Part 1: Dreams
Not without light shall all survive, let alone thrive in this time.
Chapter 1: Talo
A void. A pitch black, empty void. That is all Talo saw as he woke up.
He laid there for many moments, assuming he was in his own room. After a few minutes, he started trying to move. "Why- why can't I..." he mumbled. "Why... can't I move?" Startled by this discovery, he was yet again confused when he couldn't even open his eyes. After what seemed like an eternity to him, he finally managed to force his eyelids open and his body to start functioning as normal. He stood up, yet still felt stiff, almost like something was trying to stop him. "What... is this place?" he asked, confused. "Where- where did the world go?" He tried looking around, seeing if his eyes would re-adjust and reveal where he was. Yet nothing. Nothing but a cold, dark emptiness that seemed to overwhelm his senses.
He could smell nothing. He couldn't see anything but himself. He could hear nothing but his own words. The floor didn't exist, but there was something underneath him. Otherwise he'd be floating infinitely, but his feet were grounded and it seemed gravity was still affecting him. He held out his hands to see if there were any roofs or walls, thinking they might've just been concealed by some dark magic. Yet again, nothing. It seemed wherever he was, it was not his world. He knew that for sure. But that was all he knew. He still knew not of where he was, how he was there, and why he was there.
Doubt and fear fell like a pit in his stomach, a wave of confusion washing over him. Without warning, something came rushing in front of Talo's face, startling him badly enough he nearly fell backwards. He turned his head to see if he could spot the thing, yet it was dashing around without a second of stillness. It seemed to move in a frenzy without reason. Talo was barely able to make out what it was. It was a light yellow, and seemed to be a perfect sphere. It was strange, yet intriguing. Without realising it, he was moving towards it, unable to control his own body. "Hey, stop it... me!" he yelled to himself, confused. First, he couldn't move at all, now, he couldn't stop moving. 'How fun, what luck!' he thought.
He fought against himself, trying desperately to regain control. He tensed himself, trying to stop himself in his tracks. No luck. The light kept spinning and weaving around the darkness, maybe even getting quicker. Talo's body was no longer his, it had a mind of its own. His hand was reaching out towards the light, which was now moving so fast he could barely see there was anything there. Just as he was about to unwillingly reach out and grab the light, it stopped. The light stood still where it was, and Talo's body was now released from control. As soon as he could, he retracted his arm away from the light, staggering back.
The light was frozen, yet in a single moment and without warning, it sped off somewhere, now leaving little white dots like stars in the void, just as footprints on dirt. Slightly shocked from the sudden movement, for some unknown reason, even to himself, Talo had to follow it. Not only was he very intrigued by it, but he felt like something inside him was telling him to pursue it. Frustrated at himself, he ran after it, only barely able to keep up. While nonsensical, the star trail was stunning. It was so simple yet its beauty was unrivalled to anything else in the void, yet that was not hard to achieve.
The light kept getting faster, and Talo was starting to fall behind. He used up the last of his energy to sprint and catch up, and somehow even managed to somewhat outrun it. Due to his newly born ego and not expecting anything in the void, as he has learnt, he only was narrowly able to notice and stop right in front of the strange tree that came out of seemingly nowhere. Its envious purple leaves and its ominous dark teal stem gave Talo a slight chill. "So, there is something else here." Talo told himself. Distracted and intrigued by the sudden tree, the light dashed past him. "Wait!" he yelled at it, almost as if he was expecting a reaction from it. He followed its lead once again, running past the tree. Just as he did, his entire world changed around him.
Now the blank black of the void was replaced with a gathering of the ominous trees resting upon a muddied ground under a dark grey, raining sky. "Wha- how?!" he screamed in disbelief. "Where am I now?" The grass was the same dark teal as the tree stems with small, twisting purple weeds with traces of black were scattered everywhere. The place was of great beauty as it was full of fear. Something about it felt off, so very off to Talo. The smell of nature was dead; replaced with the smell of damp mud, near-toxic pollen, and dead animals. The very air felt evil. It was like every moment he was choking, but only the bare enough of air let him survive. He was not supposed to be here.
'Why am I here? Just to suffer?' he thought, making a familiar joke to himself to make him more comfortable in the unfamiliar place. He definitely lost track of the light now, its path of white dots were no longer showing. Now without anything to follow, no target, no goal, he didn't know what to do. The void was strange, but not fearful, yet this place was. But something was drawing him in, something north from him. He had little luck trying to stop himself. It seemed these unwanted urges to do stupid and possibly dangerous stuff was strong in him. What luck! He started pacing towards where he felt he needed to go, wiping off any damp leaves knocked into his face by gales of wind now accompanying the rain. It was strange, the further he got, the more wild and frenzied the storm became. He even walked backwards for a moment to test a theory he had; which proved to be true. Every step closer to where he wanted to be, the rain became heavier, the sky became darker and the wind became mightier, and if he walked backwards, it got calmer. Something was telling him to leave; foreboding him from its land. But Talo simply didn't care enough to heed its warnings.
