.

The trees began to appear less frequently until he found no trees around him at all. The ground began to appear disheveled and broken up causing him to consider each step and take it carefully.

Signs of a war having taken place here became more noticeable as sharpened weapons lay in the dirt and stuck out of the ground. Craters were formed in the dirt as well.

Within the indentations in the ground, murky water filled them. He could see his ragged and dirtied reflection of himself as he looked into them briefly.

He hoped that wherever this thing was taking him wasn’t to some hostile environment. However, he wasn’t entirely sure but he had any other viable option than to follow them. At the very least, they didn’t come across as hostile.

Their journey forward abruptly stopped. The butterfly moved towards him and appeared to shake ever so slightly. He opened up his palm allowing it to hover right above his opened hand.

Something began to hoot towards them. He could not see what must’ve been an owl observing them, but the hooting felt sinister somehow.

The butterfly began to move much more quickly. Kiran followed them struggling to not tumble down onto the war-torn ground he traveled upon.

A ruined fortress of sorts began to appear with broken-off walls and its portcullis left open. He began to cross a bridge leading into it and looked back briefly not seeing the owl that kept hooting towards them.

Kiran went in as the butterfly moved more slowly. Along the tarnished walls of the inner fortress, blackened marks covered them with the silhouettes of human bodies. Decayed fauna covered the corners in some places when it had gotten the chance to grow inside. None of the fauna within appeared alive however. Any nature he had come across so far within this domain had appeared entirely dead.

Not a single tree appeared alive even though the warmer weather even at night suggested it would theoretically be the season for it to grow.

The butterfly began to move once again and lead them further within the ruined fortress. A more spacious area appeared with broken stalls and long rusted-out armor littered on the ground. Torn banners swayed in the wind whilst the smell of freshly burning smoke entered his nostrils.

He instinctually tried to summon a sword, but it would not manifest. Something or someone is here.

The butterfly led him in the direction of the smoke. It grew in its intensity as he breathed it in.

Roughened stone walls began to surround him as he walked through a hall of sorts leading to another place within this ruined fortress. The faintest glimmer of light reflected off the edges of the hallway further down from where he stood.

As he neared it, he looked towards his left spotting a dimly lit fire that appeared to have been quickly covered in stones and debris. The embers still burned but only faintly now.

The slightest rustling appeared from behind. But before he could turn around, the cold touch of steel began to touch his neck.

“What are you doing here stranger?” The man’s voice was low in tone as they spoke for the first time.

Kiran felt the steel of their sword slightly push against his skin. It didn’t quite cause him to bleed, but if they used any more force, it would draw blood.

“My name’s Kiran. I was led here by them.” He carefully pointed up towards the butterfly that floated above them.

“I don’t know what it is that you think you’re pointing to, but I’m going to have to ask you to take several steps forward and turn around.” Can he not see them?

Kiran did as the person suggested knowing that their sword was pointed towards them. When he did finally turn around, he saw a bald man wearing thin robe-like attire. The tip of his sword pointed towards him and he held an intense expression.

“I’m sorry, but can you not see them?” He pointed again towards the butterfly that merely observed their uncomfortable interaction.

“I don’t see a thing,” he said turning the sword at a different angle. “Tell me truthfully stranger, why are you here wandering these lands alone?”

“That’s a bit of a long story.”

“I’m going to need a better explanation than that. It’s not every day someone just runs into me during my many travels.”

“Well then,” Kiran said figuring he might as well say it outright. “I come from the fifth domain. I just arrived here not so long ago.”

The man gave him a perplexed look. “The fifth domain?”

“That’s right. Is this the fourth domain?”

“Aye, it is. I wasn’t aware however that it was possible to make it here from another domain.” The balded man began to scratch the slight stubble on their chin. “Consider me skeptical of this claim of yours. But there are more pressing things to settle here and now.”

“Like what?”

“Like with what I’m to do with you.” He jabbed the sword slightly towards him. His eyes began to squint and his head suddenly snapped at an upward right as an owl began to hoot.

The owl sat on a bit of wood sticking out of the ground in the open courtyard.

“You bastard,” the man said towards him. “You’re working with the owl aren’t you?”

“What? No, I don’t know who or what that thing is.”

“Somehow I doubt that.”

“I swear it’s true.”

The butterfly began to fly away. He found himself plunged into darkness becoming unable to even see the bald man in front of him due to the butterfly’s absence.

“What happened? Can you not see anymore?”

Kiran tried his hardest to see a thing in front of him only to find it impossible. “Are you telling me you can see out here?”

“I have been able to this entire time.” The man began to approach him. “Here, take this.”

Something found its way into his hands. He felt the slender object with both of his hands and a cork keeping it sealed.

“Drink it. And hurry. If you say you’re not working with the owl, then prove it to me.”

He uncorked it and began to drink from the vial. The taste caused him to grimace. However, the darkness began to subside as everything began to become more clear and in focus.

He could make out the owl perched up on the tall slender wooden post a bit away from them, and see the bald man with a look of concern towards the owl.

“Can you fight?”

Kiran nodded his head.

“Then follow me.”

They neared the still-burning embers of the fire. The man began to crouch digging something out of his stash. He pulled out a sheathed sword and tossed it to Kiran.

He caught it and pulled the sword out taking note of the weight and heft of it. As the man kept watchful of the owl that hooted towards them, a frightening roar erupted causing the hairs along his arms to stand up.

“Prepare yourself,” the man said as the black silhouette of a fiendish creature jumped down into the courtyard to greet them while the owl kept watchful of them all.