Chapter 6

  Sebastian woke up in the aftermath of the blizzard, the snowstorm was gone but the blood red snow was left behind. Sebastian was somewhat engulfed by the snow, it was quiet. Sebastian’s memory of why he was here and what had happened was fuzzy but he didn’t bother searching for the memories, he just enjoyed the quiet. Since he was in a clearing at the base of the mountain, Sebastian finally laid eyes on the sky in what had been at least a week. He looked at the deep, blue, empty sky, contrasted by the scarlet snow at the edge of his vision. Then he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, Sebastian was at peace.

  The quiet was interrupted by a small thumping noise, Sebastian slowly raised his head and looked around for what had made the noise. The snow fell off his athletic frame, Sebastian had worked out before he went to the Isles but his increase in his physical Attributes had made him look like a professional athlete. As the snow fell away, Sebastian realized that the noise was coming from his chest, or rather what he was holding over his chest.

  In his hands was the glistening red heart that the Wendigo had been holding when Sebastian had first seen it. Now that he had a closer look, Sebastian realized that the heart was made of wood and was actually beating as well. He sat there entranced by its light, a genuine smile coming to his face. If all Treasures were like this, then Sebastian better get stronger so he could take them, they were beautiful.

  New sounds brought the peaceful silence to an end, the wind began to howl and snow began to come down once more. But this time the snow came like a tunnel bursting through the clouds and winding closer to the ground towards Sebastian. Before he realized what was happening, a reed thin hand, decayed and hideous, appeared from the snow and took the heart from him.

  “The Wendigo.” Sebastian thought with anger.

  No, not anger, rage. He had claimed that Treasure as his own, and the Wendigo dared to take it from him. The strange tunnel of snow blew into the forest and Sebastian gave chase. His legs carried him faster than he had ever run before, but they weren’t fast enough. Then a strange, unbidden thought came to Sebastian’s mind. Why just use his legs when he had two arms as well? Sebastian dropped onto all of his limbs and blurred forward in a burst of speed, the wind howling in his presence.

  The snow shifted and Sebastian saw the Wendigo look back towards him with an expression he couldn’t identify, but that was to be expected when it didn’t have any flesh on its face. The Wendigo tried to loop back towards the mountain but Sebastian was too quick and caught its arm, it flew off the Wendigo with a sickening noise, but even as it screamed an ear-piercing screech of pain it still fled as fast as it could and Sebastian gave chase once more. Sebastian weaved between the trees with the speed and ferocity only seen in a predator hunting its prey.

  They soon reached the base of the mountain again but the Wendigo kept going further. It no longer kept its cloak of snow wrapped around itself but rather gave itself a boost up the steep mountain, which only grew more treacherous the further up they went. Sebastian had the feeling he normally wouldn’t be able to climb up this mountain but somehow he did so with ease, his hands and feet always finding purchase. The Wendigo seemed to have finally reached whatever it had been racing towards this time and dove into a cave. It was angled downwards and had no even ground, but the Wendigo traveled inwards with grace and ease. Sebastian began to dive down as well but ice quickly grew from the walls and encased his outstretched hand. Sebastian was about to crush the pitiful defense but he paused when he looked at his arm, it was different.

  It had a reptilian appearance and was covered with scales of various colors ranging from radiant gold to burnished copper. The scales seemed to shift between those colors as well as if there was a different shade for every angle the light hit at. The claws were thick and powerful, with the appearance and structure of an emerald. Sebastian finally looked into the reflection of the smooth wall of ice, he couldn’t make out his face but he could see his eyes. They were green like usual, but they had vertical slits for pupils and glowed with a shade more reminiscent of the emerald claws on his hand and had edges in them resembling fine-cut gems. But their most noticeable trait was the anger radiating out from them like twin suns ablaze.

  “Is this… me?” He thought. And then he woke up.

———————

  Sebastian didn’t wake up like the last time he had a strange dream, instead, his eyes remained closed and he thought about what had happened. Throughout that whole dream, his disposition towards the Wendigo had changed. It had not been a monster that could kill him with ease, but rather an enemy and thief, and even later it had been prey. Sebastian could understand his first strange dream, he simply thought of it as a manifestation of his fear of death. But this one had been weird, and it wasn’t because he hadn’t felt like himself, it was because he had felt like himself. Whatever happened to him in his dream felt perfectly natural.