Continuing on hesitantly, the ground got bumpier and it seemed the tree's dark black roots were now above ground, nearly tripping Talo over continuously. "Can these stupid things stop trying to trip me?!" he yelled, but was heavily startled by a rustling in some leaves and something running by him quickly on the ground. It definitely wasn't the light, it was too big and didn't look anything like it. Suddenly, another pair of the creatures came running out of a small thicket of trees. They're beady eyes were filled with fear, they're frowns showing their sadness. They're skins were a dark crimson with white splotches, like some sort of mushroom. Their horns had a few old, dying leaves attached to them. The thing running at his feet earlier must've actually been hopping quickly, due to their nubby limbs presumably not letting them run fast. They obviously weren't healthy, they looked sickly.
"Hey little guys, do you have any idea where we are?" he asked them, hoping they would understand him, but they just kept hopping away. Besides the fact they looked frail and in despair; they were incredibly cute. It was sad to see creatures so small and precious being affected by this obviously evil place. He followed them for a bit, until they reached a little opening where the rain was pouring down, presumably feeding the small pond in the centre. He could see some small silhouettes in it, presumably some tiny fish. The two creatures seemed to drink some of the unclean, nearly purple water. Talo could only assume it was the only water they could drink in quantity. 'Poor creatures, not even these two... but all creatures in these vile woods.' he thought in sympathy.
The creatures swiftly and turned around to Talo without warning. Maybe they understood him? But he hadn't been loud enough for anything to hear him, it was only a whisper.... Yet they heard it. All of them heard it. The folds in between leaves were now filled with eyes, both small and big. The things in the pond stood still, just as everything else was. Talo tried to speak, but only managed to get out a small mumble. When he thought things couldn't get more strange, they did rapidly. His ears started to ring, and all of the creature's eyes began glowing. They were all separate, vibrant colours, they're faces expressionless. It looked like some crappy edit of a kids story trying to turn it creepy, yet this was real. Or was it?
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The ringing got louder. Talo couldn't stand it any longer, so he simply ran away from the creatures. Nearly tripping over, the ringing started to subside every step he got further away. He was overcome with questions; and none he could think of a reasonable answer for. The wind and rain got stronger, the sky blackened again. He was getting close, and he only barely realised it. Panting, exhausted from running, he felt stupid. "Why am I scared? Plenty of animals in Levonia have glowing eyes, and it's filled with strange forests just like this!" he told himself. "...I am in Levonia, right?" he wondered in concern, yet before he could have a second's thought, he heard something approaching. It was coming to him. And quickly.
Before he could try to run away, something grabbed at his wrists. He tried tearing at them, yet something was pulling his hands away from each other. They were dark purple... just like the leaves. The trees, or at least something in the trees, were constricting him. "I knew this place wanted me dead!" he cried out in frustration. He was lifted off his feet, now held above the ground by the things strapped around his arms. Failing to unrelease himself, the sound of the approaching beast grew louder. He stared straight forward, fearfully waiting for the thing to finally reach him. Two red dots became barely visible. Talo managed to start breaking his purple chains. The sounds got louder. They broke a little more.
The dots were now far closer and brighter. Almost broken... then the beast lunged at him. Sharp, crooked teeth were a mere hair away from mauling Talo, but he broke the purple constraints, letting him free. Falling to the ground, he dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding death. The beast was pure black, its eyes blood red and narrow. It nearly looked like a gigantic wolf, yet infinitely more dangerous. Noticing it missed its prey, the beast quickly turned around to its little escape artist, and poised to attack yet again. Claws extended, teeth seemingly sharpened, eyes fully open... Talo was stuck in fear. No fight or flight, just freeze. He closed his eyes. He awaited the end, but could only hear the pained cries of the beast and the sounds of cutting skin.
When he finally opened his eyes, shock overcame him at what he saw. Little splashes of red flew through the air as sheets of silver wrapped around and sliced at the beast. It was pulling the thing away violently, cries of rage and pain echoing through the now thundering woods. Somehow, Talo felt bad for it. Its eyes were now more like a normal animal, yet filled with sadness, anger and agony. Without thinking, he rushed over to it and tried to tear the silver sheets of perhaps steel off the beast. His hands felt the burning metal, and staggered back as his hands gashed, blood spluttering in his face and down his arms. He screamed in anguish, just as the beast did. The creature still struggled to get free, before giving Talo one last look, and Talo could swear he could hear a whisper in his ear. Help me. Free me. Yet, the beast was dragged back to the shadows of the forest, its cries echoing out of Talo's ears.
