The Fall

The fall was long. Ren struggled to stay conscious but knew that if he failed to, he’d die. The light from the surface was far gone now.

He crashed into some leaves and branches that softened his fall a bit but ultimately broke under his weight. The next checkpoint wasn’t as forgiving. A shoulder smashed into stone, effectively making it useless. He opened his mouth to scream, but nothing came out.

The fall continued until he was blessed with deep cold water. Thankfully the water wasn’t violent. If it was, he’d probably be dead.

He struggled to swim to the edge, where he could finally rest for a moment. Masses of rotten wood and bones surrounded him, probably from the other people who had fallen. Coughing up more blood, Ren crawled up to a wall to prop up his back upon. His clothes were completely soaked, hugging his skin tight to the point where it almost felt suffocating.

Damage assessment. His right shoulder, out of commission. His arms were shredded, drizzling with blood. His insides were still messed up from the vice commander’s wind attack and he was struggling to stay awake at all. To top it all off, he didn’t find warmth soon he might die from the cold.

At least Nila was alright. He hoped.

Ren tapped his head against the cold stone wall. If those branches hadn’t caught some of his fall, he would’ve been dead on impact. He should consider himself lucky. But he didn’t really want to.

If his luck was being used here it was far too cruel. Ren would’ve given anything for that luck to be somewhere else. If only he was lucky to have not met the vice commander, or lucky to be sent another way, or even lucky enough to return home earlier.

That stung.

If he returned home earlier, he probably would’ve perished alongside it.

And some part of him would’ve been ok with that.

Tears grew and threated to fall. Maybe he should let him. Maybe it’d be better if they fell. Maybe…

Ren slammed his able hand onto the stone wall in a fist. Since when had he become so indecisive? So cowardly? He clenched his teeth hard, and swallowed a burning lump that formed at the back of his throat.

He needed to move. Now. The luxury of time was gone from his corner.

Drawing his knees toward his chest and pressing his one able palm against the wall, he prepared to give himself a lift off. He counted down and pushed himself off, but fell back down. His breathing rapidly increased as he prepared to go once more. There was no time for sulking, no room for self pity.

Ren summoned his strength and launched himself from the wall once more, ending up stumbling across the floor to gather his balance. He took deep breaths as to not fall. His first step was painful. His next step even more so. But he couldn’t stop moving. Not yet.

“Damn it,” he cursed through clenched teeth.

Focus. Focus. Each step. One movement at a time.

His eyes, glued to the ground, eventually found a source of light brightening up his surroundings. Looking up, he found himself in front of an interweaving mass of tree roots, all curving into one another. From the center protruded a soft blue light that lit up the cave. Ren narrowed his eyes, noticing the light around was moving at a rhythmic pace. Slowly reaching far, than drawing close, over and over again. But that was the least of Ren’s concerns. All he knew was that it was a dead end.

He was about to turn back but his vision blurred slightly causing him to stumble into the wall of the cavern. His body slid down as his legs weakened. Out of the corner of his eye, the tree roots started to slither towards him, expanding their reach until it reached him. Ren kicked them back, but there were too many, and before he knew it, the roots had wrapped around all of his limbs.

Too weak to fend them off, Ren cried out. But his screams did nothing. His energy started to filter out from his body and eventually, he didn’t even have the strength to open his eyes. A sea of regret flooded his mind as the dark wails of his mind caved in.

He waited for something to happen.

But nothing came.

Suddenly, strength poured back into Ren’s body and his eyes shot up in new found vitality. A warm touch enveloped his body and his wounds no longer stung. A soft wisp came to his ears to mutter something unintelligible. Even though he couldn’t understand, it almost felt like the tree roots were leaving something to him.

A grasp of loneliness clutched his heart, but it was gone as quickly as it came and suddenly, the tree roots were gone from his limbs. They shriveled back toward the center of the overgrowth, continuing to shrink into the ground, leaving behind a residue of blue light.

Ren stared at the roots in bewilderment, before walking closer to try and understand the mysterious situation he had found himself in. He was so mystified, he barely noticed that his injuries weren’t hindering him anymore.

He approached the thicket to realize something, no, someone was wrapped within the roots. Something unexplainable urged Ren forward. An immense desire swarmed his brain, forcing him to move forward and dig toward the person trapped inside.

Ren questioned himself, but didn’t stop. For some reason, his current action’s weren’t his own.

It took him a while to make it past the thick tree roots, but he eventually cleared them and grabbed the person out. He had expended more energy than he realized, falling to the ground in exhaustion.

He glanced down at the person he saved, realizing something very strange was going on with her. A glow, similar to the one the roots possessed, was originating from her chest. Ren could sense that it was because of a dense ball of mana, imbedded within her, yet the light was slowly fading. Someone very skilled must have made that for her. Mana isn’t naturally able to be used for a prolonged amount of time.

Beside that, she had some other weird features. Distinct silver hair that wasn’t common within the continent, and strange clothes that he didn’t recognize. But before he could organize the questions in his head, the light from her chest had fully gone down, until the other light emanated around the cavern was from the roots in the ground.

Her eyes lifted up slowly a few moments after. Ren couldn’t react in time before she dashed toward him and slammed him to the wall.

“Where. Are they?!”