  But Sebastian’s thoughts were dragged away from the worrying dream towards where he was. There was sunlight on his face, which shouldn’t have been possible on the snowy forest island he had arrived on, which meant he was on a different island. Sebastian’s thoughts finally found his memory of the recruiter picking him up like a limp doll and… well he wasn’t sure what had happened after but Sebastian wasn’t liking the situation.

  “Oh good, your up.”

  Sebastian covered his eyes a little so the sun wouldn’t blind him anymore and looked up towards the recruiter. Sebastian remained silent.

  “Since your probably wondering what’s going on, I’ll explain. You’ve been chosen to meet Lady Wixx, of House Wixx. She’ll decide your position in the family and that’ll be that. Samuel explained.

  Sebastian looked at him with a blank expression, and then spoke.

  “Why?” He asked.

  “Why did I chose you? A good ques-.” Samuel was interrupted.

  “No, why should I join?” Sebastian asked.

  Samuel was stumped. The only time someone asked what they’d get out of joining a faction was when they had traveled to an island with multiple factions wanting to get a piece of them. But that definitely wasn’t the case here, Samuel had basically saved Sebastian’s life and offered him a position in a faction, and Sebastian seemed uninterested. Samuel decided to try a different tactic.

  “You do realize,” Samuel began, “That the reason no one denies an offer into a faction is because no one survives without one, not including the very first people to survive the Shattered Isles, and they’ve basically become gods. So unless you believe you have the potential to become a god, you should probably just come with me.”

  Sebastian still wasn’t looking very impressed.

  “Okay,” he said slowly, “You’re saying you can keep me alive?”

  “Yes!” Samuel said, getting a little excited, “Who doesn’t want to stay alive?”

  “Sure, sure. But that seems like the least you can do for someone who’s supposed to be joining your family or whatever. It’d be poor advertising to say you won’t even try to keep your own members alive. I mean what are you actually offering that others don’t have?”

  Samuel started rubbing his face in exasperation, what was wrong with this kid?

  “Is there any reason you can’t come with me?” Samuel asked, beginning to suspect there was a reason behind Sebastian’s stubbornness.

  “Oh, plenty.” He responded, “I don’t trust you, I think joining a faction isn’t actually to my benefit, and there’s something on the island we left that’s mine.”

  “You mean the junk I left behind, your gun and those clothes of yours.” Samuel asked.

  “No,” Sebastian said with annoyance, “The Corrupted Heart, the treasure that the Wendigo holds.”

  Sebastian wasn’t sure how he knew the name of the Treasure, it had just clicked into his mind like he had always known its name. But Samuel didn’t seem as surprised as Sebastian was for some reason? He did seem a little amused though.

  “That’s rather arrogant of you, claiming a treasure that you’ve never touched to be yours, one that’s in the hand of a Deviant no less. Lady Wixx may allow you to have it though if you agree to join her House.”

  “What do you mean ‘allow’?” Sebastian asked, his voice shifting to a more hostile tone.

  “I mean it will be in her possession when I kill the deviant, there’s no way I’m going to let something like that run around loose.” Samuel explained

  “But I’m going to kill it.” Sebastian said, as if that was supposed to be a good enough reason for Samuel to back off. “Not to mention there’s no way I’m going to join a faction where people don’t bother to give their names.”

  “You haven’t given yours either you know?” Samuel responded, deciding to leave out he already knew Sebastian’s name because of his Skill. Sebastian looked away a little embarrassed, having forgotten that fact.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Sebastian.” He said

  “Samuel.” Samuel replied, then he continued, “Since I can easily handle the Deviant, how about I let you have a go at it and I’ll save your butt when you hopelessly fail, okay? And when you fail, you’ll have to join House Wixx”

  “Sure.” Sebastian agreed, this was about as good as he was going to get. Samuel picked him up from his sleeping spot and threw him over his shoulders once more.

  “Oh no, not again.” Sebastian lamented, and then they were gone.

  Thankfully, traveling through distorted space only made Sebastian a little dizzy this time instead of blacking out.

  “Do you have to keep putting me on your shoulder every time we do that?” Sebastian asked, annoyed at the manhandling.

  “Well, my Ability needs you to be really close to me if I want to take someone along for the ride, so unless you want to start giving me some hugs, I think we’ll stick with what I got.”

