The sound of high-pitched calls of eagles rang out in the sky above the Uncanny Forest, as if singing a melody, an anthem promising freedom. Beneath the calls, in the misty expanse of the Uncanny Forest, was the sound of snow crunching underneath my feet as I ran frantically, desperately trying to escape from my pursuers.
My freedom was so near.
One of the two guards accompanying Amanda and chasing me through the forest barked an order for me to stop. I didn't; instead, I increased my pace, feeling the cold air hitting the bare skin on my torso, and creeping into the thin rags I somehow tied together into pants two sizes too big on me. My feet felt numb, my breath became heavier by the second. I wanted to listen to the guard so badly and stop, but I knew I couldn't, I didn't want to, and I won't. For if I knew that if I were to stop or even lessen my pace by even a grain's worth, the chance of me escaping my fate as a slave would fade to none.
Surrounding me, Amanda, and the two guards accompanying her were the Uncanny Forest's signature onyx trees decorated with a myriad of screaming faces that almost looked human, giving those who gazed upon them an eerie, uneasy feeling, as hinted by the name Uncanny Forest.
I heard the rattling of the metal armor the two guards wore getting closer and closer. Increasing my pace out of fear of getting caught, the snow moved treacherously beneath my feet, and I stumbled forward, face-first into the cold, soft bedding of snow.
Shit! I started cursing internally.
High above, the birds stopped their choir, as if losing the hope of gaining the freedom they already attained.
God, I hate birds.
I tried getting up, but instead, I was grabbed by the neck and yanked up, my face facing the older of the guards. Saying that he was angry was an understatement; his face seemed almost red, split by a strained smirk.
"Pathetic creature," he said, his voice low. "Why did you run?"
I felt as if my neck was going to explode from how hard the guard was squeezing it. For a few moments, I couldn't breathe or so much as groan from the sheer pain of having my life almost squeezed out of me.
"Enough." Amanda's calm voice came from behind the guard as she walked towards us. "Put him down, now." She added her voice as commanding as could be, almost as if she was the Awakened and the guard was the Mundane, not the other way around.
The young man looked at her, clicked his tongue in disdain, an action that would've resulted in a confrontation with the female guard; she even gripped the sword at her side and managed to half unsheath it, if not for Shams' interference, putting her hand on the one the female guard gripped the sword with, a confrontation between the young man and the young lady would've been inevitable. I was thrown to the ground a few meters away from the male guard. Shams walked to him, sticking her hand out expectantly.
"Where are the shackles?" He looked at his hands, tilting her head.
When realization hit her, she dashed away from him, towards the other one. The other guard placed herself in front of Shams protectively and shouted at the young man.
"Idiot!"
The Idiot in question looked at them, confused. The slave shackles materialized in his hand out of thin air as the ether moved through his body towards his storage artifact, calling upon the shackles. When he realized the weight of his idiotic actions, a look of pure terror was plastered on his face, the slave shackles fell from his hands onto the snow, as he tried to run, dash, do anything.
But…It was far too late.
The onyx spaces between the uncanny faces decorating the trees rippled as if becoming liquid. Long, slender hands shot forward from the trees surrounding the guard, holding on to every part of his body they could possibly get their hands on. He shouted, screamed, and tried to resist, but how could a mere Awakened Artist resist the sheer might of a Stained Beast? The young man's body was ripped apart, blood, viscera, and severed limbs falling, staining the once pristine white snow.
Fucking idiot.
I mean, he set his own fate in stone. The Uncanny Forest wasn't inhabited by Abyssal Creatures. But it was. The Onyx Trees were the Abyssal Creatures; they didn't attack since they possessed no senses except one, the ether sense. So when he siphoned ether into the storage artifact and stopped suppressing his ether, he technically killed himself.
I took the chance, got up, and ran towards my freedom. It didn't take long for it to be in sight of me. In front of me, like a white flame of hope in a long dark tunnel, or the moon in a starless night. The great white tree stood tall, towering over its onyx kin. Pristine and untouched, welcoming. Just like its onyx kin, it was decorated. Unlike its onyx kin, however, it was a singular, calm, welcoming face. Beneath the face was a crack leading to the tree's hollow inside. I increased my speed, just in case.
Turns out it was the right thing to do since in the next moment, I heard Amanda's calm voice dangerously close to my ears, calling out for me.
I passed underneath the face, through the crack, into the tree. Immediately, the sense of unbearable cold vanished, replaced by warmth. The environment here was different from the snowy outside; it was luscious, but I gave it no mind. Instead, I was focused on one thing. The well, specifically what's in front of the well. Like an error, a tear through the fabric of reality, the First Recording was just a colorless nothing, blending with everything. It pulled me closer, and I did not resist. I embraced it, I embraced the First Recording…
I embraced freedom.
***AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME LATER***
Darkness.
Complete, utter darkness. I was drifting, floating in a sea of absolute black. There was nothing else. Even my senses seemed to stop working, giving me a strange feeling of peace and tranquility. I felt as if I was both nothing and everything, infinite yet irrelevant, paramount yet at the same time insignificant. Time passed. I didn't know how much. It could've been a mere fleeting moment or a vast millennium. I didn't know, it felt as if I was in those few moments between dream and reality, when the brain isn't fully awake nor fully asleep. But the vast darkness shattered into a myriad of black fragments, giving way to brilliant white light in the spaces between them.
A ground of silver materialized beneath me, and I finally made landfall. As soon as my toes touched the silver floor, it rippled like mercury at room temperature. Six great, giant, silver-framed mirrors rose from underneath the layer of mercury. The white colored light fell on each of the mirrors, bouncing off in rays that fell on me and converged.
I felt a strange sensation at the beginning of my thoracic spine. It felt more warm than painful. Soon enough, a few pieces of fragmented black, hovered towards me, blocking the light. As soon as the reflected rays of light made contact with the dark shards, they turned mirrors, and the light reflected onto the rest of the black fragments, turning them into mirrors just like the first few.
Fully regaining my consciousness, I fell on my knees just in front of the large white basin that was filled with golden particles. Tears welled up behind my eyes as emotions overwhelmed me. Eventually, I managed to mutter through sobs.
"I…I'm free."