"...Absolve me of what is repugnant."
Yadrith opened his eyes.
'Absolve me of what is repugnant?' Those words ravaged his mind, like a parasite causing him to immediately grip his head. Such an odd phrase continued to repeat itself in his mind.
He realized it wasn't the phrase that was important, but the person that said it.
He stood up, hanging onto that sentence as if it had some relevance.
'Where am I?'
A vast grassland was before him, and above him a starless night sky.
'...Four moons?'
In that sky hang four moons, each of variable sizes. Each of them seemed to shine a different color.
"Insane," He clutched his forehead in pain, and trudged forward in the grass. 'How did I get here?'
Waking up on the moist grass caused his entire body to feel dirty, this entire situation just felt...
Icky?
It felt uncomfortable and disorienting.
"I don't think I'm anywhere near the city..." He paused, staring at the field of grass. 'The grass looks like it's slightly blue.'
He felt humor in his perilous situation as he moved forward. It was dark, cold, and moist. There was hardly any light cast upon him by the four moons, yet he still moved forward. Eventually, far ahead, his eyes caught sight of a looming shadow.
Or no... Not a shadow...
"A forest?"
He felt like it was the first time he had actually seen a forest. It wasn't easy living in the center of a city.
'This must be a dream.' He smiled, it wasn't often he retained such a level of consciousness in his dream. Rather, It wasn't often that he dreamt.
Another quake of brief pain attacked his head as he heard the chiming of a bell behind him.
"..."
He silently turned backward and frowned.
A malevolent filled intent washed over him, causing the primal instinct of fear to boil up within his chest. His hairs stood up, and his pupils began to shake.
'This... This is not a dream!' He inwardly shouted as he turned back around, immediately going into a full sprint, he let out a breath of denial.
Denial that this is reality.
Ring!
The bell rung once more, causing his heart to feel like it was going to burst, the vengeful energy seemed to amplify and before he could process it—a powerful shockwave struck him, knocking him right off his feet and sending him flying.
He was propelled into the ground just ahead of him at a ridiculous speed. The moment he made impact, he felt multiple ribs shatter, and his arm with it. Luckily, those bones absorbed most of the force, as with the next bounce, he was relatively unharmed.
Full of adrenaline, he pounced back to his feet and continued to run toward the forest. The shockwave sent him much closer, but he still was quite far from it.
Ring!
His teeth began to chatter.
Ring!
He felt his entire body go numb.
Ring!
He could hardly hear the last chime, his sense of hearing was mostly faded. Adrenaline and the great fear he felt were all that remained, dragging him toward the forest. His mouth curved as he passed the first tree, entering into the thick cover of the forest.
Ring!
His trials were unfortunately not yet over. Another shockwave of great power struck him.
The power carried in the new shockwave was far greater than the last, instead of propelling him in the direction he was going like last time, it sent him flying into the air as if the world itself had rejected him.
'Hells!'
He felt his entire body lift into the air abruptly, or more accurately, he didn't feel it. It's just that's what he saw, the feeling in his body was numbed by the chiming bell. Or at least, that was his hypothesis.
He was tossed right through the upper part of a tree, immediately losing consciousness from head trauma, then fell soundly right down the back side of the tree next to it.
Somehow, he was still alive.
Yet unconscious.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
As he was unconscious, the bell continued to ring, however the ring was much softer. Eventually, a few minutes later, there were no more rings. Whatever had been ringing the insidious bell had halted their art.
***
Yadrith slowly opened his eyes, oddly finding himself surrounded by darkness.
"...Darkness?" He frowned and lifted his hand to rub his eyes.
As his hand passed the threshold of his neck, he felt a soft liquid fall over his face.
"..."
His eyes dilated.
The hand was missing.
He let out a short breath and screamed, "Hah.... Ahh!" Blood continued to spurt over his body as he moved his arm out of his view. His eyes, soaked in blood, burned with a terrible pain. He turned to stand up.
Only, his legs did not work.