  Sebastian agreed that giving Samuel a hug every time they traveled to another island would be a little awkward, so he decided not to respond and started to get up and travel towards his stuff, his familiarity with the Island and his high Perception guiding him

  As the duo walked through the persistently dark forest, Sebastian began asking questions about his status and the mechanics of it, but Samuel said that he’d only tell him those things if he joined House Wixx. Unlike before, Sebastian began to think things over, joining a faction would mean he’d have to stop focusing on his personal development and more on his faction’s needs. This often worked out for people because the perks that they gained from joining a faction often let them achieve higher levels than they would have normally. Sebastian was beginning to tolerate the idea more than he had when he first arrived here, but he still wasn’t sure. There was a chance that the cost of working for a faction might outweigh the benefits it offered.

  Sebastian wasn’t getting anywhere with that line of thought though, so he contemplated some more about the dream he had. Why had he looked so different, he was sure there was a reason he had looked that way but he wasn’t sure why. And how had he known the name of the Treasure? His status had never shown him any details about it. But as Sebastian thought more and more about it, he realized that there was a way to see if his dream held any significance. His dream had shown him details that he never knew before about the Corrupted Heart and the Wendigo, and since he was planning to fight the Wendigo and take his Treasure, he could find out if any of those details were true.

  After that, Sebastian’s thoughts were centered around the Corrupted Heart, a small smile on his face. His resolve hardened and his mind refocused, he was going to take back his Treasure and there was nothing the Wendigo could do about it. Sebastian soon reached his untended camp and looked around for anything he might need. As he began to ready his things, an errant thought came to mind.

  “Wait, do I need to track down the Wendigo too, or do I just need to find it?” Sebastian asked.

  “Well since our little bet was more about whether you could defeat the Wendigo, I’ll give you a hand here and just take straight to it.”

  That calmed Sebastian down a notch. He had been worried that whatever effect that dream had on his mind would fade before he could face the Wendigo. Sebastian wasn’t sure exactly why, but he had absolutely no fear regarding the Wendigo. Instead, he was filled with righteous indignation, he still felt as if the Wendigo had stolen that treasure from him, and even as enraptured as Sebastian was with the Treasure he still wasn’t sure why he felt this way, he couldn’t think of any logical reasons as to why he was so attached to it. Sebastian decided to talk to Samuel about it.

  “Hey Samuel, can you explain more about Treasures to me?” Sebastian said.

  “Anything specific on your mind?” Samuel casually replied while laying on his back, floating above the ground. When had that happened?

  “Are there Treasures that call out more to some people than others?” He asked

  “Some Treasures are better suited towards certain peoples skillsets, but Treasures seem to be generally useful to everyone. Some Treasures offer additional Attributes, some give Abilities or Skills, and some even more rare ones don’t follow any rules and give something else, but very few people know what. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason.” Samuel replied.

  Samuel looked at Sebastian with a curious look, his strange attraction to the Treasure could mean something, something special. But the chances were so low it wasn’t even worth considering, even so, Samuel still had a curious look in his eyes every time he looked at Sebastian. He decided to drop the thought, the chances really were too low for it to be possible.

  “You ready to go now?” Samuel asked.

  “Yup, let’s get going.” Sebastian replied, shifting his backpack into a more comfortable position.

———————

  Sebastian remained still, trying not to move. He had found a small hill near the Wendigo as it wandered the forest in search of prey and finally had a good line-of-sight on the Wendigo. He steadied his aim onto the Horrifying Deviant, not needing to steady his breath this time. He was perfectly relaxed and calm, something he would need to look into later. But for now, he would be using it to his advantage. Sebastian fired, the shot whizzed forward into the Wendigo, and nothing happened. The bullet had barely made it into its skin, and fell to the ground as a crushed lump of metal.

  “Well dang, I thought that would turn out better than that.” Sebastian thought in a tone of surprise.

  The Wendigo easily found Sebastian in his not-so-hidden hiding spot, racing towards him a tunnel of snow.

  “Just like in my dream!” Sebastian thought, even more surprised than before.

  Unlike Sebastian’s dream though, he was the one who was running. He had quickly given up his gun since it seemed to have no effect and booked it. The speed at which he was running would have normally filled him up with excitement and exhilaration but Sebastian’s newfound confidence had fled and he was afraid. How had he harmed the Wendigo in his dream? He must have been in that strange form when he hit it, but he didn’t think he would be able to do that now.

  The Wendigo had caught up to Sebastian far faster than he had expected and struck him. Sebastian was sent flying into a tree, the impact creating an echoing thud that rang through the forest. Samuel sighed in the distance, he knew the boy would never stand a chance, but if this would convince him to join House Wixx then it was probably for the best. Samuel began to walk towards the Wendigo nonchalantly, it was time for him to get a little serious.

