@nat
I need help. A lot of it. PLease.
Also heres the first chapter-
A vast array of flora and fauna thrive in the depths of the cave, far from sun and sky. Bioluminescent fungi and other phenomena paired with highly reflective gems which riddle the walls bring forth the light from which the organisms survive off of. The exuberant plant life supply food to a surprisingly vast number of herbivores, and those creatures serve as prey to a staggering number of predators. Those creatures diets are sometimes supplemented by the occasional hapless adventurer.
With mysterious darkness in its arsenal, the cave is a formidable force of power. It's nature tempered with to create this villain, a villain which parents use as persuasion with unwilling children. A villain which the society and the monarchical government looks at during times of famine, plague, and war. It is a crutch which holds the reputation of evil deities and destructive beasts which live only to kill.
The stories talk of blanketed folds of darkness that shelter savage brutes like they're bed bugs, just waiting for a naive victim.
Few to none know the truth.
Yes, there are creatures which could cause vicious death, such as the skia or the spitha, but there are also protectors. Mighty weapons of peace. Creatures more human than monster, but more powerful than the strongest human weapons fired all at once.
And yet no one will accept it. The stories lead these creatures to be malevolent, vindictive, vile. They depict winged demons of darkness with glowing eyes, sharp teeth, and a yearning for blood. They talk of merciless hunts, and even more merciless deaths.
There are only two of these immortal super weapons. And they do not quite live up to their notoriety
…
In the settled fields a disturbance erupts, sending a glowing pulse through the large flowers. A hunt has started. The disturbance was one of a boy waking up, his head pops up above the surface, eyes full of fear, praying for a warning, knowing there would be none.
He didn't know quite how he got there but knew where he was; in the Field of Glowing Flowers. He'd studied this area since the beginning of his youth, and he knew what to do if need be. Or rather, what not to do, which is everything. One minuscule movement could send another pulse through the field, giving the creatures who call this place home, and game board, warning as to his precarious location. The Field of Glowing Flowers is layered with warnings from the indigenous peoples he was born into and raised with, telling him not to wander into the boundaries. The one problem is no one ever thought to orate upon how he could possibly wake up in the middle of it, or how he wouldn't remember the events leading up to the endeavor he was currently enduring.
A metallic scent filled the air. A cool breeze from the north sent shivers down his spine. The slight movement of his body set off a wave.
A shift to the left.
A sniff to the right.
A feeling of terror coursed through the young elf’s body.
I'm a hunter! I can do this!
A flower lit up, a mere few meters away.
A fifth tier apprentice hunter…
His heart pounded, his hands shook so much he feared the movement would yet again spark a wave through the flowers.
A flower closer to him shifted. A purr from behind him, more sniffing.
With nothing to do that could help, the boy closed his eyes and waited for death. The creatures quite obviously knew where he was already, at this point they were simply toying with him, so he held his breath and awaited the inevitable.
But it didn't come.
For, the next thing he knew, he was in the air, looking down at his would be killers create a chorus of cacophony; of growls, and moans, and screams of anguish, that their food, their toy, was getting away.
The breath he had held in he released as a deep sigh of relief. Any knowledge of the countless number of scoldings he would garner when he arrived back to the village eluded him, for he had been saved from supposed imminent death.
…
Aloisia is a creature of habit. Every first light, she makes the rounds, and every nightfall, she makes the rounds. And if it weren't for her obsessive-compulsive behavior, one young hunter would be having a very different night.
Her least favorite part of the path is when she flys over the Field of Glowing Flowers. The lingering abundance of the metallic smell and taste overwhelm the two senses and her heart pounds as she prays not to see someone in there. The spitha may be small but they are abundant and corrupt little rodents. In the daylight their white coats, large eyes, and small stature play them off to be innocent creatures of light, but come across one at night, or when it is hungry, and they're white coats become black as darkness itself, and the large eyes become hollow and insistent, following you and every move you make. The slinky creatures are silent as feathers, so silent you wouldn't know of its existence until it laid directly in your route. They never leave the boundaries of their field with less than hoards of 20 or more; however, you usually only see one at a time.
