The sun shines through a nearby window as it slowly rises over the distant horizon. The light hits the floor of a less than presentable room several feet away from an occupied bed. The light silently creeps up and onto the bed as the birds outside take their cue to begin singing. The figure lying in the bed shifts and stirs as the chirping reaches their ears. They turn over onto their back, opening their eyes they stare up at the ceiling and sits in the bed not willing to get up. The figure refuses to move until they feel their stomach lightly grumble. They exhale from their nose and sit up, the light sunlight hitting their eyes. 

They stop the light from hitting their eyes with their right hand while throwing their legs over the side of the bed. They stand up and stumble over towards the window to close the curtains. After blocking out the light they turn around and look over their room. The floor is littered with piles of clothes, pictures, notebooks, and trash. They yawn as they walk over to a pile of clothes. They pick up a black short-sleeved T-shirt and throw it over their heads. They step over and stare at themselves in a tall mirror next to their desk. In the mirror is a young boy; about sixteen years old, with decent length black hair, dark skin, and tired green eyes. He’s wearing gray basketball shorts with the shirt he just put on.

Ray stretches and walks out of his room, grabbing his black hoodie as he leaves. He throws on his hoodie when outside his room then makes his way past the rooms of his parents and siblings as he makes approaches the stairs. While he’s walking down the hallway he can hear the snoring of his parents and the laughter of his siblings as their TV blares through the door. The young man descended the stairs into the living room. He makes a beeline for the kitchen and opens the fridge, scanning its contents.

The fridge is mostly empty save for a few apples, slices of cheese and sour cream. He sighs and closes the fridge then moves over and opens the pantry. Several cans of cream of wheat and a few unhealthy snacks sitting on the shelves. He shakes his head and looks around at the kitchen. In finding nothing he checks his pockets and finds his wallet. He opens it and checks how much money he has on him, one twenty-dollar bill. He closes the wallet, steps over towards the door sliding his flip flops onto his feet and removing his keys from the hook next to the door. He quietly unlocks the door opening it and letting the warm summer air hit his face.

                 Ray takes a step out onto the patio and looks up at the tinted morning sky. He glances around at the neighborhood taking notice of the trees and the falling leaves. He closes the door behind him and locks it before putting the keys in his hoodie pocket. He begins to stroll over towards a Gas station in the distance, about a block away. He walks past fences, barking dogs and small construction as he continues forward. A small wind blows past the young man, it feels crisper today. He lets out a yawn as he finally approaches the front of the gas station.

He walks into the gas station and makes a beeline for the back of the building. He walks up to the refrigeration section and opens the door releasing the cold air. The young man looks at the prices set under several different milk cartons. After some deliberation, he grabbed a decent-sized carton and closed the fridge unit. He moved over and grabbed some fruit and two boxes of cereal. He carries everything over to the register and patiently waits for the teller to scan everything. As the clerk did so the young man's glance shifts outside as he watches a squirrel skitter across the ground and up a tree. 

“Sir excuse me?” Ray hears the clerk say. “That’ll be thirteen ninety-five,” the clerk says as Ray turns back toward him. He hands the twenty-dollar bill to the clerk. “Thank you.” The clerk says as she begins to make change and print up a receipt. Ray contemplates whether he should get something else before he leaves but decides his parents are probably going to go to the store later he just needed to cover breakfast.

The clerk hands some change over to him along with his bags and receipt. “ Thank you, come again!” She says as he leaves. He looks behind him and waves before starting his trek back home. He lets the bags hang close to the ground as he passes the familiar scenery.  He sees the sun start to rise a bit more as he comes to the doorstep of his house. Everyones probably up by now, he thinks to himself as he puts the milk carton down. He reaches into his pocket and retrieves his keys, patiently using one hand to find the right key and place it in the lock. Before he can turn the key Ray notices parts of his hand glowing white.

The boy stares at the glowing patches with his brows furrowed, trying to make sense of it. The spots where the glowing was coming from felt fuzzy, like his body had gone to sleep in that area. Suddenly, the glowing began to spread down his arms and his fingers start to flake away. Ray's eyes widen as he stumbles backward as if he’s trying to get away from the glow originating from his skin. “W-what the fuck!” is all he can utter as he hears something hit the floor beside him. He looks down to his right to the realization that his right arm has completely flaked away. 

He feels the light creeping up his body as he mentally freaks out at what’s currently happening to him. He attempts to slam his body against the door but his legs disappear from under him. He lands on his chest and begins coughing as the glowing started to claim his body faster. He stopped coughing and attempted to yell for help but his mouth was gone. The sight in his right eye disappears as tears fall out his remaining eye and then there’s nothing.

There is a void surrounding him, a sea of endless black. He feels like he’s falling endlessly and he has lost feeling in his whole body. There is a small light in the far distance barely breaking through the void. He stares at it as another small light appears miles away. Slowly millions of small lights fill the void. Then he realizes they’re not just lights, they’re stars. He drifts among the stars scared and confused. The stars start to spin and revolve around him slowly at first then faster. The stars begin to blend as the universe starts to collapse onto him. 

