Chapter 3: Emergence

Soft… so soft…

Is it…

Can you hear it?

It's soft… but there all the same…

Can you hear it now?

Heh… I guess it's impossible after all…

…For the only ones to hear are the ones with it…

Very well… I'll tell you: It's calling to me… again.

I suppose that's about right… for the time that has passed. But you don't know do you? Time has little meaning to the unaware after all…

Anyways, it's been a little over four days since the slaughter in the wood. Four days… it seems unbelievably short to me. Years ago, when I first felt the compulsion, I killed to escape insanity. After that first blood, the hunger dissipated for a course of several years… though I guess that was just because I kept the hunger fed silently… since ever since that day I've been killing to survive.

But damn it! I'm regressing… I apologize.

Even though I said the history which is the bane of my existence was something that I'd disregard, here I find myself blabbing about it once again. And to you… of all blasted things. To you…

What are you anyway? You hound me… stalk me… yet listen to me. Have you really any other purpose? What are you? Are you to serve any purpose at all?

Heh heh…

I understand now…

You think I'm delusional… a person without core… without being…

Well to hell with you… all of you. Whatever you are… JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME?

I get it… you are them… you are those… you are…

NOTHING! That's what you are… NOTHING! Delusions… nothingness…

Ah… people you say… shadows of my victims? But you didn't say anything… of course you didn't… you can't even speak.

AHAHAHAHA! I get it…. I get it! You are nothing. I was right. Because…

Because you are already dead.

But can the dead mock? Of course… my second soul mocks me daily… so of course you can. Of course you can…

Then… if that's the truth, then why persist? Why follow me?

Leave me! Go away! Go be the burden of others! Just not me!

…

No?

…

You refuse? You… you can do that? No… you can't do that. I won't allow it.

If you won't leave willingly…

I'LL MAKE YOU!

A split moment after, the forest as viewed from above quaked as a tremendous thunder rumble shook it to the core. Birds too afraid to know otherwise flew from the branches in great billowing clouds. Other things such as small to medium sized forest animals fled as well. However, the noise quickly subsided and silence once again claimed the forest… almost as fast as it had left.

Below the millions of leaves that made the thick forest canopy, a subdued noise crept through the silence. Though it was the middle of one of the hottest of summer days, the air underneath was cold… unnaturally cold. The noise ahead was getting louder, and almost sounded that of laughter. In fact, it was laughter.

The young man stood in the center of what until a few minutes ago was a heavy thicket. He stood seemingly uncaring to the world with his fist pressed to the empty air. What looked to be a tree stump was just in front of him. Whatever it was that had happened seemed to have amused him. His bare shoulders were quaking with unbridled madness. If it wasn't for the noise he was making, one would have assumed that the shaking could be interpreted as any of the core emotions.

It wasn't clear why at the moment… but he definitely seemed to be happy. Still though… such a thing was a wonder. All around him, the air was cool, no longer cold; the warm of summer had already started to seep back. However, everything around him no longer made sense. It was wrong.

Every tree… every bush… every visible form of plant life was frozen. What was more… tiny bits of wood lay imbedded in the now wood turned into ice. Whatever had existed of the wood prior to the event which made it, was simply no more. In fact… the very stump before him was clearly once a tree as well… which was also frozen. It didn't make sense.

With that… he sighed.

"Heh… that was fun… but yet you live." He looked up, and his dark hair fell to the sides of his face, framing his features just a bit more. Though he had an untidy appearance, there was no facial hair upon his face. It was as though he had just shaved… but the gleam in his eyes… his silver eyes, said otherwise. It was obvious that he could care less about appearance.

"And I thought that I had you with that one. Heh heh… ah…" he sighed again.

"No matter… it is as it is… and I guess I'll have to keep you."

He dropped his arm back to his side, then looked down to the stump and smiled.

"You like that?" he cocked his head in the direction of the broken tree. "I thought you would. That's just a taste of what I have to offer."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. At his side he unclenched his fist and flexed his fingers. Then he let the breath go slowly, and reopened his eyes. In an instant, they lost their silvery shine and reverted back to a brown color. He smiled.

