Chương 2: This Is Too Goddam Wyrd!
Solstice fluttered his eyes open.
He could feel his consciousness fully settle into a body….a body not of his own.
Solstice felt extremely tall, he felt his hair, it was now a long, unkempt dirty blond and went past his shoulders. He also felt incredibly hungry, his body was severely emaciated, littered with scabs and bruises. Unfortunately, on top of the already terrible state of his body, he was missing his left arm which happened to be his dominant arm. His eyes were no longer the pretty spring green of his original body, instead they were a stormy cold grey.
His new body was adorned in a black hooded cloak, leather gloves, vambraces, greaves and leggings, but without a tunic which confused him. Solstice also noted a graceful rapier kept in a scabbard with strange embroidery.
'Why am I not wearing a tunic?'
Things were looking very bad for him.
Solstice was so shocked at the state of his new body his consciousness was planted into and his appearance to realize that someone had been yelling at him.
"Drifter! Why'd you stop moving!?"
Solstice jumped at the sound of the human voice and turned around. This time, after being so absorbed in studying his new body, he finally began to actually perceive his situation.
He was staring at what looked to be a knight, and behind that knight was an entire convoy of wagons, with knights on each side and the rear. In the middle of that convoy was a palanquin, lifted by four incredibly powerful knights, but it did not look of completely eastern origin, it had some western elements blended in.
The majority of the knights were wearing chainmail, with plated vambraces, spiked gauntlets, greaves and wielded longswords. The powerful looking knights embraced a vastly different assortment of gear. The immediately noticeable difference was that they were wearing full plate armor that seemed to fit their bodies perfectly, and wielded completely different weapons from the rest. One had a halberd, another was grasping a spear, a third knight was oddly enough wielding a changdao and the fourth was holding a flail with its spiked ball dangling towards the ground.
Solstice began to look around to take in the environment they were currently in. They were in a forest, currently travelling on what looked to be a human made path that went straight through the forest all the way through. Solstice turned around again with his back facing the knight who had asked him why he stopped walking, and stared down the road ahead.
The sun was currently in the West, meaning that it was getting close to dusk. The sun also was….Red, it was a blazing red.
It looked like they still had a long way to go, in the distance he saw a beautifully pristine white, seemingly small castle which could very well be very large in reality as he was looking at it from afar. The red light from the sun was reflected off the pristine white castle, with the lush mountainous terrain behind it, it definitely made viewing it from this distance picturesque. He deduced that the castle was most likely their destination and taking in the fact that he was at the forefront of the convoy, he was probably meant to be their guide.
The knight spoke up again.
"Is there something troubling you?"
Actually there was….
The road was a straight path through the forest so nothing was in their direct line of way, there was no need for a guide, all they needed to do was to go forward. So if Solstice was sent to walk in front of the convoy like a guide would, yet there was no need for a guide, then why was Solstice in the front? What was his role in this convoy? A guard? No, they had plenty of them and he wouldn't even be a good one, with the state of his body.
Solstice turned around, once again facing the knight. The knight was patiently waiting for Solstice to answer.
The knight wore a stoic expression on his face, one of his black eyes was blinded and had a nasty scar cut across his face that extended to even below his chin. He had a ginger stubble, with short curly ginger hair to go along with it. He was also firmly grasping the hilt of his longsword, ready to unsheathe it at a moment's notice.
Solstice had no clue what to do. Not only was he put in a heavily damaged body, he didn't know what the role he was assigned was. But honestly that was the least of his worries.
Everyone showing signs of being chosen by the Wyrd is to be briefed and have an adequate understanding of what would happen and what to do but he did not. Majority of people chosen only felt a weight on their mind growing stronger by the day. People that suffered madness visions were a step above. Normally, people having madness visions meant one of two things. One, that the fate forced onto him would be powerful or, two….that it was unique.
Solstice felt as if he was actually both, which is extremely rare, not many people had a strong/unique fate, both however, was nigh unheard of. Solstice could count only a handful of people that were chosen to carry both, which meant that his 1st Chain Trial would be impossibly dangerous.
What made it even more dreadful though, was that he did not get enough time for Jest to tell him what he needed to do once undergoing the Chain Trial. Solstice should've had at least one hour before he fully succumbed to the Wyrd. Fifteen minutes though, was all the time that Solstice was granted, which was the fastest someone ever succumbed to the weight of the Wyrd in history.
If he remembered correctly, the original record holder was a twelve year old girl who succumbed to the weight of the pull in 28 minutes. Whatever fate that she had to deal with, she did not survive it as it was too harrowing, even if she was granted fantastical powers.
