It had been a long quiet trip through darkness, but she had found her way here. She could not quite remember the path she had taken, but she did not mind. She had no reason to want to go back after all.
After all, there was no use sleeping with the dead.
She strode through the old tunnels until she came upon a sealed door. However, a few quick strikes broke it down.
But beyond it there were more doors. The first couple were simple enough, but after the third door she felt herself getting annoyed. What was the point of so many barriers? They served no purpose.
Behind the third door she found a small bug, similar to the ones in the darkness but with less armor and lacking that orange light. Its shell broke easily to her branch, but the amount of soul it offered was pitiful.
Boring.
The next door also had one of those little bugs behind it, and she killed that one too. It was rather simple really.
After that, the tunnels opened into a spatial cavern. Light shown in from cracks above, illuminating the rusted spikes hidden in the ground. A trap, she supposed, for the most idiotic of bugs.
She heard buzzing from above, and spotted a flying bug with large jaws. As she looked up at it, it screeched, and flew down, biting one of her horns.
It hurt, and she was angered. She swung the branch around, the claw crunching into its wings. The bug buzzed back, but she struck forward, skewering the bug into the wall with her weapon. Orange liquid dripped from its body, and she knew that this was that horrid light, in a less bright form. With disgust she threw the corpse into the spike pit.
Corpse. That was a new word. She realized she was learning lots of words, somehow. Something to do with her destination? She did not know.
She noticed a worn path up the cavern wall, leading closer to the dim light. She trotted along it, eager to see where it would lead.
Then she came across a strange image on the wall, which lit up with pale light in her presence. She curiously walked up to it, and noticed there were words on the wall.
"Higher beings, these words are for you alone.
Your great strength marks you amongst us. Focus your soul and you shall achieve feats of which others can only dream."
She tilted her head curiously. Focus? Interesting.
She looked at her branch, and lifted it. The soul it had gathered flowed into her, mending the crack in her horn and the cuts she had received on the way here. She felt invigorated, and pleased. That was a very useful power indeed.
Then she continued upwards. Always upwards. She wondered if there would ever be an end or if she would climb forever. Not that she particularly cared either way. Both possibilities would be of equal interest.
After some time she became aware of another light, soft and blue. It reminded her of something but she knew not what. Still, she felt drawn to it.
The light seemed to emanate from a large break in the wall, rubble littering the path. Glowing blue stalks tipped with fluttering wings grew out from the sides, and inside there was a pulsing blue cocoon. It was the source of that strange pull, and she wondered curiously what that meant.
She stood in that small room for a few moments, looking at the swirling liquid inside the cocoon. It was oddly beautiful, though she wasn't sure what beauty was or what that meant.
Then she took her branch and struck it down, spilling the liquid across the stones. The branch glowed, the liquid draining into it and infusing it with the light, and she felt herself growing stronger, the blue liquid glimmering from inside her. A few small blue bugs, made almost entirely of the liquid, attempted to escape her. A few swift strikes and their power was added to her own.
She watched the liquid drain away into the stones. Its revitalizing properties were impressive. The substance was not like anything she had ever encountered.
Yet it was also oddly familiar, in a way.
Once it was all gone, she started walking again. Her cloak, she noticed, had been partially stained blue by the liquid. The rest was still pink however.
Pink…she did not remember seeing that color on the others. How interesting.
The tunnel, she realized, was straightening. There was no more going up - she was going straight. Did that mean there was a limit, somewhere?
The path widened, and the road grew more packed. Thousands of bugs had once walked this path, though now it was cold and empty. She wondered what it would have been like. How much soul could have been gathered?
There! Another engraving. Swiftly she came towards it, curious to see what it read.
"Higher beings, these words are for you alone.
Beyond this point you enter the land of King and Creator.
Step across this threshold and obey our laws.
Bear witness to the last and only civilization, the eternal kingdom.
Hallownest."
Hallownest. The name stirred strange feelings inside her, a complex mix she could not name or understand. So she simply decided to ignore it. There was no point in understanding what couldn't be understood.
Ahead there was a great door - far larger than any other she had ever seen. It had clearly been meant to bar the way forever, but she noticed that something had broken open a section of it already. Fairly recently too - rubble still sat around the opening.
Not one to be outdone, she brandished her staff (another new word - how very fascinating) and slammed it into the door, breaking down more of it. She did this once, twice, three times, until the entire door crumbled and left the way open for her to proceed undeterred.
And there, she saw the open sky.
The great door had opened to a wide cliff, looming far above all the land. Wind whipped around her, and looking up she could see the darkness stretching outwards and onwards into infinity, illuminated by dim stars. Far below, standing out from the endless plains, were a small collection of mounds illuminated by brighter lights. A town, she thought. And so it was.
That would be interesting to visit. So she jumped.
It was a long, long fall, but she had survived worse. She hit the ground with a burst of smoke, and used her staff to keep her balance. The wind was less strong down here, and there were small weeds growing everywhere. She slashed them down, watching the thin strands of grass blow away in the cold breeze.
Then she continued running along the road.
The town appeared before her. The collection of buildings was small, and almost all were locked and boarded, but lamps still glowed above it. A tall, round dark figure stood underneath one of them, next to a small iron bench and staring into the darkness beyond town.
She wondered how much soul he'd give her. She charged towards him, but he turned around and screamed in terror. Startled, she dropped her staff, and he hurriedly stumbled back into the bench, hands up in surrender.
"Please don't kill me!", he pleaded, "I've done nothing to anger you spirits!"
She picked her staff up, but kept it lowered, confused. She had never seen a talking bug, especially not one like this. She was very curious, and it overran her murder instinct.
The large bug staggered to his feet, eyeing the weapon cautiously as he recovered his breath. "Thank the Pale King…perhaps we can try this again? Greetings, strange one. My name is Elderbug."
A name? She had never thought about having one. But now that the idea was in her head, she couldn't shake it. If this old bug had one, she needed one too.
But what would it be?
As she stood there, Elderbug said, "I was afraid you might have been a ghost, like the other one. Pale white and vanished into that old well without a sound. You seem the same, but I don't believe you're a ghost. You are very unusual though."
He looked around, and sighed. "I'm afraid it's only me here to welcome you now. The other residents of the town, they've all entered that well there, one by one. Supposedly it led to a great kingdom, though it lies in ruins now. They go in pursuit of all sorts of dreams - wealth, glory, and enlightenment. I imagine you'll want to go in as well. Watch out, though - there's a sickly air in that place. Creatures go mad and travelers are robbed of their memories."
His eyes looked downwards. "Perhaps dreams aren't such great things after all…"
She wanted to ask him more, to learn more, but no voice came for her to speak. Only a faint whisper from her shadowy body. Try as she might, she could say nothing. She could only listen.
The slight whispering noise, though, gave her a name.
She had no voice to say it with, but she declared herself Whisper, a quiet being thirsting for knowledge. She knew that there was no point in a name if no one would ever know it, but she gave herself one all the same. It made her feel good, in a sense.
She looked across town, towards the well just outside it. She felt something subtle calling out from there - the knowledge and power she craved. She ran past Elderbug, who murmured to himself, and stopped by the well's edge. The hole was dark and spacious, and a chain ran down from the edge into the shadows.
Whisper cast one more look around, then leaped in, ready to see what waited in the dark.
***