"Huff huff" a ragged voice panted. Exhausted, the young man moved one foot wearily in front of the other. The soles of his feet were blistered and beginning to hurt from the rough stone below. Uncertainty coursed through his blood. "Will it end? Why are there so many steps? Where does this lead? Who am I?" All these questions and more bounced around the inside of his skull.
Looking up he could see nothing but the black darkness and more steps. How many steps had he taken? A couple hundred? A thousand even? He stopped counting past 120 or so. The young man stopped and sat down on the roughly carved stone stair. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and leaned on his knees. "Phew" he exhaled hard, trying to catch his breath.
Slowly his breathing returned to normal as he stared down into the dark depths below. He couldn't see past 20 or so steps, but somewhere down there was the fire and the old man. He thought about the strange figure clad in fur and leather, eyes of a predator… shivering he moved his thoughts elsewhere, back to the climb awaiting him.
Time passed wearily in the purgatory like climb. Slowly the blisters began to worsen and his legs grew shaky. Numbness crept through the cold and brought with it a brief sense of relief. Brief before the pain set back in even worse.
Things changed however as the stone walls and stairs shifted. Stark grey changed to a red and black patterned rock. Small puffs of green jutted out from cracks in the stone; Tiny little plants that seemed as destitute as the rest of the darkness around it.
The young man took one last step and found himself no longer on the endless stair. Instead, he found himself shocked by a sea of green.
"A forest?" He marveled. Looking around tall trees and thick underbrush met his eye. Light from an unknown source, bright and orange blinded him.
The smell of humid vegetation filled his nostrils.
He turned and looked back. Sure enough, the staircase was there in an entrance on the red stone wall. He followed the wall off into the distance, noting that he was very much still inside. Looking up at the ceiling some tens of feet overhead confirmed this. Yet somehow, in some way, this forest was very much alive in this strange keep.
Cautiously he moved forward. The jungle ahead was thick and hard to maneuver through. Curiosity spurred him onwards as he pushed aside a large vine. He began to hear noises then aside from the rustling of trees.
Insects chirped loudly all around. Birds cawked from overhead. Unseen creatures moved in the bushes. Anxiety crept in at the unknown, at being exposed in the middle of this jungle.
The young man was afraid. The fear quickly faded as he pushed through a large bush and found himself in a clearing. There were no trees, no large underbrush. He stepped out onto soft short grass and looked with a smile on his face at the sea of flowers.
They were a mix of deep crimson and a soft blue. Gently they danced in the breeze. For his sore feet they made a cushioned pillow and he sighed in relief. Something else drew his eye then. Something sitting in the middle of the clearing that made his eyes widen.
A singular plant stood just a couple feet above the flowers, normal in all regards. Yet dangling from the coiled vine a singular fruit. It shone in the light a golden amber. Round and plump it made his mouth water.
"This is.. hunger.." he said to himself. Undeniable hunger.. he couldn't resist stepping forward towards the large fruit and plucking it off the vine. He held it in his hands and stared at it for a moment. His stomach grumbled, urging him to take a bite. He abliged and bit into the soft flesh of the fruit.
Sweet.. juicy.. the flavor filled his mouth. He savored every second of it. Bite after bite he enjoyed as he devoured the fruit that was twice the size of his hand. Before long it was gone.. He felt full. His thirst seemed quenched as well.
The young man felt tired as he sat in the grass looking out over the sea of flowers. He wiped away bits of fruit and juice off his face before falling backwards and laying out on the ground. It was then he truly felt the exhaustion. His legs ached and his feet pulsed with pain. The young man's eyelids grew heavy as he felt them close uncontrollably.
He let sleep take him…
'Void… darkness… a piercing light… a nauseating spinning, spinning… spinning… through it all.. all the sounds deafening… all the sights blinding… no one hears.. no one sees…"
Groggily the young man sat up. It took him a moment to realize where he was. The dream lingered with him a moment and made him dizzy. The change in scenery distracted him though. The bright orange glow of what seemed to be day had shifted to a dim purple. He could barely make out the jungle at the edge of the clearing.
He sat and looked around, listened.. the warm humidity was bit chiller now as the wind bit into his skin. "Cold.. again?" He said to himself. He rubbed his arms and began to stand.
"Boom!"
The young man nearly fell over. His hair stood on end at the thunderous sound.
Big… something big… it was so big it shook the ground. And it came again…
"Boom!!"
This time much closer. His heart beat fast as he looked all around. He couldn't tell where it was coming from. The sound kept growing louder. Steadily it grew closer and closer. He heard something else after a while
"Rustle.. crack!.. thud.. boom!"
The jungle nearby, just outside the edge of the clearing was.. moving.. top to bottom the trees and brush shakes as if being thrown around.
The young man dropped to his stomach in fear. Looking up through the grass and flowers he saw it.. huge.. it was too big. He almost couldn't comprehend. No, he certainly could not.
"A monster" was his first thought, and an apt one. Ahead at the edge of the clearing stood a creature some twenty feet tall. It's arms as big as tree trunks, it's head resembling a lion with a humanoid torso and legs. It swished around a tail that cut through the thick underbrush like butter.
I'at eyes looked around the clearing as the young man tried to sink as low as he could. He wasn't sure if the thing wanted to hurt him but he wasn't about to find out…
"Rooooooooar!" It screamed. He clasped his hands over his ears in pain and shivered in fear.
"Boom. Boom. Boom!" It drew closer, fast, until he looked up and saw the dark red eyes of the monster looking down at him.
He barely had a chance to be afraid. He Barely had a hand on the ground to try and flee. His mind had only just begun scrambling to figure out how to survive before the world spun…
"What.. happened…" the young man thought as he tumbled on the ground. His thoughts grew slower.. numb.. a strange feeling of weightlessness crept through his body…
Looking ahead he saw the beast… and something else… another person laying at it's massive feet. Red something oozed from it…
"Blood… that person is bleeding… wait… that's… me…"
All at once his thoughts faded into nothingness as the world went dark…
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