(Unknown)

day came. and with it all my wounds were washed away. all evidence of the nightmare that was last night was just… gone. i was left to wonder if all of this was just some fevered dream. and then i remembered the pain. no dream could be that excruciating, no dream could be that mind consuming. i was sure that if not for the damned curse my wits would have left me, scared away by nothing but the memory of such pain. but every time my mind was about to go over the edge something would pull it back.

two things were sure in my mind: i would leave this place and i would never be so helpless again. 

and so my days began to pass. in the light i would travel and train obsessively, in the night the shadows would come. on the second night i tried to run. i made it nearly a minute.

 the pain was a good motivator.

 i trained harder. 

a week passed.

i learned some things about this place. i never grew hungry or thirsty or tired. of course in theory i understood the concepts, i just never experienced it first hand. when the morning came all my wounds would always disappear.

the forest did end eventually and i stumbled into a town. it was completely empty, devoid of life. 

that was the first time i tried to kill myself. i tried drowning myself in the river near the village.

 it failed.

i continued to train.

a year passed.

 i learned that the shadows came in all shapes and sizes. some of the shadows are stronger or faster than the others, some of them were humanoids that carry swords, some were the size of houses. you may ask how i know what they looked like, and the answer is that i don't really. i just developed a sense about those things over time.. it was like an instinct, i knew their general shape. more importantly i started to sense how they move, i was slowly becoming able to fight.

i learned that i could hide from the shadows for a short time. they always seemed to know my general vicinity but as long as I don't make to much sound they still have to search for me.

for the first time in a year i found hope.

ten years passed.

the blade has become a natural extension of my body. for the first time i made it through the night without a scratch for the little good it did me.

the nights have started to become longer and the days have gotten noticeably farther apart. the shadows are changing too, they've gotten stronger and smarter. the shadows begun laying traps and ambushes. the worst is when the shadow mages find me, they're a special kind of sadistic.

 i have traveled for ten years straight. i have yet to see any signs of life other than my own and the shadows, if they count.

a hundred years passed.

i have long since given up my goals of leaving this place and in that lack of direction i found… boredom.

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boredom.

it may sound odd, but in the constant danger and torture i grew bored. it was not that i wasn't afraid, it was that i was always afraid. it's an interesting lesson to learn, that constant fear is boring. the human mind measures things by contrast. when there is no change there is no contrast. when there is no contrast then everything is normal. normal is boring.

so i started looking for new ways to entertain myself. i tried hurting the shadows the way they hurt me, that was fun, but in the heat of battle it usually ended with me bleeding on the ground. i tried killing myself in different ways. jumping off cliffs. putting my sword through my neck. i tried talking to myself. that one surprised me, it was the first sound i had heard in almost a hundred years.

a thousand years passed.

i want to die.

i have grown fast like the shadows. i have become silent like the shadows. i have become vicious like the shadows, strong like the shadows, patient like the shadows.

it is not enough.

no matter how strong i become the shadows are always stronger. they are always faster, they are always more patient and they are always more vicious.

i want to die.

but i am patient like the shadows.

i can wait.

one million years passed.

i am the hunter. my body has been pushed beyond mortal limits. i still wish for death, or at least some way to end the monotony. now all i fear is boredom, boredom is true death, it is all that terrifies me. i watch the world, unseen, and i know how it all fits together. it is always night now. all that means is there is always something to hunt, to kill, something to stall my boredom.

i spot a young dragon-shadow. it is as big as a small village. it is playing with the oak trees, ripping them out of the ground and seeing how far it can throw them. it is my prey. i wait in ambush, an absolute stillness encompassing my body. the moment the dragon-shadow is close enough i move, with an inhuman grace and perfect precision, and i sever each limb in the space of a breath.

i could have cut off it's head or stabbed it through the heart.

but that would be too quick.

that would be boring.

one and a half million years passed.

"I think it's time," said the first voice, other than my own, that i heard in over a million years. it came from behind me and so i turned. as i turned my heart beat wildly, my hand clenched my sword hilt, and a smile lit my face. it was a strange array of emotions, the fear i was used to, but the excitement… this promised to be interesting. 

i saw an young boy. but he was naked. and then i saw his eyes.