“Everything you’ve been told is a lie.”

- Transcribed from an ancient Red Lord text (Translator executed upon releasing this sample from Coldor’s private journals. We couldn’t get any more information from his unfinished works.)

Darkness surrounded me. For a moment, panic riddled through my pain-soaked mind. I couldn’t see anything, nor could I tell when my eyes were opened or closed. There was no light, wherever I was.

“Hello?” I called out, desperate to hear or sense anything about my surroundings. Besides the gnawing headache I felt, all I could feel was damp stone slick with moss and algae. By the grace of Zadalk, I heard my voice echo across whatever sort of chasm I had fallen into. I began to hear the occasional dripping from some unknown collection of moisture nearby. I wracked my brain, trying to remember how I might’ve gotten here.

The last thing I remembered was attempting to mitigate my fall with the few remaining kinetic charges my right gauntlet contained, but I overcompensated and slammed into a stony ridge along the cliff. The next thing I knew, I was in this midnight hole straight out of one of my childhood nightmares. I was never afraid of the dark, but I had always retained a healthy fear of blindness.

My fingernails scratched for purchase against the moist earth. Sharp pain erupted through several of my fingernails, and I relented. I got to a seated position, and it was only then that I noticed the eerie lack of feeling in my toes.

No.

Not just my toes.

My entire legs.

“Hello? Help. Please,” I whimpered, unsure of who or what I was calling out for. I didn’t actually believe in Valoria’s patron deity, Zadalk. Even in their own doctrine, they claimed the god had either died or moved on to another plane of existence. No. He wouldn’t hear my cries in this god-forsaken place. “Please! I’ll do whatever you want! Just save me! Please! PLEASE!”

But all that replied to my prayers was the echo of my voice. Panic and hopelessness soon followed. I tried to feel around my legs, the surrounding stone—anything that I could use to determine a way out of here.

Nothing.

“COME ON!” I screamed, anger replacing my addled thoughts. It couldn’t end this way. I couldn’t let my friends die somewhere above me. They needed me. Gods, Charles and my team needed me. I had to stop them before any of them died to their own stupidity or desperation. I twisted my hips and began to crawl up the shallow slope where I’d fallen, but my probing hands soon felt the smooth surface of a stony wall. I refused to give up. It took me several excruciating moments, but I managed to turn around and started down the slope, one elbow crawl at a time. The moss gave me a small cushion, but the algae made my descent too swift. I started to slide. Without my legs to help slow me, I was helpless to stop wherever I was going.

Water greeted my outstretched hands a moment before I was plunged into the chilling liquid. Fear colder than the snowdrift I now swam in clutched at my lungs and heart. I was a good swimmer, but without my legs…

I slipped further into the depths. I pumped my arms, desperate to reach the surface, but I found no purchase. In a moment of revelation, I activated my gauntlets, hoping to use their additional strength, but they just weighed my arms down further. I pointed my right hand below me and shot off a jet of kinetic force, but it just sent me spinning. I slammed against a rocky wall of the deep abyss I was sinking into. I must’ve gotten turned around. I couldn’t tell which way was up. Worse, my lungs started to burn.

I was out of time.

Still, I clawed my way toward what I thought was the surface. The faint glow of my enchantments barely illuminated to abyssal waters. Fatigue and the cold robbed me of the final vestiges of strength I still possessed.

This was it.

This was how I died.

Drowned in a pond beneath a cave no one would find. Not even the sun cared to peek into this desolate place. I breathed out, unable to hold my breath any longer. Water rushed in. My consciousness began to fade as my body convulsed.

Please.

Save me.

Warmth suddenly overtook me. It started in my chest, but then spread across my arms like veins. I felt something warm caress my cheek for an instant, like the calloused hand of my father, but then it was gone. Movement in the waters stirred my defeated form. While my lungs still burned, they no longer felt full of water. New strength urged my bones onward. The water around me whirled and I felt some foreign force propel my crippled form upward like the jetstream from my gauntlet. I emerged at the top and was slid back up the slope where I’d come from. My body was now drenched, but I didn’t care. I stole lungfuls of air like they were divine gifts from above.

What had been that feeling? I faintly wondered between my bouts of gasps. I began to laugh. Hysteria and relief were strange drugs, but I welcomed them. Gauntlets still conjured, I could barely make out surroundings, aided by the amber glow of my amulet. My thoughts were cut short when the sound of thunder rumbled through my surroundings. It resonated in the stones and my marrow, causing my teeth to chatter. The reverberations of this chamber made the sound linger even as its source continued its haunting snarl. My senses went on high alert.

But I was far too reliant on my sight, and without any meaningful light in this large cave, I couldn’t make out anything. The shadows played tricks on my mind, as I thought I saw the creature the size of my parent’s house prowl across the rippling lake. The growl suddenly ceased, and I was left in silence. I waited, barely willing to breathe, much less attempt to move. The lake stilled in my periphery.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

WHO ARE YOU?

The voice came from the darkness, yet it echoed inside my mind like a drum.

“What? Who’s there?! Show yourself!” I called out. My voice cracked, but I didn’t care. The low voice was nearly inaudible, yet I understood it clearly. No, not it.

Him.

The voice was clearly masculine. I waited, every nerve across my body taut with pressure and fear.

I see you, Thea Shade.

“Where are you?!” I screamed into the void.