"What's going on?! AH!" The pain in his hand grew, yet he would not bandage it in one of the cursed leaves of the place. He knew this place was not safe, and he did not trust its plants, which had already wronged him. The wind grew strong. Unbelievably strong. Trees howled, then the familiar 'vines' started to reveal themselves again. They held onto Talo, and threw him. Thrown midair, screaming, vines from the trees kept holding onto him, and more or less, yeeted him throughout the forest. The storm got stronger. He was getting closer to where he originally wanted to go. "Great!" A small dark teal branch hit his head. "First you wanted me to get out of this stupid place..." A bundle of leaves brushed against his face, one even landed in his mouth. "...now you want me to..." he spat the leaf out, only to be hit by a much bigger branch, bruising him. "...to get closer! Make up your damn mind!" he cried out.
As he got closer, he was getting thrown faster. Wind beating against his face, blood expelling from his hands, rain pelting down, it all became overwhelming. He lost his ability to focus. His ears were ringing, any sight his eyes could still comprehend just a mess of motion blur, body getting beaten by branches, the taste of wet leaves still in his mouth, and a foul smell of rot all brought him to the edge of unconsciousness, before a tree threw him one last time, landing him on the ground.
He laid there for moments, sore from both the trees and ungraciously hitting the ground. Heavy breathing. Besides the ringing, he could only hear his heavy breathing. Groaning, he fought back the pain and tried to stand up. He wiped mud, rain and sweat off himself, his palms stinging, flaming with pain. He could only hope that he didn't get an infection. "That... was... fun..." he said sarcastically, a stab of pain causing his voice to break. Mind aching, chest bruised, hands cut, the ringing got more concentrated. It was telling him to look somewhere. He shifted his gaze down to the ground. Mud, weeds and roots were scattered upon the dark teal plain... all covered in a foreboding shadow.
He looked behind him, to see the behemoth that was the castle. The thing that drew him in. Spiraling grey towers at the ends of each section, black patterns made of depictions of monstrous beasts covered the place, a dark purple roof, all capped off with stained glass portraits made of the colours he had seen in the shadowy woods. Dark greens, dark purples, blacks, all colours one could associate with evil. In this place, those colours all matched perfectly. The ominous trees were seemingly cut off, now forming a ring surrounding the castle. The ringing turned to whispers, yet he could decode nothing due to the pure amount of voices. All except one. 'The place of death.' Talo couldn't think of a more perfect sentence to describe this cursed place.
"I don't understand this anymore. How did I get here? Where even is this place? WHY am I here?" He felt exhausted. "This place... this evil, cursed place... it's tried killing me with both itself and its creatures!" he yelled. He stared directly at the towering castle, eyes filled with hatred and dread. He wanted out of this place that only brought pain. He plotted to find a way out, to get away from the castle and the woods. Maybe he could make a run for it? No, the vines would grab him... maybe he could get onto the top of the trees? No, he couldn't climb quick enough or jump high enough. Maybe he could- "Woah!" something dashed past him, something small and... soft yellow. "You! You're what brought me here!" he accused the light. "I nearly died, and I still don't know what you are or why you're here!" he called. But the light did not respond. It just stayed where it was, slightly bouncing up and down midair. "I don't even know if you're alive... or I've just gone insane." He placed his hand on his forehead, now realising what his situation might unfortunately be.
His breathing became heavy and panicked again. Blood trickled down his face, stupidly forgetting his hands had a huge gash in them. His world seemed to be shaking around him. It felt like the light was mocking him. Maybe it really was. Panic overwhelmed him, he didn't know what to do. "Please... stop. I don't... want to be here anymore!" he screamed. The focus of the entire area was on him now, thousands of evil eyes staring directly into his soul. His fingers started to crack. Then his arms. They looked like cracks in stone, yet on flesh. Talo looked at them. 'They're... glowing... rainbow? What? Why?' Normally, he'd fear this. He expected it to be painful. But it felt... peaceful. Freeing.
Then, strange rainbow energy came out of the cracks. He waved his hands around as the colours gracefully flowed out. Now his arms were cracked too, yet he didn't care. Even his eyes turned the same rainbow. All the anxiety left him. He could've held all of the stress and worries in the world, yet he would've never been happier. He gave a swift spin, the energy flowing through the air; and him. He took a deep, calm breath. He didn't notice that the light was gone. But he did notice the strange silhouette of a young child sitting on the floor, winding up a music box. It played a tune, just as gentle as it was eerie. The happiness in Talo was replaced with curiosity and fear, yet again. The rainbow's no longer calmed him. The energy wrapped around the child, as the tune kept playing. It was broken and worn. Talo wanted to speak, yet he could not. He couldn't open his mouth, his body refused him. His mind was covered in fog. His body would not obey him, not move under his will. He couldn't understand. Nothing was making sense anymore. He wanted to do something, anything. Yet he could not. All he could do was watch.