"Like that… don't you?"

"I suppose that you might have seen it before… but I just thought that I should show you… just so you know… so you know." Feeling smug, he turned and started walking towards a warmer part of the forest. Though, before moving too far forward, he bent down and retrieved a rag of what one could call a shirt. With another amused grin, he swung it about his bare shoulders and fastened it.

"I guess you didn't know that either… I often lose some part of my clothing when I lose myself to the moment." He looked surprised and then kicked his head back and started laughing. "No no… I never lose anything that turns the situation that provocative… come now… what did you think?"

He smiled again. Something foreign and ancient flashed in his eyes momentarily and he shuddered. Again, he addressed the shadows of the forest as though they were living.

"Oh that? That was the Gift… if you didn't know.

"Wait… how did I use it?" He shrugged, then picked up a strange looking apple from the ground. It was of an odd shape and looked hazardous. Though it looked quite delicious, it was covered with what looked like razor sharp thorns. Without much of a care for himself, he grabbed the fruit with both hands and torn it apart. As he ate the fruit that lay in the delicate middle, large runs of dark blood ran from his palms and the backs of his hands, where the thorns had gone through, to his elbows.

Despite the obvious pain, he smiled again. "Wait a moment… you'll see."

He finished with the fruit and then pulled the pieces of the thorned hide from his hands. Using his mouth, he placed the pieces back on his bleeding hands, but just so the thorns rested on top of the unbroken skin. Smiling slyly, he looked back to the shadows.

"You like it? It's what we call thistle-apples. It's such a tame name… but it is to make them seem gentler I guess. When Obscurity settled the lands, things changed… including the fruits. Just another way the evils have saturated these lands. Just another thing we have to change…

"But I haven't answered anything yet. First… I don't know." He shook his head back and forth several times slowly before he spoke. "I don't know how to summon magic… I just do. No words… no external spirits… just magic. Watch."

He stretched out his hand and the fruit shell in his hand slowly turned cold… then all the water within it froze entirely. As this happened, the air around it also grew frigid, but his body did not feel it. Instead… the wounds on his hands stopped bleeding, and the skin flowed back together. In a matter of moments, his hands were completely healed. Satisfied, he sighed, letting the fruit smash against the ground.

"You see?" He held his healed hands into the air for all to see… despite the fact that he was alone. "Again… I willed it to occur… and I'm none the weaker for it… simply because I used what I used that was natural. The Gift."

He chuckled and set his hand to the nearest tree and pressed against it.

"You see? This tree is my ticket to a longer life. But I won't touch its life force… I won't come close. That is not my way. Watch… see if you can't tell me this time."

A minute later, the entire tree seized up and crashed around him. However, when he emerged from the pile… he smiled. He opened his mouth to speak when a larger noise than the crash split the already disturbed serenity of the land.

"Tis… just when I was getting to the good part." He ran his hand through his hair, then held it to the air as though to quiet the shadows.

"Come if you want… follow if you dare… I really, really don't give a damn."

With that said, and a bitter look, he strode from the broken remnants of the destroyed tree to a some what cleared spot. In that clearing that was a little over fifty yards across, he found what it was that had made the bellow that had brought him forth. Like always, he smiled.

"EXCUSE ME!"

A large slam echoed through the air as trees on the far side of the clearing split asunder as though taken out by a giant's axe. Though, as the scaly monstrosity turned and flared its emerald wings, an axe toting giant would have been preferable… had they actually existed. However, the dragon he now faced only served to heighten his insanity… as he closed his eyes and sighed.

"I know that you hunger…" He opened his eyes and smiled. The brown quickly fading to a silver that all but glowed. With clenched fists at his side, he stood defiantly, and then let his voice be heard.

"…But so do I!"

A/C (9/27/05): Thanks for the one review so far, I was surprised since I wasn't expecting any... but they are appreciated, and they definantaly increase the speed in which chapters are released. So honk if you're horn- I mean... review if you like it! The next chapter should start setting the stage a bit more... but since the chapters are short, there will probably be a lot down the road.