Deylors hands scrambled inside a dusty cave. The walls were mossy and wrung with vines, the floor was filled with dust and chipped rocks. It was evident that this place had remained untouched for years. Deylor and his veteran explorer Odon had been travelling for 3 days in order to find signs of civilization and had been unsuccessful so far.

Deylor sighed.

Deylor checked his now partially ripped clothes. After travelling through thorny forests, dry planes and endless swamps his clothes had long been ruined. Deylor felt the cold air brush against his body as he began placing tinder on the floor.

Chrk.

A small orange light slowly expanded before a small fire was born. Seeing this, Deylor patted himself on the back as he looked at the ceiling two yellow eyes met his. Soon a bat like monster rushed at him, Deylor in the midst of his surprise tripped on a rock behind him and fell through the stone wall behind him. The bat merely turned and left the cave as its residence was now taken.

Deylor coughed as dust entered his dry lips. Deylor then looked around him, to his surprise Deylor saw several dusted objects in the room. Deylor walked around.

4 statues.

1 Tablet.

And several tapestries.

Deylor looked at the statues in interest.

The first looked like a dwarf however it was the tallest statue, it possessed a long, silky beard and its eyes were very squinted. It held no weapon and its clothes were clearly just skins of animals. Its eyes were almost sleepy as they looked onwards.

The next statue represented an interesting shape. It was a human yet it wore no clothes. It had no blemishes on its skin or organs. It had 3 eyes spread across its face and no mouth. Above it was a vertical oval. Deylor imagined it would be a holy yellow due to its peculiar features.

The third statue represented a man however a diagonal line was almost visible on his body. On the left half in a diagonal cut was a normal human body, it was well built and the mans face was handsome. His hair was straight and long whilst his posture was straight and steady. On the other diagonal cut was a root-like texture and several trees. Deylor presumed this man was a hybrid of a tree or perhaps an extremely evolved tree (A yggdrasil.)

The final statue was a human. A regular human female with long black hair, a mesmerizing face and normal clothes, yet the place where her knees should of been was instead a point. Deylor imagined her to be a ghost like creature of some sort.

After removing his eyes from the statues in front of him Deylor then moved on to the tapestries.

There were a total of 5 tapestries.

On the first, giant dwarves could be seen fighting calamities that words could hardly describe. The biggest of the calamities had hundreds of eyes on its body and when it opened its mouth another eye was inside. This monster faced off against a giant who stood still and solemn. A fierce battle ensued for several pages until the giant stood still as the guts and intestines on it slowly fell off. The giant looked up before it walked on towards the west, a trail of blood marking its path.

In the next tapestry a sea of humans looked up as a once golden now orange-ish faded celestial descended. His mere descension obliterated a sea of black. The humans prayed to him and made offerings. The celestial merely walked through the battle field as the beings around him faded into yellow. The celestial continued walking towards the East as hordes of black creatures were cleansed in its surroundings.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

For the third tapestry, not much could be seen compared to the other two. It told no war or face off but a tale. A boy planted a sapling. The sapling gradually grew larger and larger until it became an apple tree. Next to the apple tree a teenager could be seen plucking apples excitedly.

The teenager sold the apples in the next tapestry and used his new coins to buy food for him and what seemed to be his sister. Later on we see the tree being pulled out by several villagers. The boy rushed and fought with all his blood but fell in the end. The villagers left as the boy lay next to the tree, his final will engraved itself into the tree as the boy slowly became part of the tree. However, only half of the boy became part of the tree.

The other half was his human form and it stayed because his tree half gave it nutrients. Later the tree died yet the teenagers appearance remained the same. Slowly the half tree teenager stood up. And it walked south. Deylor then walked over to view the second to last tapestry.

In this tapestry, a girl with wavy blonde hair could be seen. The girl waved to a girl smaller than her. Time passed and things went well. But in the next slide of the tapestry the blonde haired girl could be seen at a hanging post. A crowd chanted for her death before the clock struck twelve.

The girl fell ever so slightly, and the rope lifted ever so slightly. Seeing this the smaller girl cried for a whole night, yet the next morning. The blonde haired girl was there again life continued on and on and the smaller girl was happy. The blonde girl could be seen twitching and uncontrollably moving sometimes but the smaller haired girl never noticed. Time passed until the smaller girl grew to be a woman and then an older woman and then an old woman. The blonde haired girl kept her youth and stood by the old woman at her death bed. The old woman smiled heartily as she was happy to just have someone there for her. As the old woman closed her eyes the blonde haired girl smiled sadly. And then the blonde haired girl walked, or rather floated north.

And the last tapestrie. The last tapestrie showed a boy and a girl both around age 7 playing joyfully in a small village. The scene changed to two teenagers playing in a village. And finally a boy around 16 looking hopeful for his soon to be fiance. But she never came. The boy looked around the village but then realized the village was too small. The boy then looked around the surrounding villages but couldn't find them. The boy kept walking until he forgot why he walked. And then he remembered. He was looking for someone. The boy kept walking, he walked with no direction and he slowly grew older. But his skin didn't wrinkle nor did his hair grey. The boy instead grew larger so the girl could see him, louder so the girl could hear him and faster so he could find her. But the second half of this tapestrie was empty.

Deylors breathing halted. The reason was simple. The monster at the end of the last tapestry was definitely, Deylor was confident or rather certain it was the black tyrant whose eyes he had met. So the question was why did it follow Deylor?

Deylor shook his head, as he himself knew no answer to such a question.

With a heavy hearted sigh Deylor slowly strode towards the last thing in the room. The tablet.

He has no purpose so he stands still.

He has but 1 purpose, so he strides forward.

He slowly loses his former self so he walks to maintain it.

She supports her till death yet endures it for eternity.

He searches for something beyond his reach and yet below his feet.

They are lost.

Deylor paused at the last line, 'they are lost.'

It did almost seem like that. 1 did not knew where to go. Another only went forwards with no destination. Another only wishes to keep his humanity yet he has no clue how but to walk with no destination either. The fourth supported a girl and when she died she lost her only string to humanity. And the Tyrant has tread the realm with a destination beyond his reach.

They are lost.

Deylor left the room but a small glint caught his eye.

Deylor ran to the corner of the room where he saw a wristband.

On it were 5 circles.

The band itself was pure black and each of the circles were also pure black. The ring itself gave off an almost discernible feeling and Deylor himself felt the band was related to this place.

5 circles.

5 beings.

Deylor put it on his arm as he walked down from the gap in the wall.

Deylor quickly filled it back in with some crumbled rocks before he lay down.

Crunch.

And then the sound of the tyrant walking sounded again.

Deylor sighed.

Because the Tyrants treading would not end any time soon.