Wish

Dreams || Chapter 1 (1/2)

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.