Almost there.
He could feel it. Finally, after days and months of searching he knew it was here. Countless dead-ends, false hopes, and fruitless labors had finally yielded that which he sought.
It was here.
The mist had long ago set in, and the sun was no longer visible from where he walked. Sheer rock faces covered in large boulders and sparse vegetation stood on his sides. Ahead and behind, there was nothing but mist.
Too late to turn back. Keep going forward.
He had traveled for days to get to where he was, following the most rudimentary of maps, a map outlining a place that shouldn't even exist. And yet here he was. He had made it to the mountains where it was hidden, had found the hidden pass, and all that was left was to find the forest itself.
So close. So very close.
And then the mists ended. Before he even knew it, the path itself ended. Sunlight streamed down, warming his face as he looked down the edge of the cliff on which he stood. Below was a paradise of strange, violet colored trees, the sounds of thousands of birds and hundreds of animals all prevalent. But the magnificent sight of the strange and wondrous forest was not what drew his eye. No, instead he looked on as the sunlight glinted off a lake in the distance, near the center of the forest. A strange silver sheen was reflected off the surface, and as he saw it, he knew.
He had found it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
He trudged along underneath the great canopies of the giant, violet colored trees. The thick leaves of dark green and purple did not deter the sunlight enough to hamper his vision, but he hardly noticed. Animals and birds flocked to him in curiosity, never had they before seen a human, so they crowded close around, to the point where anyone one else would have been extremely uncomfortable. But he did not notice. He was a man with a purpose, he found that which he had sought with all his might. His goal was close and nothing would deter him now.
As he neared the edge of the lake, the creatures of the forest stopped following and watched, now silent, as the man approached the lake shore. It became quiet, with no breeze to stir the leaves, and no calls to pierce the air. It was as if all the forest waited in tense anticipation.
He stepped onto the white sands and stopped. He reached into one of the various pouches on his person and produced a canteen. Dumping what was inside the canteen onto the ground, he stepped forward and knelt beside the water. He dipped the canteen into the silver lake water and filled the canteen to the brim.
The man stood and considered what he was about to do. Did he dare pay the supposed price the others had warned him off when he was searching for the lake? The price said to be so terrible it had driven men mad, the price that would change your very self?
He hesitated only once and, for that brief small second, the entire forest held its breath, awaiting his decision.
He would do it.
Do it for her.
He would do anything for her.
So the man tipped back the canteen, and drank every last drop inside. The forest was as quiet as death itself, maybe even more so. The man stood stock still for a few seconds, then, his eyes widened as the first tendrils of power erupted within him. And that was when the screams started.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Far away from that hidden valley, far away from anywhere the other man had ever been, a dark purple-skinned man snapped his head towards where the hidden valley lain. The man was tall, and wore only a long pair of pants and a blindfold covering his eyes. But that was not what was strange about the man. His torso was covered in glowing green symbols and lines that pulsed in strange ways, and in his hands were two double-bladed swords, each sword curved for optimum efficiency, they were carved with symbols much like the ones on this purple-skinned man's torso that also glowed a sickly green. But the strangest aspects about the man had to be the horns growing from his forehead, the large, demonic looking wings spreading from his back, and the unearthly glow of yellow light from behind the blindfold where the eyes must have been.
The man felt the power surge, and pondered what would happen now that another had found the hidden lake. Would they fall mad to its power or would they rise, stronger, more powerful than they could have ever dreamed? The man smirked because he knew, only whoever had tapped into the lakes power could decide, as it was all a test of will.
So the man set out, heading towards the lake where ages ago he poured a small vial of magical water into the lake itself, creating something unexpected and unknown. Where ages ago, his experiment had gone awry, and he left it behind, thinking it failed. Where he was wrong, and where his meddling had produced something of untold power. So now it was time to see just who was the fool who thought he needed power enough to challenge almost any being on the planet.
The man smirked again.
This was going to be fun.