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As his body starts to be condensed by the surrounding stars he sees several images flash before his eyes. A mask, a crow, lightning than a hand reaching out to him. The images flash one more time then the void returns. A giant red lifeless eye appears in the void staring at him. Another eye appears then another until the eyes replace the surrounding stars. There is a loud screech and then the young man opens his eyes.

As he opens his eyes he feels sensitization come back to his body. His head rings as he slowly lifts it from the cold stone floor. He hears muffled noises as his head swivels from left to right. “H-hello!? Where am I?!” He stutters. There are figures that he can’t quite make out, standing several feet from him. They’re speaking some sort of gibberish as the young man struggles to push himself off the ground. His legs shake as he gets to his feet and the figures start to become clearer. The gibberish gets louder as he screams back at them. “Hey, fucking say something!?” His voice cracks.

He can see that several of the figures wear cloaks and a few others wear armor. His face contorts into a mix of fear and confusion as he frantically scans the room. One of the cloaked figures still speaking gibberish points at him. Two of the armored men walk towards him. The young man cowers in fear backing up until his bareback hits the wall behind him. The men get closer towering over him, one grabs his arm and attempts to pull at him. In a moment of panic, he rips his arm from their grip and pushes them back. “Leave me alone! Back off!” He yelled. The armored figure flew backward several feet landing on the floor with a loud thud. 

The other armored guard takes a step back as the young man looks at the fallen guard,  then at his hands. He stands his legs shaking and his eyes shifting around the room. The men in cloaks shout something in gibberish and the armored guard starts running at him again. Ray grabs him by the armor and stops him in place. He stares at the guard as it struggles and flails against his grasp. His eyes widen, the guard was easily two times his size yet he could stop them so easily. Ray swings the armored man into a wall and starts looking for the exit or something to defend himself. Suddenly, purple smoke started to surround Ray making him dreary and tired. Ray unable to stay awake fell to the floor unconscious.

Ray wakes up on a cold stone floor in a dank empty room with metal bars keeping him in. The first thing he does is look down at himself to find that he is wearing some dirty brown cloth. Ray does one more scan of the room before placing his head between his hands. He sat in the corner of his cell in the fetal position attempting to make sense of anything. Millions of thoughts ran through Ray’s head as he sat quietly going through each of them mentally. Was he dreaming? No, Everything felt too real. Hallucinating? From what? Was he kidnapped? No his family doesn’t even have that type of money. His thoughts came to a halt as he heard footsteps coming towards his cell. Ray brought his head up and quickly moved up to the bars.

Down a narrow hallway came a figure cloaked in red, one of the ones from earlier Ray assumed. The figure stopped in front of Ray’s cell an armored guard next to him as he pulled down his hood and he peered in at Ray. The figure was an old man with a thick gray beard, dark eyes and a bald head. They stared at Ray almost as if to study him. Ray grabbed the bars and shook them as he yelled at the old man. “Hey! Where am I!?” The guard quickly reached to draw their sword only to be stopped by the old man. He tilted his head curiously before reaching out his hand with an open palm and mumbling something in gibberish. Ray got more frustrated with this unknown language but before Ray could say anything else a blue light emanated from the old man’s hand.

 A tangible sphere appeared around Ray’s head as he took a startled step away from the bars. A similar sphere appeared around the old man’s head as he lowered his hand from the bars. Ray puts his hands up to his head feeling around to make sure everything in place. “Don’t worry the spell doesn’t do any physical damage or changes” The old man spoke. Rays eyes widened at the man not speaking gibberish he quickly took a step forward. 

“What did you jus- No. Where am I?” Ray questioned cutting himself off. The old man looks at Ray and quietly and slowly answers his questions.

“I just made it to where we could understand each other, which is hard to do when one is flailing around and shouting,” The old man said. “As for where you are, I’m more than sure that if I told you exactly where you were you wouldn’t have a clue what I’m talking about.”

Ray knitted his eyebrows together before speaking again. “T-that doesn’t make any sense,” Ray said. 

“Yes, a lot of things here will probably not make any sense to you.” The old man admitted. “I can’t fully promise that it’ll get any better from here, honestly.” He continued.

Ray seems to calm down slightly. “I don’t understand, who are you?”

“I am The Grand Elder, Malok Stran, of the Godricks,” Malok says calmly. Ray blinks twice the frustration coming back.

“Bullshit” Ray says. “I don’t know what that means…” Malok says confused. “It means I don’t believe you, Where am I?” Ray asks.

Malok lets out a sigh and strokes his beard “...We are on Gaiam, In the country of Da’Sah, In the city of Falcum.” Malok says plainly. 

“What does that even mean!” Ray yells not being able to understand the situation.

“I am only being honest,” Malok says. Malok continues to stroke his beard before turning back to Ray. “I can show you.” He said. “I going to let you out and explain everything as best and slowly as I can. You just need to, for a lack of better terms, behave.”

Ray hesitated for a minute eyeing the old man and the guard cautiously. “Deal” Ray agreed reluctantly.

“Good, now please” Malok snapped his fingers and the bars in front of Ray disappear, “Follow me.”