Southeast Village is a simple village with a simple name relating to its position on a map compared to the Capital City: Preon. For the most part, Southeast Village manages to remain fairly self-sufficient and provides for all of its occupants. One occupant, Sheer, on a daily basis, attempts to complete the task assigned to him by the Village Elder in order to provide for himself.
Sheer, a young boy most likely around the age of 5, begins his daily routine by venturing out into the forest and scavaging for specific herbs that the Village Elder had shown an illustration of in a book some time ago. In return for his efforts, Sheer is rewarded with a place to sleep and some food to sustain himself.
On this particular morning, Sheer did not anticipate anything out of the ordinary from occurring during his usual routine. He woke up, put on his adventuring clothes, began his routine of stretches that the Elder had taught him which helps to keep his stamina and energy up for his long outings into the forest, then as a final measure he equips a small dagger that he uses to cut fallen branches and the occasional herb and finally, grabs his bag that he uses to store any meaningful find he manages to locate for the day.
On his way over to his favorite forest opening, Sheer stops by the Elder house like most days to greet him for the day and obtain food, usually bread, to feast on for the majority of his task. Arriving at the Elder's house, Sheer greets the Elder with his usual "Good Morning, Elder" with which the Elder responds with "Morning, boy". The Elder handed him his loaf of bread and off Sheer went passing by the other villagers as they were waking up and preparing their daily routine.
Sheer greeted most of them as he passed by with most responding back in a friendly manner. As he ran past towards the woods a few of the villages began conversing among themselves. "Such a kind-hearted boy he's become" one woman said in passing another responding with "Such dedication to such an unordinary task sure is impressive, my youngest cannot even focus on keeping the firepit going" the last village in a completely opposite tone "Why does the elder cater to that useless child, just because his parents died a few years back does not mean we have to take care of him".
Completely oblivious to the opinions of other villagers, Sheer continued on his usual and familiar path that had recently begun revealing many of the herbs he's been searching for. 'Today lets the search for 5 handfuls at most that way Elder will reward me with some meat for supper' Sheer thought to himself. 'Hehe, and if I find more than 5 handfuls I will keep them hidden for tomorrow so I might be able to eat meat 2 days in a row.' As Sheer continued on his path he saw a few animals he wishes he was strong enough to capture and eat instead of collecting herbs. 'One day I will ask Elder if I can learn like the hunters and go out with them instead of collecting these silly herbs.'
While Sheer had learned that the immediate forest around the village did not contain any hostile animal or monsters that would attack Sheer he was always told to keep his eyes open for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. Several hours into his harvest Sheer reaches his spot where he takes a break to recollect himself. Sheer performed the same stretches he did in his morning routine and sat down against a fallen log to let his body rest for a short period. This spot also happened to be right next to a small refreshing stream that Sheer used to drink from and also eat some of the remaining loaf of bread at.
Sheer, for one of the few times during his trip, lets his guard down as he approached the stream and leaned down to drink directly from the flowing stream. Distracted by the cool refreshing water Sheer failed to hear an abnormal rustling of bushes from directly across the stream. As he raised his head from the stream Sheer made direct eye contact with only what he could imagine a ferocious beast. Even though Sheer has spent many hours reading and looking at the images of different creatures and plants that were found in the forest, he had never seen this beast before. From looking into his eyes Sheer could tell he was the prey in those eyes.
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Immediately he grabbed the stuff that he dropped on the ground as he went to drink from the stream and began running in any direction he saw an opening from. Without even looking back he could tell this thing was faster than he was and slowly gaining closer to him. He tried to duck and weave through anything he thought might slow the creature down but he knew he could not keep this distance up for much longer. He began throwing everything he had on him to the ground in order to carry less weight and potentially escape the clutches of this predator but it was to no avail.
He began frantically searching for any means of escaping and eventually saw this small crevice that he believed he could jump into and risk getting away from the monster. Luckily he stretched before approaching the stream which allowed him to keep up his current pace. That combined with the small size of Sheer and his agility through the forest, he managed to keep a steady distance from his doom. Eventually, it became a straight shot to the crevice with nothing in sight to potentially block a path or maneuver over. During this stretch of the distance, he slowly heard his predator closing the distance. The sound of panting and growling could be heard as he refused to turn his head away from his only salvation. Slowly but surely he managed to reach the crevice. Sheer knew this crevice was potentially as dangerous as whatever thing was chasing him but he knew he had no other choice. 'Either I live in this crevice for the rest of my life or I get eaten by this beast' He kept telling himself in order to make jumping into this crevice easier.
He did it. He jumped straight into the crevice without the ability to see what he was getting into. Unfortunately, Sheer's hope's of a safe haven were for naught. The moment he jumped into the crevice he began falling. The jagged edges of the crevice made grabbing onto any ledge extremely difficult and carried to the potential of cutting his hand open so he continued to fall. His only hope at this point was the possibility of a large pool of water being at the end of this large drop which he hoped would save him. After several seconds of falling, Sheer could no longer see anything, not the walls, not the end of the fall, not even himself. After what seemed like an eternity Sheer looked at what he believed he was falling towards. 'How is it possible that it is even darker than before'.
Somehow what he thought was as dark as something could get in this world, Sheer gazed upon an even darker area that he was rapidly descending towards. Panic flooded Sheer mind as the only possibility that ran through his brain was this darker almost impossible like region was the floor of the crevice. Due to the nature of the area, Sheer could not tell if it was water, or solid ground, or even spikes perhaps. All of these possibilities ran through his mind as he hoped he would somehow live through this terrible day.
Eventually, he reached it. That area that was so impossibly dark he did not think it was possible. Sheer held his breath in anticipation as he touched it and nothing. He opened his eyes and let out his breath slowly. He was surrounded by that impossible darkness but instead of continuing to fall towards the ground which he did not see He had stopped. He was not moving he was just being.
Sheer was only in this state for a few seconds before he felt aa wave of unconsciousness slowly approach him. He tried to stay away as long as he could and attempt to understand what misfortune had befallen him but the wave was too strong and he slowly drifts off...
Sheer's "misfortune" as he believed it was, would in time become Sheer's greatest fortune because within a few moments of Sheer's life everyone on this world that knew Sheer and in turn everyone that Sheer knew ceased to exist leaving Sheer alone in the world one again.