———————

  Sebastian was in a dream, he was sure of it, but this dream wasn’t lacking any details like all of his others. This one felt incredibly intricate, boasting details Sebastian would have probably missed in real life if he wasn’t so focused on examining where he was. He was in a large cave that could hold several sports stadiums in it with room to spare, the cavern was made of polished black obsidian. In the center of the cavern was a circular plateau, and on it was a dragon. It had the same scales that he had in his dream, the coloring shifting between those familiar shades of gold and copper. Its claws were also made out of that breathtaking emerald like before, and the eyes were like fine-cut gems.

  Sebastian was afraid that the dragon would notice him even though he was aware he was in a dream but when he looked down at himself, he found nothing. Sebastian looked up but he wasn’t where he was before, he was on the plateau now, and he was the dragon. But for some reason Sebastian didn’t feel alarmed, instead, he marveled at the power in this body. A small rhythmic thumping noise came to Sebastian’s attention, he looked down and found the Corrupted Heart in his claws. Sebastian grinned, but his new dragon body made it far more frightening. He still hadn’t gotten the heart yet, had he?

  “Well,” Sebastian thought, “I guess it’s time for me to wake up.”

  Sebastian’s eyes opened, and a bloody grin came to his face, the blood coming from his broken nose thanks to the tree he had crashed into. But that was the least of his worries, he had a Treasure to claim. Limbs of gold, copper, and emerald shot out from his body clinging to the trees around him and pulling him towards his destination, the Wendigo. Sebastian laid his sights on the Deviant and pulled back his arm, and threw a wild but powerful swing that made the Wendigo’s head snap back.

  Sebastian’s assault continued, with him throwing vicious strikes and the Wendigo doing its best to evade. At one point the Wendigo had managed to grab one of Sebastian’s magical limbs and attempted to freeze it but Sebastian simply dismissed it and made another. Sebastian wasn’t sure how he knew how to use these limbs so well, but he seemed to intuitively understand that they were very bad at striking and their only redeeming quality was that they had a supernatural grip, even on objects Sebastian wasn’t sure they should’ve even been able to grab in the first place but he put that out of his mind, he was winning.

  The Wendigo seemed to disagree with that notion and released a howling icy blast that would’ve knocked Sebastian back normally if he hadn’t launched his draconic limbs into the ground to anchor him. That was a bad move on his part because that meant he had to endure the freezing cold of the Wendigo’s powers. Sebastian dismissed his now frozen limbs and hurled a new one at a nearby tree, pulling himself to safety. But Sebastian wasn’t worried, he was ready.

———————

  Samuel looked at Sebastian in amazement as he pounded the Wendigo into submission.

  “Those limbs.” He thought as he looked at Sebastian’s magically created appendages in disbelief.

  Samuel didn’t want to make an assumption, but it appeared his initial guess was correct. Sebastian had awakened his Sin, and to do it so early, what could that mean for his Class? Sebastian checked with his Insight Skill. Samuel was shocked by what he found, what the heck was a Treasure Hunter? Despite how valuable Treasures were, Samuel had never heard of a Class that focused on acquiring them. And even more surprising was that Samuel could only see Sebastian’s name, Level, Class, and nothing more.

  Samuel watched as Sebastian was blasted by an icy wind from the Wendigo, but Sebastian remained in place with the help of his magic limbs. That clearly wasn’t a good idea but thankfully Sebastian was able to quickly leave and escape behind a tree, he then went up the tree and hid in the branches. The Wendigo finally having some time to breath began to call up the same snowstorm that happened when Samuel had first saw it, the tree’s rustled ominously from the wind and the snow that began to grow underfoot soon became died a bloody red. This time Samuel made sure to stay out of the storm so that the Wendigo didn’t run like last time, but he didn’t need to worry.

  Sebastian jumped out of the tree like a predator and caught the Wendigo in his arms, his magical ones of course. But this time there seemed to be at fifty of them, each one wrapping around the Wendigo and then squeezing it with all their collective might. The Wendigo had been killed, but thankfully Treasures can’t be destoyed, or at least one hasn’t been destroyed yet, so the Corrupted heart was unharmed. Sebastian rose looking relatively unfatigued despite just fighting a Deviant that was at a higher level than him and grabbed the Corrupted Heart, then he looked up to Samuel with a smirk, as if to say ‘I told you so”.

  “Well,” Samuel thought, “I guess he did tell me, didn’t he.”