They have small front legs but long, powerful back legs which have the ability to propel the small, two to three-foot long being, to measurements up to six to seven times their own length. Their large ears hear all, and their voidable eyes see everything.
The most terrifying thing about these bijou creatures is their mouths. They are not riddled with rows of mucronate teeth, and they don't have sharp, poisonous fangs. Alternatively, they have unhinged slingshot jaws giving them the ability to swallow any variety of pray alive and whole, not stopping for anything in there way, including their own kind.
They later eject the living beings from their stomachs into their territory, the Field of Glowing Flowers, and wait for them to awaken.
And then they play with their food. Letting the prey think they have a chance to run, but they don't. One brush of a petal fosters a flourish of yellow luminescence throughout the field. To step on a flower would cause an uproar of thorny vines to spiral out of the ground, entangling the already impotent being and ensuring their ruthless death.
So Aloisia was a saving grace to the poor boy who sat shivering in the Field of Glowing Flowers.
From her vantage point, she could see the field ripple with light and she could see the tiny lunatics scampering through the flowers towards the source of the disturbance. A young hunter apprentice she hasn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting.
Let's hope I get the chance.
She spins quickly and tucks her massive wings close to her side, heading into a dive. The little creatures brush past the boy, she could hear the beat of his heart quicken and she pushes faster.
…
Felix feels his feet touch the warm ground. He breathes in a sigh of relief, happy to be back to safe on terra firma.
If there is a god as the humans believe, he thinks, breathing deeply with his eyes still shut, he was looking out for me tonight.
He opens his eyes and his heart leaps up to his throat and out his mouth.
“Aloisia. I, I can explain! I promise.” he thinks for a second, jaw dropped and eyes wide as he looks unto the being he thought he’d never see stand so nonchalantly, leaning against the wall of his house. “Well, no. I can’t.” he looks down in despondency, shuffling his feet and awaiting punishment.
“Chin up, Felix.” He looks at her in surprise.
She knows my name?
“But,”
“Do you want to be in trouble for me finding you in a deadly situation I know you’re not stupid enough to get into by yourself?” Felix notices a slight twang to her words, the accent of an ancient language, long forgotten by most. Her heterochromatic eyes stare into him, reading his movements as if she were reading his thoughts, knowing what he would say before he says it.
But he says nothing, he instead looks back down at his feet the wooden boards underneath, wishing they would give out so he could leave.
Aloisia sighs and stands up straight, her massive set of blonde and black wings now fully visible, her long, flocculent tail sweeping steadily as she takes a few steps closer to him.
“Felix, age 16, right around the corner from becoming a fully fledged, fourth tier, immortal hunter. First to accomplish such a feit at his age, and youngest in his current tier. If you continue on the track you are on, youngest to earn immortality.” Her eyes and the swirling black marks which stretch across her whole body begin to cast a golden glow, and her wings, tail, and large wolf-like ears fizzle away until she looks like any other elf. The only thing giving her away were her blue and green eyes, which drain of their intensity and glow.
Felix feels her piercing hyperawareness drift into a subtle background mumble, he looks up and his worry and fear is picked off of him as if she was lifting a mountain off of his shoulders.
“I’m sorry.” he finally says.
“No. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner or even before you ended up in that situation in the first place.” Her voice was smooth like honey and the lilt is her words mesmerized Felix, but why was she saying sorry for things she couldn’t have stopped?
“You are saying sorry for things you couldn’t have stopped, so I decided to do the same.”
How does she do that?
“Go inside and tell no one what happened to you. We will figure out how you got there and prevent it from happening again, okay?” She gingerly placed her hand on his shoulder as he nodded his head in agreement. “Sleep well Felix, and keep up the training.” she pulled her hand away as she began to glow once again and her wings fizzled back to reality, she spread them and took off, so silent, it seemed as if she was never there in the first place.
Felix touched his shoulder.
I’ll make this second chance worth it.
He quietly stepped into his home, a new determination in his gait.