The void stared back.

Green eyes that glowed with ferocity opened just beyond the perimeter of my glowing enchantments. They were nearly the size of my torso in diameter, and were filled with cold intelligence. They assessed me, and I got the distinct impression my very soul was laid bare before those vibrant emerald orbs. They moved slightly, and I caught the barest outline of the giant form they belonged to. Oddly, I could partially see through the eyes, as if I were staring through stained glass.

You are not like the others. You smell...different...

The creature’s words cut through my frantic thoughts. He drew nearer, though I couldn’t hear a single footfall. Yet, it remained just outside my vision save for those glowing eyes.

“What do you mean? What ‘others’?” I demanded, and I tried to sit up taller to meet this being’s attention head-on. I caught a wave of grudging respect briefly pulse from the creature, but it was gone in a moment.

You do not fight my kind for glory or power.

His answer was as cold as his gaze, but I didn’t flinch. He was considering something…Considering me. I needed to get him on my side, as he might be my only ticket out of here.

“No, I don’t,” I answered honestly. “Are you referring to other mortals like me? Because yeah, most of them love to fight and kill and steal.”

Do you fight and kill and steal?

There was an edge to its tone I did not like in the slightest.

“Well…” It snarled and I cut off what I was about to say. The growl was brimmed with violent intent.

DO. NOT. LIE!

“Fine, okay! I do those things, but only for the right reasons!”

What ‘right’ reasons?! You wear my kind like jewelry yet claim the high ground?!

His kind? I thought frantically. Jewelry?

“I fight for my friends—for my brother! And yes, I’ve killed, but it was to stay alive.” Sweat caked my palms. “And I’ve only stolen from those who stole first! It was to return what was stolen, not to benefit me or something selfish like that!” I yelled back, and I sounded a good deal more confident than I felt. My heart hammered so hard in my chest I could’ve sworn it echoed across the lake.

You believe your words, yet you steal the afterlife from my progeny like their spirits belong to you.

“Okay, there’s a lot to unpack there. And I seriously have no idea what you’re talking about.” I adjusted my seated position, some more of my confidence returning. Whatever this being was, he didn’t seem intent on immediately killing me. He was looking for something from me, and I refused to let him leave without getting his help. I just needed to figure out what that thing was. “Can you please explain yourself? I—I want to know.”

A deep chuff emanated from the beast, and it finally stepped into the light. Or, rather, it began to glow. Shades of green pulsed through its form, and even from my limited vantage, I knew the outline of a wolf when I saw one. He was absolutely massive, my original estimate a bit on the conservative side. The energy thrummed beneath his skin and shifted between all of the hues of green I associated with nature. Juniper, shamrock, and even seafoam mixed in with its midnight-black fur. Stranger still, though, was how he stood atop the lakewater. There were no ripples. And, like his eyes, I could now barely make out the cavern behind him.

He’s not fully here! I realized. Though, what manner of creature he was completely eluded me. I had never heard of a talking wolf, much less one that frequented hellish pits like this one.

You seek to know the truth? Your mind is not ready for such things.

“Try me!” I yelled back, eager to show him my mental fortitude if I couldn’t display any of my other strengths. He pinned me with a stare, and I shrank back when I caught the intense glint there.

You are living a lie, Thea Shade. Should you wake up, you will never be the same.

“Alright, but I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve kind of already hit rock bottom here. There’s not much else for me to do besides have my mind blown by a dog’s revelations.” I glowered back at the creature, growing tired of its aloof attitude. “Why are you even here?”

I sensed…resonance within you.

“What is that even supposed to mean?” I threw my hands up in annoyance. “Stop speaking so vaguely, you oversized dog! If you’re here to kill me, get on with it. If you’re just here to mock me, stop it already. I need to get out of here so I can stop my friends from murdering each other. Either help me or get out of my way!”

There. There is the resonance I sensed. Valor said I would find one as tenacious as me.

The wolf-like creature chuffed again and I scrunched up my nose in confusion.

“Valor? Tenacious?! Why would being tenacious resonate with you? Seriously, enough with the riddles,” I demanded. It shifted suddenly, blurring until it was just a few mere feet away from where I leaned against the wall of the cave.

I shall offer you a deal. Keep your end, and you shall live. Fail, and you will die. Will you take such a risk for your friends above? For your brother?

How does it know about Kaelin? I wondered internally. Still, it was offering me a deal to live. I knew that if I didn’t take it, I would die here, and that was an option I couldn’t even entertain. No. I would do anything to get out of here. To save my friends. To aid Kaelin. To protect my family.

There’s nothing I wouldn’t do.

“Fine. What do you need me to do?”

Kill an interloper for me, and I shall grant you my power. Do this, and I will reveal the truth to you. Fail to kill it, or flee, and you will surely die.

“Okay~,” I said, drawing out the final syllable while I took in all that he said. “And what is this interloper?”

It is a foul creature from beyond this world. It does not belong, and is destroying the balance Valor set in place. It must die.

“Beyond this world? What are you even talking about?” I asked.

Vanquish it, and I will reveal the truth. Haven’t you wondered why the surges exist, or why your brother is so fiercely hunted by your own kind?

“What do you know about Kaelin?!” I demanded as hope and confusion intermingled in my mind.

Survive, and you shall see.

With those words, the wolf creature lunged and my world turned white.