The information Jest was meant to tell Solstice was truly vital to his survival.
The briefing was composed of details documented from previous chosen when they experienced their Chain Trials. It contained details of how to view your "Rings", which was an ancient language the Wyrd liked to use to describe its many mysteries and auto-translate the meaning behind them for the chosen. That also included the chosen's abilities and powers, additionally it allowed them to see the degree of the fate that had been bestowed upon them and its rank.
Which meant Solstice had no way for him to look at his abilities and fate therefore, did not know how to feel for them and use them while also not having a gauge for how bad his fate truly was.
He would either have to experiment with himself until he acquired some clues as to what they were and how to view his rings or, he would have to be forced to discover them under a dire situation, if he even stayed alive to do so.
Solstice finally decided to answer the patiently waiting knight.
"I seemed to have…..forgotten something. I'm sorry, what exactly is my role here?"
The knight stared at him with a piercing gaze and walked up to him. Solstice had to stare down at the knight's face, he really did not know how tall he was, but seeing as how he was towering over the ginger haired knight, he truly felt like a giant. The knight did not falter at Solstice's fearsome height however and stood in front of him, locking eyes with the tall man.
"There is no times for jokes and there won't be anytime for them in the future either"
"Not until we pass through this cursed forest and make it to the castle"
After keeping eye contact for a minute, the ginger knight turned around and walked back to the wagon that he had come from.
"Keep walking forward and do what you do best!"
With that, Solstice turned back around facing the beautiful white castle that lay in the distance, and hesitantly started walking.
'But what the hell do I do best? This is too goddamn weird!'
After about an hour of walking with seemingly no progress, the red sun was finally setting, which meant it was time to make camp for the night.
Solstice didn't really have anywhere to sleep except the cold hard ground. It didn't help that he was also shirtless, he felt like he was going to itch all night from laying in the grass and dirt. Nevertheless, Solstice just had to deal with the sleeping situation whether he liked it or not, anyhow this will all end as soon as he finishes the Chain Trial.
Before he decided to rest for the night, he wanted to go try his luck and see if the knights were generous enough to give him some food, he felt like he had been starved for countless weeks. As Solstice started walking over to a group of three nights that were huddled around a small campfire, each enjoying what seemed to be some sort of soup, they noticed his approaching presence and gave him an unfriendly look.
One of them spoke up.
"What are you coming over here for?"
Solstice felt uncomfortable under their gazes but he forced out an answer. Even if it would only be a single spoonful, he would gladly accept it.
"I was wondering if it would be possible to have a bowl for myself, of course, only if you would allow"
The three knights all collectively glanced at each other with confused expressions.
"Sure but what changed? You never ask….you know what nevermind"
The knight got up from his resting spot and went over to the pot and prepared a bowl for Solstice. The knight preparing his food was a short woman, black hair, hazel eyes and you could tell by the way she moved that she carried herself confidently. She reached forward with the bowl of soup in her hand towards Solstice.
"Thank you"
As Solstice stared at the soup with hungry eyes he hesitantly spoke up again.
"Do you mind if I join you all for a meal?"
In complete synchronicity, all three knights jumped, this time their confusion was mixed with a slight feeling of fear. The woman who handed the bowl of soup to Solstice eyes widened ever so slightly for a split second then went back to normal. She looked up at Solstice's face steeling her resolve.
"I'm sorry but may I ask why?"
"I just thought it would be nice to have some company….that's all"
Now the woman was completely frozen in fear. The two knights behind her were also trembling but they were not frozen like she was. Eventually, after an unruly amount of silence, one of the other knights who had been trembling previously, began to finally regain his ability to speak.
"Ceres"
The woman snapped out of whatever it was that had instilled so much fear in her and smiled reluctantly.
"You can eat with us if you'd like"
With that, the woman turned around and sat back down where she had been before she prepared Solstice a bowl of food.
'So that's her name huh….I'll remember her kindness'
Solstice plopped down on the ground next to the fire, there was a weird tension in the air as he began to devour spoonfuls of his soup like a savage dog. After he finished the soup, he handed the bowl back to Ceres and thanked her for the food which awarded him even more confused and fearful looks from her and the other two knights.
Solstice walked back to where his sleeping spot was and finally laid down for the night. He was tired and although he was very appreciative of the food he was given, he still felt like he could easily eat another five bowls of soup before he could feel somewhat satisfied.
After drifting into sleep, he had a nice dream which is good, because he probably wouldn't get another one for a long time.
He was not ready for what was about to wake him up….
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