The numbing sensation began to fade, and he cried out in pain once more.
'It feels like there are holes in my legs!' He crawled forward in the darkness, feeling lightheadedness set in as his blood leaked out of his wounds.
Grrrr!
He stopped moving and his mouth slowly parted. His eyes had adapted a bit to the darkness, and through the burning sensation of the blood he could see a figure before him.
A wolf covered in dark fur, resembling a black panther blending in with the dark cave, stared down at him.
"F-fuck..." He sharply muttered, it took all of his willpower to not just accept his fate.
The wolf's bright yellow eyes began to widen, and Yadrith instinctually reacted. Ignoring the pain and loss of function in his legs, he shot up to his feet. He felt the adrenaline filling him with strength as he slowly backed away from the wolf.
'Wh-' He tensed, seeing the yellowed eyes vanish, and the figure of the wolf in the darkness. "Where did you go, damn it!" He shouted, moving toward a speck of light further down the cave.
'No different from the field... I just need to make it to the forest.' He unpredictably dashed to the side before running straight toward the light.
'Did that work?' He had moved past the spot where the wolf had stood. Beads of sweat mixed with blood dropped down his face, and he felt a freeing feeling, almost like freedom.
He smiled and ran, not slowing down for a moment...!
Until suddenly, he was violently thrown off his feet and a sharp pain came from his legs. The wolf had caught up to him!
He grit his teeth, felt with anger instead of fear and threw his remaining hand toward the wolf. Surprisingly, it wasn't that strong, or it was just that he was filled with adrenaline.
"I'll kill you!" He felt momentary relief in his leg, but at that moment, the wolf moved with an unmatched agility, taking off four of his fingers with a singular bite.
"Aghhk!" He shouted in pain, his eyes turning even more bloodshot as he ignored it and pounced right on the dark wolf. He had no way to form a proper fist, so with the stump of his right arm, he sent it down right onto the wolf's face with all of his strength.
The wolf did not react. So he did it again—and once more with a crazed expression full of madness. However, as he was throwing his next strike, the wolf had managed to throw him off of it.
He clenched his jaw and quickly fixed himself back up to his feet.
The wolf matched his gaze for a moment before retreating into the darkness once more. Yadrith bit his lip and, in response, spoke a short curse, and limped toward the exit of the cave.
Right as he made it to the exit of the dark cave, his eyes violently snapped shut under the baptism of the sun. He continued on softly, attempting to open his eyes.
'I need to distance myself from this cave.'
He told himself while continuing into the forest.
"Keok...Keok!" He coughed, and right after, he fell back down to his knees. His eyes slowly opened in a dazed state, blood was spraying out of his right arm, and on his left blood was leaking from where his fingertips were.
"Sh-shit," He said with a hint of fear mixed with amazement. His pupils dilated and his expression twisted.
"Help!" He yelled.
He felt his mind go cloudy, perhaps due to blood loss.
"Help!"
"Please! Somebody, anybody!" He screamed, tears streaming down his face. His bloodstained eyes seemed to turn a shade darker as his opened mouth slowly came to a close.
"..."
"Hahhahaha!" He laughed, "This... This is some kind of joke, right?" He muttered.
His expression turned became more distorted by the second, and he suddenly raised his mutilated arms into the sky. "Where is my reward for perseverance, you bastard!" He stared into the sky filled with four moons and now a small sun lighting the world. "Where the fuck even am I?!" His voice cracked, and he fell down to the ground, biting his lips.
"This fucking hurts!" He curled both his arms in toward his stomach in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Eventually, he felt his head going light, so he decided to get back up and get far away from the cave.
He jogged at a moderate speed, cleverly covering a fair amount of distance. Besides that wolf, there was no sign of any other living things in the forest.
'How does that wolf survive without any prey...?' The thought popped into his head, 'I don't even hear insects.'
He swallowed at the ominous feeling.
Right after his swallow, his vision went dark once more, and he fell right to the ground.